Web 2.0 for lawyers, law firms, and attorneys - Q & A

As Web 2.0 (the next generation of web experience and sites) continues to grow and accelerate, visitors want interaction in everything they do. As the younger generation gets older and the older generation becomes more acclimated with web interaction, the typical Law Firm Website model will become a little less relevant. Web surfers want to ask for information via the web. They do not want to "call for a free consultation" or fill out an intake form where someone from the firm will contact them.
This is why you see a lot of Law Q & A sites out there. Law firm potential clients are asking legal questions on these sites and on general Q & A sites such as Yahoo Answers!
I have had discussions with many attorneys about the viability of the information of these sites. Some attorneys believe it is ok to give informational answers that cannot be described as any legal advice. Other attorneys believe that the whole legal question and answer model is fatally flawed. One lawyer told me "would you get advice on how to do open heart surgery on an answer from a website? So why would you be able to get solid legal information without consulting with an attorney on the phone?".
I'm not a lawyer and don't know which perspective is correct. I do know that less and less people like to use the phone. People want answers online just like they want to purchase products online. A general manager of a local Pizza Hut franchise told me his sales increased 25% when customers could order pizza online.
How law firms will deal with this quandary will be very important. Blawgs can be a little interactive, but do not answer the fundamental question, how should lawyers communicate with prospective clients in the age of Web 2.0?

Web 2.0, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flicr..oh my!

Whatever happened to websites that just displayed information? Websites where you could just buy stuff online?
They are still out there of course, but the internet is slowly changing to Web 2.0. What is 2.0? You are already a part of Web 2.0 if you are reading this Blog. Blogs are part of the 2.0 revolution. Web 2.0 is interactive. Site visitors want to comment, create profiles, upload/share pictures, communicate with friends or colleagues, rate movies or restaurants...and the list continues.
What does that mean to the average law firm or attorney? First of all, don't panic. Your old fashioned website is still the most important part of your online footprint. Your lawyer website can still be the "hub" for all of your other online activity.
Here is my suggestion, if you are interested in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc..., sign up as a personal user, not a business person first. Just to check it out. It's fun to reconnect with friends and know what they are doing. As you get more and more immersed into Twitter and the gang, see what your peers are doing. If they look active, then you may want to think about creating another or compliment account for your law practice.
Also, don't forget about that blog you keep putting off. Blogging by definition is search engine friendly (especially Google) and also Web 2.0 friendly. Blogging is interactive (comments can be made), frequently updated with new and relevant content, and properly categorized/tagged.

If you want to read up on a good blog regarding Web 2.0, these guys know there stuff:

http://lawyermarketing.attorneysync.com/blog/

Good luck and welcome to Web 2.0!

Yet another free website directory listing

There is much debate on directory listings having much search engine marketing value. The reason being is that oftentimes directories are not seo friendly for individual listings. A few years ago, you would see Findlaw and Lawyers.com individual pages showing up for local queries such as "Phoenix DWI Lawyer". Now that the internet is more crowded and search engine algorithms have dramatically changed, directories have lost some of their luster.
That being said, I recommmend that if a website directory is:
1. Free or minimal cost
2. Not a spam directory
3. Has a Google Page rank of at least 3
then it is worth creating a profile with your website address. It may take 5 minutes to do and it could help you.
For instance, I placed my other website, www.targetlaw.com into the free directory Brownbook. One day later the Brownbook listing showed up in a Google Alert I have for the term "Targetlaw". This means that Google must have indexed the listing and seen the word Targetlaw. Not bad for 3 minutes of work.
I will try and continue to search new directories that meet my criteria and share them with everyone.
By the way don't forget about Targetlaw, it is another free directory/search engine specifically for lawyer websites.

