With new ways for businesses to be searched, found, and shared, law firms might feel like they’re struggling to keep up. Remember the days when you just needed a website with a few choice keywords and a nice picture? Today, however, users want a better experience from the websites they visit and that means your law firm might have to innovate how they deliver quality content to their visitors.

Making a mobile-friendly website could be the answer to your law firm’s Internet marketing woes. According to a study done by the Internet masters themselves, Google found that 81% of smartphone users access the Internet with their devices. This could mean a huge portion of your website’s traffic is coming from mobile phones. Therefore, a mobile-friendly website could be in the best interest of your law firm.

So, what does a mobile-friendly website actually mean? The good news is that there are several ways to go about turning your existing website into a mobile-friendly website. First, there’s a very simple approach to enhancing the navigation and design of your website and leaving it at that. Technically, this isn’t “mobile-friendly” in the marketing sense of the term, but it’s a website that looks decent from a mobile phone browser. Some elements you could implement are a simplified navigation menu that is also easy to find and use, a reduction of the content already on the website, and color schemes/design choices that are more aesthetically pleasing to the eye through a small screen. However, these types of enhancements might make the desktop user experience suffer since you would essentially be gearing your website to cater mostly to smartphone users. This is probably the easiest and most cost-effective way to make a “mobile” website, but it certainly isn’t the best way.

A more acceptable way to give your website a mobile-friendly makeover is to talk to your web developer about including a “splash page.” A splash page is the page users will first see when they visit your website and it should include all the basic information that would be most useful to a mobile user: contact information, a brief list of services, and location information. Since mobile users commonly use the web to find the exact information they’re looking for, as opposed to desktop users who enjoy browsing and surfing a little more, having the most important information appear first would be beneficial. After the splash page, you could include a link to take your visitor to the full website. A splash page is a much more mobile-friendly website, from a marketer’s perspective, but it still isn’t the most effective type of mobile-friendly website.

I’ll stop teasing you with mobile-friendly ideas now. Let’s talk about creating a honest-to-goodness mobile-friendly website that will make marketers, law firms, and website visitors all happy. In order to achieve a website like this, it will most likely require building a completely separate website that recognizes when visitors are coming from a smartphone or tablet and will automatically redirect them to a website made just for them. This is a trend that many businesses have adapted and enjoyed great success with because it creates a customized user experience that is fast, enjoyable, and as equally informative as it is for desktop users. Talk to your developer about what it would take to build your law firm a completely mobile-friendly website and weigh the benefits to make the right decision for your company. Usually, a fully enabled mobile site doesn’t require any content re-writes or new design elements, given that your original designer included image files in multiple resolutions. For the most part, a mobile-friendly website just requires a little bit of development. The result will be a website that looks great from any smartphone or tablet, offers easy navigation to the user, and loads at a lightning-fast speed.

Beyond a mobile website, if your law firm is considering creating an app to better appease mobile users, I’m going to stop you right there. Having an app doesn’t necessarily mean a better user experience and it will be a guaranteed money pit for your law firm. Mobile users are perfectly happy with surfing the web to the find your law firm, so long as the experience is enjoyable once they arrive.

Your law firm deserves to get noticed and to compete on the same playing field as many other law firms and businesses out there. The best way you can give your law firm an advantage online is to create a mobile-friendly website that ensures your visitors are pleased and informed whether they see your website from their smartphone or their personal computer. A mobile website done right can generate more traffic and more leads with minimal effort. Overall, there isn’t much downside for your law firm becoming mobile.

Pete Wise is a copywriter working with the Romano Law Group, whom have been serving Southern Florida for decades. Their approach to clients is the same as its always been: what is best for the client is the best for them. If you want the best palm beach personal injury lawyer, look no further and get your free case evaluation today.