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Every Lawyer Needs SEO to be Found for FREE in Communities Surrounding His or Her Office

Paid Ads work, but Organically-Found Websites Pick Up New Clients for Free

Is there Any Value to working on Website’s SEO? You betcha! My definition of SEO is more broad than most. I suppose I use the term SEO as a total program of “Web Leveraging” which includes the structure of individual web pages (content), meaningful page titles, meaningful English-like permalinks that support the page title, competent page content, page sub titles, on-page H-tags, paragraphs and sentences that support the page title and re-enforce and expound upon the page title, the meta description and so on.

SEO – How Important is a Website’s Organic Ranking?

Feast or Famine! Literally. Seriously. Most of my clients are law firms. Most of my law firm clients have more than one website. Each website is researched, designed and built for a specific niche and —frankly— engineered for a specific set of keyword strings. If we are able to get a particular website “found” by potential clients needing that SPECIFIC legal niche service, we are golden! A law practice may get a retainer for a particular legal service that could average from $3,000 to $7,000 for some regular legal dilemma that might require a single court appearance. In criminal law, where a client’s very freedom is at stake, starting legal fees can be $20,000 to as much as 100,000 if facing charges that could see a client in state prison for years.

A Single Website can generate a Million Dollars a Year for a Solo Practitioner Law Practice

If you are a new lawyer, or a non-lawyer, you might be shocked to learn that a niche market legal website can generate as much as $1.2 million dollars per year in legal fees. That’s $100,000 each month! So do you think it matters if the website is found in the first 10 positions for a specific search on Google, Bing, Yahoo, or AOL? You betcha!

Whew! Three whole paragraphs… — Time for a Lawyer Joke?
** Things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down by court reporters:
ATTORNEY: She had three children , right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS: Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?

Below is a VISITOR Chart for a new Website I am Promoting via Organic, On-Page SEO & Content

If you are new to websites, you might think “big whoop!” Stop… I need to share some facts before going forward. This is NOT a national website offering iPhone 6 accessories. This is a website for a small law practice that caters to potential clients in a 20-30 mile radius. Law is boring to most. People don’t search for lawyers for chuckles, entertainment or casual web surfing. People ONLY search for a lawyer when they are in trouble or have a pressing legal matter. Lawyer websites are LOCAL – not national: there is a very finite, limited pool of potential website visitors. Most lawyer websites get an average of 10-15 visits each day after years of passively hanging out on the web. THIS website is BRAND NEW as of 04-01-14 and we reached 10 visitors per day when most new sites are not even fully “indexed” by search engines for the first month or two. Elbow grease.

After 5 months – this website, that would get 10 visits per day if left to sit passively alone, received, on average 100 visits per day for a very local, very niche-focused site. “Working” a website’s on-page SEO and content on a daily basis can and DOES get results. It’s not cheap. But it is not expensive either when you measure the cash flow that will come into a professional’s office or a business.

What is “not cheap”? For example… My most expensive SEO service at $1,300 a month works out to $43 per day. I had a local attorney in Orange, CA who has his practice located in a cute older Historic Bungalow, share with me that the non-English speaking laborer who he hired 2 years ago to water the plants, sweep the entrance and sidewalk around his small building, empty the trash and clean the glass entry door each day (never exceeding 3 hours/day) is $60 per day and has never brought him a new legal client – let alone $100,000/month in new cash flow. Plus he reminded me when he said I was a bargain, there are no payroll taxes, no potential workers comp claims, no $7,500 for health Insurance or IRS ObamaCare Fines to pay, no office space to carve out; no desk, credenza, chair, phone or $20,000 computer system to underwrite, no need to purchase a minimum of six big screens for an effective in-house web marketing guru to have an effective war room…

Non-Law Professionals and Businesses and the Value of a Single NEW Client

So you’re not an attorney or cannot make the analogy for the value of an easily-found website work in your head? Consider some other professionals and businesses that I have actually built websites for:

A marriage counselor that grabs a new client from the Internet gets an hourly fee of say $135.00 for weekly counseling. That’s $7,000 per patient for a year.
A small hair implant center may hook up with a patient for a $10,000 balding head remedy.
A room addition contractor may book a new family room addition that will go for $90,000.
A swimming pool contractor? Pools are now $40,000 for a basic pool; up to $100,000 for a pool with fake boulders and water features.
A Realtor – In Southern California a “starter home” sells for $500,000. A 6% commission is $30,000. Being found for the farm area the Realtor is working is mission critical to a prosperous real estate office.

