Attorney Thomas Gutierrez Blog: Optimizing Your Firm’s Website for Client Intake

It’s undeniable that, with the rise of the Internet, business owners have seen countless avenues of opportunity for attracting clients. The most effective marketing efforts were once confined to tireless in-person publicity: billboards, flyers, and good old word of mouth. Now, however, the vast majority of marketing is digitized, and effective procedures can often be completed with minimal effort. Your law firm’s website is your digital business front. As such, it is the biggest funnel available for the countless client intake opportunities out there. If appropriately optimized, your firm’s site will simplify your efforts to increasing your firm’s visibility. As a result, it has the power to simplify the and maximize your client intake. However, if it were a simple process, every new firm out there would become massively successful. The process of creating an effective online presence is highly automated but no easy feat. By keeping four crucial (but often unsung) components of website creation and optimization in mind, you’ll be set up to garner more leads and clients for your firm than ever before.

All Roads Lead to Your Inbox

As your law firm’s website is designed (be it by your or a hired expert), it’s crucial to remember that even the most beautiful sites are useless if they are not designed effectively. An “effective” website is essentially one in which every single page provides a button or link that allows visitors to contact you or your team directly. This is a pretty easy step: it could be as simple as populating a “Contact Us” button onto the bottom-left of any page on your site. Should you wish to create a more elaborate plan, ensure that some pages include hyperlinks to your Staff Directory, while others include links to intake forms or a general “Contact Us” page, depending on what is most relevant. The number-one reason why attorneys lose out on clients is by not answering the phone, meaning that efficient communication is highly prioritized by those seeking legal services. Because of this, it is crucial that your website facilitate your clients’ communication with you, no matter what page they land on first.

SEO is Crucial

Law firm websites account for 44% of clients finding their legal services, according to an ABA survey. This means that almost half of every connection between your clients and your firm will be made through your site – that is, if it can be found in the first place. Most people don’t go beyond the first page of search results, and even those who do move forward to page 2 do so with the impressions left by the first page’s results in mind. How is it, then, that you can make sure your firm ends up on the very first page? With the use of a technique called search engine optimization. SEO is the strategic use of keywords throughout your firm’s site that will be detected by search engine bots. When prospective clients search those terms, the websites that have best harnesses them will turn up first. SEO is a complex, but altogether doable, technique. We recommend reading up a bit more from the pros.

Become a Blogger (Yes, Really)

In this day and age, it’s important to take a page from the millennial handbook and create a tab on your law firm’s website dedicated to a blog. This is a tremendously useful measure to take in maximizing the functionality of your SEO. A blog a tool to be used in making sure that your website is full of commonly searched keywords with minimal effort. By linking to your firm site’s landing pages in your blog posts, you’ll considerable increase the likelihood of beneficial search engine payoff. The best part? Blogs are essentially free advertising, so use one as a chance to write about your areas of expertise. By creating blog posts (FIY: just 300 words is enough for making the most of your SEO), you won’t only be marketing yourself as an knowledgeable resource; you’ll be providing the information ‘ll be putting your money where your mouth is as an expert in your field .

Reviews are King

According to the same 2010 survey run by the ABA that was previously mentioned, 47% of legal consumers use review-sharing sites like Yelp or Avvo when exploring potential lawyers to hire. Reviews are an extremely useful tool of the digital age, as they allow customers to see the effects of a service without taking on the risk of that service. This is why it is so important that you ask for reviews from your best clients. Their honest reviews on these websites should be shared on a dedicated landing page of your law firm’s site for all prospective clients to see. Make sure that your site’s review page, like all others, features a link to your Contact page, allowing leads who are blown away by your rave reviews to make contact with you immediately.

Conclusion

Your website is not just a way to claim a virtual piece of cyberland; if designed and implemented correctly, it could be among the most effective marketing tools available to your firm. Take care to create it, or to supervise its construction, with your prospective clients in mind and your firm will see a higher client intake than ever before.

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