Print Yellow Pages

An April 17, 2012 USA Today article reported that as of last June, nearly 32% of U.S. households were wireless only, according to CTIA-The Wireless Association, up from 10.5% in 2006.  The article also stated, “First it was street-corner phone booths and home delivery of telephone books. Now, land lines are on their way to becoming part of American telecommunications history.”  It continued, “Bill sponsors and phone companies including AT&T say deregulating land-line phone service will increase competition and allow carriers to invest in better technology rather than expand a dying service.”

A 2011 USA Today article stated, “Even if a home has a landline, it is not necessarily used.”  Another comment from the article was, “Many are deciding to cut the landline cord.  ”All they get are solicitations, and most calls are done on a wireless phone anyway, so it represents a waste of money,” says analyst Charles Golvin of Forrester Research.

Directories

Yellow Page directories and many legal directories are also struggling.  AT&T agreed to sell a majority stake of YellowPages.com to a private equity firm.  An April 9, 2012 USA Today article stated, “Revenue from the Yellow Pages unit has shrunk 30% in two years, as consumers continue to shun phone books in favor of the Web.”  The article also stated, “AT&T, the largest U.S. phone company, is following in the footsteps of Verizon Communications (VZ), the second-largest, in cutting its exposure in the phone book business. Verizon spun off its directory business to shareholders in 2006, only to see it file for bankruptcy three years later.”

Through its Google Places listings, Google gives rankings’ preference to local law firms over national directories or national websites.  Google states that, “97% of consumers search for local businesses online.” Legal directories are feeling the heat from that policy.  In the past, Findlaw and Martindale directory listings often showed up in the first 10 results of a search for a lawyer, but that rarely happens now.  Local law firms dominate the top 10 results because Google feels that people are searching for local resources.  Prospective clients typically prefer not to drill down into a directory to make a choice among lawyers.  I discussed this topic in a past article, “Are Legal Directories Effective Or A Waste of Advertising Money?”

Exceptions

There are a few remaining pockets of yellow page usage, e.g., the elderly and certain rural areas.  Elder law and estate planning attorneys, for example, have clients who sometimes still use the yellow pages.  Deals can be had if you decide to continue advertising in the yellow pages.  In some markets, so many lawyers have left that good placement and pricing can be obtained.  Private yellow page advertising consultants can obtain superb pricing for your law firm and can provide guidance on when and where to advertise.  We can recommend two consulting companies to consider if you need assistance.  One mega law firm that had routinely bought the back covers of books reported that when they went to cancel their advertising, a yellow pages company continued their ads at no charge for fear that numerous other law firms would cancel their ads.

What Lawyers Say

I am active in LinkedIn and manage a LinkedIn Law Web Marketing and law Web Social Media Group as well as belong to other legal marketing groups.  In a recent “Legal Marketing” group discussion about the yellow pages and a past discussion, the overwhelming majority of lawyers and legal marketers stated that they have abandoned the yellow pages.

Ken Hardison of the PILMMA legal marketing group and Hardison & Cochran Raleigh personal injury law firm contributed this to the Legal Marketing group yellow pages discussion in 2011: “I track the sources of my cases closely as do many of the lawyers in our PILMMA.org legal marketing group. In the past, our firm spent over $600,000 per year on yellow page listings. Our ROI slowly went down to 2 to 1, the same as Grant Burton reported. We reduced our yellow pages spending to $45,000 and put the money into the Internet (using Dale Tincher’s company, Consultwebs) and television. The result was a significant increase in cases as well as higher quality cases. We currently receive a ROI of 10 to 1 from the Internet.”

Go Where The Market Goes

As is stated above, consumers continue to shun phone books in favor of the Web.  Unlike the past when huge budgets were required to have a yellow pages or TV presence, small firms also have an opportunity to obtain a significant amount of business from the Internet by choosing the right law firm Internet marketing company or building their own internal SEO team.

Regardless of what advertising avenue you choose, be sure to track all of your advertising media.  With proper law firm call tracking, you can determine the ROI of your advertising inquiries.

