Introduction

Whether you are a commercial firm of solicitors or one acting for individuals (or

both) you absolutely should be winning new instructions from your website on a

regular basis, and a good volume of them too.

Many of my clients win 50 to 90% of new client instructions from their website

before I make them spread their risk and include other successful marketing

activities.

If your website is designed well and designed to please both your human visitors

and Google alike, it will bring you new instructions every single month.

How do I know this?

Well, I know what works and what does not work based on managing an online

spend to law firm websites in excess of £2 million every year. I test everything

until I know what is working best. Unlike many website designers, the only thing

that I am interested in is that a law firm’s website produces new clients.

If you are talking with a website designer already and they are telling you that

you only need a brochure website and that you should not expect to win new

business from your website, walk away very quickly and read on now.

I want to set out the key components of a successful law firm website so that you

know what you should be looking for when choosing your website designer. You

can then make the right decision for your law firm. Whether that involves me or

not doesn’t matter. At least I will have saved another solicitor from an

ineffective, underperforming website that has cost them a substantial investment.

I also want to show you the bare minimum that you should be doing when it

comes to marketing that website.

Let me take you through the core components one by one.

1. The design of your website is largely

irrelevant: content is king!

The one and only test for the design of a website is whether it generates new

clients for you. Please remember this, so that when your website designer shows

you a website design that has one huge image on the home page, a very sparse

amount of content and no instructions for what the client should do at the end of

each page to further their relationship with you, you can change your website

designer; quickly.

Ultimately, what sells your services above anything else is content. Your

prospects are in the process of making a decision to choose a professional service

provider. The ONLY logical way that they can decide if you know what you are

talking about is to read your content and to see enough of it to convince them that

that you are specialists in this area of law.

A picture of a sheep on a local hill, as pleasing as it may be to the eye, does

nothing to prove that you are worthy of my contact details.

When it comes to websites, content is king. Please keep this front of mind when

designing your website.

A hideously ugly website with lots of content providing a large amount of information about the legal topic in question will beat a beautifully designed website every single time.

2. The layout of your website is the next most

important part.

Once you realise how important the content is on your website, you need to

understand that the layout is the next most important part.

A prospect must be able to easily read and navigate around your website to find

what they are looking for.

This means that a website with infinity scrolling with all of the content on one

page does not work, nor does a website where the content spreads across the

entire width of the screen – newspapers don’t do that so why would a website?

Would you like to know the most successful layout of a website when it comes to

turning visitors into new client enquiries? Here it is:

Yes, this is my website, but it is also the website layout that my clients with the

best websites follow. I always apply my findings to my own business too.

Let me talk you through the important parts and why it works so well.

1. A reasonably thin header graphic (no sheep) including my logo, what I

do and my contact details. Your visitor needs to be able to get to the

content quickly as this is what will sell your service.

2. A top layer of navigation for the most important pages on your website

to allow them to get there quickly.

3. Left navigation which expands when in each section to show that you

have expertise in the area in question.

4. On a law firm website, this expanding navigation would open to reveal

further pages within a section, thereby proving your expertise. For

example, for conveyancing this would include pages for buying, selling,

leasehold, remortgages, etc

5. Your central column contains the content and is an ‘easy to read’ width.

6. Finally, your right column does two things:

a. Proves your expertise

b. Makes it easy to contact you.

For example, on my website this includes a link to my book, The Law Firm

Growth Formula, reviews from satisfied clients and legal publications that I

have been featured in such as the Gazette, Solicitors Journal etc.

On your law firm website this will include a link to your enquiry form, reviews

of your services, proof of your expertise by reference to professional

organisations and publications in which you have been published.

Your website designer will prefer to prepare a bland website with lots of

imagery. Allow them to do so and you lose the opportunity to win clients from

your website. Your website designer is a designer – of course they like pretty

things. Sadly, however pretty websites do not deliver new clients.

You need to trust me on this. My advice is based on hard facts, not whims.

3. You need more than 10 pages with no upper

limit!

