Often, law firms settle for template based websites that revolve around their firm. They might provide attorney bios, the firm’s history, some contact information, and perhaps a list of practice areas. There’s nothing wrong with including such information – it would be wrong of you not to since those elements are fundamental to any website. But if you want to be attracting more clients and keeping them interested in your firm, you should be doing a lot more!

How Corporate Buyers Find Legal Counsel

Let’s start with some background. In 2001, FGI Research and Greenfield Belser conducted a survey of how corporate buyers find legal counsel. The statistics I’ll be using in this article come from that study.

Back in 2001, 65% of those surveyed had gone online to look for legal services. Three years later, we can assume that number is at least 75%, probably higher. Most buyers find a website either through a search engine (89%!!), typing in a direct address (86%!!), or using a portal (such as martindale.com or law.com). Those that do a search tend to search by specific practice area or by industry. That means that to ‘drive traffic’ to your site, you better be listed in top search results of search engines (or be using a pay per placement campaign through Google’s Adwords or Overture) or you should be doing some heavy advertising of your website offline – through mailings, letters, print advertising and having your website on all your stationary. The study found those methods of advertising, as well as including your website in any articles you publish, was extremely effective in getting people to visit your site.

Keeping Visitors Interested

However, getting visitors to your website is only half the battle. You still have to give them the content they are looking for and get them to visit regularly. What types of information do visitors look for? You probably have a number of different user types visiting your site. These may include prospects with an immediate need, prospects who don’t have an immediate need but are ‘just browsing’ (these make up about 50% of your visitors according to the study), people who are doing research on a particular topic, those looking for jobs, counsel looking to check out their opponents, and your competitors.

Let’s take prospects with an immediate need. These can also be broken down into subcategories – those looking for a specific practice area, those looking for a specific industry, those who are pretty familiar with buying legal services, those who have never done this process before and are completely clueless – you get the idea. Each will have specific circumstances and will be looking for information that will help him solve his problem. Your visitor will probably look to your ‘practice areas’ or ‘industries served’ sections first to make sure his problem falls into one of your areas of expertise. He’ll want to read about what you’ve done for clients similar to him. He’ll also want to know which attorneys practice in his specific problem area. He may click on a few attorney profiles to get an idea for who works for your firm, what they’ve done, and where they went to law school. And he’ll probably want to see where you practice.

Ideas for Content

What should you put in your bio? You should keep your bio current, relevant, and focused. 54% of buyers say specific industry experience is ‘very useful.’ Buyers are also looking for where you went to law school, where you practice, and which bar memberships you have. Remember, most visitors are searching for practice area or industry first, so your bio should reflect the link they just came from.

Additionally, buyers are looking for easy access to articles and white papers you’ve written – particularly in the specific problem area they have. These are an excellent way to demonstrate that you have the expertise your prospect is looking for to solve his problem. Most buyers search by topic with practice area and keyword coming in second and third.

Finally, you should include an online newsletter that visitors can sign up for on your website. This allows you to keep in touch with them over time – letting them know what new articles you’ve added to the site, when your next seminar will be, and keeping them up-to-date on any new legislation that may affect their industry. Remember: newsletters should be focused around them, not your firm. Your readers only care about ‘what’s in it for me?’

Making Your Website Client Centered

This type of website – a ‘client centered’ website – is what more buyers are now expecting from law firms. The site is been designed to meet the user’s needs and laid out so all content is easy to find. It should be as easy to use as possible while still answering all the buyer’s questions because when visitors become frustrated, they leave and then you’ve lost a prospect. Keep in mind – your website will never ‘sell’ your service. You must do that in your initial consultation. The purpose of your website is to give prospects enough information to move them to the next step of their purchasing cycle – contacting you!

Design Matters

One last thing – design matters. Two-thirds of those surveyed admitted that how well a firm uses their internet presence directly influences their view of the firm. So, if you’re looking to win over corporate clients, you should build a professional website with significant content.

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