We hope you found this article helpful. If we can provide additional information about our law firm Web marketing services, please contact us at (800) 872-6590 or marketing@consultwebs.com.  We invite you to visit our lawyer marketing website or our client testimonials.

Still not convinced your law firm should cease advertising in the yellow pages, YellowPages.com and legal directories? AT&T Seems To Be Convinced | Law Firm Web Marketing

In the past, if two websites were equal, one with keywords in the domain name would achieve the higher ranking. That is no longer the case.

Domain names, often referred to as Top Level Domains (TLDs), with keywords in them are certainly available. At one point, .com, .net and .org domains were the only extension options a law firm could purchase. Now, approximately 280 domain extensions such as .us, ca, etc., are available, with more than 500 additional Generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) being planned, to be followed up with additional batches of 400. This and changes Google has instituted have destroyed the value of domain names as an investment. If someone wants to buy a domain name with certain keywords in it, the individual simply needs to find an extension that is available for those specific keywords and pay approximately $10 for the legal domain name plus approximately $10 per year to retain the domain name.

Google further lessened the rankings and advertising value of keyword specific domain names by purposely moving to deemphasize their search value — see Google’s Matt Cutts’ 2011 video on Google’s probable direction. Matt Cutts stressed branding over keywords stuffing and stated that Google is looking at ways to turn down the value of keywords in domains.

If you search for “(your city name) personal injury lawyer”, you will see few domain names in the top 10 that have keywords in them. If domain names with keywords in them do rank well in your search, they have been search engine optimized well and would typically have obtained good rankings regardless.

Another consideration is that Google often considers keywords in domain names as “Vanity domain names.” We were recently told by a Google representative that “vanity URLs” (Drug name URL’s, etc) are sometimes penalized in Google’s AdWords advertising. A recent communication we had with Google regarding why they refused to run one of our client’s pay-per-click ads resulted in the following e-mail (portions of which are removed to keep the client’s name confidential), “I am able to let you know that the reason we could not fully approve the site to run on those keywords is because we do not allow vanity URLs for this particular category of ads.”

I am not saying that keywords are never helpful in a domain name.  When advising clients who are developing practice area specialty sites, we sometimes recommend keywords in a domain name in order to improve the conversions of visitors to inquirers.  We consider many factors, including branding and conversions. With several hundred domain name suffixes available, a ready supply of domain names is available if needed.

In summary, focus on high quality, relevant, well developed legal content that is fresh, has good usability (design, load speed, etc.), and has been search engine optimized well and you will achieve your rankings’ goals.

If you would like to learn more about our law firm Web marketing programs, please call us at (800) 872-6590 or email us at marketing@consultwebs.com

Should A Law Firm Buy Keyword Specific Domain Names To Obtain SEO Advantages? | Law Firm Web Marketing

Date: March 27, 2012
Location: Charlotte School of Law (first floor)
2145 Suttle Avenue
Charlotte, NC 28208
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Lunch
1:00 – 3:00 pm

WEB & SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ETHICALLY
2.0 CLE Hours (1 ethics hour)
Speakers: Dale Tincher, CEO, Consultwebs and Mike Dayton, JD, Consultwebs Content Manager

   

To register for this seminar

This seminar is complimentary for NCAJ members, however, pre-registration is required. (Non-member fee: $80) To register contact Teresa Smith at 800.688.1413 ext. 2813 or 919.835.2813 (direct).

To RSVP for the lunch

Come spend time and socialize with fellow North Carolina Advocates for Justice members in your community. You don’t have to attend the CLE to join us at the lunch! To RSVP before March 23, contact Liz Avery-Jones at 919-835-2808.

Directions

From I-77 and I-85 North: Heading South on I-77, take exit 9 for US-74 E/Wilkinson Blvd. Merge onto US-74 W/Wilkinson Blvd and turn right at Suttle Avenue.

