Law Firm Internet Marketing
Cost vs. Results
How much money do you spend on law firm internet marketing? My clients have
spent $20,000 to $40,000 at places like FindLaw, a very popular attorney location on
the net. Some of the reason for the cost is popularity and that websites take
labor, lots of it.
Unfortunately, it has been my experience that those websites market FindLaw
better than your firm; When it comes to search engines.
I'm not here to "bad mouth" anyone, but I have reasons for my
claim.
Law firm internet marketing fundamentals are the same for any business.
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You have to rely on search
engines for traffic.
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Keywords and Content are
required to reach your target market.
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The more information you can
provide, the more traffic your site will see.
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"Back links", (links
from other sites to your site) have much to do with site rankings.
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And the easier your site is
found, the more likely it is new clients are the result.
A recent search for "raleigh criminal attorney" is a great example.
My results at Google Local was the web addresses for Findlaw,
attorneypages.com, and then an independent listing. Pick either of the first two
and you'll go to their site to search among all Raleigh attorneys. If you choose
the third, you go directly to that website. Who got the better deal?
Another example is when researching two recent clients website rankings, the
majority of sites listed were not links to the attorneys pages. They led to the
big companies sites.
So if the point is your web site needs traffic and all do, this indirect
method of finding you is hurting your business. When you surf the net, how many
clicks is it until you give up finding what you wanted?
Should You Own Your Law Firm Internet Marketing Program?
One of those same clients wanted to take his website elsewhere. He found out
he had to buy the content and pay me to move it. When you "build
your own house" you own it and all it's contents too, so why not a website?
Some advertising groups use content management systems. That makes it easier
to manage 100's or thousands of clients. One of the methods to save time is
using the same content over and over, but with your name on it. Don't know about
you, but I'm unique in the practice of my trade.
And especially because you control things then. What gets published about
your firm is critical. If you control the marketing, you also have to "know
a little" about it. That one step alone can save you a small fortune. It is
real easy to understand the fundamentals
of law firm internet marketing when you first understand the fundamentals of
how people use the net.
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