Is your website doing everything it can?
Law firms face hefty competition. Additionally, the era of digital transformation is dramatically driving prospects towards online channels, particularly websites.
Long gone are the days when websites were just an optional asset for businesses, today it is a must-have. There are many reasons why a website designed to convert is essential today. Examples include giving your firm credibility and boosting your local SEO results. A big part that affects these two aspects lies in how well the technical side of your site is optimized, but the design is a big part that shouldn’t be overlooked. Its most crucial goal is to improve your visitors’ user experience and ultimately draw them in as loyal customers.
And how can your firm successfully achieve this? One of the most important steps you can take is optimizing your website design. Today’s websites consist of more than just visual elements put together. A well-thought-out website is tailored with your firm’s vision and mission in mind in this day and age.
However, for your website to outperform the rest, you’ll need to take one step back in order to leapfrog ahead of your competition. In doing so, you can assure your firm is keeping up, surpassing the competition, and meeting clients where they are today: online.
Having said that, researching all the design elements you could add, toggle and optimize on your site can be overwhelming. You could easily spend hours and even days evaluating components like typography, templates, imagery, and more. We have compiled the essential design elements your firm needs to keep on crushing your competition.
Follow the visual hierarchy
The visual hierarchy in design ranks elements in order of importance. You can think of the visual hierarchy as the architectural blueprint behind your website’s design and it makes it easier for both humans and bots to understand the flow of your site.
The hierarchy starts with the most important elements and trickles down to the least important ones. To give you one hierarchy example, elements like titles and headlines should go on the top as they immediately grab the user’s attention. You can then follow with quotes or subheadings and end with the body copy.
Every hierarchy is going to look different. However, these are some hierarchy elements you can include:
- Sizing and scale – Anything you scale larger will attract more attention. Like the example mentioned above, headlines.
- Balance and symmetry – We are naturally attracted to symmetry. By adding a form of symmetry, you can have a geometrical balance on your website. You can also lack balance on purpose to give it a more flexible flow.
- Colors – According to research, there is a science behind colors. For lawyers, the color blue gives the signal of professionalism, power, security, and success.
“Less is more.”
Adding too many elements at once can backfire. Because of this, designers may practice the “less is more” philosophy. Adding the necessary design elements might be enough.
In websites, the minimalistic approach is called flat design, which focuses on usability. What this means is that the aesthetic is clean, two-dimensional, and gets rid of unnecessary clutter.
Furthermore, this type of outline focuses on harmony and simplicity, helping users understand information rapidly. Flat design has an added value, and it allows pages to load faster! A quick loading time reduces the bounce rate.
Additional factors under the flat design umbrella include:
- Minimalism: Simple colors and text.
- Sans-serifs typography
- Modern, simple appearance
- 3-5 signature bold colors (A popular choice of colors in flat design is monotone. These are color schemes based on one color.)
This is an example of a monochromatic blue palette:
Don’t forget about mobile!
The number of clients searching for services online continues to rise. Until recent years, mobile and desktop searches were eye to eye, but mobile searches are surpassing desktop at an increasingly rapid rate.
Your firm’s web design has to be optimized for phones. And it’s not just people that are growing to rely more on mobile than desktop: Google predominantly uses the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.
To guarantee that your website follows a mobile-friendly design, you can include elements like:
- Media like images and videos.
- Readable text.
- Calls-to-action buttons with every scroll.
- Social media links
- A hamburger menu, which is a collapsed clickable menu.
Check out our website’s mobile hamburger menu icon below:
Go the extra mile with additional efforts
We have covered some basic design elements. Still, if you want to go the extra mile, you can experiment with the following:
- Getting creative with your ‘Contact Us’ call to action. Some alternative ‘Contact Us’ calls to action that drive conversions include:
- Begin Inquiry
- Grow Your Business
- Do I Qualify?
- Unique typography – Typography magnifies your personality. In the case of law firms, formality is key. Therefore serif fonts could work best. As a general rule, try not to exceed three types of fonts. (And please avoid comic sans at all costs!)
- Follow the user’s eye direction – Our eyes naturally focus on certain things first. This is also known as “the flow.” The human eye tracking tends to follow the F or E shape from the left. Thus, make sure important information is placed on the left side.
Make it easier for yourself and your clients.
A quality web design helps drive business to your firm’s door. But building and launching a website is just the start. Maintaining and updating your site is equally as important and your first impression should come off strong.
You can start by following the design elements mentioned above, but you should have a unique blueprint to meet today’s digital expectations and see optimal results.
Ensure your firm is hitting the mark with a website designed with a purpose. Talk to our team of experts.
