Once you create your law firm’s website, it’s easy to begin to overlook some different elements. But neglecting these elements can actually hurt your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) and potentially even your conversion rate. Next time you update your firm’s site, consider taking a deeper dive into these elements that you may have been overlooking.
Responsive Design
A responsive design means having a website that will change its format based on the device that is being used. A site should look different on a desktop than it would on a smartphone or tablet. Without a responsive design, your user experience on mobile devices may be lacking as images may be distorted, webforms may be difficult to complete and overall site navigation may be difficult.
Internal Linking
As you upload new content, you should be adding links to other pages on your firm’s site. This helps create site hierarchy and makes it easier for search engines to crawl your pages and learn what a new page is about. As you’re linking, you want to make sure you are spreading your links out, and not only linking to one page.
Thank You Pages
Do you have a “Thank You” page for when someone fills out a contact form? If not, you should consider creating one. Not only is it polite, but it lets the potential client know that they completed the form, avoiding multiple submissions from the same person. You can add different information about your firm to your Thank You page. This includes things like your firm’s hours, when they should expect to hear back from you (24 hours? 48 hours?), or a phone number for your firm.
Alt Text
Image alt texts are used to add a description of an image on your site. These are used by search engines as well as screen readers for those experiencing a disability. If an image doesn’t load properly, then the alt text is displayed. Without alt text, your firm misses out on the opportunity to have your image rank for keywords. Plus, if your firm handles Social Security disability claims, having these is extremely important as those experiencing conditions that require different services or devices when visiting a website may rely on alt text to know what the image is.
Consistency
As you update or add elements or content on your firm’s site, you want to make sure you stay consistent. This means if you change your heading styles on one page, you’ll want to make sure they are changed on all pages.
Hierarchy & Navigation
Visitors should be able to easily move from page to page on your firm’s site. Using page hierarchy, you can make your firm’s site easy to navigate. You can use things like breadcrumbs to do this. If it’s hard for a visitor to find the information they need, then it’s likely they won’t reach out for your legal services and you may lose a potential client.
These are just a few different website elements that are often overlooked but should be taken into consideration whenever you are updating your firm’s site. As you add new content, look over your firm’s site and see where you need improvements. Constantly updating and optimizing your firm’s site can help with your SEO, website traffic and even conversions!