Matching Online Authority with Law Firm Capabilities

Matching Online Authority - Lawyer.comLaw firms use a number of different techniques to differentiate themselves from others. Some attorneys boast case victories or superior law school credentials, while others use testimonials or awards as external validation. Understanding attorney competition is rather complex – firms compete across many different geographies, demographics, and practice areas.

The most concrete venue in which law firms compete is practice area. A firm that focuses on a specific practice area will devote attention towards mastering the law, the business, and the courts – just to handle matters in that area. Once the capabilities are established, the attorney or firm then must compete for clients with those particular matters. Using online marketing is a great first step in ensuring that the firm’s online authority matches the law firm’s capabilities. Read more

5 Ways for Lawyers to Get the Most from LinkedIn

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Be Professional & Stand Out

As a legal marketing expert, I receive a lot of questions about the importance of social media, especially LinkedIn. Many lawyers are already up and running on this business-centric platform, featuring a detailed profile and professional headshot. LinkedIn can be a fantastic resource for your law firm and is a great tool to add instant credibility. If potential clients can see that you have a strong LinkedIn presence, you may generate new business as people feel more comfortable working with a vetted, authoritative brand. Below are some tips on how legal professionals and practicing lawyers can benefit from being active on LinkedIn. Read more

Increasing Your Caseload by Tracking and Targeting Clients

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Bullseye!

How great would it be if you could hand-pick the most qualified clients for your practice? The main goal of legal marketing is to increase the number of qualified people who are interested in retaining you as a lawyer. Expanding your online marketing presence involves two important elements that you should be aware of: tracking and targeting. Optimizing tools to track where your clients come from is a pivotal step. Additionally, there’s an entire pool of new business that you may not even be aware of, and gathering all of this data can help you learn how to gain more clients, and also put you ahead of your competition. That said, let’s look into a few different ways to get the most bang for your legal marketing buck. Read more

What Google Hummingbird Means for Your Legal Marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO)Google likes to keep their mechanics under wraps, but new information about their latest update has come to light. Google recently upgraded its search algorithm in order to provide higher quality search results to its end users. Rather than traditionally targeting keywords in searches, the new algorithm focuses on answering the searcher’s questions and better determining the intent behind their search. A focus on “conversational search” is what drove the recent major upgrade. However, it is up to the lawyer or law firm to create fresh website content that will tell Google to bring searchers to that specific page. Read more

Google AdWords 101 by Lawyer.com

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Shop for New Clients!

Lawyer.com is committed to help our clients enhance their overall online presence. A great way to extend your reach is by using Google AdWords, which is the only way to guarantee being listed on the first page of search results (depending on your budget!). AdWords is often referred to as “leads on demand”. When starting this type of search engine marketing, you want to make sure you are directing the person who clicks your ad to a sensible location; a good idea would be right to an optimized website. Here’s a rundown of how AdWords works and how you can get started right away! Read more

Penguin vs. Panda Explained: What Lawyers Need to Know

One thing is clear, potential clients are using Google to search for lawyers. Maintaining a strong online presence that follows Google’s best practices is the only agreed upon way to at least have a chance at ranking organically in the search engine results page, or SERP.

How well someone’s website shows up in Google depends on how well they follow Google’s search algorithm. This algorithm is always changing.  Google has consistently unveiled updates every couple months. Two extremely important updates that all lawyers should be familiar with are the Panda and Penguin updates.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

What Is Panda?

The Panda update, first released in 2011, deals with the content on one’s website. Any duplicate or thin content is penalized. Google recognized that sites lacking rich, original content are ‘low-quality’ and do not deserve high organic rankings.

What is Penguin?

The Penguin update deals with another set of issues; links. A website may be penalized if they have a backlink profile with numerous links from low-quality sights. Google sees that as an example a of black-hat SEO and may issue a penalty.

Penguin also deals with keywords. Incorporating targeted keywords into one’s online content is perfectly acceptable. However, it must be natural. For example, if you include Basking Ridge Divorce Lawyer every time you write ‘lawyer’, Google may penalize your practice’s website.

Google constantly makes changes to its search algorithm. There are minor updates every few months. In order to combat this new reality, there is one maxim to live by; only publish thought provoking, original content. These are the signs of high-quality sites, according to Google.

Producing original content can take time and effort. Writing a blog and then posting it all over the web can sometimes hurt your law practice’s website. When publishing your content, it’s important to broadcast it across channels that can provide you with additional reach. At blog.lawyer.com, we provide our Lawyers with the opportunity to become contributors. These blogs are distributed across our social media channels and include valuable outbound links.

If you are interested on blogging or learning more about Google’s algorithm updates, feel free to contact Lawyer.com at support@corp.lawyer.com

LinkedIn for Lawyers (Part 2)

We have already established the benefits the necessity of making full use of a free LinkedIn profile here. Clients can learn more about your firm and you are establishing yourself as an authority.

Are there other benefits? Of course, maintaining a comprehensive LinkedIn presence has SEO benefits. Should a Lawyer have an existing name brand, LinkedIn profiles can take up valuable real estate in first page of organic results in Google.

Why Is This Important?

Your personal brand is extremely valuable once established. If there are potential clients typing your name as a keyword in Google, the last thing you want is to have a competitor’s listing take up first page real estate.

When executed properly, your LinkedIn profile should rank well. Take a look at what happens when you search for Lawyer.com’s CEO, Gerald Gorman. Right below his website bio is his LinkedIn.

linkedinSERPWhat should a Lawyer do on LinkedIn?

Besides filling out all of your biographical information, it may make sense to create a page for your firm. This is dependent on the size of your firm. Check out an example of the Lawyer.com company page.

LinkedIn also serves as a great tool to network. Join the Lawyer.com Legal Marketing Group and connect with Lawyer.com’s CEO, Gerald Gorman.

If you have any questions about how to best optimize your LinkedIn profile, feel free to contact support@corp.lawyer.com or call 800-820-0900.