Designing the sections of your website requires careful consideration of their purpose and functionality alongside the needs of your users.
A website’s design must make it easy for visitors to get the information they need while helping you achieve your business goals.
But how should you design different sections of your website? Do they need different designs and layouts? Is it better to keep the design consistent throughout the entire site?
Planning Your Website Design
Aesthetics, branding, functionality, and the user experience (UX) are at the foundation of your website design strategy. A website needs to engage users and get the search engine rankings that drive prospective clients to your firm.
Your web development team needs to establish the overall purpose of your site and its different sections. Common website design goals to consider include:
- Brand awareness
- Lead generation
- Client acquisition
- Blogging
- Promoting special offers
The most effective (and profitable) website designs consider all of your law firm’s objectives and translate them into the design elements, copy, and layout that help you reach those goals.
Site usability, functionality, and navigation contribute to the user experience. Web developers must prioritize users’ needs if they want to get the most out of the websites they create.
Designing the Sections of Your Site
Your website’s Home, About, Services, and other pages each serve a specific function. Their design should support that function in order to get the best results possible.
Using different designs and layouts can help achieve different results. But too many different designs can hurt your brand consistency and create friction in the sales process.
Avoid using more than two typefaces in their website design. Fonts must be easy to read. Headlines, subheadlines, and calls-to-action (CTA) should be bold and stand out.
This makes your content easy to read. More importantly, it can improve the “scalability” of your website. This allows users to understand your site’s content quickly without having to read the entire page.
When users can scan your content, engagement increases and you’re more likely to move prospects further into your sales process.
Color plays a huge role in branding and making your law firm recognizable. Consider the colors used by YouTube, Facebook, and other popular platforms.
Limiting your colors improves its aesthetic appeal while also helping users navigate through your site’s pages quickly and easily. Too many colors can be overwhelming and cause elements to be overlooked
Simplify Your Design
The more sections your website has, the simpler its design and layout should be. Users need to make their way through your content in order to find what they need.
A streamlined design makes navigation easier and increases the time users spend on your site. Your website’s structure should also be designed in a way that improves your website’s usability.
Every section of your website must serve a specific purpose. Users need to have a “next action” they can take to move closer to your primary offer. A simple and consistent website design achieves this.
Using too many design elements may confuse users and hurt your conversion rates and other important metrics.
Finally, your website design should function across a wide range of devices. Responsive website designs have become standard in today’s mobile-driven marketplace.
Consistency in the design, layout, typeface, and other elements of your website will improve its performance.
Prioritizing the experience of your users and making it easy for them to move through your content leads to better engagement, increased conversions, and greater revenue for your law firm.
