Practice Advice
Getting more Clients: Search
Engine Marketing for Attorneys.
One of the most economical, yet misunderstood, methods of promoting
your law firm is Internet search marketing. It consists of using
Internet search engines (especially Google and Yahoo!) to bring
prospective clients to your site. One advantage of search marketing
over other forms of advertising is that you are reaching your potential
clients as they are actively seeking your services.
Search marketing is a broad term which includes two primary tools:
1. Optimization of websites through making your web site more "search
engine friendly", and 2. Paid advertising on search engines (the subject
of this article), referred to in the search marketing world as "pay-per-click
advertising".
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing consists of buying sponsored results
on search engines that appear when a keyword you select is entered.
For example in Google these appear on the top and right side and are
labeled as "sponsored links".
The two main PPC providers are Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing
(formerly Overture). They're the most cost-effective in terms of traffic
provided and time spent on management. Both use a version of an auction
model where you select keywords prospective clients would use to find
you on a search engine and set a maximum cost you're willing to pay
each time someone clicks on that ad to visit your web site. (For example,
you might want an ad listed for your office each time someone enters "Dallas
personal injury lawyer". You'd then pay Google (say 25 cents) each
time someone clicked on that ad. You wouldn't pay anything for the
ad to be displayed, only for it to be clicked on (which then brings
the visitor to your web site).
With Yahoo, it's a straight bid model that places your listing in
the order of highest bid first, Google Adwords uses an additional
factor by ranking partly based on the ratio of clicks on the ads to
the number of times they are displayed. Ads with a higher "click through
ratio" receive a boost to their positioning as they are considered
more relevant based on this "batting average". For this reason, carefully
select keywords that relate to your practice or to a type of case
work, and include the search term in your ad headline and description.
You'll want to make sure each search engine visitor sees your listing
as being closely targeted to what they are searching for.
There are detailed instructions on using the major PPC providers
on their individual sites and other online resources regarding search
marketing. They want you to succeed, because people clicking on your
ad means more money to these Internet businesses.
Let's look at some tips that are often overlooked and are specific
to promoting a legal practice.
- Select your terms carefully. Pick terms that are specific to
the service you are providing and use the tools provided on the
search sites to find keyword phrases that are popularly searched
for to bring the largest amount of targeted traffic.
- Be specific in your selected keyword phrases. In most cases,
single words may produce erroneous and expensive clicks. (In
other words, " Dallas divorces" is a lot more cost effective
than "divorces", since you don't want to pay for someone in Boston
clicking on your ad when you can't easily meet and handle that
case.)
- Take advantage of the "negative keyword" option provided by
major PPC providers. Negative keywords keep your ad from being
displayed for inappropriate searches. For example, you may be
bidding on " Los Angeles auto accident" however you don't want
to show up when users are searching for insurance, so you add
the negative keyword "-insurance" to this listing. With this
in place your ad will not appear when a searcher enters "Los
Angeles auto accident insurance", saving you money from irrelevant
clicks.
- Avoid bidding wars. The price can go up sharply when competing
for popular terms. Keywords related to personal injury and class-action
are the most expensive terms in PPC. Evaluate whether this will
be cost-effective before trying to bid a term into the top position.
To compete effectively you must be realistic about expectations and
be willing to devote some time to managing and monitoring the return
on investment of your campaigns.
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