When designing your website, it’s important to know what your clients are expecting to see. Like everything in the digital world, it pays to be informed. In this article, we will go over behaviors, expectations and other aspects your clients share when looking for a lawyer online.

How Do Clients Find You?

In a 2017 study by iLawyerMarketing.com, 400 participants were asked how they started their search for a lawyer:

• 57% indicated they would use their smartphone
• 31% said they would only use their smartphone

These findings contain a very helpful takeaway: more than half of the 400 participants use their smartphone as their main source of research. This information needs to be considered when designing a website; make sure it’s mobile-friendly!

Referrals and Reviews

It should come as no surprise to lawyers that clients prefer referrals when it comes to finding legal assistance. However, if you needed the reminder: a 2017 Clio report found that 62% of legal service consumers get a referral from friends, family members or another legal professional. But what do clients do when they have no referral source? Because more and more consumers are turning to the internet as their primary source of legal reference, reviews are the next best thing.

From the iLawyerMarketing.com study, around 175 of the 400 clients surveyed include client testimonials as a part of their decision-making process when finding a lawyer.

Where does this fit within your website design? A couple of suggestions:

• Make sure your past and current clients have a means of leaving a review of your services on all venues (your website, social media and search engine results)
• Ask them for their review. Every time.
• Manage your reviews; good or bad, responding to each review promotes you as a lawyer who cares about your service.
• Link your social media sites from your website. Direct your clientbase to all the conversations about you and your practice. The iLawyerMarketing.com study contends that 3rd party reviews are crucial to a lawyer’s potential.

What Information Should You Include?

The iLawyerMarketing.com study goes on to include a list of 12 items for the 400 people surveyed to place in order of importance when looking through a lawyer’s website. Here are the most compelling findings:

• 81% listed years of experience as important to them
• 76% preferred price/rates/fee structure to be included
• 15% said awards and memberships were important inclusions

This data outlines a greater idea: keeping your website visitors informed can help your qualification process. Above all, clients need to know an outline of what you can do, what you can’t do, and the aspects of your practice that pertain to them (pricing structure, location, and contact information) and this information needs to be accessible via your website.

Overall, if you can create a website that’s easy to use, informative, and a part of the larger conversation about you online, you’ll find it an irreplaceable asset in a competitive market.