A law firm website needs to show its practice areas, a team with OAB numbers, its offices, a WhatsApp contact and a useful blog, plus a privacy policy that follows Brazil's LGPD data protection law. It also has to follow Provision 205/2021 of the OAB, the Brazilian Bar Association, which allows informative marketing and bans, for example, promising results. I am Anderson Barbosa, of ab/ Designer Pro, and I build these sites from Campina Grande, Paraíba, working remotely with companies across Brazil.
What a law firm website needs
A law firm website needs six basic blocks. They appear in the portfolio cases and answer the three questions people ask before they get in touch: who the firm serves, whether it is serious, and how to talk to someone.
- Practice areas, each with its own text and a path to WhatsApp. The Guilherme Neto Advocacia website covers Civil, Labor, Social Security, Criminal and Family Law, plus corporate advisory, consumer, real estate and administrative law.
- A team with OAB numbers, with the name and practice area of each lawyer. In the Guilherme Neto project, the team has 9 professionals, and each one appears with an OAB number and a practice area.
- Offices, with address and map. Guilherme Neto Advocacia has 6 offices, in Campina Grande, João Pessoa, Boqueirão, Juazeirinho, Damião and Rio de Janeiro.
- WhatsApp and a contact form, with a message that already says where the visitor came from or which article they read. On the Guilherme Neto website, the WhatsApp button opens a chat with the message filled in, and the contact form uses a captcha.
- A useful blog, with articles that answer the questions of people looking for a lawyer. The Guilherme Neto blog has search, a filter by area of law and FAQs in each article.
- A privacy policy and a cookie notice, as the LGPD (Law 13.709/2018) requires. On the Guilherme Neto website, the policy appears in the footer and in the cookie notice, and third-party tags only measure after consent.
Practice areas: one page per area helps people find you
People looking for a lawyer can type their problem, such as "INSS benefit review" or "child custody", rather than the name of a firm. That is why each area deserves its own text, written in the words of the person who has the problem. The website of Camelo e Castro Advogados, a Social Security practice, opens with "Specialists in Social Security Law" and lists the benefits it handles, such as BPC/LOAS, rural age pension, sickness benefit, maternity pay, survivor's pension and prisoner's family benefit.
The corporate website of MFB Advogados has a section for each practice area, plus a presentation of the firm with its history, mission, vision and values. According to partner Enoque Melo, the firm's seriousness was clear from the first screen.
What Provision 205/2021 allows
Provision 205/2021 of the OAB allows legal marketing as long as it follows the ethical rules of the profession (art. 1). The table below lists the points I checked in the text of the provision. I am not a lawyer, and this does not replace advice from a lawyer or from the OAB section in your state.
| The provision allows | The provision forbids |
|---|---|
| Promoting the firm in an informative way, with discretion and sobriety (art. 3) | Persuasive expressions, self-promotion or comparison (art. 3, IV) |
| Objective and truthful information, with the identified people answering for the content (art. 1, §§ 1 and 2) | Information that may mislead (art. 3, II) |
| Photos of the lawyers and the firm's logo (art. 5, § 2) | Using the OAB's official logo or symbols (art. 5, § 2) |
| Contact details, such as WhatsApp, website and social networks, with sobriety and discretion | Mentioning fees, payment methods, free service or discounts to attract clients (art. 3, I) |
| Informative content on the blog and social networks | Promising results (art. 6) and directly urging litigation or hiring (art. 3, § 1) |
In videos and images of professional work, mentioning court decisions and results is also forbidden, unless the case has already been covered by the press (art. 4, § 2). The provision also bars linking legal services to other activities (art. 8), and paid promotion cannot be fraudulent (art. 4, § 5).
How local SEO works for a law firm
To appear when someone searches for "lawyer in Campina Grande", the site needs pages with their own title and description, a Google Business Profile and correct structured data. I do not promise a position on Google. What I do is keep the site technically clean and its content aligned with the search. For an overview of websites in the city, read the guide website creation in Campina Grande.
- Structured data: on the Guilherme Neto project, the firm is marked as LegalService and each office as Attorney. The blog articles carry Article, BreadcrumbList and FAQPage markup.
- Google Business Profile: the site links to it through a short link. The profile should have the firm's address and practice areas filled in.
- Search and filter pages outside Google: on the Guilherme Neto website, they are kept out of the index to avoid duplicate content.
- Sitemap, clean URLs and canonical tags: the sitemap is generated from the database, with clean addresses and a correct canonical on each page.
How to measure contacts that come from ads
To know whether an ad brings clients, the conversation it generates has to be measured. On the Guilherme Neto project, each WhatsApp button is a standard link that Google Ads recognizes as a conversion, and the message sent says whether the person came from a Google ad, the Google Business Profile, organic search, Instagram or Facebook. The same source is stored with form leads, and the panel organizes contacts on a lead board.
With Consent Mode v2, tags only measure after the visitor accepts the cookie banner. The traffic manager should take that limit into account when reading the numbers.
How much a website for a law firm costs
In the price list of ab/ Designer Pro, a company website with up to 5 pages starts at R$ 2.800, and a landing page for one offer starts at R$ 1.490. A firm with several practice areas and a page for each one adds pages, and the price list says that more pages raise the value. Hosting and domain are not included.
If the firm needs its own system, such as client records and an appointment schedule, the range is different: a custom system starts at R$ 3.900. I do not recommend an automated legal chat without care, because the annex to the provision bans automatic replies by app to people who are not yet clients. If a project needs more than the price list covers, I tell you before starting, as the price list page itself says.
If your firm wants a website with practice areas, a team, offices and a panel to update it alone, talk to me through the contact form. I look at what already exists, the areas the firm handles and what the OAB allows in each piece, and I tell you which range fits. The services are on the services page, and the reference prices are on the price list.
Frequently asked questions
Can a law firm website advertise its services and attract clients?
Yes, as long as the promotion is informative, with discretion and sobriety, as Provision 205/2021 of the OAB sets out. A law firm website cannot promise results, mention fees, free service or discounts to attract clients, or use persuasive or self-promoting language. The safe approach is useful content on the blog, a presentation of the team and easy contact.
What does a law firm website need?
A law firm website needs practice areas with their own text, a team with each lawyer's name, OAB number and practice area, offices with address and map, a WhatsApp button, a contact form, a blog with useful content, and a privacy policy with a cookie notice, as the LGPD requires.
How much does a website for a law firm cost?
In the ab/ Designer Pro price list, a company website with up to 5 pages starts at R$ 2.800, and a landing page for one offer starts at R$ 1.490. Extra pages, a blog, more languages and photos or videos that need to be produced raise the price. Hosting and domain are extra, and the final price is flagged before work begins.
How can a law firm measure contacts that come from ads?
A law firm can measure ad contacts when each WhatsApp button counts as a conversion and the message says where the visit came from. In the Guilherme Neto project, the message says whether the person came from a Google ad, the Google Business Profile, organic search, Instagram or Facebook. Tags only measure after the visitor accepts cookies, so the numbers should be read with that limit in mind.
Can the firm update its website by itself?
Yes. A law firm can update its website alone when the site has its own panel. In the Guilherme Neto project, the firm edits the blog, practice areas, team, offices, testimonials and settings without touching code, and follows inquiries on a lead board. The ab/ Designer Pro company website package also includes a panel to change texts and photos.
