Overview

Knowing when to get a new legal website is tough.

You’re not an expert in websites and you’re not expected to be. That’s why there are specialists like us here to help you with this decision so you know when the right time to invest in a new website is.

If you’re noticing your website is slow, doesn’t look like it belongs in 2024 and are struggling to bring in any business through it, you need to do a full audit. The word audit can seem rather daunting, but in simple terms, all you need to do is visit your website in a client frame of mind, put your client hat on, and ask yourself the following questions:

Does my website look modern and like it’s ready for 2024?

This is always the first and easiest step to knowing whether you’re in need of a new site. Unfortunately, we shop with our eyes. We always have! Aesthetically pleasing shop windows, pretty book covers, vibrant and detailed packaging, slick branding… And your website’s aesthetic is the first stop clients make before venturing deeper into your ‘about us’ section or your ‘our people’ pages. But if it doesn’t look the part–if it’s outdated and looks like it belongs in the era of Windows ’98–how do you expect people to take you seriously? If you’re not taking your brand or online appearance seriously and moving with the times, you’re at risk of being left behind–at risk of clients leaving you behind.

Outdated website design:

Modern website design:

Is my website fast loading?

SlOoooooow websites are the destroyer of client hope. The creator of rage clicks.

Test your website speed using Google’s tool here. Needless to say, if your website is slow, your clients certainly won’t be in how quickly they leave your site and find a competitor with a fast loading time. Your website speed is crucial in creating a good client experience. They want to be able to navigate through your site with ease and quickly. We’re all guilty of re-loading a page again and again when it’s spinning or parts of it are loading in banner-shaped chunks in a painfully sluggish reveal. Slow website speeds contribute towards unhappy website visitors and a high bounce rate. Make sure yours is fast. If it isn’t, you need to fix the problems. If the problems are unfixable and the slow-speed is deeper routed through poor and outdated coding, you may need to consider a new website.

Is my website menu easy to navigate? Is it easy to click through and quickly find what I want?

How many clicks does your client have to go through from opening your menu to getting to where they want? Your navigation menu must be clear and easy to follow. You must have a search bar function so that people can type in keywords and find things that way, but you must also have a clear hierarchy of services. Your menu is so important as this is where clients find all the information they need to instruct you. Ensuring that this menu is also responsive on mobile and just as clear/easy to follow on mobile devices is absolutely essential.

One way to check that your menu structure is clear and simple is to use the following example as a template:

E.g.

Our Services
Parent page: Residential Property (website.co.uk/our-services/residential-property)
Children page: Remortgaging (website.co.uk/our-services/residential-property/remortgaging)

A child page sits under a parent page, and a parent page sits under a main overarching page structure. Does your website follow this structure? Or do you have pages everywhere with no structure to it? See below an example of a website’s structure:

Is the mobile version of my site responsive?

If you’re on a desktop computer right now, load up your website and drag the edge of your browser inwards to see how responsive your website is. Alternatively, get it up on your phone and have a look. Does your menu work as well? Are there certain images that don’t look right or any call-to-actions that overlap your click-to-call buttons? It’s important that your website is user-friendly for desktop and mobile users, because you simply don’t know who is visiting on what device. So, we need to cater for everyone. It’s all good if your website is amazing for desktop-users, but if your Google Analytics shows 74% of your website visitors are mobile users, and you haven’t focused on optimising your site for mobile, it’s not going to work.

This is also a really important metric that Google takes into account when considering the optimisation score of your website and how well optimised it is for search engines and your users.

Does my website use the tone of voice of lawyers or clients?

This is a really tough one. It’s hard to wear the hat of your client when updating your website or adding new content to it. You tend to find yourself using language such as litigation and dispute resolution in the same page without explaining it’s essentially the same thing with minor differences; or contingency fee agreement and damages based agreement work rather than no win no fee.

Does your client know what this means?

Are you speaking to them in a language they understand, or a language that you as a legal professional understand?

I know it’s not always possible to put everything in the language of your clients. Some terminology is just complex by nature. However, your tone of voice should be approachable and friendly, whilst still reflecting the values of your brand. It’s a tricky balance, but with the right help, is definitely achievable.

E.g. You want to get a client to contact you. Which sounds better?

• If you are looking to instruct a solicitor, contact us today.
• Looking for a law firm to help you? We’d love to chat.

Option 2 is approachable and less intimidating, but not so informal to the point it hurts your professional brand image. Make sure your tone of voice is right and consistent throughout your entire website. This must also match up with your tone of voice across social media.

Is my site optimised for search engines and SEO friendly?

And last but not least, is your website optimised for search engines and SEO friendly? And most importantly, how do you as a law firm know if your website isn’t SEO friendly, without input from an agency?

