Internet marketing success for a law firm requires a holistic approach. Each and every strategy, method, and technique should ultimately be measured by its ability to generate new customers, from whatever source.
Whether you’re trying to increase your law firm’s search engine visibility or find effective internet advertising opportunities, you need to be able to measure effectiveness from initial contact to securing a retainer.
To find strategies that are most likely to succeed, you’ll need to consider your marketing needs, goals, and budget. Here is a plan to increase your law firm’s visibility online:
Investigate
You will need to decide on your goals and budget. Think about which practice areas and geographic regions make up your law firm’s target audience. Be specific. The more focused your practice is, the more concentrated effect your efforts will have.
Existing web presence
Look at your existing web presence. Is it in line with your goals? Where is it strong? Where is weak? Don’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Sometimes minor adjustments can have significant impacts. Performing this analysis will give you an idea of which strategies should be assigned top priority.
competitive analysis
Review 5-10 of your competitors’ websites. Look at your competitors’ search engine visibility, backlink profile, social media activity, and online ad spend. What are they doing successfully? What are they doing wrong? Competitive web intelligence can tell you a lot about what you need to do to outperform your competition.
keyword targeting
Brainstorm keyword objectives. Consider the search volume and competition for each potential keyphrase target. Set short-, medium-, and long-term keyword targets.
Website / Blog
Set up a professional law firm website and/or blog. This can be accomplished in several ways. Make sure you have your website or blog built on a content management system (CMS) so you can easily add new pages, articles, and blog posts.
On Page Optimization
Make sure your essential HTML tags (title, headings, fort, img alt attributes, etc.) contain your target keywords. Do not abuse key phrases! However, make sure that your key phrases are used correctly on your website/blog.
link building
Identify link targets and run link building campaigns. Find information that is relevant to your practice. Use these sources of information as inspiration for the content on your site. Link to your sources. Contact local news sources that report on topics relevant to your practice. Get involved with professional organizations. Claim your profiles from the various legal directories available online.
Evaluation of advertising opportunities
Look for Internet advertising opportunities that are more likely to generate a positive return on investment. Find directories that have high search visibility that also give your business high visibility within the directory.
Measure
Once a month, you should analyze your website traffic, web events (including form fills, information requests, and phone calls), backlinks, and your search engine visibility. Refine your strategy each month by analyzing and updating keyword targets, tracking competitor strategy, and analyzing the effectiveness of any ad opportunities you’re involved with.
