Is Your Website Ugly?
And that's not intended to be a silly question. It's intended to get your attention and answer how a law firm website should look and why.
It's about how looks effect performance in getting MWR (most wanted response) and how your sites "look and feel" should be designed to help get your MWR, new clients.
Know in advance that everyone landing on your site will have a different opinion than you do. Can you please everyone? Not a chance.
So what is the solution?
Create a simple, yet focused design that is representative of your profession.
I make a big deal of this 'looks' versus function issue because clients always do. I don’t blame them, looks are important, we all know that.
However, how a website looks is the biggest stumbling block in completing a web design that we see in all 15 years as webmasters. I fully understand the need for professional looks. My goal here is to explain how you use them on a web site and why.
Internet technologies are forever moving forward with new things. Flash, audio, video, pop-ups, automatic this and that, and the list will never end. How you use these technologies can make or break your web site.
Read on and I will explain.
"You are not your client" so should you build a site to look pretty…
- To you?
- To your prospective client?
- Other lawyers?
Do you want max business or pretty?
- Max business requires getting your “most wanted response” and pretty can actually be distracting to that goal.
- Max business from a website requires guiding readers where you “most” want them to go.
- Max business requires the reader to take actions you “most” want them to take, such as contacting you right now.
Maximum business from any website happens because you plan it that way. It does not happen because you look pretty. Look professional most certainly; forget pretty.
Getting Maximum Business
- Do not distract from the marketing funnel with pretty stuff that gets the readers attention before the “information” does.
- Tell the reader what to do with graphics and words.
- If you use audio or video, use it to tell people what to do on site for faster information, not just to introduce yourself or to be a star performer. Make it work with the marketing funnel.
Why is a Fair Question…
- The internet in many ways now mimics TV with audio and video.
- Trouble is, not everyone has high speed internet to view websites that use the most current technologies.
- TV commercials use impact to make you remember their brand.
- TV commercials are short and to the point, because you will change the channel otherwise.
- Website visitors tend to make several repeat visits.
- Website visitors tend to stay on site for about 3 minutes before they go elsewhere.
Websites Provide Information to Those Seeking It
Your main goal is to deliver the information people are searching for. They use “keywords” to do that searching. Know the right ones and have a master plan to use them or traffic will not be easy to come by! Don’t play tricks with content or optimization of content.
If you don’t have a master keyword marketing plan first and then execute it correctly, looks won’t matter because no one will be visiting.
Our services begin with search engines, because it’s where your new clients will come from. Let’s discuss what happens when they arrive to your site.
It’s where the action begins!
- The marketing funnel guides the reader to your “most wanted responses.” More on that coming up.
- Pretty has not been used to distract the reader but to enhance the readers ability to get information now.
- Your text provides the information they seek using keywords in search terms. These keywords tell you what readers are seeking and what text to provide.
- If audio/video is used, it enhances getting the information the listener/viewer is seeking. Yes, it’s a commercial by nature, but is all you want 30 seconds of their time?
Don’t confuse websites with TV just yet. The technologies are there, but your visitors are still catching up. Commercials are mindless to watch. Websites require the reader’s attention.
Get that attention by shiny stuff and you have impressed them; that is true. But now get that shiny stuff to get the reader to call you. (As my daughter often says to me, with that certain look in her eye, “good luck with that.”)
Create your professional looks with their specific functions in mind. Do not distract readers. One more note…
That fancy logo at the top of most website pages goes away mere seconds after the visitor arrives. The minute he or she scrolls down the page, most of the “pretty” stuff is out of view.
Use this knowledge to help you determine how much you're willing to spend on Looks vs. Function. It does not require Tahj Mahal looking websites to get new clients.
My advice is that if you require that look, get clients with your site first that can help pay the expense then go for it.
- Don’t disturb the marketing funnel which is the structure and position of your navigation buttons and what is said behind those buttons!!
- Do learn more about most wanted response and how your marketing funnel helps achieve it.
- Is your site designed to achieve most wanted responses?
My free consultation is a great place to ask.
