1. You don't have a security certificate
A professional firm that doesn’t care about security? Any potential customers will surely move on to one that does! Google and browsers (like Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge and Safari) will warn visitors that your website is not secure, and visitors to your website are unlikely to stick around once they know that you don’t prioritise security.
SSL certificates have been around for many years now. If you still don’t have a security certificate (otherwise known as an SSL certificate), your website may still look OK, but it will be vulnerable to hackers. Furthermore, any information sent from customers via the website (like contact details in a contact form) will not be secure.
When deciding which websites to show in search results, Google also gives priority to websites that have an SSL certificate, so that’s another reason to make sure that you have one.
An SSL certificate needs to be configured correctly, which can be a little tricky to get right. If you would like to know how secure your website is, there’s a handy little tool which you can use to check. Type your website address into the SSLlabs.com tester tool, and it will tell you how well your server security is configured. Anything less than A+, and you should check the security settings.
Here’s an example for one of our websites:
How to install an SSL certificate (or improve your security settings)
Unless you have experience of internet and server security, you should probably employ an experienced web developer to help you sort this one out. Some website hosting companies might do this for you, but make sure you use the above-mentioned checker tool after they’ve done it as in our experience, they often get it wrong.
2. It's not responsive (i.e. it's not optimised for mobile devices)
It doesn’t matter how good your website might look on a desktop computer, the fact of the matter is that more website traffic comes from mobile devices than desktops. So the majority of your visitors are likely to be using a phone or tablet to view your website.
If your website does not look good on all types of device (or maybe doesn’t even work on mobile devices), then you will be losing potential customers.
How to fix a non-responsive website design
It’s really worth getting several people to test out your website on their own devices to see what works and what doesn’t. If your website has not been built with mobile devices in mind, then you may need to hire a web developer to sort that out for you.
3. It's too slow
If your website takes too long to load, people will go elsewhere. The main culprit is large images (or videos) that have not been properly optimised.
When it comes to websites, the faster the better. A fast website gives an impression of efficiency and attention to detail. Most people are impatient when it comes to browsing the internet, and they will no longer wait around for a website to load.
How to fix a slow website
Google Page Speed Insights is a useful tool that will give you an indication of how long your website pages take to load. It also gives recommendations for how to improve your website performance. But don’t get too fixated on this as a tool – if you type Google’s own website into it, it won’t even let you see the result. And there’s a reason for that! We generally prefer the Pingdom speed tool, but there are lots of others, and they will all give you different results.
You might be able to fix some of the issues yourself, but a good web developer will be able to speed your website up even more if you are still not happy with it.
4. It's hard to navigate
How to fix poor navigation
5. It's too boring
Whilst it’s really important to project a professional image, most professional services websites are way too boring. If you want potential customers to notice you, then you have to stand out from your competitors. If your website looks like all the others, then why should they choose you over any other firm? For some reason, there is a great deal of similarity between websites in the same sector.
How to fix a boring website
Try to make sure that your website reflects the culture of your firm. Be sure to include high quality images of your actual offices and your team. Stock images are OK, but use them sparingly. People want to know what your firm looks like. If you are a local firm, use images of the local area. If you don’t wear suite to the office, don’t wear them for your photos. And people don’t need to see pictures of gavels, books and scales.
Invite your customers to engage with you via contact forms, calls to action and chat features. Maybe include some really useful features like a probate quote calculator or downloadable pdfs.
A blog is a really good way of getting across what you do for customers, as well as the range of services you provide. It’s also really effective at improving your search engine results.
Speak to a web developer or web designer about how to inject more interest and personality into your website. It may be that a change of colour or font might make all the difference. A good website expert will take time to understand the ethos of your firm, and they will be able to translate this into an effective and congruent design.
Don’t worry though – we’re willing to bet that even if your website is really boring, it’s not the worst one we’ve seen.
6. It's not compliant
Sorry to be boring, but some things just have to be done. If you don’t have a clickable SRA verified website badge (also known as the digital badge) on your website, then it’s time you got one! If you haven’t thought about GDPR and you don’t have terms & conditions, privacy policies and cooky policies on your website then shame on you.
How to fix a non-compliant website
7. You have no testimonials
It’s well known that potential customers really value the experiences of past or existing customers when making purchasing decisions. When people are looking for a law firm or a solicitor, they like to hear about whether others have received a good service and enjoyed working with them. Good quality testimonials are highly valuable to legal firms, and help to build trust with potential customers.
How to get testimonials from your customers
If you don’t have one already, implement a process to ensure that all customers are asked to provide a review or give some feedback on their experience. This can be via email, as part of a wider feedback process or via a third-party review website such as ReviewSolicitors.
You can then use quotes from these reviews on your law firm website, as “social proof” of the quality service that your firm provides. Don’t forget to seek permission to use these quotes, and to include their names if possible.
Testimonials also make great social media posts, which can generate further traffic to your website.
Is your law firm website guilty?
Is your law firm website guilty of any of these? Let us know. Most of them are fairly easy to sort out. They could make all the difference to your website and help you to stand out in a competitive marketplace.
We’ve tried to be positive in this article and not name-and-shame all the worst legal websites that we’ve ever come across. But we do have a “wooden spoon” award to give to a particular group of legal websites that really should be able to better reflect the profession they purport to serve, and that’s local Law Societies. If anyone knows of one with an attractive and user-friendly website, then please let us know!
Outerbridge specialise in hosting and looking after websites for professional services firms. Find out more about our WordPress website care plans.
Feel free to contact us if you’d like to discuss any aspects of your website with us in more detail.