Yelp - another local free listing for businesses

I ran into an interesting website, www.yelp.com. This site is a local business directory with a twist. It allows visitors to rate 1 out of 5 stars for businesses in their local area. And oddly enough, there are a lot of lawyer and law firm listings. I recommend in getting a free listing for your law firm in this site. You can put in basic information including your website. Yelp has a Google page rank of 7 (out of 10) which is pretty high (Yahoo has a page rank of 9)which means it may help your firm website to be listed for SEO's sake.
I would also invite friends and family to give a review of your law firm. I'm not sure what ethical issues this may cause, so check with your Bar Association rules.
Creating your listing on Yelp is not the most important thing you can do to promote you website, but it can't hurt either. If you have 5 minutes, it might be worth the time.

Blogging, when self promotion is counter productive

From this blog, you can derive that I am very interested in strategies and tactics for lawyers and law firms to increase their exposure on the internet. Great web content, a relevant and informative blog, the right directory listings, search engine optimization etc all play a role in increasing potential clients to your practice.
All this being true, there has to be a correct tone in all the content that you publish out to the internet. I recently read a blog post by an solo practitioner regarding car accidents. It was very informative and relevant to someone looking for information on car accidents. Unfortunately, the author continued to mention himself and his practice as being qualified to handle car accident cases. Instead of the blog appearing informative and authoritative, it read more like a billboard. This cheapened his well thought out post. Maybe a few visitors will decide to call him, but someone more web savvy will see right through this post. In addition, I don't think the rest of the blog sphere will link back to this site as it looks more like advertising than an article.
So what's my point? If you have a blog, keep writing interesting and relevant posts. You do not have to plug your practice in the post. The fact that you write the post and credit the information to you and your firm, does far more to establish crediblity than mentioning your name 20 times.

Google Pay Per Click - Adwords

In my previous post I mentioned a great, easy, and effective way to get exposure and market your law practice on the web.
I would now like to give my brief take on using pay per click for law firms large and small.
If you don't know what pay per click is, do a search on Google, Yahoo, or MSN and you can see "Sponsored Results" typically on the very top of the search results page and on the right side of the page. How do you think those results appear there? Advertisers pay Google for their ad to appear when certain search terms are used. The interesting thing, is that advertisers pay only when their particular ad is clicked on, taking the searcher to a desired website or landing page. Advertisers bid for clicks on certain key words such as "car accident" or "asbestos". The amount that is bid is solely up to the advertiser (lawyer/law firm). The advertiser with the highest bid, will appear first in the sponsored results. The second highest bidder will appear second and so on.
On the surface this may seem to be a quick and easy to generate business. My advice, do a lot of investigation before you start. Here are some suggestions/comments before you jump into pay per click:
1. Do you have enough time to research pay per click in general, read the tutorials (Google provides good information at www.google.com/adwords)
2. Do you have the time to be able to bid, monitor, and adjust your pay per click strategy? I think that you should have to at least commit a few minutes per day to review your bid status.
3. Do you have a way to measure your results? I recommend a separate landing page on your website for you ad campaign. This allows you to monitor and measure the results of your sponsored links.
4. Could you be spending more time getting more business from the web by other means? Blog, newsletter, articles.

In theory, pay per click is great for a law practice, especially in the consumer space (family, personal injury, criminal, wills & estates, probate, immigration etc..). If business is slow, ratchet up your pay per click campaign for that month. If business is good, then put the brakes on the campaign.

For everything, the "devil is in the details". I believe a pay per click strategy can help compliment your other marketing avenues, if you do it right.

Get local with Google and Yahoo

Back to basics. From the research that I have done, people who search for things on the web, search by business type and location. This is no different for searches for lawyers or law firms. I review the web reports of my clients and see a lot of searches that my look like "DWI lawyer Texas" or "bankruptcy attorney Albany".
Having a great website with relevant content and good SEO will help your firm's website capture some of these searchers.
There is also a free and easy way to capture these potential clients through Yahoo and Google local listings.

