Attorney bio pages on a law firm website are the pages most frequently visited by prospective clients. Bio pages can see up to twice the traffic of even a firm’s home page. Clearly they are important. Attorneys should take advantage of the exposure their bio pages receive by focusing on design and content that will engage visitors and generate leads.

Think of your attorney bio pages as an online extension of your office. You are inviting people in to get to know you – to establish a connection. You want your online meeting to be as comfortable and convincing as it would be if you were talking face to face. When consulting with a potential client, you speak directly to them and address their concerns. It would be unthinkable to just hand them a bulleted resume and let them read it while you have some coffee or write an email. So why do that online?

Attorney websites have been steadily evolving away from being a collection of static brochure style pages toward becoming a more dynamic venue for publishing frequently updated relevant content. The attorney bio pages should be no different. The design of an attorney bio page should provide a platform for showcasing important items like community involvement, articles, speeches, video and an updated picture. Bio pages that list old articles and show outdated pictures without giving visitors a chance to look at current, relevant work are not effective.

But the presentation of accomplishments and the actual text on the attorney bio page must also be relevant to the client. Pages that just list qualifications, beginning with education and bar memberships, are not engaging. People expect attorneys to be smart and experienced. What they need to know is why they should care to meet you, how your experience can provide a tangible benefit for them, and why you are a person they can trust. Consider a group of candidates applying for entry into an elite school. Administrators assume every applicant is a top of the class performer with good test scores. That is a given. What they are looking for is the thing that sets a candidate apart, the reason that person would be a good fit for their programs and, yes, a bring a benefit to the institution.

People are not emotionless qualification counting robots that will always pick the attorney with the best credentials. They bring sentiments and personality to the game and are more apt to pick an attorney they like and trust over one with the most impressive resume.

Attorneys may not care to think that marketing themselves is in any way similar to marketing a commodity. But putting pride aside, in a way it is. When consumers look to purchase something they are interested primarily in the benefit that item will bring to them. When you are buying a new set of windshield wipers, what you are actually buying is a clear view. Technical specs are useful only to the extent that they explain that benefit. This is not to belittle years of education, work and experience by comparing it to a car part or pair of new shoes. It is simply an acknowledgment of consumer habits. People are not hiring your resume - they are hiring a result.

When taking this into consideration, your attorney bio should:

Tell people why they should want get to know you and trust you
Engage visitors and make a personal connection
Stay updated with links to current, relevant work or civic involvement
Explain how you work with clients and how your experience provides a real benefit to them
Integrate client testimonials or direct quotes from the attorney
Tell something of your legal passions and interests but leave out unnecessary personal details
Be prose based, avoiding long bulleted lists

Your attorney bio page is valuable real estate. Keep it fresh and relevant and take advantage of the lead-generating potential.