Giving Your Website a Blast of Visibility

Video is a smart way to increase the visibility of your website in search engines. It's also a great selling tool to captivate potential clients. Many attorneys are wary of video on their websites as somewhat "tacky," but video has come along way since the talking head against a green background. Video tells your story. If you are an attorney who is good at getting people to sign up, video is a product that you should consider. Clients feel like they have met you before they pick up the phone to call.

At FindLaw, the video field producer helps create a script and walk clients through the shoot. This helps attorneys become comfortable even if they are not used to talking into a camera. FindLaw also has a highly experienced film crew to develop exceptional results. For example, one of FindLaw's videographers worked on Survivor in Australia! Other vendors who sell video do not have the specialized experience of working only with attorneys. FindLaw understands legal consumers and how to reach them online.

FindLaw Providing Web Based Client Leads to UK Firms

Thomson Reuters FindLaw, recently announced that it has the acquisition of Contact Law (www.contactlaw.co.uk), which offers Web-based lead generation services to small and medium-sized law firms throughout the U.K. Based in London, Contact Law introduces prospective clients to its network of more than 4,000 lawyers throughout the U.K. so that consumers with legal needs are able to obtain top-quality and cost-effective legal advice from local, specialist attorneys. The acquisition allows FindLaw to expand its global presence in the market for law firm client development services. It is also an exciting opportunity for Contact Law whose customers will benefit from the resources and expertise FindLaw can provide.

Finding an Attorney

Sometimes lawyers have been practicing for so long, they can forget how "real people" go about finding attorneys. Regular folk may only come into direct contact with attorneys through limited circumstances e.g. divorce, a car wreck, but not know how to find an attorney if they need help making a will or with a defect in their house. Indeed, they may not even know how to find a divorce or personal injury attorney to suit their needs especially if they have a complicated matter. Others may not even know an attorney can help them with what they feel is a unique need. Potential clients usually start by asking family or friends. The lawyers they reach through these means are limited by the experiences of their social circle. Others may use the yellow pages or television, but this provides very limited information regarding the expertise or experience of the lawyer. More and more people are turning to the Internet to find a lawyer. Sometimes, they may not even be looking for a lawyer, but their legal inquiry points them to the lawyer that seems to meet their needs. If you are a lawyer who does not have an Internet site, you need to find an experienced lawyer marketing consultant who can help you establish an effective website to draw in those potential clients.

Relying on Referrals for your Lawyer Marketing

Many attorneys resist marketing on the Internet because they feel that they get sufficient clients from referrals. While there is nothing wrong with getting clients from referrals, lawyers should consider if this is the only method upon which they wish to rely and the opportunities of online marketing with a trustworthy marketing consultant. When you depend on referrals as your main source of new business, your control over the type of business you receive depends on those referrals. Your client base depends on what cases are sent your way. If you have to pay for those referrals, you should consider how much you pay out compared to a marketing plan that allows you to control your flow of new clients and self select the type of cases you would like to handle.

Websites Versus the Yellow Pages

According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, the recent downturn in the economy may be one additional factor turning the Yellow Pages into a tail spin. As many competitors vy for precious ad dollars, consumers are demanding more accountability. In addition, Yellow Pages has such an association with print, that online users rely on search engines to find the results they need. And these are results that aren't just traffic, but results that are likely to result in actual clases and client calls.

Protect Your Reputation Online

A website can serve many purposes. At a minimum it is your business card online, but it's also a means of maintaining control over your firm's reputation. However, once you are out there on the Internet, so are your competitors and detractors. Lawyers should always check their name to see how it measures up on the Web, but the results are not all out of a lawyer's control. There are a number of vehicles which allow lawyers to update profiles that contain biographical information that they wish to convey. The following profiles serve as good examples:

FindLaw Attorney Profile Peter Greenfeld
Ziki Profile Howard Kornberg
Hotfrog Profile Glitsos, Kratter & Associates
Naymz Profile Scott David Stewart
MerchantCircle Profile
Lasiter & Jackson
FindLaw Firm Profile Law Office of Peter Greenfeld P.C.
AVVO Profile Cynthia Henley

Find an Attorney ASAP using Google411

If you have a million numbers in your cell phone, but need to find that right number asap, Google has made it easy to locate an attorney with just one number. By programming 1-800-goog411 into your speed dial, while on the road or even at home, you can reach that local franchise attorney by hitting your preprogrammed number for 1-800-goog411 . The service is free and the best part is you only have to respond to a request for city, state, name the attorney and connect to the law firm you need. Also wonderful is that you can use this service nationwide. The following link will help provide you with a quick demonstration. http://www.google.com/goog411

Google Wiki and Customized Searches

Search Wiki allows you to customize your search result so that you get results tailored to your preferences. This explains the arrows to the right of search results that you may have seen to the right of your search results. Certainly, Google pages are looking alot different lately and there's more to website visibility than there ever was before. From the visitor's perspective, Search Wiki now allows you to enhance or demote certain results. For example if you have a new puppy and prefer a certain dog toy or treat over another, you can make sure that it always comes up first- and create annotations along the lines of (this site specializes in information on therapy pets or foster dogs and training tips etc...). You need to set up and sign into a Google account to activate this feature.

Does Google Always Translate Clicks into Site Ranking?

Anyone who claims to know how Google ranks sites, is at best, just pulling your leg. Certainly, there are grey areas in which some webmasters operate and get away with greater visibility on the web than they deserve. It is a dangerous game to play. Google is always checking to make sure that rankings reflect quality sites. One way some law firms try to manipulate their site ranking is by clicking on the home page of their website as often as possible. While the number of visitors to a site is a factor in determining Google's page rank, Google is savvy enough to know where those clicks originate. Clicking on your site, won't necessarily hurt your site's ranking, but at a minimum it does waste precious client billing time and can just provide misleading information for your firm if you want to find out where your traffic is really coming from.