Lawyer Web Design From a Lawyer’s Perspective

Mar 19, 2015 | Small Business, Web Design | 0 comments

3 Hasty Generalizations About Lawyer Websites

Lawyers need websites, just like all other businesses.

I’ve rubbed shoulders with prospects in the legal industry and have a handful of clients who are lawyers in different fields. I’ve observed a few characteristics about lawyer websites that are not always the case, but often true.

Old Dated Web Design – Many lawyers were early adopters to marketing themselves online and paid a handsome fee many moons ago to get a website created. And now, because they are busy and paid so much for their website in 1999, they leave the dinosaur alone.
Overpaid, Underdelivered – Let’s face it. We all know lawyers get paid well, or at least have a reputation of being in a high-revenue field. Because of this, they are often targeted by web designers with astronomical fees. Many lawyers will drop $10,000 on a simple website design as long as it does the job because they can recover their cost with 1-2 clients. Many web designers and digital marketing services target lawyers for this reason, but the value delivered falls embarrassingly short of the price paid.
Verbose – I know I’m generalizing all over the place, but many people may label lawyers and attorneys as verbose. I haven’t necessarily found that to be true of lawyers I’ve met, but I have found it to be true of lawyer websites (and lawyers on TV). I’m not sure exactly why attorney websites are often cluttered and busy, but I do know that as simple design and straightforward content are the trend in web marketing, these overly complex websites should be held in contempt.

…I rest my case. (not really)

A Lawyers Journey To Create a Website

Lawyers: are these 3 things true of your website?

Don’t believe me? Check out this testimonial of a recent client of mine who is a lawyer. He was nice enough to answer 3 question I give to all my clients about how they stumbled onto my service and decided to work with me. His answers were extremely insightful and he agreed to let me share them so others can benefit.

His answers explain the steps that many business owners walk through in getting a website created or redesigned. Whether or not you’re a lawyer, you’ll probably find his input beneficial to your own situation.

His words are in gray boxes below and my comments are in red italics.

Question 1: How did you find my web design service?

I started my search by speaking to friends who work in the same field. I then looked at their websites and saw what I liked and what I didn’t like. Mostly, I didn’t like the lawyer sites. They were too cluttered and boastful. They seemed marketed to other lawyers, instead of clients. I then looked at a great website for solo lawyers called lawyerist.com. They have an annual “best websites” feature, and I saw some good ones there that I might want to emulate.

A major challenge in creating a website is developing one that speaks to your visitors and potential clients, rather than writing it to be something that you enjoy yourself. Jerome came to this important conclusion and it helped him to envision his own simple website that would speak to his prospective clients in a straightforward way.

And let me take a moment to also recommend Lawyerist.com. I have stumbled onto their website more than once when investigation lawyer websites (and websites in general) and found their content to be excellent in covering almost everything lawyers think about in running their practice like practice management, ethics, lawyer websites and more. Check them out at Lawyerist.com

Question 2: Did you try other web design services before engaging me?

The Lawyerist.com website has a referral service for assistance in web design. I got a proposal, spoke to a person in the referred company, and they sent me a proposal. They also sent me some of the sites they had designed. The sites looked ok, but not great. They quoted me a fee of $1500 plus $100 for basic hosting. That fee seemed high, but I was willing to pay it I really liked the proposal and product. But, I didn’t so I decided to wait. By the way, their fee did not include any copy or photos or videos. If I wanted them to write up the verbiage and other stuff, the fee was $4000.

This reinforces my point about lawyers overpaying for sites. $1500 and $100/month isn’t an outrageous price for a website and hosting. But the final product should be high quality at this premium price. As is true in most industries, you don’t always get what you pay for in web design.

Question 3: What ultimately led you to choose my service?

I spoke to some friends and they suggested Wix.com. So I looked them up, and started tinkering. But I soon found out that if I wanted my own hosted address and a website without ads, then I’d have to pay. Overall Wix seemed like a good product, but I needed a bit more. When looking up Wix, I saw Ryan’s video reviews. He was very objective, and never tried to sell me anything. In fact, he seemed to really like Wix and said it was a great product, but with some limitations. I liked his honesty. Through his videos, I saw that he did web design too. The price was much lower than I’d seen so I thought there must be a catch. I began an online chat with him that led to a phone call.

After looking around a bit more, I signed up later in the day and I was off and running. Ryan was very patient and worked hard to get my site up and running. Most importantly, he listened to me and what I wanted. The site he produced was exactly what I was looking for; not what he thought I needed. He made good recommendations for changes and we’ve had a good dialogue to tweak the site to make it even better. Family, friends, and legal colleagues all really like it.

Website builders have become extremely popular in the last several years as technology advances and creating a quality website becomes easier thanks to slick new website builders like Weebly, Wix, and Squarespace that you’re now even seeing in Super Bowl commercials!

CAVEAT EMPTOR (“BUYER BEWARE”) – There are definitely BAD website builders out there, but there are few really great ones. You can see my favorite website builders here, read more about them, and watch my video walkthroughs.

Jerome decided to claim one of my 200 spots for website clients, and I’m glad he did. My service isn’t for everyone, but it’s a perfect fit for many business owners looking to create a simple website that includes ongoing maintenance and marketing guidance from me. If you’re interested, you can get more info here.

If you’re interested in checking out the final product, you can view Jerome’s website here. If you’re in the Los Angeles area and find yourself in need of a criminal defense attorney, look him up.