Law Firm Internet Marketing: A How To

It is remarkable that there are still a large number of established plaintiff's law firms with no defined Internet marketing budgets. I'm not talking solo practitioners here, but firms with three, four or more lawyers. OK, so your firm dominates its market because you landed a local television legal expert gig, or you have thrived as a result of seven figure case referrals from your network.

5 years ago, a professional Web site was par for the course for any successful law firm. Today, a mature Internet marketing program is a "must-have" and no longer a "nice-to-have". For a list of reasons why lawyer Web marketing has become so critical, download the informational guide on the LitigatorEdge.com home page.

So, how do you start and what do you focus on? The answer to this depends on what you are trying to accomplish and the type of new business leads that you are looking to generate.

A well designed Web site is typically the first step for most firms. Design is much more than aesthetics. It is about how conducive your Web site is to capturing leads and how well your content reflects the type of search traffic you wish to generate.

The second step for most plaintiff's firms is search engine optimization. There are onsite elements (including tags, keyword phrases, specific landing pages) and offsite elements (including directory submissions, link building, article submission, press releases). Search engine optimization has become very sophisticated and it pays to do your homework and to speak with multiple vendors before making a decision.

Because of the growing role of content in search engine formulas, the next consideration for law firms is the degree of internal or external resources to dedicate to content creation for the firm. Of course, having SEO experts monitor and optimize all content produced by your firm greatly increases its value.

Some firms may decide that Pay Per Click is a viable alternative in particular situations. In certain toxic tort or product defect cases firms have to react quickly and SEO has too long of a ramp up time and is not sufficiently predictable. While SEO may work well for a search phrase such as "dog bite lawyer New York" it will not fly for "Hydroxycut lawsuit", where time is of the essence and firms are seeking to reach a specific claimant audience before the competition does.

The best advice I can give is to learn as much as possible about SEO and PPC. There are many free Internet resources including the LitigatorEdge Web site. If you have any questions please contact me and I will gladly discuss any specific areas of marketing interest.

Things to know about SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as defined by Wikipedia, is "the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a Web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the earlier a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines."

Few quick facts to keep in mind as you explore a search engine optimization campaign:

- No matter what anyone tells you, the return on investment (ROI) of SEO is untouchable IF you select the right company, with the right expertise, at the right price

- Firms that guarantee results are typically not firms you want to go with. Many distort information by guaranteeing first page Google listings for keywords that look appealing but do not generate considerable traffic. Go with firms offering both competitive pricing and expertise. I personally prefer working with tech background delivery resources - they often take great pride in keeping up with Google algorithms and are highly metrics driven.

- Meaningful results on search engines take 6-12 months.

- Once you have selected the right company, picking the appropriate keywords for your specific practice is 90% of the battle - spend a lot of time on this.

- Remember that Google represents an overwhelming majority of the entire search market today, with Yahoo being a distant second. You have to optimize your site for Google - it's virtually the only game in town today and only getting stronger.

- Listen to your SEO company when they give you Web site advice (coding language, layout, keywords, specific content - every SEO campaign has significant Web site specific and non Web site specific elements)

- Once the on site modifications are complete, and assuming your firm knows what they are doing, your results will be driven by the amount of effort put in by your firm. Know what you are getting in terms of hours. The best firms can accomplish almost anything with enough resources (maybe short of knocking Google off first place for the term "Google" on the Google search engine...)

- Monitor your ROI as soon as leads start flowing

To learn more about how you can increase your financial return on your SEO please visit www.litigatoredge.com