It’s All About the First Page
For lawyers – reputation is paramount
In online marketing – your 1st page results are your reputation
Couple the above with the fact that online marketing is by far the fastest growing segment of marketing, and you can see:
- A Lawyer Must Control Her First Page Results
As a caveat, it’s impossible to “control” your first page results in a strict sense. You cannot decide what Google displays for a particular search term. To guarantee control, the best you can do is spend whatever is takes to be the top paid result for you name. However,
- There is Much You Can Do to Influence Your First Page Results
There are only ten results on the first page, plus any paid results that appear. You need to influence two different search results. One is your name, the other is your firm’s name.
First, you need to assess the competition for the two searches you need to influence. If your name happens to be George Bush, Esq., you are going to have a very difficult time. (Even with the most competitive names, however, you have options.) Next, you need to assess your digital assets.
- The First Step is Always to Get a Website
If you do not have a website, don’t be embarrassed. But get one, now. If you don’t have a website, you have lost clients. The most important digital asset is your own website. And the goal should always be to have your website be the number one result for your name and your firm’s name. You control your website. What better way to control your branding and the message of your firm than to write it yourself?
- Profiles Come Next
The next step, for lawyers, is to claim and control profiles. Numerous websites have lawyer profiles. InjuryLawyerDatabase has profiles. Other examples include Lawyers.com (Martindale Hubbell) and Findlaw (Thomson Reuters). Still other might be SuperLawyers or TopLawyers. Done correctly, it’s possible to have all of your first page results be content you influence.
- Once You Have the Basics, Go Advanced
Advanced strategies include press releases, multiple websites, news articles, video, unexpected profile sources, testimonial sites, and more. The ILD blog will elaborate further in future posts in the law firm marketing and search engine categories.