Lawyer Directories vs. SEO

A lot of legal marketing companies like to offer enhanced listings in directories. Others prefer to focus on search engine optimization. The question is, which one is better?

Lawyer directories, such as http://directory.seolawfirm.com, Lawyers.com, and others do provide a useful service when it comes to driving traffic to your website. However, if a legal marketing company is ONLY providing a directory link, your ranking is not likely to improve in Google or other search engines.

The process of search engine optimization consists of your onsite presentation and use of keyphrases, and the number of third party websites linking back to your law firm’s website. Just one directory listing will not achieve that as you need multiple links to your website to enhance your ranking.

Does this mean you shouldn’t use directories?

Not at all. What this means is you should use both. Directories are a good traffic source and generally, a directory is a powerful inbound link for your website; so they are good to have. However, you also need search engine optimization and a monthly process in which multiple inbound links from multiple sources are being created for your website.

It’s also important to make sure your legal marketing company clarifies exactly how they are getting links for your website. If your contract only states “link building,” then they are probably just plugging you into some of their internally owned websites.

Always get a detailed outline of what is being done for your website’s onsite search engine optimization and inbound link building because ultimately (according to Google), you are responsible for what gets done to improve your ranking.

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, and law firm web design, visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.