When it comes to internet marketing you know that certain tactics and strategies can be more effective in one industry than in another. Working at an internet marketing company for close to 8 years now, I’ve seen thousands of websites, hundreds of social media strategies and countless online advertising plans to understand what factors work best for a given industry.
Today, you’re going to discover the essential online marketing tools that every law firm should be utilizing. It has amazed me how different industries can benefit differently by slightly tweaking their internet marketing strategy. I thought it would be nice to hone in on one vertical and some first-hand pointers that we have seen work really well.
Without further adieu, below are some specific internet marketing tips, tricks and tools for the legal industry.
- Include Strong Calls-to-Action on Your Legal Website
Calls-to-action tell people what you want them to do when they arrive on your website. This eliminates the guess work for your visitors, and can improve your conversion rate optimization.
Determine the most important action people can take on your website. Do you want them to call the firm or would you prefer that they fill out a contact / lead generation form? Once you know how you would like to be contacted, make sure it is easy for prospective customers to contact you via this method of communication. - FAQ pages are a HUGE Asset for Legal Websites
You may be a lawyer but not everyone is. The legal process and the plethora of different lawyers available can make any person’s head spin! An FAQ page can do its intended purpose and offer answers to commonly asked questions, but there is another benefit; you can use these pages to add a lot of rich keywords that explain what people are actually looking for as well as the technical terms. Offering a mix of legal jargon with the terms your clients are actually using can give you more chances to get found in the search engines. Since consumers don’t always know legal speak, they don’t search for that either, especially in very specialized practice areas. - Start Blogging!One of the best ways to showcase your talents, cases, expertise, and successes is by blogging. The legal world is always changing and to be able to point customers to legal news, testimonials and other information, a blog platform is a great way to do so. A blog can also be easily shared through social media channels and RSS (real syndicated content) and give you an edge over your competitors by being an authority in your niche practice areas. Plus, it could also be a fun outlet to talk about your passion for law. 🙂 In addition, there are a ton of legal content writing opportunities to allow you to guest blog on other websites which will help with quality backlinks and showcasing your authority on a particular legal topic. You can use this as an opportunity to showcase that you have been “Featured On” websites as well offering up your insight. If you need some help getting started then check out this post on what to write about on your blog!
- Build your Google+ Local Presence
Make sure your consumers can find you on the Google map and in the search engines. It is free to add your business to Google+ Local and will give you the opportunity to be found for local searches (which is a majority of the searching that is done, especially for mobile searches (upwards of 50% of search on a mobile device is said to be with local intent as announced by Google+).Quick Tip: There should be one Google+ Local per lawyer as well as a firm profile. Get on Google+ Local Now! - Optimize Your Content with Targeted Local & Practice Area Keywords
To improve your local SEO make sure your website has keywords that target the geographic regions your firm services. For instance, if you are an intellectual property lawyer in Kansas, include “Kansas intellectual property law” and it’s variations in your titles, H1s, and page copy content. On the directions or About page on your site, also list out the surrounding towns and cities you reach. - Submit Your Site To Law and Local Directories
Gain some quality backlinks and referral traffic by adding your website to legal-specific directories online. Here is a Law Directory List to start with:- Findlaw.com
- Nolo.com
- NewYorkLawDirectory.com
- FinaAPersonalInjuryAttorney.com
- Hg.org
- Lawyers.com
- Martindale.com
- SuperLawyers.com
- TrialAcademy.org
- LawyerLinks.co
- NYLawyerPages.com
- MillionDollarAdvocates.com
- BrownBook.net
- UncoverTheNet.com
- Avvo.com
- Law.net
- LawGuru.com
- BenchmarkLitigation.com
Local Directories:
- CitySearch.com
- Yelp.com
- Chambers – To get the word out even more, join the local chambers of commerce, professional organizations, associations and memberships in the area to form strong relationships with other like-minded business professionals, provide networking opportunities and a source of traffic to your website with strong, quality links on .org sites.
- Local Online Guides in your Service Region – If you are a lawyer in the Albany NY area, a good website to be on would be Albany.com’s Albany lawyerspage. This can send you direct traffic and provide a quality link on a page rich in local legal terms.
- Sponsor Events
Not only are you helping your community and getting your brand out in the public, there is also an opportunity to get link backs form the organizations you are helping. If you or anyone on your Board is supporting a local charity or event, ask for a link on their site. This could be a very valuable backlink. - Get a Mobile Website
There’s a good chance that your next client isn’t just searching for a lawyer from their desktop. People are using their smartphones and tablets on-the-go to find information about local businesses. In fact, people search for the term ‘personal injury lawyer’ 550,000 times each month from their mobile device. Imagine what happens when they land on your website and it’s not optimized for their mobile device- that’s right, they’ll go back to Google and visit one of your competitor’s websites. Get a mobile website, and get more traffic!
What Strategies Have Been Most Effective for Your Law Firm?
Do you have any other tips or internet marketing tricks for lawyers? Please comment below! Or, are you a lawyer that has had any success with these tips? I am interested in hearing your feedback.