It’s not enough to have local commercials with top-quality production and plenty of referrals from satisfied clients in today’s environment—law firms must also have a strong online presence. Law firms need a solid website to function as their online hub, as a growing number of people conduct plenty of online research when considering legal services. With so much at stake in many cases, law firms must gain the trust of their audiences both online and offline, which a great website can help achieve.

If you’re wondering what your firm’s website should include, the following are some of the most important items to incorporate.

1. High-Quality Content

Your website should have plenty of great content to inform and win over potential clients. This includes content on your homepage, practice area pages, attorney profiles, resources, and more.

Include details about the history of your firm and top attorneys, along with ample information about your practice areas and legal services. Additionally, you should answer any and all questions that people might have about the types of cases you handle. One of the best ways to provide value to prospects is to develop a dedicated FAQ page or multiple FAQ pages. These could answer any and all questions related to your practice areas and lead to more qualified leads who have viable cases.

When it comes to practice areas, be sure to cover as many potential case types within this area as possible. For example, personal injury attorneys may want to include details about cases involving vehicle accidents, slip and falls, medical malpractice, and product liability.

2. Good SEO

In addition to solid content, a law firm’s website must exhibit strong search engine optimization (SEO). While Google favors high-quality and helpful content over low-quality content when ranking websites, you’ll need to incorporate other SEO practices.

For instance, you should make sure all major pages on your website include plenty of keywords, including local keywords for service areas. You may have a page that’s devoted to “personal injury lawyers in [city, state]” while another covers another location or a specific practice area under the umbrella of personal injury. You should always target the areas where you serve your clients with solid local SEO practices.

Apart from keywords, you will need a good interlinking and backlinking strategy. Interlinking entails linking to other relevant pages on your website through others. This not only helps connect high-ranking pages with others to support your website as a whole, but it also helps direct visitors to relevant pages. Meanwhile, you can submit guest posts to industry-relevant blogs or websites that have established themselves as authorities in search engines, with backlinks connecting to your website. This helps associate your site with those platforms and can lead to higher rankings on Google and other search engines.

You’ll also want to pay attention to your website’s URL structure. Your homepage should ideally include the name of your law firm. All pages extending from your homepage should then include keywords pertaining to relevant target keywords. For instance, a personal injury practice area page should feature the structure: “lawfirmsite.com/personal-injury-lawyers/”.

These are simply a few of the key SEO strategies to incorporate into your website to maximize visibility.

3. Unique, Navigable Design

So many attorneys have websites that look like other attorneys’ sites, which prevents people from recalling them as easily. Make sure your website stands apart with appealing imagery, such as dynamic masthead, along with general branding that stands out as uniquely yours.

People should also be able to easily navigate your website, with top-level navigation that links to each main page on your website. This will eliminate any confusion as people seek to learn more about your firm, your services, and how to reach out to you. Be sure to place that “Contact Us” or “Schedule a Consultation” button in the top right corner of your pages and elsewhere to attract more leads.

Keep in mind that web design for different firms may look different, as clients in various practice areas seek different types of information. For example, the web design for a family lawyer would look considerably different from a criminal defense lawyer. Think about the path prospective clients will take to become clients and appeal to that journey.

4. Detailed Attorney Bios

Attorney bios are among the most visited pages on law firm websites, making them crucial to optimize. Audiences want to know what kinds of people may represent their case, including details about their education, experience, and successes.

Through your attorney bios, you’ll have the chance to convince potential clients that you’re a good fit for them. Use these bios to craft a narrative around your legal staff and build trust by showing that real people are behind your firm.

Going beyond simply listing your education and the bars that have admitted you, discuss what inspired you to get into your particular practice area. Include details about motivations and the kinds of clients you work with, along with why you support these individuals. In addition to listing awards and accolades, explore why those awards matter to you and your firm and why you were selected.

The more details you go into, the more people can get to know you and come to trust you over less personable attorneys.

5. A Regularly Updated Law Firm Blog

If you really want to connect with audiences and maximize your website’s visibility on search engines and elsewhere, you must maintain a solid law firm blog. This will enable you to cover nearly every topic in your practice areas, answering any questions people may have and providing real value to people during the research phase when selecting an attorney.

With a rich, in-depth law firm blog, you can serve as a leading resource for most information in your industry, stealing the spotlight from less informative competitors. People may also begin to trust your firm as they dig deeper into the topics you cover, eventually leading them to contact you as you stay top of mind among audiences.

You can also share your posts on social media, which can help boost your social media presence in addition to your website’s visibility.

Build a Solid Website for Your Law Firm to Connect with Audiences

To experience true success with your law firm, you need a solid website. However, there’s a lot that goes into building and maintaining a website, which you may not have the time to do. In this case, it can help to work with professionals who have experience designing, developing, and optimizing law firm websites. If you would like to get started on creating or revamping your website, get in touch with the experts at Vigor Seorchers today.