“Amazing that the lawyers who do have websites leave some amount of money on the table. I have an old client who handles lead generation for law firms and the number of their clients who wouldn’t return inquiries was nuts.”

“Any law firm in any practice area needs a web presence. At the very minimum, to establish a level of credibility that you aren’t just some fly by night under the table shady operation.”

“Because people google everything including where to find a lawyer when they need a lawyer.”

“First people can search you up, but also if you (assuming you’re the lawyer) hand prospective clients a business card or something and they want to learn more about you you need a website.”

“Honestly, I do get annoyed when I see a poor website, especially if there are cookie cutter squares pace websites available. Even a simple brochure page would work.”

“How else would you find a lawyer unless you live in a small town and everyone knows everyone?!!”

“I agree that this is a baseline criteria. Beyond simply having a site to establish credibility. Many service organizations also use it as a lead generation tool-especially if they specialize in a particular type of law (Senior Law, Trusts, Vehicle Injury, Class Action etc.). It also serves to put faces to the practice–people hire lawyers not firms–and a professional site conveys credibility. Finally, a well structured site that makes use of proven organic SEO practices will float to the top in searches. A firm I consulted for some years ago built out landing pages on about 2 dozen specific issues. They specialized in senior law and the landing pages –which were fairly detailed–covered everything from medicaid to nursing homes, to guardianship and so on. They were content rich and key word abundant among other things and consistently appeared in related searches in our region. It was a heck of a lot less costly to build out all those landing sites than to pay out monthly for SEM. Yes, they did do some paid search but a fraction of what they would have otherwise. It proved the point that the investment in well designed sites paid for itself.”

“I don’t know how it works in other states, but here in Florida if you need a lawyer you start by searching it on Google. How can I trust something like a divorce to someone who only has an office and might be in New York on the trial day.”

“I work with law firms. A lot of them are using a web form to farm leads/potential cases. They gather basic info from a form on the site and then follow up with calls to qualify the case. Especially with Personal Injury firms.”

“If you search “divorce lawyer in my area”, obviously Google will show you websites of lawyers it thinks are relevant to what you are looking for so if you don’t have a website, what would Google show to the user?!!”

“It can also save plenty of human hours answering a bunch of questions just once. And it could be used to showcase things and people.”

“Lawyers are one of the biggest consumers of search engine marketing through their websites. Basically the way it works is that people google obscure legal issues like “do drunk driving laws apply to bikes in Louisiana” and then they write a blog post explaining it, and showcasing their expertise handling such cases. Obviously, you need a website first in order to publish such material.”

“Most lawyers get clients  from referrals from other lawyer, former clients, fiends, or relatives. But they still need a website to build a brand, company name, increase visibility, be better than competitors, provide information and also share documents and legal information.”

“One of the biggest law firms in my country offer an online evaluator whether they consider your class action or group case to be likely successful… this way if they already pursue a case they got a whole bunch of customers already in line when the tryout of their argumentative chain shows success”

“So now the real question is whether a poor website might dissuade you from taking them up on their services. Or in other words, is a bad website worse than no website at all?”

“There are various types of lawyers … having a website would allow them to describe specific areas they specialize in and any relevant certifications/qualifications. It would also provide a way to contact the lawyer to hire them via phone or contact form.”

“We live in an age where every respectable business should have an online presence, even if it is just a landing page with contact info. Most people under 40 begin by searching online.”

“Yep, expensive well made website tells me that this group knows how to go to experts in their fields to get this done right. Medium quality website tells me they understand how to balance cost of things so might understand that hiring an attorney is a big deal and might try to help me save some money along the way. Cheap, bad, or 90’s style website tells me they don’t need to advertise or have no clue what they are doing. No website, who are they again and why should I call.”

“If you’re not online, you don’t exist. Period.”

“The main reason is simply that most people use any business’s website as a method to gauge how trustworthy they are. If one lawyer has a full, custom, responsive, fast website, and another does not, the one with the website has an automatic leg up over the one without.”