With the advent of the internet, more and more people are relying on search engines for their law-related needs, be it for a lawyer or a law firm. Notwithstanding, many of the law firms either don’t have a website, and the ones that do are obsolete. They lack vital contact information at critical places and have outdated designs. The sites lack the provision to search for law professionals on mobiles. Immaculate planning, intensive research, and a fair amount of knowledge base are required to attract visitors to your law firm website.
To get visitors and keep them interested in taking the desired action, watch for these astonishing stats and trouble spots when maintaining your website.
Data Collection Procedure
To gather stats and understand what US legal websites lack, systematic capture and analysis were carried out for a wide range of data. Our researchers selected 100 individual lawyer and law firms’ websites randomly and verified the presence of specific parameters on a one-on-one basis.
Table of Contents
DESIGN
Well-Optimized web design is vital because it influences the mindset of your future clients. Visitors to your website should not be confused with a cluttered design that leads nowhere. The clean design helps retain visitors on your page and enables them to learn about your services.
The realm of design is much more comprehensive. We’ve focused on the features that are supposed to be vital drivers of modern website design — responsiveness, layout, navigation, consistency, and call to action.
Report Outcome
Responsiveness
Observations
- 16% websites are non-responsive
- 84% websites are responsive
Why should your website be responsive?
A responsive website ensures your law website is accessible and useable by all types of device users whether they use a mobile phone, tablet, or desktop computer. Most of your prospects are likely to leave your website just because it is not able to engage users across all devices.
Layout
Observations
- 15% Asymmetrical layout
- 55% Full Screen Photo
- 23% Grid Layout
- 7% One Column Layout
Related Stats/Trends
- According to Bluecorona.com, 38 percent of visitors stop engaging with a website if the content or layout is unattractive. Source – Bluecorona
- According to nngroup.com, users spend 22% more time looking at a webpage that has a weak signifier. Also, Websites with weak signifiers had 25% more fixations. Source – nngroup
- Flat interface designs scored 20% higher than skeuomorphic interface designs in System Usability Score (SUS) questionnaires. Reference URL: mdpi
Which Layout Offers the Best User Experience
Randomly placed content on a webpage is never easy to comprehend. It also makes the appearance of content messy. A grid-based layout that arranges content into sections, columns, and boxes is supposed to be user-friendly and leads to better-looking website design.
Observations
- 69% Good Menu and clear navigation
- 10% with cluttered menu
- 2% with the contact button in the main menu
- 3% with the menu in the footer
- 16% with the menu in the sidebar
Related Stats/Trends
- According to SAGipl.com, 44 percent of total website visitors leave a company’s website if there is no contact information given. Source – sagipl
- The research performed by the same site, SAGipl.com states that after visiting a company’s homepage, 64% of visitors check out the company’s contact information. Source – sagipl
- According to uxpin.com, “After removing a sidebar, re-adjusting the layout, and moving CTAs to the top to create more whitespace in a webpage for Cummins Allison, user conversion rates increased to 15% instantly and their web lead revenue increased by over 70% over time, in a case study for Cummins.” Source – uxpin
- Uxpin.com also found another fact that “After removing extra links and increasing white space around CTAs in a product page for Shop Xerox, user engagement increased 20%, users added 5% more product to the cart, and 33% more users completed the purchase than before in a case study for Shop Xerox by UXPin.” Source – uxpin
- According to komarketing.com, lack of contact information is the second-highest reason respondents said they leave a vendor website. Source – komarketing
Tactics for Effective Navigation
Effective navigation makes it easy for people to move around your site and allow them to take action quickly. Some tactics include a logical page hierarchy, designing clickable buttons, and using bread crumbs. Sticking to “three-click rule” helps users find their information in just three clicks.
Consistency
Observations
Font Family
- 96% Consistent Font
4% Inconsistent Font
Font Color
- 94% Consistent Font
- 6% Inconsistent Font
Clear Call to action
- 33% missing clear call to action button
- 67% with clear CTA
Related Stats/Trends
- According to uxpin.com, “After adding spacing between primary elements—a banner and two CTAs—users visited the CTA pages 150% more and the whole website’s overall conversion rate increased nearly 20% in a case study for gDiaper’s desktop website.” Source – uxpin
- Laralee Design states that “Personalized Calls to Action will convert 202% better than default versions (Vocell, 2018). Personalization options included adapting a CTA to the visitor’s location, browser language, whether they were a hot or cold lead, and more.” Source – laralee, hubspot
- HubSpot discovered “End-of-post banner CTAs contributed an average of just 6% of posts’ total leads; however, anchor text CTAs written in H3 or H4 near the top of a post generated 47–93% of that post’s leads.” Source – hubspot
Why consistency in font family, font color and clear call to action matters?
A consistent visual design in a website makes users familiar with the small details of your site. Users associate and remember a specific color/style as your brand unique identity, and they’ll recognize them for a longer time. The use of different typefaces in a site is not only confusing for users; it’s an incorrect design practice.
Make sure you give your content a finishing touch with a right call to action. The correct CTA provided at the perfect place can motivate and push the user in the right direction, giving way to conversion and creating a loyal customer.
