PROBLEM #1: The lawyers who get the first few positions usually get the inquiries. The remaining lawyers are left paying for web sites that produce little.
PROBLEM #2: Even if you rank high, your search results are mixed among those of your competitors, so prospects can easily get distracted and miss your site altogether.
Fortunately, you can bring prospects to your web site without search engines and without the potential for confusion. Here's how:
STEP #1: Load your web site with educational articles that have teaser titles. People are drawn to helpful information written in list form. For example, I use 17 Fatal Marketing Mistakes Lawyers Make, Marketing Secrets of Superstar Lawyers, 11 Brochure Mistakes Lawyers Make, and many more. When you add educational articles, besides creating a desirable web site, your articles increase your relevance in search engine rankings.
STEP #2: Invite prospects to visit your site where they can read your articles. Offer the articles in every type of communication, including
-- Classified Ads. Invite prospects to your web site through classified ads. Your entire ad could be as simple as this: Discover 17 Fatal Marketing Mistakes Lawyers Make at (enter your domain). Or make it more attractive by including two or more titles: Discover How to Build Your Law Practice With Dignity and 11 Brochure Mistakes Lawyers Make at (enter your domain).
-- Display Ads. If you want more space than a classified ad -- or think your prospects may not read classifieds -- design a small display ad. Make powerful use of black and white graphics to seize your reader's attention. In addition, include a closely cropped photo of your face with good eye contact and a warm, engaging smile. (Nothing draws a reader's eyes to your ad faster than your eyes looking back at the reader.) Depending on the size of your ad, you could include titles of many articles. Each title acts like a fishhook in the lake. You can't be sure which bait will cause your prospect to bite, but all it takes is one good title to motivate him to visit your web site.
-- Yellow page ads. In your yellow page copy, offer articles that your prospect can read on your web site.
-- News releases to the media. Write a news release about a key issue in your area of law or the impact of a recent court decision. At the end of the news release, announce that you have published three articles, listing each by title. Then tell the reader he can call your office to receive free copies by mail, or visit your web site at [http://www.yourdomain.com].
-- Newsletter. In every issue, invite prospects to read articles on your web site. You might say something like: Yours Free! Discover 15 Business Card Sins Lawyers Commit, Marketing Secrets of Superstar Lawyers, and How to Market Other Practice Areas Within Your Firm -- at (enter your domain).
-- Seminars. In your seminar materials, include a flier that lists articles on your web site.
-- Referral Sources. Send a mailing to your past clients and referral sources alerting them to articles on your web site -- and inviting them to direct friends and colleagues to your site.
-- Referral Card. Create a referral brochure with a reply card on which you offer various articles. Say that for a faster response, they can read these articles on your web site.
-- Feature Articles. At the end of every article you submit for publication, include an author's note that offers your articles, something like this: Trey Ryder specializes in education-based marketing for lawyers. He offers the following three articles at (enter your domain): 17 Fatal Marketing Mistakes Lawyers Make, High Pressure vs. Dignity Depends on How You Use the Three Cons, and 19 Secrets That Increase Response to Ads.
-- E-mail Signature. Consider offering an article and including its title in the signature to your e-mail. You might include something like: Visit [http://www.yourdomain.com] to read 17 Fatal Marketing Mistakes Lawyers Make. Your URL by itself may not motivate a prospect to go to your web site. But when you alert him to an important article that discusses one of his current problems, he has a good reason to visit you site.
-- Envelope Insert With Outgoing Mail. Prepare an insert about 1/3 the size of an 8.5" x 11" sheet that announces new articles on your web site. Include this in all outgoing correspondence and, on the insert, invite the recipient to pass it along to a friend or colleague.
In addition to offering articles, you can also use the above methods to invite prospects to your web site so they can: (1) ask you a question by e-mail (2) send you facts about their claim for a case evaluation (3) subscribe to your firm's newsletter (4) register for your firm's seminar (5) read your latest newsletter (6) request a consultation with you by phone or in person (7) read comments from past clients -- whatever you think will motivate them to visit your site.
Summary: Don't depend only on search engines to bring prospects to your web site. Also, don't depend on your web address alone to motivate prospects to visit. Instead, make your prospects an irresistible offer -- something they can't refuse -- which they'll discover on your web site. Then put the offer in ads, newsletters and announcements. This will erase the confusion factor from search engines and increase the number of qualified prospects going to your site.
