Making Your Law Firm Website More Interactive

March 19, 2008 – 12:19 pm

Static websites are pretty boring, especially in the age of social media and blogging. These days, people expect a website to be frequently updated with fresh content, and also interactive in some way.

The same is true for law firm websites and the websites of individual lawyers as well.

In other words, people have higher expectations for law firm websites these days. So when they encounter a static site with outdated content, or a site that doesn’t allow them to do anything, they will quickly move on.

On the other hand, people will be more inclined to stay on your law firm website if you let them interact in some way. This can help increase your website conversion rates (which, for lawyers and law firms, usually refers to the number of people who contact you about your legal services.

After all, the longer a person is on your law firm website, the more likely they will be to take some form of action (asking a question, subscribing to a newsletter, etc.).

You can increase interactivity in a number of ways. And these days, there are all kinds of software products to make it extremely easy for you! Here are a few examples of interactivity you could build into your website:

How to Increase Your Website’s Interactivity

1. Publish a legal blog and allow readers to comment on it. Don’t just allow it … encourage it.
2. Educate your blog reader’s about the blog’s RSS feed, how they can use it, what the value is, etc.
3. Use an “RSS-to-email” program like Zookoda so your blog readers can subscribe to the RSS feed by way of an email address.
4. If you have the audience and the web traffic for it, launch a Q&A discussion forum on your website. You install a program like VBulletin or phpBB to do most of the work.
5. If you have customer service folks, put a chat feature on your website so visitors can “click to chat” with customer service. This can be a great way to at least capture a name, email address or phone number before people leave.
6. Similarly, you can create an FAQ / Knowledge Base section of your website where visitors can submit their questions (and read previous Q&A with your staff).

Remember, when people are able to interact with your law firm website in some way, they are more likely to stay on the site longer. And the longer they stick around, the more likely they will be to take the action you want them to take.

Brandon Cornett publishes a lawyer marketing website that offers advice on all aspects of Internet marketing.