You can never have enough pages on your website. A five page website will

bring you no new business. A 10 page website might bring you some, but give

me a 100 page website and I know you will be winning new client instructions

every month.

However, if you choose the right content management system for your website, it

will be very easy to add new pages to it so you can grow it consistently once you

have created it.

4. The content management system

Wordpress.

Nothing else; for the reason that it is free yet totally customisable (don’t ever use

a system that says you have a free website proudly at the bottom of it) and there

are thousands of people that can help you to develop it if you ever fall out with

your original designer.

You must avoid at all costs a company that is trying to sell you a

website with their bespoke content management system.

Why?

It ties you to their services. If you do finally decide to terminate the relationship,

you have to start completely from scratch with your next website.

With Wordpress, you can change the design completely relatively simply without

having to move all of your existing content over to a new platform.

Wordpress is the solution for you.

5. Tell people what to do at the end of every page

People often tell me that their website isn’t producing the volume of enquiries

that they think it should be.

Often I take a quick look and I can see exactly why not. They might have plenty

of content and that content is good and convincing, but they fail to do the

important part:

• tell the website visitor at the end of EVERY page on their website what

they must do next to make the first contact with that law firm.

Clients say to me “My website visitors will go to my contact page to get my

contact details, or scroll back to the top of the page to obtain my telephone

number”.

Important news; they won’t.

You have to make it impossibly simple for your clients to get in touch with you.

This means that at the foot of every page you must include your telephone

number (hyperlinked so that people on mobile phones can touch their screen to

call you*), an email address and a link to your enquiry form.

Fail to do this and you will miss countless enquiries for your services.

* If you would like the code that allows you to link your telephone number on

your website simply follow the instructions at the end of this guide and I will be

happy to provide it to you, completely free of charge.

6. Finally, the system that you must follow when

obtaining your new website.

This is the website design process that I strongly advise you to follow if you are

changing your current website.

If you follow it to the letter, you will have a new website designed and live in the

fastest period possible at the most reasonable price; guaranteed!

I created this having watched hundreds of website design projects go wrong in

every way imaginable. It is a process born from frustration, pain, sweat and tears.

You have it in the knowledge that I will sleep easier because you will be saved

from these problems. Enjoy.

1. If you already have a website live, DO NOT take it down because you

think it is doing more harm than good. This will be detrimental to your

Google listings and it will also be more detrimental to your human visitors

too. Having a bad website is better than having no website at all.

2. Prepare a list of all of the pages that you will need on your new website

(called a sitemap). This will allow you to assess exactly what you need

from your new website and will lead to a faster and more accurate

quotation from your website design company.

3. Once you have chosen your website designer, agree the design (look and

feel) of your website first. Once the design is agreed, ask them to add the

existing content from your current website to the new website (if you have

one). DO NOT try and create all of the content at the same time as you

create a new website design. Trust me in that you are better having the new

website design with the old content up and running within one month than

waiting six months to a year for all of the content that you need to be

produced (this is based on many website design projects’ experience).

4. Ensure that your website uses Wordpress so that you can easily edit and

add new content to it. Remember that if you choose a website designer that

makes you use their “bespoke” content management system you are tied to

them for some time and it will be very difficult to move away from them.

5. Once your website is live, change the content that you are not happy with.

7. Once your website is live, do not let it die a

slow and painful death…

Have you ever bought a plant from a garden centre that looks wonderful when

purchased, but after two months of neglect it has absolutely no life left in it?

Yes, me too!

A law firm website can do amazing things for your practice. However, if you

leave it to wilt and die like the plant above, sadly, it will.

Once a website is live, it needs constant nurturing and attention to ensure that it

thrives for you. The good news is that I am not saying that you have to spend

hours and hours on it every week and month. You can outsource practically every

aspect of your website growth. All you need to do is to manage the people

involved in the process to ensure that everyone does as they are being paid to do.

The paying part isn’t going to hurt you too much either. The important point here

is that outsourcing ensures that the tasks are performed consistently, which is

critical to the success of your law firm website.

