As smartphones become more affordable, the number of people using mobile phones to access the internet is growing rapidly. According to Statista, mobile accounts for approximately half of the web traffic worldwide. In the third quarter of 2020, mobile devices (excluding tablets) accounted for 50.81% of global website traffic. It has been consistently hovering around the 50% mark since the beginning of 2017.
In other words, almost half of your potential leads are most likely to come from mobile web traffic. If your law firm website isn’t responsive, you are already losing these potential leads. Whether you are creating a new website or redesigning your existing one, you need to consider a responsive law firm web design approach today.
Here are four tips that will help you in creating a responsive website.
1. Consider Mobile-First Design Approach
One of the best ways to design a responsive website is to consider the mobile-first design approach. As the name suggests, this approach includes designing for the smallest screen first and then working your way up. The progressive enhancement process makes it far easier to create a responsive website.
This law firm web design approach is based on the premise that if your website works seamlessly on mobile, it can function better on other devices too. The biggest benefit of this approach is that the design is more content-focused.
As content is the bedrock of your law firm website, the mobile-first design translates into better UX. This, in turn, proves helpful in strengthening your overall law firm marketing strategy as user-experience is a key factor in generating higher sales conversions. That’s why when building a responsive website, think of the mobile-first design approach if possible.
2. Optimize Images and Media
Most law firm websites have videos and images. Both these media play a critical role in converting your incoming web traffic into your customers. Media helps you connect emotionally with your target audience, which aids in initiating the desired response or action.
Unfortunately, there are no ‘set-in-stone’ rules for image or media optimization. Depending on the original size and quality of the images and other lawyer web design factors, you have to strike the perfect balance between visibility, user experience, and functionality.
However, choosing the right file format can help maintain the image quality when scaling them up or down. According to HTTP Archive, JPG (46%) is the most popular image format on mobile-friendly sites, followed by PNG (30%). You can consider using these image formats in your law firm’s web design to make it more responsive.
3. Design the Navigation Carefully
Another important factor you will need to consider is website navigation. Mobile users should be able to browse your website as seamlessly as desktop users. Unlike the desktop version, however, the navigation on your mobile lawyer web design will need to be short and crisp.
You will need to prioritize by keeping the most important pages or links and cutting down the clutter. You will also need to prioritize the Calls-to-Action (CTAs) on each page to ensure a stellar user experience. But most importantly, you will need a robust search function as mobile users will often use it to access content from your website.
The hamburger menu is the most popular choice for mobile website navigation. However, you can check out other responsive navigation menus if it isn’t the right fit for your website. You can use menus that have different styling, content, links, and appearance, depending on the screen size.
4. Design Text and Typography for Mobile Screen
The fourth, and the last in this series of tips, is the optimization of text and typography for smaller screens. Whether it is a landing page for a particular law firm marketing campaign or an informative blog post, lawyers usually rely on text-based content to connect with their audience. That’s why the text and typography need to be optimized for different screen sizes.
You will need to consider a variety of factors, including the size of your body text, the length of the line, line height and spacing, and the type of fonts. At the same time, you need to consider other digital typography elements like the screen size, resolution (pixels), and brightness, as they will also affect the visibility and legibility of your text content.
You will also need to think about how the user will interact with your content when designing the layout and size of the fonts. For example, the anchor text on your content will need to be extra-visible and easily clickable.
While you can rely on your intuition when choosing the typography, there are a variety of web typography tools available online to help you make an informed decision. You can use these tools to identify, choose, and also test different fonts for your law firm’s web design.
Conclusion
We are living in a world where mobile web traffic is rapidly taking over the traditional desktop web traffic. If you want your law firm to continue generating a higher number of leads, you will need to invest in a responsive website as soon as possible. These four tips can help you kickstart the process. Given the complex nature of responsive web design, however, it is always better to hire a professional firm like Gorilla Webtactics to build your websites. Call us today at (612) 470-9877 or contact us online to know how we can help.
