Imagine what it would do for your business to double or even triple your leads overnight.
What if those leads weren’t just doubled in number, but in quality as well? What if they were people eager to pay for and listen to your expertise?
Creating demand like that isn’t out of reach. It just requires understanding your clients, understanding psychology, and implementing the key UX principles that bring people to your site and make them trust you.
The goal of implementing these principles is to create a seamless path from your client’s awareness of their problem to their purchase from you.
If you have high traffic, but a low conversion rate, these strategies can transform your website.
But first…
What is User Experience (UX) Design? And Why Should You Care?
User Experience (UX) design is the process of improving your website’s ease of use and increasing the satisfaction clients feel when interacting with your business. It's about enhancing your website and services to anticipate and meet your clients' needs and expectations. In this guide, we will talk mostly in terms of web design mistakes, but UX can extend into other areas of your practice as well, including your turnaround time for follow-ups, the comfort of your office, or the friendliness of your paralegal.
Good UX can increase your clients’ trust and loyalty to you, making them much more satisfied.
You have to remember, when someone is having legal troubles, whether it’s divorce, immigration, or starting a business, they are extremely stressed and often confused. They don’t understand the law, they are depending on you to advocate for them and act in line with their best interest. They often can’t tell if the work you’re doing is going to lead to their desired results until after the work is done.
If you can ease this stress and confusion, you become far more valuable than just the legal work you provide. To provide satisfaction during the process, you must rely on great communication and other trust signals. UX design majorly aids in this process.
Satisfied clients pay on time, pay more, and refer their friends. You really can’t beat that.
Design & Content Problems
Bad design and thin or irrelevant content is off putting and will decrease the conversion rate on your website significantly. You want to convey strength, security, and professionalism by fixing the below mistakes.
1. Inconsistent UI
I often see attorney websites go to one of two extremes. The website looks like a relic of the 90s. The website looks like a marketing agency got a hold of you and turned you into a wanna be web designer. Both extremes are a turn off to clients. Nothing screams “I don’t really care” like a website that has not been updated in well over a decade.
And nothing says “I am not a professional” like excessive bright colors, new age fonts, and flashy animations.
To convey visually that you are a professional who should be trusted, you want clean, sleek, simple design. You still can, and should, let your personality shine through your website.
2. Information Overload
Too much information and disorganized information can be very overwhelming to an already stressed client. They want you to guide them through the process of working with you to solve their problem, not to be slapped in the face with a 3000 word home page. Cut the fat and tell them what’s relevant to them.
This does not mean neglecting educational and longform content on your website. I am a huge advocate of you having a detailed blog. This is about knowing the time and place for long content, knowing what’s relevant to your user, and knowing when to tell them what to make their journey as painless as possible.
3. Information Underload
This is just as bad, if not worse, than information overload.
Not enough information condemns your website for two main reasons:
- It pushes away clients. Many attorneys do not give clients who land on their site enough information to make a decision about them (which makes their de facto decision going somewhere else). You need to tell people what it’s like working with you, explain how you will solve their problem in plain english, and demonstrate your expertise.
- It pushes away Google (which pushes away clients). Google cannot rank your content if you don’t have content to rank. Google also has a hard time verifying you’re an expert if you’ve never published on the topics you claim to know so much about. Google doesn’t know what’s on your mind, it knows what’s on your website. If Google doesn’t know who you are or what you do, it’s not going to show you to any of its billions of users and it’s going to make it much harder for those who need your services to find you.
Engagement & Conversion
1. Unclear Call-to-Action:
There’s not much point to proving your expertise and getting clients ready to work with you if they don’t know what the next steps should be. Do you want them to call in? Do you prefer email? Are you going to offer them a free initial consultation?
If you aren’t telling your website visitors what to do and what to expect, you’re confusing potential clients and leaving money on the table.
2. Lack of Social Proof
Nothing says “I’m an expert and I will help you” like a well curated presentation of glowing testimonials and client success stories.
In order to make your clients trust you, you need to make them believe they will be in good hands working with you. There is nothing that does that like good testimonials.
