When Should You Update Your Law Firm’s Website?

Creating a website for your law firm isn’t a one-time project but a long-term investment that requires ongoing reporting and maintenance. Even the best site won’t remain at its current level of effectiveness forever. After designing your website, you will have to monitor its performance in meeting your marketing goals, gather information on key metrics, and adjust your content to reflect any important changes. Consult the following to learn when you should update your law firm’s website.

Perform a Yearly Review

In many cases, your website is going to be the first impression potential clients have of you and your services, and any glaring issues will reflect poorly on your entire firm. Perform an annual review of all facets of your website to identify any areas that need to be updated so you can provide the best user experience for potential clients. During this review, you should be paying attention to both functionality and design. Maybe your law firm’s website is having issues with navigation, certain elements of your page aren’t performing as well as they used to, or your site is simply starting to look a bit outdated. All these problems impact your firm’s reputation and make it less likely that visitors to your website will follow through in contacting you.

Analyze Competitors’ Sites

While you want to create your own unique website with original and engaging content, feel free to regularly analyze your competitors’ sites for insight and inspiration. You can look at their site layout, features, practice area webpages, blog topics, and keywords to uncover successful strategies that they are using and you are neglecting. Maybe a competing firm has recently integrated a feature that you’ve never considered before that could help you boost your traffic and generate new clients. You can also find content gaps that show you where your target audience’s needs are not being met by their site and then fill these gaps with your own site to demonstrate your authority and build trust.

Listen to Client Feedback

If you’re looking to create a site that’s appealing to your target audience, then why not ask them for feedback directly? After all, no one’s going to understand what prospective clients are looking for better than those who were once (or are) in that same boat.

Set up a system on your current website for visitors to provide feedback about their experience with your firm. This can involve sending a follow-up email to current clients after you’ve resolved their case or adding a simple questionnaire on your social media profiles. There could be several aspects of your site’s functionality that they find frustrating, and if they are experiencing these issues, other visitors are likely noticing them, as well. This feedback can be valuable for identifying any substantial issues and promptly fixing them before they continue to drive away users and damage your firm’s reputation.

As you review this feedback, try to remain as objective as you can. Carefully consider any suggestions for upgrading your firm’s site and making it more appealing to visitors, especially if multiple users have shared the same concerns. While every firm wants positive reviews, negative feedback is often far more helpful for long-term improvement. Make a commitment to respond to all feedback as soon as possible, so users know you have read their comments and taken them seriously.

Ask Your Team for Feedback

If you’re curious about whether it’s time to update your firm’s website, you don’t need to restrict feedback to clients. In many cases, you can gather some important insight from your own staff members. Discussing issues with your team and collaborating on potential solutions can make it far easier to begin improving your site. Check and see if your staff has noticed anything they believe should be corrected, much like you’d ask one of your clients. You can also see if any of your staff members have received complaints or comments from their own clients. To truly make maintaining the site into a group effort, you can incorporate the topic into the discussion list of monthly or quarterly meetings.

Contact a Professional Web Designer

While there are some cheap tools for setting up website templates, creating a site on your own is rarely recommended. Professional web designers understand exactly what a site needs to attract attention and keep clients satisfied with the experience. If you opt to work with a web designer to maintain your site, you can remain confident that it will stay in peak condition, both functionally and aesthetically. There are many web design companies out there, so make sure you select a team that specializes in crafting high-quality law firm websites. Establishing a site that appeals to legal clients isn’t necessarily the same as any other area of web design. You have a unique client base who you want to attract and engage, and this requires certain content and features.

There’s Been a Big Change for Your Firm

If your firm has recently changed locations, modified the services or practice areas you offer, or experienced any other major adjustment, you’ll need to update your site right away to reflect these changes. When the information on your website isn’t accurate or up to date, it can cause confusion and make it difficult for potential clients to contact you. It also causes users to form a negative impression of your firm, as it shows that you don’t truly care about the client experience. People are just as likely to share negative feedback with their friends, family, and colleagues as positive feedback, often more so, and even one bad experience can significantly impact your business.

RizeUp Media Makes Your Firm’s Site Better Than Ever

The digital marketing team at RizeUp provides unmatched SEO, social media marketing, and other services to law firms, as well as web design expertise. No matter how effectively you’re marketing your firm, if your website is out of date and difficult to use, this could render all your previous efforts null and void. Even if you’ve been successful in engaging potential clients, this doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be getting in touch with you about your services.

To keep your site at peak performance, contact RizeUp Media today.