Why is solicitor website design different from other professional sites?
Solicitor website design is different because the site is itself regulated: an SRA-authorised firm must publish specific information on its website, and everything it says about its services must be accurate and not misleading. The design task is to meet those obligations without burying the enquiry route under them.
Most professional sites answer two questions: can you help me, and how do I contact you? A law firm’s site must also answer: what will this cost, who will do the work, how is it regulated and what can I do if something goes wrong? Visitors are often anxious (a house sale falling through, a bereavement, a dismissal) and want reassurance fast. A good layout puts the practice areas and a private enquiry route first, then makes the price pages, complaints information and regulatory details obvious without making the homepage feel like a notice board.
The practical result is a site with two layers. The persuasion layer is practice-area pages, people, reviews and clear calls to action. The information layer is price and service pages, the complaints page, the regulatory footer and the privacy notice. Both layers link to each other constantly: a conveyancing page links to its price page, which links back to the enquiry form.
What do the SRA Transparency Rules require on a law firm website?
For solicitor website design, the short answer is: cost information for certain listed services, details of your complaints procedure including the Legal Ombudsman and the SRA, and your SRA number with the SRA’s digital badge in a prominent place. The SRA Transparency Rules set these out.
Rule 1 requires an authorised body that publishes the availability of listed services to publish cost information for them on its website, and says that information must be clear, accessible and in a prominent place. Rule 2 requires details of your complaints handling procedure, including how and when a complaint can be made to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA. Rule 4 requires an authorised body to display its SRA number and the SRA’s digital badge prominently on its website, and to show the SRA number and the words “authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority” on letterhead and emails.
We build every one of those elements into the site structure so they cannot be forgotten when pages change. Your compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) or your own adviser confirms the wording; we build what you approve and never give regulatory advice.
- Cost information for listed services, clear and prominent
- Complaints procedure with Legal Ombudsman and SRA details
- SRA number and SRA digital badge displayed prominently
- Email signatures and letterhead handled by your firm, not the website
Which legal services need published price information?
The Transparency Rules list specific services for individuals and for businesses. If your firm publishes that it offers one of them, the website needs cost information for it; publicly funded work is excluded.
For individuals, the listed services are residential conveyancing (freehold or leasehold sales or purchases, and mortgages or re-mortgages); the collection and distribution of assets after a death where the assets are within the UK and the matter is not contested; immigration applications, excluding asylum; advice and representation at the First-tier Tribunal on appeals against Home Office visa or immigration decisions, excluding asylum appeals; representation at the Magistrates’ Court for summary-only road traffic offences dealt with at a single hearing; and representing employees bringing unfair or wrongful dismissal claims at the Employment Tribunal.
For businesses, the list covers defending unfair or wrongful dismissal claims at the Employment Tribunal, debt recovery up to a value threshold set in the rules, and licensing applications for business premises. In solicitor website design, we map your practice areas against this list during planning, so every listed service you advertise gets its own price and service page from day one.
How to write solicitor price and service pages that still convert
In solicitor website design, treat each price page as a sales page that happens to contain every required element. Lead with what the client gets and the likely total or range, then set out the detail in a scannable structure.
Rule 1.5 of the Transparency Rules lists what cost information must include: the total cost or, where not practicable, the average cost or range; the basis for your charges, including hourly rates or fixed fees; the experience and qualifications of anyone carrying out the work and their supervisors; likely disbursements with their cost or a range; whether fees or disbursements attract VAT and how much; what is included, with the key stages and likely timescales for each; and, where you use conditional fee or damages-based agreements, when clients may have to pay themselves.
We turn that into a consistent layout: a summary box with the price range and what it covers, a “what is included” list, a stage-by-stage timeline, a disbursements table, a “who will handle your matter” block linking to fee-earner profiles, and a short “what could change the price” section. The enquiry button appears after the summary and again at the end. Because every price page shares the template, updating fees next year is a quick job rather than a rewrite.
Where should the SRA digital badge and SRA number go?
Good solicitor website design puts the SRA digital badge and your SRA number in the footer of every page and near the top of the homepage and price pages. “Prominent place” is the test in the rules, so a single mention on the “About” page is not enough.
The SRA provides the digital badge to authorised firms for use on their websites, so we install it exactly as supplied and never restyle it, redraw it or swap it for a screenshot. Beside it we add your SRA number and the phrase “authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority”, which also helps visitors who scroll past the badge.
We test that the badge renders on every template, including price pages, profiles and the mobile layout, because a badge that silently fails on one template is easy to miss. If the firm operates separate brands or a licensed body with a separate legal services site, the rules address that case too, and we follow the arrangement your compliance lead confirms.
Solicitor website design for the complaints and Legal Ombudsman page
Create a dedicated complaints page, link it from the footer of every page and from each price page, and make it readable by someone who is already frustrated. It must include your complaints procedure and how and when a complaint can be made to the Legal Ombudsman and to the SRA.
