Creating Law Firm Website Practice Area Pages That Convert

What is the purpose of law firm website practice area pages?  If you are the attorney, you probably think the purpose of this type of page is to generate business—to attract quality leads and convert them into clients. For people in need of legal services, they believe the purpose of these pages is to provide them with answers, reassurance, and next steps.

A Word from Henry Ford

There are a lot of things the famed automaker got wrong, but here’s one that he got so right that self-improvement guru Dale Carnegie called it one of the best bits of advice ever:

“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” 

It seems almost too obvious to state, but as Carnegie noted, 90 percent of the people on Earth ignore this principle 90 percent of the time. 

Tips for Creating Effective Law Firm Website Practice Area Pages

If putting your prospective client first is the best way to create law website practice pages that convert, there are specific steps you can take to achieve that: 

1. Speak Their Language

Your prospective client may be feeling powerless as they face a legal challenge. Knowledge is power, so by giving them information they can understand and use, you are helping them feel more in control. Using overly-complex or confusing language, on the other hand, may intimidate them and raise their stress level. Guess which feeling will make them more likely to contact you?

Avoid legal jargon; use clear, concise language that makes it easy for readers to understand your message. And, if possible, demystify the legal situation they are facing by helping them understand what to expect from the process (“Here is the timeline of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy process, and how we prepare you for every step.”) 

2. Clearly Explain Your Services (and Who They’re For)

You know what services you provide. But you may need to spell things out for your clients, especially if your practice is consumer-facing. Don’t just say you’re a family law attorney. Say that you help clients with divorce, custody, parenting time, child support, and alimony. 

If you serve only a particular type of client or geographic region, make that clear, too. You’ll field fewer calls from clients who aren’t a good fit for your firm, but more importantly, you’ll show your target clients that you are really focused on their needs. 

Don’t assume that even sophisticated consumers will know everything you do. TMF owner Brendan Chard once needed a service he didn’t see listed on his business attorney’s website. Because he had an existing relationship with the firm, he called and found out they did, indeed, offer what he needed. Had he not known them, he might have kept searching online until he found a law website practice area page that mentioned the service he was looking for.

3. Respond to the Primary Concerns of Clients in the Practice Area

What are the questions clients most often ask you in consultations? Address those issues in your practice area pages. When a person has just been served with divorce papers, they want to know what to do next—not about the award you won from the local family law bar association. Think about what you would want to know if you were in your clients’ shoes, and answer that question.

If you’re not sure whether to include something in a page, ask yourself, “Does this information help my client solve their problem?” If it does, include it. If not, think twice. As Paige Silver, Marketing Director of The Modern Firm, observes, “Quality, authoritative content written with your clients’ needs in mind is key.”

4. Don’t Forget Page Structure

It’s not just what you say, but how you say it—and part of “how you say it” is structuring your page in a way that is easy on the eye and helps readers easily find information they need. That means:

• Brief paragraphs, not long blocks of text
• Clear, concise, meaningful headings and sub-headings to organize content
• Bullet-pointed lists to make information accessible and break up the page (see what we did there?)

Remember, your leads are looking for someone to make their lives easier. You can do that, starting with good structure on your law firm website practice area pages.

5. Help Them Take the Next Step

It may seem obvious that if you’ve created a law firm website and put your phone number or a contact form on there, you want prospective clients to call you. Doesn’t actually, well, asking them to call you seem unnecessary at best, and salesy at worst? 

As it turns out, no. Using calls to action that are clear and well-placed increases conversions significantly. Some sources say by at least 25%; others, by up to 200%. The most effective calls to action are simple and action-oriented. They reduce decision fatigue and increase urgency by showing a clear next step.

A brief call to action on your law firm practice area page that links to your contact form leaves your reader with clear direction; a colorful button that stands out from the rest of the page makes their decision to contact you even easier.  

They Can’t Call You if They Can’t Find You

It’s impossible to overstate the importance of authoritative, substantive content on your law firm website practice area pages. But that content will only get you new clients if the right people can find the pages in the first place; search engine optimization (SEO) is also essential.

You need to identify the relevant keywords and phrases that your target clients are searching when they look for services like those you provide (e.g. “DUI defense lawyer” for a DUI practice area page, or “estate planning attorney” for your estate planning services page).

Once you’ve identified relevant keywords, incorporate them into your headings and subheadings, text, and meta descriptions. More is NOT necessarily better; use the phrases where they naturally make sense and fit on the page! Finding a way to jam “Toledo capybara attack injury attorney” into every other sentence is called keyword stuffing. Not only is keyword stuffing ineffective for SEO purposes, it reads as aggressive and pushy, and diminishes your credibility with readers rather than building it. 

Need Help Creating Law Firm Website Practice Area Pages? 

If you’re wondering right about now how you’ll find the time to write effective practice area pages and optimize them for search engines, we have some good news. The Modern Firm’s writers are all attorneys or former attorneys, so they know how to write fluently about the law for non-lawyers. What’s more, our Marketing department can ensure that your law firm website practice area pages are optimized for search engines, setting them up for success from the start. 

To learn more about how to do practice areas for a legal website, or to get help so you don’t have to, contact The Modern Firm to schedule a consultation.