Your law firm’s website is fundamental to its success in generating new clients, building your brand, and gaining credibility within your industry.
There are tools available that make it easy for law firms to design and build their own websites. These do-it-yourself solutions are cost-effective and help law firms compete online quickly and easily.
A professionally designed website also offers many benefits that your firm should consider. Understanding the pros and cons of DIY websites or those designed by a professional helps you make the right choice in meeting the goals of your law firm.
The Purpose of Your Website Design
Your website offers the features and functionality that help clients obtain the legal solutions they need. They can use your website to learn about the services you provide, schedule a consultation, or learn about your team members.
An effective website generates traffic for your law firm while building credibility and trust among its audience. It supports your branding efforts and serves as an online hub that directs users to social media pages and other content channels.
DIY Website Design
DIY website design tools let you create a website quickly and update it whenever needed. DIY websites give you greater control over publishing content and making changes to reflect the current state of your law firm.
DIY solutions include drag-and-drop features, free website themes, and plugins that help your website do more for its users.
But DIY websites are typically less customizable than those that are designed, built, and managed by professional developers. This makes it difficult to achieve some of the features that users look for when engaging with your law firm.
The design themes that come with DIY website solutions may be used by other companies, which makes your law firm’s brand less unique and recognizable in the online marketplace.
Transferring your site’s data to another web hosting company, URL, or server can be difficult with a DIY website. More importantly, DIY websites require time, energy, and other resources that could be invested in other aspects of your law firm’s operations.
Professionally Designed Websites
Hiring a professional designer often requires a greater financial investment. It can also take longer to create a website when using a professional team.
But these factors contribute to the ultimate quality of your website, which improves its ability to grow your law firm’s brand and provide the features that are relevant to users.
A professional web designer understands the tools that are available to design a fully functional website that grows your client base.
A professional designer takes the time to understand your needs and translate them into a website that reflects your law firm’s vision. Your website will be truly customized to support your brand and appeal to your target audience.
A professional web designer provides ongoing support to prevent any issues that may arise. They implement the most effective strategies to help your site maximize its SEO, lead generation, and conversion results.
Website analytics can be set up to provide the data you need to optimize your marketing and get better results at a lower cost.
A professionally designed website gives users a powerful first impression that increases return visits, decreases bounce rates, and converts users into paying clients.
Let us know how a DIY or professionally designed website has benefited your law firm. If you’re still having difficulties with your website’s performance, let us know what questions you have in the comments below.
Understanding the pros and cons of a DIY or professionally designed website is the first step to creating a website that serves the needs of your practice and its clients.