Protect Your Referrals Challenge Day 17: Website Content

After yesterday’s assignment, you should either be confident that your website works on a mobile device and positively represents your firm or you should have a plan to create a better designed and mobile-friendly website.

Over the next four days, we are going to focus on the content to put on your website.

Today our focus will be your homepage, usually the most viewed page on any website.

For many attorneys, their homepage reads like a biography of their greatest accomplishments.

Does the following sound familiar?

Smith, Johnson & Doe Law Firm LLC was founded in 19?? in [City], [State]. Smith graduated from [very prominent law school] in 19??, following three years of service at [organization], where he received many accolades. Johnson graduated summa cum laude from [another very prominent law school], and after spending two years as a clerk under [very impressive judge], he won [this amazing award]. Doe? Well, Doe is just incredible.

You get the idea. While you should certainly be proud of your accomplishments, the homepage is simply the wrong place to put this information.

Instead, your homepage should have what is called “consumer advocacy copy.” This is crucial: when people search for the services you provide, they are trying to solve a problem. This could be a divorce, death of a loved one, or contract negotiation. The essential element to remember is they have a problem needing to be solved, and your website should speak to the solutions they are seeking.

The copy on your homepage should include no more than three things:

1. The benefits your firm provides your clients. (Not your services, but the actual benefits clients receive as a result of working with you.)
2. Information and links to your key practice areas, as well as links and enticements to other good content on your website.
3. Calls to action and a place the users can request further contact via phone e-mail.

These three items are vital to the success of a website.

Typically, a well-written homepage will start something like this:

Here at Smith, Johnson & Doe, we pride ourselves on helping our clients navigate the confusing terrain of divorce. We understand this can be a confusing and difficult time for you and your family. Our attorneys take the time to get to know your unique situation and help you understand the options you have to solve your problem.

The point is to speak directly to the emotions your prospects are feeling while visiting your website.

If they are seeking a divorce, their emotional state may be characterized by frustration, fear, and angst.

Someone starting a new company, on the other hand, is likely excited and looking to move forward.

Use an abundance of emotional words; this will help your prospects feel connected to your firm.

When people feel you understand them emotionally, they will be more likely to convert into a real client.

People purchase based on emotion and then justify their purchase with logic. This is precisely why you should move your accolades to the biography page on your website.

Use the first encounter people connect with your website—your homepage—as a place to give them emotional assurance you understand their needs, and let them move to the logical, research part of the sales cycle on their own.

This will tie this assurance to your overarching brand and make a much stronger association in the client’s mind between the person who referred them to you, your firm, and having their legal needs met.

Your homepage copy should also have links to other areas within your website, or “cross-links.” These links connect the user to more in-depth information about specific topics while they are reading. If you talk about car accidents on your homepage, you should link from there to an interior page about car accident information. The same goes for all practice areas you reference on your homepage.

Tomorrow we will move to your attorney profiles and work on making them not sound like more than just a resume.