The business of practicing law is just like any other business when it comes to the key ingredient for success: finding a steady stream of people that will pay you for your services. There are lots of people out there who are searching for legal information and services and most of them are turning to the internet; any attorney who seriously wants to build his client list will establish a presence there. Here are some online marketing tips for lawyers that can help increase your visibility and build your practice.
Twitter Tips
Law is a serious business and the idea of ''tweeting'' may seem silly but Twitter can be a powerful tool for attorneys to establish trust, credibility and authority. First and foremost, you want to establish yourself as an authority in your area of law and you want most of your tweets to be relevant to this area, whether it is your own content in the form of your latest blog post or your thoughts on a particular topic, recent news related to your area of law or an interesting article. Avoid complicated legal jargon. Be careful about what you share as far as experiences with current and past clients and remember to always be professional in that regard.
You do not have to be all business all the time though; feel free to get a little personal sometimes. Share tweets of other people you follow, information relevant to your personal interests and the like. Letting your personality shine though is a good thing.
A recent study on Twitter use by businesses has established some ''best practices'' that will optimize results. The findings are as follows: tweet 4 times a day or less; tweets with links were 86 percent more likely to be retweeted; engagement on the weekend is higher; best hours to engage are between 7 am and 8 pm; tweets that contained a request to ''retweet'' were 12 times more likely to be shared; using hash tags with relevant terms increased user engagement.
Website Tips
Many law websites are very basic in their offerings, with generic design and copy, and limited information. A well-designed website chock full of quality information presents a golden opportunity to get new business and stand above your competitors. When people have a question or are looking for information, they are turning to the web. Make your site a quality resource for your area of law.
You might develop an FAQ that deals with the most commonly asked questions about legal matters in general, such as how to choose a good lawyer, as well as questions related to your specific field. You also want to provide information and insights about problems and misperceptions common in your area of law; this type of information is perfect for running a regularly updated blog. Do some keyword research to see the most popular terms related to your nice so you can optimize your copy and page titles-remember to write naturally for a human audience however to avoid being penalized by Google.
There are a variety of common contract and legal forms that are readily available for free online and you might consider adding them to your site to open up another source of natural search engine traffic.
Get Listed in Online Directories
If you are not listing your practice in online directories, you are missing out on an easy way to get your business in front of potential clients. When people do search terms for location specific queries, these directories typically pop up right at the top of the page, which is right where you want to be. There are numerous directories but some of the top ones are Google Places, Bing Local, Yahoo Local, Merchant Circle, Yellowpages.com and SuperMediaNetwork.
Kelli Cooper, writing for www.chuckerreibach.com/firm-overview/">http://www.chuckerreibach.com/firm-overview/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ChuckerReibach.com, providing defense for www.chuckerreibach.com/">http://www.chuckerreibach.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">reckless driving in VA, is a freelance writer who covers a range of topics related to online marketing.