The internet is becoming more and more popular as a way to find legal professionals and solicit their services. It is necessary to have an online presence in today’s world, and having a professional and well designed website is essential to a modern day law firm’s success. If your site has a high bounce rate, or if you would simply like to encourage more conversions, improving your site’s user interface is a good place to start. When evaluating your own law firm site’s user interface and user experience, keep the following five concepts in mind to guide you in your efforts to optimize your website:
Simplicity
Simplicity is key; it doesn’t always mean that you put less information on your site, simply more efficiently organized information. Less can mean more when it comes to organizing the same information. Whether it’s less buttons, less redundant links, less colors, less columns or less pages, simplifying the user interface can make your website easier to understand and more pleasant to navigate.
Load Time
Minimizing load time is beneficial for multiple reasons: users don’t like slow loading pages, users with poor internet connections may not be able to use your page at all, too much Flash or CSS can be unpleasant overall and search engines frown upon lengthy load times. Decreasing the amount of elaborate and fancy elements that you have on your page will also do well to tone things down and make your site look sleeker overall, which is the trend these days.
Submission Form
Every lawyer’s page needs a submission form for further contact and interaction with the client. In accordance with the theme of simplicity, consider what information you need and what information you don’t need. Having too many blanks to fill can be a turn off for users, and you may end up getting no information from them at all. If you do have blanks for extra information, label it so; mark required fields clearly.
Phrasing
Sometimes, just changing words around at certain points in your page and user experience can make an important difference. Don’t ask if they’re interested; tell them they can start seeking justice today. Don’t ask them to make a final decision now; offer them a free consultation. Let testimonials illustrate your best traits rather than your own words. Read through your site again, especially if much of the information is dated and was written a long time ago; have other people read through your site. Make sure everything is phrased in a user friendly style, making them feel welcomed, catered to and comfortable.
Call to Actions
Your call to actions are probably scattered throughout your site. Even with a ubiquitous presence, though, it can still get easily ignored if it feels to generic. Websites are asking users to perform actions all of the time, so most people have become quite desensitized to the standard calls to actions. So make yours stand out. Make it a different color from other links and buttons. Don’t just say “Call Us,” let them understand exactly what they’re doing, “Schedule a Consultation Now,” for example.
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Author:
Olivia Lin writes for The Law Offices of W.T. Johnson, a personal injury firm in Dallas, Texas. She enjoys designing websites in her free time.
