Website design is something like housework; visitors may not notice if you’ve done it well, but they’ll definitely notice if you’ve done it poorly. A well-designed website doesn’t just mean that it looks sharp and has all the latest bells and whistles. It has to be easy to use, fast, secure, and give visitors the information they’re searching for. A slick-looking website may capture attention, but if it’s slow, counter-intuitive, or otherwise frustrating, visitors will bounce. 

Effective website design and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) go hand in hand. Not only does good design make visitors feel good about your website, search engines prioritize user-friendly design which boosts your visibility and brings more visitors to your site. So, let’s talk about website design and SEO.

What Makes A Website Design SEO-Friendly?

Many of the aspects of law firm website design that appeal to human users also appeal to the search engine bots (“spiders”) that crawl website pages and index them. Crawling refers to whether a search engine can find a website page; indexing is a question of whether search engines that have crawled a page will find it relevant and valuable, store it, and rank it. Here are some of the things search engines like—and human visitors do, too. 

Clear, Intuitive Navigation

Site architecture is the planning and organization of a website’s structure. Visitors come to your law firm website for information; navigation that makes sense and is easy to use helps them find it quickly. That means they’re more likely to look around and stay on your website longer (dwell rate) and less likely to leave after viewing only one page (bounce rate). Search engines take dwell rates and bounce rates into account when indexing pages. 

Clear navigation and robust internal linking helps search engines find all the pages on your site and understand the site’s hierarchy. In other words, the site is easier to crawl.

Site Speed

Few things are more frustrating to website visitors—and more likely to increase bounce rates—than pages that take forever to load. Search engines like Google take site speed into account when ranking pages. Design that improves site speed, like enabling browser caching and reducing redirects, is good for SEO as well as user experience.

How much does site speed matter? Research has found that even a one-second delay in page load time can lead to a 7% reduction in conversions.

Mobile Responsiveness

People are looking at your website on a variety of devices; responsive design means that your site readily adapts to different screen sizes while remaining user friendly. Google and other search engines give priority to websites with mobile-responsive designs, thus improving your site’s SEO. 

Security

The internet can be a dangerous place; that’s why search engines give priority to secure websites. HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure. When a user visits an HTTPS website, the website presents a certificate that proves its identity, and the browser and server establish a secure, encrypted connection. Data transferred via the site, such as passwords and contact forms, is protected from interception.

Accessibility

Measures that make a website ADA-compliant, such as text alternatives for non-text content, captions and audio descriptions, and adequate color contrast, can improve a website’s SEO. While Google doesn’t directly use accessibility as a ranking factor, some best practices for accessibility can have a positive impact on things like page speed, bounce rates, and dwell time. It is also another factor in ensuring that your website is as user-friendly as possible, which can have a positive impact on a website’s SEO efforts.

Image Optimization

Images are large files that can slow down your website and cause pages to take longer to load. Optimizing an image involves shrinking the file size, using the proper format, and using the right size for the image. It also includes the use of descriptive alt text (which helps with accessibility, too). Optimized images are clear and high-quality, without reducing page speed. 

Readability

People come to your website for information, and the way you deliver it matters. In addition to intuitive navigation that helps readers find the page they want, the content on the page should be designed to keep them reading. 

Meaningful content should have relevant headings and subheadings. Paragraphs shouldn’t be overly long, and bullet points should be used when appropriate. And, of course, type should be in a size and font that’s easy to read, with adequate contrast from the background. It doesn’t matter how brilliant what you have to say is if it’s too frustrating for your readers to read it. 

How TMF Helps with Website Design and SEO

The visual aspects of website design definitely matter; an existing law firm website that looks outdated and needs updating makes a bad first impression and may be a turn-off to prospective clients. A website that looks modern and professional and reflects your brand is essential to generating leads and converting them. That’s why our design team pays close attention to both your design preferences and current trends in website design for law firms. 

But as anyone who’s ever been stuck talking to a well-dressed, attractive bore at a cocktail party knows, looks aren’t everything. At The Modern Firm, we want our websites’ appeal to be more than just skin- (or homepage-) deep. On-page and technical SEO are critical to helping leads find your site in the first place. Once they do, the ease, security, and value they find there should reflect the positive experience they will have working with your firm. 

Admittedly, the work that goes into a well-designed law firm website is reflected in the website’s up-front cost. A website that looks good, but isn’t designed for SEO, is likely to cost you more—in terms of the loss of potential clients—in the long run.

To learn more about law firm website design and SEO, or to discuss how we can help boost both on-page and technical SEO for your firm’s website, reach out to The Modern Firm to schedule a call.