Law firms fail to maximise internet exposure
Law firms are failing to maximise their exposure to online consumers by improving their rankings with search engines, a report has shown.
A study of by consultants Greenlight showed that 1.2m searches were performed in February for legal-related keywords, with 450,000 searches for ‘solicitor’.
More than half of all the legal searches involved the same five words: ‘solicitor’, ‘solicitors’, ‘attorney’, ‘divorce’ and ‘barristers’. Websites that achieved visibility for these terms were the first to come up in Google and other search engine results, the study found.
The research showed that searches for ‘solicitor’ have increased markedly every month since September 2009. Other popular keywords or phrases were ‘lawyer’, ‘wills’, ‘legal aid’, ‘conveyancing’, ‘find a solicitor’, ‘legal advice’, ‘injury lawyers’ and ‘no win, no fee’.
The most visible websites for legal searches were wikipedia.org, which reached 693,344 people in February, followed by the lawsociety.org.uk, which reached 595,035.
The top 10 websites included five solicitors’ directories, two direct legal service providers, two information sites and a careers website. The highest ranked individual law firm was national firm Irwin Mitchell, which was the 12th most visible website for legal searches.
The Greenlight report indicated that many law firms’ sites were failing to be picked up by search engines. For 132,000 of the legal searches performed during February, only 10 websites were listed in the search results. The consultancy said this suggested ‘massive gains [are] to be made within the online market’ by individual law firms.
In the field of family law, the word ‘divorce’ was searched for 33,100 times in February, according to the research. After wikipedia, the second most popular website was divorceaid.co.uk.
In the ‘finance’ category, there were 18,100 searches for ‘wills’ in February, and 14,800 for conveyancing. Of the top 20 websites, seven were finance law specialists, of which five offered conveyancing and two were websites for making wills.
In personal injury, ‘injury lawyers’ accounted for 12,100 searches. The most successful website was Claims4Free, which achieved very high visibility by succeeding in ranking at position one for 20 different keywords, including the term ‘no win no fee solicitors’.
In business law, national firm Russell Jones & Walker’s website rjw.co.uk was the most visible. The term ‘employment solicitors’ was the most searched for, with 2,900 searches. However, overall visibility for the top-20 sites was relatively low, indicating that there is considerable scope for business law firms to increase their access to online consumers.
The report noted that the legal sector is ‘notoriously competitive’, with many sites containing rich legal content. It said there was scope for firms that do not have a strong internet presence to improve this by focusing their content around the most popular keywords.
Comments
It Doesn't Have To Cost The Earth
Website marketing should be a part of every law firm's marketing strategy. What I love about it is that smaller law firms can easily compete and often beat the larger ones because they can give the matter some personal attention.
You do not have to spend thousands of pounds with optimisation companies either, some of my clients achieve fantastic results outsourcing some aspects of the website marketing process yet keeping control (and saving themselves thousands of pounds a month with a web marketing company in the process).
The key with website marketing is to remember that largely what the search engines are looking for is good quality content and a regularly updated website. This is exactly what your clients and prospects are looking for too. Keep both happy and you keep your marketing funnel full of hot leads for your services.
Nick Jervis (Solicitor, non-practising)
FREE GUIDE: 8 Ways To Win New Clients: http://www.samsonconsulting.co.uk/8-ways-to-increase-profits.html
Have you seen the new way to generate Personal Injury Clients? http://www.loyaltylaw.comhttp://www.loyaltylaw.com/prospectus.html
Local Search is Key
It is a huge area that is not being tapped and a way that even the smallest law firms can compete on a level playing field with the much vaunted top 10.
Google claims that over 3 million searches are made each month for the combined searches of "Lawyer" and "solicitor" (This is a useful tool to see how many people are searching for the major terms in your legal sector: https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal)
More importantly what is key, is that law firms up and down the country can do so much better for local searches and spread their reach eg:
Lawyer Colchester
Solicitor Essex
Property lawyer Suffolk
Criminal Lawyer Chelmsford
and so.
