If you’ve been using professional SEO practices for a while, then you probably think everything about your online reputation is just fine. But there may be some surprises lurking beyond the first page or two of your search results. Perhaps some negative reviews from former clients that you’ve never seen before? Images of you that someone else posted and tagged with your name from that party you’d rather forget? An angry letter you let fly…

Originally published on Sept. 9, 2015, and updated on Oct. 3, 2019: One of the most common questions I get from attorneys is how to identify the right social media networks for their firms.  Frankly, it’s not that hard. The most important thing in identifying the right social media platform is to know your target market.   If you don’t know that, then any marketing you are doing anywhere is just a shot in the dark.…

Originally published on March 8, 2019, and updated on Oct. 1, 2019: You know the importance of digital marketing for law firm business development. You realize that much of your online success — if and when it comes — depends on doing the right things SEO-wise so your law firm website shows up on the first page of Google. You know that you certainly do not have the time (nor the inclination, probably) to become…

Originally published on Feb. 20, 2017; updated on Sept. 26, 2019. A strong referral base is only built over a period of time and is based on cultivating great relationships with referral sources. Developing those relationships is a two-way street, especially when it comes to building a referral network of other, noncompeting attorneys. Achieving this goal is impossible if you are only asking your legal peers for referrals when you see them.  It requires regular contact…

This post was originally published on Dec. 18, 2018, and updated on Sept. 24, 2019: Do you know how much money each lead is really costing you? How much does it cost you to get a new client? Knowing the answers to these questions can mean the difference between a profitable firm and a struggling one.  These numbers are known as “KPIs” — Key Performance Indicators. They are the critical numbers or metrics that run…

Pay-per-click advertising (PPC) for law firms can really pay off for lead generation, but only if you know what you’re doing. Eighty percent of the most expensive Google PPC keywords are related to the legal profession, so you want to be sure you are putting your money into PPC efforts that can yield the best results. Here are the top eight tips that will enable you to create PPC campaigns for your law firm that…

Getting Google to rank your website high is a much harder task than you might imagine. In fact, there is an entire industry that has been created based upon helping businesses get their websites ranked high on the search engines. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are so many tricks of the trade that it is rarely worth the time for any attorney to attempt to become an expert. Instead, hire…