Ideally you should:

• Add four unique pieces of content every month (these should be unique to

your firm – do not buy them from a content factory selling you the same

articles it sells to 100 other law firms – this will be of no detriment because

Google is only interested in unique content);

• Link back to these articles when you add them from all of your social

media website, doing two things:

1. letting Google know that your website has been updated; and

2. letting your followers know that you have written a new article

which if nothing else shows them that you are a proactive firm, but

possibly also highlights a service that you provide which they have a

current need for.

• Use the content for your law firm email marketing newsletter - you do

send one every month, don’t you? If not, you really should do.

• Commence a Google Adwords campaign as soon as your website has been

altered to match the requirements in this book.

• Monitor your website visitor numbers every month to watch them steadily

rise (as will the enquiries from your website for your services).

Summary

You have all that you need now to obtain the right website for your law firm.

If you obtain the right legal website design for your law firm and then send more

visitors to it every month it will make a substantial difference to the number of

new clients you receive from it and your firm’s overall profitability.

However, you don’t have to just take my word for it. See what Paul says about

the website I created for him:

“I’ve been working with Nick for the last six years, and in that time he’s had a significant impact on my business. We first start working together when I worked at an employment law practice, and when I left there to set up on my own, Nick was one of the first people I called. I knew that one of the key pieces to get right was the website – in this day and age it’s impossible to run a successful firm without one – and with Nick’s advice, help and guidance, we created our own marketing-focused site that has proven to be the backbone of all the sales and marketing that has followed. But a good website means nothing unless people see it, and that’s why we turned to Nick to run our Google Adwords, which quickly became a primary source of leads. In addition to running the traffic, Nick held our hand through every element of the client attraction process, from how to communicate with leads, to how to close sales, and the impact that had on our business cannot be understated. And that’s why I will always recommend Nick to anyone who needs help with marketing – particularly legal firms: his breadth of knowledge about everything to do with sales and marketing means that he can (and does) help with every part of the picture, resulting in a stronger business than you could have imagined. Since we’ve been working with Nick, we’ve grown quickly – back in 2013 it was just myself and my wife, and she was part-time. Now I’ve got eight staff and two offices, and we’ve never been busier. And if our lead numbers are anything to go by, it’s only going to get better – 2015-2016 saw us get 800 good quality leads in employment law, and that figure more than doubled last year. I can only look forward to more exciting times, working hand-in-hand with Nick to grow my practice and enjoy the fruits that come with that growth.” Paul Doran. Paul Doran Law.

If you have found this helpful, please do let me know (it is only polite is it not)?

Simply email me on njervis@samsonconsulting.co.uk. You may just make my

day.

If you would like some input from me on a one to one basis (including my

current recommended website design companies), I am happy to do that for you

too. Simply schedule a time for us to talk (no cost or obligation) either by calling

my P.A. on 01275 855525 or by clicking the link below.

Click here to reserve a time for us to talk:>>

Nick Jervis

Solicitor (non-practising)

We’ve been working with Nick about 10 years and throughout this time I have always valued his expertise. When we first made contact with Nick we had been recommended to get in touch with him by another solicitor to “give us a hand with marketing”. At that time we were focusing on personal injury work, but we had already decided to enter the medical negligence market. Obviously breaking into a new market takes time and we still needed the income that came from the personal injury work to finance this going forward. Nick put together a high conversion website which meant we had all the personal injury work that we needed allowing us to build the medical negligence side of things up gradually. Now we specialise exclusively in medical negligence. Nick has been part of that growth in terms of strategy and the use of Google Adwords to generate good quality leads. As part of that, he helped us with the entire website build, making it very marketing focused and it has worked extremely well. As a result our firm has gone from strength to strength, more than doubling fee earing staff and turnover.

Julie Glynn, Glynns Solicitors.