From the South on I-77: From I-77 N toward Charlotte, take exit 9 for US-74/I-277/John Belk Frwy/Wilkinson Blvd. Keep left at the fork to continue toward I-277 S/W John Belk Fwy/US-74 W/Wilkinson Blvd, Take exit 9C to merge onto I-277 S/W John Belk Fwy/US-74 W/Wilkinson Blvd and continue to follow US-74 W/Wilkinson Blvd. Turn right at Suttle Avenue.

Description:

Come out to learn what you need to know about online marketing and the use of social media to market your firm! Topics covered include:

• How to maximize your online visibility

• The importance of effective and compelling design

• Structure needed for Search Engine Optimization

• Tools to develop powerful online video

• How to use social media to get business

• All you need to know about starting a law firm blog

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to master Web marketing, which will result in increased business for your law firm.

Legal associations and law firms, if you need professional speakers for your association meeting or retreat, please contact us at marketing@consultwebs.com or 800-872-6590.

Free Web Marketing & Ethics CLE Program by NCAJ & Consultwebs | Law Firm Web Marketing

Individuals often need attorneys when they have suffered physical and / or emotional trauma. This allows attorneys to be heroes. But it also makes them easy targets for attack – particularly in the realm of social media.

For this reason, Google’s recent introduction of “Search plus Your World” presents both familiar and new challenges for lawyers marketing in the non-traditional world of the Web.

Welcome to Search Plus Your World

First, here’s a quick introduction to the primary changes that “Search plus Your World” brings to the Google search experience.

Google delivers a rich search experience. It has expanded over the years to include images, videos, news, shopping options and more.

“Search plus Your World” represents a dramatic further expansion of the Google search experience. It promotes personalization of search results based on one’s social interests, activities, relationships and related media.

In Google’s official announcement, the company offered that “Search plus Your World” is “a search engine that understands not only content but also people and relationships.”

So, what’s different?

• New Sources for Search Results–This recent update dramatically expands the primary sources for information searched and displayed by Google.

• Expanded Auto-Personalization of Search Results– The Google search algorithm has always focused on delivering relevant results from across the Web (almost exclusively websites). “Search plus Your World” significantly expands this search environment to search and return results personalized with information from Google+ profiles, Friends photos and profiles and information from related connections and social circles.

• The Search Engine Results Page (SERP) – The search engine results page (SERP) now includes several new visual cues to help cite the sources for the search results, including information that your online Google+ Friends have posted, image results from your online photo galleries (Picasa) and related information courtesy of Google+ Circles. Personal results are marked with a  icon on the SERP.

  It is important to realize that there are now effectively two Google SERPs – the personalized view just described and the universal view, which is available by toggling ‘off’ the personalized results and selecting the icon.

  In summary, the new Google “Search plus Your World” concept allows the user (your law firm’s potential client) to customize the display of their search results by flipping between the personalized view () and the universal view ().

  Note: The “universal” view is still dynamic to the search history and geographic location of the user. Also, just as your firm’s potential client can toggle between universal and personalized search results, they can choose to view only personalized information as well and exclude all universal (public) results from their search query.

What Does Search Plus Your World Mean for Law Firms?

As with any change on the Web, lawyers and law firms need to adapt to “Search plus Your World.”

• You need to get more popular – quick. Here’s a tip: Read or re-read the latest edition of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People– pronto! Generating and promoting new ideas, sharing enthusiasm, taking interest in others and encouraging the goals of others are fundamental concepts in building a healthy, active social life – both in-person and through your social network.

  Some attorneys may feel daunted by the prospect of an online social community.  But remember, this is still akin to traditional referral relationships and business networking. There are ‘real’ people on the other side of the computer screen, and the new media just makes it easier to shake more hands and get to know more people who can promote your firm and funnel business to you.

  If you want more business for your law firm, it has to come from other people talking about you and your services. Social media can be very effective at starting those conversations and keeping you active within relevant social ‘Circles’.

  If you have not found a reason in the past to make the plunge into social media, “Search plus Your World” should be the main reason to revisit that decision.

• You won’t know exactly what your potential clients see on Google.The results displayed to the user are customized based on their personal search preferences, browsing history, specific geographic location at the time of the search, social interactions via Google+ and their extended ‘Circles’ family.

