A law firm's site has two things most sites do not: pages that rank for the firm's practice areas and have done for years, and copy that is regulated as attorney advertising. A lawyer website redesign puts both at risk. A new structure that changes the addresses of the practice pages without redirects loses the rankings, and a rewrite done by a designer rather than a lawyer can introduce claims the state bar does not allow. This page sets out how to run the redesign so the practice pages keep what they earned, how to use the rewrite to fix the copy, and how to cost it against a legal marketing agency's proposal.
Map the practice pages before anything is designed
List every page on the current site with its address and, if you have the data, how many visits and enquiries it brings. The practice-area pages that bring enquiries are the asset the redesign must protect: their subject, their headings and, ideally, their addresses should survive, and where an address changes it needs a redirect. Attorney profiles are the other pages people search for by name. Everything else can change freely. A designer who proposes a new structure without asking for this list is designing without knowing what the site is worth.
Use the rewrite to bring the copy inside the rules
A redesign is the moment the firm rereads every page, and that is the moment to check the copy against the state's rules on lawyer advertising: claims of specialisation or expertise where the state restricts them, testimonials and case results and the disclaimers they require, fee statements and whether they are complete, and the notice that contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship. Record who reviewed each page and when in the project file. A redesign that only changes the look leaves the risk where it was.
Costing the redesign against the agency proposal
A small firm's site is ten to twelve pages, and in a redesign most are restyled rather than rewritten, with the practice pages edited by the lawyers. On the website cost calculator that is a low hours-per-page for the restyled pages, a higher figure for the rewritten ones, and little content cost if the firm writes. Legal marketing agencies quote considerably more, and the difference is search advertising, directory listings and a monthly retainer. Cost the redesign alone first; then judge the retainer on the enquiries it promises and what each will cost.
Questions people ask about lawyer website redesign
Will a redesign hurt our search rankings?
Only if page addresses change without redirects or the practice pages lose their subject and headings. With a page map and redirects, rankings usually hold and sometimes improve because the site works better on phones.
Who should write the new practice pages?
The lawyers who handle the work, with an editor for readability. They know what a client asks and what the state's advertising rules allow; a copywriter knows neither.
Do we need a legal marketing agency for a redesign?
Not for the redesign. An agency earns its fee on advertising and lead generation, which is a separate decision from rebuilding twelve pages.