Savvy attorneys and law practices are well aware that a great number of potential clients actively seek out an attorney or lawyer by visiting the Internet. If that’s not reason enough to have a website up and running, then perhaps knowing that there’s a good chance that all of your competition already has an online presence will be! In fact, a lot of consumers now turn to the Web to find services that they need in their communities. Having a lawyer web design that is professional and easy to use can make the difference between landing a client and having them pass you up for someone else.
Attributes of Effective Lawyer Web Design
Like any other website that is used to market professional services, an effective lawyer website design is built with the concept of portraying professionalism, including:
* The use of a logo on every page. A professionally designed logo works to build your brand; yes, you need to build brand awareness even if you are an attorney practicing solo. The use of a logo also ties all of the pages of your site together visually, and gives a coordinated feel from page to page.
* The use of effective colors. The same color on every page is important for the consistency and uniformity of your lawyer web design. The color(s) you use in your web design should evoke a mood and be an echo of the personality of your website. Much like you wouldn’t select screamingly bold colors for your office, don’t do so on your website either. Go with a cool, neutral palette of colors that are within the same family. For example, if you choose a green color palette, you would choose different hues of green for different parts of your website design.
* Avoid busy designs. Things like flash and graphics are great – in moderation. Don’t overload your website with too much, all at once. It is distracting and what some might call ‘tacky’. And your pages will load more slowly, which may scare off some potential clients.
* Go for relevant, useful content. Of course the main purpose of your lawyer web design is to get possible clients to contact you or set up a consultation. But you also want your website to be informative to those clients who are “on the fence” and have not yet decided if they need or want your services. Provide content that they can use to make that decision. For example, if you handle criminal cases, divorces, and personal injury cases, have a separate tab for each with information that they can use to judge your competence in these areas. Update your content frequently, and consider adding a blog to your lawyer web design to position yourself as an expert in your field.
