The domain name you choose for your legal website can be like the color of your home—it says something about who you are as well as what you stand for, and is the first impression clients have of your legal business. Quite often lawyers simply choose their firm name as their domain name, believing they are, in effect, “branding” their law firm. Unfortunately, rather than the branding they intend, they may be merely muddying the truth about who they are and what they do. Perhaps a client has been injured in a slip and fall in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They will likely type in those search parameters to begin their search for the perfect attorney. When the search results come back, most people tend to click on the one which stands out the most—and the things which stand out are the title, the description and the domain name. Remember, Google puts the search terms in boldface in the results with a goal of drawing your eye to the very most relevant search results—a trick which works pretty well. Because online marketing requires you to use every tool to your best advantage, consider that your domain name is something you can do when setting up your law firm’s website which can give you a leg up on the competition almost immediately.
The Best Domain Names
While your domain name surely won’t be responsible for bumping your law firm website to number one on the search engines, it’s an easy fix that can’t hurt. Your domain name should be short enough to be memorable—if the domain is too long or hard to read, its value goes down. If the average human can’t say—or type—the domain name correctly, the value of it goes down. Most especially if your firm’s name is rather common, then you might not want to use it as your domain name. If you haven’t already chosen a domain name, make a list of words and phrases associated with your law firm. Once you’ve made the list, remove every one of them which have more than twenty characters. Create new additions to your list by adding “and” between keywords and phrases. Then prioritize your list and go to the mat with it to see which domain names are actually available. When your chosen name is not available, you will get a list of “alternative suggestions,” for other domain names. While most of them are names you might never ever choose for your law firm’s website, others can be possibilities.
Register Your Legal Firm’s Domain Name
Once you’ve seen what’s available, and have chosen your best domain names, registering them is your next step; there are all sorts of companies on the Internet which you can register your domain name with. When I recently looked at domain name statistics, I was somewhat surprised to learn that registering 70,000 new domain names per day is not particularly unusual. What this should tell you is that it can be a good idea to register several domain names, not just your number one pick. You never known when the day will come that you want to change your domain name, or add another website—if you already own the domain names you are a step ahead of the game—and registering domain names is pretty inexpensive as well.
Try to Choose a Domain Name for Your Firm and Your Product
If at all possible, choose at a minimum one domain name with your firm’s name, and another with your specialties. The clients who know you only by your firm name will be able to find you as well as those who are looking for a DUI attorney, or personal injury attorney. You can easily have both of your domain names pointing to different pages of your website. Some experts feel that domain names with dashes in them are both more aesthetically pleasing and easier to read, however the names with dashes are harder to type. Despite the typing difficulty, domain names with dashes can sometimes rank a bit higher in the search engines, bringing more clients to your legal website. The bottom line here is that buying multiple domains and pointing each of them to a specific area-related page on your main site can give you more converted clients. Don’t point multiple domains at the same page, however as this can get you dropped from search engines.
Choosing a domain name can be a very important part of your firm’s overall marketing process. Don’t take it lightly and make sure your domain name properly represents your legal firm, your specific services, and your image and you will have laid a solid foundation for future conversions.
Free Expert Law Firm Marketing Advice Hotline – Call (769) 218-6099 for free tips, advice from the best law firm Internet marketing companies. Since 2003, Lawyer Success has advise 4,000 law firms and has worked on 7 of the 10 leading legal websites online.
