Landing pages—as a lawyer, you need them to convert online interest into leads, and ultimately, cases. But what goes into high-conversion law firm landing pages?
At SMB Team, we’ve done all the hard work for you. Through extensive lawyer landing page testing, we have found out exactly what works and what doesn’t when it comes to creating pages that convert (at a rate of nearly 45%!).
In general, higher-end clients tend to use desktops more frequently, so we design most of our landing pages with a desktop layout in mind. But no matter who your ideal client may be, these landing page principles will help you bring in more leads because the principles work for all devices.
Step 1: Target and Segment Your Landing Page
When you’re creating a landing page, it’s important to remember that you don’t want to send every lead to the same page. You can and should segment your audience and direct them to the page optimized for the keywords that best suit their needs.
If you’re a divorce lawyer, for example, then you might think that your target keywords should all involve the term “divorce.” In reality, you will also need several other landing pages that target related phrases, such as child custody, pre-nuptial agreements, or alimony. Segmenting your audience in this way will lead to higher conversion rates.
Step 2: Create Your Header
Most of the landing page magic happens “above the fold,” which is the area that is visible without any scrolling. At the very top of the page, you’ll need to create a basic header.
On the top left, you should place your logo. Unlike on your main website, don’t make the logo clickable! If someone is having doubts, it’s better to keep them on the page than to have them start clicking around and away. The only exception to this is for very high-consideration niches, like corporate law.
Opposite the logo, place a simple call-to-action (CTA) above a clickable phone number. We’ve tried putting the CTA below the number, and it just doesn’t convert as well. While it’s not clear why this is, what is clear is that simple positioning tricks like this can make a difference.
Step 3: Consider Sizing
When creating your header, it’s important to consider the size of your logo, CTA, and contact information. You don’t want the header to be too big, but it also shouldn’t be too tiny.
When adding your phone number, consider your phone intake system. Is your office optimized to take calls? Or will potential clients have a better experience if they email you through the contact form below the header? Depending on how you want potential clients to contact you, you should make the phone number bigger or smaller.
Step 4: Create Your Headline and Sub-Headline
The main goal of your headline is to get the prospect to say “yes” in their head. Keep in mind that you will probably have more than one audience that your landing page is targeting—people who know they need a lawyer now, and people who are still in the educational stage and don’t know where to begin.
If that’s the case, then you need to get that “yes” from both audiences. You can do this by asking more than one question in the headline, and bolding the most important question. In one high-performing landing page, for example, we ask two questions:
“In Need of a Divorce Attorney in Houston? Need Legal Assistance for a Divorce and Don’t Know Where to Begin?”
We’re targeting potential clients in two different stages, but we’ve placed the more important question up front and used bolding to set it off. If the client thinks “no” after the first question, they may still say “yes” to the second.
Right after you ask the question, create a simple CTA and put that in bold as well. You can ask further questions in the sub-headline to get that all-important “yes.”
Step 5: Add Visuals
Right below your headline, you should have an image or video to the left and a contact form with another CTA to the right. After testing both photos and videos, we’ve found that there isn’t much difference in conversion rates. However, we favor video because it gives you another opportunity to provide relevant information about your firm.
Step 6: The Small Details
There are some small things to consider before you move on to the information below the fold. First, you should place a small confidentiality guarantee under the contact information above the fold. You should also try to use the same CTA throughout the page, such as “Get Your Free Consultation Today!”
Step 7: The Promise-Offer Sections
For the people who scroll down a bit further, you’ll want to offer a bit more information about your firm and what you promise to clients. These should be presented in a few small paragraphs, side-by-side. The text here doesn’t really matter, as far as conversion rates go, but you may want to use this section for SEO and educational purposes.
Step 8: The Proof Zone
In this section, you should add a couple of testimonials or reviews, again, side-by-side. If you can, get video testimonials, as these tend to be more powerful for conversions.
Step 9: Using Popups
Nobody likes popups, but they can be helpful in landing page creation when a potential lead hasn’t converted and tries to leave the page. This popup should have the CTA and another contact form and should only be triggered when the user tries to leave the page OR clicks on the CTA you’ll place in the section right below the testimonials. Make it easy for people to contact you!
Step 10: Finishing Off The Page
After the testimonial and another CTA, you might want to add another image and yes, yet another call-to-action. Below that information, you can add more contact information with a click-to-call phone number and an invitation to ask more questions. If you work in a specific geographic area, it’s also a great idea to embed a Google map.
