We have acquired quite a few clients from these institutions over the years. While a few may have had a customer service issue or a problem with their account manager, that was rarely the cause for moving to a new marketing company. The main reason law firms jump from big marketing companies is because they realize that the market changes daily, and the big companies’ size prohibits them from evolving fast.

You need an online marketing firm that can change or add to their SEO strategy within a couple weeks when something changes in Google’s algorithm. Or at least the marketing company should be able to add helpful services such as social networking integration when everybody is expecting it.

Without agility, an online law firm marketing company is just a web designer.

Here are a few things that your law firm must have in their online marketing strategy:

1) Blog – A blog serves many purposes to your website but those are not helpful if your blog is not integrated into you website’s domain name (i.e., http://www.example.com/blog/). Many companies that jumped on the blog-wagon late started setting up blogs on subdomains, third party websites, or new domain names. The inbound link generated from an offsite blog is insufficient compared with the value of having an active onsite blog. The onsite blog keeps your website growing, thus appearing to Google as more of a resource not just an advertisement.

2) Social Networks – Your online marketing strategy should expose you to opportunities beyond search engines. By integrating your website’s blog with Facebook and Twitter, your law firm can access massive networks of prospective clients. In fact, with some solutions you can automate the Facebook interaction and Tweeting by synching your blog feed with these networks. Thus, when you blog it automatically sends that content into the social networks.

3) Share Content – You are en expert in your field, prove it! Use legal oriented networks like LawLink and JDSupra to publish articles in your area of law. Aside from being a great traffic source for your law firm’s website, your content has links pointing back to your website from these highly relevant networks. Using third party networks like JDSupra has become so effective that we have started integrating their services into our custom marketing packages.

When interviewing potential marketing companies, ask them when they last changed their marketing strategy. Ask them how often they review not just your website but their overall solution. Make sure the company you select has the agility to help you build a Bigger Law Firm™.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm™ Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

However, these applications were unattractive, hardly functional, and navigating a website on a traditional cellular phone was awkward at best.

Now that smartphones are becoming commonplace and are able to render websites with the same standards as mainstream browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, your law firm should embrace what is sure to take over the legal marketing industry – a mobile website.

Even though your website is going to look the same on an Android or iPhone as it does on your computer, it will not be easy to navigate. Websites are designed to be wide, use large graphics, have at least two columns, and assume that the end user has a mouse. When you cram in a drop-down menu, small text links, and a top slider graphic onto a four inch screen, the site becomes difficult to utilize with an index finger.

A mobile website is activated by simply accessing your law firm’s website on a mobile device. It places large, finger-friendly graphics on the home page to help the user navigate the site. You can also include small contact forms and offer contact cards (or vCards) for the user to instantly add your firm to their contact list. And by placing your phone number on the site in plain text, prospective clients can tap on your number, select call, and get in contact with your law firm.

The percentage of web traffic coming from mobile devices is quickly growing. In fact, just this year mobile web surfing has jumped from 0.65 percent to 0.87 percent of the world’s Internet traffic.

While that may seem negligible right now, you should not wait to integrate this into your legal marketing strategy. Just as the law firms in your area that registered their domain names 15 years ago now enjoy elevated rankings, lawyers that utilizing mobile marketing will be better positioned for what is sure to come in the future.

Right now, Google bases their rankings on the main website. But where will your firm rank if Google’s mobile search starts acting solely on indexed mobile websites?

Time is the one element that an online law firm marketing company cannot help you with. However, you can lay a solid foundation for your law firm’s growth by embracing the mobile Internet.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm™ Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

For starters, a website is not comprehensive. Your law firm’s website is the starting point of your marketing strategy. A very important one, but just the beginning.

From Design to Doing

The design of your law firm’s website can positively or negatively effect your conversion rate. How you present your firm, the simplicity of which someone can contact you from your website, and the way your images and graphics touch your prospective clients all work together to make an effective website. So a first class website built to impress and convert should certainly be a part of a comprehensive strategy.

Once a website is designed, ample amounts of quality content is published on the site, keyword research has identified what your prospective clients are searching for, and the website has been properly optimized, it is time to start marketing. Here is what we believe a comprehensive organic online marketing strategy should be for a law firm.

