MVDM Advocaten: website for a law firm

MVDM Advocaten is a law firm with offices in Ypres and Brielen (Belgium). I have looked after the firm’s website since 2018, initially under the name Onraet-Verfaille. When the firm continued as MVDM Advocaten in the autumn of 2022, the site received a completely new look, with the understated black-and-white photography that is now the firm’s calling card.

The challenge

A law firm wants to radiate trust: sober, professional and above all clear. Visitors quickly look for the answer to three questions: what does this firm do, what does it cost and who are the lawyers? The site also had to be available in Dutch and French, rank well in Google and absorb the name change without losing visitors.

The solution

A clean one-page website that brings everything together on a single page:

• Clear structure: about us, services, fees, team and contact, all reachable through one navigation
• Practice areas at a glance: family law, construction and property disputes, criminal defence, traffic law, contracts and debt collection, each explained briefly and understandably
• Bilingual: complete Dutch and French versions with correct hreflang references for search engines
• Contact: a contact form that mails straight to the firm and the details of both offices
• Smooth transition: sitemaps for both the old and the new domain name, so the firm remained findable after the rebranding

Technology

• Front-end: HTML5, CSS3 based on LESS and Bootstrap, jQuery and a responsive image slider; fast and without heavy dependencies
• Form: simple PHP handling of the contact form, without an external form platform
• Findability: well-considered metadata, XML sitemaps, hreflang alternates and Google Analytics

Result

A website that has been in production since 2018 and grew with the firm at minimal cost, including a full rebranding in 2022. Proof that a well-built static website is often the most sustainable choice for a small business.