Website for a professional firm: explaining complex services clearly

Anyone looking for an accountant, a lawyer, or an employment consultant isn't looking for a subject: they're looking for someone to solve a problem they already have in hand. A site that lists "corporate law," "tax litigation," "due diligence" speaks the language of whoever wrote it. This guide is about rewriting those pages so the reader recognizes themselves, understands whether the firm is right for them, and knows how to start an initial conversation.

The point isn't to simplify. A professional can't trivialize what they do, and almost always doesn't want to. The point is the order: the reader needs to recognize their own situation before reading about the technical approach that will handle it.

Start from the sentence the client says on the phone

Every area of expertise corresponds to questions people ask in their own words. "I need to transfer my shares to my son," "I got a tax audit notice," "I fired someone and now they're suing me." These sentences almost never appear on firms' websites, which start from the name of the subject instead.

• For a month, write down the sentences clients use to describe the reason for their first call. A sheet of paper and your front desk are enough: it's the most reliable source you have.
• For each area, write three concrete situations, not three services. A situation has a protagonist, a moment, and a difficulty; a service only has a name.
• Always say who it's for: a business, an individual, a public body. The same problem changes nature depending on who brings it, and the reader wants to know if they're your kind of client.

Rewriting a service page: an example

Take a page titled "Corporate Law." The left column shows what's usually written; the right column says the same thing starting from the reader. The technical term doesn't disappear: it moves further down, as confirmation for those who already know it.

Rewriting doesn't take anything away from the knowledgeable reader, who recognizes the subject either way. It removes the barrier for someone who doesn't know the term and who, unlike a colleague, won't come back to understand better.

The people: verifiable experience, not adjectives

At a professional firm, the service is the person. Yet profile pages all look alike: years of experience, a client-focused approach, a list of degrees. What the reader is actually looking for is simpler: who will handle my case, and have they already seen one like it?

• State what kind of clients each professional handles — industries, sizes, type of dispute or transaction — instead of just their title.
• Make what's public verifiable: teaching positions, publications, appointments, registration on special lists. These are things anyone can check, which is why they carry weight.
• Say who the day-to-day contact is. At many firms, the partner signs off while an associate handles the case: if the client finds this out later, they feel misled; if they read it beforehand, they find it normal.

Avoid numbers you can't document: cases handled, matters concluded, success rates. These are often banned by professional rules anyway, and they tell a reader nothing when compared against another firm's numbers.

What's needed for an initial assessment

The question that blocks the most contacts isn't "how much does it cost": it's "what do I need to have ready to talk about this." Someone who doesn't know puts it off, afraid of showing up unprepared or having to hand over half their accounts to a stranger. Stating it on the site removes almost all the hesitation.

1. State what's enough for the first conversation: usually a description of the situation and two or three pieces of background information, not documents.
2. State what's needed instead for a real assessment, and at what point it's requested: after the first meeting, once it's clear there's a basis for working together.
3. State how the first contact happens — phone, in-person meeting, video call — and what the client gets out of it: an initial framing, next steps, an estimate of the commitment involved.
4. State whether the first meeting is billed, and on what basis. It's legitimate for it to be, and stating it upfront avoids the most annoying misunderstanding: the first invoice.

Contact: ask for the minimum you need

Many firms put forms online built like a case-opening form: tax ID, address, type of dispute, attachments. That's the wrong request at the wrong time. Someone writing for the first time isn't handing over an engagement: they're asking whether it's worth talking.

• A name, a contact detail, and a free-text description of the situation are almost always enough to tell whether the matter is within your expertise.
• Don't ask for attachments at the first step. Documents sent by email before an engagement create a storage and confidentiality problem you have no reason to take on.
• Add only one routing field, if you really need it: individual or business, or which office. It's there to help you assign the request, not for the client's benefit.
• State who reads the requests and during what working hours they're reviewed. No promise about timing is needed: just describe how the firm works.

What this guide doesn't cover

This guide covers the firm's communication: how to explain what you do and how to start an initial conversation. Professional rules — what can be written, which disclosures are mandatory, which comparisons are banned — need to be checked separately with your professional body before publishing. How to showcase completed work and how to build a contact form are covered in dedicated guides.