Sliders Suck. Stop Creating Sliders for Your Law Firm Website.
By Peter Boyd on February 13, 2020 in Web Design
We strongly believe in educating others about best practices for law firm websites. We were one of the first agencies to use WordPress and make responsive websites for firms. We were also one of the first agencies to create sliders for law firms.
At this time though, we are advising against creating sliders on every home page. Why this change? It comes down to having a focused message, not wasting time on something users may not see, speed, and the fact that mobile is not as friendly with sliders.
- Message – It is better to showcase your best message, rather than inundate a client with multiple messages. Put all your effort into creating a brand on your home page with a single, focused message. Find that perfect photo and key message. If you really have multiple messages, then either try them each out via an A/B test or simply include them all on the page when you scroll as other subheads. The key to marketing is to be selective in what you say and having a slider goes against that perspective.
- Users Don’t Read – Simply put, users won’t see slides 3, 4, 5 and beyond. They may not even see slide 2 on your website, depending on your slider settings. So all that thought, time and effort are spent on something that is never seen. If something is important, put it on the page scrolling down (which users will read) instead of a slider.
- Speed – The site will load faster without a slider on desktop and mobile. Period. Homepage slider images are generally the largest on the website – not just in photo dimensions, but in the filesize they demand. Sliders also require JavaScript to fire when the website first loads. Less file size and less scripts running means a faster load, enabling your visitors to get to your core content faster.
- Mobile – Sliders were never designed with mobile in mind. User behavior on mobile tends to scroll down quickly. Waiting for a slider to change might be unlikely and therefore a user might miss an important message or image buried in a slider.
We have lots of websites that have sliders on them. Lots. Even some of our new launches have sliders. But we still don’t recommend them for the above reasons. So we have to start somewhere in making recommendations.
Ultimately, we will produce one for you on your next project. So if you want one, just ask. Sometimes they may be appropriate if you need to showcase a few items quickly. But we just would not recommend going the slider route. Instead make a good mobile, responsive design that showcases your message by scrolling down the page.
