Legal Internet Marketing Blog
The old saying that “bad news travels fast,” has never seemed more relevant than it does in the Information Age. These days, a legal professional’s reputation not only can precede him or her, it can also directly influence a potential client’s decision to contact or not contact him or her. The rising popularity of Web sites that allow people to share their positive or negative experiences with products or professionals of any stripe makes it easy for people to share their opinions. Those opinions, whether based on fact or not, show up in search results and can have a profound impact on the success of a law firm or legal professional.
To that end, we’ve compiled a list of proactive reputation management tips that are inexpensive, enhance the effectiveness of other legal Internet marketing techniques, and allow legal professionals to take charge of their reputation management. These tips for lawyers include:
- Harness the power of social marketing – Social marketing sites are becoming increasingly relevant for any lawyer’s or law firm’s Internet marketing. Consider creating profiles for yourself and/or your law firm on social networking sites that cater to legal professionals as well as the heavyweights like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others.
- Host informational videos on your site – Consider hosting informational videos on your legal Web site that address some of the questions your clients often ask you about. These add value to your site, engage your site’s visitors and also rank well in search results!
- Add a legal blog to your site – Whether you write the legal blog’s posts yourself or have your legal Internet marketing company compose them for you, they benefit your site, rank well in search results, and allow you to address topical issues in the legal industry and provide valuable information to your site’s visitors and potential clients.
- Issue press releases – If you’ve recently won a big case, reached a settlement, expanded your law firm, added a new partner to the firm or done something newsworthy, ask your legal Internet marketing expert about the advantages of issuing a press release about it. Press releases are great for creating top-of-mind awareness about you and your law firm and provide good linking opportunities.
- Produce syndicated articles – Well-written, authoritative syndicated articles about any topic relevant to your law firm, trends in the legal industry or an aspect of law can provide precisely the type of quality backlinks from other Webmasters that enhance ranking opportunities. The costs of syndication are trivial, and these articles are an effective way to build awareness about you and your law firm.
These are just a few of the ways that legal professionals can proactively manage and, to a certain extent, control their online reputation. These and other legal reputation management strategies require little time or money and can enhance the effectiveness of other legal Internet marketing strategies. To learn more about the importance of online reputation management for lawyers, contact SLS Consulting at 323-254-1510. Our firm has helped lawyers with creating successful Internet marketing strategies that assist with client development and a strong, accessible online presence.