The SRA publishes guidance on publishing your complaints procedure, developed with the Legal Ombudsman, which includes suggested text you can adapt. It notes that the Legal Ombudsman will check that the complainant has tried to resolve the complaint with the firm first. Use that guidance, and the Ombudsman’s own current scheme rules, as the source for time limits and routes rather than wording copied from another firm’s site.
Design-wise, keep it plain: who to contact, how, what happens next and how long each stage usually takes under your procedure, then the Legal Ombudsman and SRA routes with their contact details. Avoid defensive language. A calm, clear complaints page signals confidence, and it is one of the pages a careful client checks before instructing you.
Fee-earner profiles: what to include and why they matter
In solicitor website design, fee-earner profiles serve two purposes: they help clients choose to instruct you, and they support the Transparency Rules requirement to publish the experience and qualifications of those carrying out the work and their supervisors. Write them to do both.
A strong profile has a professional photo, full name and role, qualification and admission details you choose to publish, the practice areas and types of matter handled, who supervises the work if relevant, languages spoken and a short human paragraph about how they work with clients. Link each profile from the relevant price pages and practice-area pages, so a visitor reading about probate can see who handles it in one tap.
Profiles also help search engines and AI tools. Google’s guidance on helpful content says its systems give more weight to content with strong E-E-A-T on topics that could significantly affect people’s health, financial stability or safety, which it calls “Your Money or Your Life”. Legal topics sit squarely there. Named, qualified authors on practice-area guides, with profiles that show real experience, are one of the clearest ways to demonstrate it.
In solicitor website design, the enquiry form should be short, route the enquiry to the right team, collect only what you need for a first reply and a conflict check, and warn people not to send confidential detail until you confirm you can act. Long forms scare off anxious visitors and collect data you then have to protect.
We usually ask for practice area (from a short list), a one-line summary, the names of other parties if you need them for conflict checks, preferred contact method and times, and whether the matter is urgent. A short note beside the form, in wording your firm approves, explains that sending the form does not create a client relationship and asks the visitor not to include sensitive documents yet.
Behind the scenes, forms use HTTPS, send notifications to a practice-area inbox rather than one shared address, avoid storing full submissions in the website database where not needed, and are covered by your privacy notice. Access is limited to the people who need it. If you want enquiries logged in case management software, we integrate with it rather than keep a second copy. Your data protection obligations stay with the firm; we build to the settings you decide.
Structuring practice-area pages for conveyancing, family, probate and employment
Solicitor website design should give each practice area a hub page and, where searches justify it, sub-pages for distinct matters: sale, purchase and remortgage under conveyancing; divorce, finances and child arrangements under family; wills, lasting powers of attorney and probate under private client. Each page answers the client’s situation, not the firm’s org chart.
A practice-area page works best in this order: a short plain-English description of the problem the client has, how your team helps, what the process looks like, the people involved, links to the price and service page where one is required, related guides and an enquiry route that pre-selects the practice area. Keep legal explanations general and dated, and route anything specific to a consultation.
This structure is also the backbone of search visibility: the hub-and-sub-page pattern matches how people search (“probate solicitors”, “how long does probate take”). Our sibling guide on search strategy for law firms explains how those pages rank locally and how to track enquiries by practice area once they do.
Keeping website copy within the SRA publicity rules
Write every claim on the site so it is accurate and not misleading, including anything about charges, and avoid features that amount to unsolicited approaches to the public. The SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors sets out both principles.
Paragraph 8.8 of the SRA Code of Conduct for Solicitors says you must ensure any publicity about your practice is accurate and not misleading, including publicity relating to charges. Paragraph 8.9 says you must not make unsolicited approaches to members of the public, other than current or former clients, to advertise legal services. Paragraph 8.10 asks you to make sure clients understand whether and how your services are regulated.
For solicitor website design, that translates into practical choices: success claims that you can support, price ranges that match the price pages, reviews shown in full through their original platform rather than edited quotes, and marketing automation that only contacts people who asked to hear from you. Your COLP reviews the copy before launch; we flag anything that looks like a claim needing evidence.
How much does solicitor website design cost in the UK?
Solicitor website design quotes vary widely, from template sites to large bespoke builds with case management integrations. With us, a law firm website starts at US$150, and multi-office sites needing 299 or more pages start at US$300.
The main cost drivers are the number of listed services needing price pages, the number of practice areas and sub-pages, whether we write the copy or build from your drafts, the number of fee-earner profiles, consultation booking, enquiry automation and integrations. A small high-street firm with conveyancing, wills and probate and four fee earners sits near the starting price; a regional firm with several offices and a dozen practice areas sits well above it.
When comparing suppliers, check who owns the domain, whether the price page template makes annual fee updates easy, and whether the site is licensed or owned. A three-year view is fairer than year one. Our UK website cost guide covers wider ranges.
How to choose a web designer for a law firm
For solicitor website design, choose a designer who asks about your listed services, complaints procedure and fee-earner structure in the first conversation, puts the domain in the firm’s name, and expects your COLP to approve the regulatory content. Those three signs show they understand the brief.
