Learn more here, https://rocketpilots.com/lawyer-web-design/
Let’s talk about Lawyer web Design. It’s important not to confuse Design with Development. These are two different skill sets. If the same person doing your design is also developing the site, you do not have the right structure.
You want to think in terms of custom “templates” when it comes to Design. Identify which top level pages you think deserve distinctly unique design templates. For example, a Personal Injury site typically needs custom templates for the homepage, practice area pages, attorney bios, testimonials, case results, the blog and the contact us page.
To be clear, each Practice Area page does not need a custom design template. That would be overkill and would not promote a uniform experience. One custom design template would work for all specific practice areas.
I also recommend having custom templates for Landing Pages dedicated to Google Ads traffic. These pages will not be accessible from Menu Navigation, will be de-indexed and specifically designed to convert clicks from PPC.
You will want to dedicate a good amount of time to collaborations during the design process. Give your candid feedback and request revisions until it is spot on.
You will always be able to make updates to your site in the future but it’s important you love the foundational design.
When you are evaluating design files, be sure to think Mobile-first. There is a good chance that most of your site traffic will be from mobile devices. So make sure to look at the design from a mobile perspective first and then evaluate from desktop.
The design process typically takes a few weeks or so. It can take longer depending on how long it takes to provide revisions, how many revisions are requested and the time it takes the designer to update the files.
Before you move to the development stage, make sure that your team has signed off on the final design files.
Development
Before you launch the development phase make sure you have settled on a reliable hosting partner. The hosting account should be owned by the firm. From there, you will provide access to your developer.
Never let a developer, marketer or agency hold your site hostage on a hosting account they own.
There are a handful of reputable premium WordPress hosting providers. Make sure to stay away from really cheap hosting providers as there are too many disadvantages.
If you signed off on design files and properly centralized your assets, the development phase should go smoothly.
Sit back patiently, until the developer provides a demo URL in a staging environment.
This will be your first opportunity to review, circulate to your team and provide feedback.
You will likely complete a few rounds of revisions as the developer progresses and continues to implement your feedback.
While a good developer and agency will conduct extensive Quality Assurance and Testing, you also need to test links, submit forms and generally review the site for imperfections.
At Rocket Pilots we have an extensive pre-live checklist so just make sure your partner is diligent before final sign off and go live.
Choosing a Partner
Expertise
Ok, let’s transition to how you select a partner to design and develop your site. You want to select a partner that focuses on Law Firm design and development as opposed to a generalist.
Their subject matter expertise will ensure a higher quality end product and also make the entire process smoother and faster.
SEO
I recommend you choose an agency that is also skilled in Legal SEO. We have cleaned up dozens of newly launched sites because the previous developer was not skilled in SEO and there was not an SEO professional involved in the project.
Launching a new site and dropping rankings can be a very expensive endeavor. It’s much better to be proactive about SEO implications than it is to fix problems post launch. If your rankings drop, you’ll likely have to spend more than you budgeted to address the problems and play catch up. It’s not a good situation.
In summary, if they have relevant expertise, SEO skills, beautifully built recent sites, availability, a strong project manager and 5 star reviews they are probably an excellent fit. Just make sure the proposal is competitively priced and move forward.
I am well aware building a new website for your Law Firm can be time consuming and stressful. My goal with this video was to properly prepare you for the project and set you up for success.
As usual, feel free to leave a comment below or contact me directly through the Rocket Pilots website with questions. Thank you for listening.