  While the following disclaimer is within the Google privacy policy related to “Search plus Your World,” it underscores the dynamic and private nature of exactly what your potential clients are viewing on their SERPs:

  

  The realization that you no longer can have confidence in what your potential clients are viewing on Google’s search results should immediately shift your thinking in two distinct ways:

  1. Reconsider the methods by which you monitor and evaluate your Web marketing campaign’s performance. Simply looking at rankings reports is not enough. In fact, it will be increasingly misleading as Google’s search environment continues to become more customized to the individual searcher. The only way to build an effective snapshot of your website’s performance is to factor in the rankings reports, traffic analytics, local traffic statistics and lead generation figures. These may be coupled with other supportive materials, including click maps and social media activity stats.

  2. Recognize that your online marketing strategy should not rely on only a singular, primary law firm website. The most successful Web marketing strategies will include a broad range of strategies to expand visibility and accessibility for your law firm. This holistic approach to Web marketing might include your primary law firm website, a network of practice area and/or locale specific satellite sites, an active blog, social media marketing campaign, supplemental pay-per-click investments and other aggressive marketing drivers to construct the broadest possible online profile for your firm.

Google’s new “Search plus Your World” ups the ante when it comes to your active engagement in the social Web.  But remember: All the individuals you have been able to help throughout your career. They needed a lawyer in their life, and there are many more individuals waiting on the social Web that need your help, too.

To answer our question, “Is ‘Search Plus Your World’ A World for Lawyers?” – the answer is a resounding YES! But only if you include yourself in your potential clients’ world.

To learn more or to speak to one of our law firm marketing consultants, please contact us at (800) 872-6590 or marketing@consultwebs.com.

Is ‘Search Plus Your World’ A World for Lawyers? | Law Firm Web Marketing

This pattern of the change continuum is migrating to the lawyer’s social media realm as well.  How many updates can Facebook make to the interface in a week? How many times will consumers’ alarm bells go off about privacy? How many social media IPOs can make the headlines? And, more importantly, how many social media icons in an e-mail signature are too many???

Notice that these questions are all quantitative in nature   –  “how many?” That’s because we have been conditioned to obsess about size, including the size of our online social media profiles. More friends are better, right? The more followers, the more popular we are. More pluses (+’s), more likes, more, more, more. …

But as we all work to craft our marketing milestones for 2012, let’s remember: It isn’t all about size.

Resolve to:

• Improve the Quality of Existing Website Content.While ongoing content development is an important initiative for your law firm website(s), it’s just as critical to review the quality of your existing content. Look for opportunities to enhance the quality of aging or stale content.
  
• Use Quality Photographs on your Website. You have heard that you can hear a smile through the phone. Well, what does your potential client see in the photographs used on your law firm’s website? “Think about the care you take in decorating your law firm’s office. Photos of you and your staff are an important part of introducing your law firm to website visitors.” – Law Firm Website Conversions – Would You Spend $500 For A 10% Increase? Photos Can Make That Happen
  
• Well-Defined Targeting = Quality Inquiries. Looking to boost the quality of your leads? Revisit the defined targeting and performance analytics of your Web marketing campaign. Which of your webpages have the best conversion rate? In which cities? From which online referral sources? What search keywords deliver the most qualified visitors? Answering these basic questions will identify areas for enhanced targeting and lead directly to a series of Web marketing strategies that will yield higher-quality inquiries.
  
• Boost the Quality of your Web Marketing Reporting. Some law firms will have trouble answering the above questions.  If you are among them, make a New Year’s resolution to improve your analytics. A multitude of tools are available and can be easily configured for your website(s) to provide Click-Tracking/Heat-Maps (where your visitors are clicking on your website) and call tracking [Call Tracking for Law Firms: The Value of Tracking Your Leads from the Web].  Google Analytics can also provide insight on the performance of your search keywords, content and referral sources. (Related: Our Wealth of Data Brings You A Return On Your Law Firm’s Web Investment.)
  
