Raster Media's Soapbox

In the highly competitive legal industry where, in nearly every market, victims have several options when it comes to legal representation, your law firm’s website is vital to lead generation and marketing ROI. The success of that site hinges on the quality of usability employed within. Here’s how Jakob Nielsen, the highly regarded website usability expert, puts it:

On the Web, usability is a necessary condition for survival. If a website is difficult to use, people leave. If the homepage fails to clearly state what a company offers and what users can do on the site, people leave. If users get lost on a website, they leave. If a website’s information is hard to read or doesn’t answer users’ key questions, they leave. Note a pattern here? There’s no such thing as a user reading a website manual or otherwise spending much time trying to figure out an interface. There are plenty of other websites available; leaving is the first line of defense when users encounter a difficulty.” (from Usability 101).

Therefore, legal marketers would be wise to invest in a professionally designed and strategically thought out website that employs solid usability principles and concepts so the website is maximized to its full potential as a lead generation tool. It’s not only about aesthetics and pretty pictures. The site must focus on the questions visitors are asking and guide them to the answers quickly and seamlessly. Because if it doesn’t, guess what? Yep… they leave. And they don’t leave and come back and try again later. They leave and go back to their search results only to find your competition. It’s that fragile. If your site is not focused on usability, you are losing leads – period.

So, what do you do about it? You find a usability focused expert like Raster Media, and you have a professional figure out what needs improving and where you need to make adjustments. A professional web development shop has years of expertise and training and can give you the direction you need. Don’t take your site for granted. The legal landscape is far too competitive to drive prospects to your site through expensive TV commercials and print ads, only to lose them when they get there.