I’m the owner of a law firm. I do criminal defense work. Very quickly I learned there is one rule that every business owner needs to remember to be successful – without clients you have nothing. So, I started looking for ways to get clients, and it soon dawned on me that internet marketing was one of the best ways to get in front of people (absent referrals, which are always the best). Based on that realization I started learning everything I could about law firm internet marketing, and what I learned was fascinating.
For example, Google ranks everything based on a twisted popularity contest. It wants to have the best content up top, so it looks for votes from other people in the form of links pointing from one website to another. Google determines what the linked to site is about by looking not only at the site but at the keyword. The more links you have that accurately describe your site, and the more popular the site it comes from, the higher you will be ranked in Google (and the more eyeballs will see your site, and the more people will call… you get it).
But you don’t just have to wait around for people to send you links. You can create them using articles. But, and this is why this article is so important, law firm internet marketing is just all about the articles. It’s about where they come from, what they say, and when they are created. Let me explain a little bit.
First, where the articles come from. When the purported SEO experts start calling you and trying to sell you stuff, they’ll tell you all about the articles they’ll create for you. What they won’t tell you is that they’ll be on sites that Google has identified as spam sites and you’ll get no credit for that article. You must make sure your articles are placed on reputable sites.
Second, once you find a reputable site, the article’s got to be original. Google knows if an article has been published before. Don’t ask me how, but they know. Because of that your articles must be original content. If your law firm web marketers aren’t creating original content they’re worthless.
Finally, the timeline of creation is important. You can’t just throw up your website and start sending a million links to it on day one. In the real world it takes time to build up a good reputation. The same rules apply to the real world. Add your articles a little bit at a time. It will be easier on you and the search engines will like it better.
If you want to find clients, you’ve got to have a law firm internet marketing strategy. Just make sure you take a little time to find out how the game works.
