Is Your Mobile Site Losing Clients Because It's Too Slow?
Clients are increasingly turning to the internet to find their attorneys. But lawyers don't just need a working website -- they need a website that's sensitive to the proclivities of the average online user. Think: impatience. Internet users are incredibly impatient.
The amount of time it takes for your site to load actually makes a huge difference, as explained by the latest white paper by FindLaw Lawyer Marketing: Seconds Matter: The Real-World Risks of a Slow Mobile Website. If your mobile site loads too slowly, you may be losing clients. What can you do to fix this?
Check Your Bounce Rate
You likely experience this yourself as a web user. If a page doesn't load within a few seconds, you're gone, right? This is likely true whether you're shopping for a new pair of shoes or searching for something important -- like a lawyer to help you with your divorce, for instance.
A "bounce" occurs when a viewer leaves your website after only visiting a single page. As Google notes, a high bounce rate isn't inherently a bad thing. For example, if potential clients can get all the information they need from your home page, then you may not be too concerned about getting clients to click further into your site. But "if the success of your site depends on users viewing more than one page, then, yes, a high bounce rate is bad," according to Google.
A high bounce rate can indicate any number of problems with your site, including: low-quality content, mislabeled content, or content that doesn't load properly or quickly. By checking your bounce rate, you can start to get a sense of whether potential clients are finding what they need from your site -- or whether they're finding it at all. After you check the bounce rate for your mobile home page, compare it to the bounce rate for your desktop home page.
Is There Something Wrong With Your Mobile Website?
If your mobile site doesn't load quickly, that's evidence that there might be something technically wrong. At a basic level, your website might have too much going on. It might need to be simplified. But the problem goes deeper.
Web users aren't the only ones who value a fast-loading mobile page. Google values it, too. So a slow site can hurt your search rankings. It can also harm your reputation, since quality and speed are closely related in the digital age.
Troubleshooting Made Easy
Fortunately, you don't need a degree in computer science to troubleshoot issues with your mobile website's speed. The new white paper by Lawyer Marketing, which is free to download, offers easy tips for increasing your site speed.
First impressions always matter. And when you're in the business of obtaining clients from the internet, that first impression comes down to a matter of seconds.
Related Resources:
- Is Your Marketing Plan Working? 3 Ways to Tell (FindLaw's Strategist)
- New Lawyer Going Solo? Here's the Playbook to Land Your First Clients (FindLaw's Greedy Associates)
- California Federal Litigators: Is Your Rutter Up to Date? (FindLaw's California Case Law)
