The Truth About Lawyer Internet Marketing

Option 1: Your Yellow Pages Representative

Here are the positives of using this source:

If you are dealing with the major Yellow Pages Company in your region they may have a good program for advertising on their Internet Yellow Pages. The official “Phone Company” Yellow Pages usually has excellent usage, and provides a good return on investment. Verizon/Superpages typically has decent usage outside of their region because of their wireless brand that is known everywhere. Yellow Pages.com also has fairly good usage nationwide.

Dex Media usually provides good results in their region, but the jury is still out on new markets they are trying to enter like Las Vegas. They have a good television ad campaign, but it’s hard to beat the “verb”: Google.

You may have a good relationship with your rep if you have had the same rep for years. You probably trust them and they probably want to do what’s best for your business.

Risks of dealing with your Yellow Pages Representative as your Internet marketing consultant:

Here is what to watch out for:

Yellow Pages reps are under a lot of pressure to sell you as much advertising as they can-whether or not it is good for your business. This may result in them overselling their Internet Yellow Pages, and they will do everything they can to keep your print advertising. Back when I was working with Dex Media we were $1.6 Billion a year print media company, and even though we more than doubled the Internet revenue for the company-the end result was still under $70 Million in yearly revenue.

RH Donnelly/Dex and other major yellow pages companies are holding on tight to a sinking ship. You can still get a good quantity of calls from the yellow pages with the big ads and the outside cover products, but trusting them with your Internet money is risky. One of the major reasons is that the yellow pages companies do not specialize in attorney Internet marketing. In my previous post I elaborated on how that can be a problem.

Yellow Pages advertising does have merit, and many businesses profit from Yellow Pages advertising, but usage is declining and the return on investment is not as good as it used to be-certainly not as good as a quality Internet Marketing Strategy.

While the rep may have your best interests in mind, the experienced Yellow Pages rep rarely understands what the best Search Engine Marketing solution is for law firms. If they did, they probably would not try to sell you all of the Search Engine Marketing products their company offers. Utilize them for their online Yellow Pages, but you are probably better off utilizing an Internet Marketing Consultant to help you succeed with the search engines like Google, Yahoo! & MSN.

Be careful of any Search Engine Marketing program they try to sell you. The Yellow Pages companies are usually not completely “transparent” with where your clicks are coming from, and they may charge you as much as a 2,000% mark up (yes-TWO THOUSAND) on your Pay-Per-Click program to manage it for you. This can eliminate the potential return on investment that a program like this SHOULD be providing your business.

Their websites are usually packaged with marketing programs that are often over-priced. While often times a package deal sounds good, in this case it may be more costly than if you were to buy them separately or invest in a more law firm tailored program.

Next week I will be posting the Google rankings for the major online yellow pages in Seattle and Las Vegas for the top online lawyer searches.

Option 2: A Marketing Firm
Marketing firms can provide some great strategy development and big picture programs. I have yet to find one that truly understand the ins and outs of Internet marketing, and figured out how to implement a strategic Internet marketing program. If you find one, please let me know.

In many cases they are your outsourced “Creative Marketing Project Managers.”

This is very important, because when your whole marketing program is designed to work together it can be much more affective than the sum of the parts.

The downsides to utilizing this kind of service is that they will probably outsource anything to do with the Internet, and you will be relying on their discretion when it comes to picking a web designer or an Internet marketing firm.

They are often provided with referral commissions from the advertising they sell, and may be biased towards using media providers that pay higher commissions. I have seen some Marketing firms cut out their clients profitable advertising programs because they could not get paid commissions from that media provider.

Option 3: A Website Developer

MOST good web designers and web developers build great websites. Few of them are SEO experts and fewer still are Pay-Per-Click marketing experts. If they try to steer you away from Search Engine Marketing, you probably should steer away from them, or hiring an Internet Marketing company to work with them.

Lately I have seen a lot of well-designed sites on the front end, but on the back end they are still using pre-2005 search engine optimization strategies.

