Legal Internet Marketing Blog
In Part 1 and Part 2 of our three-part series on the legal Internet marketing cycle, we examined the importance of establishing a rapport with people via well utilized social media profiles, and then discussed how blogging should be used to really sell yourself as an authority on the particular area of law that you practice. Therefore, the third area of the cycle that we will talk about is your primary means of marketing yourself: your website.
When designing your legal website, it’s important to remember three things:
One, the site should be easy to navigate. This is extremely important for any website, and should not be ignored during an initial website design or even redesign. If it’s even slightly difficult to maneuver from one area of your website to another, visitors to your site are going to want to navigate away from it. The best way to ensure that your website is properly laid out is to retain the services of an experienced web design company who not only talks the talk, but has positive client testimonials to validate its work. If other attorneys have been satisfied with a particular web design company, chances are very good that you’ll be satisfied as well.
Two, the site should be informative, while also being interesting. The best attorney sites on the Internet find a good balance between discussing the law, which in technical terms can be relatively dry and explaining their legal services in such a way that website visitors feel invited to contact their law firm for more information. It’s relatively simple to place a snippet of civil or penal code on a practice area page, but it takes well written and engaging content to explain that code to non-lawyers. While it may make sense to you to incorporate as much legal jargon as possible as a means of establishing yourself as someone who understands the intricacies of the law, be sure to actually show that you understand the law and explain it in laymen’s terms that anyone visiting your website will be able to understand.
Three, the site isn’t going to be found on the Internet without search engine optimization. If you don’t have an optimized website, it is not going to rank well, and is consequently going to be difficult for potential clients to find. Once your keywords have been carefully chosen and your site is optimized to rank well, be sure to regularly update your website content to reaffirm your credibility as an authority in your particular area of law (this is important for not only clients, but search engines as well). Remember, once a person finds their way to your website, that person is more than likely close to making a decision about who they want to retain as their attorney.
Keeping all of the above information in mind, think of your website like an engagement. After a visitor sees your website, and you inform them to call your office, are they going to say yes? Make sure that you always put your best foot forward to help ensure that you don’t get rejected. Create a well rounded legal Internet marketing experience via social media profiles, blogging, and a well designed website, and hopefully you’ll soon find a lot of people want to say “yes” to your firm.
To read the transcript of one of our tweetups on the topic of the Internet marketing cycle, check out our Facebook note.