Years ago, a law firm’s website could function as little more than a digital brochure and show up in search results. For better or worse, those days are gone. Now, people expect more—a multimedia experience that is faster, more targeted, more helpful, more connected, and more interactive than ever.
And to ensure websites respond to these expectations, Google has recently rolled out algorithm changes that directly impact search engine rankings.
The “Core Web Vitals” are the three metrics that matter most when it comes to page speed, and Google is now using these metrics as a ranking factor. They are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The time it takes for a page’s main content to load. An ideal LCP measurement is 2.5 seconds or faster.
- First Input Delay: The time it takes for a page to become interactive. An ideal speed is less than 100 milliseconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift: The amount of unexpected layout shift of visual page content. An ideal number is less than 0.1.
Google also doesn’t mess around with poor content, unoptimized media, and other things that get in the way of people using your website as intended. Moreover, legal websites—just like medical and financial websites—are held to much higher standards because they potentially impact the lives and wellbeing of the people who use them.
That means if you want to be seen online and do well in search rankings, you need to meet or exceed the most modern expectations for:
- Security
- Privacy
- Page speed
- Mobile functionality
- Overall technical health
But all the above are just the bare basics.
To truly gain an edge, you also need to think about branding, user experience, social connections, photos, videos, and more.
It’s a lot. And it’s why so many lawyers put off making the improvements to their websites that they know they need.
The right web marketing provider can make it much easier for you by diagnosing the specific issues with your website presence and breaking recommendations down into manageable steps. Imagine knowing what specifically is slowing down your page speed—mobile functionality, and technical health? It could be a number of things. Third party scripts, oversized images, bloated and/or dated code… the list goes on. The only way to really know is to look under the hood.
That’s precisely what we do. The team at Foster Web Marketing believes that knowledge is power—and we’re ready to show you exactly how you can get bigger results from your website. We’re offering a no-strings-attached design consultation to Ruby customers. This consultation will help you better understand your Core Web Vital scores, what’s working for your website, what’s not, and what you can do to improve it.
Ready to maximize your website results? Get your one-on-one website design analysis with Foster Web Marketing today!