Option 4: An SEO Firm

There are some superb SEO firms out there-and there are also some scam artists. In a previous post I discussed what to watch out for when it comes to SEO firms. If you need help before then, please feel free to call me and I will help you avoid getting ripped off. You call me at 702-966-9414, 206-501-4569 or 720-985-7945.

Option 5: An Internet Marketing Firm

A high quality and trustworthy Internet Marketing firm will help you build a website that meets your specific needs and budget, and recommend a marketing plan that will help you grow your business. They will show you how to get the most for your marketing dollar utilizing the Internet, and also help you integrate it with your other marketing efforts. They will also help you avoid Internet scams.

It is hard to find a firm that has been around and is going to be around in 2+ years.

If you are going to trust anyone with your money-more specifically the potential success of your business, you need to check their references.

Most people I work with simply trust me, but I often think they are lucky that I am actually a trustworthy Internet Marketing consultant. So many people are so confused or naive about the Internet they want and need to trust someone, and often times it’s simply the first convincing person that comes along.

An Internet Marketing Firm That Focuses on Lawyers’ Needs

LexisNexis/Martindale Hubbell has the most comprehensive Internet marketing solution for attorneys that I am aware of nationwide. They are experienced, they are honest, and they have been at it a long time-long enough to learn what works and what does not. They Lawyers.com, Attorneys.com, they offer SEO services, Press Releases, Pay Per Call, Pay Per Click, semi-custom web sites and fully custom web sites. They even have a classy television advertising program that is affordable for smaller law firms.

Thomson Westlaw
I have discussed in previous posts how they fall short in meeting Lawyers’s needs, but they do know the industry. Attorneys tell me it is difficult to get them to live up to their SEO promises, because they tend to over promise more often than not.

Is it the Amway salesman?
No.
Is it a used car salesman?
No.
Is it the “cure all” juice salesman? (formerly known as the “snake oil salesman”)
No.
It’s the Internet marketing consultant! Run for your lives!!!

The great thing about blogs is we can vent and complain freely, but as a friend once told me; just because I am only venting doesn’t mean I do not offend.

So let me apologize to the honest Amway sales person; Sorry-you guys do have some great products.

I also want to apologize to the used car salesmen-NOT including the guy I bought my Lexus from. I actually had to put in a new engine 2 weeks after I bought it. Now I have to drive it for another 10 years to get my money’s worth out of it. I am sure somewhere out there lives an honest used car salesperson, but I am a little bitter about them right now.

Some of that juice stuff from Australia tastes really good, but my wife swears we can do better at with her own concoction from ingredients found at Whole Foods. Since she makes the food choices in our home, I can apologize to the juice people but I can’t buy their juice.

As far as the Internet marketing consultant goes, I am sorry. Sorry that you have made my job so hard.

Why is that? What’s the story? Why can’t I proudly raise my head as I tell people what I do for a living without adding-”but I am an honest Internet marketing consultant.”

Well in the late 1990s, ”Internet marketing consultants” walked into small businesses and fortune 500 companies and took them for a ride. They spent millions and got little in return.

After Enron, Worldcomm, and 9/11 the advertisers got a realty check and pulled their money out of the Internet. It wasn’t until the end of 2003 that more money was spent on Internet marketing than was spent in the 1990s heyday.

Starting a few years ago local search became a big deal. People started looking for local service related businesses that were well suited to the information and efficiency offered by the Internet. Insurance, real estate and lawyer searches have gone through the roof.

The result has been everybody and their brother trying to sell all of you law firms every kind of “Internet marketing solution” under the sun. At best, the people selling you all these programs are/were naïve, at worst-dishonest and greedy. They want your yellow pages, television and your banner advertising budget, and they are willing to say just about anything to get it.

Whatever the reason, the truth is that I can tell you from my experience 90%+ of the Internet marketing strategies out there are bad ones.

I have yet to meey an attorney that has figured out how to market their firms on the Internet perfectly (it’s an imperfect world). Here is a paraphrase from a blog I wrote over a year ago, and looking back it still holds true.