These searches will be high yield, but low in competition. Search Engine Optimisation is a way that you can spread your reach outside your usual geographic locality in a very cost effective way that no other marketing tool can compete with.
There are so many basic changes Legal Firms can make to their sites that can have a significant effect on their search positions. For a free guide, please get in touch.
Arrival Lounge
If potential clients are searching that is good, but not the whole story.
What will be as critical is when they click that Google link and find a fairly unexciting, confusing, non-engaging website. Web users disengage quickly if they do not find an almost instant solution. So design and solution should also be part of a firms web strategy.
And to pick up the points above this is affordable to all firms.
You do not have to provide the complete solution online...a law firms target should be to capture the client at this point rather than allow another firm to because when a web user is solution focused their propensity to look elsewhere is significantly reduced.
Internet Searches
I wonder how many law firms see the Internet as the first port of call for purchasing their services? I have mentioned for quite some time the video clip of David Meerman Scott (http://webinknow.com and @dmscott) where he talks about the metrics to a group of people involved in the direct marketing industry about the fact that 100% of people either personally or professionally have used Google in the last 2 months to buy something; I can't imagine that that is hugely different for legal services although I could be wrong (the survey doesn't indicate this).
Julian
Missing a trick. SSO Plus SEO = Success
I recall reading an article at the turn of the year in relation to social media predictions 2010 which struck me as being very profound. It helped focus my own social media strategy and it helped in my sharing with other lawyers (and lawyers2B) the very same ...
In summary: The online early days ... Web 1.0, the new industry of SEO emerged. Google became a billion-dollar business. The recommended way to win the 'king of findibility crown' was to consistently add 'information rich' and 'keyword relevant' content to a law firm website. Further down the road it's now Web 2.0 - the new industry of Social Search Optimization (SSO) has emerged.
My understanding is that SSO works the same way inside social media platforms too, so it becomes even more important to be found inside LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Plaxo, Biznik, Alias, Merchant Circle and FastPitch (to name a few dominant and emerging social media sites/platforms for businesses) either in the capacity of an entity (law firm) or as an individual (lawyer).
Because social activity and rich keyword content inform search engine results it is arguable that SSO will beat SEO with authority. It's no co-incidence that Google has done a deal with Twitter. The real power is in the real time search (keyword) of Twitter. If you tweet and LinkedIn status regularly with keywords you will note that you will be found high in the google ranking (irrespective of SEO).
Accordingly, since Google and other search engines are now furiously indexing social media platforms, keyword content on both social media platforms and within bespoke law firm websites will continue to be king of the online realm of findibility.
Silicon Valley is now on with Web 3.0. Ah, now there's the rub. If we haven't even got to grips with Web 1.0 properly just think of the missed opportunity in relation to Web 2.0, let alone Web 3.0 on the horizon.
I am no expert by any means on SEO or SSO, but I have understanding, knowledge and experience of marketing research, marketing, new marketing, relationship marketing, relationship building, sales and capitalising on new technologies and tools to assist in the same. SEO and SSO work in helping you get found and generate leads and instructions through actioning an effective SMO strategy and plan ...
Hitherto, we're missing a trick. We need to be doing SEO AND SSO right now otherwise we risk opportunity loss.
Best intentions
Chrissie Lightfoot - The Entrepreneur Lawyer
http://www.entrepreneurlawyer.co.uk
Everyone knows the web's important to solicitors- except us
Has nobody noticed the irony of all these absolutely spot on blog comments -- not a single one [except me of course] appears to be actually a practicing solicitor ! Everyone understands the importance of the web to solicitors -- except solicitors.
Websites for solicitors
Salisbury Lawyer ....solicitors don't have time to post about websites on here...
They are too busy doing an online search for "get my solicitor website found on Google consultant"
The irony is that even the basics, like claiming your own Google listing
in Google Local is not being done by 20-30% of law firms.
My advice...turn all your words into simple videos...upload them
with a tool like Tube Mogul with the right keywords, put them on
your website, get some good bait on your website that proves
your expertise, write the book on your specialist subject
and create celebrity status.
