For most small law firms, a single website will satisfy your digital marketing needs. In some cases, however, it can be a strategic marketing decision to have multiple websites. Whether you’re looking to target specific clientele, gain traction for a particular legal service, or cater to multiple languages, a second (or third) website could help you reach your marketing goals.
If you’re considering launching an additional website for your law firm, or haven’t yet considered this marketing strategy, it’s helpful to know all the facts so you can best maximize your time and resources. In this blog, we cover the reasons why you should – or shouldn’t – have multiple law firm websites and discuss other considerations for managing multiple sites.
When you should have multiple law firm websites
In most cases, a single law firm website will adequately support your business needs and goals. However, there are some scenarios in which multiple websites will benefit your practice.
1. Geographic and jurisdiction differences
The first and most obvious reason for having more than one law firm website is if your firm has multiple office locations in differing jurisdictions. For example, say you practice personal injury law in both North Carolina and Virginia, but the statute of limitations, standards of proof, and the way evidence is handled may be different between the two states. That likely means that the practice area content and/or blog posts on your website might need to have two slightly different versions of each other to accurately reflect the laws of that jurisdiction. The easiest way to keep this content – and your respective audiences – separate is by having two different websites.
In addition, your web content strategy should focus on an audience relevant to a specific geographic area in order to be most effective. Meaning, your website content should use geographically-specific language, locally-relevant legal information, and other targeted language in order to reach potential clients in the area of each of your office locations. Without separate websites, you may struggle to differentiate between your audiences and effectively target them online.
With LawLytics, content writing is quick and intuitive with our built-in smart content creation tool. We offer a library of 320+ practice area topics (and growing!) that have been professionally written using proven formatting, localized language, and high-quality information. Plus, we provide in-depth content writing tips with our Content Assistant tool to help you take your content to the next level of search engine performance. In just minutes, you can create pages of new practice area content for your additional website.
2. Incompatible practice areas
You’re multi-faceted, and we love that. But, Google might not be so understanding when it’s trying to match its users to the most relevant, useful information on search. For example, if your website is fully optimized for a personal injury client, a potential client looking for information on family law representation may not be matched with your website on Google.
It is also recommended to have multiple websites in this case because the stark contrast of your services may act as a deterrent to potential clients. The last thing you want is for a potential client to find your website organically through search, get confused by the relevance of your website for their legal matter, and move on to another option.
3. You’re pursuing market dominance for a particular service or practice area
It can be an advantageous marketing strategy to have a law firm website that acts as a highly-targeted and focused driver of leads. This allows you to dedicate a separate website as a curated space for your ideal client type and help your visibility on search for that particular service.
For example, if you were a family law attorney who was looking to get more clients for your mediation services, you could benefit from a second website that helps you pursue a more targeted marketing strategy for that lead type. At the same time, your original website continues to attract leads for your general host of services without the two markets interfering.
4. You and your (new) partner have disparate branding
Partnering with a colleague is a common practice for solo attorneys and other small law firms to help boost their reach and grow their business. However, there tend to be instances where your new partner’s marketing and branding efforts don’t align with your current strategy. Or, they may focus on an area of practice that doesn’t align with your own. In either case, a separate website may be advantageous for both of your purposes so that you can each pursue your ideal client on search engines without interfering with one another’s efforts.
5. You serve a bilingual market
Serving a bilingual market can be a great way to expand your reach and increase your client base. However, it can be difficult to juggle both markets within the same law firm website. Having multiple websites can help you to deliver the best client experience possible with both content and design, where applicable, customized to each language.
6. You’re looking to target clients for a specific, time-sensitive case type
Some attorneys, such as mass tort attorneys, may need to be ready at a moment’s notice to target plaintiffs for the most recent product or drug recalls to beat out their local competitors. Having a dedicated website for this purpose can be very advantageous in these scenarios so that you’re able to pivot your marketing strategy and target these potential clients fast. For example, as the plaintiffs search Google for more information on their case, the highly-specific language on your website will help match your website with more of those local search queries.
When you shouldn’t have multiple law firm websites
As with any big marketing decision for your law firm, it’s important to fully consider your options before committing to a solution. When deciding whether to pursue multiple websites for your law firm, there are a handful of scenarios in which this marketing strategy will not benefit your practice.
1. You don’t have clear marketing goals for your website
The first step to any successful marketing strategy is to set clear objectives and goals. If you’re considering launching an additional website but you haven’t outlined your growth goals, pause and take a look at your current strategy. This way, once you’re ready to launch your new website, you will have a clear purpose and gameplan.
2. You want to abandon a site that’s “not working”
Sometimes starting fresh with a new website is the best plan of action for an effective digital marketing strategy. But, keeping the old website around can be interfering with your new efforts to grow your firm’s visibility on search. If you’re thinking of adding a new website to the mix while keeping the old one on the back-burner, create a plan for how you will either effectively utilize both sites or begin to phase out the old one.
3. You just want a new website design
If your website is totally functional, but just needs a facelift, there’s often no need to get rid of your existing site. Building an additional website to act as the “fresher” version of your existing website won’t be the best use of your time and resources. Instead, it’s often an easy fix to revamp the design of your current website. For LawLytics members, website design refreshes are available on demand, as often as you’d like. That way, your website is always modern, attractive, and fit to your branding.
4. You’re trying to keep up with the competition
Have you noticed your local competition has multiple websites, and you’re looking to get in on the action? Before you follow suit, take a moment to consider your firm’s objective for having multiple websites. Oftentimes, especially if you’re in a competitive area, dedicating all of your time and resources into a single website can be the best marketing strategy for your firm.
5. You don’t have a plan for marketing both websites for your practice
Depending on your practice area(s) and website host, double the websites could mean double the work. If you lack the bandwidth to properly manage multiple websites – or the budget to outsource quality help – then it may be best to stick with one website. For example, let’s say you built a secondary website to target clients in a different geographical location than your original website. Although a lot or most of the web content can be repurposed (if they’re for the same practice area, that is), you will still need a content plan to create content around that specific location. Without a plan to include geographically-specific language and locally relevant topic areas, your website might have trouble getting in front of the designated audience.
With LawLytics, you can manage all of your law firm websites in one place, making it a breeze to keep multiple sites updated with new content. Members can access their websites right from their LawLytics dashboard and can make changes that instantly reflect on all websites for quick and easy management. Plus, there’s no technical knowledge or experience needed with intuitive controls and tools.
6. You’re looking for control over your new website because you don’t have control over your current one
Sometimes, even our own websites can get out of our control. It’s not uncommon to find yourself with a marketing agency who has ownership over your domain, design, and content. If you’re considering a secondary website just to get back control of your digital marketing, this might be a sign that you need a new website – not just another one. LawLytics puts you in control of every aspect of your online presence: You own your domain, you own your website content, you choose your web design (and when to refresh it), you choose who has management controls, and you decide your member plan with no contracts.
LawLytics makes it easy to have multiple law firm websites
If you have common information that needs to be managed across multiple websites, LawLytics is the best solution for your firm. Whether you’re revamping your attorney bio, or making a change to your locations page, LawLytics makes it quick and simple to make updates across the range of your websites.
If you’re currently a LawLytics member and are curious to know if your firm would benefit from a second website, schedule a call with support to discuss your goals and options. If you’re not yet a LawLytics member and would like to see how LawLytics works for multiple sites, schedule a demo and we’ll give you a hands-on look at how easy it is.
