First impressions are everything, and today’s consumers usually get their first impressions online. Your website is one of your firm’s most important assets. It’s your online real estate, your digital business card, your central marketing hub, and more all rolled into one. And if it doesn’t make a good impression, people will leave as quickly as they came in and never come back.
Here’s what you can do to ensure that you not only keep (the right) people on your website, but ensure that they’ll keep coming back.
1. Make it obvious who you are and how you help
People will only spend a couple of seconds on a website before they leave, especially if they aren’t sure if they’re in the right place. Make it obvious as to what it is you do and the kinds of people you serve. While this will filter out the people who aren’t a good fit, it will ensure that the ones you wanted to catch will stay.
Visit your own website right now and put yourself in a random person’s shoes. If you landed on your home page, would it be really obvious what it is that you do?
2. Be authentic with your messaging
People are hesitant to implicitly trust a business right out of the gate—especially lawyers. If your website has a lot of generic imagery (scales of justice, courthouse steps, etc.) along with cringy copy like this…
When you’ve been injured in a Dallas car accident, you want the most experienced Dallas car accident attorney. The experienced attorneys at Smith Law Firm are dedicated to helping you with your Dallas car accident.
…then you’re just going to look like any other firm out there. That sort of SEO-focused web copy does nothing to provide a great user experience. Instead, you’re talking to search bots instead of the human beings who will end up hiring you.
Instead, your imagery should create an emotional connection—think pictures of car crashes or someone dealing with a lot of stress—and your website copy should address the people you’re actually trying to reach instead of the algorithms on search engines.
3. Create a Content Loop
Having a consistent flow of fresh content actually gives people a reason to keep engaging with your website. Publish blog articles, videos, and podcast episodes regularly. Send out that content in an email newsletter that links back to your website. Post daily on social media. (You can learn more about the Content Loop from our friends at Spotlight Branding here.)
The key, however, is consistency. You can’t be on again/off again with your marketing and expect results, so build a system that ensures you have something new coming out all the time.