If you’re like the average family law practitioner with a website, most of the visitors stopping by your site were already looking for you. They Googled your name and showed up on your homepage. That’s the case for most low traffic sites with between zero and fifty visitors per day.

Most of those visitors were just looking for your phone number, or maybe they wanted to read your bio before committing to an appointment. More likely they were looking for a high school sweetheart with whom you share a name.

But new people, people who weren’t already looking for you, aren’t hiring you because of your website. They aren’t even coming to your site, and if for some strange reason they happen upon your site, they’re leaving quickly (very, very quickly).

Why aren’t you getting new clients from your site? Why are all of your clients coming from referrals from old clients and referral sources? Why is the yellow pages a better source of business for you than your website?

Because your website is all about you. It’s all about how terrific you are and what a great job you do. It’s all about your big name on the top of the page and which law school you attended. It’s all about the services you offer and your snazzy new office.

While all that crap makes you feel good (good enough to pay the guy who sold you the site), it doesn’t do anything for prospective clients.

They aren’t interested in you. Not surprisingly, they are interested in themselves.

They have a problem. They want a solution. They want information. They are in crisis. They want answers.

Picture this:

I just was bitten by a snake. Venom might be traveling up my leg, heading for my heart. I have minutes to live, and I really need to know whether that snake is the poisonous kind.

I Google snake bites.

I arrive at a site with a big headline: “Bob Jones, Doctor of Snake Bites.”

The site is beautiful. It tells me where Bob was educated, how long he’s been curing snake bites, and how his office is conveniently located near the hospital. He explains that he has a team of snake bite people all waiting for my arrival and that every room in his office has a beautiful view of the valley below.

OMG, I’m dying here. The venom is coming…I can feel my lungs constricting. I go back to Google  and move to the second result on the page.

Upon arriving at the site, I see pictures of snakes. Under each snake it says, “Is this the snake that bit you?”

I click on my snake. “This snake is not deadly,” it says. “At worst, you may experience nausea and headache. Please call the office immediately so that we can inspect the wound and evaluate your condition.” Suddenly, I can breathe again. I’m going to live.

That snake doctor was thinking about me—not himself. He knew what I needed. I rush to his office.

Look at your site. Is the big thing on the page your name, or is it something like “Is this the snake that bit you?” Are you helping me?

Put the prospective client first, and your site will generate new business. Make the site about you, and it will be a site that doesn’t garner much attention, build much trust, or bring in many new clients.

Does that make the least bit of sense to you?