What a Law Firm Website Needs: 12-Page Checklist

Table · scrolls sideways

Two pages sit underneath all twelve and aren't optional: an accessibility statement and a privacy policy, plus — specific to law — a legal notices page covering the no-solicitor-client-relationship disclaimer that keeps a guide from being mistaken for advice. For how Ontario firm homepages measure on a phone today (tap-to-call, published prices, structured data), see our Ontario Practice Website Index.

None of the twelve is decorative. A firm that skips the fees/process page pushes every price question onto a phone call the receptionist has to field cold. A firm that skips the guides hub has nothing to show a searcher, or an AI assistant, asking the question a guide would answer. And a firm that treats the accessibility statement as boilerplate misses that visitors read it as a sign the site was built with care.

A single "Services" page that lists family law, real estate, wills and estates, and civil litigation in four paragraphs tells a search engine and a visitor equally little. Someone searching "what happens if I don't have a will in Ontario" needs a page built around that exact question, not a paragraph buried under six other topics. Splitting practice areas into their own pages also gives each one its own FAQ block, its own guide links, and its own path to a consultation — which is what turns a visit into a call. It is also why page count drives what a website costs: more practice-area pages is real scope, not padding.

A lawyer bio page should answer, in order: what this person is licensed to do, what they actually practise day to day, and how to reach them — not a chronological CV. Include the year called to the bar, the law school (a real credential, useful for trust), the Law Society licence status, and any bona fide credentials such as a Certified Specialist designation if one is held. Skip the language that isn't allowed: no "top lawyer," no "aggressive advocate," no ranking claim that hasn't been verified as bona fide. A short, specific bio outperforms a flattering one — see our companion piece on Law Society marketing rules for exactly where the line sits.

Every practice-area page should end at the same place: a clear next step, whether that's "book a free consultation," "call this number," or "send us your situation." The form itself should be short — name, email, phone, matter type, a brief description — and should avoid collecting enough detail to create a conflict-of-interest problem before a retainer exists. Route submissions to two places at once (an inbox and a spreadsheet or CRM record) so a single missed email never costs the firm a client. That's the pattern we used on Tokas Lex Law Office: every enquiry lands in Resend-delivered email and an Airtable record in parallel.

Keep the form itself under seven fields. Every additional required field before "submit" is a chance for someone to close the tab instead, and a firm rarely needs more than name, contact details, matter type and a short description to book a first call — the rest of the intake can happen once a human is on the phone.

Three habits get firms into trouble, and all three are common shortcuts:

• Copying another firm's guide content. Beyond the obvious copyright problem, it's usually written for a different province or a different fact pattern, and a client who acts on it has a worse experience than one who found nothing.
• Pasting statute or regulation text as marketing copy. It reads as filler, doesn't answer the client's actual question, and does nothing for search visibility, which rewards content that adds something a statute page doesn't already say.
• Publishing a testimonial or "5-star reviews" strip without checking whether it's permitted. Ontario licensees operate under real restrictions on testimonials, covered in detail in our piece on LSO marketing rules — get this wrong and the fix touches every page, not just one.

One more thing worth building into the list from day one: a plan for who keeps these twelve pages current. A fee that changes, a lawyer who leaves the firm, a practice area that's added — each is a small edit, but a site with no one assigned to make it drifts out of date within a year, and an out-of-date bio or a stale fee page does more damage to trust than a plain one that's simply accurate.