• Provide a Quality Experience for Mobile Users. “One in five Americans use their mobile device to surf the Net daily.  Overall, mobile Internet usage is up 17 percent since last year.  Even so, 27 percent of respondents say websites that don’t display properly on their mobile screens discourage them from staying on the site or coming back later on their mobile device.” – Is Your Law Firm Mobile Yet?
  
• Enhance the Quality of Your Online Interactions. Think about the multitude of channels through which your law firm interacts with potential law firm clients: reviews posted on your Google Places Profile; Facebook / social media posts; online chat services.  All of these provide excellent opportunities to improve the quality of these interactions. Are you simply posting to Facebook for the sake of posting? Or are you doing something more interesting and relevant? You painstakingly consider the script for your phone service and intake, but how about your online chat transcript or response to website form submissions?

Did you know that sometimes a non-optimized website can outrank a site that has done SEO? According to Google’s Matt Cutts, some sites that have poor or no SEO and limited content – but have merit and are good resources  – sometimes outrank sites that have good SEO.  The ideal situation is to have websites that have high quality, relevant content and are good resources as well as strong SEO that follows Google’s guidelines.

Google has long favored quality over quantity. With graceful brilliance, the Google system is all about analyzing the overwhelming quantity of information in our world, bringing order to the chaos for the sole purpose of identifying the quality bits. Whether that is through an insatiable desire to perfect the relevance of organic search or to find the true thought-centers in social media  – another win, btw, for geeks over jocks! – stay focused on quality and let Google’s brain sort out the quantity.

To learn more or to speak to one of our law firm marketing consultants, please contact us at (800) 872-6590 or marketing@consultwebs.com.

For Law Firm Web Success, Quality Is More Important Than Quantity | Law Firm Web Marketing

To develop a list for your Google Alerts entries, I recommend that you ask your attorneys (or have someone decide) which topics and locations you wish to follow for news or blog information, then sign up for Google Alerts for them.  Any time there is news on your chosen Alert topic, you will receive an e-mail. You can e.g., sign up for your target city/town names, state, etc., variations of car accidents (and injuries), truck accidents (and injuries, major highways, etc.), train accidents (as well as major train names), hospitals (and hospital injuries, negligence), drug names you wish to target (if applicable), etc.

You can also sign up for Alerts on competitors’ names to follow what they are doing as well as enter your firm and attorney names for law firm reputation management and social media legal reputation management.

If you would like our help in preparing the content on your website, press release, legal blogs or social media, just let us know at marketing@consultwebs.com or 800-872-6590 and let us know that you need it posted quickly. Our legal content team includes attorney writers who will talk with you (when applicable), develop the content for your review and post it promptly.

Use Google Alerts To Get Cases And Improve Your Rankings | Law Firm Web Marketing

To help you better understand your potential clients and increase your firm’s revenue, we introduce “The Digital Omnivore” to ensure you have the right items on your marketing menu to satisfy your client’s needs.

The information on the Internet and the technology used to interact with it are continually evolving. The new iPhone 4S (see our LawWebMarketing.com Blog Post) is only one recent example of how new devices alter how we access the Web. “With smartphones, tablets and other connected devices, consumers have become digital omnivores – not just because of the media they consume, but also in how they consume it.” [see comScore, Oct. 2011]

There is more data available than ever before to tell us how individuals interact with the Internet. When we take the time to evaluate and understand this data, we can make smarter choices about our marketing decisions and identify opportunities we didn’t even know existed. And new opportunities = increased return on your marketing investments.

