Thursday, November 20, 2008

Lawyer Web Marketing in these economic times

As every other industry across the country and globally, the practice of law is affected by the severe downturn in the economy. There are less real estate transactions, mortgages, deed and title work, real estate settlements, estate planning, and general business and consumer transactions.

So what is a lawyer or law firm to do in these challenging times to continue to market when market dollars are being squeezed? Here is a checklist of what a lawyer should continue to do to market his or her firm on the internet:

1. Take a fresh look at your firm's website content. Is it relevant for today's economic reality? Is the tone of the content in alignment with your target audience's mood? For instance an estate planning attorney may want to add some content which says something like "We understand the current economic reality, but now is the absolute best time to reavaluate your estate planning strategy" This will have some resonance with your potential client that A. you recognize and sympathize with his or her current mood and B. Give them a reason to come see you for a consultation when your potential client may not have otherwise.

2. Realize that all consumers including your potential clients are hesitant to make big decisions and are doing even more online research. These potential clients want information to help them in their decision making process. This means your site will need more legal related information to allow your potential client to "dip their toe in the water" and see if you are an expert in there desired issue. Customers are going to go online to find information, are they coming to your website or someone elses?

3. Create a lawyer blog giving your opinions or current economic news on a regular basis. The good news is that blogs do not have to be as formal as a typical law firm website. You do have to be consistent in writing a post on a regular basis.

4. Scour the internet for free lawyer directories and submit your website.

5. Submit you law articles to legal related article websites.

6. Look for legal question and answer websites and answer questions that are in your area of practice. You will establish yourself as an expert, allow you to get a potential client, and create a weblink back to your website.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Big changes in Google search engine algorithms

Many websites, including law firm websites have seen a substantial drop in web traffic over the last month or so. From my testing, it appears that Google has changed the way that it ranks pages for certain searches and search terms. While it is impossible to know or guess what Google is up to (their search algorithms are guarded like Fort Knox), webmasters should stick to the basics:
1. Keep adding relevant content to your law firm website. Think about, the more words you have on your website, the more likely Google, Yahoo, MSN etc will have your website show up on the first 10 or or so search results.
2. Keep it simple. Try and get your website link listed on relevant sites such as bar associations and legal directories. Stay away from straight link exchanges with websites that have nothing to do with you website.
3. Make sure your web pages are title tagged correctly
4. Make sure that you have a Google and Yahoo sitemap. This lets these search engines easily index your site.
5. Stay patient. The longer your website is out there, the more credence Google and the gang will give it. You don't want to be a "fly by night" type website.

Thursday, September 04, 2008

How do I get more people to my Law Firm Website?

I am asked this question by many lawyers who are trying to improve their web traffic and search engine optimization (SEO). Here are some free things you can do:
1. Make sure your website relevant content (words) to your practice. Try to write in more of a natural language, because you potential clients will use natural words to find you through such search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask, Microsoft, etc..
2. Sign up for as many free legal directory services as you can including Thomson Findlaw, Lawyers.com, Justia, Targetlaw etc...
3. Answer legal related questions on Question and Ask legal sites such as law guru and askinglaw.com
4. Make sure your website and information is listed on your local bar association directory

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Answer lawyer type questions on Askinglaw

As I mentioned in my previous post, www.askinglaw.com is a great law question and answer forum. Visitor's can ask any questions they would like. As an update from the last time I saw Askinglaw, there are a lot more questions and most of the questions are actually answered. The subjects include personal injury, family law, dwi, foreclosure, credit card debt, garnishment, and criminal law. It is a very easy site to navigate as you can search for a lawyer and search the website for you law based question. If I was a lawyer looking for more business and to market the firm's practive on the internet, I would definitely start finding relevant questions. By answering these questions you 1. Establish credibility on the subject matter (ie bankruptcy) 2. Provide contact information for the questioner and other's to hire you and 3. Provide a link back to you website which helps in internet marketing and rising higher on the search engines such as legal.

www.askinglaw.com