Lawyer Website Redesign: How to Rebuild Without Losing Clients or Rankings

A practical guide to a lawyer website redesign: when your firm needs one, how to keep search rankings, and which advertising rules to review before launch.

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A lawyer website redesign is worth doing when the site makes it harder for a prospective client to trust you or reach you. The main risk is search traffic: pages that rank today can disappear if nobody plans where each one goes.

When does a lawyer website need a redesign?

Redesign when you can point to a specific failure: the site doesn’t work on a phone, your practice areas have changed, attorney bios are out of date, or staff can’t update anything without paying someone. Those problems send away people who were ready to call. Age on its own isn’t on that list. We looked at 1,206 local business websites and only 147 showed enough evidence to justify substantial work.

Law firm website redesign or refresh?

The Bar Association of San Francisco published a useful distinction: a redesign is “a comprehensive overhaul” of the firm’s online presence, while a refresh updates specific elements of a site with a solid foundation.

Choosing between a law firm website redesign and a refresh
Your situationBetter fit
Content is sound and the design looks tiredRefresh
Good rankings on a working platformRefresh, or a careful redesign
Broken on phones, and hard to fixRedesign
The firm’s practice areas or name changedRedesign
Staff can’t edit the site at allRedesign

How to redesign a law firm website without losing rankings

Start by exporting a list of your pages and the search traffic each one gets from Google Search Console. Practice-area pages and articles with steady visits are the assets you’re protecting. Keep their content, or improve it, and keep their URLs where you can.

When a URL has to change, set up a permanent redirect from the old address to the closest new page. Google’s site move documentation says “301 and other permanent redirects don’t cause a loss in PageRank,” and advises keeping them for at least a year. It also says a small to medium site can take a few weeks for most pages to move, so expect some movement while that happens.

Redirect map

Every old page that ranks gets a new address

  • /practice-areas/family-law.html301 redirect/family-law
  • /attorneys/jane-doe.php301 redirect/attorneys/jane-doe
  • /contact-us301 redirect/contact
Sample addresses. Google says permanent redirects don’t lose PageRank, and advises keeping them for at least a year.

What legal advertising rules affect a redesign?

ABA Model Rule 7.1 says a lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer’s services. States adopt their own versions and add their own requirements, so a redesign is a good moment to reread what the site claims. The ABA’s FAQ on advertising in the digital age is a useful starting point. Before launch, have someone at the firm review:

  • Testimonials and descriptions of case results
  • Claims about specialization or being the “best”
  • Attorney advertising notices your state requires
  • A statement that contacting the firm doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship
  • Contact forms, which shouldn’t invite confidential details before a conflict check

This list is a design checklist and isn’t legal advice. Your firm decides what its rules require.

Does your firm need one page or many?

A solo attorney who gets most clients through referrals often needs one strong page that confirms who they are and makes contact easy. That’s the job of our law firm website design service, at a flat $1,000 and usually live in 5 to 7 days.

A firm with practice-area pages that already rank should keep them. Collapsing them into one page would throw away traffic you’ve already earned, so you’d want a multi-page site, which we quote after reviewing what you have. See these law firm website design examples for how the styles differ, and what law firm websites cost for market pricing. For a general view of budgets, there’s our guide to website redesign cost.

What to send a designer for a quote

You’ll get a more accurate quote, from us or anyone else, by sending your existing setup at the start:

  1. 01What’s your current website address, and who hosts it?
  2. 02What is it built on, and who has the logins?
  3. 03Which pages bring in the most visits and consultations?
  4. 04Which practice areas do you want more of, and which should go?
  5. 05Who at the firm approves the final content?

If you’d like us to look, send those details and we’ll come back with a fixed quote. If a refresh or a few fixes would do, we’ll say so.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a lawyer website redesign cost?
It depends mostly on how many practice-area pages need to carry over. PageSimple redesigns a solo or small firm’s site into one page for a flat $1,000. A multi-page rebuild is quoted after we’ve reviewed your existing site. Our guide to law firm website costs has wider market ranges.
Will a redesign hurt my law firm’s Google rankings?
It can if old URLs vanish or the content that ranks is removed. Keeping the pages that matter and adding permanent redirects for any URL that changes protects most of that value, though nobody can promise rankings will stay put.
How often should a law firm redesign its website?
There’s no fixed schedule. Redesign when the site stops working for clients, misstates your practice, or can’t be updated at a reasonable cost. A site that’s old and still doing its job may need only a refresh.
Does a web designer check my site for bar compliance?
No. A designer can build in the disclaimers and content you provide, but the firm is responsible for reviewing its advertising against the rules of each state where its lawyers practice.

Work with PageSimple

A law firm website clients can trust.

Tell us about your practice and share your current site. A one-page redesign is a flat $1,000. Larger sites get a fixed quote after we’ve reviewed them.

Start your redesignSee what’s included

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