A good law firm website answers, within seconds, the three things a person with a problem needs to know: do you handle this kind of case, who will run it, and how to get in touch. Four elements do that work — practice areas in the client's language, lawyer profiles, a clear contact section and verifiable company data; everything else is an extra.
A small firm's website usually gets built once and then grows by accident: a divorce page, a team photo, contact pushed into the footer. A client with a problem does not judge the design — they look for an answer: is this the right place for my case. Below is a list of what belongs on the website, why it works and how to check it.
What the client brings: the language of problems, not the language of law
Nobody searches for "civil law". People type "divorce splitting an apartment", "dismissed while pregnant", "inheritance from abroad" — and read headlines the same way. "Family law" is correct and useless: it does not say whether the firm handles their matter. "Divorce, alimony, division of property" answers from the first second.
A visitor scans the page, matching their sentence against the sentences on screen — the closer your wording to what the client would say on the phone, the faster the answer. You already have that wording: write down first sentences from first contacts ("I got a termination notice", "my father left a plot of land") — ready-made headlines for practice pages.
What to avoid: "comprehensive legal services", "a wide range of services", "many years of experience" where the client looks for specifics. Those sentences are about the firm; the client wants sentences about themselves.
Practice area pages: one matter, one page
One rule: a separate page for every type of matter that meets three conditions — the firm actually handles it, clients name it as a separate problem, and its typical course can be described.
An example on conventional numbers, substitute your own: divorces, inheritances, employment cases, debt collection → four types of matters → four practice pages.
Matters you refuse add no page; state them openly as areas where you do not help.
What a practice area page must contain
| Page block | Example in the client's language |
|---|---|
| Headline | "Divorce — where to start and what happens to the apartment" |
| Typical situation | "I received a notice of termination" |
| How the work runs | what happens from the consultation to closing the case |
| Documents for the first visit | a list: contract, correspondence, decision, ruling |
| What we do not handle | stated openly, with a sentence of explanation |
This layout works both ways: the client recognises their case, and you filter out matters you do not want.
Separate page or a paragraph
If two types of matters run differently and clients name them differently — divorce and inheritance — they get separate pages. If one is a variant of the other, like alimony within a divorce, a paragraph is enough. The criterion: would the client call it something else, or is it one case.
Lawyer profiles: who will actually run the case
In a small firm the client chooses a person, not a company. Every lawyer's profile needs four things: name, exact professional title (advocate — adwokat, legal advisor — radca prawny, trainee — aplikant), practice areas named as on the practice pages, and the lawyer's working languages. Add two or three sentences about the matters they handle most often — plain language, not CV fragments.
Google's documentation for content creators suggests evaluating material with the questions "Who, How and Why" — who created it, how it was made, for what purpose — and writing "people-first" content, for people before search rankings (Google's guide to creating helpful content). A lawyer's profile with a name and title is the simplest application of "Who": responsibility has a face.
Photo and professional title
The photo should show the person the client will meet in the office: no retouching, no props. Write the title exactly — aplikant radcowski and radca prawny are different credentials. No photo is better than a stock photo; the mismatch gives itself away.
Advertising vs information: the rules of the profession
Advertising and informing about the activity of advocates and legal advisors in Poland are governed by the codes of ethics of their professional bodies — the National Bar of Attorneys (Naczelna Rada Adwokacka) and the National Council of Legal Advisors (Krajowa Izba Radców Prawnych). These rules can be stricter than general marketing: what is fine for a design studio may be inadmissible for a law firm. I do not summarise them — they differ between the two bodies and get amended. Before publishing anything beyond a dry description of services, read your chamber's current rules.
Instead of guessing what is allowed, take the safer rule: the website informs, it does not promise. No promises of outcomes, no superlatives. What actually builds trust is described below.
Contact and the first consultation
The contact section answers three things at once: how to book (phone, e-mail, a form), what to prepare for the first conversation, and how it runs — office or online, how long, whether paid. State the first consultation's fee plainly: a client who learns about it mid-conversation feels misled. Add the hours you answer the phone and your response time.
Why people abandon forms instead of leaving a message is shown in our analysis of why customers don't leave inquiries; how inquiries from phone, form and messengers land in one queue — in query handling automation.
Trust without promises: what confirms it, what breaks it
In professional services, trust is built by verifiability: what the client can check works for the firm, what cannot — against it.
| Trust signal | How to confirm it | What not to write |
|---|---|---|
| Company identity | address, NIP (tax ID), optionally the register number in the footer | "the leading firm in the region" |
| Experience | descriptions of typical matters and their course | "we win nearly all our cases" |
| People | photos and profiles with professional titles | stock photos, an unnamed "team" |
| Expertise | publications with a date and the author's name | "our lawyers publish" with no links |
| Contact | phone, address, hours in one place | a bare form with no company data |
A number of won cases means nothing without context — which cases, who counted — and the client knows that. A described typical situation shows the firm knows the problem from the inside, with details that cannot be written without practice.