In this post I try to answer the question: “As a business/firm owner; do you need an Internet marketing consultant?” In the next post I will answer what questions you can ask to figure out WHO you can trust. (Of course, you could just call me at 702-966-9414, or 206-501-4569)

Whether you have just started a law firm or you have been in business for years, you probably fall into one of these categories when it comes to Internet marketing:

Level 1 Internet Marketer:
You do not have a website; however there is a good chance that you have some kind of Internet presence that you may be unaware of through your local Yellow Pages, Lawyers.com or some other source.

Level 2 Internet Marketer:
You do not have a website, but you have an intentional Internet presence through different organizations like Lawyers.com, City Search, a local Yellow Pages Company, the local bar web site, the Better Business Bureau or some other organization. You are probably getting decent results from your efforts-at least your referrals are finding you by name.

Level 3 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, but have no intentional marketing presence where people can find you, other than what you may have as a Level 1 Internet Marketer. Your web site is probably dated, and more people will see your web site than see your office. I would argue that you could be better off at Level 2.

Level 4 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, you have spent money on a marketing it, but nothing has worked so you have a bad feeling about Internet marketing. Again, you could be better off at Level 2, because at least then you would have an optimistic outlook on Internet Marketing.

Level 5 Internet Marketer:
You have a website, you have spent money on a marketing it, you are getting some results that you are happy with, but you could be getting a better return on your Internet Marketing investment if you were implementing better strategies for your firm.

Level 6 Internet Marketer:
You have a web site; you have done a perfect job of marketing it and you have reached the full potential of the Internet with your brilliant Strategic Internet Marketing Plan that includes strategic email marketing and cross-marketing. I have yet to meet anyone who is at level 6.

If you are at level 1-4, there is a good chance that you could benefit by utilizing an Internet marketing consultant. If you are at Level 5 and want to get to Level 6 or if you think you are at Level 6, it is probably worthwhile to at least sit own with a consultant and see if they can help you increase your return on investment. There is nothing wrong with a free consultation-if the consultant is looking out for your best interests.

Who can you trust to be your “Internet Marketing Consultant”? Well, for attorneys, my peers at LexisNexis/Martindale Hubbell and I are a professional bunch of knowledgeable and integrity based consultants. I have met them all and I believe they know the market and they look out for their customers. I am sure that there are also good consultants from other companies, but it seems to be the exception, not the rule.

Here are some other options, which I will discuss in detail next week.

-Your Yellow Pages representative. (Good, bad and ugly suggestions from this talented and persuasive bunch)
-A Google or Yahoo! Representative. (Can you trust Google?)
-A website developer. (Is he or she left or right brained?)
-An SEO firm. (How do you select the right one?)
-A PR firm. (Do PR firms know Search Engine Marketing?)
-A Pay-Per-Click management firm. (How can these guys help you?)

The two easiest ways to get your site to the top of Google:
 
1-Follow SEO best practices so people can find you by name in your geographic area.
 
Even if you spend thousands of dollars on SEO or some other form of Internet marketing, it is likely that around half of the traffic to your site will come from people searching for your firm by name and usually including your city and/or state in the search.

This is because your referrals often search for you before they call, or your other advertising media such as television, radio, magazine, billboards and yellow pages drives people to search for you online.

If your site does not come up at the top of the search engines over other information then you do not give the first impression you desire to give to your prospects.

It sounds simple, but there are still sites out there that attorneys are spending thousands of dollars on that Google and the other search engines cannot read, or what the search engines read does not identify the firm.

I saw a site last week that very nice-but it was all written in flash. Google saw nothing on the site. It was designed by a ‘PR Firm’ professional who was talented and creative, but like many talented and creative web designers, he or she gave no consideration as to how the search engines were going to find the sites.

Here are some basic rules to follow:1-Meta-tags:

Meta tags will not alone get you to the top of Google for competitive keywords, but if they are not done correctly you may not even come up by name.

There are 3 types of meta-tags you need to consider: 
Title Tags:

Title Tags need to be different for each one of your pages. Your home page should have your firm name and geographic location in the title tags and have no more than about 60 characters.

