Today’s legal customers are online. In fact, over a third of potential clients begin their search for an attorney on the internet. As a law firm, your online presence may guide how many clients you get and the impression you give to the world. Your website could be a determining factor in who reaches out to you for help.
Law firm website management should be a top priority for your practice. This means going beyond having a website. You need to ensure you maintain and update it regularly. All the information you provide must be correct and engaging to spark connections with potential clients.
Why is website management so important? This guide walks through the key reasons why you need to keep your website up to date and how often to do it.
Why Keep Your Law Firm Website Up to Date?
You have a lot on your plate with your law firm. Thinking about a website may be a low priority in your day-to-day tasks. However, with all those legal clients turning online to find help, you need to make sure you’re ready to meet them there.
Here are a few important reasons to make sure everything stays updated on your website:
1. Introduce Your Expertise
Legal clients want to know about your background and experience. Revisit your bio regularly to ensure you’re encapsulating your latest awards and recognitions. The years you’ve been practicing should be updated annually. You may also want to refresh your headshot every once in a while.
A great website helps you show clients the benefits you can offer them. You can speak directly to their concerns and assure them you have the solution. Make sure your information accurately reflects the cases you’ve won or your firm’s new accomplishments. Your content should be warm and inviting while highlighting your team's expertise.
2. Give Prospects Up-to-Date Information
State and federal laws change frequently. A goal of your online content should be to educate your audiences about the type of law you practice. They may turn to you looking for answers first, not an attorney to hire. You never want to provide potential clients with inaccurate or outdated information about a specific area of the law when they’re looking for help.
Revisit your pages regularly to ensure everything is accurate. Anytime a change to the law occurs and there are potential impacts on your audience, update your content or send out a new blog post.
A blog or news section are great places to share trends and announcements to keep clients up to date on what’s happening with the law. In the process, you should people that you keep up with news and trends, which is appealing to clients.
3. Make it Easy to Contact Your Firm
Potential clients will be looking at your law firm’s website to figure out if they want to contact you. Your site should make it extremely easy for them to reach out. Have call to actions throughout your pages and at the end of your posts. You don’t want prospects to have to go searching for your phone number or contact form.
Unfortunately, some law firms forget to update their phone number or address when they make a change. They may still have links that don’t work on their website. A potential client will become frustrated if it’s not easy to get in touch with you. Regularly check your information so you’re not turning people away. Revisit your website but also your online business profiles, like Google or Yelp.
4. Get More Leads
Most people today look online first for services — 97% of consumers search online to find a local business. It’s easy for potential clients to turn to Google to find lawyers near them. They can read reviews and get to know your practice in just a few minutes online.
Clients want to see that you have an impressive website with the latest information. They’ll be more likely to reach out to you if everything seems professional, you have expertise and experience to share, and the process for contacting you is easy. Put simply, you will get more leads when you prioritize updating your website.
5. Resolve Any Problems
If you take the stance of one-and-done with your website, you won’t be able to monitor for issues on the site. Even with the best platform, your website may experience problems when it needs an update, or a plugin stops working. Other examples may be that the platform is having an issue that causes downtime, or some of your content isn’t loading properly. These issues look bad to potential clients, and they’ll quickly move on to the next law firm.
Regularly monitor for pages that won’t load quickly or images that aren’t showing up. Make sure all the links work. Have a plan in place for visiting the pages on both mobile and desktop devices. Always check for outages or issues that could get in the way of a great user experience.
How Often Should You Update Your Website?
Now you understand the benefits of updating your law firm's website regularly. A current, attractive website is all but required to stay relevant as a law firm in today’s digital world. But how often should you update it?
There is no one right answer that works for every law firm or website platform. Timing will depend on the resources and staff you have available, as well as your site provider. However, make sure that you go with a platform that automatically implements updates so you don’t have to worry about updating the back end yourself.
You should also revisit your website content anytime:
- A law changes
- You have an update to share for your firm
- You received an accolade
- You added a new attorney to the team
- You added a new service to your offerings
Remember that your audience is comprised of both existing and potential clients.
Updating Your Content Versus the Overall Design
The overall design of your website and the content you post are two separate considerations when reviewing your site. Your content should be updated much more frequently. This includes your blog or news sections, events, and service pages. Revisit all of this content frequently — ideally once a week, but at least a couple of times per month.
Your design may need some updates or additions when you add new content, but you don’t have to update the overall site design as frequently. However, you want to keep things fresh, so don’t continue to rely on the same website design that you had a decade ago. Work with a designer or marketing team when you need a refresh.
Also, factor in feedback and research. Pay attention to issues your clients may bring up about the website, and look at the sites of your competitors for inspiration. What are other firms doing really well? How can you set yourself apart? Try to implement a design that will resonate with your audience while reflecting who you are as a firm.
Why You Need Law Firm Website Management
Website maintenance for your law firm is a must to connect with today’s customers. When you know you need to focus more on your website, but you just don’t have the time, it’s time to work with a law firm marketing partner.
Find a solution that will help your site get great rankings so you can get more leads. Your law firm will be more successful with a better overall online presence, and keeping your website up to date is a must.