So, what opportunities are out there that you might be missing? As a first step, let’s take a closer look at the diet of the Digital Omnivore:

• A 2011 project by the Pew Research Center studied what media channels citizens across the country use to interact with their local communities. The study looked at what sources people rely on most to learn about their local communities. Outcomes showed that the majority of citizens rely on diverse media sources to stay connected and interact with their communities – depending on the topic. By far the most utilized channel was local TV – however, ONLY for weather, traffic, and breaking news. When it came to finding a business in their area, the Internet surpassed TV as the most commonly used resource. Additionally, the Pew Research Center found that citizens younger than 40 years old relied heavily on a mixed diet of new and traditional media to obtain information, significantly diminishing the reliance on local television and making this medium “vulnerable” in the future.
• On average the Digital Omnivore between the ages of 18–35 owns 2.4 devices, including smartphones and tablets.
• Think TV and Web are still separate media? Don’t be old school. A 2011 Nielsen Survey found that of those who own smartphones and tablets (50 percent of all Americans, according to CNN), 19 percent of them looked up information on their phone related to a television ad they saw on TV – WHILE THEY WERE WATCHING IT! If you know that a percentage of your television audience is looking at your website while watching your TV ad, why wouldn’t you ensure your website is mobile friendly?
• As reported by CNN, “Cross-platform consumption has created a vastly different digital landscape, and it is one that requires insight into both the individual usage of devices as well as the nature of their complementary use.”

First, note the sources of these studies: The Pew Center, comScore, Nielsen, and CNN. This is not just the enthusiastic proselytizing of a self-proclaimed geek, but the new reality of our marketing environment.

Variety is the recipe for the perfect digital diet.

• On-The-Go Mobile Accessibility – An evaluation of user analytics across a wide spectrum of law firm websites shows that regardless of geography, practice areas, and even budget, an average of 8-10 percent of website visitors arrive via a mobile device.Note: There is a difference between a mobile app for smartphones and simply ensuring your law firm website is compatible with mobile devices. You can contact our marketing department to find out more.
• Social Media Munchies – 86 percent of people between the ages of 18-29 report regularly using social media, and older Internet users are catching on fast. Adults between the ages of 35-50, for instance, are the fastest growing Facebook demographic. The most effective online marketing campaigns create a presence across a variety of platforms – and the social media channel is one that can no longer be dismissed as the red-headed step-child.
• Pay-Per-Click Ad Management – 48 percent of those 35 years old and younger are more likely to engage with an ad that is relevant to their geographic location. What does your ad text say? This is a solid opportunity to ensure your menu appeals to the digital omnivore.

If you think about the way you interact with all the available technologies today, chances are that you are reading from your tablet, checking email on your smartphone, listening to a podcast while on the treadmill, and surfing the Web during television commercials. Don’t worry – you haven’t suddenly become a geek. This is just the new norm of the digital omnivore.

Understanding the preferred variety that the digital omnivore likes in their diet will help you better maximize your Internet marketing budget by expanding your visibility across platforms and improving your accessibility to clients. We can help you develop the perfect recipe.

If you have any questions or would like to talk to the legal marketing professionals at Consultwebs.com, Inc., give us a call at (800)872-6590 or email us at info@consultwebs.com.

Understanding Your Law Firm Clients’ Digital Diet | Law Firm Web Marketing

To gather data on what works and what does not, we mined data from more than 200,000 visitors to law firm websites. These visitors came from different geographic areas, and their legal concerns were just as varied. They involved personal injuries, accidents, traffic citation defense, business litigation and specific medical disorders to name a few.

This data reveals ways you can work to secure more cases from your Web marketing strategies.

Use Topic-Specific Sites

We observed that Web properties that were topic-specific had higher conversion rates – regardless of overall traffic or even bounce rate. Since bounce rate often indicates relevant traffic, we had actually expected to find a link between bounce rate and conversion rate – but the data was not conclusive on this.

What we discovered was that topic-specific websites – RSD, traffic ticket defense, veterans’ disability, etc. – have almost twice the conversion rate as general practice law firm websites. Note that these are inquiries – not necessarily signed cases; many are individuals looking for information and guidance, rather than directly seeking immediate representation.

Our Recommendation: If your long-term Web marketing strategy does not include any topic-specific marketing initiatives, it is time to reconsider.

Design for Results

True or false: A lower/better bounce rate indicates that a site will deliver more inquiries. The surprising answer: false. Our data shows that bounce rate alone does not directly indicate conversion rate.

When a law firm’s website has a very low/good quality bounce rate but a terrible conversion rate, the likely culprit is a poor design. Not enough expertise has been applied toward converting visitors to inquirers.