Don’t know what title tags are? You aren’t supposed to if you are an attorney, but if you do then proper title tags will make sense to you. I am not even sure what “tort reform” means, but I have an idea, and I could find out in seconds. However, it is not my job to really know how to rattle off the definition of “tort reform” on a regular basis.

This is why you should look to hire a true SEO professional for $100-$150 an hour, instead of spending your $300+ an hour time learning something new.

Off my pedestal and back to the other Meta-tags:

Description Tags:

Description tags are the textual results that appear on the organic search results. It is important that this accurately describes your firm, and you may even consider putting your phone number in the description tag to drive calls before a searcher clicks on any web site. Keywords in the description tag are good, but not as important as the title tags; therefore first and foremost make sure you put your best foot forward in your description tags.

Keyword Tags:

I often see web site designers make the mistake of putting all of the site keywords on everyone of their pages’ Meta keyword tags. It is much better to have the keywords focused on the content of the page, and therefore the keywords should be different for every page.
2-Sitemap:

A sitemap helps the search engines read your site. Having a Google sitemap is a great way to go, but not necessary. Most sitemaps can make up for a site that is hard for Google to read due to javascript or some other issue (I am not a programmer, I just keep up on these things).
3-Pictures and Videos

Make sure your pictures and videos have names relevant to your site.

URLs

www.myfirm.com/updsaufisua?ioupioudf=+-? Is not a great URL.
www.myfirm.com/keyword-keyword-keyword is much better way to go.
‘nuff said
The “last” best way to get to the top of Google and other search engines?

Have your site listed on a site that is already there for the keyword searches you want your site to be found.

You want to be at the top for the search “las vegas attorney”? Do the search yourself and see who appears. Some of those sites are directories that will pay for you to be listed on.

Lawyers.findlaw.com (Westlaw’s Directory) and Lawyers.com (a LexisNexis owned directory) are the two sites that consistently get the most searches of all of the lawyer online directories. This is confirmed by Nielson Ratings, ComScore and Hitwise-3 of the top 3rd party verification sources.

Essentially you have Lawyers.com and Findlaw.lawyers.com as the top two lawyer directories, with Lawyers.com getting about twice the visits as Findlaw.lawyers.com, and all the others getting significantly lower search volume.

In some markets you will find niches where a local directory may compete with these search engines, but again-that requires some research. In Nevada the oen I have heard positive feedback about is www.attorneyguide.com.

Whatever you do don’t just take someone’s word for it. Other attorneys aren’t likely to tell you what works for them if they compete with you in any way.

On Google, lawyers.findlaw.com does a better job at coming up for local searches in many cases, while Lawyers.com comes up at the top nationwide; therefore being on both helps you cover your market. When someone searches for “lawyer”, “lawyers”, “attorney” or “attorneys” on Google they are likely to end up on Lawyers.com and then work their way down to the city and/or state in which they are looking for a lawyer.

Lawyers.com often comes up on the first page of Yahoo! for local searches.

There are other sites that come up on various searches, but these two have the most consistent results.
Another benefit of being on Lawyers.com is that when you list there you are also put on Martindale.com, Superpages, CitySearch, GoogleLocal, Business.com,CNN and a host of other search engines.

Another place to consider listing your web site is online yellow pages directories. Each market has directories that get significant usage from placement on search engines and/or brand recognition.

As mentioned in an earlier blog of mine-many online yellow pages are a waste of time and money, but consistently superpages.com, yellowpages.com and in some markets Dexknows.com receive significant traffic. The problem is that the yellow pages reps will try to sell you products they have developed that may work for landscape contractors, but are a waste of time and money for attorneys.

I was speaking with a Las Vegas attorney who had just committed to a $500/month “SEM” product with Dex Media. I told her the problem is that while a program like that may work for a landscape contractor it is not likely to work for an attorney.

I gained instant credibility with her when she said “They demonstrated their product with a landscape contractor-which is why I bought it.”

Go figure.