When you browse the web, you’ll come across websites that are amazing and have eye-catching elements. You’ll also come across websites that look like owner put it together themselves using a YouTube tutorial. What separates the good from the bad isn’t just basic design (even though it’s important), but elements you might need to dig a little deeper to find. So what makes that great winning website? Below we list six elements that are essential to building credibility and establishing authority, which could ultimately increase your referral base.
A winning website:
1. Features at least one prominent call to action
A call to action is important for any business, including law firms. They not only get immediate attention from visitors, but they also ignite action in these visitors as well. It could be signing up for a newsletter, a free resource, or filling out a contact form on the homepage. It benefits the visitors by being able to receive free resources or help from the law firm, but it also helps lawyers catch leads. When you catch leads, it could LEAD you to have new clients.
2. Has free resources
At Spotlight Branding, we tell our clients that having a free resource on a website creates credibility and can also establish authority in the marketplace. This is true, but it also provides value to a person who could just be window shopping for lawyers. This could be the thing that makes the window shopper stop and ask for your services. A free resource could be a newsletter, or a report on a subject relevant to your practice.
3. Is easy to navigate
Some lawyers may practice 20 different areas of the law, but a person could get lost trying to find information on the area they need help in. To mitigate this problem, you should make sure your website is organized and pared down so even a person who isn’t exactly tech-savvy can manage it. Put similar areas on a page together while using bold headlines to separate them out. Not only will this be good from a searching standpoint, but it will also declutter the website in a way where drop-down menus are short and concise and a person can find what they’re looking for in a matter of seconds. Don’t overthink your menu, and don’t put all the information on the website that you can possibly think of! Pick the most important aspects and if people have questions, they can always schedule a consultation for more detailed information.
4. Isn’t visually boring
If you have a website and it’s slapped together with a white background, too much text, and stereotypical legal images, you need to reevaluate your choices in design. When people first visit a website, they don’t want to see a landing page that looks like they could have created it themselves. On the flipside, they also don’t want each element on your homepage to have fancy transitions and other technical animations. These can cause your website to be overwhelming, and not to mention slow to load. A winning website should have a balance of sleek and modern design elements mixed with simplicity and structure. It’s more visually appealing, and could save some frustration from website visitors.
5. Establishes credibility
Have you ever encountered a person looking for a lawyer who “just had a feeling” about one they saw on a billboard? Probably not. Just because people see your face and know what you practice doesn’t mean they’ll put any trust in you to handle important issues happening in their life. You need to give people a reason to trust you, and you do that by establishing credibility. Your website should have resources, award badges, and testimonials. It can be anything to make you look like a credible and reliable attorney in whatever area of law you practice. You shouldn’t hide behind your label as an attorney and expect people to want to be a client. You have to put your own personal self out there and actually show people why you should be their number one choice.
6. Features knowledgeable and appealing content
The overall content on the website is important, but it isn’t the only thing you should include. Along with free resources, make sure you have a blog page! You don’t want to have one resource that could be outdated quickly. An updated blog page is a positive feature to website visitors, and it’s a way to drive more traffic to the website. How? By linking the blogs in your social media and sharing links.
Along with the blog page though, you want to make sure all the content written on your website is informative and valuable to visitors as well. We’ve mentioned earlier that drowning your website in words doesn’t help you gain credibility. It may actually hinder it by oversaturating the website and making it harder to navigate. All content on the website should be informative and concise to show visitors you’re the lawyer they’ve been looking for without overwhelming them. It can really make all the difference!
These six elements listed above don’t even scratch the surface on what you can do to create a website that’s unlike any other, but it’s a great starting point. Just remember to appeal to the audience you’re targeting, provide value to website visitors, and don’t be too overwhelming on the visuals. If you’re unsure of how to take all of this information to get started on your winning website, don’t hesitate to reach out! Contact Spotlight Branding for help today at SpotlightBranding.com.