For Google, go to: http://www.google.com/local/add and add your firm. You can add your website, address, phone number, hours of operation, types of law practice, what payments your firm accepts etc. You can even upload a logo. The whole process takes no more than 5 minutes. Below is a sample search "family lawyer San Antonio" I did on Google. You can see all of the local listings of law firms at the top of the search results! This trumps organic search engine marketing and is absolutely free.

The same can be done on Yahoo! at http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php

This is free, and local.

Lawyer Blogging Tips

When an attorney decides whether to start a blog or not, I always ask them, "Are you really going to spend the time to make your blog successful?" A neglected lawyer blog is worse than having no blog at all.
I stumbled across this article by Foster Web Marketing that has some very good ideas to help lawyers stay on point with blogs.
http://lawfirmandattorney-internet-marketing.com/a-blog-vs-an-active-blog/

This article gives 5 points for a successful blog. My two favorite are:
1. Set aside a certain time of day or week dedicated to working on your blog
2. Don't be afraid to invite guest bloggers to help you create blog posts

I had never considered these two suggestions. I recommend you check out the article.

Happy Blogging!

Directory vs Website listings

As you can guess from my previous posts, I believe a website for an attorney or law firm is one of the pillars of marketing your practice. A well constructed and crafted website can convey a professional/competent image and drive visitors and potential clients to your practice.

The two largest lawyer directories present attorney listings in a different manner. Lawyers.com, as a default, presents a typical "directory style" listing of a firm or attorney. In this listing, there is contact information, listing of lawyers, practice areas, law school information, etc. There is an option to "view website".

Findlaw on the other hand, defaults the listing back to the attorney's website. There are very few attorney listing that present the typical directory listings as described above.

There are pros and cons to both formats of listings. If I know a lawyer's name, then the directory style listing is quicker and more efficient. If I don't know a specific attorney, then I may want to investigate their website. Findlaw does not give the directory listing style whereas Lawyers.com gives you both options. For this reason, I have to give the nod to Lawyers.com for more consumer choice.

Please let me know what you think.

Business networking sites - LinkedIn

I recently read a great post by Larry Bodine about mistakes lawyers make on LinkedIn.
These are great points as you can see below. The biggest mistake I see is that many lawyers are not on LinkedIn. Primarily smaller law firms and solo practitioners. I recently did a search of Law Practice/ Law Firms for my zip code and only 7 firms showed up with 10 or less employees. Conversly, 185 law firms showed up with 10 or more employees.
Small law firms and solo practitioners should be networking as much if not more than the larger firms. So my recommendation, get on LinkedIn then follow the information on Larry Bodine's blog.
http://blog.larrybodine.com/2009/01/articles/tech/top-10-mistakes-people-make-on-linkedin/

Findlaw selling incoming links...Google no-no?

I must admit that I do not follow the tactical and strategic plans of Findlaw on a day to day time frame. However, I just read a very interesting article from iMarktinglawyerblog which describes how Findlaw sells incoming links from the huge Findlaw website. On the surface, it makes sense. Findlaw has a high page rank and any incoming links to a lawyer website would be powerful and relevant.
According to this article, Google frowns upon selling incoming links. Findlaw can charge anywhere from $1,000 to higher for these incoming links.
It's hard to quantify if Google has penalized the attorneys that have bought off on the incoming link package.
I would recommend to look closely at this package and do a lot of research before making any decisions. As I like to say, there are no "quick fixes" when it comes to honest and effective search engine marketing for lawyer websites and all websites. Findlaw is part of Rueters-Thomson, which is a huge company. Profits are hugely important.

