A good website can help you capture leads and grow your law firm. But to smaller firms who are just starting out and have to watch their expenses, building a new website may seem like an overwhelming project.

In this article, we will give you some pointers on how to approach website development if you want to keep the undertaking budget-friendly.

But first, let’s answer the big question…

Why should you get a new website?

As mentioned, a fast, up-to-date, and well-optimized website can help your firm succeed. It might be high time to update your existing website or build a new one if you’re looking to:

  • build better visibility in organic search results
  • improve your website traffic and retention metrics, that is make sure that more visitors come to your site — and stay to learn more about your services
  • generate more inbound leads: calls, email inquiries, or consultation requests from potential clients who find your website in search results
  • update your firm’s image and branding

If your law firm is accepting new clients, the above goals should be a key element of your digital strategy. With so much potential gain, even small firms should strive to have modern, well-optimized websites. Especially because website development doesn’t have to be as costly as many believe it to be.

How to save on website development

When planning your new site, follow these tips to keep the process cost-effective.

Focus on structure

The first thing you should plan when working on a new website is the site structure. Start with defining the main sections or categories you will use to organize information, then think about the specific services you perform that should get their own pages.

Getting this out of the way in the very beginning will define the rest of the website development process – and keeping things simple will positively affect both your project budget and the usability of the final product. Win-win!

Don’t overspend on design frills

We all love visually outstanding, memorable websites – but if you’re just starting out, simple is best.

Expensive designs and intricate customizations are a ‘nice-to-have’, but they can significantly increase the costs of website development – and affect your deadlines. Complicated, custom solutions can also make it difficult to tweak certain elements of your website later on, as your firm grows. Finally, expensive customizations are simply not necessary – a clear layout and intuitive navigation are much more important for lead generation than design frills.

Opt for simple and cost-effective solutions. Using a popular and easy to navigate content management system (CMS) like WordPress will help you keep the development and maintenance of your website hassle-free. With WordPress, you will also be able to optimize your website for search engine visibility and easily grow your site (i.e. add extra sections or pages) when needed.

Hire an experienced agency

Hiring the right web development agency can help you significantly cut costs. Agencies with a portfolio of successfully completed projects usually have a number of fully developed themes that can be customized to perfectly fit your needs.

Using a pre-made and thoroughly tested website structure keeps the costs and time of development low. You don’t have to worry about your website lacking character – customizing the theme with your logo, brand colours, and other design elements will make the end product feel like a tailored design.

At Soulpepper, we specialize in legal marketing. We have developed several proprietary WordPress themes that help our clients – lawyers from across North America – reach their online marketing goals and grow their firms. We would love to put our expertise to work and help your firm reach new heights with a brand new functional website.

Need help building a winning website?

If you are interested in building a new website but don’t know where to start, we’re here for you! Our team of leading web designers can help you plan and implement cost-effective solutions that will boost your online presence and help you attract new clients to your firm.

Soulpepper Legal Marketing has helped numerous law firms of different sizes and budgets succeed, and we look forward to helping you grow your firm! Give us a call or get in touch via our contact form to see what we can do for you.