Building a Comprehensive Legal Web Presence

Transforming a Nearly Finalized Site into a User-Centered Experience

This is a legal website serving a family law firm in Raleigh, NC. The client’s initial goals included modernizing an older, template-driven website that had limited responsiveness and poor customizability, forcing frequent PHP rewrites for even minor changes. The refresh needed to be fresh, clean, professional, and highly customizable.

Though a designer-created outline was initially approved, the client later changed direction dramatically—requiring an 80% revamp mid-development. Rather than re-involving the design team, I took on full UX responsibility to deliver the client’s revised vision. This project was content-heavy, featuring 48 pages, 100 blog entries, and 5 hidden ad landing pages. The client also had unique selling points around Parenting Coordinators in child-specific family law, adding nuance to their branding and content strategy.

Duration

5 weeks with ongoing support and maintenance.
2 weeks were added to the project to accommodate the changes, the final product was delivered 2 days early.

Role

Lead Developer
UX/UI Design
SEO Transition and Refinement
SEO Mentorship
Content Migration and Revamp

Scope

48 page site, 100+ blog posts, 5 hidden marketing landing pages
Update website responsiveness, improve customizability, refresh outdated design, "score high" on page speed tests and SEO tests.

Tech & Tools

WordPress site with custom PHP
Figma Wireframes

Initial Challenges & Solutions

Clunky, Old Site, User & Owner Complaints

The previous site used large blocks of whitespace, had minimal mobile functionality, and caused user frustration—further motivating a swift transition to a more modern platform.

Solution - Utilize Client Provided Feedback

Beyond our own performance analytic reports pulled from Semrush, Mouseflow, and Google Analytics, the client provided all the complaints and feedback that they had collected from their users and we used this information as a constant reminder of what didn't work.

Detailed Feedback Cycle

The client’s extensive design approval process meant they had very specific likes and dislikes, requiring multiple iterations and thorough documentation to keep track of changes.

Solution - Virtual Meetings & Monday Access

The client’s extensive design approval process meant they had very specific likes and dislikes, requiring multiple iterations and thorough documentation to keep track of changes. Sometimes the answer isn't technical, it's taking care of the client.

Matching SEO Request

Although the original site was outdated, it consistently ranked high in search results thanks to carefully optimized blog content. During the revamp, the client insisted on preserving that strong SEO performance, meaning we had to ensure a seamless transition to the new design without compromising search rankings.

Solution - Create a Cohesive SEO Roadmap

I worked closely with an SEO Content Writer to create an actionable roadmap for him to follow when selecting keywords, category titles, and tags.

Working the Problem

Draft Delivery & Initial Build

We focused on providing a comprehensive and responsive Figma mock up of the site, logo, and brand guide. The client did want to change their branding slightly - new fonts and a slightly different color scheme. During this phase we held weekly meetings with the client to ensure alignment on the new brand and content integration.
Once the initial wireframe was approved I took 5 weeks to build the site.

Content Integration &
Landing Pages

The client had over 100 blog entries that they wanted to maintain in full on their new site. In addition, they wanted to improve on their site performance overall while maintaining their SEO value. While the wireframing was going on, I focused on transitioning these blogs and carefully categorized the content to maximize clarity and SEO value.
I also created 5 hidden ad landing pages during this time that would only direct to them via a social media post. I worked on this in conjunction with the digital marketing team and helped to layout their lead-generation strategies for the site.

Task Management & Collaboration

With a lot of moving pieces and several teams involved (including the client) we coordinated all of the project management through our Monday software. This allowed us to move quickly on any changes that the client might request.

Site Review & Prep for Launch

After the five week build we performed a rigorous speed and SEO compliance test in addition to our normal quality assurance process.
Once we had processed everything, we turned the site over to the client for final review in order to prep for launch.

New Challenges

Sometimes no matter how carefully we plan, new issues arrive mid-project. It becomes necessary to pivot cleanly and pursue the new objectives, integrating them into our workflow.

Large-Scale Redesign

After the client received the site they rejected much of the originally approved layout with a 54 page "site issues" document. This resulted in an 80% overhaul of the site in order to meet with their new requests. They didn't want to compromise their launch time however, with such a substantial modification they agreed to extend the site launch out two weeks which established a time frame for the modifications.

Solution - Rapid Prototyping

Rather than loop back the design team, I opted to employ Rapid Prototyping to provide the client with several iterations on visual concepts quickly.

Managing & Documenting Rapid Iterations

Given the clients precise and frequent feedback I wanted to stay in front of creating any additional confusion and muddling the progress that we were making on their overhaul.

Solution - Shifting Communication Strategy

I focused fully on the task list and worked the problem in a direct and trackable line for the client. We looped them in our Monday so that they had transparency on the task tracking and allowed the content writer to communicate any client or routing changes that we adopted.

In addition to this, we created a custom Excel checklist and supplemental task management that effectively worked as a daily "bird's-eye view" of outstanding and completed requests.

Outcome in numbers

We refined the site architecture, but the main metric that was the client's proof of success was page speed metrics. On launch, we had the following results

Overall Performance

Accessibility

100

Best Practices

SEO

Steven Bonilla

Building a Comprehensive Legal Web Presence