A firm owner told me last month that his website gets plenty of visitors. His analytics agreed. His
phone did not. That gap is the most common problem I see on small law firm sites, and it almost never gets
solved by more traffic.
A visitor lands on your page with one question in their head: can this firm help me with my problem?
Everything on the page either answers that or gets in the way. Most sites get in the way.
Key Takeaways
- Visitors are answering one question, and a crowded page makes it harder to answer.
- Listing every practice area you have ever handled weakens the pages that matter.
- Walls of text get skipped. Short blocks with headings get read.
- Sliders, pop-ups, and stacked buttons pull attention away from the one action you want.
- Fixing the message and the order of the content beats a full rebuild in most cases.
The page is answering the wrong question
Most law firm homepages open by talking about the firm. Years in practice, awards, a mission statement.
That content has a place, but it is not what a worried person needs in the first five seconds. They need to
see their own situation reflected back at them.
Compare two headlines. “Committed to Justice for Over Thirty Years” tells a visitor nothing about whether
you handle their case. “Estate Planning and Probate for Nebraska Families” tells them in one line. The
second one feels less impressive to write and works much better.
Too many practice areas, not enough pages
Firms often list everything they can handle out of fear of turning work away. The effect is the opposite.
A visitor scanning ten practice areas cannot tell what you are known for, and Google cannot either.
Pick the work you want more of. Name it on the homepage, then give each area its own page with its own
headline, its own questions answered, and its own contact block. You can still take the other cases. They
just do not need to compete for space on your front door.
Try this
Pull up your homepage and count how many things on the screen
ask for a click. A slider, a chat bubble, a newsletter box, a menu with fifteen items, and three buttons all
count. Every one of them competes with the call you want.
Walls of text get skipped
Legal writing rewards precision and length. Web reading does not. People scan headings, read the first
line of a paragraph, and keep moving until something stops them.
Put the answer first and the background after. Keep paragraphs to three or four lines. Use headings that
say what the section covers instead of clever labels. If a sentence exists to sound careful rather than to
help the reader, cut it.
The distractions you paid for
Rotating sliders, autoplay video, chat widgets that open on their own, and pop-ups that appear before the
page finishes loading all came from somebody’s best intentions. They mostly cost you calls. A slider means
nobody sees your main message. A pop-up on arrival means the visitor’s first interaction with your firm is
closing something.
One clear action per screen is enough. If a person wants to call, do not make them hunt for the number.
Worth knowing
Clear service descriptions and an FAQ page help twice. Google
pulls from your site when it summarizes your firm in Maps and Search, so plain answers on your site shape
what people see before they ever click through.
Nobody knows what happens next
“Contact Us” does not tell a person what they are agreeing to. Say what the next step actually is. A free
fifteen minute call. A consultation. A message you answer the same day. Then say who they will talk to.
Anxiety about the unknown stops more calls than price does. Naming the next step removes that.
What to fix first
- Rewrite the homepage headline so it names your work and the people you serve.
- Cut the homepage down to the two or three practice areas you want more of.
- Turn off the slider and any pop-up that fires before someone has read anything.
- Move a tappable phone number and one button into the top of every page.
- Change the button text to describe the step, like “Schedule a Consultation.”
None of that requires a new site. It requires deciding what your site is for.
Kevin Brown Design
Find out why your site is not converting
We build and maintain websites for small law firms. Send us your
current site and we will point out what to fix first, whether or not you hire us.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do law firm websites get traffic but no calls?
Traffic tells you people found the page. Calls tell you they trusted it. Most firm sites lose people at the trust step, usually because the page asks the visitor to figure out what the firm does and who it helps. When a person with a legal problem has to work that out, they leave and open the next result. Fixing the message and the layout costs far less than buying more traffic.
How many practice areas should be on the homepage?
List the ones you actually want more of, and give each of them a real page. A homepage that names six areas gives Google nothing specific to rank and gives visitors nothing specific to hold onto. Two or three named clearly on the homepage, each linking to its own page, works better than a full menu of everything the firm has ever handled.
Is a contact form or a phone number better?
Offer both and make the phone number tappable on a phone. Some people want to talk right now, others are at work or in a situation where they cannot call. A short form with three or four fields will get filled out. A long intake questionnaire on the first visit will not.
How long should the text on a law firm website be?
Long enough to answer the question the visitor came with, short enough that they can scan it. Break it up with headings, keep paragraphs to a few lines, and put the answer before the background. Practice area pages can run longer since people reading those are further along and want detail.
Do I need a redesign to fix conversion problems?
Usually no. If the site loads fast, works on a phone, and someone at the firm can edit it, the problem is the message and the order of the content. Rewriting a headline, cutting distractions, and moving the contact block up can change results in a week. Rebuild when the platform itself is slow, fragile, or locked.
Last reviewed September 4, 2026 by Kevin Brown.