Choosing a website for your law firm means answering one question before all the others: what does this website have to produce? Work in a specific practice area, applications from associates, or simply a credible address to give out. The answer decides the format, the budget and the lead time.
Here is the method we follow with the firms we work with, in order.
1. Decide what the website has to produce
- Work. The site then has to be found on your clients’ searches, practice area by practice area and city by city. That is a content project as much as a design one.
- Applications. The careers page, the firm’s culture and the partners’ backgrounds become the heart of the site.
- Credibility. Your work comes from referrals and your network, and the site serves as proof when people look you up before the first meeting. A restrained, complete site is enough.
The three need neither the same budget nor the same work. A firm that wants credibility and pays for an acquisition site is wasting money, and the reverse costs it work.
2. Count your templates, not your pages
List what has to exist: home, practice areas, partner profiles, news, careers, contact, legal notices. Each type of page is a template to draw. It is the number of templates, not the number of pages, that sets the price and the lead time.
3. Ready-to-wear or bespoke
| Ready-to-wear | Bespoke | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead time | one week | six to ten weeks |
| Price | €990 excl. VAT | from €3,500 excl. VAT |
| Identity | the design, in your colours | drawn for the firm |
| Good for | setting up, replacing a dated site | a competitive practice area, several languages, a brand |
Ready-to-wear is not a lesser website: these are designs drawn for the profession, with the required notices in place. The twenty-eight examples can be viewed with your own name and colours before you decide, and the ready-to-wear law firm websites are delivered in five working days.
4. Check the six things the site has to prove
- Competence: explicit practice areas, not a list of words.
- The people: background, bar, languages, publications. The partner page is the most read after the home page.
- How you work: first meeting, timescales, how fees are charged.
- Compliance: required notices, GDPR, the profession’s communication rules.
- Reachability: a visible phone number, a short form, an address and hours that match the Google profile.
- Speed: a firm website that takes four seconds to appear loses visitors before the first line.
5. The traps we see most often
- Rebuilding without listing the old URLs: hard-won rankings vanish overnight.
- Copy written by the supplier without a lawyer’s review: the tone rings false and the professional-conduct risk is real.
- A single “our expertise” page listing twelve practice areas: Google ranks pages, not lists.
- Stock photography: on a law firm website it is spotted immediately.
- No analytics at all: there is then no way to know whether the site produces anything.
6. Ask the three questions that separate suppliers
- Who writes the text, and how many reviews are included?
- What happens to my current rankings, and how will you check them after launch?
- What belongs to me at the end, and in what form?
A supplier who answers all three clearly works seriously. For the rest, what a website costs and the six essentials of a law firm website usefully complete this page.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to rebuild a law firm website?
One week for a ready-to-wear site. Six to ten weeks for a bespoke single-language site. Two to three months as soon as there are several languages or rankings to carry over.
Do I need one website per practice area?
No, one website with one page per practice area. Google ranks pages: a rich page on employment law beats a section listing twelve specialities.
Should the website show fees?
Nothing requires it for most services, but explaining how fees are charged and giving an order of magnitude where possible removes a real barrier before the first call.
Can I keep my domain name when I change website?
Yes, and you should: it carries the history and the links you have earned. Only the internal addresses change, and those are redirected.
Further reading
- the catalogue of website templates for law firms: browse it with your own logo and colours, no appointment.
- ready-to-wear websites for law firms: delivered in five working days, fixed price.
- what a law firm website costs: the ranges and what moves them.