Confidentiality from the first message
The form and the first e-mail are not the place for case files. Ask for the minimum: a name, a phone or e-mail, and one sentence about the topic — "employment matter", "inheritance". Explain on the site that before the consultation the client should send no documents: contracts, correspondence, ID scans, anything with personal data. A client under stress wants to hand over everything at once — the page holds them back: details belong to the consultation.
I am not advising on GDPR — a specific case is for a lawyer or a data protection officer. Where clients' data physically lands when systems handle it is described in automation and GDPR: where customer data ends up.
Technical layer: structured data, Google profile, mobile version
Three technical things help the search engine and maps understand what the firm is — without a single sentence of content.
First, structured data. Schema.org has the LegalService type for legal services, with more specific types Attorney and Notary — the LegalService definition on schema.org. The page then tells machines plainly what business it runs.
Second, complete local data. The LocalBusiness description covers the name, address, phone and opening hours in the openingHoursSpecification field — machine-readable data (Google's documentation on local business structured data).
Third, consistency with the firm's Google profile: the name should match the real business name, the description cannot contain links, and the address, hours and category should be complete (Google's guidelines on representing your business). Hours on the website and in the profile must say the same; clients notice a mismatch.
Finally, the mobile version: a client with a problem reads the page on a phone. Check whether the phone, address and practice headlines are tappable and readable without zooming. To hand this over with the Google listing, see SEO and maps.
A blog that helps instead of advising
Articles about typical situations — "what to do after a termination notice" — show how the firm thinks and cover topics a client is embarrassed to raise on the phone. Two safety conditions: every text carries a date and an author linked to their profile, and ends with a note that it discusses the law in general, not advice for an individual case. Without that boundary, a blog turns into advising, with the firm on the hook for it.
Write about situations, not clients: no case descriptions where parties could be recognised. If writing is not your thing, the content can be commissioned as a whole — see Copywriting.
Do it yourself: a twelve-point checklist
Go down the list and tick — this is the entire audit part of the work:
- Practice areas named in the client's language ("divorce", "inheritance"), not as branches of law.
- Practice page headlines taken from real client conversations.
- Every practice page has a typical situation, the course of work and a documents list.
- Written plainly which matters the firm does not handle.
- Every lawyer has a profile: title, practice areas, languages, a photo.
- Complete contact: phone, e-mail, address, hours — in one place and in the footer.
- The first consultation described: format, length, fee, what to prepare.
- Footer with company data: address and NIP, optionally the register number.
- Zero promises of outcomes, zero superlatives about the firm.
- Name, address and hours consistent with the Google profile.
- LocalBusiness or Attorney structured data on the site.
- The site checked on a phone: contact and practice areas readable without zooming.
The twenty-second test
Ask two people who do not know your firm to answer on a phone, counting to twenty: do you handle an inheritance from abroad, and how to book. If either hesitates or cannot find the contact, the practice page or navigation needs fixing. The test costs two messages.
What the first contact looks like when a system runs it
Once the content works, the next threshold is how fast you react.
First contact scenario:
- 01inquiry from the website
- →02qualification of topic and urgency
- →03appointment with the right lawyer
- →04confirmation to the client
- →05case card in CRM
The human keeps judging whether the firm will take the case, and the substantive conversation. The rest — receiving, the appointment, the confirmation, opening the case — is performed by the system according to a scenario agreed with the firm. In Aura, inquiries from phone, form and messengers are recorded in one place — CRM and automations. Qualifying inquiries by content rather than arrival order is what AI lead qualification does; consultation slots are watched by Booking Systems. If the website needs rebuilding around the client's decision, see Websites and stores.
Worth reading next: what happens to an inquiry after the first conversation — follow-up automation — and how an AI agent differs from a chatbot — AI agent vs chatbot.
Frequently asked questions
Can a law firm website promise the outcome of a case?
No. Which advertising the advocates' or legal advisors' bodies allow is decided by their codes of ethics — check your chamber's rules. Instead of promises, write which matters you handle and how the work runs; that is enough for a client seeking help, not guarantees.
How many practice areas should a small firm's website list?
As many as you really handle and can describe. Three complete pages are better than ten empty sections: empty ones look like a broad offer and attract matters you do not want.
Should a law firm website be multilingual?
The Polish version comes first. Add English, Russian or Ukrainian when you actually handle matters in that language and a lawyer can serve the client without an interpreter. It does not have to be a full copy — start with practice areas, profiles and contact.
Can client reviews be published on the website?
That depends on your professional body's rules and on confidentiality. Before publishing a review or case description, check the chamber's rules; remember that clients' matters are covered by professional secrecy, even when the client writes something themselves. Publications with a date and an author are the safer source.
Does a small law firm need a blog?
A blog is not a duty, but the cheapest way to show how the firm thinks before the client calls. Three conditions: topics from real client questions, a date and an author on every text, and a note that the article does not replace advice in an individual case. Without them, a blog turns into professional risk.
Which matters more: the site's look or its content?
The content — the look exists to serve it. A client with a problem looks for answers to three things: do you handle such a case, who will run it, how to get in touch; a pretty design without those answers will not keep them on the page. Good design is one where practice areas and contact are found instantly.