Content Driven Links

To get your website ranked well in the search engines, you will need a substantial amount of links pointing to it. Producing and distributing articles is a great way to get quality links. You should work with a company that either does this for you, or has a program to keep you on a regular writing schedule. While many lawyers are capable of writing phenomenal pieces, schedules often have other plans. Taking a little time each month to write or review content will ensure a steady stream of new links coming into your website on a regular basis.

No News is a Good Way to Be Unknown

News releases offer many benefits, but the one that always comes to mind is instant traffic. When your law firm produces a press release and submits it through a network like Law Firm Newswire, you get instant traffic from social networks, blogs, Google News, and 220 news outlets. Plus, as your news release syndicates, the links within your news release get republished, thus helping with your link building.

A press release (or news release) routine of twice a month is ideal. It keeps you in the online news circuits every other week and keeps traffic flowing into your website independent of your search engine ranking.

Social Networks

If your online marketing company is not connecting you to social networks, what are they doing? Social networks open your law firm and your law firm’s content to a wide new audience that cannot be ignored. Aside from helping you directly attract new clients, having a social presense with a constant flow of your expertise flowing into the networks, you can also attract other attorneys that may refer new cases to your firm.

Think Local

Getting top page placement is becoming synonymous with Google Places. When someone does a search with a city, or in their city (ie: Chicago estate planning attorney), Google often shows top listings, which are based on the website’s standing in Google Places and the search engine optimization efforts of the domain name. It takes both. But optimizing for Google Places is more than updating a profile, it’s a process of its own.

While one could debate the details of what a “comprehensive organic online marketing plan” should be, any plan that does not include these services has a lot of room for progress. Of course, this is not a list of all tools available. With videos, email marketing, podcasting, and more, your online marketing arsenal can keep growing with your law firm.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

What to Film

Information sells. You want web content that is informative and answers some basic questions that your potential clients may have. You want your videos to do the same. A video should never be more than two minutes, and should always provide answers to the common questions. For example, if you are a bankruptcy attorney, you should briefly explain the various bankruptcy options and who they are for. Divorce attorneys can give a brief outline of how a contested and non-contested divorce will proceed.

If you have multiple attorneys in your firm, have each one talk about whatever they primarily practice. The videos will show that your firm is knowledgeable and experienced in the practice area(s) advertised on your website.

Never Auto Play

Fewer things will increase your bounce rate more quickly than an auto play video. While videos are popular, they are not always wanted when a visitor opens a website. A visitor clicking onto your website from a search engine will more than likely click back rather than fumble around your video player to pause or mute your video.

Also, many visitors will be searching for your website at work. Embarrassing them with an audible “Your divorce can be easy!” is not going to make a positive first impression.

Make the video obvious on the home page with a large play button. The visitor interested in viewing your video can easily click play once they have adjusted their audio settings and are willing to hear what you have to say. For collections of information, you can include relevant videos on the appropriate pages (ie: the “what is chapter 13 bankruptcy?” video goes on the chapter 13 bankruptcy page) or place them together on a video page forming a video frequently asked questions.

Filming short information pieces with voluntary play options will help increase the return on your video investment.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

However, once you are getting visitors to your website, it is time to focus on conversion.

Conversion simply means converting a visitor (a stranger) to someone that contacts your firm via a form, or calls to set up a consultation. Here are a few tips to improve your website’s conversion rate.

1) Top Right Textual Phone Number – People tend to look at the top right of a website for contact information. Place your law firm’s phone number at the top right of every page on your website and make sure it is not concealed in an image. With many visitors searching for lawyers with their smart phones, you have an added advantage by keeping your phone number plain text. Most Android devices and iPhones allow users to select a phone number and access a menu of options, including placing a call. This makes a call to your law firm one easy click.