Here’s a checklist:

1. Is your site fast? Test your website speed using Google’s tool here.
2. Is your site responsive on mobile and tablets?
3. Are your pages populated with H1, H2, H3 titles?
4. Do you have internal and external links throughout your website pages?
5. Do you have an SEO checker on your site such as a Yoast SEO plug-in that shows you what your meta description and SEO title are? (This is very important because your meta description and SEO title determines how you are found on Google).
6. Are the images on your website optimised for web rather than huge in size? We recommend images being less than 1MB. Anything over can cause serious lag.
7. What does GTmetrix say about your website? Are you ranking Band A or Band F? GTmetrix tells you how your website performs, why it’s slow, and how to optimise it.

To conclude…

Getting a new website is a big investment. We understand that entirely; hence why we’re here to help you recognise the signs before delving into the world of new websites.

If after reading this article you’re realising your law firm’s website doesn’t comply with the essential audit checklist I’ve provided above, you may want to have a chat with us.

Case Studies

We’ve designed websites for Goodman Ray, HSR Law Solicitors, Edwards Duthie Shamash Solicitors, TV Edwards Solicitors, A&N Care Solicitors and more still in the pipeline. We’ve watched our clients reap the rewards of their new sites because we don’t just focus on creating compelling website designs, we focus on creating a system that alleviates your fee-earners’ time. Just one example being our intelligent automations that dynamically take information from your website enquiry forms, then populate them directly into your Practice & Case Management System (PCMS). With this technology we also digitise conveyancing quotes, Wills questionnaires and much more, all linked directly to your PCMS. 

Overview

Google Reviews: the good.

Don’t you just love that warm fuzzy feeling you get when a client makes the effort to go online and leave a shining 5* Google review of your service, how you acted and the lengths you went to when instructed? It’s a very rewarding feeling. Not just for you, but also for your company’s online reputation: the rating out of 5 increases, your recent review is stamped with five gold stars of approval. And did you know 88% of people check reviews here before instructing a firm?

Google Reviews is the most common site looked at, with 88% of people checking for reviews here. Just over half look at Facebook and around a third check ReviewSolicitors or Trustpilot. The main reasons cited for doing this is to identify areas for improvement and identify good performance.

sra.org.uk

Google Reviews act as a hub for current clients and past clients to share their experience with you (publicly) to inform other potential clients browsing the internet for a solicitor just how good (or bad) they believe you are. They’re an excellent golden nugget of user-generated content that can be repurposed in the following ways:

• Add to your website under a testimonials tab, creating an internal link to the department mentioned in the review and the solicitor (if applicable).
• Add the review to the specific solicitor’s online profile to strengthen their profile and show to potential clients exactly what past clients think. In our 2023 and 2024 bespoke client website reports, the ‘Our People’ pages of a law firm website are the second most viewed and most popular pages across the entire site. Make sure your profile is optimised to really back up what you specialise in!
• Turn the review into social media posts linking to the solicitor’s LinkedIn profile and increasing your visibility and credibility across socials.

You know how good you are at what you do, but nothing will truly communicate your perceived worth with as much impact as the paying customer’s feedback. Encourage clients to leave Google reviews by linking them to your Google My Business page once you’ve closed their case. You can also add this step to the bottom of closing letters to create a less admin-heavy task in collating reviews.

Consumers rely heavily on Google reviews to make informed purchasing decisions, and it’s a critical step in the decision-making process for our online clients. So the more good reviews you receive, the better your online reputation and the more sway you have over clients shopping around online. But what happens when you get a bad review?

Many law firms I speak to fear that replying to unhappy customers online opens a dialogue which could get ugly. To clarify, once a customer leaves a Google review and you reply, they cannot respond again.

Google Reviews: the bad.

The bad Google reviews are just as important as the good. That’s because of a phrase I love to talk about called social listening. Social listening is basically where people float around your social media or your online reviews, looking and observing, but never actually engaging up until the point where they decide to instruct you based off their online observations. These are the people you’re appealing to when dealing with a negative review.

Here’s how you need to deal with your negative reviews. You probably won’t like the idea of it at initial glance, but at the end of this article, if you understand why it’s so important to do what I’ve detailed below, then this post has served its purpose!

Why it’s so important to respond to reviews (if I could underline this in marker pen and make it size 1000 font, I would).

If you don’t reply to a negative review, you’ve lost out on a huge chance to show any social listeners that you care, that you take feedback seriously and that you wish to sort the matter.

Alternatively, it’s a chance to put fake reviewers in their place and politely inform them that you have no record of them on your database or you have never had a client of their name. This shows to any social listeners you believe this review isn’t real without accusing the reviewer that they are fake. And people aren’t stupid: every single business out there will have had an unhappy customer. It’s a part of being a business. And to try and erase that is to erase transparency which is what Google sets out to do in the first place with its review system. It’s a shame when you receive fake reviews where people can attack you online in attempt to damage your reputation, but you can’t allow this to define who you are and what you do.

