Legal Marketing & SEO Blog

Last week, I mentioned that businesses should hyperlink their street address to one of the online map providers. Why? Well, which one is simpler and less error prone? Clicking on a link that leads to the correct map or retyping an entire street address? Of course, clicking on a link is simpler. Anytime your clients have to retype a street address, they may enter the number, street name, street direction or city name incorrectly, which will lead them to the wrong location. You want your clients to easily find your office.

Along the same line, some businesses—including Justia (1-888-Justia-1)—have translated their phone number to an easier to remember alphanumeric sequence. However, unless you also display the numerical phone number (1-888-587-8421) alongside, your client will have to convert the alphabets back into numbers, which may result in a translation error.

This issue came up when I was trying to add the contact information from a business card into my address book. I had no problem typing in most of the information, but when it came time to enter the phone number, I was stumped. Without a phone in front of me, how was I supposed to convert the alphabets back to numbers? The lesson here is don't list a phone number that is easy to remember but difficult to dial.

A few weeks ago, I received a juror summons from the Santa Clara County Superior Court. Now, not too many people welcome the opportunity to serve on a jury because jury duty may conflict with family obligations or disrupt your work schedule. In addition, jury duty compensation, if any, is usually minimal. For example, California generally pays jurors $15 per day starting on the second day of service.

Anyways, today was my big day. As I was walking to the courthouse, I noticed several people distributing handouts, including one person who was offering an informational pamphlet entitled What You Need to Know About Talking to the Police. Although this isn't a high tech approach to legal marketing, it does offer a lesson for the online world.

Finding Your Target Audience. Why would a lawyer hire someone to distribute a pamphlet in front of a courthouse? Because the lawyer who authored the pamphlet realized that just writing an informational pamphlet alone is not enough. Only by distributing his pamphlet in a location flush with potential clients can the attorney use the pamphlet to convert a targeted audience of people with court business into paying clients.

Likewise, in the online world, just having a web site is not enough. You need your web site to be visible to your potential clients. What's the online equivalent of the front of the courthouse? Google. That's where potential clients start their searches and that's where law firms need to be. So, like the lawyer who hands out informational pamphlets outside the courthouse, law firms need to make sure that they are "handing out" copies of their web site on Google. If a potential client searches for san jose bankruptcy lawyer, then law firms with bankruptcy practices in that location must have their law firm web site listing appear at the top of the search engine results page for those keywords. Otherwise, that's like leaving your well-written informational pamphlet on your credenza at work. You can take a certain pride that you've assembled a fantastic pamphlet which is loaded with smart advice, but it certainly won't help you develop any clients if no one is reading it.

So, think of your law firm web site as your informational pamphlet and search engine optimization as the guy handing out your brochure. You need to both working together hand-in-hand to make your law firm web site a successful client development tool.

Here's a photo of the courthouse as I was leaving. (The jury panel on which I was sitting was excused.) As you can see, the line wasn't that long at that time. However, earlier in the morning, there was quite a wait. It wasn't until I reached the front of the line that I saw a sign indicating that attorneys, as officers of the court, may proceed to the front of the line upon presenting their bar membership card. I'll keep that in mind the next time.

Hi Friends,

I am going to be speaking on Search Engine Optimization and Blogs at LexThink's upcoming BlawgThink conference this Friday and Saturday (November 11 & 12).

LexThink is run by Chief Thinking Officer Matthew Homann (who also has the [non]billable hour blog) and Futurist and Director of Innovation Dennis Kennedy (and you can read his blog here).

You can find information on the schedule and speakers on the BlawgThink Pages. And you can get updates on the LexThink Blog.

Here is a partial list of the speakers: Jeff Beard, David Bowerman, Matt Buchanan, Henry Copeland, Ben Cowgill, Dennis Crouch, Steve Dembo, Carolyn Elefant, Fred Faulkner Peter Flashner, Michael Herman, Matt Homann, Will Hornsby, Brandy Karl, Dennis Kennedy, Cathy Kirkman, Rick Klau, Patrick Lamb, Jim McGee, Diane Murley, Steve Nipper, Kevin O'Keefe, Sabrina Pacifici, Evan Schaeffer, Bonnie Shucha, Doug Sorocco, Tim Stanley (me), Ernest Svenson and Jack Vinson.

And here is a list of the sponsors of BlawgThink, with links to their Web sites: Intel, NetCentrics, MindJet, LegalZoom, CasePost, Box.net and Gyronix

I am going to give a brief overview of search engine optimization (SEO) and why blogs do well (good post headlines used in the title tags, easy to get linked up, well formed xhtml....) and then walk though what you can do to really optimize your blog - but you will have to attend the talk :)

Peace - Tim

:: Rock Me on the Water by Jackson Browne

Hi Friends,

I went to the ABA Law Practice Management Section's Fall Meeting on Marketing and Technology in Philadelphia, and gave my 20 minute run through on search engine optimization (keywords, optimized home page, site map, title tags, links in open directory - you can read more in the Justia SEO Center or in this blog).

Fran Musselman of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy, was presented with he Sam Smith Award for lifetime achievement in law practice management. Read more about Fran and his speech on Ed Poll's LawBiz Blog.

Micah Buchdahl of High-Tech Marketing for Lawyers (http://www.htmlawyers.com) and I discuss world peace.

Here is the Liberty Bell - it is what Philadelphia is all about.

There were a lot of great talks. I am sure that if you missed them, that some will be coming again to a conference near you :)

Peace - Tim

:: Sailing to Philadelphia, Sailing to Philadelphia by Mark Knopfler

Hi Friends,

Welcome to Justia's Legal SEO Blog. On this blog we will comment on the Internet and legal marketing industries, as well as introduce new Justia features and services.

We would like to thank Kevin O'Keefe of LexBlog for helping us set up our own Marketing Blog.

Have a great day!

Peace,

Tim