Website Design Agency for Law Firms

The majority of web traffic today comes from mobile devices.

There’s nothing more frustrating than visiting a site on your phone only to discover it wasn’t designed to work on mobile. Misplaced images, broken menus, disappearing text — these are enough drive your visitors straight into the arms of your competition.

Responsive website design adapts the page’s layout to the user’s viewing environment through the use of fluid, proportional grids and flexible imagery. In short, it responds to the visitor’s device to serve up the best individual experience for that user.

This isn’t just about keeping your users happy. Responsive web design is a significant factor in search ranking. If Google crawls your site and learns that it isn’t mobile-ready, you can expect to take a severe plunge in their rankings.

85% of web users in the U.S. watch video online, making it an important element in any marketing campaign. Especially in the legal industry, where arguments are made in person, there’s no better way to convince potential clients to work with you than through a personal appeal via video.

Strategically, video is a no-brainer. On landing pages, videos can increase conversion rates by more than 80%. Off-site, video should play a vital part in any social media campaign. Why? Because video on social media generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined. On top of all that, video helps with SEO. In some instances, video has been shown to more than double the SEO value of a page.

Long story short, if you want to get a personable message out there, do it in video.

One tiny caveat: if the firm’s online marketing is lagging in other areas, then it may be best to hold off on video. While video is a great tool, no one’s going to see it if the firm doesn’t have a well-honed SEO or PPC campaign in play.

Understandably, ownership is of paramount concern. In many cases, an agency will want to retain ownership of the site and/or its contents. If you opt to change agencies later on, you’ll be forced to re-invent your site from the ground up. When it comes to websites, you should never lease. At a minimum, make sure your agency contract lets you “rent-to-own” so that you’ll be the full owner of your design and content when the agreement runs its course.

We’re not afraid to hand ownership over to our clients. With Gladiator Law Marketing you always own your website design and any other materials that may have been produced by our team (e.g., content, logo, infographics, etc.) We can’t imagine doing business any other way.

WordPress is one of the most common website solutions for professionals in all industries. This open-source blogging platform started in 2003 and has since grown to become one of the world’s largest and most robust content management systems. Although WordPress is still associated mainly with blogging, its framework provides a comprehensive all-in-one package for creating professional websites.

For lawyers, the advantages of a WordPress site focus primarily on time, affordability, and flexibility. A lawyer interested in building a starter website themselves can simply install the platform, choose a pre-designed theme, customize the basic elements of the theme, implement the appropriate plugins and the website is essentially good to go in a matter of days or weeks.

What you gain in way of user-friendliness, however, you lose in terms of control, effectiveness and (eventually) money. To make full use of the platform — especially for SEO — you’ll need to hire a developer who is experienced with HTML, CSS, JS and PHP. Without professional help, you’ll inevitably end up with a bland site that doesn’t perform well in search rankings.

From where we sit, a custom website design is the best way to go. Not only are you guaranteed a more visually effective website, but one that actually works to bring in new business. Save yourself the hassle; hire a professional to build a site you can count on.

Your bounce rate is the percentage of users who land on a given page and leave without clicking any of your links. Each of these visitors represents a lost opportunity—someone who failed to engage with your firm and, instead, chose to move on to another site.

The key to conversion is engagement. Bounce rates are the proverbial canary in the coal mine; they tell you when your website is failing to hold the attention of its visitors.

There are multiple reasons why a visitor might bounce:

• The site is too slow.

• You’re attracting the wrong traffic.

• The individual pages don’t answer visitors’ specific questions.

• Your content is sub-par.

• Your site shows up poorly on their mobile.

As you can see, bounce rate is an inadequate measurement in itself. In addition to measuring your bounce rate against industry benchmarks, focus on specifics:

• Which pages have the highest bounce rates?

• How do these pages compare to others on your site?

• What can you do to tweak each page for a better response?

• How have your bounce rates shifted historically?

The key to optimization is close analysis and incremental adjustment. Look at your numbers, adjust your site accordingly, and watch carefully. Over time, this sort of iterative process will help you optimize each of page for maximum impact.

A hosting provider is a service who houses all of a website’s code, media, and other data. Common web hosting providers include GoDaddy, Bluehost, HostGator, Media Temple, WPMuze (for WordPress sites), and RackSpace. We use WPEngine.

There are several factors to consider when choosing a provider:

• Speed – User experience is key. If your site takes too long to load, visitors will move on. Worse, Google will ding you in the search rankings. Use a service like Bitcatcha to check hosts’ response time.

• Uptime – Reliability is crucial. If your server goes down, so does your website. And, for however long it takes to rectify the issue, your site will be dead to the world. Choose a hosting provider who can prove at least a 99% uptime score.

• Bandwidth – This refers to the amount of data shared between users and your site at one time. Many providers offer “unlimited” bandwidth, but they often throttle sites which exceed their expectations. Make sure to pick a host with scalable bandwidth solutions that guarantee maximum speed at all times.

• Data Security – The internet is filled with malicious actors. It’s only a matter of time before one of them finds your site. You need to ensure your host uses the latest in protection software. Also, you’ll want a provider that regularly backs up content. That way, if you are the victim of an attack, you won’t lose everything.

• Technical Support – Things are going to break from time to time. You need a hosting provider who’s willing to be on call for you 24/7.

These are the most important factors to keep in mind when choosing a web hosting provider. A professional web designer/developer can offer specific recommendations to connect you with the appropriate web hosting solution for your needs.