Your law firm website is your main online marketing tool. So treat it as your best sales representative and really invest in its success.

But before you invest — with your money, time, or both — you need to understand what it takes to make a great law firm website.

Top elements of great law firm websites

After nine years showcasing the best in design for law firm websites, we can say with certainty that the greatest sites share many design, copy, and coding elements:

• A clear goal. Define why you are building your website in the first place.
• Prominent “calls to action” (CTAs). Make clear what you want the site’s visitors to do on every page of your site.
• Client-centered value propositions. Your website is not about you. It is about your clients. Focus your marketing copy on them.
• Bright and bold colors and photos. Use colors and images that grab attention and leave lasting impressions. A vanilla design may lead visitors to look elsewhere.
• Search engine optimization. Whether you want to compete with the big players or rank in your ideal client’s search engine inquiries, you’ll need to work with an SEO professional or learn the SEO ropes yourself. A site your clients can’t find, even an otherwise perfectly-executed one, isn’t very useful.

Additionally, great law firm websites are:

• Accessible. Twenty percent of Americans have a disability. Nine percent do not speak English well. Consider these populations in your website design process or risk losing them to your competitors.
• Mobile-friendly. Most websites enjoy progressively more visitors from the mobile web (i.e., via smartphones and tablets). Mobile users will easily find and navigate your site thanks to its responsive design.  
• Secure. Properly secure your site with an SSL certificate to protect you and your prospective clients from unexpected data mining or illegal data breaches.

How to get a great website for your law firm

Now that you know many elements great law firm website designs share, it is time to improve your existing site (or create a new one!). To get the site you desire, follow these three steps:

• Set a budget. Determine how much you can spend on your site before reaching out to professionals for help.  
• Hire professionals. Find the right professionals, including designers, developers, copywriters, and photographers, to help you create a website the connects with your visitors. Ask around. Useful referrals can be pivotal and are easy to get.
• Commit to the process. Stay involved throughout the process. Be responsive to the professionals you hire and meet your own deadlines. Failing to live up to your end of the process will lead to crippling delay — or outright failure — in the website creation process.