Internet Marketing for Attorneys
Are you trying to figure out how to market your firm online? Relax - it's not that hard. While many attorneys have websites very few have figured out how to effectively market online which gives you a big advantage in the race.
Tip 1: Use your best keyword in your title
Let's say your law firm is "Mahoney and Mahoney" and you specialize in criminal defense in Orange County. If you make the title of your page (what you see in your browser toolbar when you load your page) "Mahoney and Mahoney," you are unlikely to get traffic from people looking for "Orange County Criminal Attorney."
The best title you could possibly use in this scenario is "Orange County Criminal Attorney | Mahoney and Mahone" - this will ensure that you rank both on your firm's name and possibly on the more competitive Orange County term (which is likely to get some traffic).
Tip 2: Add some content to your website
I can't tell you how many attorney sites I've seen with just basic content such as contact information and a very general description of the firm. Search engines like Yahoo and Google value original content - go ahead and put a few articles on the site offering some basic free advice.
I know what you're thinking - if you give information away for free then why will people use you, right? Wrong - each and every criminal case have a unique set of circumstances that need to be taken into consideration when considering the proper defense strategy. Communicate this clearly on your site (in every article) and invite people to contact you - you will see more phone calls.
Tip 3: Make sure you have an SEO-friendly site
Go ahead and have a professional check out your site and let you know if your site design is search engine-friendly. One of the best SEO firms in the US, Vizad, is offering free site reviews to attorneys based in the US (just mention "Jail Media" and they will take care of you).
Take advantage of this - best-case scenario they will tell your site is fine, worst-case scenario they will suggest a few changes - you can either use them or another company to make the changes. Either way the analysis will cost you nothing.
Tip 4: Monitor popular services such as Twitter
Every day millions of conversations take place online - you can bet that some of them are relevant to what you do. If somebody posts on twitter "Does anybody have an attorney recommendation in Broward County?" and you respond introducing yourself, you have a really good chance at picking up a new client and getting more exposure to future clients.
Managing a "social media" campaign such as this can be very time consuming and take a while to learn how to do - your best bet is to use a service like LotusJump which will help you find these conversations, filter out the ones that are a waste of time and show you how to participate in these discussions without being obnoxious.