Websites
Law firm website design: what the site must show, and what it costs
Michele Caddeo ·
A law firm website tells clients, in their own words, which matters you handle, what they cost and how to book a first meeting. In England and Wales the SRA also asks for prices on seven types of work, the complaints procedure, your SRA number and its digital badge. In the SRA’s October 2023 review, only 38% of firms offering those services said they published all the price information online.
Someone given your name by a friend still looks you up before calling. They want to know whether you handle their kind of case, what it might cost and how the first meeting works. The site answers them, and the people who find you without knowing you.
Which pages does a law firm website need?
A few pages, each answering a question a client asks before calling you.
The pages
Each page answers one question a client has
One page per practice area
Do you handle this?Titled in the client’s words, often with the town: “divorce with children”, “contesting a will”.
Who handles the work
Who will I talk to?A real photo, qualifications and the matters each person handles.
Prices and the first meeting
What will it cost?Fixed fees where you have them, what they include, and how the first meeting works.
Contact
How do I start?Phone, email, hours and a short form that asks only what you need to call back.
Keep the form short. Someone writing about a divorce or a criminal charge is trusting you with sensitive details, and the full story can wait for the meeting.
What must a law firm website show in England and Wales?
The SRA Transparency Rules ask regulated firms for four things on the website (SRA Transparency Rules).
SRA Transparency Rules
Four things to check before the site goes live
Prices for seven areas
Residential conveyancing, uncontested probate, immigration (excluding asylum), summary motoring offences, employment tribunals for unfair or wrongful dismissal, debt recovery up to £100,000 and business premises licensing.
What the price includes
The services in the price, the key stages, typical timescales and the experience of the people doing the work.
The complaints procedure
How and when a client can complain, including to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA.
SRA number and digital badge
In a prominent place on the website. The badge is the clickable SRA logo.
The list of areas and the start date, December 2018, come from the SRA’s own year-three evaluation, October 2023. In the same review, only 38% of firms offering those services said they published all the required information online. A complete, clear prices page sets you apart from the firms that skip it.
What should a law firm website leave out?
Anything that isn’t accurate. The SRA Code asks you to make sure your publicity is accurate and not misleading, including about charges (SRA Code of Conduct, 8.8).
- No promises about outcomes. “98% of cases won” promises what a court still has to decide. Write the areas you handle and how you work.
- No “from £” price that nobody pays. If most matters cost more, the low figure misleads.
- No client names or details without written permission, and nothing that reveals a matter.
If you’re unsure about a page, ask the SRA’s ethics guidance before you publish.
How do clients find a solicitor in their town?
With your Google Business Profile and practice area pages that name the town. If several lawyers see clients at your office, each can have a profile of their own; Google’s guidelines cover individual practitioners such as doctors and lawyers (Google). The guide to Google Business Profile explains how to set it up.
How much does a law firm website cost?
I haven’t found price ranges for law firm sites from a neutral source, so I use the general UK ones. Startups.co.uk puts a web designer at £300 to £10,000 and more, and a typical small business site at about 12 weeks of agency work, £6,000 to £96,000.
Inside any range, the price moves with these lines.
- The practice areas, because each one is a page with its own copy.
- Who writes the copy. Even when someone else writes it, you read it: you answer for it.
- Photos, if portraits and the office still need shooting.
- Booking, if clients book the first meeting from a calendar.
Compare quotes on the three-year total, as the guide to website costs shows. And have it written that the domain is in your name and that you hold the logins.
Where do you start?
With two lists: the areas that bring you the most work, and the questions clients ask on the phone before booking. They become the page titles and their first lines.
Send them in the brief. After a free call I send a written quote, line by line, with the pages I’d put on your site. If you’d like to see a piece first, the fixed-price prototype costs €450, no VAT added, and comes off the quote in full if we go ahead within 60 days.
