5 Things Every Law Firm Website Needs

Although the back end components are a crucial part of a good website, the front end of your website is what your visitors will see and how they will judge your firm. Law firm web design is where these elements meet. Humans are visual and when visitors see your firm’s website, the graphics and design elements of the layout are the first things they see. LawSudo’s law firm web design team is staffed with graphic designers who can create the perfect images for your firm’s website.Don’t settle for boring stock images. Our team of graphic designers works with the other members of the law firm web design group at LawSudo to make graphics that communicate your firm’s brand and its strengths by working with the text on your site.

Colors are an important element of law firm web design. The colors you choose for your firm’s website will impact how readers perceive its content in a few different ways.

One of the ways color impacts viewers’ perception is the psychological impact of each color and color combination. Below is a quick overview of the psychological impact of various colors:

• Red: Bold, exciting, aggressive, ambitious, powerful;
• Blue: Professional, mature, goal-oriented, in control;
• Orange: Youthful, warm, unconventional, motivated, optimistic;
• Pink: Compassionate, sensitive, gentle, feminine;
• Yellow: Curiosity, cheerful, positive, healing;
• Brown: Traditional, capable of handling difficulties, serious, subtle;
• Black: Sophisticated, traditional, powerful, formal, classic;
• Green: Health, nurturing, nature, fresh, renewal;
• White: Pure, innocent, healing, peace, simplicity; and
• Purple: Novelty, elegance, luxury, mysterious.

As you can see, there are some overlaps between colors. With our law firm web design team, you can discuss color psychology further to determine the right shades for the colors your firm chooses and the right color combinations for your logo and other elements of your visual branding.

Another role color plays in determining how users view your firm’s website is determining how well they comprehend the text. High-contrast text is easier to read, and by extension, easier to comprehend, than text that has a low contrast against its background.

Let Our Web Design Team Design Your Law Firms New Logo

A recognizable logo is any company’s key to success. As your law firm web design team, LawSudo will work with your firm to create a unique, memorable logo that you can use on your website, your firm’s stationery and promotional items, and anywhere else it might be necessary, like the sign on your building or your suite within a professional building.

Think about what makes a recognizable logo. You see hundreds of logos every single day as you commute to work, browse the internet, and consume media. Look to these iconic logos for inspiration and talk with your colleagues and your law firm web design team about what makes them so great. You’ll see that most iconic logos aren’t necessarily images of the products or services their companies offer – some are abstract representations of these and others are simply uses of color, shape, and text to represent a company, giving no visual indication of what the company actually does.

Using the principles of color use discussed above as well as the similar principle of shape psychology and your firm’s text, our law firm web design team will create a logo that can uniquely represent your firm’s brand. At a quick glance, here are a few of the ways shapes in logos can communicate with viewers:

• Squares and rectangles can symbolize a strong foundation and future stability. A square or rectangular shape invokes feelings of trustworthiness and a solid record of success
• Triangles can symbolize goals and achievement. Think of a pyramid or a mountain’s peak. Building a pyramid and reaching the peak of a mountain both involve dedication to completing a goal. Triangles also draw the eyes in one direction, indicating leadership potential and the ability to help others reach their goals
• Circles suggest movement. Think of balls in use in sports matches or wheels transporting vehicles. A versatile, on-the-go firm might want to incorporate a circle into its logo to communicate a sense of movement.

Good Law Firm Web Design Makes for an Easy User Experience

If your users can’t figure out how to navigate your website, you lose them. Do not fall prey to an overly complicated or nonsensical website navigation. Our law firm web design team has years of experience creating websites that work. Although your website might contain a lot of information, its navigation needs to be simple. Drop down menus and large, conspicuous buttons are important parts of strong law firm web design. This is true on desktop sites and doubly true on mobile sites – with a limited amount of screen space, differences in users’ familiarity with touchscreens and finger sizes, and varying screen sensitivities from device to device, an easy, intuitive navigation system is a critical component of your firm’s mobile site.

Remember what we said earlier about users staying on your site for less than five seconds? Your site’s navigation can determine whether they stay longer. So what should your navigation have?

• It should have a logical flow from page to page. For example, you might have a button to see your firm’s practice areas on your homepage. From the practice areas page, you might have a page for each of your individual practice areas
• It should encourage conversions. Hyperlinks to other pages within your site and your contact page are elements of law firm web design that can encourage the conversions you need
• It needs to stand out. Using the principles of color and shape discussed above, our law firm web design team can create a navigation that users can easily find and use.

