September 6, 2021

Complete Guide to WordPress – Law Firms and Professional Service Firms

When it comes to building websites, WordPress is always part of the conversation. With over 15 million sites, this open-source platform occupies more than half of the market.

Of course, there is a reason for this popularity, and knowing about WordPress can help you make informed decisions. Let’s look at why so many web designers and developers recommend WordPress for lawyers looking to create a professional website for their firm.

A Brief History of WordPress

WordPress began in 2003 as a blogging website when there was a lot of competition in that sphere. WordPress made it easy to publish content for free and gave people a user-friendly way to create blog websites even if they didn’t have much knowledge. These features led to massive growth in their user base. From there, the platform has rapidly evolved over the past decade and a half.

Becoming a website builder was a natural transition for WordPress. Building on their initial framework, the platform has expanded to be a viable option for any type of website or business, including law firms. Even with a free version, you can create a theme and have a functioning website.

By paying for your domain, you can add more uniqueness and customization to your site through the help of plugins and advanced drag-and-drop style website building tools.

Is WordPress Better Than Other Website Builders?

While website builders make it easy for people to create websites and handle all hosting and website database work, they have limits.

WordPress offers more customizability that can make your website stand out. Aside from that, you won’t stay tied to an entity that has control over your website’s presence. WordPress websites can perform better with proper SEO setup and implementation. Here are some other reasons why people like WordPress:

• Customizability
• Constant improvements
• Mobile responsive designs
• User-friendly interface
• Scalability

WordPress Gotchas

While it may sound convincing for your law firm to begin building a website on WordPress, there are some caveats. Here are some of the biggest things you should look out for:

Steep Learning Curve

While WordPress started as an easy-to-use system, it can get very technical, very fast. Because of this, you may spend your time learning about its intricacies at first before getting to creating content. You’re vulnerable to mess something up that causes chaos to your entire website. Websites have shut down and even de-indexed themselves because of clicking the wrong button.

Its numerous features can also make it frustrating if you don’t know anything about website building. There are many menus and subcategories you’ll have to familiarize yourself with. Creating a website on WordPress means learning something new, and you may not be good at it at the start. If you don’t have the time, you’ll have to spend some money hiring professionals to do it for you.

Reliance on Plugins

One complex and divisive system that WordPress has is its plugins. Plugins work like mobile phone applications, many of which are from third-party developers. You can install plugins on your website to fulfill a specific purpose. They introduce some conveniences as development can happen separately, but they also come with issues as well.

For one, not all plugins work well together since many of them come from different developers. You can pay the price for two plugins only to discover that they aren’t compatible and are only causing problems.

Another issue is that WordPress isn’t great about removing outdated plugins or improving their quality. As a result, you get a vast library containing both good plugins and bad ones. You could install one that could break your site or leave you vulnerable to attacks.

Speaking of being vulnerable to attacks, most security issues with WordPress websites also happen because of plugins. WordPress itself has solid security measures (as long as you keep updating the software). However, plugins sometimes have security weaknesses or flaws that hackers can exploit, leaving you at the mercy of people with bad intentions.

What To Do Next

Though WordPress is the most flexible and customizable website option for your law firm site, we highly recommend you work with professionals to make sure you’re covered. We create effective websites specifically for law firms and have the experience to make a top-notch presence in your practice. Reach out to us, we’d be happy to help you get started.