Not All Legal Website Traffic is Good Traffic

For law firms, website traffic can look like an obvious measure of marketing success. More visitors should mean more potential clients, more enquiries and, ultimately, more instructions. But that assumption can be misleading.

A law firm can attract thousands of visitors to its website every month and still generate very little business from its online presence. At the same time, a smaller website receiving a few hundred highly relevant visitors can produce significantly more enquiries and instructions.

For law firms investing in digital marketing, the focus should not simply be on increasing visitor numbers. The real objective should be attracting the right people: potential clients who have a genuine legal problem, are looking for professional advice and are potentially ready to instruct a solicitor or barrister.

Informational searches versus commercial intent

One of the biggest differences between website visitors is their search intent. Someone searching “what is a breach of contract?” may simply be researching a legal concept. They may have no intention of speaking to a solicitor.

By contrast, someone searching for “breach of contract solicitor for business” shows much stronger commercial intent. They are more likely to have a specific issue and to be considering professional advice.

Both searches may be valuable from an SEO perspective, but they have very different commercial implications. A strong legal marketing strategy should therefore distinguish between types of search intent and ensure that the firm’s website has appropriate content for each stage of the potential client’s decision-making process.

Avoid vanity metrics

Website traffic is one of the easiest digital marketing metrics to measure, which is why it can become a significant focus for law firms and increases in visitors and page views can appear to demonstrate that a marketing strategy is performing well. However, these figures do not necessarily indicate commercial success.

A significant increase in website traffic may have little impact on a firm’s business if the additional visitors are not relevant to its services or are unlikely to become clients. For law firms, these metrics should therefore be considered as indicators of visibility rather than definitive measures of marketing performance.

More meaningful measures include qualified enquiries, consultation bookings and revenue generated from marketing activity. The focus should be on understanding whether increased visibility is attracting potential clients who are relevant to the firm’s practice areas and target market.

Turning relevant traffic into enquiries

Generating the right traffic is only the first stage. Once a potential client reaches a law firm’s website, the site needs to make it straightforward for them to take the next step.

Clear service pages, strong calls to action, prominent contact details, solicitor profiles, testimonials, relevant case studies and useful information can all contribute to building confidence.

The website should also make it immediately clear that the understands the visitor’s problem and has the expertise to help. For someone dealing with a serious legal issue, unnecessary complexity can create friction. If contacting the firm is difficult or the relevant service is difficult to find, a potentially valuable visitor may leave the website without making an enquiry.

How BSD Legal can help

At BSD Legal, we understand that successful legal marketing is not simply about increasing the number of people visiting a law firm’s website. The focus should be on attracting relevant, commercially valuable traffic that has the potential to generate genuine enquiries and new instructions.

Our approach to legal marketing is designed around the specific objectives of each law firm. This can include identifying the services and types of work the firm wants to develop, understanding the search behaviour of its target clients and creating content that is aligned with genuine search intent.

From SEO and content marketing to local search visibility and website optimisation, BSD Legal can help law firms develop a digital presence that is focused on generating meaningful business opportunities rather than simply increasing visitor numbers.