The lifeblood of any legal firm is a steady stream of online legal leads. While referrals can bring in new business, few law firms can rely on referrals alone. Keep reading to learn about the best lawyer marketing to beat your local competition. If you need assistance with lawyer marketing, Forward Lawyer Marketing can help you.
You must get attention in your local market if you want local legal clients. Your website should be visible where people seek attorneys to solve their problems.
It is a good bet that potential legal clients you want are searching Google right now in your local market to find an attorney. Dominating the search rankings for your local legal market in your specialty can help you to collect more leads. A strong presence in social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, will also capture legal leads.
To get attention and dominate your local legal market, your law firm must rank high in searches to catch people’s attention. You do not always have to be #1 in Google for a search phrase, but being on page 1 is essential. Effective SEO or search engine optimization is the way to become dominant in your local market and hit the top of Google searches. You can do SEO yourself, but many law firms prefer to hire Forward Lawyer Marketing.
Search engine optimization involves web design principles that help your law firm’s website appear higher in search engine results. To dominate in your local market, your SEO firm will focus on targeting your geographical location. This is done by including specific information about your business and tying it to the local market with various online techniques and databases. This work helps search engines connect your law firm to your local market.
For example, suppose you are a car accident attorney in St. Louis. In that case, effective SEO will eventually make your law firm website rank highly for queries such as ‘car accident attorney in St. Louis.’ Part of effective SEO is figuring out which search terms are the best for the maximum number of leads in your niche. It will probably be challenging to rank highly for ‘St. Louis lawyer,’ but ranking high for ‘Uber crash personal injury lawyer in St. Louis’ could be easier.
Other SEO methods are critical for effective lawyer marketing. Our legal marketing company also can assist you with these:
Once you invest in lawyer marketing, it is natural to ask how long it will take to dominate the local market in your practice areas. Local SEO can work quickly if the correct strategy is implemented. But getting to the top of the rankings fast is not always the best goal. Instead, you want your law firm to reach the top of the search rankings and remain there. If you want to get fast exposure for more leads, consider pay-per-click advertising (PPC), which can be done in conjunction with SEO for optimal results.
How long SEO will take to improve your search rankings depends on many factors, including the amount of local competition and the keywords selected. It can be relatively easy to rank for low-volume keywords with the correct website design. Ranking highly for competitive keywords takes longer.
SEO is one of the best ways to dominate your local market and receive a steady stream of legal leads when performed correctly. But getting your website to the top of the rankings is only one of the benefits of SEO. Optimizing for Google and other search engines also offers these benefits:
In summary, SEO for lawyer marketing can get you high search engine rankings and other benefits that enhance your brand in the eyes of the public. Your firm looks more credible, and people with legal issues will be more likely to contact you.
PPC advertising is an effective way to quickly increase local exposure, especially if paired with long-term SEO work. To do PPC ads, you select a platform, such as Google AdWords, and choose keywords that legal prospects use to locate a law firm in your area. Then, you make ads near the top of Google search results. Finally, you design website pages that connect to those advertisements.
A lot of thought and planning is necessary for a PPC campaign to work and be cost-effective. You or your marketing company need to narrow down keywords, determine which segment of the local audience to target, and limit the targeted geographic area to keep the budget under control.
Of course, you have to have the budget to use PPC advertising. Legal advertising online is some of the most expensive out there. Is it worth paying $100 or more per click? That is what some legal keywords can cost in specific markets. The keywords that cost the most are often for large personal injury cases, such as truck accidents. Law firms will pay hundreds of dollars per click because one case can be worth millions.
Forward Lawyer Marketing can watch what your competition is doing in PPC advertising. If one of your competitors is running a successful PPC campaign, we will let you know. Our marketing team can design an effective PPC campaign for you and handle your SEO needs.
Another way to dominate local rankings with lawyer marketing is by managing your online reputation with reviews and ratings. Anyone thinking of hiring your law firm will check local reviews. Even if the person is referred to you, they will probably look up your site and see what clients say about you.
One of the best places to focus on for reviews and ratings is Google. Google Reviews appear with your firm’s Google Business Profile when someone does a local search. The nice thing about Google Reviews is the consumer will see them with your listing, so researching you is easy.
It also is worth developing Facebook reviews if you are active on that platform. Sites like lawyers.com, Nolo, and Avvo are also useful for gaining positive reviews. These platforms are designed for attorneys and help consumers research legal topics. Getting reviews from these sources can be advantageous because these leads are often highly qualified. This means they are ready to hire a lawyer very soon.
It is critical to claim your business listing and keep track of reviews as they come in. You cannot control what people say about your law firm, but you should respond to every review immediately. Even if someone leaves an average review, you can salvage the situation by responding quickly and effectively. Also, remember to ask clients for online reviews; you can even send them a link to your preferred review site. If the client is happy with your legal services, they will likely take the time to give a good review.
Using your Google Business Profile can increase your dominance in the local legal market. Fortunately, Google makes it simple to claim and develop your business profile, and it is free. After the profile is set up, you can put in information that helps local customers locate you in Google Maps. You can also include essential information, such as address, phone number, URL, business hours, etc.
Also, you can use your Google Business Profile to interact with clients and prospects. For example, you can add posts so that the public can see the latest news, and you can respond to reviews and questions that people ask. That way, searchers get fast answers to their questions before they contact you.
Your business profile also provides performance analytics. This feature lets you see the keywords searchers respond to the most. Claiming your business profile page on Google is a simple, free, and effective way to enhance your exposure in your local market.
If your law firm incorporates the strategies listed in this article, you can improve your local online marketing results. But if you would instead focus on legal work instead of marketing, let our team do the work for you. Forward Lawyer Marketing can help you with all aspects of lawyer marketing, from web design to SEO and blog writing. Contact us today at (888) 590-9687.
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