As with any business, internet marketing for lawyers starts with a website. The legal profession requires website design that reflects the traditional look and feel of a law office environment. There are countless web designers out there that can do the job and do it well. We warn against the tendency to seek website designers who have experience designing legal websites. This only serves to limit your choices and probably rules out better website designers in your area. Seek designers with great portfolios of diverse businesses and industries and you will choose from the best. However, do not make the mistake of hiring a web designer with the idea that once the website is designed and launched you just have to wait for new clients from your new website to just start flowing in. Your website needs to be found and being found on the internet means being found on the search engines, mainly Google.
Internet Marketing, including Search Engine Optimization (SEO), outsourced to a professional Internet Marketing Firm is a key short and long term decision in planning for success gaining clients online. SEO involves a sophisticated set of processes consisting of two main tracks; onsite optimization and offsite optimization. Onsite optimization involves the implementation of content and code to make certain that the scanning mechanisms of the search engines (spiders) can quickly and precisely understand exactly what your web pages are all about. Offsite optimization involves the promotion of relevant content that is linked to your website by additional coding techniques. This syndication results in wide deployment of articles and press releases, that when accepted by hundreds of online publishers, results in links directly to relevant content on your website; these links are called backlinks and are the major factor in search engine rankings. The best quality and the largest quality of backlinks results in top rankings for the targeted keyword phrases promoted through syndicated content.
Internet Marketing is expensive. The good news for local attorneys and law firms is that local SEO is not nearly as expensive as nationally-based or global SEO. This is because the number of relevant competitors is obviously much lower. The overwhelming majority of online searchers include local keywords or geocentric keywords when they search e.g. New Jersey attorneys, Cincinnati divorce lawyer, etc. This requires a locally-based content and keyword strategy. In this sense, there is no difference in the processes and specialties of Internet Marketing whether you are talking attorneys, doctors, accountants, electricians, plumber or landscapers. While there are huge differences in these professions and businesses, the internet marketing processes remain precisely the same. The only difference is obviously the website content as well as the content designed for syndication to promote the backlinks and ultimately high rankings and visibility.
When seeking an Internet Marketing Professional use the following simple checklist as a guide:
Keep in mind that Internet Marketing and SEO are long term processes that never end. If you stop, you will soon see yourself drop in the search engine rankings. As such, this is a serious commitment but one that can be very rewarding and potentially the strongest marketing component for your firm. Of course, if you have any questions, just contact us.