7 Simple Ways You Can Improve Your Law Firm's Website

The law firm's website.

Take a walk around the Internet. Every personal injury lawyer, family lawyer, immigration lawyer - you name it - sounds virtually like all of their competitors.

Why? What on earth are you thinking?

If the general body copy on your law firm's website Homepage can be cut and pasted onto your competitors' websites and still be relatively accurate, then it's time for you to get a website copywriting makeover.

And I'm not saying hire me.

But do something about your site, or get somebody with a head for marketing to do it for you.

It's as if lawyers check out what's out there and say to themselves, "Oh, my colleague did that, so, to be taken seriously, I have to do that too."

Noooooo! That's precisely what you don't want to do. That's how it used to be. Here's the thing. The game has changed, and you, like the entire legal industry, must change with it, or you will get left behind.

Don't Be Afraid to Stand Out

Yes, you're in a conservative industry. I get it. I've been and am still in the same industry right along with you. However, that does not mean your websites have to be completely unoriginal, vanilla, or BORING.

You're More Creative Than You Think

I've heard some of the most creatively credible spin come from lawyers' mouths when they fight for their clients. I've read it in litigation papers. You couch your clients' circumstances in the most engagingly cinematic style. I could dine out on the stories I've heard about the mind-bending closing arguments at trials.

Call it what you want, but THAT reflects legal marketing at its finest.

Yet, when it comes time to put a creatively credible spin on the benefits of your own firm's services – those highlights that illustrate just how freakin' amazing you are at what you do – your law firm's website Homepage is so bleak and sterilized that it amounts to nothing more than boilerplate fluff and falls flat.

Clearly, you've got imagination in you. Let it out, for heaven's sake!

Where's that distinguishing characteristic, that "something-something" only you can claim, that prospects are looking for from lawyers in your practice area? How will prospective clients know the difference between you and the law firm entries under your name in Google's search results when they type "top criminal defense lawyers in Chicago"?

To give you an example of what I mean by boilerplate, I've read variations of this on several sites: "We have great client service."

I'm sorry, but you don't get to brag about sh*t like that!

You're supposed to have great client service. You may as well brag that you have lawyers working at your law firm.

That said, I've listed seven things you can do (that won't cost you a dime - actually no more than $10, literally) to enhance your law firm's website Homepage:

1.???Add a Unique Value Proposition to Your Law Firm's Website

Your law firm's value proposition comes down to who you are and what your law firm's brand is all about. Quite often law firms don't know who they are. Remember that your unique value proposition is something that MUST align with the core of who you are, who the founding or senior partner is, or who you are collectively as a firm. Website visitors want to read about the unique core values shaping your legal profession approach.

In addition, the value proposition can't be something you want folks to think you are. The mask will fall off. Be authentic, and keep it real. You're going to end up showing them who you really are anyway, whether you want to or not. Deceit is undoubtedly not what you want folks talking about when they're rating your office online.

And, whatever your unique value proposition is, make sure your website communicates it right up front.

2.???Nail Your Law Firm's Unique Value Proposition

To do this, you'll want to figure out that guiding principle or that habitual act that symbolizes the nature of your law firm. It's about how you do what you do or why you do what you do – that constructive thing routinely experienced by clients at your firm. One way to discover what that experience is is to drill down into testimonials clients have left about your firm's work product, work ethic, law firm culture, or firm dynamics. You can check this in several ways. For example, you can:

? Find clients' "thank you" cards, notes, letters, emails, voice mails, and texts.

? Check posts on social media (Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, or Instagram).

? Check online ratings and review platforms and websites.

? Write down what consults tell you that their referring friend said about why they should retain you.

? Google your firm's name and find the positive things former employees say about your office.

? Brainstorm with your partners, associates, and other staff, and compare details about positive comments clients have made to them.

You'll begin to see a common theme among all or most of the testimonials. That thread that rears its head is your law firm brand's core, soul, and code. That's the base you'll use to craft your firm's value proposition - that only you can deliver, that you can't help but deliver, the thing your clients love and that your competitor down the block cannot claim.

This is also what you are going to use to develop all of the unified messaging that defines who you are as a law firm, that differentiates you, in all your communications across all platforms and touchpoints, from the many other law firms in your town who have the same list of services on their website Services pages .

3.???Talk to the Non-lawyer

I can't tell you the number of times I have heard an attorney give a consultation and use terms that only another lawyer would understand or use twenty-dollar layperson terms like 'contumacious,' 'reconnoiter,' and 'obviate the necessity.' And then you have the "unmitigated gall" to use it on your website. I've worked with intellectuals who talk like that; however, most laypeople do not. No one wants to have to click their cell phone's Merriam-Webster icon looking up words just to get through the messaging on your website's Homepage.

Your website is not the place for that unless your audience consists primarily of highly educated intellectuals.?Nope, I take that back. Even websites where geek brains hang out, like the high IQ society, Mensa, speak in plain English.

