More than half of visitors to a website leave it within 15 seconds! This means they never see your stunning images or view your stellar testimonials. Beyond pop ups, ad banners, and search engine results, lies your landing page, waiting to be found but currently, and unfortunately, viewed for mere seconds. What can your law firm do to change this? Analyze your landing page and heed the following tips to make your law firm landing page so amazing that visitors stay and see all your firm has to offer.
What Is a Landing Page?
A landing page is the page visitors see — or “land” on — after clicking a link in an ad or in the search results. A landing page is not necessarily the homepage. Your homepage is the place where consumers are directed when they type your domain name into a browser or search engine. For example, if you type www.LawQuill.com into Google, you land on the homepage. While a landing page can be the same page as your homepage, it does not have to be. Your landing page serves a valuable role: it welcomes visitors, informs them of your services, and should also encourage them to take some action you want them to take.
Law Firm Landing Pages in 2021
An amazing landing page must load quickly, run smoothly, look good, and engage visitors. Here are the basic requirements for a quality landing page:
- Speed. The page needs to load quickly so that viewers don’t leave before the page fully loads.
- Alignment. If viewers have clicked through from an ad, the landing page needs to meet the consumer’s expectation, i.e. do the ad and the landing page align in messaging.
- Mobile response. Your landing page must be designed with mobile users in mind since a majority of website views comes from a mobile device.
- Effective Content. The content on your landing page must be user-friendly and engaging.
- Trust. Your landing page needs to instill trust, showing viewers why they should hire you over others.
9 Steps to Amazing Landing Pages
Your landing page needs careful attention and development as it will often be the first page viewers see. It must accurately describe your law firm’s brand and services, and do so in a user-friendly way that is easy for visitors to navigate. Here are nine ways to optimize your law firm’s landing page.
Meet Consumer Expectations
A consumer most often reaches your landing page by clicking on an ad that promises more information about your firm or your area of practice. Make sure the landing page delivers what the ad promised. If they click-through and the link is broken or the information is not aligned with the ad, visitors will go elsewhere quickly. Remember, you have only 15 seconds to convince them to stay on your landing page, so they must find the information they need within those first few seconds. Also, make sure your landing page has a user-friendly navigation so that the relevant information is easy to find. You can accomplish this by putting the most important content across the top of the page so it is right in front of the consumer.
Make It Mobile-Friendly and Fast
Because mobile search continues increasing, it is imperative that your firm landing page is optimized for mobile devices. In fact, Google is changing to a mobile-first mindset, so any firm that doesn’t optimize for mobile will be left behind. But ensuring searchers find you doesn’t stop with a mobile-friendly site. After your landing page is found, it must load quickly to avoid frustrating the consumer. No one likes sitting and watching a spinning circle! Page loading speed is one of the most important adjustments that make your landing page mobile-friendly. Your content should load fast with absolutely no lag time. To gauge your website’s mobile-responsiveness, use online tools such as Google Analytics, GT Metrix, or Lighthouse to ensure your landing page meets these criteria:
- Loads in three seconds or less
- Images are compressed for quick loading
- Reduced server response time
- Enlarged clickable buttons for easier tapping
- No sliders or popups
Feature Your Firm’s Benefits
Once potential clients arrive at your landing page, you have only seconds to convince them they are in the right place. Create your landing page with this in mind. Capture and keep their attention by featuring the benefits of hiring your law firm. The benefits will vary based upon your areas of practice, and could include things like:
- A free, no obligation consultation
- An experienced and skilled team of professionals
- Help for complicated legal matters
- Obtain a favorable verdict
- Translate complex legal concepts
- Help understanding the judicial system
- An advocate in court
- Prevent problems and avoid risks
- Negotiate a settlement
- Match the opposing party’s lawyer
Remain Client-Focused
Because every visitor to your landing page is a potential client, ensure your landing page focuses on client needs more than on promoting your law firm’s past successes and awards. Accolades may be impressive, but clients really want to know how you can help them and serve their needs.
Make the Decision to Hire You Simple
The primary purpose of your landing page should be to clearly express how you can help potential clients and how they can hire you. Do not distract from this goal by adding facts about the history of your firm or all the cases you have won. Instead, assure visitors they can get the legal advice they need and hire you without hassle. For example, invite visitors to click on a simple button such as “How to Get Started,” then explain the easy 1-2-3 process of contacting the law firm, setting up a consultation, and hiring you.
Provide Social Proof
One of the most influential ways to convert potential clients into paying clients is a testimonial section on your website. You can highlight some of these on your landing page. Many law firms underestimate the power of client testimonials, and never capitalize on their benefits. That’s too bad because testimonials provide social proof and serve as a kind of personal referral, even if the testimonial is not from someone the potential client knows personally. You can obtain reviews from various platforms, such as Google, Yelp, and Facebook, or gather them directly from clients by always asking for a review. Local reviews and testimonials are especially helpful. In addition, real client stories in video form, images of awards earned, and excerpts of your law firm featured in the media are other ways to provide positive social proof.
Use Images
High quality images of you and your legal team are important pieces of an effective landing page because potential clients are more likely to feel they can trust you when they can see you. Adding video clips can increase this sense of trust.
Avoid Sliders and Pop Ups
Sliders and pop ups are those annoying images that show up while you are trying to view the information on the landing page, asking for your contact info. Even though they provide an opportunity for your firm to gather a visitor’s contact information or have them sign up for your firm newsletter, avoid them on your landing page. They distract visitors from the primary goal of your landing page: discovering who you are, what you offer, and why they should hire you.
Give the Call to Action
One of the best calls to action on a law firm landing page is providing visitors with ways to contact you, and directly asking them to reach out to you. It is best to offer two to three different ways to contact your law firm, such as phone call, email, and live chat.
Conclusion
Because your law firm landing page is a crucial way to introduce your company to prospective clients, it is one of the most important pages on your site. It can attract new leads and expand your business, so you need to be sure it has all the essential elements of an effective landing page. Optimizing your landing page provides a great return on your investment, and Law Quill can make your landing page shine by adding engaging content that propels potential clients to take action.
Annette Choti graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is now the CEO & Owner of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small and solo law firms. Law Quill is the only legal digital marketing agency that provides unique, SEO-optimized content, pre-packaged content, and courses for lawyers to learn SEO themselves through Law Quill Academy. Annette used to do theatre and professional comedy, which is not so different from the legal field if we are all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at annette@lawquill.com.