You can read the article here:
http://www.ilawyermarketing.com/blog/2008/09/06/findlaws-pants-on-fire-denying-sale-of-links/

Video on lawyer websites

A very large lawyer specific web marketing company (You can guess whom I speaking of) is touting the effectiveness of creating a video of a lawyer(s) and placing this video on the attorney website. At first I was little skeptical of this a few years ago. However, with the onslaught of Youtube and specific video search engines, I believe that having a video on a website is worth looking into. Here are some of the compelling reasons to have a video:
1. A visitor can feel like they have "met" the lawyer before even walking to an office. This will allow some visitors to stop looking and start contacting you.
2. A law firm will stand out from other sites that do not have video. In today's crowded websphere, anything to stand out will help lawyers get the clients they are looking for.
3. An attorney can convey a message of what they are experts in better than just text. This communicates quickly with video. Users don't read websites as much as scan websites.
4. Google is showing videos in search results
5. Videos specific search engines are becoming more popular as Flickr did with images

If you do decide to go down the video path here are some recommendations:
1. Get a professional and experience video production company that specializes in video for the internet
2. Make sure that your video does not violate any of your state bar rules on advertising
3. Double check the output, and make sure it is exactly what you want
4. Be prepared to spend a good amount of money. You get what you pay for and this is not something to try and do on the cheap.

Another reason to have a lawyer website

For those attorneys that do not believe that clients are looking for lawyers on the internet, the world disagrees with you. However, here are some other reasons to have a website:
1. Professionalism. Okay, so you have the best reputation in your area of law, and do not need any more business from a website. What happens when a client wants to confirm their decision to hire you as their attorney? Do they call the local bar association? Do they go to Martindale Hubble? No. Clients go to the internet to justify their choices. Most people have never heard of Martidale Hubble. If I can't find your website, then I think that you are out of business
2. Attorney references. I hear this all the time from attorneys that need to refer their clients to other attorneys, especially out of town. Where do they find other attorneys? Frequently, it is the internet. Attorneys like to read about other attorneys. Where are they going to read up on another lawyer? You got it, websites.
3. Contact information. It may seem trivial, but address and phone information is critical. Most consumers don't look at phone books anymore. Before any appointment I go on, I always check the business's website I want to visit. This is usually the most recent information on location and phone number. Phone books and directories can be outdated.

Here are three prudent reasons to get a website. You don't have to believe all the hype of how a website will bring you millions of dollars, but a website does have practical purposes.

Web site design- Stock photos vs real photos

You often see a lot of "stock" photographs in attorney websites. This should not surprise anyone as we see a lot of stock photos (photographs professionally done of models that have no relationship to the particular entity of the website).
I'm often asked by my law firm clients whether accurate photos are more advantageous than stock photos.
As I often like to answer, it depends. I think that a photo of a solo practitioner or the team of lawyers can be good on the front page. It gives a sense of realism to the prospective client. The website visitor can see the face of the lawyer that he or she is actually going to do business with.
If you can get a professionally done photograph, and not a Passport type photo, then it might be good to show your mug to the masses. Proof how your photograph looks before you publish the website.
If you cannot get a photograph to work, then stock photos of columns, scales of justice, police cars etc, may work better.
On secondary pages, it is fine to use stock photos for attorney/ client interactions. Make sure to be diverse.
Good luck, and may your good side show through.

AARP legal directory

Here is a great lawyer directory that AARP gives to their 39 million members:
https://www.aarplsnbyge.com/lsn/ui/jsp/signup.jsp

What not sign up, especially if you do elder law, probate, personal injury, or anything that might be relevant to our older generations.

To much content, not enough links?

One of my clients had a huge website/blog with pages and pages of content. This website was put in the Google "Sandbox", meaning that his page rank went to 0 where it was a page rank of 3.
How could this happen? After much study, I found that this lawyer's website had virtually no incoming links (ie other sites referencing parts of the lawyer's website). There was about 1000 pages of content with only 20 incoming links. Google must have thought that this was a "spam" type site. We immediately posted his site on some free law firm directories, his local bar association, and places like Findlaw. It took a few months, but his site got back to a Google page rank of 3.
Lesson learned, don't forget incoming links. (caution, only link with reputable sites that have similar "legal" themes)

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.

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.

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

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