Law office website: what clients check before they call

Someone looking for a lawyer wants three things quickly: a phone that gets answered, what the first meeting costs, and a sense of who you are. And a law firm's site has two jobs other businesses don't: it must not become a place where strangers pour out their cases, and everything on it counts as lawyer advertising.

In October 2026 we opened 38 independent law office websites in 19 towns across 9 states. Twenty-one showed a tappable phone number on the first phone screen. Thirteen mentioned a free consultation. Only two showed a dollar amount for any fee. Of 25 with a contact form, just 10 told visitors, beside the form, that writing in doesn't make you their lawyer.

This isn't legal advice. Lawyer advertising rules are written by each state's highest court and change: New York dropped its "Attorney Advertising" label and its "prior results" line on June 1, 2026. We read the rules of Colorado, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Texas, and New York through a bar association article. We did not read the others. You know your state's rules better than we do; check them.

Put your phone number and a consultation button at the top

Twelve of the 38 sites showed no phone number on the first phone screen.

Click Business info in the left menu and fill in Phone. Visitors can tap it, and it shows in your header and footer. See Business info and hours.
Click Menu. Under Header button, turn on Call bar on phones, type Button text like "Schedule a consultation", and under Goes to choose Another website… and paste your scheduling link, or point it at your contact page.

Say what the first consultation is

"Free consultation" is in nearly every lawyer search, and 13 of the 38 sites said it, some for only certain cases, one only for 20 minutes. One charged $250. In your home page's opening words, or a Highlights section, say whether it's free, how long it is, whether it's by phone, video or in person, and what it covers. If it isn't free, say the price. A surprise bill is a bad first impression and a fee question for your bar.

Say how you charge

Only 2 of 38 sites showed a dollar figure. People search "cost", "flat fee" and "payment plan" for every kind of law.

Click Pages, then New page, and make a page called "Fees" from the Pricing or menu template.
Add a Packages or Price list section. For each service you do for a flat fee (a simple will, a closing, an uncontested divorce), fill in the name, Price and what's included. For hourly work, give your rate or a usual range.
Say what's extra, like court filing fees, and what a payment plan needs up front.
Link the page from your footer (Menu, then Footer links).

If you work on contingency, say so, and say that the client may still owe costs and expenses. Colorado, Pennsylvania and Texas require that line in a "no fee unless we win" ad, and none of the four sites that used the idea showed it on the pages we read. Some states also hold you to an advertised fee for a set time.

Keep the story of a case off your forms

A person who writes to a lawyer about hiring them can become a prospective client, owed confidentiality, even if you never answer. Your site's form sends every message to your email inbox and keeps it in your Inbox, in ordinary email. Keep the form to what you need to call back.

On your contact page, find the Form section. Under Start from, open Choose a ready-made form… and pick Contact.
Turn on Ask for phone number, and Ask what they need help with. Under Topic choices, add your practice areas.
Change Label for the message box to something about timing, like "What day and time is good for a call?" Don't leave a box that asks them to describe their case.
Turn off Let people attach photos.
Use Thank-you message to say when you'll call.
If you'll text people, turn on Consent checkbox and choose Text messages (Add a consent checkbox).

Don't ask for Social Security numbers, birth dates, the other side's name or a case number. Ask for those on the phone, after your conflict check. Send documents through your own client portal, not this form. For secure client sharing, link your practice software's portal from the header.

Put a note beside every form

Under Intro, add something like: "Contacting us doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Please don't send confidential information until we've agreed to work together." Ten of the 25 forms we saw had a note like that. A disclaimer helps but can't undo what a visitor sends, so collect less. See Forms and your inbox.

Name the lawyer in charge, your office and where you're licensed

The rules we read want a communication to name a responsible lawyer or firm with contact details, and Pennsylvania and Texas want the town where you practice. A visitor also needs to know you can help in their state.

In Business info, fill in Phone and Street address, City, State and ZIP code.
In License number, write where you're admitted, like "Admitted: New York and New Jersey". It shows in your footer.
Put the responsible lawyer's name in your footer text or your About page. If the firm has offices in several states, show which lawyers are licensed where.

Zero of the 38 sites showed a bar number, and we found no rule asking for one in the states we read.

Introduce your lawyers

Twenty-one of the 38 sites named a law school or degree. Click Lists, then Edit team, then Add person. Fill in Name, Role, Photo, Short bio and Credentials (law school, year admitted, states). Add a Team section to your About page. See Your team.

Be careful what you claim

Rules in the states we read bar statements that give "unjustified expectations," comparisons you can't prove, and "specialist" or "certified" claims that don't come from an approved certifier.

Instead of "best lawyer", say what's true: "Practicing family law in Lancaster since 1998."
Say "focuses on" or "practice limited to", not "specialist" or "board certified", unless you hold a certification, and then name who certified it.
Results: show a verdict or settlement only if it's true, current and yours, and add that every case is different and past results don't predict yours. Texas says a verdict later reduced must be shown at the amount actually received.
Awards: say who gives it, the year, and how it's chosen. Only one of the 9 sites citing a ranking explained its selection.

Add a legal notice and a privacy page

13 of 38 had a legal notice, and 20 had a privacy policy.

Click Pages, then New page, and make a page from the Privacy policy template. Say the site collects only the contact form and visit counts without cookies.
Make a second page called "Legal notice" from the Basic page template. Say: the site is general information and not legal advice, using it or writing in doesn't create a lawyer-client relationship, and the states you're licensed in. Have your own lawyer, or you, write the exact wording your state wants.
Link both from the footer.

Texas also asks lawyers to file a firm website's homepage with the State Bar's advertising committee. Check whether your state asks for something like that.

Show your reviews

Only 2 of 38 sites showed a rating on the first phone screen. Add your Google reviews to your Reviews list word for word (Reviews), a Reviews section on the home page, and your rating and count in Highlights.

Never trade a discount or favor for a good review. The FTC's rule on reviews bars paying for positive ones.
If you reply to a review, don't say the person was a client or mention their matter. The ABA's guidance says even confirming a client relationship can reveal confidential information. "Please call the office" is safe.

Let people book a consultation

If you use Calendly, Clio Grow, Lawmatics or another scheduling tool, link it or embed it (Connect a booking calendar, Add embed code). Or use the Bookings add-on (Take bookings on your site) and add an Appointment called "Consultation". Under Questions to ask, ask only for the kind of matter, never the details.

What we can't do for a law office

Hold a client's money. Payment requests, booking deposits, the store and gift cards pay into your own Stripe account, where Stripe's fees and disputes come out of the balance. A retainer or an advance for costs belongs in your trust account, and state bars have written about card payments and chargebacks. Link your legal payment processor's page, like LawPay, from the footer, and ask your bar about flat fees paid in advance.
Engagement letters, fee agreements or intake. Don't use Signed forms for them; keep them in your practice software.
Chat. Don't turn on the Ask us chat. Visitors would type their problem into it.
Review requests or newsletters to your client list. Who your clients are can be confidential. Use the Leave-a-review link at the front desk instead (Reviews).
A client portal. Link yours.

Before pasting in a marketing company's code, ask if it records visitors' screens or sends data to ad networks from your contact page. We add none, and our visitor stats count visits without cookies.

Spanish and other languages

Only one site offered "Se habla español" and none had Spanish pages, yet people search for it. You can turn on Spanish (Show your site in Spanish). It's translated automatically, so have a fluent reader check your legal notice and fee terms. Texas requires required statements to appear in each language you use.

Keep your domain renewed: three law offices' addresses we found were for sale or had turned into casino pages. See Connect your domain.
Check your footer's year and your hours; five footers were from before 2025.