2) Create a Lead Funnel – While some firms opt not to do this because of aesthetics, it really works. Simply identify two to three practice areas that you particularly want to focus on. Then, in the header of your website, place two to three buttons that your visitors can relate to. For example, a divorce lawyer could have three buttons that say “I want a divorce”, “I am contesting a divorce”, “I have a custody dispute”. Immediately upon arrival to the firm’s website, the potential clients are encouraged to select one. Clicking on one of those buttons generally takes them to a page with a brief paragraph and contact form.

3) Targeted Practice Area – While many firms have multiple practice areas, you should target your website to related practice areas. If Google sees a website that is talking about divorce, bankruptcy, criminal defense, and personal injury, generally that website will not rank as well as a website for a firm that is entirely focused on one particular practice area. Not only does Google yield the high ranking to a targeted website, but it confuses your visitor. People like specialists, and if they believe you or your firm deal with fewer matters, it leads them to believe that you have more experience in the area of law that relates to their issue.

Improving conversion is really about improving communication with your target audience. Position what you do and who you are very quickly and make it simple for a visitor to contact you. After all, visitors only turn into new cases after they contact your firm.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

Websites are ranked based on Google’s analysis of their credibility. Google’s algorithm is designed to detect elements that users want to see so that, theoretically, if Google likes the website, users will too. With the addition of Google +1 and the company’s demand for unique content, it would seem that they are not thinking small.

When planning out your website, you should try to think of some innovative ways to get as much content as possible on the website. Just throwing a handful of predictable articles and practice areas online will simply not do. You need useful content. You need content that your audience will appreciate so much that they will hit that +1 button on your website, or Tweet about it, or plug it into their Facebook wall. In short, you need content that will go viral.

The nice part about being an attorney is that you hold the answers to many questions. After all, people and businesses generally turn to lawyers when they have questions. Over time, you probably find yourself answering the same basic questions with each consultation. These are the questions that will form the most useful content on your law firm’s website.

By creating large collections of information, answers to basic questions pertaining to your area of practice, and giving real experience-oriented insight into the area of law of which you practice, you prove to Google that your website is a resource, not just an advertisement. You prove to your visitors that your law firm is experienced and able to help them in their time of legal distress. By impressing both of those targets, you are able to be easily found and convert visitors into new cases.

Ultimately, you are able to build a bigger law firm, one new client at a time.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

Any online legal marketing strategy comes down to getting traffic to your website and phone calls to your firm. Not just any visitor will do – you need qualified traffic. While your search engine placement may come to mind, the visitors to your new website will come from various sources, Google being one of many.

Think of Google as three different traffic sources. First, you have traffic from Google’s traditional search results. This is what generally comes to mind when one thinks of search engine optimization. Second, traffic will come from Google Places. These are listed associated with the map and oftentimes are displayed along with your natural ranking. Your Google Places ranking will help your natural search engine ranking and vice versa.

The third source of Google traffic is often overlooked in marketing plans, and that is Google News. Keeping a steady flow of news releases going into Google News will help get same-day traffic to your website and capacious online exposure for your firm.

The steps involved in getting traffic from these three sources should be included in your strategy. Here are a few short tips for each.

1) Google Search – Your search engine optimization strategy is going to rely on large amounts of content available on your website, quality inbound links from third party websites to your website, and a consistent flow of new content posted on your website to make your site appear alive and growing. The most reliable links will come from writing and publishing content in various legal networks that will link back to your law firm.

2) Google Places – While many factors are involved in helping your Google Places ranking improve, one often overlooked element is reviews. The more reviews you have on your Google Places profile, the better you will rank. Reviews show Google that you are a legitimate business and thus worthy of higher placement.

3) Google News – You need to get your press releases published through a Google News contributor. This is the only way to get your content into Google News, as they do not accept direct submissions. Law firms can use Law Firm Newswire (http://www.lawfirmnewswire.com) to get into Google News and hundreds of other news outlets.

Before you plan your new website, get with a legal marketing specialist to draft your strategy for getting traffic.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

The update targets content farms and websites with heavy amounts of duplicate pages. The most noticeably affected websites were eHow and Wikihow – basically websites that publish content that has been previously published elsewhere.

