A Good Web Site is Not Enough
The Disconnect Between How We Use the Internet and How We Advertise on it
Nearly every law firm needs a good website. This has been true for years and will remain true for the foreseeable future. Whether your firm is a large, international, legal powerhouse, or something you run in your spare time out of your house, a good website is essential. A modern and well maintained website projects an air of professionalism. Many of today’s clients will judge you by how your site looks and behaves. However, no matter how much work you put into a site, no matter who builds it, and no matter how much it cost you, it is useless if potential clients do not see it.
It is useful to think of a website like an office lobby. Once inside, it should be modern and convenient while projecting your law firm’s personality. The most important part of the lobby, however, is getting clients to walk in the door. A website works in the same way.
How Lawyers Advertise
Lawyers have traditionally just built a website and hoped for the best. Some lawyers also optimized their sites to increase search engine results. The internet is unfathomably large. Building a website and just leaving it there is not enough. Traffic needs to be driven to your site. You also need to interact with potential clients and others in the legal community outside the confines of your own website.
How Clients Use the Internet
Clients are rarely looking for your specific website. Think about your own use of the internet. You are generally looking for an answer, a product, or a service. You often want a quick and easy solution. Clients are the same way. They are not trying to look though pages of search results or legal directories. Clients will generally click on one of the first things they see that seems to answer their question. On the internet, Ricky Bobby’s mantra stands true. “If you’re not first, you’re last.” Being on the third page of Google search results is almost useless. When is the last time you skipped the first 25 links that seemed to answer your question?
There are many traditional tactics for getting potential clients to visit a website:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Building your site in such a way that it shows up well in search engine results. The hardest, and most productive, thing you can do for your website is to have it show up in the first page of Google search results. Competition can be extreme, but the results are often worth the effort.
- Legal Directories – By joining legal directories and paying high fees, you can have your name and a link to your website show up on a legal directory. In this case, your site may get increased traffic, but it is directly competing against many other sites.
- Paid Ad Placement – Search engines like Google allow you to pay to have your firm’s site show up in search results. This can be a great tactic, but can get expensive quickly. It also requires you to figure out what your clients will be searching for.
- Traditional Advertising – Anything from billboards to radio commercials can drive internet traffic your way. Unfortunately, this type of advertising is unlikely to reach a focused group of potential clients.
- Smartphone apps – Creating an app for your firm could be useful if you run a large firm. It could help you provide information to clients and even attract new clients. However, it can be very costly to create a functional and clean looking app. The market is segmented. How do you decide whether to make an app for Android, iOS, or Blackberry? All three are important. Perhaps the largest problem is that it potential clients are unlikely to find and download your app. Legal ethics rules also can be a challenge in this arena.
- Relying on a Facebook page as if it were a website – A Facebook page is a useful communication tool, but it is most likely to be seen by people you already know. It is a great way to stay in contact, but should not be used as a primary method of finding clients. Relying solely on Facebook for a web presence is also a mistake because you don’t own the property you are investing in, Facebook does and they can change the rules of the game at any time.
- Social Networking – Having an active account on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn puts your name in more places. It gives you more opportunities to drive traffic to your site. Social networking also allows you to have informal discussions with both peers and potential clients.
- Blogging – By hosting your own blog or by guest-posting on more established blogs, you can drive traffic to your site. Writing about interesting topics means that more people are likely to see your name and visit your website.
- Advertising with a localized service – Companies like DotCO Law Marketing place advertisements on content rich sites with localized legal and geographic information. When you advertise with such a company, often at an extremely low cost, you can expand your web presence, boost your Google search results, and drive traffic to your website.
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Excellent post – where is slightly disagree is that a firm’s website can still be it’s most effective tool if the seo is good, that’s where most lawyers fall down, not prepared to invest hard cash, prefer to pay for leads from sites who do invest in seo. this only benefits the middlemen.
@EvolvedLegal We don’t disagree on that at all. My experience (and that of most DotCO team members) has been exactly that. Strong design, compelling content and well thought out SEO (as well as some UI magic) are the ingredients of a high performing web site. Sprinkle in a well thought out social strategy and a hunger to represent client in their time of need (and a willingness to react quickly to their inquiries) and you have an amazingly effective online presence.
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