While I was creating the website for a law firm, I did some research on the various elements in many legal websites. I thought I might share some of that research with you. Some of it is obvious, some not so obvious judging from the various sites I looked at.
The Header
The header, or a form of the header should appear on every page.
The header should be able to stand alone. It must answer the questions, who, what, how, and where. It can do this graphically or with words.
The two headers on this page provide you with excellent examples:
Who and What? Notice that the firm name and purpose of the firm are clearly displayed. Their tag-line clearly identify these firms as personal injury attorneys. The images also lead people towards an understanding of what this site is about. The books, gavel, doctors, and columns are all images associated with justice.
How? The phone number is clearly identified on both of these sites, however you will also notice that you can contact the firm with the contact us link which presents the user with a form they can fill out which will send an email to the designated firm contact.
Where? The second header does a much better job of this. You can tell by the picture of the state, office locations and picture of the desert that they practice in Arizona, and more specifically in Phoenix.
Here are some examples of menu structures for a law firm. You don’t have to use all of these, in fact most sites do not have all of these menu items.
- Home - Link to the home page.
- Contact Us - a form which allows the user to anonymously put information into a web form which is sent to a designated contact in the firm.
- Firm Overview - exactly what it says.
- Attorney Profiles, Our Attorneys, etc.. - a bio for each of the firms attorneys.
- Practice Areas - A listing of practice areas with short descriptions and links for further information on each area.
- About Us - In many cases is a rehash of the firm overview, but in some cases it speaks about the firm purpose, mission, and how it came into existence.
- Articles - This area is used to place dynamic content on the site. This is where you may want to publish articles you have written in the past, or in many cases firms use this area to establish credibility. The key to such an area is to provide enough information to show the firms expertise and draw people in, but not give away the store in the process.
- Firm Press - Press releases, and articles about the firm in other media outlets.
- Selecting an Attorney - This provides guidance on what someone should look for in a firm.
- Site Map - Just as it sounds, a map of all the content on the site.
- Web Resources - provides the potential client with other places on the web where they might find information about their issue. This is a dangerous link, and I would recommend against it. It takes people away from your site.
- Results, Verdicts, Settlements, Recent Cases, etc... This goes by many different names. This page lists your record. This is what they are buying from a personal injury law firm, so you must showcase this somehow.
- FAQ.. I suggest an FAQ on every site. You can start with one or two questions you typically get and grow it from there. I tell my clients to have the person who gets the questions to start a list and once a month add the answers to the website. This will save you tons of time in the long run as it will allow the site to qualify the clients better.
Most of the firm websites I looked at did not have a search built in, this is a must.
Blocks:
These are the content areas just below the header and navigation. The main part of the page is a block, the left or right columns contain blocks. Here are some examples.
Video: This firm has a video that presents the different partners discussing the distinctive of this firm.
Information Centers: This is a characteristic of every findlaw site on the web. This is basically a visual navigation block. The end user will click on the broad category and be taken to a section of the website which is dedicated to their particular need. We call this funneling, it is a way of qualifying the client, and establishing credibility for their specific need.
Affiliations, certifications, and memberships are marks that the average person wont understand but it adds to the credibility of the firm.
This firm decided to have a block on their from page to answer the question they are most often asked.
Practice Areas navigation block. Similar to the information centers, just presented in a different way. This block provides much more granular selection. This provides for fewer clicks by the client, however you run the risk of being too specific and eliminating your firm in the clients mind.
Contact block. They can send you an email directly from the website. The benefit is anonymous contact, the downside is anonymous contact. You have no way of verifying the contact details. Most personal injury firms have this type of form.
Some firms put client testimonials or results right on the front page in a block. You have to answer questions about how someone goes about selecting a firm like yours. You also have to identify your target client and gear the site around them.
This block is an information center block. It is a way of directing traffic to three distinct practice areas operating off one website.
News and features. Just as it sounds. We can create it so that one of your assistants can input a news story. You can write your own, or comment on recent rulings, laws, etc..
Legal resources block is a listing of additional resources the client may consider. It can be websites, documents, forms...
Below: This is a clever way of linking to the contact us form. This is obviously the question they get asked the most on the contact form, so they just created a block to draw these people in.
Finally, the footer, which is also a block. Answers the question of who they are and provides for the copyright. They also put very specific locations on the page. They do this for search engine optimization purposes. By listing a city or some other characteristics of the firm they have a better chance of being pulled up in a search.