For most small law firms and sole practitioners, marketing their practice is a crucial part of business success. When it comes to law firm marketing, their are plenty of ways to market your practice but few with the potential that the Internet provides. I’ve been working with law firms for over 8 years and in my experience, the Internet has provided the best ROI of any marketing venture for firms that understand how to successfully advertise on the web. Now, that being said, most firms do not do a good job of Internet marketing. Those that complain that the Internet does not work are firms that have an outdated law firm website, do not show up for the most popular terms used by consumers searching the web for an attorney, and/or have limited content on their website. I’ve said this before, if you want to have success on the Internet you need to have great visibility for targeted search terms, a good looking site design and your site needs to be informative to your visitors. So how do you find the right company to handle your firm’s Internet marketing? You probably have had plenty of calls from law firm marketing companies, right? Here are some tips to help you find the right company to market your practice.

1. Can they show you 1st page results for their existing clients on Google?

Without question, the most important part of successful Internet marketing is for your site to have great visibility on the search engines. Hands down, the search engine that provides the most traffic is Google. There are plenty of search engines out there, but really only three that matter. Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Market share for each as of December ‘06 was 47% for Google, 29% Yahoo! and 11% for MSN according to comScore. When I analyze traffic, even for sites that have good visibility in all three search engines, percentage of traffic provided by Google is much higher than 47%. I’ve seen it provide over 80% of traffic so the one search engine you really should care about is Google. Can the company selling their lawyer marketing services show you results on the 1st page of Google for commonly used search terms? Everyone searches a different way, but most consumers search the web for an attorney with this formula:

How Consumer Search = (city/state)+(practice area)+(attorney/lawyer)

For example, “California personal injury attorney” (without the quotes) or “Las Vegas immigration lawyer“. Do their clients show up on the 1st page of Google for those types of searches?

Make sure you understand the difference between organic results and sponsored listings (paid listings which appear at the very top of a Google search in blue and on the very right side of the screen)

2. How many competitors of yours do they work with?

This is especially important. Many companies that do Internet marketing for attorneys will take an unlimited amount of clients on. What does mean? Well, the 1st page of Google only has 10 results. Even if they are good at search engine optimization for Google, not everyone is going to be happy if they take on too many clients. You really need to be on the 1st page of Google if you want to see good results. So, if you meet with any company selling you their marketing services, ask them how many clients they work with in your geographic area that handle the same practices you do. If it’s more then 3, you may want to look elsewhere.

3. Do they have impressive website designs?

An often overlooked but extremely important part of the formula for successful lawyer marketing is having a great website design. Consumers tend to judge a law firm by the way their website looks. In many cases, it’s their first impression of your firm. I’d compare it to the first time someone steps in the door of your firm. If your firm is in a bad part of town or is dirty and unorganized, that’s not going to leave a very good impression on a visitor to your firm. The exact thing can be said about your web design except it’s a hell of a lot easier for them to leave your site. A poor or unorganized design, and they are gone in a flash. You have essentially 3 seconds to impress a visitor to your website and I’ve even seen studies that say website visitors make a judgment in a blink of an eye about you just by glancing at your site. Blink of an eye, 3 seconds…whatever. The point is you need a great design that will convince a visitor to stay on your site. Now design is completely subjective so everyone will have a different impression but it needs to look professional. A site put together by your nephew or your son is not going to cut it (I’ve probably seen 1 good design out of 100 by attorneys who had a relative or friend design their site). The rest made me throw up a little in my mouth. Don’t go cheap on web design. It makes a HUGE difference and could be the difference between you getting a big case or someone that has left your site because your website gave them no confidence in your firm. In the mind of a consumer, a better web design means a better lawyer. Not even close to true of course, but that’s what they think. So, have them show you some of their best law firm web designs and hopefully you will be impressed.

4. Do they include web analytics on their websites?

Web analytics measures visitor behavior and traffic to your website. It can monitor things like how many visitors came to your site, how they found your site, what they typed in on the search engines to find your site, what website referred them, how long those visitors stayed, how many pages they viewed on your site, what are the most popular pages people look at on your site, etc. Analyzing web analytics is crucial to improving performance of your law firms website. Any company that does not regularly include a web anlaytics program is obviously not very good at marketing. Understanding your web visitor’s behavior is extremely important and can also help you get new ideas for improving your website.

5. Do they lock you into long terms contracts?

I hate the long term contract. With Lebron James or Peyton Manning it’s fine because you know what you’re getting. But in the world of Internet marketing, often times it’s like what Forrest Gump said about life and chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get. Once you’re locked in to these contracts, they make it practically impossible to get out of. For me, a long term contract could be a deal breaker. Where’s the motivation for the company once you’re locked in? I’ve seen way too many lawyers who were incredibly unhappy about their Internet marketing but they were locked in to long term contracts and just stuck. Read the fine print! (Do I really have to be telling lawyers this????)

Of course, you must always keep in mind price. Good companies are never cheap but the right one can give you an incredible return on your Internet marketing investment. If you’re spending $4,000 a month but generating $20,000 a month on average, that’s a good spend of your money. Just don’t go for the cheapest one or you really will pay for what you get.