You’re going to receive quotes ranging from $30,000 to $150,000 for a website (which is totally insane).
The proposals look impressive, filled with agency jargon about “user experience optimization” and “conversion-driven design.”
But here’s what they’re not telling you: most of what you’re paying for isn’t worth it.
After over a decade building websites for law firms, I’m going to show you exactly how to design and build a professional attorney website for under $2,000—with the same quality (or better) than those expensive agency builds.
The Real Cost of Lawyer Website Design (And Why Agencies Overcharge)
Here’s the uncomfortable truth about legal website design: the industry is built on information asymmetry. When you don’t understand the mechanics of website design and development, you get taken advantage of—just like taking your car to a mechanic who knows you can’t tell the difference between essential repairs and unnecessary upsells.
Typical agency quotes break down like this:
Web design: $8,000-$15,000
Web development: $10,000-$20,000
Content writing: $3,000-$8,000
“Strategy” and project management: $5,000-$10,000
What you actually need:
WordPress hosting: $10-30/month
Professional theme or design template: $300-$1,000 (one-time)
Development work: $500-$1,500 (if you outsource)
Your time writing content: Free (and more authentic)
The difference? Knowledge. And you’re about to get it.
Understanding the Two-Part Process: Design vs. Development
Before we dive into building your law firm website, you need to understand a critical distinction that most lawyers don’t know exists. There are actually two separate processes in creating a website, and they require completely different skill sets.
Web Design is the visual layer—the colors, fonts, imagery, layout, and overall look and feel of your site. Designers work in tools like Figma or Photoshop to create what your website will look like before any code is written.
Web Development is the technical implementation—the actual coding that makes your design functional and live on the internet. Developers take those design files and build them into a working website using platforms like WordPress.
Most agencies charge you for both processes separately, often at premium rates. But here’s the shortcut: modern WordPress themes and page builders have already done most of this work for you. You’re essentially paying agencies $30,000 to customize a $60 theme.
Why WordPress Wins for Attorney Websites (Every Single Time)
I’ve tested every major website platform over the past decade—Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, custom builds—and for law firms, WordPress remains the undisputed champion. Here’s why:
Flexibility and customization. Unlike drag-and-drop builders that confine you to predetermined layouts, WordPress gives you complete control. Want to add a client portal? Install a plugin. Need advanced SEO features? There’s a plugin for that. Planning to scale from solo practice to multi-office firm? WordPress grows with you.
Developer availability. If you ever need help, WordPress developers are everywhere and affordable. Try finding someone to customize your Squarespace code—you’re locked into their ecosystem and limited options.
True ownership. This is critical, and we’ll discuss it more in a moment, but with WordPress, you own everything. Your content, your design, your functionality. No platform can hold you hostage.
SEO power. WordPress is built for search engine optimization from the ground up. Google loves it, and you have complete control over every technical SEO element that matters.
The learning curve is slightly steeper than Squarespace, but the payoff is worth it. Think of it this way: Squarespace is like renting an apartment with rules about what you can hang on the walls. WordPress is like owning a house where you can knock down walls if you want.
The Non-Negotiables: What You Must Own
Before you hire anyone or build anything, let’s talk about digital asset ownership. This is where predatory agencies make their real money, and it’s the number one reason lawyers end up trapped in bad relationships with marketing companies.
You must own your domain name.
Your domain (like yourfirmname.com) should be registered in an account that YOU control. Not your agency. Not your developer. You. Register it through Namecheap or another reputable registrar, keep the login credentials in a password manager, and never give anyone else ownership access.
You must own your hosting account.
Hosting is simply the monthly fee you pay to keep your website live on the internet. It costs $10-30 per month. Yet agencies will charge you $100-500 per month for “managed hosting” and claim your website is “built on their infrastructure.” This is the biggest scam in legal marketing.
I’m dealing with this right now for a friend’s father who owns an HVAC business. His previous agency is holding his entire website hostage because “it’s on their hosting account.” The process of extracting a website from someone else’s hosting should take 30 minutes. Instead, it’s become a nightmare negotiation.
Keep your login credentials. When you eventually hire help, give them access to work on your site, but never transfer ownership.
The same applies to all your digital properties:
Google Business Profile
Google Ads account
Google Analytics
Social media business pages
If an agency sets these up “for you” but maintains ownership, you’re building your business on rented land. When the relationship ends (and it always does eventually), you lose everything—your website history, your advertising data, your search rankings, all of it.
The Essential Pages Your Law Firm Website Needs
Now let’s talk about structure. This is where having the right foundation saves you from expensive redesigns later. Most web agencies will ask you “what pages do you want?” and then build whatever you say. But they won’t tell you that your structure directly impacts your SEO performance and conversion rates.
