The legal website standard.

Credibility is now checked online before the first consultation. This guide sets out what a tier-one website in legal & professional services must do in 2026, and how to tell whether yours does.

How your clients choose

The research is clear on direction: clients form their view of your firm online, often before they contact anyone. See why this now matters for every firm.

Eight essentials

1. Practice pages organized around the client’s problem, not the firm’s structure
2. Searchable attorney profiles with bar admissions and representative matters
3. Insights that show current thinking on clients’ issues
4. Matter experience where professional rules allow
5. Clear routing to the right practice or office
6. Required disclaimers built into the content system
7. WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility
8. Fast pages for clients reading on their phones

Five common mistakes

1. Copy that describes the firm instead of the client’s situation
2. Attorney bios that are out of date or inconsistent across directories
3. Thought leadership locked inside PDFs
4. Contact details buried at the bottom of long pages
5. Sites that are hard to use on a phone

The scorecard targets we recommend

You can test the first and last of these yourself today with Google PageSpeed Insights and Security Headers. How the Sovren Scorecard works.

Before you commission a new website

Use our 11 questions to ask before you commission a website, and build your internal case with our business case guide.