Does Your Website Inspire Trust?

January 29, 2015
Daniel Decker

There’s a lot that your website can do to help you grow your practice.

But one of the most important functions of a good website is that it inspires trust.

As I’ve written recently, most of the time when someone is looking to hire a lawyer, they are dealing with a weighty issue in their life. Their business, their family, their money, their health… whatever the case may be, when someone is looking for a lawyer, they’ve got a lot on their mind. And before hiring a lawyer, they want to feel comfortable and secure that their important matter is going to be properly handled.

A face-to-face conversation is obviously a great way to inspire this trust. Talking for a few moments gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your expertise and it gives you the opportunity to show that you care and that you want to help.

But you can’t have a conversation with the business owner who is trying to make sense of a lawsuit at 2 AM or the wife who is desperately searching for a divorce attorney on her iPhone while she picks her daughter up from school.

The next best thing is that your website serves as a tool to inspire the trust needed so the individual will feel comfortable hiring you to solve their problem. Here are a few ways to do that:

Use video. Short of a face-to-face conversation, video is the most powerful tool for establishing rapport and developing a personal connection.

Feature success stories. Testimonials are one of the best ways to demonstrate how you can help. However, be sure that any testimonials or success stories you use are compliant with all relevant bar associations!

Write content that shows you care. The emphasis of your website content shouldn’t be your memberships or your accolades from law school. Your content should focus on showing prospects that you understand their challenges, that you care, and that you are the right person to provide a solution for whatever it is that they’re facing.

Give away information. Answer questions and provide information. Become a trusted resource. There are many ways to do this… your blog, your videos, a free report or white paper, a page on your site full of helpful links.

On the other hand, here are a few common website issues that do NOT inspire confidence:

Outdated design. If your website looks like it’s ten years out of date, your visitors may wonder about your commitment to your practice.

Broken links and functionality. Same issue. If things don’t work the way they are supposed to on your website… what else might not work the way it should?

Generic stock photos: Avoid stock photos when you can – especially generic stock photos that feel impersonal. Pictures of you and your team will help your visitors feel comfortable, whereas bad stock photos may push them away.

Inaccurate information. Whether it’s in your contact information, a blog entry, or anywhere else on your site… inaccuracies raise a major red flag.

The list goes on, but you get the point: your website should be professionally designed and should function well. It should give your visitors plenty of ways to get to know you. It should show them that you know what you’re talking about. It should inspire trust, and it should make it easy for them to get in touch with you.

If you’d like to learn more (or if you’d like help creating a website that accomplishes all of this and more), get in touch with us today!

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Daniel Decker

Daniel Decker is a co-founder and Partner at Spotlight Branding. In addition to helping lawyers stand out from the crowd, he spends his time writing, dreaming up new marketing strategies, and coming up with catchy subject lines. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys playing sports, guitar, politics, and Minnesota sports.