Here’s the bare minimum architecture every attorney website needs:
Homepage
Your digital front door and the page most visitors will land on first. This needs to immediately communicate who you are, what you do, and why someone should choose you.
About Page
This is often the second-most visited page on law firm websites. People want to know who they’re potentially hiring. This page should tell your story, showcase your credentials, and build trust.
Attorney Bio Pages
If you have multiple attorneys, each one needs their own dedicated bio page. These serve double duty: they help potential clients get to know your team, and they’re powerful for local SEO (each attorney can rank for searches like “Miami criminal defense attorney [name]”).
Practice Area Pages
This is where most law firms get their structure completely wrong, and it kills their SEO. Let me explain the right way to do this.
The Practice Area Page Structure That Actually Ranks
This is perhaps the most important section of this entire guide because getting this wrong means your website will never rank well in Google, no matter how much content you write or how beautiful your design is.
Think of your practice areas like a tree. At the trunk, you have your main practice area—let’s say Personal Injury. This gets its own page: “Personal Injury Attorney in Miami.”
The branches are your sub-practice areas. Under Personal Injury, you have:
Car Accident Attorney in Miami
Motorcycle Accident Attorney in Miami
Slip and Fall Attorney in Miami
Nursing Home Abuse Attorney in Miami
Wrongful Death Attorney in Miami
Each of these gets its own dedicated page. Not sections on one long page. Not tabs. Individual pages.
If you have multiple office locations, you multiply this structure for each location. So if you have offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Boca Raton, you need:
Personal Injury Attorney in Miami (with all sub-practice areas)
Personal Injury Attorney in Fort Lauderdale (with all sub-practice areas)
Personal Injury Attorney in Boca Raton (with all sub-practice areas)
This feels like a lot of pages, and it is. But this is exactly how Google wants to see law firm websites structured. Each page targets a specific search query. Each page can rank independently. Each page serves a specific user intent.
For each physical office you have, create a dedicated location page with your address, phone number, map, directions, and parking information. This supports your Google Business Profile and local SEO efforts.
Results/Case Results Page
Social proof is everything in legal marketing. A page showcasing your case results, verdicts, and settlements builds credibility. Just make sure you follow your state bar’s advertising rules about how results can be presented.
Blog
A blog allows you to create ongoing content that brings in organic traffic. Each blog post is another opportunity to rank for relevant searches and demonstrate your expertise.
Contact Page
This is where conversion happens. Make it easy. Include multiple contact methods (phone, form, email), office location with a map, and clear calls-to-action.
What Actually Matters More Than Design
Here’s something that might surprise you: good design doesn’t necessarily mean more leads.
I see over-designed websites constantly. Lawyers who want moving graphics, video backgrounds, complex animations, and interactive elements everywhere. It looks impressive in a presentation, but it often hurts performance.
In the legal space, people aren’t looking to be entertained. They’re looking for information. They have a problem, they’re stressed, and they want to know if you can help them.
What matters more than flashy design:
Clear messaging – Can someone understand within 5 seconds what you do and who you help? If your homepage is filled with legal jargon and vague statements about “committed advocacy,” you’re losing people. Learn more about effective messaging in our guide on SEO for personal injury law firms.
Strategic content – Does your website answer the questions potential clients are actually asking? Does it address their concerns before they even have to pick up the phone?
Conversion elements – Is your phone number visible on every page? Are your contact forms simple and non-intimidating? Do you have clear calls-to-action?
Loading speed – A beautiful website that takes 8 seconds to load will lose more clients than an average-looking website that loads in 2 seconds.
Mobile responsiveness – Over 60% of legal searches happen on mobile devices. If your website doesn’t work perfectly on phones, you’re losing the majority of your potential clients.
Your website design should reflect your audience. If you’re a personal injury lawyer working with everyday people, your design should be approachable and clear. If you’re a high-net-worth divorce attorney, your design can be more sophisticated and refined. But in both cases, clarity and function beat artistic expression every single time.
The DIY Path: How to Build Your Law Firm Website
Now let’s get tactical. Here’s your step-by-step roadmap to building a professional attorney website without spending $30,000 on an agency.
Step 1: Set up hosting and WordPress
Go to a hosting provider (I recommend SiteGround or WP Engine for law firms, both officially recommended by WordPress.org). Sign up for a hosting plan ($20-30/month). During signup, they’ll walk you through installing WordPress and connecting your domain name. This entire process takes about 15 minutes.