I’ve been working with Nick for three years now, and in that time he’s had a fantastic impact on my business. We focus on accident claims, and it’s vital for us to have a strong web presence, which we didn’t have before Nick got involved. As a result we had to buy in leads from other sources, reducing our profit margins and making us reliant on other companies to generate revenue. We did have a company working on our Adwords and website, but the truth of the matter is that they weren’t getting the results we needed them to get – we only had a handful of clients coming in from those efforts, making us highly reliant on buying in the leads from elsewhere. And then I came across one of Nick’s books, was impressed by what I read and got in touch with him. The rest – as they say – is history. We started working together with a clear brief: Nick’s job was to help us bring in more self-generated work, so we could stop relying on buying leads. He started by working on our website, making it more accessible and easier to navigate. Next he overhauled our Google Adwords, which the previous company had been running fairly unsuccessfully. Adwords is hugely challenging in our sector, with some very big players bidding on some of the most common keywords, making it very difficult for any smaller firms to get a look in, and I’ve got to be honest and say that I didn’t know how Nick was going to make it work. But he did, by analysing very closely what people were looking for and tailoring our Adwords efforts towards them. It worked! We were competing with the big boys whilst spending a fraction of their budget, and the amount of work we got in was tremendous – we jumped from just a handful of leads and clients a month to 500 leads and 150 clients, every single month, all from our online efforts. Nick didn’t just work on the lead generation side of things either – he helped us with the client conversion process too, training our team, making our sales calls better and improving our onboarding process to avoid drop-offs due to ‘cooling off’. Now we don’t buy in any work at all, our pay-per-click efforts do a sterling job, and the large client database that Nick has helped us build has allowed us to increase the amount of work we do by a factor of ten, in just three years.

I’m one extremely satisfied client, and despite the dramatic differences Nick has been able to make in the time we’ve been working together, things are still improving thanks to his guidance and support.

Peter Russell. Russell Worth Solicitors.

I’d been looking for somebody to help me with marketing for a while, and I came across Nick on Google. That was three years ago, and in that time it’s fair to say that he’s had a massive impact on my business, and my life as a result. In the early days, the goal was simple and specific: increase the turnover of the business so that I could take more money out of the business. I had an amount in mind, and I expected it to take years to get there, but when I achieved it in just six months, it began to dawn on me that this guy really knew what he was talking about. As a result of that early success, and with Nick’s help, I realised that my expectations were too low, and what I could actually achieve, with the right thinking and guidance, was far beyond what I’d ever imagined.

What Nick saw – and what he made me see – was that I had a fantastic potential business, but to realise that potential, things needed to change. Even before Nick got involved, we were getting a decent volume of leads, but it was what was happening to the leads that was the problem. We weren’t tracking them, there was no process in place and to top it all off, we didn’t have a clear pricing structure, which meant that we were nowhere near as profitable as we could be. And that’s where Nick came into his own. He built us a bespoke lead generation and sales process, and the results were staggering. We pretty much doubled our turnover, allowing me to build a four-person sales and marketing team that gets us more leads and more sales. Of course, Nick’s Google Adwords expertise has been a key part of our growth, and today it’s a hugely profitable marketing pillar for us. But regardless of the medias or mechanisms we’ve used to grow over the last three years, it’s been Nick’s rock solid marketing plan that underpins it all. He’s stopped me trying this and that, and got me to focus on the things

that’ll have the biggest impact on the business. And I think there’s a lot more to come – we still haven’t implemented everything that Nick has given us to do, and when we do, I reckon we’ve got around another £250,000 of revenue per year to add to our figures. And it’s not just the business that’s seen a transformation – it’s been a personal transformation too. When Nick first got involved, I was the biggest fee earner, and consequently I was reluctant to stop getting involved in cases.

Nick eventually made me see that if I was serious about growing this business, that needed to change and as time has gone on I’ve taken on less and less work – now I don’t do any of it. And I only wish I’d done it earlier, because the result has been me having more time to build the business, and spending time with the people that are important to me. Not only that, but the business is stronger, because it’s much less dependent on me. Nick was right about that one, as he has been about pretty much everything else – it pains me to say it, but it’s true!

James Quinn. Quinn Legal