Many law firms spend substantial sums of money on legal directories, attorney matching services, sponsored websites, and other types of online legal marketing. Online legal advertising poses an interesting reversal of more traditional legal marketing forums. With traditional forms of legal marketing, the further a law firm would like to expand its marketing reach, the more the law firm must invest in its legal marketing campaign. It somehow makes intuitive sense that it takes additional investments in marketing dollars to increase the geographic reach of a firm’s legal marketing efforts.
Paradoxically, online marketing is not geographically limited and can often be national in scope. This is not necessarily helpful as a criminal defense firm in Los Angeles is not likely to handle a DUI case in San Francisco let alone New York. The challenge facing law firms in web based legal marketing is maximizing a firm’s local exposure in a forum that is not naturally designed to be local. An increasing number of tools exist that can be used to increase a law firm’s presence in the local markets where the law firm’s clients actually originate.
One of the most effective ways to promote a law firm locally online is by use of Internet legal directories. Many of these directories are organized on a county or city basis and will not only list a law firm on the site, but allow the firm’s website to be linked to the online attorney directory. This leveraging of online legal listing programs that appear high in search engine results is an effective way for a law firm to get immediate exposure for a law firm website.
This will drive clients to a law firm website by taking advantage of the high placement of the legal directory while also generating actual clients that call the firm directly from the attorney directory. It is very important that the legal directory program uses the correct citation for the law firm. A law firm will perform better in search engine results if there are many legal directories that list it. However, the name of the firm, address, and telephone number need to be listed correctly in order for the law firm to enjoy the benefits in local search results on Google and other search engines. Many law firms are listed for free on legal directories but they do not benefit from the online legal listing because the website does not have the proper citation for the law firm.
A law firm can also use the pages on its own website and any law firm blog to increase its performance in local search results. The website should reference local cities and counties that constitute a law firm’s target market throughout the website. The website should also combine references to “attorney,” “law firm” or “lawyer” with geographic references, such as, “Toledo divorce attorney,” “Riverside County family lawyer,” and the like. A legal blog that discusses events and issues, relevant in a particular legal market, can also be an effective way to generate many local references in the context of the relevant area of law.
The bottom line is, it takes effort and planning for a law firm to promote itself effectively in a local market. While geographic references on a website and blog will eventually yield results, it can be extremely competitive to generate local placement in search results. A legal directory can be a much faster way to generate local exposure and calls from potential clients in a law firm’s immediate market.
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