Step 2: Choose and install a WordPress theme
Instead of hiring a designer to create a custom design from scratch, purchase a premium WordPress theme built specifically for law firms. Themes like “Avvocato,” “LegalPress,” or “Attorney” come with pre-designed layouts that you can customize with your own colors, fonts, and content.
Cost: $60-$100 one-time purchase. These themes include designs that would cost you $10,000+ if you hired an agency to create from scratch.
Step 3: Install essential plugins
WordPress plugins add functionality to your site. Here are the must-haves:
Yoast SEO or Rank Math – For search engine optimization
Contact Form 7 or WPForms – For contact forms
UpdraftPlus – For automatic backups
Wordfence – For security
WP Rocket – For speed optimization (optional but recommended)
Step 4: Create your page structure
Using the architecture we outlined earlier, create all your essential pages. Your WordPress theme will include page templates for different layouts (full-width, sidebar, etc.). Start with placeholders for each page, then fill in the content systematically.
Step 5: Write your content
This is where you roll up your sleeves. Yes, you can hire a copywriter, but here’s the truth: you know your practice better than anyone. You know what questions clients ask. You know what concerns they have. You know what makes your firm different.
Write like you talk to clients. Skip the legal jargon. Answer questions directly. Show empathy. Your authentic voice will convert better than any copywriter’s polished prose.
Write a compelling meta description (the snippet that shows in Google)
Use headings (H2, H3) to structure your content
Include your location and practice area naturally throughout
Add alt text to all images
Link between related pages on your site
Step 7: Set up conversion tracking
Install Google Analytics and Google Search Console (both free). These tools show you how people find your website, what they do when they get there, and where they leave. This data is gold for improving your conversion rates over time.
Step 8: Test everything
Before you launch, test your website on multiple devices (desktop, tablet, phone). Click every link. Submit every form. Make sure your phone numbers are clickable on mobile. Check your load speed using Google PageSpeed Insights.
Total cost estimate:
Hosting: $20-30/month ongoing
Domain: $10-15/year
Premium theme: $60-100 one-time
Premium plugins (optional): $0-200/year
Your time: 20-40 hours over 2-4 weeks
Total investment: Under $500 in the first year, under $300 per year after that.
Compare that to the $20,000-50,000 agency quote.
When It Makes Sense to Hire Help (And What to Pay)
Let’s be realistic: not every lawyer wants to build their own website, and that’s perfectly fine. But now that you understand the process, you can hire help intelligently without getting ripped off.
If you do decide to work with a professional agency, make sure they understand legal marketing. At WEBRIS, we specialize in law firm websites that are built for SEO performance from day one. But whether you work with us or someone else, the principles in this guide still apply—you should always own your digital assets.
Hiring a WordPress developer on Upwork or Fiverr to build your site based on a premium theme you’ve purchased typically costs $500-1,500. You provide them with the theme, the page structure document (which you now know how to create), and your content. They build it. You own everything.
Hiring a designer to create a custom design in Figma before development might cost $1,000-3,000 if you go with a freelancer instead of an agency. This is optional—premium themes are usually enough.
Hiring a legal copywriter for website content typically costs $150-300 per page. For a 10-page site, that’s $1,500-3,000. Again, optional if you’re willing to write it yourself.
Even if you outsource everything, you’re looking at $3,000-7,000 total. Still a fraction of agency costs.
When hiring anyone, make sure:
You set up the hosting account yourself
The domain is registered in your name
You have admin access to WordPress
All work is done on your hosting
You get all source files and passwords
Never, ever let someone build “on their servers” with the promise to “transfer it later.” That’s how you end up being held hostage.
The Bottom Line: Take Control of Your Digital Assets
Your website is the final touchpoint before a visitor becomes a client. It’s too important to hand over to an agency without understanding what you’re paying for.
The legal marketing industry thrives on lawyers not understanding this stuff. They use technical jargon, scope projects to sound more complex than they are, and build dependency so you can’t leave without starting over.
But now you know better.
Whether you build your website yourself or hire someone to help, you now have the knowledge to make informed decisions. You know what pages you need. You understand the difference between design and development. You know why owning your hosting and domain is non-negotiable. You can spot predatory agency tactics from a mile away.
The website you build based on this guide—even if you do it yourself—will perform just as well (if not better) than a $40,000 agency build. Because what matters isn’t how much you spend. It’s whether you have the right structure, the right content, and the right conversion elements in place.
Stop paying agencies to hold your business hostage. Take control of your digital assets. Build your law firm website the right way.
Ready to build your law firm website? Start by setting up your WordPress hosting today. In 30 days, you’ll have a professional website that you fully own and control—without spending a fortune or depending on an agency that may or may not have your best interests at heart.
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