Website design for a law firm in Australia: the build order

An Australian firm's site answers questions rather than satisfying a rule. Britain requires firms to publish price information; Australia does not, so every page here is a commercial choice. The build order changes accordingly: the 5 pages a prospective client reads before ringing come first, not the fee schedule.

Last updated: 5 August 2026

What job does an Australian firm's website actually have?

To be chosen by somebody who is comparing firms, and nothing else.

That is the harder job, not the smaller one. Where a publication rule applies, a site can discharge an obligation and treat the search traffic as a bonus. An Australian page has to earn its place commercially or not exist.

In Brisbane, 8,800 people a month search for family law and Google charges around A$24.29 for one of those clicks, measured 3 August 2026. Those people know the practice area and not the firm. 15 of the 62 questions buyers ask across these searches are price questions, the largest single category in the set, measured the same day.

We do not know whether publishing fees wins or loses a particular firm work, and no supplier who tells you confidently either way has the data either. What we can say is which questions get asked, and how often. A firm's own obligations and its positioning are matters for the firm and its own advisers.

Why does the British build order not transfer?

Because that order begins with a document the reader did not ask for.

Where price and service information must be published for specified work, the first finished pages on a new site tend to be fee schedules and scope statements. They get built early because somebody in the firm is accountable for them existing, and the search benefit is incidental.

Australia has no equivalent requirement, which removes the accountability and, with it, the reason to start there. Starting there anyway produces a site whose most polished pages are the ones a person reads last.

The last row is identical on purpose: everything above it is wasted if the page is slow or the enquiry form fails on a phone.

Which pages should an Australian firm's site contain?

Five kinds, and no others until those five are right.

Not one page per suburb: a supplier proposing thirty location pages for a firm with one office is selling volume, the cheapest thing to produce and the least likely to be read.

The third row has the least competition. Nobody buys ads against how long does a property settlement take, so the only way to be present is to have written the answer — and those pages are read earlier in the decision than anything with a fee on it.

Should an Australian firm publish its fees at all?

It is a commercial choice, and there is a real argument on each side.

For. Price is the most-asked question category on these searches, 15 of the 62 recorded on 3 August 2026, and the firm that answers it in the search result is chosen by people who would otherwise ring three firms to ask. It also filters: somebody who reads a figure and does not ring was never going to instruct at it.

Against. A figure shown without its scope invites the wrong comparison, and legal work varies in ways a fixed number hides. A firm that then spends every first call explaining exclusions has bought itself work rather than saved it.

We build either version and hold no view about which suits a given practice. What we will not do is imply that Australian firms are required to publish anything, because they are not.

What decides whether any of this gets read?

The first sentence, the phone, and whether Google answers on the firm's behalf.

On 39 of the 54 highest-value legal searches we measured on 3 August 2026, Google generated an answer above the ordinary results. A firm ranking third on those searches sits underneath a block that may have already told the reader what they wanted to know. Across the whole keyword set the same pattern holds on 863 of 1,235 keywords.

The consequence for a build is unglamorous: every page needs its answer in the first sentence, with a figure in it where a figure applies. A page that spends four paragraphs establishing tone cannot be lifted, so it is never cited. It is the cheapest item here to fix and the one left until last.

What does a build cost?

A$1,900 for the sprint, A$4,200 for the build. Fixed, published, no minimum term.

The sprint works on pages that already exist: the answer-first rewrite, the technical layer, the enquiry route. The build adds the pages that are missing.

Of 40 legal-marketing suppliers we read in full on 3 August 2026, twelve published a price at all, five showed only a "from" range, eight claimed a guarantee of some kind, and one offered work with no minimum term.

We never charge per enquiry or per matter. Payment tied to cases introduces an incentive we do not want and restrictions we would rather stay clear of. We also do not promise a ranking, because nobody controls Google's results.

What will a new website not fix?

Three things, said now rather than discovered in month four.

• It does not buy time. If the firm needs matters this quarter, advertising is the correct channel and a rebuild is not. We do not manage ad spend, so saying that sends the work elsewhere.
• It does not fix intake. What happens between an enquiry arriving and somebody ringing back sits inside the firm, and decides whether the rest was worth paying for.
• It does not create capacity. A firm whose constraint is fee-earner hours will convert better visibility into declined work and a waiting list.

What this is worth where you are

In Brisbane, 8,800 people a month search for family law, and Google charges around A$24.29 for one of those clicks. We hold the same figures for 52 cities.

The free report gives you yours, plus which of the five page types above your site is missing, and what 40 suppliers charge.

Get the report →

No call required. Our own prices are on that page.

Where should I read next?

If the site is fine and the problem is visibility: law firm digital marketing covers the channel set, and law firm local seo covers the map results, which are ranked on different factors again.

If the firm is small enough that the build has to pay for itself quickly: small law firm seo covers the shortest useful version of this work.

If the question is who should do it: lawyer marketing agency covers choosing a supplier, and digital marketing lawyer covers the online channels one at a time.

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