A professional person or business owner would be Ninja-savvy to make sure that their professional or business website is found when potential customers are looking to hook-up and connect with them!

EXPECTATIONS: What Does Good Organic Ranking Look Like?

Good Organic ranking is when your website can be found in the first 20 slots of Google, Bing, Yahoo, AOL or other search engine for a targeted keyword search string that you are gunning for. That means PAGE ONE is target; Page Two is acceptable in competitive marketplaces.

Example of a site I am currently working SEO…

First let’s look at a client we built a website for in early 2014, but are yet to assist with their SEO. The design and positioning of the new website is to target the county level, but without being “worked” will take considerably longer to reach its goal. The law practice is located in the city of Plantation, FL a city next to Fort Lauderdale, Florida – 1 of 31 cities that comprise Broward County. Plantation has a typical-sized population of 90,000 — but “slim pickings” when you consider targeting the entire County of Broward which has 1.8 million residents. What to do? Go for the County!

Need your website to be found by more people?

Every Lawyer Needs SEO efforts & web leveraging applied to their law practice website so their website can be found by new potential legal clients for FREE. Working your SEO and other web leveraging processes actually works – My business is now mostly “web leveraging and SEO” for businesses who live or die by the stream of new clients necessary to make them successful. Give me a call at (888) 900-9078 and let’s talk about your web goals.

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* SOURCE: George R.R. Martin

** from a book called Disorder in the Courts Disorder In The Court!

By: Keith Bennett

Your Legal Website is NO LONGER Enough to Create a Powerful Web Presence

Web Assets Come Together to Work as a Whole

It has been a few years since it is no longer enough to just have a solo website for your law practice. Your legal website is just the CORNERSTONE component that needs to be surrounded by a network of web assets that will work together to promote your website. When your website is surrounded by the necessary web assets, you will better project your brand and share your expertise with potential clients who are ACTIVELY SEARCHING for someone like you in search of a solution to their legal matter.

Multiple Web Assets work together to Create a Powerful Web Presence

A law firm that deploys 4 to 10 web assets can create a powerful web presence. A powerful web presence will bring together you and prospective clients giving you a HUGE competitive advantage. Creating a powerful web presence is a complex process that includes your website, a blog connected to your website or stand-alone on separate URL, 2 or more social media profiles, and your listings in the better business directories.

The Solar Thermal Plant photo is a Perfect Analogy — But it can be a Double-Edged Sword!

I really like the visual analogy that the above photo makes. I think it is perfect and if you really want to start marketing your law practice, remember this image. For years I drove past one of the first Solar Thermal Plants in Yermo, CA – a desert community on the way to Las Vegas and Laughlin Nevada from Southern California. The more mirrors “in service” and pointed at the tower’s collector/boiler the more that sucker glowed! I swear to you that the analogy is 1:1 for leveraging the web to make you and your firm a boatload of money. All you have to do is not screw up by taking on too many clients too quickly and end up with disgruntled, overlooked, under-served clients who will then pen Rip-off Reports and crippling YELP RANTS that can similarly leverage the web with horrifying blow-back. I have helped dozens of lawyers who were so deep in the cow poop that they considered legally changing their names. BE CAREFUL!

Time for a Lawyer Joke?

“You are a cheat!” shouted the attorney to his opponent. “And you’re a liar!” bellowed the opposition.
Banging his gavel loudly, the judge interjected,
“Now that both attorneys have been identified for the record,
let’s get on with the case.”

Just as you might Write Up a Client Defense Checklist — WRITE Up a Web Marketing Checklist

A written strategy for your web marketing efforts.
Research (or list) your target demographic. Who do you want to learn about YOU and your Legal Services?
Create a list of terms, keywords, or keyword-strings that you want to be found for when searched. (e.g. divorce, divorce lawyer, Miami divorce lawyer)
If you need a domain name, search for a domain name that is a .COM or U.S. TLD (Top Level Domain) – not a .CO or other non-U.S. domain.
Make sure your existing or new Website is on a decent hosting solution (shared servers are sometimes so SLOW as to negatively-affect Google ranking).
Existing Website – Take a detached look at it – is it well-designed and easy to understand?
New or Existing Website – make certain that your website is mobile and tablet responsive (Google tests for this).
Existing or New stand-alone BLOG – make sure your BLOG is privately hosted – NOT on a FREE site (WordPress.com / Blogger, etc.)
If you have a BLOG connected to your website consider what to call it. (e.g. BLOG, BLAWG, ARTICLES, NEWS, etc.).
Is your current or new website built on a CMS platform (WordPress, Drupal, etc.)? A CMS website allows you to easily add daily, weekly or monthly new content (Pages, Posts, BLOG posts, etc.) without the need to pay a programmer.
Are your current website permalinks “long-tailed?” That means are they meaningful and in English? Example:

THIS: www.SEOforLawyers.pro/blog/a-website-is-no-longer-enough-for-a-powerful-web-presence
NOT: www.MyCluelessLawFirm.com/^073-&__$061#@.html.