In addition to collecting and analyzing usability indicators from more than 200,000 law firm website visitors, we pulled data for more than 50,000 individual visitor clicks. We evaluated the heat maps/click patterns for these visitors.

This analysis of click patterns on attorney Web pages revealed many opportunities for improved conversion specific to law firms, such as:

• Watch your words. The most visited pages on a law firm’s website are the homepage, attorney profiles and contact us pages – closely followed by verdicts/settlements. In our review of 50,000-plus clicks, we found that click-through rates depend on how these pages are labeled.
  For instance, “Our Attorneys” works better than “About Us.” “Questions & Answers” is preferred to “FAQs.” While “Results” may read more persuasively than “Verdicts & Settlements,” it is the latter than gets clicked more often. Visitor activity on “Free Consultation” pales in comparison to the more direct phrase, “Get Legal Help.”
  Our recommendation: Be direct in your language. “The Contingency Fee Process” isn’t catching your visitor’s attention? Then rephrase it to, “How We Get Paid.” The difference is dramatic.
• Link it up. Are you losing visitor contacts because you don’t know where your potential clients are clicking? Understanding your visitors’ click patterns can point to opportunities for improved conversion. Results from our data analysis illustrated this very well.
  Our recommendation: Your potential clients like to click your phone number. Be sure to link it up! Visitors to law firm websites also often try to click the first mention of your firm’s name in the content of your webpage – link it to a relevant page!

Web users’ behavior changes depending on the dynamics of the marketing environment. Behavior patterns differ whether we are trading stocks online, purchasing a retail item or looking for legal representation.

The professionals at Consultwebs.com serve as a knowledge base for our clients. We provide access to a network of attorney-specific data and resources and more than a decade’s wealth of law firm marketing expertise.

Partnering with a company that offers a comprehensive understanding of Web marketing for law firms can mean the difference between maximizing your investment and simply spending money.

Law firms from across the country and a variety of practice areas have partnered with Consultwebs.com, Inc., on their Web marketing campaigns. They cite numerous reasons for choosing us, including our proven record of securing search engine rankings, our unparalleled client service and our customized marketing strategies. If you would like more information about improving your Web presence please contact us to help with your law firm’s Web presence at marketing@consultwebs.com or (800) 872-6590.

Our Wealth of Data Brings You A Return On Your Law Firm’s Web Investment | Law Firm Web Marketing

Advantages of a firm doing its own search engine optimization (SEO) include having control over the outcome and knowing how much effort is invested into the campaign. A law firm that handles its own SEO may have faster response and will not have to worry about its marketing approaches being utilized by competitors.

However, many challenges come into play when lawyers attempt to do their own SEO. In addition to having to hire individuals versed in SEO, law firms may soon discover that they need additional content developers, designers and programmers. Some law firms find that their SEO manager is interested in building a costly personnel empire.

A law firm that does its own Web marketing enters a complicated and risky business. We are aware of four law firms that do their own Web marketing. All of the firms have increased their number of Web personnel over the past three years. One invests more than $2 million per year in Web marketing and achieves a very good return. The firm has been investing in the Internet for more than seven years. I have great respect for the firm and agree with this firm’s approach. Another spent more than $2.5 million per year for several years and, due to an ineffective campaign and return, eventually reduced its expenditure significantly. One of the other firms invests $360,000 per year in personnel and marketing and does not achieve the rankings or results that an investment of $60,000 per year would achieve with an SEO company. The other has grown to nine people and invests $480,000 per year and achieves rankings and results comparable to those a high quality legal SEO company could achieve for a fraction of that cost.

The Internet changes rapidly and requires ongoing work to maintain success. It is difficult for a few SEO individuals at a law firm to have the daily client and market experiences that a professional legal vendor receives across a broad range of legal websites, Social Media platforms, satellite websites and other important market segments. It is also difficult for law firm SEO employees to stay current with marketing techniques that work in today’s legal Internet marketing environment, which has expanded to include video, free books, blogs, online chat, press releases, conversion improvements through more effective design, and other Web marketing options.

