So you're getting a large number of hits on your website, but even though people seem to be arriving, they're not staying for long enough to do what you want them to do: sign up for a consultation or a phone call. If you're looking for better conversion rates—and in today's competitive legal services market, you're in good company—you need this guide. Keep reading to find out how you can turn your website from one that just brings people in for a moment to one that gets you new business and a better bottom line.
#1: Start With Great Targeting
While one of the reasons for a low conversion rate can be a website that just doesn't pop, another reason may be that you're actually targeting too wide of an audience range with your advertising and marketing. A number of people may be visiting your website who really aren't able to be serviced by your firm. For example, if your law firm is in a city that shares a name with cities in several different states, you should make sure that you're excluding any searchers using keywords relating to those other states from seeing your targeted advertisements.
Reducing the number of people you show your website to, while making sure that the right people are being targeted, can actually lead to a significant climb in your overall new business numbers in addition to your conversion rates.
#2: Do A/B Testing—One Size Doesn't Fit All
If you're really serious about increasing your conversion rates and you have several ideas about how you might accomplish this, don't settle for just using one idea—instead, test them side by side. Modern analytics tools allow you more freedom than ever to compare two different marketing techniques and see for yourself which one works best.
If you're not doing A/B testing, then really you're just making educated guesses about your marketing strategy—and those guesses can easily backfire. Thorough, single variable testing (in which you change one element at a time, so that you can more easily pinpoint what works and what doesn't) is the fastest and best way to improve your marketing strategy over the long term.
#3: Consider Niche Sites and Microsites
One of the best ways to ensure that you're only getting the kinds of site visitors whose needs you can meet is to split your site up. In addition to having a main law firm website that shows all of your practice areas, you can also create niche sites with descriptive, long titles that direct exactly the kinds of clients you want to the site.
Microsites can have places for clients to go back to your main website, but they should contain enough information that a client could feel comfortable calling for a consultation just because of reading the microsite's content. Don't make your microsite feel so uncomfortably small that people still have more questions than answers.
#4: Use Professionally Produced Video
If you're considering adding video to your website, beware the curse of amateur production values. While a professionally produced, well done video can make conversions more likely, an amateurish video with harsh sound and low resolution will sink you just as quickly.
Any time you use video on your website, you should hire a production company that will take care of the technical details for you, and you may want to consider hiring an agency to help you write the scripts for your videos. Without an experienced scriptwriter helping you to work on your video scripts, they may seem undirected or like they take too long for the amount of information given.
#5: Keep Your Website Updated
Many attorneys don't realize that their website will be higher in search rankings and will draw more people in when it's updated frequently. Today, Google and Bing searches take your website's most recent updates into account when deciding whether to rank your site higher or lower than other websites with a similar reputation.
This is an easy way to get ahead of your competition, who may not yet be in the habit of frequent updates. Try to make sure that your site is being updated once a week—twice a month at least. Have planned updates, so that you're not caught without inspiration and with nothing to post.
#6: Have a Great Mobile Site
One of the fastest ways to lose potential clients and raise your bounce rate is to have a website that breaks when people try to look at it with an Android or iOS device. A good mobile website that allows access to your full site (which should still look good on a smartphone) while putting the most commonly used site functions at a smartphone user's fingertips is critical to increasing your conversion rates.
Studies have shown that clients who are already looking on their mobile phone are more likely than those looking on their desktop or laptop PCs to call an attorney right away. Make sure your phone number is clearly listed on your website in text, not an image, which will allow people to click the number in order to call you.
You should also make sure that your mobile site doesn't require a great deal of downloaded data. When a website takes a long time to load, people will tend to click away and visit a different site. By making a fast-loading, streamlined website, you'll give yourself the best chance of pulling in clients through a mobile website.
#7: Know Who Your Client Base Is
If you're planning to do marketing with good conversion rates, you need to know who's most likely to convert from your website. That means doing good market research to determine who your most likely clients are and which clients are most likely to find you through your website. By knowing who your ideal client is, you give yourself a better base profile to start your targeted marketing and ads.
