Good attorney website design begins with one honest picture: a person who is worried, on a phone, with several other firms one tap away. They do not read your home page. They glance at the first screen and decide whether to stay.
Articles on this topic usually hand you a long list of things a home page can hold: testimonials, attorney spotlights, badges, a news feed, a timeline, a newsletter box. A list does not tell you what goes first, and first is the only part that matters. This post puts the pieces in order.
What should an attorney home page show first?
Four answers, visible without scrolling: what you handle, where you are, who you are and how to reach you. If a visitor has to hunt for any of them, some will leave before they find it.
- What you handle. A plain headline such as "Family law attorneys in Tulsa". Not "Justice. Integrity. Results."
- Where you are. The city and the area you cover, in words, not only in the footer.
- Who you are. A real photo of the attorney or the team. Stock images of scales and gavels tell the visitor nothing.
- How to reach you. A phone number that can be tapped on a phone, and one button for a short contact form.
Everything else on the page is there to support those four lines, not to compete with them.
Why does the headline need to name the practice area?
Because a visitor decides within seconds whether this is the right kind of lawyer. A firm that handles several areas still needs to say which ones, or the visitor assumes you are not specific enough to help them.
If you cover many areas, show the two or three people contact you about most, with a link to each. Each one deserves its own page, which we cover in what belongs on a practice area page.
What can wait below the first screen?
Most of the usual list, and that is fine. Once someone is interested, they scroll for reassurance. Put the items in the order a worried person would ask the questions.
- How it works. Three short steps: you contact us, we talk about your situation, we tell you what comes next.
- The attorneys. A paragraph each, with a face and a way to get in touch.
- What clients say. Real reviews that follow the rules of your state bar. Check those rules yourself, because they differ.
- Common questions. Four or five honest answers.
- A second contact prompt. People who read to the bottom are the most ready to reach out.
Awards, badges, news feeds, a timeline of the firm and a social media feed can sit at the very bottom or be left out. They rarely decide whether someone gets in touch.
Want more inquiries from your website?
We'll look at your website and rankings and tell you plainly what we would fix first. No charge and no sales pitch.
How many ways to contact you should the page offer?
Two or three, no more: a phone number, a short form and, if you can answer quickly, a text or chat option. Each extra choice slows the decision.
The form deserves its own care. Ask for a name, a phone number and a short description, and little else. We wrote about this in law firm contact forms that bring the right cases. Also say what happens after the form is sent, for example that someone replies by the next business day, but only if the firm really does that.
What does the visitor need to feel safe?
People bring private, often frightening matters to a lawyer. The page can lower that fear without a single big claim.
- A line saying that what they share in the form is kept private.
- The real office address, ideally with a photo of the building or the door.
- The bar admissions, stated plainly.
- The disclaimers your jurisdiction requires, written in readable type and not hidden.
We do not give legal advice, and your website should not promise a result either. Many bar rules limit how outcomes can be described, so confirm yours before you publish anything about wins.
How do the website and the rest of the work fit together?
The website is the base. Rankings and referrals decide who arrives; the page decides whether they get in touch. Law firm website design starts with the first screen. SEO and local SEO help the right people find the practice area pages, conversion work tunes the first screen and the form over time, and a care plan keeps the details accurate. We can speak only about how the pages are built. We cannot promise any particular result for any firm.
Where to start
Open your home page on your phone and look only at the first screen. Can a stranger tell what you handle, where you are, who you are and how to reach you? If not, fix that before anything else. Our free audit is a good first look, or message us on WhatsApp.
Want more inquiries from your website?
We'll look at your website and rankings and tell you plainly what we would fix first. No charge and no sales pitch.