Offshore And Outside Contractors

You should be careful about hiring offshore firms and outside contractors to assist you. Several law firms have run into issues with unlicensed photos and “blackhat” SEO techniques. Consistency is also a problem. Offshore and U.S. contractors go where the money is. If they receive a client of their own or find someone who is willing to pay more, your Web presence will probably suffer.

Cautions About Using Partnering With Large Vendors

I also encourage you to be cautious of choosing large vendors who have a smorgus board of products and profit centers of which SEO is one.  Many of these vendors place a primary emphasis is on selling, while and little emphasis is placed on support or a proactive website involvement. With large vendors, you often receive a template website design and you are shuffled from one support individual to another and essentially treated as a number rather than a valued client. Additional vendor considerations are listed on our article, How To Evalute Your SEO Consultant Team.

The Consultwebs Approach

 A valid consideration is whether law firms will receive the time and attention that is needed or if their SEO vendor will be supplying the same information to their competitors up and down their block. At Consultwebs, we address these concerns by limiting the number of clients we accept in a market area and by assigning a project manager to manage the law firm’s Web presence. With Consultwebs, for a reasonable amount per month, you have access to 30 law firm marketing professionals who can be deployed as deemed necessary by your project manager. We have a content team, conversion/design team, SEO team, Social Media team, programmers and individuals who obtain and analyze client report. It is impossible for a few in-house individuals can product the results and work that Consultwebs’ team of seasoned professionals can produce.

In terms of support response, we have been told that some Web vendors take weeks to make text changes or react to search engine algorithm changes. We typically complete client text change requests within 24 hours. When search engine algorithm changes occur, our SEO team reacts immediately. We realize that websites that rank well will get the cases and we work hard to achieve rankings for our clients.

Summary

A professional law firm SEO vendor can offer you the flexibility to increase and decrease output on your marketing campaign as you need it, without the worry of hiring and firing staff. The right vendor will provide solid results. In addition, your staff won’t feel stressed trying to accomplish tasks for which they don’t have the expertise or interest.

We hope you found this article helpful. If we can provide additional information about our law firm Web marketing services, please contact us at (800) 872-6590 or marketing@consultwebs.com.

Should A Law Firm Consider Doing Its Own Search Engine Optimization / SEO? | Law Firm Web Marketing

A recent Wall Street Journal article entitled Business Travelers Pack Extra Pounds, Insomnia, Stress stated that frequent travelers who travel extensively for business use are 92 percent more likely to be obese than counterparts who travel less frequently. They also are more likely to have higher diastolic blood pressure and to experience high stress levels, sleep deprivation, sleep disruption or insomnia.

Several years ago, I traveled extensively and experienced all of these symptoms.  To make it even worse, I often had to ask other team members to travel with me – increasing the expenses and disrupting schedules.  Some of our law firm clients have told me that they had the same experience.

What is the answer?

Planning, exercising and eating properly are helpful.   Fortunately, technology has provided additional answers.  Products such as Acrobat Connect, GoToMeeting and WebEx will save your lawyers and staff considerable time and money.

We use Acrobat Connect several times per week to connect our offices in North Carolina and Kentucky and our remote employees.  We also conduct weekly presentations and meetings with numerous clients and prospective clients.  I recently traveled to another state to to meet with a law firm. I flew to the firm’s office and Web-conferenced individuals from our content, design and marketing teams into the presentation. Each of our team members joined me in giving a portion of the presentation.  The conference (pictured) proved to be very effective.

To save even more money, Consultwebs.com and our clients have started using Google+’s wonderful Hangout feature.  Google+ is free and allows up to 10 individuals to have a Webcam meeting.  To see a photo of us using Hangout and to learn more about it, please see our Google+ article.

We hope you find our article helpful. If we can provide additional information, please contact us at marketing@consultwebs.com or 800-872-6590.

Travel Less, Hangout More: Web-Conferencing Programs Offer Ways to Conduct Your Law Firm’s Business Without Added Stress | Law Firm Web Marketing