Do you want to work with this guy?
Probably not. But how about her?
I want this lady handling my divorce and I’ve never even been married!
Testimonials and reviews build trust and credibility. Trust and credibility leads to more happy clients.
SEO & Visibility
There is no way to help your clients if they cannot find you.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the art/science of making your website appear in search results on search engines like Google and Bing.
Organic search is only getting more prominent. Ignoring SEO ensures that you are missing out on potential clients.
For more information on the nitty gritty, you can check out my Law Firm SEO Guide.
Accessibility & Usability
I left these for last because they are the most technical and difficult to implement because they all involve editing the code of your website.
These are the most common mistakes I see on attorney websites that drastically decrease website usability. These make it hard for people to engage with your site or find what they’re looking for. At best, they will ignore your website and call in. At worst, they will write you off all together and run to your competitor without you even realizing it.
1. Poor Accessibility
Website accessibility means your website is usable, including for those with disabilities. This is extremely important, especially for those with older clientele.
- Low contrast between text and background
- Lack of alternative text for images
- Non-navigable by keyboard alone
- Missing labels for form fields
- Videos without captions or transcripts
- Missing or improper use of headings
- Dynamic content updates that are not announced by screen readers
A lot of these fixes require coding knowledge, so many companies have opted for low-code solutions like accessiBe. Beware: accessiBe is not the solution — it does not work properly, it does not solve usability issues, and disability activists hate it. What’s better is actually making your website accessible with tools like accessibilitychecker.org which can flag issues in your website’s code that make it difficult to navigate. This is not just important for blind and deaf people. If you aim to serve anyone who could be visually impaired (e.g. older populations, people with colorblindness, etc) it’s crucial to make sure your website is accessible to them.
2. Ignoring Mobile Responsiveness
The amount of people using their phones to find products and services is only increasing. If you think this doesn’t apply to your business, it does.
In 2021, a Pew Research survey on smartphone ownership showed that 95% of those ages 30 to 49 and 83% of those 50 to 64 reported owning a smartphone. These numbers are only increasing.
Common mistakes in mobile UX include: Small touch targets. Buttons and links that are too small or too close together, making them difficult to tap. Slow loading times. If your website is slow on desktop, this will be even worse on mobile Complicated navigation. If your navigation is too complex, it will be even worse on mobile. Use of Flash or Java. These outdated technologies are not supported by all mobile devices, resulting in clients being unable to use your website. Fixed font size. If your font size doesn’t adjust to match the width of the client’s screen, it can make your website extremely difficult to read.
3. Slow Load Times.
A couple mili-seconds can make all the difference. If your website is slow to load whether it’s due to bad technology or a bad server, it will annoy clients and they will most likely leave your website.
4. Lack of Feedback.
Feedback is the response your website gives to client interaction. For example, if I click a button, does the button change color or otherwise indicate that I have pressed it? If not, this can be very frustrating.
Other forms of feedback that should be included on your website: Form submission confirmation. When someone completes your contact form, do they receive a success message and an email confirmation that you will respond shortly? Loading indicators. If an element or page on your website is slow to load, do you show the user a progress bar or other symbol indicating the element is loading? Hover effects. When you hover over an element you can click, is there a visual change to indicate the item is clickable?
All of these suggestions will lead to less confusion and frustration, making interacting with your site (and, therefore, your law firm) a much more enjoyable experience.
5. Complex Navigation
Is your menu intuitive? If not, it will make it much more difficult for your client to find the information they need. An intuitive menu might include:
- Home
- About Us
- Services
- FAQ
- Testimonials/Client Success Stories
Below is a recreation of an actual website's navigation. As you can see, the hierarchy is confusing and the organization of topics makes no sense:
Why would insurance services be under the about section? Why is blog under services? An improved navigation structure would look like this:
This is much more intuitive, highlighting the small range of services offered and giving your client everything they need to make a decision about your firm.
Are you ready to turn your website into a client magnet?
A website that generates real revenue and real leads is within reach. You don’t have to do it alone. If you want to double or triple the leads brought in by your website, book a no-cost consult today.