Marketing your law firm online can be a struggle, especially where you don’t know where to begin. One of my students calls it, “analysis paralysis,” and I like the alliteration. But it’s true.
The domain name you choose for your law firm blog or website is like the color of your home’s front door. It says something about who you are, what you stand for, and where you want to position yourself in the marketplace.
Too often, lawyers will choose their firm name as their domain name. They think they’re branding their firm when in reality they’re just obscuring the truth about who they are and what they do.
Let’s say you’re looking for a lawyer to handle a nasty dog bite case in San Francisco. Like most Americans, you’re going to hit a search engine to begin your search. You enter in your search term and it comes back with the following:
Which website are you going to click on? The one that stands out, if you’re like most people. And the things that stand out most are the title, the description and the domain name.
Why? Because Google puts in boldface your search terms. So if you search for “dog bite” then anywhere those words appear they will be in bold. The goal is to help draw your eye to the most relevant search results, and it works darn well.
To be sure, the title and description are also critical to drawing the eye to your website. But the domain name is the single thing you can begin to get a handle on immediately when setting up your website.
Marketing your law firm online requires you to use every single tool to your advantage, and the domain name is clearly one of them. Every other lawyer in your area is going to look to that holy grail of a keyword search term, which is why it’s doubly important to pull out the stops.
Will your domain name be the single thing that catapults your law firm website to #1 on the search engines? Not at all. But getting a leg up surely isn’t a bad idea.
I certainly buy the idea that your domain name should help tell a searcher what your firm is about. Point well-taken.Your search example for a dog bite lawyer in San Francisco may be a bit misleading because it sends you to Ken Phillips' web site. Ken is one of the preeminent experts in the country on dog bite cases, has a huge, highly optimimzed web site, and a high Page Rank (5/10), which is probably why he came up on the top of the serach that you ran. He also has a great domain name for what he does. In short, he probably would have come up number one for reasons other than his domain name.Of course, you are absolutely right that the domain name helps compel searchers to click, which is the most important thing.
Barry, I agree with your point about Ken Phillips. His site is well done, filled with content, and shows off his expertise. That clearly goes a long way towards engaging his visitors.My point, however, was that the domain name helps set you apart from the law firms that use http://www.JohnDoeLawyer.com (not sure if that's taken and, if it is, apologies to the owners).Thanks for the comment, and for reading.
Great post, Jay. I would add that an additional benefit to a keyword-loaded domain name is showing up on the first page of the search results. Google, and other search engines, think that a website is highly relevant when the domain name matches the search terms. This means that the website is returned on the first page (or near the first page) of the SERPS. For example, if you search on the terms "employment lawyer los angeles" in Google it is no surprise that the attorney with the domain name (employmentlawattorney.com) shows up first in the organic results. Since there can only be one lawyer using that domain name at a time, I would advise lawyers to "get it while the getting is good."
So for those of us who made the mistake of going with a generic domain name, is it wise to drop that domain name and replace it with something more descriptive and catchy as you (and others I might add) have suggested? I own shouldifileforbankrupty.com for instance. What about those who already know me by brandtlawfirm.com?In the alternative, how about somethign less drastic like setting up my blog on a separate site such as <a href="http://www.shouldifileforbankruptcy.com” target=”_blank”>www.shouldifileforbankruptcy.com instead of placing my blog on my current site?
I wouldn't drop the existing domain name – you've built up SEO juice on it, so you should keep it. No reason why you should not begin to build out the new domain, though. Double your coverage on the search engines.
I wouldn't drop the existing domain name – you've built up SEO juice on it, so you should keep it. No reason why you should not begin to build out the new domain, though. Double your coverage on the search engines.
I agree with this article. When I fell at work the first thing I did was search for a slip and fall attorney and naturally was directed to http://www.slipandfallattorney.com, which is proof that this really does work.