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.
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