SEO FACTORS
Having a well-designed website is not enough until you are not able to position it higher in search engines. SEO gives a law firm’s website greater exposure to targeted visitors who are in search of law service providers.
Report Outcome
Observations
Meta Title
- 9% Websites have standard length Title with keywords
- 7% Websites have Long Title
- 84% Websites have Short title
Meta Description
- 20% Websites have standard length in Description
- 9% Websites have Long Length in Description
- 48% Websites have Short Length in Description
- 23% Websites have No Description
Heading Tag
- 35% Websites have H1 to H3 Heading Tags Present
- 7% Websites only has H1 Heading Tag Present
- 16% Websites have Multiple H1 Heading Tag Present
- 42% Websites have No H1 Heading Tag Present
Alt Text
- 48% Websites have Keyword in Alt Tags are Present
- 52% Websites have Missing Alt Tags
Technology
- 83% Websites have ASP in Technology
- 8% Websites have Custom PHP in Technology
- 3% Websites have HTML in Technology
- 1% Websites have WordPress in Technology
- 5% Websites have Other Technology
PageSpeed Insights Tool Test Results
- 48% Websites have Fast Desktop Speed
- 47% Websites have Average Desktop Speed
- 5% Websites have Low Desktop Speed
Related Stats/Trends
- According to stats provided by infront.com, increasing your website’s loading speed can prevent the loss of 7 percent of possible conversions. Source – infront
- According to stats provided by Bpstudios.com “78 percent of respondents said that companies’ social media posts impact their purchases.” Source – bpstudios
Other Technologies
- Cloudflare is the most popular CDN.
- Microsoft Azure is the second most popular CDN.
Related Stats/Trends
- According to a report published by business2community.com, SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate, compared to 1.7% for outbound leads. Source –business2community
- According to a report published by Impactbnd.com, “Updating and republishing old blog posts with new content and images can increase organic traffic by as much as 111%.” Source – impactbnd
Why consider SEO
SEO and related tools can ensure your website’s presence by the relevant audience who are looking for law service providers. Optimizing your website for a search engine can be a complicated process. However, site optimization it has long term benefits as it can attract more clients for your profession. SEO technical aspects assist search engines in finding out what your website is all about.
CONTENT
Website content helps visitors understand what services you provide and how you can be useful for your clients. If a visitor is able to find free content in blogging format, as a resource center, or in the form of case studies, it can help build your reputation since you provide value for your visitors. Include testimonials to strengthen your brand. Publishing fresh content on a regular basis builds trust and engages visitors.
Report Outcome
Blog
Observations
- Blog With Fresh Content 78%
- Blog With No Fresh Content 12%
- No Blog 10%
Related Stats/Trends
- A report published by contentmarketinginstitute.com states that “Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.” Source –
contentmarketinginstitute
Images
- Blurred Images 27%
- Good Quality Images 72%
- No images 1%
Related Stats/Trends
Videos
- Brand Video 35%
- Videos for every page 4%
- No video 61%
Related Stats/Trends
- Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2021. Reference URL-
cisco
Resources
- Knowledgebase Available 71%
- No Resources 29%
Related Stats/Trends
- After jumping on a company’s homepage, 52% of visitors want to see “about us” information Reference URL-
sagipl
Testimonials
- Present- 23%
- Not Present- 77%
Interactive Feature
- Newsletter – 50%
- No features – 50%
What to consider while preparing website content
A website with a blog establishes you as an authority in your field. An added advantage is that you get rewarded by Google as search engines prefer fresh and unique content. When you publish valuable resources, testimonials, and recent work updates, it cements trust, credibility, and helps you to grow in your chosen profession.
SOCIAL PRESENCE
Different social media channels allow you to build and maintain a two-way conversation with your audience on a day to day basis. Social media can help connect with your audience, prospects, and clients. Reading their tweets and status updates can help you understand consumer behavior. You can use this information to customize your services to serve them better.
Report Outcome
Observations
Social Channel
- FB – 60%
- Twitter – 86%
- Instagram – 18%
- YouTube – 36%
- Linkedin – 87%
- Weixin – 1%
- Xing – 3%
- Wechat – 5%
- Podcasts – 1%
- Vimeo – 1%
- Jdsupra – 1%
- No Social Channel Available On The Website – 11%
Profile Strength
- Optimized Profile – 8%
- Optimized Profile & Regular Post – 82%
- No Social Channel Available – 10%
Social Media Score
- 11% websites have no social channel presence
Related Stats/Trends
- According to Bpstudios.com, “78 percent of respondents said that companies’ social media posts impact their purchases.”
Source –
bpstudios
How to strengthen your social media presence
Get social profile links added to your website’s home page. These links help your audiences have easy access to your social accounts that provide a comprehensive understanding of your law firm. Keep them updated regularly. If you have written a new blog, share that on your social media platforms too. Make sure you have a share button to allow your audience to interact with what they read on your website. The share button is an effective way to reach your targeted audience.
Wrapping Up
A credible set of data was collected and shared to bring out a clear picture of the U.S law websites.
The data suggested the need for an optimized website for lawyers and law firms, either to get a new client or to disseminate information.
Seeing the increasing demand for lawyers in the U.S. via search engines, an SEO-optimized website is the need of the hour for all lawyers and law firms.
