5 Key Elements That Help Optimize your Law Practices’ Website for Mobile Devices

Saffron Edge

Mar 15, 2019

6 min read

If your legal website isn't optimized for mobile, then you're certainly leaving a lot of money on the table. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, more people access the Internet through mobile devices like smartphones and tablets than ever before. Since these devices offer smaller viewing areas than traditional desktop computers, any sites not optimized for mobile tend to look like a garbled mess on mobile devices, causing most visitors to click away instantly. Let's take a look at five key elements that you can use to help optimize your law website for mobile so that you don't lose any more potential clients.

1. Understanding the Mobile First Strategy

One of the driving forces behind the mobile revolution is Google. Having long since realized just how the rise of mobile usage would change the world, they have changed their search engine algorithms to take this into account. As a result, websites that aren't optimized for mobile are pushed down the rankings, while those that are get a boost.

As you probably know, the higher your site ranks in Google, and other search engines, the more search traffic you get. Search traffic is extremely targeted, and in many cases, "buyer ready." This valuable SEO traffic can be a huge boost to your business, and your bottom line. So much in fact, that many digital marketing services tend to focus very heavily on both mobile optimization, and SEO for a one-two punch that can really make a difference when it comes to legal marketing. One thing that you should keep in mind though, is that this is called a "mobile first" strategy for a reason, not "mobile only." In other words, having a site that displays well on both mobile and desktop is the best way to go. This is actually much easier than it sounds, and often times leads to a cleaner, more streamlined look on desktop monitors, giving you a win-win situation.

2. Responsive Images and Videos

One big mistake that a lot of make is having images and videos that open in full screen when interacted with. This can lead to a bad experience for visitors, and drastically increase your bounce rate. Instead, you'll want to focus on responsive images and videos that can be used in different ways depending on the needs of the visitor.

For example, let's say you have a short video on your main page in which some of your past clients give testimonials about your services. Instead of having it automatically take up the entire screen when someone clicks onto your site, have it stay at normal size until the visitor chooses to interact with it. This will allow visitors who want to skip the video to scroll down to the rest of the information on the page, or use the navigation to find what they're looking for. The last thing you want to do is prevent a potential client who's looking to contact you from being able to access your contact page.

3. Optimize with Voice Search

Just as the percentage of people using mobile devices to access the Internet has increased, so too has the percentage of people using voice search to find what they're looking for online. This of course means that optimizing your legal website for voice search is an important part of optimizing your website for mobile.

Voice search can be a tricky thing, and as technology evolves, voice search as taken on some very interesting properties such as context sensitive search results, and intelligent systems that can learn the way a person speaks, and react accordingly. What this means is that understanding your target demographic is more important than ever before. One example of this would the keywords and phrases you use for SEO. If you're targeting people in their 30s or 40s, they obviously won't talk exactly the same as someone in their teens or 20s. As any legal marketing team will tell you, being able to present your marketing materials in the "language" of your target audience is critical if you want to connect with them. This goes double since you're not only having to take into account your target audience, but also how the voice recognition technology of mobile devices interpret how they talk. The good news is that this isn't as difficult as it may sound. In fact, digital marketing services know all about this quirk of mobile marketing, and have developed strategies that take advantage of it, such as targeting general pain points among your demographic, rather than keyword stuffing like they used to. Little changes such as these can drastically alter the user experience, and determine how many potential clients find your site through voice search or not.

4. Local Search Optimization

Google Maps made a huge impact when it was introduced years ago, and now that mobile marketing is king, it's more important than ever before. For example, let's say that someone using voice search tells their device that they are looking for a "Austin Texas divorce lawyer." In this case divorce lawyers in Austin, Texas who are listed with Google Maps will have a clear advantage in the search results. What many people tend to forget is that geo targeting goes way beyond just Google Maps. It also involves targeting keywords and phrases that people performing a local search would use. For example, terms like "best Atlanta dentist," or "emergency Detroit plumber" have become incredibly valuable for both SEO efforts, and Adwords advertising.

5. Easy Contact Options

One of the best things about mobile marketing is the fact that it is easier than ever before for potential clients to contact you. Yet despite this, many law offices neglect to take advantage of this fact, and fail to differentiate their desktop oriented contact methods from their mobile contact methods. A great way to illustrate this is the way phone numbers are displayed and are used on mobile devices, as opposed to desktop. A person viewing a site on desktop will have to take out their phone, and call the number manually. On mobile however, a person can just tap the number to initiate a call if you set it up correctly. This is a huge advantage you shouldn't overlook as it has been proven to increase conversions. This strategy applies to texting and chat programs as well. Allowing visitors who have questions, or who need to speak with someone immediately, to activate a chat program with the click of a button will definitely get more people interested in your services, and turn more visitors into paying clients. Just remember that while you can use bots to handle your chat box and answer generic questions, having a real live person on the other end is best.

Understanding the Mobile Advantage

The big takeaway here is not that mobile is making desktop obsolete, but rather that mobile carries several very powerful advantages that you should be aware of, and taking advantage of. If you can find out how to work these advantages into your online legal marketing strategy you will definitely find yourself landing more clients, and growing your business more rapidly. If your law firm could use a boost, make sure you look into how you can use mobile marketing to get more traffic, and increase your revenue. You won't regret it.