The social listeners and the potential future customers reading your reviews are smart enough to draw their own conclusion on the matter. But that’s why it is SO important to reply. That’s your opportunity to fight your corner, so that to any prospects reading the review, you’ve lay out your response right there: not just for the reviewer, but also for those future clients who may be looking.

Don’t forget your cheerleaders!

These are the people championing your business. It’s so easy to get sucked into the black hole of negativity when trying to sort a bad online review, but a simple Thank you so much [insert name]! will suffice when acknowledging clients that have taken time to leave a nice review for you.

Don’t succumb to the scammers. The we-can-remove-your-bad-online-reviews-for-£550 type of scammers.

Many of our clients have been approached by ‘online reputation management’ companies that claim they can remove your Google reviews, which is a rather tempting invitation when you’re biting your nails down to the cuticle over a review slandering the firm. But did you know it’s physically impossible to remove specific reviews unless they violate Google’s policies? These companies forget to inform you in their initial pitch that to remove said negative review, they purge your entire Google listing so you can start again on a blank canvas. This consequently does more damage than good. You go from having a mix of (majority) 5 star and (some) 3 and 1 star reviews, to none at all. Your trust is gone, future clients will be sceptical as to why you have no reviews, and to omit the bad, you’re erasing all the good.

How to deal with the bad reviews: reporting, appealing and responding.

It’s easy to recognise what kind of reviews violate google’s policies which you can see here. For example:

To report a review, you must manage your Google My Business account (or we probably manage it for you if you’re one of our clients reading this) and you click the review, select the three vertical dots, report review, and select the grounds.

This can be really difficult to succeed in for law firms. For example, if a fake client leaves a review listing their awful experience with you, you cannot prove to Google that this is a fake review or misinformation. It’s a case of he-said-she-said and it’s so frustrating for law firms especially when it’s not a truthful review.

There is another more extreme step you can take after reporting, which is appealing a decision Google has made. If Google decides a review doesn’t violate a policy, you can appeal this by filling in an online form to Google, telling them why you believe a review violates their policies. However, this also isn’t guaranteed. We’ve seen cases of firms going through the entire appeal process, just for Google to stamp a big fat cross over it. What we can guarantee though is your consistency in responding to reviews and taking charge of managing your firm’s online reputation by replying to the good, the bad and the ugly side of Google reviews. You never know who’s watching. You never know how impactful your response could be in the decision-making process of any social listeners loitering on your digital profiles.

To Conclude…

• Encourage google reviews by sending the link to clients once a case is closed, or adding the link to closing letters.
• Don’t ignore ANYONE. Thank your cheerleaders and then fight your corner in the politest way to anyone trying to damage your online reputation. Try and fix it. Reach out to the client. Openly leave your contact details on the review to show that you want to sort this issue.
• Report any reviews that violate guidelines. If members of your staff are being personally attacked or a 1-star review is left with no additional comments, these should be easily removed under grounds of harassment or lack of information.
• Treat your reviews like a thousand people are judging you. Always reply politely, but in a way that gets your point across to the reviewer and the social listener that you believe the review is either fake, or you are deeply sorry for their bad experience and wish to resolve it.

You can manage your online reputation with honesty and transparency. Replying to reviews shows you care, ignoring them can communicate you’re not bothered, and trying to get them removed is a whole different level. Trust in your future clients to make their own judgement about you based off your online reviews, but definitely try and help them in that judgement along the way by responding to your Google reviews: the good, the bad and the ugly!

If you want to discuss digital marketing or anything discussed in this blog, email me at olivia.fishwick@theaccesspoint.ltd.

Overview

Your future clients are right in front of you. Let’s get them!

Behind our professions on LinkedIn, behind every CEO, Executive, Associate, Consultant and Assistant, there’s a person who is living life: A person who’s in a relationship or their relationship has just broken down and they’re currently stressing over child arrangements. A person who’s beginning to recognise that those offensive jokes their manager has been making at work for the past few months is actually bullying. A person who’s about to climb the property ladder for the first time or sell their first home to move to another.

What I’m getting at is that just because you’re on a platform for professionals, doesn’t mean those professionals aren’t going through things that require the help of a solicitor.

Your clients are people: CEO’s, Execs and Juniors going through very human experiences outside of work.

To help you utilise LinkedIn in the best way for your audience, we need to go back to basics. I’m going to share with you the difference between your company’s account and your account, setting up your profile correctly, how often to post and what types of things to post, and why you should be doing this.

The company account versus your account

The difference between your company account and your personal account is that the former is used for updates and news about the business; and the latter is used for you to be an advocate for the company you’re employed at, but also for you to be completely human about who you are.

