I often use the restaurant referral analogy when speaking with law firms. I was in St. Cloud, MN visiting firms and asked the first lawyer I met with where a good spot to grab lunch would be. He gave me three options with a little background on each. The first thing I did when I got to my car was look those restaurants up via my phone. The first eatery had no site, so I moved to the next. The next place had a site but I couldn't easily find the menu and quite frankly I simply didn't get a good vibe from it, so I moved on to number three. The last restaurant I looked up thankfully had the menu easily available and the site was easy to navigate. Did they have the best food? I don’t know, but the information I could find gave me the confidence to check it out. (The food was great, thanks Nick's Third Floor, you are doing it right!!)
The same thing happens when getting legal referrals. Lawyers are usually handing out 2-3 names and clients are doing their research. To stop the shopping process for referrals, your website needs to be aesthetically pleasing, easy to navigate and most importantly accurately reflect the strengths of your firm. These things build confidence in a prospects mind that they are making the right choice by calling you.
A recent FindLaw study showed that 38% of search traffic to a law firm's website is associated with the firm's brand. Branded search traffic is a large part of all traffic and it also converts at 60% higher rate than any other type of traffic.
Bottom Line: If your website doesn't actively define and promote your firm's brand you are going to miss out on referral-based clients.
