I’ve got a confession to make right from the get go – I’m not a tax lawyer. In fact, I don’t know anything about tax law. But I do know about designing websites for lawyers – I’m a lawyer myself, and I own my own business. I’ve thought a lot about website design, read a lot about website design, and probably, most importantly, I’ve experimented a lot with website design. Here’s how to design a website for a tax lawyer.
1. Make the Site Topic Specific
One of the first mistakes I see people make when it comes to their websites is trying to be everyone to everybody. For example, I know some Princeton tax attorneys who designed their own website. They also do some other stuff (namely just about anything). When I talked to them I told them to break all of their separate practice areas up and have a website for each one – that’s the only way to get through to people.
Think about it like this, people who have tax problems don’t care if you do family law and criminal law – they want someone that knows taxes. So, get them to your website in an area that tells them what they want to know. You do that by splitting the sites up into different pages.
2. Have a Strong Call to Action
People aren’t going to look at your site for long. They want to make sure you are legit, that you know what you’re talking about, and that they aren’t your first client. After that they are ready to make a decision, either they are calling you to schedule an appointment or they aren’t. Make it easy for them to schedule an appointment!
To keep up with Princeton tax attorneys example, their website doesn’t tell anyone what to do until you get to the bottom. Right at the top they should have something that says “Call Today to Fight the IRS at 555-5555″ or something like that. If you make it hard for people to pick up the phone and call you they just won’t pick up the phone.
3. You Don’t Need 1000 Words on Your Site
Remember what I said in part 2 about how long people are at your site and what they are looking for? If you do, then why would you try to convey that in 100o words? Keep it simple, stupid. Talk like you would to a potential client in your office – you aren’t trying to impress them but to educate them about your services. Put some video up there and some pictures that express your point. A lot of text does nothing for potential clients and looks terrible on the screen.
There you go, just a couple of thoughts on designing a website for a tax lawyer. Good luck!
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