Archive for February, 2010

Advice on Selecting a New Domain Name for Law Firms, Lawyers and Attorneys

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Did you know that selecting the right domain name for your law firm’s website is the most important decision you will make concerning your Web presence?

Sure a website domain will only cost you $10 to register, however don’t forget about the investment that you will have put into your website. The average lawyer website investment comes to about $30,000 per year when you factor in time and money spent on advertising, content, design, search engine optimization, branding, and the costs of changing all your print materials and advertising.

Let’s not also forget about the other cost which is lost revenue potential when you have to start over with a new website domain. Also, the costs of your time and aggravation when you have to find a new website designer and re write all of your content and SEO content.

THE WORST thing about having to start over with a new domain name for your law firm is the fact that you lose the age of the website, the pages indexed in the search engines and your PageRank!

So let’s look at why law firm’s have to change their web address in the first place.

In almost all cases when a law firm needs to change their website address it is because a member of the firm has left and their name appears in the domain name.I have seen it all when it comes to law firm name changes such as a partner getting disbarred, bad blood between partners, partners getting arrested, death, greed, theft, bad press or publicity surrounding a partner and the list goes on.

If your domain name is DailySheppardOtt.com and your partner Ott leaves the firm, you will have to change your domain name and start all over again costing you 10s of thousands of dollars.

Pointers for selecting the right domain name for your legal website.

1. Select a name that has longevity. Select a name that is pretty generic such as ProbateLawyers.com. A name that is generic can be used forever and is transferable.

2. Select a domain that is keyword enriched. Focus on geographical words and practice area keywords if you practice a niche area of law. HattiesburgLawyers.com or TaxLawyers.com are good examples.

3. Keep it short and sweet. Try to come up with a law firm domain that is no more than 3 words. If you must use 4 words make sure they are short words. HattiesburgInjuryLegal.com

4. Make it memorable – Branding a law firm website is almost impossible. For example everyone on the street knows who Google is but do they know who Martindale.com is?  I suggest local/geographical/law related.  HattiesburgAccidentLawyers.com is a great example.

5. Do not abbreviate. Abbreviations are not great for search engine optimization nor are they easy for people to remember. You want people to remember your law firm domain name for referring other people and for use in advertising.

6. Do not use mispells! It is very tempting to use mispells like “Lawyerz” in your URL because it is easy to find short URLs or domains with mispells. DO not do it period.

7. Do not use hyphens.

8. Do not use numbers in you domain. There are some exceptions but not many. One firm we worked with had a great vanity toll free number and it worked well for them but that is the exception not the rule.

9. Do your keyword research. Find the top keyword phrases people use to find the type and location of the law firm that you are.

10. NEVER use .net or .org. or .mobi TLDs.

11. Always hire a domain name expert to assist you.

At Lawyer Success, Inc. we have helped over 3,500 law firms and 7 of the 10 most trafficked legal websites generate better branding, more traffic, and higher sales through the web. Call us today to discuss our lawyer domain consulting services.  Call James at (769) 218-6099 for this an all website marketing or design needs.

Free Lawyer Advertising – Free…

Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

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New video I produced for a wel…

Monday, February 15th, 2010

New video I produced for a well known tr… http://bit.ly/5Wjfc4

How to drive more traffic and …

Friday, February 12th, 2010

How to drive more traffic and visitors to a law firm website. http://bit.ly/9nMWL8

Free Lawyer Advertising | Free Advertising for Attorneys

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

LawFirmArticles.com is a free service that meets the needs of both legal consumers and practicing attorneys. In today’s Internet Age, people first turn to the Internet to find answers to legal problems and questions that they have. 1 out of 3 people this year will face some type of legal issue.

LawFirmArticles.com helps those people find accurate and dependable legal information by providing licensed attorneys a place to provide this free legal information.

Why should I write articles?
Article marketing is one of the hottest Internet marketing solutions available today. The reason is simple; the demand for legal content online is enormous and growing daily. By submitting your law firm articles you earn credibility, you generate traffic to your law firm website, you generate leads, you increase your search engine presence and you are educating the online community while cultivating a more educated and more prequalified leads for your law firm.  But most importantly, the articles will be working for you 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and for many years to come and of course it’s FREE to join.

For other free marketing ideas, call (769) 218-6099 and talk to law firm marketing consultant James Greenier or post a question on our ask the law firm marketing consultant page.

http://www.facebook.com/photo….

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=3616001&l=b2d4772443&id=135700227735

Law Firms Must Watch Top Posit…

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Law Firms Must Watch Top Positions on Se… http://bit.ly/aeZYCC

Law Firm SEO Video – Dispels t…

Friday, February 5th, 2010

Law Firm SEO Video – Dispels the myths a… http://bit.ly/a5eDvU

Law Firms Must Watch Top Positions on Search Engines for Top Keyphrases

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

How often do you check your law firm’s rankings for your top key phrases?

Are you about to spot positioning issues in real time in order to take action?

Think of your top keyword phrases as stocks that you are invested in. These are your top money makers and should be watched closely like your investments. You should be able to track the positions of your law firm’s keywords and rankings in a simple one page program. Checking your lawyer website rankings the old fashion way by typing them into Google and then Yahoo and then Bing only to repeat the process 20 to 30 times is a complete waste of time.

Other problems are that law firms simply either don’t know what their best key phrases are to target and do not have the ability to watch their rankings in real time to spot any potential problems in advance of becoming a “page 2 website” or worse, becoming de-indexed from Google, Bing or Yahoo.

Another benefit for being able to track your positioning is to see if the search engine optimization techniques are working or ineffective to your legal website’s organic search positions.  Maybe you added some content for a specific key phrase and it increased you position for a relevant key word term?

The bottom line is you should be aware of the best keywords to use for your law firm. Then you should track the positions of your website for these key phrases daily. Once you have accomplished these two goals, you will be able to make the right moves on the search engines to generate lots of new clients.

Our company Lawyer Success, Inc. does provide a service where we can 1) perform the keyword research, 2) monitor the keywords and positions for you and 3) provide you with a PDF summary every week, bi-weekly or monthly. Here is a demo of the report we could provide to you. Lawyer Success Ranking Trend Reports

Have a question? Need assistance? Call James Greenier with Lawyer Success, Inc. at (769) 218-6099 or click here to ask a law firm marketing expert.

How important are those inbound links to law firm websites?

Monday, February 1st, 2010

The debate about the importance of getting inbound links to your law firm website appears to be an ongoing debate. The truth is that you need quality and relevant one-way or inbound links with meta keyword phrases in the link for any effectiveness. Please note that link swapping software or link swapping is useless. Having a links page is useless.

When was the last time you ever did a search for anything on Google and came across a links page on a website. Never.  These pages are counter productive to SEO and should be removed from your site. If you want to add links to your website for your visitors, then add relevant links to your website on your content pages. Keep in mind you may lose visitors through your text links to other websites. So make sure these links are not directories of other attorneys.

Are “Resource Links” pages helpful. No. Period. They are a complete waste of a navigation link or button on your home page and is often the least viewed web page on the website. I recommend to my attorney clients that they create a more helpful “Articles” or “FAQs” page instead. That content is much more valuable to your potential clients and will keep the visitors on your website without fear of losing a potential client.

If you need help with a lawyer link exchange or building or would like a free review of your website, call James Greenier at (769) 218-6099 or ask a question through our Ask a Law Firm Marketing Consultant page.