What Web Assets Should You Consider? — Here are MY TOP SIX — In Order of Web Leverage Value

BLOG – You MUST have co-branded BLOG / BLAWG — preferably a “stand-alone” BLOG on a separate Domain/URL that is different that your website URL where you can post regular content that makes you an “authority” in the law section(s) that you work and points back to your website: Linked / Back-Linked to your website.
Google+ – You ABSOLUTELY must have a Google Plus account (That is visually Co-Branded and connected to your website).

Google+ Author Page is your initial Google Plus account about YOU the individual –Author Page– that is visually Co-Branded and Linked / Back-Linked to your website, and
Google+ Publisher Page is the 2nd page you will create – a Google Plus Business Page about the ENTITY (the Law Firm) –Publisher Page– that is visually Co-Branded and Linked / Back-Linked to your website.

Facebook Business Page – You should have a Facebook (Local Business or Place) account (That is visually Co-Branded and connected to your website).
Twitter – You should have a Twitter account that is visually Co-Branded and promotes the BLOG posts that you write taking Twitter users to your website. Argh you protest… “I’m not a Twitter type!” Yes I know. Neither was I – it seemed silly, distracting and not something a professional needs to embrace. I was wrong and SO ARE YOU.
LinkedIN – If you use your LinkedIN page, you know its value. If you have ignored LinkedIN – SHAME on you. It is a powerful Social Media tool that Lawyers, in particular, embrace to their benefit. You should have a FULLY set-up LinkedIN Profile that is visually Co-Branded to your website.
AVVO – You should have a FULLY set-up AVVO Profile that is visually Co-Branded and Linked / Back-Linked to your website. You do not need to fall into the trap of paying AVVO.

Websites Leveraged By Multiple Web Assets Grossly Overpower Solo Websites

Once your website is supported, bolstered, and amplified by a BLOG and Social Media sites, you will break out of the basement where SOLO WEBSITES are now piling up in mass. New Bar Members be encouraged! If you just passed the bar you are stepping out on a somewhat level playing field in that most lawyers do not have a decent web marketing plan. Most lawyers wear so many hats that web marketing is hit and miss. This large demographic will POP UP every year or two when the “marketing bug” bites them. They will upload a profile picture to LinkedIN; maybe set up a Google+ account —but they won’t really finish it. They won’t follow through and verify their ADDRESS, PHONE, EMAIL, WEBSITE, or create a co-branded cover image. Every week while doing research for a client, I stumble across these never-finished Google+ accounts. Lost opportunities! YOU can leave these floundering, unfocused lawyers in your rear-view mirror: GUARANTEED!

You can even take on and PASS BY long-established, prosperous competitors…

Lots of larger, established and prosperous law shops are able to pay Scorpion, FindLaw or LexisNexis their silly-ass exorbitant fees —the equivalent of a house payment every month giving them a false sense of having their attorney marketing under control. SILLY BOYS… YOU can PASS THEM BY. Many of these smug and arrogant (maybe “clueless” would be nicer) lawyers think that because they pay so-called professionals some serious scratch, that their shinny new website can and will naturally bury younger, newer UPSTARTS by the power of their wallet. These “clueless” lawyers assume their expensive investment in a single website is all they need to do; put their marketing hat in the bottom drawer and return to lawyering — incorrectly assuming that their overpriced site will magically attract clients with no ongoing elbow grease.

Not so fast! Unfortunately, for them, by failing to “work their web presence” their website is dropping in rank just like the majority of websites. You can quietly TAKE THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED, and work the web with purpose and superior knowledge benefiting greatly. All your need is a decent website —no need to sell your first born— and kludge together a collection of a half-dozen supporting web assets like a BLOG, Google+ and some other social media sites. YOU can leverage the web to where you will earn Google respect and consequently, Google PAGE ONE results for dozens of competitive keyword-strings resulting in new clients and cases.

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