Your website is where you connect with the people likely to hire you. Clients want to immediately know what's in it for them. If they don't understand what you're saying, even if you are telling them what's in it for them, your message is not going to resonate. Save the wherefores and multisyllabic legalese to impress the 2L who'll be interning at the firm next summer, not your website.

Your reading audience will not always be sophisticated (despite their level of financial success). Since reading ability, levels vary wildly, and most read at about a sixth to eighth-grade reading level, an excellent copywriting rule of thumb is to check how readable your piece is before you publish it. There are a variety of tests out there. First, if you have MS Word, do the following:

Once that's done, and your page is published, I'd quickly run the page URL through a Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test Tool, like this one . Copy your page's URL from the browser and plop it into the search box. It instantly calculates your site's readability. Ideally, you want a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 5 to 7ish - certainly not higher than 8.

4.???Focus Your Messaging on Would-be Clients

The tendency for all lawyers is to simply list their accomplishments. You might list your law school, professional excellence awards, and a few critical cases you've worked on. If you pay for recognition in various magazines, you may mention those. However, your law firm's website has to also reflect where your prospective clients are focused.

Focus more on how your background, skills, and past successes relate to their particular problems. They care less about who you are and more about how who you will benefit them and how you can solve their problems. Of course, you can't promise you'll solve their problem, but your site needs to show that dealing with issues like theirs is in your wheelhouse. Compelling website marketing copy shows that you empathize with your clients. So, shine the light on them, and make them the star here.

5.???Provide Value on the Front End

Many businesses are figuring out that the best way to get would-be clients to stay on their websites is to offer something of value. This might mean an e-book that explains some topic that interests the client.

Maybe that's a street guide on a person's constitutional rights.

Perhaps it's a list of everything they should have in their car in case of an accident.

Maybe it is a cheat sheet outlining the first steps to take before filing a personal injury lawsuit.?

Whatever it is, you should think of some way to provide value before asking your website visitor to sign up for a consultation.?

Stop stressing. You can create this content piece in a day or two.

For example: Let's say you want to create a downloadable flyer about what to do if you're in an accident. Write out 5 or 10 bullet points you want to cover in your piece of content . Review your bullet outline. Then, go on your cell phone and, for about 2 minutes (i.e., 200 words or so), discuss each item and record yourself as if you are talking to a client about each item. Email the recording to yourself. Upload it on Rev.com , which will transcribe it as an editable document for about $3.

If you want to know what's happening behind the scenes at Rev, you can check it out in this video and see a sample of their transcripts .

Next, you'll want to open a Fiverr.com account. It's quick and easy. Once the account is opened, type graphic designer in the "Find Services" box. Choose one of a gazillion designers based on their favorable reviews and credentials. Pay the five bucks (instructions are right there). You'll then upload your transcript on the order form, which will also be there. Type instructions to your Fiverr designer, asking them to design a flyer using the color scheme of your website (this is for branding purposes). Also, in the Fiverr instructions, type your firm's name and website URL, and upload your logo if you have one. In 24 hours or so, Fiverr will inform you that your piece is done.?

By the way, you can get a Fiverr seller to design a logo for you if you want. They're pretty talented. Prices start at $5 and go up ridiculously high, but trust me, you can get rock-solid talent for $5.

6.???Add a Call-to-Action That Clients Can Find on Your Site

People have short attention spans. They'll give you a few seconds before they move on to the next lawyer. This means your call-to-action must be clear and easy to find. First, figure out what you want your would-be client to do. Do you want them to call you? Then you should put the phone number above the fold, so the client doesn't have to scroll or search for it. Do you want them to set an appointment right online? Highlight that option as close as possible to your primary marketing copy. The worst lawyer websites assume that folks will wander around until they figure out how to reach you.

Don't chance it. It's your job to make it as easy as humanly possible for them to get in touch with you. Assume nothing.

7.???Make it Visually Appealing

Scan ten law firm websites in your market. Many of them will have the same graphic setup. There will be a picture of your city's skyline as the main banner. Overlaid, you'll see a picture of a lawyer in a suit. That lawyer might be smiling, or she might be crossing her arms to signal toughness. Pictures, like words, can be cliché. If one of the points of marketing is to stand out and communicate your differentiating qualities, then doing what every other lawyer is doing is fruitless.

A more effective approach is to use your website to highlight images of your people behind the scenes and/or obtaining results. Maybe this means a high-resolution staff photo of a conference room with coffee cups and a mess of papers on the table and an attorney sitting with his tie loose, shirt untucked, and shoes off with open law books on the floor surrounded by a windowed night-time backdrop of city lights and rooftops, and the attorney is in mid-fist-bump with another colleague clutching chopsticks jutting out from a Chinese food container in her other hand, hair up in a messy bun and a digital clock nearby glowing 1:00 A.M.

'cause that's what's really going on just before you've won a case and decimated your adversary!

Transparency and authenticity are what sell today. BS does not.

Warning: You've got alternative legal service providers out there waiting to disrupt the legal industry and steal your thunder . . . and your clients. Be proactive. You can start by shaping up your website. Don't wait until it's too late.