Little Known Secrets of Attorney Website Marketing

© 2009, Brandon Cornett.

It's time for another lesson in lawyer marketing, courtesy of the Web Smart Lawyer. Here is today's lesson:

Attorney website marketing is the process of using a website (and, by extension, the Internet as whole) to attract new clients. File that under Internet Marketing 101. But let’s move on to the advanced class.

Let’s talk about some of the things you can do to get more clients through your attorney website or blog. Here are some marketing “secrets” that many in the legal profession don’t know.

1. Search Engines are Replacing Phone Books

Given the rising cost of printing, and the rising demand for environment-friendly business models, how long do you think the phone books will be around? Another five years? That’s about what I figure. The economic recession of 2008 - 2009 has already put many of them under. With each passing year, more and more people are choosing Google over the phone book to find attorneys in their area.

Some of you are yawning and saying, “Yes, I know this, and I’m well prepared.” But I know there are some attorneys out there who are still in denial, because I’ve spoken to some personally (you know who you are). Make no mistake about it. If you want your business to thrive well into the future, you need an attorney website marketing program that embraces search engines — and capitalizes on what they deliver.

2. SEO is the Best Website Marketing Investment

We just talked about the importance of search engines. Each and every day, people use the Internet to find attorneys and law firms in their area. It’s a constant stream of traffic, and it’s growing all the time. Thus, if your attorney website appears on the first page of search results for certain key phrases, you can tap into this pre-existing Internet activity and get a lot of clients out of it.

This brings up the topic of search engine optimization (SEO). This is the act of improving your website’s search engine rankings by using keyword-rich content and attracting links from other website owners. In my mind, this is the best website marketing investment for attorneys to make in the web-driven economy. For one thing, it doesn’t cost much to improve search engine rankings through SEO. It mostly takes time and effort. And by putting forth this effort, you can get excellent exposure to your key audience at the best time at all — when they are actively seeking an attorney in their area.

3. You Can Use a Blog to Attract Even More Clients

Most attorneys are familiar with blogs, in a general sense, even if they don’t know how they work. Whether you realize it or not, you are reading a blog right now. The main part of this website is powered by the WordPress blogging program. If you go to the home page of this site, you’ll see a series of entries listed in reverse-chronological order. This is how a blog works.

Best of all, attorney blogs are incredibly easy to use. That’s the whole point of blogging — it allows you to publish information online quickly and easily, without the need for web programming skills. If you can create a Word document or send an email, you can publish an attorney blog. That’s how simple it is.

If you offer a wide range of legal services for clients, then a blog can serve you even more. You can publish web pages with incredible speed and simplicity. You can update your blog with new information on a daily or weekly basis. Just type your entry, click the publish button, and you’re done. What’s the result of all this fresh content? For one thing, it helps you connect with a bigger audience through the search engines. You can’t show up in Google for a certain phrase until you have content on your website that’s related to that phrase. A blog is a great way to create that content, especially when you deal with multiple topics / legal specialties.

The bottom line is that your attorney website marketing program should include blogging, and you should use it often to grow your web presence and attract new clients.

4. Most People Will Choose the First Attorney They Contact

Consumer surveys have shown, time and time again, the most people end up choosing the first attorney they contact (by phone or by email). What does this mean to you, in terms of website marketing? It means that if somebody finds your website and contacts you as a result, there’s an excellent chance they will become your next client. Sure, you have to position yourself well on your website, and you have to handle that initial inquiry well. But the hard part will already have happened — the person found your website and took the first step by contacting you.

You can drive people to your site in many ways. We already talked about search engine optimization as one of the most effective techniques. But you can also drive web traffic with advertising, public relations and more. Once people reach your site, they want to answer certain questions. Who is this person? What does this attorney specialize in? Can he or she help me? What experience do they have? How can I contact them? Your website should answer these questions, and it should be neatly organized so people can find what they’re looking for.

Website Marketing Conclusion

Web marketing is a big topic with hundreds of individual parts. This article does not cover everything, but it explains some of the most effective ways to grow your business online. If I had to make a list of the most important parts of an attorney website marketing program, it would look something like this.

• A professional, well-designed website with plenty of quality content.
• A search engine optimization program to increase traffic and visibility.
• A regularly updated blog to grow the web presence over time.
• Some kind of public relations plan to increase awareness and drive website traffic.

Does your online marketing program include these things? If not, stay tuned to this blog. We will be adding new tutorials on a weekly basis, to help you accomplish these objectives and more.