Repeating the exercise first carried out in 2009 we have analysed six key website statistic metrics for 163 law firms (twice the sample size from the 2009 survey). The data collected was for the month of September 2010. The key metrics we continue to track for this ongoing benchmark are:-
- Total number of page views
- Total number of visits
- Average pages/visit
- Average time on site
- Average bounce rate
- Percentage of new visits
The summary table below shows the summary data for all firms, along with a breakdown in three categories based on number of partners in the firm. At the bottom of this document is the data for 2010 compared to 2009.
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| Breakdown by Partner Size | |||
|
| All Firms | 20+ | 19-6 | 5-1 |
| Av. Time on Site (mm:ss) | 02:00 | 02:21 | 02:04 | 01:56 |
| Av. Page Views | 5,631 | 23,408 | 8,060 | 2,547 |
| Av. Page Views/Partner | 881 | 730 | 759 | 949 |
| Av. Visits | 1,520 | 5,711 | 2,217 | 745 |
| Av. Pages/Visit | 3.7 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 3.6 |
| Av. Bounce Rate (%) | 36.4 | 36.0 | 35.0 | 37.0 |
| Av. New Visits (%) | 70.5 | 63.6 | 66 | 73 |
The highlights of these initial findings are as follows:-
- The most consistent metric across all sites is the time spent on the site. There is very little variation in this number based on size of firm; it’s just two minutes per site. However, the range here was quite marked, from a lowly 47 up to 7:49 which weirdly enough is for a law firm in Mexico!
- There is a clear correlation between the size of a law firm and the total number of page views per month. The table above shows that that larger firms are getting significantly more pages viewed in total which is no surprise bearing in mind they have more clients.
- However, if we compare the average number of page views per visit, then there is far more consistency between different size firms. This leads us to conclude that as long as you have a decent amount of content on your website, then you should be getting around 4 page views per visit.
Changes from 2009
There are only a couple of changes from the 2009 data that we feel are worth commenting on.
- Increase in Av. New Visits % - It would appear that all law firms are getting better at driving more new visitors to their website as this percentage increased in all three bands. This is probably due to law firms finally getting the message that email marketing, PPC, SEO and social media are all appropriate tactics for driving more traffic to your website.
- Reduced Bounce Rate – there as a noticeable reduction in the bounce rates for all three bands of firms. Over the last 12 months we believe that law firms have got better as making their websites more engaging, but there's more work to be done (see next point)
- Static Time on Site - One thing we think will improve this statistic will be the introduction of compelling online videos. When you think that the average YouTube visitor spends 15 mins PER SESSION on YouTube, law firms have a long way to go. The key here will be how to make videos about the law "compelling".
If you are from a law firm and wish to download the full benchmark, then you will need to give us your data for the six key statistics above and then you will be able to download the Excel file.