On Friday, June 24, we released a press release endorsing the new changes and pointing out that our clients were not affected by the update. However, we are making changes to our marketing plans to make sure our clients continue to not face negative consequences for any future changes. Here is what you can do to avoid losing positions over Google Panda 2.2 and other upgrades to come.

1) Link to Articles, Don’t Publish Them – When you come across an interesting article, your website will be better served linking to it. If you copy the article and paste it into your blog, you are now duplicating content. This is the very practice Google is discouraging with these recent updates. Of course, you can still get unique content out of linking to existing content by writing a blog entry related to the story. Write a summary about the story, why you found it interesting, and your point of view about the article’s topic. Then link to the story. Google likes seeing the websites you link out to and even uses that as an indicator for the quality of your website.

2) Avoid Shortcuts – Be it link exchange schemes, copy and pasted content, or link wheels, avoid doing things for your website that promise fast ranking improvements. While your competitors may enjoy a brief raise to the top, eventually Google will create a patch that will cause the website to drop off the top. It is better to take the steady course that will yield long term benefits and progressive position enhancements.

3) Scribacious Lawyers Do Best – The moral of this update is that Google wants more content and they are tired of reading the same thing on different websites. Keeping an active stream of well written content flowing into your website will be rewarded with favorable rankings. So keep track of topics that come to mind and make your law firm’s website a library of useful information.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

Google looks at customer reviews much like they look at links for your regular search engine placement. Of course, with the Google Places listings and search engine results being merged together last year, your law firm will need both to achieve a high page one ranking.

When a profile has many reviews, it acts as verification of the listing’s credentials. That essentially tells Google that the law firm name, address, and phone number are correct and the firm is actively doing business. Such verification gives credibility to the firm, thus a high quality rating. In fact, with Google’s goal being verification of credentials, not all reviews have to be good. This is a quantity game.

While positive reviews may not be a must, for the sake of converting visitors to new clients, you will want positive feedback. The best way to get this feedback is by contacting satisfied clients.

Step 1
Locate your Google Places profile and click on “link” at the top right. This will give you a long URL. Copy that URL.

Step 2
Go to lawURL.com and paste the long URL into the “URL” box. Then click on the orange button that says “Shorten”. This will generate a simple URL like this: http://lawurl.com/3z7.

Step 3
Send an email to some satisfied clients following up with them and asking to take a couple minutes to review your firm. Include the shortened URL generated by lawURL.com.

Google also looks for reviews on other local search engines like Avvo, Judy’s Book, Insider Pages, and more. If a client writes a review on one of these other networks, it will be included on your Google Places profile as long as all of your contact data is exactly the same throughout all of your listings. Also, be sure to check with your local regulations regarding feedback solicitation in your state.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | The Bigger Lawyer Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution

An impression takes place when a website visitor sees your ad. You can specify regions just like PPC marketing so that only users in your city see your banners.

For example, say a law firm in San Antonio, Texas, pays for a CPM campaign to promote using their firm for divorce and family law matters. Visitors may be reading an article related to family law on the San Francisco Chronicle’s website, but if that visitor is in San Antonio, they may see the firm’s advertisement. The firm may pay $3 to $50 per 1,000 impressions of their banner.

One of the advantages that CPM advertising offers that PPC does not is that it builds brand awareness. While only a few clicks will be generated with every 1,000 to 3,000 views, each time your banner is displayed it is making people in your area recognize your firm. Much like an advertisement on a bus bench, taxi cab, or billboard, your virtual impressions will help build recognition. This recognition is being achieved at a very low rate.

The downside to CPM is that it does not drive large volumes of traffic to your website. After receiving 20,000 impressions, you may generate 15 to 20 clicks (visitors), which could equal a click through ratio of less than 1 percent. But, that means 20,000 viewers may recognize your firm the next time they see your ad, then the next time, and so on until one day they require your services. And, those 20,000 views could come as low as a few dollars per thousand.

While we still strongly believe that the best return on your law firm marketing investment is with search engine optimization, CPM advertising is a great way to reach potential clients outside of the search engines.

Let’s Build a Bigger Law Firm Together

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, lawyer marketing, law firm marketing plans, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | Law Firm Social Network | Legal News | Attorney Press Release Distribution