Legal Content & Attorney Website Design

So you’ve got a website that looks great and encourages visitors to contact your firm directly. Awesome – you’re two-thirds of the way to an effective attorney website design. There’s one more element to strong attorney website design: content. Through your website’s content, you tell visitors everything they need to know about your firm. You tell them which practice areas your team handles, specializations within those practice areas, how your firm handles cases, and what makes your firm qualified to take on those types of cases. Through your website’s content, you can also tell visitors about each member of the firm as an individual and discuss previous verdicts and settlements your firm has secured for its clients.

As part of an attorney website design plan, content comes in a variety of forms:

• Content pages. These are the pages that explain each practice area your firm handles. Often, they provide an overview of the practice area, examples of case types, the typical legal strategies used in these kinds of cases, and any relevant state or federal laws in each practice area
• Informational pages about your firm. These are the pages that set your firm apart from others within its practice area. On your practice area pages, you will have somewhat similar content to other firms that handle cases in those practice areas – every family law firm needs to discuss the process of dividing a couple’s property and every criminal defense law firm needs to discuss the importance of being proactive about clients’ defense strategies. But certain pages on your website are specifically about your firm. Your attorney website design plan might include a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on which you discuss your firm’s consultation process, billing method, hours, and location. It might also include an About Us page that discusses the history of your firm and notable facts about your resources and approach to working with clients
• Biographical pages. For many firms, attorney website design involves the development of biographical pages about each member of the firm. These pages discuss each individual’s bar admissions, educational background, practice areas, and sometimes information about him or her as a person, like his or her hobbies
• Social media content. On your social media channels, you will probably post links to relevant news articles, videos, and blog posts. But your firm might also create content specific to social media, such as status updates, images, and commentary on current events
• Blog posts. Blog posts are more casual than content pages but can contain similar content. Usually, blog posts are framed as questions followed by in-depth answers or related pieces of information collected as lists
• Many law firms use video as part of their attorney website design strategies. With a video, you can deliver short pieces of information with a personal touch. Videos can show your firm’s creative side and add a dash of humor and humanity to otherwise dense legal topics
• Newsletters generally have a similar tone to blog posts but tend to be longer and cover topics more extensively. Your firm might opt to send newsletters through a mailing list on a weekly or monthly basis
• These are the reviews of your firm from your former clients. Never underestimate the value that a testimonials page plays in strong attorney website design. When visitors with legal needs look at your website, they are looking for assurance that your firm is equipped to help them reach their goals. A testimonials page is proof that your firm is capable of helping clients reach favorable settlements and verdicts.

Your firm might use all of these types of content in its attorney website design. It might use only a few. But it will absolutely use more than one and to help you determine which types of content should be part of your attorney website design plan, work with a member of LawSudo’s attorney website design team. Our copywriters know how to develop engaging, readable content that will convert your readers into clients.

Attorney Website Design & Your Law Firms Brand

Attorney website design is about branding your firm. Your firm’s brand is its overall image and personality. Think about what you want viewers to glean about your firm from a brief look at your website. Determine a few keywords that you want viewers to associate with your firm, such as compassionate, aggressive, traditional, innovative, or friendly. Your practice areas and your ideal client will determine which of these keywords you want to communicate most.

For example, you might be a criminal defense firm that aims to portray itself as an aggressive team who will work tirelessly to defend clients facing serious criminal charges. You might want to use colors like red and brown in your attorney website design and incorporate a triangle into your logo. Blog posts that use conversational tones and straightforward language would likely be part of your firm’s strategy because you want to connect with the everyman.

Contrast this with a business law firm that wants to market itself to established companies looking for legal help with issues like mergers, acquisitions, and compliance within their fields. This firm probably wants to portray itself as experienced, mature, and “by the book.” It would likely opt for a color palette that uses tones of blue and white and uses a square in its logo for its attorney website design.

Contact LawSudo to Develop your Firm’s Attorney Website Design Plan

If you’re ready to bring your attorney website design plan to life, contact LawSudo to schedule your initial consultation with a member of our team. If you know you’re ready to start marketing your firm on the internet but you’re not sure where to start, we can help you find your footing and move forward with your attorney website design strategy. Our team is here to answer your questions and empower you and your partners to move forward with an effective attorney website design plan that will fit into your overall online marketing effort. Don’t wait to start working with LawSudo. We are only successful if we help your firm to be successful.