Scary Website Mistakes Law Firms Should Fix Before Year-End

With Halloween just around the corner, we’re asking firm owners this: What are some of the scariest law firm website mistakes you might be making? There are so many that we could write an article on just about each one. However, a few mistakes should be corrected before the end of the year, and now is a great time to remedy any that could carry over into next year. 

Some mistakes you may not know about are driving clients away from your website, hurting your SEO, and leaving your law firm vulnerable.

Here are 10 common mistakes you can fix before the end of the year. 

1. Website Looks Old 

Everyone wants to hire an attorney who will help them navigate their problem. 

If someone stumbles upon your website and it’s poorly designed, they may question why they should trust your firm. You may have a cluttered design, small fonts, bad images, or poor navigation. All of these factors can make your firm seem outdated. 

Make sure that your website looks up-to-date and is easy to use. 

Solution: Look at your website through the eyes of a prospective client. Are they able to clearly see the practice areas you handle? Do you have lawyer information and a way to contact your firm prominently displayed throughout? If not, it’s time to revamp or redesign your website. 

2. Website Is Slow To Load 

Nobody likes a slow-loading website. 

When someone is looking for an attorney, they may be checking out a handful of options. If your website takes too long to load, they may never learn about your law firm and practice areas. 

This not only affects users, but it can also hurt your SEO efforts. 

Solution: Your website may load slowly for many reasons, from large images to having too many scripts. Too many plugins and a poor host can also slow your website. You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to test the speed of your website. 

Once you find the reason for the slow speed, work to improve it on your highest priority pages. Check your mobile pages as well. 

3. Poorly Designed for Mobile 

Someone could be in a car crash and pull up a Google search for a lawyer on their phone. If your website isn’t easy to navigate on a phone, you may be losing those prospects. Buttons that are too small to click, hard-to-read text, or elements that take up too much space can hurt the user experience. 

Solution: Check your website on mobile to ensure users can navigate and find information easily. Adding click-to-call buttons and having a form on your website can go a long way. 

4. Lawyer Bios and Practice Areas Aren’t Current 

Listing lawyers who no longer work for your firm is a sure way to lose credibility. Or maybe you have practice areas listed that you no longer offer. This can harm your firm because people visit your website to learn about your practice and your lawyers. 

Solution: Check all of your lawyer bios, practice areas, office locations, phone numbers, and announcements. Keep things updated with lawyer accomplishments, certifications, and other facts about your firm. Delete things that may not be relevant. 

5. Broken Links 

Have you ever clicked on a link to only be directed to a 404 page? If you show prospects that your website isn’t well-maintained, it will leave a bad impression. It can also prevent search engines from crawling your website properly. 

Solution: Use a website crawler to find broken internal links on your website. 

Once you have identified which links are broken, make sure to fix them. You may need to add content back or redirect those pages. However, don’t redirect all of your pages to your homepage. Instead, send the person to a similar page. 

6. Website Isn’t Secure 

You may be collecting information on your website that shouldn’t be. As a result, hackers could exploit your law firm. If your website is hacked, it will cost you in many ways. It may hurt your reputation, cause downtime, and more. 

Check that your law firm follows best practices for collecting information on your website. 

Solution: Review your website to ensure it’s secure. You should be following these best practices: 

• Have an SSL 
• Keep your software up-to-date 
• Have multi-factor authentication 
• Have strong admin passwords 
• Have backups of your website 
• Don’t collect confidential information through normal contact forms 

7. Not Utilizing On-Page SEO Best Practices 

You can have a beautiful website that nobody sees. Following on-page SEO best practices will help your website rank for the search terms you want. Your firm may be making many mistakes in this area. Some include non-optimized title tags, duplicate content, or a poor site structure. 

Maybe you are still stuffing your webpages with the same keywords over and over again. This used to be an accepted SEO tactic, but it no longer helps your site rank. 

Solution: Do an on-page SEO audit to see if you are following best practices. 

Check all your practice area pages and location pages. Ensure you are addressing what a user may be looking for when they type in that keyword. You also want to answer any questions that are asked about that topic. Informative answers on your web page can help you appear in Google’s featured snippet or AI-powered SERPs. 

8. Contact Form May Not Be Sending Submissions 

Maybe your contact form stopped sending you submissions. This could be one of the scariest things that could happen to your law firm. 

Your website could be ranked high, but if people aren’t able to contact you, it’s pointless. You could spend thousands of dollars on SEO and PPC and still never get a client because your contact form isn’t working. 

Sometimes you’re asking for too much information on your form, or it may be as simple as not letting the user know their submission went through. 

Solution: Check that all your contact methods are working, your forms are sending you emails, and your phone numbers and appointment scheduling work. 

Walk through your entire process. 

9. Poor Website Privacy Policies 

Some of the best practices for running a law firm website include ensuring it follows privacy policies and best practices. Cookies, scripts, and forms can allow others to collect user information. Just having a privacy policy or cookie banner doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing everything right.  

Solution: Verify exactly what information your website is allowed to collect. Ensure that you implement a strict cookie consent banner or completely disable Google Analytics. Completely disabling Google Analytics can create other issues for your firm’s marketing plan, though, so reach out to PaperStreet to discuss your options before making any drastic moves.

10. You Don’t Know What’s Going on With Your Website 

Are you even tracking what your users are doing on your website? How do you know what pages are generating leads? 

You may not even realize you have high bounce rates or that your landing pages convert less than others. 

Solution: Confirm that you have proper tracking set up with Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console. Track this information over time to see what pages generate the most leads and bring you clients. 

Checklist To Improve Your Law Firm Website 

Here is a list of items you can check off as you improve your website before the end of the year. 

• Test that your website loads on mobile and that it’s quick. 
• Verify that all your lawyer bios and practice areas are up-to-date. 
• Fix broken links and work on improving your SEO. 
• Ensure your contact methods are working properly. 
• Check that your website is following best practices for security. 
• See what pages are bringing in the most leads to your website. 

Tackle these items before the end of the year so you can enter the new year on the right foot. 

Make Sure These Scary Mistakes Don’t Carry Over Into Next Year 

Hopefully this article has helped you catch some of your website’s issues. Fix these mistakes to set yourself up for success next year. By making changes, you can ensure your firm isn’t losing leads. 

If you need help fixing any of these items, we are here to assist. 

Our team at PaperStreet helps law firms improve their websites and develop marketing plans that fit their needs and budgets. If you believe your website needs updating, contact us today for immediate assistance.