Online Marketing Strategies for Maximizing Your Visibility
In the practice of law in the 21st century, you’re always looking for cost-effective ways to bring in new clients. With estimates that nearly half of all consumers looking for legal services begin their search online, it makes sense that your time, energy, and attention should be focused on maximizing your visibility on the internet. But you can’t simply put a website in place and expect it to generate traffic, leads, and new clients. You need to “optimize” your website to ensure that you’re attracting qualified leads with your digital marketing.
How Do You Fully Optimize Your Online Presence?
To get the best return on investment (ROI) for your online efforts, you need to actively manage your digital content. Here are some effective ways to do that:
- Post fresh content to your website on a regular basis.
- Your content—words and images—needs to be dynamic, changing often. Ideally, add or modify content at least once a week. Informative blogs are a highly effective way to accomplish that goal. Remember, though, that the objectives of a blog are not to answer a potential client’s questions—you want them to hire you before you do that. Your blog should pique their interest and demonstrate your knowledge and authority, encouraging them to contact you.
- Include a call to action at the top and bottom of every page.
- Don’t assume that a website visitor will be so impressed with your content that they’ll take the initiative to call or send an email. Include a call to action—something like “Call us or send us an email to set up an appointment.” Put calls to action throughout the website, so they are easy to find.
- Describe how you can help.
- The first question most web visitors have when they come to your site is “Can you help me solve my problem?” Tell them how you’ll help, in the first paragraph, if possible. The further down your page that they have to scroll to get the answer to that question, the more likely they’ll hit the “back” button.
- Highlight specific attorneys in your firm, including successful outcomes they have obtained.
- You have to be careful about using words like “expert” on your website, but you can demonstrate your firm’s expertise by describing who some of your attorneys are, the types of legal issues they handle, and some of the successes they’ve had.
- Includes important geographical information.
- Once a prospective client determines that you can help them solve a problem, the next thing they’ll want to know is where you are located. Will it be practical for them to come see you? Are you licensed to practice in their jurisdiction? Including specific references to geographical locations on your website will also help you rank higher in the results when someone searches for an attorney in your area.
- Simplify the process of scheduling an appointment.
- The more opportunities you give a potential client to contact you, the greater the chance that they will. Posting phone numbers and email addresses prominently on each webpage is essential. You should also include a user-friendly and easily accessible form that allows a prospective client to set up a meeting.
Let GetLegal Help You Boost Traffic to Your Law Firm Website
At GetLegal, we have provided comprehensive digital marketing products and services to lawyers and law firms across the United States for more than two decades. We offer a comprehensive set of tools and strategies to help you market your practice online, including website development (with custom content), search engine optimization, full video production capability, social media marketing, reputation management, and directory listings. Let us help you develop and implement a unique and effective strategy to make your practice more profitable. To learn more, go to GetLegalPracticeBuilder.com or call 1-817-359-7077.