Probably take about 3 months spending 30 minutes a day.
A hell of a lot better than watching TV (unless it's QI).
When www means wild, wild, web
For most legal practitioners, the web and how to use it effectively is uncharted territory. Not unsurprisingly - lawyers do law, after all.
Most of the comments are from people involved in the legal marketing business, and so understand the importance of the web as a marketing tool. As do I.
I would say - don't rely solely on your own site for web exposure.
To add to Chrissie's comments about social networking sites - sites which have a strong web presence, e.g. advice forums, newspapers, and are discussing your subject area may be worth a blog contribution. Type in keywords and see who's talking about what.
Obviously be selective, but take opportunities to mention your name, firm, practice area and web-site whenever you have something useful to say.
If people like what they read it'll encourage them to link to you. Increased traffic improves your ranking.
A word of caution - writing for the web is something of an art form. Keep it short and pithy - no jargon or waffle.
Go, blaze a trail.
Jacquie Martin - Legal Information Consultant
http://www.jacquiemartin.co.uk
WEB SITE COMPLIANCE
I fully appreciate that good use of web sites is invaluable to law firms but they must understand the regulatory and compliance issues surrounding them.
As a lecturer on risk and compliance issues who also works in a law firm, I always carry out checks on the web sites of attendees to see if they comply with the relevant rules, I then use any failures I find in my seminars; it is of concern to see so many firms that do not seem to appreciate what obligations they have when it comes to having a web site. Even now some firms do not have 'Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority' on their sites!
Using a web site to promote a firm is all well and good but the site must be compliant with all the relevant rules otherwise the firm risks action by the regulators!
SEO for Law Firms must be unique
This is an interesting article, and all these comments are really very useful. Something else that might be handy to understand is the uniqueness of law firms (and other types of professional services firms) in the search environment.
Compared with commodity driven websites, the names of fee earners and the name of the company tend to the keywords that most searchers use to find a law firm. In my experience these “named” searches tend to account for around 2/3 of visits, while “blind” searches, where the searcher has no knowledge of the company might make up around 1/3 of visits. This has been the case with nearly all the law firm sites we have encountered.
While this demonstrates the potency of a strong brand or of high profile fee earners, it also means that the scope for the site to perform better in the search engines can be wide open.
If you’re thinking of employing SEO a great place to start is by deciding on one main theme for your search engine optimisation- it could be a local one e.g. “ solicitors”, or it could be a practice area “court martial barristers/specialists”. You can then consider the keywords that support this theme and its related topics.
By doing this you’ll allow the search engines to find a focus in your site, which will make it easier to be found by searchers with a qualified need- and they are the ones who are more likely to become clients.
Integration is King!
I agree wholeheartedly with Jon Busby’s observation that there is little point working hard on being found by the search engines, if you are not presenting in a particularly engaging way when people find you! Certainly strong, impactful design should be a key part of a firm’s web strategy, and careful thought should be given to your target audiences ‘journeys’ through the website: can they find what they are looking for easily? If not, we know they will switch off quick.
But the issue goes far deeper than this even: SEO is just one part of an online strategy, and your online strategy is just one part of your wider business development and marketing programme. ‘Online’ does not exist in some strange, disassociated space all its own – it’s part of the bigger marketing picture. Our philosophy is that these new media channels are all just TOOLS, ie to do a JOB. They are not gimmicks, success will not come from bandwagon-jumping and it is not about engaging with the latest channel just to look in touch and on the pulse. Success will come to those who use these channels smartly, (and of course a sound SEO strategy is fundamental to this), as 'new improved' tools to do a job that has always needed to be done: to communicate key messages about your offering and your values, to a carefully defined target audience, with the specific purpose of raising profile around your capabilities and style to convince people that yours is the best solution to your business need.
Focus on marketing not SEO
The big problem with so much Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is that ultimately you are not in control of the rankings. At the end of the day Google, Yahoo, MSN etc operate using an algorithm which they can and do change often. As a business you should focus on marketing your website online through pay per click, articles, directories and so on. This will inevitably result in your site becoming more popular anyway with other sites linking to it. Just design a website that is easy to use, has intuitive navigation and provides clear and appropriate information about your firm.