Your company’s page is where the brand is focal: your house style, your brand colours, your font, your tone of voice. Everything here advocates the brand. Your company account (usually run by my team if you’re an Accesspoint client or your chosen digital marketing provider) follows a specific tone of voice and a planned strategy with goals such as all call-to-action’s focusing on driving more traffic to the website. Your personal profile, however, is you. It’s a humanised, approachable extension of the brand that shows off exactly who the people are that make up the brand they trust.

People buy from people, is our motto for law firm marketing

If you’re one of our clients, you know we love a humanised touch in a law firm’s online strategy. We like to focus on the people behind the brand, as a law firm would be nothing without its solicitors. That’s why we encourage you to use your own profile, but is it set up correctly?

Setting up your LinkedIn profile: a lawyer’s checklist

If your LinkedIn is set up correctly, the company page logo and name will appear as shown in the screenshot below. The text beneath your name should also have the keyword of your company name in. If this is the case for you, then perfect! If not, keep reading. This is important because if you don’t have this set up correctly, you won’t even show as an employee of your company page.

Scroll down to your experience and click the pen tool (edit). This then makes your experiences editable. Click the pen tool next to your current role.

1. In the edit experience box shown, click into the company name field and begin typing your company name.
   
2. Make sure you click your company page with your logo on it.
   
3. Click Save.
   
4. This change will prompt you to update your headline as long as you have the I am currently working in this role box ticked. If it does prompt you to update your headline, click yes.
   
5. Scroll down to your experience and click the pen tool (edit). This then makes your experiences editable. Click the pen tool next to your current role.

How often to post and what types of posts

You can post whenever you want and whenever you feel like it. You’re an advocate and aren’t restricted to how often you wish to post. However, if you need some guidance, we recommend posting a minimum of three times a week to your audience. This can include resharing posts from your company account and creating your own posts. If you are going to re-share posts, make sure you follow the below advice:

Repost with thoughts, don’t just repost

When you go to interact with a post, you always see this bar beneath it. What you need to do here is click the Repost button, which gives you two options: repost or repost with thoughts.

This then allows you to repost your company’s LinkedIn post, but add your own comment to it for your network: repost with your thoughts.

We recommend reposting with comments such as:

• Check out our most recent post/blog post/case/testimonial.
• If you’re looking for more information on … pop me an email or give me a call (insert contact details). I’m here to help.

These personalised touches humanise yourself and make you more approachable. Speak to your audience in your voice. The company page is your company’s corporate voice that has been decided upon crafting the strategy of the company social media pages, but your personal LinkedIn page is YOU and should reflect that.

Once you’ve written your own message, click post.

Why do I even need to post?

It’s true, you could just leave your company page to generate the brand awareness, but when it comes down to it, your clients will be dealing with you who is a representative of the company. They associate you with all the qualities and goodness that your company page has shared on LinkedIn, but you are your own person, with your own talents and abilities, and you should rave about that.

Trust

Posting on your own account builds trust. People become more wary seeing posts from pages with logos as profile pictures. They like faces and they like people. Build that trust with your audience and humanise yourself. Tell them what you’ve been up to recently: any accreditations / training courses you’ve recently participated in or successful cases that you are proud of. Have you recently achieved something outside of work that provides your audience with a small insight into who you are and what you value? Have you introduced yourself as a person to your audience? All of this builds trust!

Visibility of you as a solicitor

When you post, and anyone in your network likes or comments, everyone in their network will see your post. Importantly, this links back to my first point in this blog: you don’t know who out there (exec or CEO) is going through something that could require your expertise. That’s why becoming visible is so important, and that’s done through posting.

Word of Mouth Marketing (WOM)

This reason for posting is similar to the above. WOM remains one of the most effective (and free) marketing communications that you can utilise. If you give people interesting content to talk about, they will. That’s why it’s important to share your achievements and share what you’ve been up to. I know it’s time consuming, but the more you engage with your network, the more your name will be at front-of-mind, and the more likely you will be recommended to family and friends of those within your network. It’s a good idea to always ask your clients when opening a new case where they heard about you, so you can track the source of instruction and log this in your PCMS.

To Conclude…

LinkedIn is a fabulous tool for networking and getting your message out to a wider audience. It’s just important to make sure your profile is set up in the most effective way and you know how to use your account to its optimal when trying to engage potential clients and make yourself known.

Push past the fear of caring about what other people think about you when you’re posting. I have spoken to a few solicitors that have this fear. Once you start utilising your personal account to reach those future clients that are right in front of you, you’ll be unstoppable!

If you want to discuss digital marketing or anything discussed in this blog, email me at olivia.fishwick@theaccesspoint.ltd.