Ask each supplier: How will price pages be structured and updated? How is the SRA badge installed and tested? Where do enquiry form submissions go, and are they stored? Who has access to the hosting and admin accounts? What happens to the site if we stop paying you? Clear, specific answers are a good sign; vague references to “compliance packages” without explanation are not.
Be honest about limits in both directions. We do not provide legal, regulatory or data protection advice, we do not attend your offices, and we do not write legal content without a qualified person at your firm reviewing it. What we do provide is the structure, the build, the performance and the testing, with everything registered to your firm.
Accessibility and speed on a solicitor’s website
Solicitor website design has to serve people of every age and ability, often on a phone at a stressful moment, so readable text, keyboard access and fast loading are part of good service. We build to WCAG 2.2 level AA as the target and test on real devices.
Practical steps include sufficient colour contrast, headings in a logical order, form labels that screen readers announce, error messages that explain how to fix a problem, and tap targets large enough to hit easily. PDF-only price lists are a common problem; we publish price information as web pages so it can be read, searched and zoomed, with a PDF as an optional extra if you want one.
For speed, Google’s web.dev guidance treats a Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less as good. Heavy stock photography, chat widgets and multiple tracking tags are the usual causes of slow law firm sites. We compress images, load chat and review widgets after the main content and keep scripts to those you actually use. See our UK website accessibility audit page for a fuller review.
Cookies, privacy notices and client confidentiality online
A law firm site should keep non-essential cookies off until the visitor consents, publish a privacy notice that covers enquiries and bookings, and send form data only where it needs to go. The ICO’s guidance on PECR is the starting point for cookies.
The ICO says the basic rule is that you must tell people cookies are there, explain what they do and why, and get the person’s consent to store them, with exemptions for cookies that are strictly necessary. Consent must be given by a clear positive action, such as ticking a box or clicking a button. We build a banner that holds analytics, advertising and third-party chat scripts back until the visitor agrees, and records the choice.
The privacy notice is your firm’s document, drafted or approved by your data protection lead; we place it, link it from every form and footer, and make sure the site behaves the way it says. Hosting is chosen with your firm, with backups, access control and two-factor sign-in on admin accounts. We never describe the site as “GDPR-certified”; compliance is the firm’s responsibility, confirmed by its own advisers.
Working with a remote freelance team in India on a law firm site
Remote solicitor website design works well because most of the project is structured content and testing, done online with clear sign-off points. Your practice managers and COLP review pages on a private link; we build and fix between reviews.
India is four and a half hours ahead of the UK in summer and five and a half in winter, so our day overlaps with UK office hours from late morning. A typical rhythm is a short video call to agree the page plan, then written feedback on staging pages, answered the same day or next. There are no office visits and no UK entity; invoices come from India, quoted in USD and payable by Wise, bank wire or PayPal, with nothing billed before written approval.
Confidentiality is handled simply: we never need client files or case data to build the site, we work in accounts the firm owns, and access is removed at handover if you wish. If your firm requires a confidentiality agreement, ask and it is agreed in writing with the quote. Read more about outsourcing web development to India.
First week
Call to map practice areas and listed services, then a page plan and price page template for your approval; you send fee-earner details, complaints procedure and brand assets.
Second and third weeks
Pages, profiles and forms appear on a private link; your team and COLP review in rounds while we test the badge, forms and mobile layout.
Worked example: a hypothetical four-partner high-street firm in Chelmsford
This is an illustrative scenario, not a real client. A four-partner firm in Chelmsford handles residential conveyancing, wills and probate, family law and employment for individuals. Its current site has a single “Fees” PDF, the SRA badge on the contact page only and a contact form that goes to one shared inbox.
The rebuild: a homepage leading with the four practice areas and a short enquiry route; separate price and service pages for sale, purchase and remortgage conveyancing, uncontested probate and employee unfair dismissal claims, each following the Rule 1.5 elements; a complaints page drafted from the firm’s procedure and the SRA’s suggested wording; eight fee-earner profiles linked from the price pages; and the SRA badge and number in the footer of every page.
Enquiries now route to practice-area inboxes with a note asking visitors not to send documents yet. The COLP signs off each price page before launch. A site like this would start from US$150; the number of price pages and profiles written for the firm sets the final quote.
Solicitor website design checklist before launch
Run this checklist with your COLP before the site goes live; each item maps to a rule or a common failure point.
- SRA digital badge renders on every template, including mobile
- SRA number and regulatory statement in the footer of every page
- Price and service page for each listed service you advertise
- Each price page covers total or range, basis, stages, disbursements, VAT and team
- Complaints page links to Legal Ombudsman and SRA routes, linked from every footer
- Enquiry forms route by practice area and carry the approved confidentiality note
- Cookie banner holds non-essential scripts until consent; privacy notice linked
- Search Console and analytics set up in the firm’s own accounts
We test each item on phone and desktop, and send a short screen recording of the badge, forms and price pages working before launch.