Law Firm Website Hosting

You must have an attention-grabbing website to stand out in the crowded online environment. The site needs to draw people in, provide the information they’re looking for, and convince them you’re the attorney they should hire.

An effective website has many features that work together. An essential component is website hosting, which affects the security, structure, performance, and cost of a website.

What is Website Hosting?

A website host provides remote storage for a website’s files, such as webpages, photos, graphics, videos, and downloadable files. Generally speaking, websites have three key elements that allow them to function properly:

1. Domain name (a website’s URL)
2. Website host
3. Website files

You can think of the domain name as a website’s address. It tells people how to find it. The website host is like the structure of a building. It holds all the pieces together. The website files are all the pieces inside the structure, such as the photos, videos, and text.

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The Importance of Website Hosting

Regardless of the size of your law practice, having a good website host is crucial. One of the most important things your host provides is faster load time for the site. A website’s load time ensures it loads within seconds on both desktop and mobile platforms. The faster the load time, the better. Visitors will leave when a site loads too slowly.

Many factors determine if a website host is capable of improving a website’s load time. These factors include:

• The host server location
• The equipment at the host server location
• The response time of the equipment
• The number of other accounts hosted on the server
• The content delivery networks

There are other factors affecting a website’s load time that the host can’t control, such as:

• The browser you’re using
• The quality of the web developer’s code
• The number of resources you’re requesting
• The size of the images and graphics on the website and whether files are compressed

If you have an experienced web developer, they will understand how each of these things impact the performance of the website and make recommendations.

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The Importance of a Website’s Load Time

As the general speed of the internet increases, we have all come to expect instantaneous website load times. The more time a website takes to load, the more likely we will abandon it and move on. You don’t want this to happen to your website.

Ideally, you want your law firm’s website to load within 0.1 seconds and 2 seconds. Load times longer than 2 seconds are generally considered poor. It’s a good idea to test your website on different devices. To simulate the experience of a potential client, try loading your website in incognito mode or after clearing your browser history.

Slow load times can be frustrating for clients and potential clients alike, but that isn’t the only problem. If left unaddressed, search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing, will downgrade your website. This will keep it from appearing on the first page of a search. You could lose potential clients since people don’t usually go past the first page or scroll to the bottom of the list of search results.

Finding the Right Website Host for Your Law Firm

To find the best website host for your law firm, you should consider the following:

• Load times – This is one of the most important factors, for reasons mentioned above.
• Downtimes – Downtime is when your website is unavailable. Look for a website host that can guarantee a downtime of 1% or less.
• Hidden fees – Make sure you’re aware of all fees before signing a contract.
• Tech support – You’ll want to find a website host that has tech support that is easy to reach and helpful.

Take the time to learn everything you can about the website hosts you are considering. Since the host you choose will be largely responsible for presenting your law firm to the online world, you want to choose wisely.

Hiring a law firm-focused marketing and consulting firm, such as Law As a Business (LAB), to host your firm’s website will ensure you get services tailored to your firm’s needs. We help attorneys run efficient, profitable law firms through creative solutions. Contact us today to learn how we can help your law firm set itself apart from the competition.