---
title: "What a Law Firm Website Needs: 12-Page Checklist"
description: "The twelve pages an Ontario law firm site needs, why one page per practice area matters, and what content you should never copy."
category: "Law Firms"
question: "What pages should a law firm website have?"
datePublished: 2026-09-24
dateModified: 2026-10-10
readingMinutes: 8
status: published
author: "UXPro Design Studio"
authorType: "Organization"
authorUrl: https://uxpro.ca/about
canonical: https://uxpro.ca/blog/law-firm-website-checklist
image: https://uxpro.ca/covers/law-firm-website-checklist.webp
license: "Quote freely with a link to the canonical URL."
---

# What a Law Firm Website Needs: 12-Page Checklist

## Key facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum page set | 12 page types for a small Ontario firm |
| Practice-area pages | One page per area, not one shared services page |
| Bio must-haves | Credentials, licence status, areas practised, direct contact |
| Content firms must not copy | Other firms' guides, statute text as marketing copy, stock testimonials |
| Compliance layer | Every page checked against LSO marketing rules before publish |

**A small Ontario law firm site needs twelve pages: a home page, one page for each practice area (pages 2 to 8 in a firm with seven areas), lawyer bios, a fees and process page, a contact page, and a guides and FAQ hub. Underneath them sit three pages that are not optional: an accessibility statement, a privacy policy and a legal notices page.** Miss any one of these and the site either fails to answer a visitor's actual question or creates a compliance gap nobody notices until a complaint does. Here's what belongs on each page and why.

## What pages does a law firm website need?

| # | Page | Job it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Home | States who you serve, which practice areas, and how to book a first consultation, inside the first screen |
| 2–8 | One page per practice area | Answers the specific question a client in that situation arrives with, in plain language |
| 9 | Lawyer bios | Credentials, licence status, areas practised, a real photo, direct contact routing |
| 10 | Fees / process | What a first consultation costs (or that it's free), how billing works, what determines the final number |
| 11 | Contact | Map, hours, phone, a form that routes to the right office, and — for two offices — separate pages |
| 12 | Guides / FAQ hub | Plain-language answers to the questions clients type into Google, each with a dated byline |

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](/research/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.

## Why does each practice area need its own page?

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](/blog/website-cost-ontario): more practice-area pages is real scope, not padding.

## What belongs in a lawyer bio?

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](/blog/lso-marketing-rules-website) for exactly where the line sits.

## How should the consultation form work?

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.

## What content should a law firm never copy?

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](/blog/lso-marketing-rules-website) — 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.

## FAQ

### How many practice-area pages is too many?
There's no fixed number, but a page only earns its place if you can write something specific about how your firm handles that area — process, typical timeline, what a client should bring to a first call. A dozen thin pages that repeat the same three paragraphs with the practice area swapped in is worse for search and for readers than five detailed ones.

### Do I need a blog?
You need plain-language guides more than you need a blog in the traditional sense — dated posts, one FAQ block, one real question answered, discoverable from the practice-area page they support. A guide page that answers "what happens at a first consultation for a family law matter" is more useful to a prospective client than a generic "five tips" post.

### Should I publish fees?
Where your fee structure is predictable — a fixed fee for an uncontested matter, an hourly range for litigation — publishing it filters out enquiries that were never going to convert and builds trust with people comparing firms. Just follow the Law Society's fee-advertising rules: be precise about what the fee covers and state clearly what's extra.

## Next step

Want these twelve pages built and checked against Law Society rules from the first draft, rather than fixed after the fact? Start with [a free Redline](/redline) of your current homepage, or the [law firm websites page](/industries/law-firms) — it walks through the same structure against the Tokas Lex build.

*Sources:* Structure and compliance notes verified against the [Law Society of Ontario Rules of Professional Conduct, Chapter 4](https://lso.ca/about-lso/legislation-rules/rules-of-professional-conduct/chapter-4) and secondary summaries at [LawOnline.ca — Ontario Lawyer Advertising Rules](https://lawonline.ca/blog/ontario-law-society-advertising-rules-lawyers/).