We're not all Irwin Mitchell. So piggy-back to get visibility.
An interesting thread and I particularly liked Chrissie Lightfoots comments on SSO + SEO = Success.
But how exhausting this all sounds! Solicitors seem to be expected to practice law all week and then spend the weekends adding to their keyword-rich content and maintaining the numerous elements of their SSO and SEO strategies.
There is only one Google first page for any search item and it is extremely hard to get onto it and stay on it, with or without adding local town names to your prioritised key words.
So, are directories the answer? Not really, any more than the Yellow Pages were in the past.
We think the answer is to create a local website with unbeatable content (www.lawdonut.co.uk in the case of law firms aiming at the small and medium-sized business market) and to integrate it with the website of a local law firm. In other words, let a team of legal writers create the content (with the participating law firms), let the digital marketing experts build up the traffic to the website with the rich content, and let the law firm concentrate on servicing the prospects who arrive via this Internet filter. Of course, it helps having Google as the founding partner for the project in the first place, and it helps having a series of other websites that link together (www.marketingdonut, www.startupdonut, which integrate with the websites of the local chamber of commerce and enterprise agency).
My friend imports trampolines into the UK. He has a limited number of competitors and only two or three are really hot at SEO. And yet it took him two years to get onto the first page of Google in the UK for the word 'trampoline'. What hope is there for the thousands of law firms that are competing with each other on words like 'solicitor' and 'divorce', and will soon be competing with the Tesco law entrants to the market?
Smoke & mirrors
I've followed this thread with interest since one of my clients pointed me at it (thanks Robin). Here are some thoughts.
I've read the Greenlight report and found it mildly interesting. However let me draw some analogies between solicitors and restaurants.
Consider these first two numbers. These are the number of "local monthly searches" as reported by the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. The first thing to note is that the number of searches for "solicitors" is significantly higher than the February figures of 450,000 that Greenlight reported. Note that the point of the Google Keyword Tool is to sell more PPC ads, so let's bear that in mind with all of this.
The numbers :-
"solicitors" = 1,830,000
"restaurants" = 5,000,000
So clearly, more people are interested in restaurants than solicitors. But just like restaurants I still think most people want a solicitor who is geographically close to them. Yes, I know, if you are a practising solicitor you will tell me you have clients all over the country but across the 230 law firms we work for we consistently get told that 75%+ of their clients are "local". So let's narrow those searches with a "service" modifier, in this case "employment" for the solicitor, "chinese" for the restaurant. The numbers :-
"employment solicitors" = 12,100 (0.66% of the number above)
"chinese restaurants" = 135,000 (2.7% of the number above)
So let's narrow those searches further with a geographic modifier, in this case "london"
"london employment solicitors" = 0
"london chinese restaurants" = 880
This pattern can be repeated all over the country and the smaller the density of population the less number of search terms are ACTUALLY used by people.
The reduction in search volumes can also be repeated by removing the service and just using a geography, consider these numbers :-
"solicitor in london" = 1,300
"solicitor in manchester" = 480
"solicitor in bristol" = 170
"solicitor in exeter" = 58
"solicitor in truro" = 0
So what does this mean for law firms? Well, three things :-
1) if you are a general, dare I say "high street" firm you should concentrate on some key geographic phrases first.
2) if you are a niche firm e.g. a real employment specialist, dental claims only, equine law only, then yes, focus on some niche keywords.
3) if you are a regional heavyweight firm, get ready to put your hands in some deep pockets as the big firms are spending shedloads of money each month on SEO, some reputedly well into five figures and the claims management sites are spending the same on PPC. It's not a game we recommend most firms even begin to take on.
SEO is just one part of a law firm's digital marketing strategy and most law firms should put it behind email marketing to their existing client base as well as doing a better job of recording email addresses of prospects and use email marketing to this audience as well.
Happy to be contacted in the real world if people want any more help on this or anything else to do with law firm marketing.
Regs....David.