Law & Society

Where to list your law firm?

MAIN SEARCH ENGINES AND THEIR LOCAL SEARCH

Lawyers can post their firm in the main search engines and their local search:

• Google – Inclusion in Google's search results is free and you don't even need to submit your site to Google. The vast majority of sites listed in Google results aren't manually submitted for inclusion, but found and added automatically.
LEGAL DIRECTORIES

Legal Internet Directories offer a tremendous value and your firm website should be listed with a number of them because you are listed next to other sites that are within your same target practice area. Listing yourself in the correct category is critical and often the key to your success. Because one size, price point, or contract length does not fit all, it is important to understand the marketing needs of your law firm when making the decision to become listed in an Internet directory.

When considering legal internet directories there are several option to choose from such as:

• HG.org Legal Directory – offers the option of a free or paid listing (from $195/year) for law firms with up to 10 attorneys and 2 offices) along with the ability to publish your articles and videos at no cost.

HG.org is a fantastic tool to immediately jump start your online campaign. Your comprehensive premium listing will be online upon payment and a team of qualified editors will choose the right keywords to market your practice to qualified visitors. The premium listing comes with multiple links to your website, unlimited description of your firm and services, photos, video posting, and more. Learn more at Premium Listinghttp://www.hg.org/premium-listing.html

• FindLaw and Lawyers.com – offer a paid listings
• Justia – offers a free listing

Other important directories which offer legal sections

• Yahoo Directory ($299/year)
• DMOZ (free but might take a year to be listed)
• Business.com and Best of the Web offer paid inclusion

SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media platforms have become one of the newest and most powerful set of tools to add into any Web marketing Strategy. Your firm should be active in some sort of social media. Fortunately, there are several easy ways to utilize social media to promote your brand. Such as:

• Create a Linkedin profile (http://www.linkedin.com) that works as a digital resume and you can start building your network immediately. This directory gives you the ability to leverage your contacts in a way never before imagined.
• Become active on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php) and begin effectively enhancing relationships with your customers and building legal communities.
• Twitter (http://twitter.com/) Twitter has evolved as a place where people are searching for a personal connection and information. If you tweet information (connected to a blog), people are more likely to reconnect with your web site and this will strengthen your overall band.

The other reason you should jump on the social media bandwagon is that, if used properly, with a combination of legal directories you can tremendously benefit your visibility on the web and search engine optimization.

As time goes on, new directories will emerge and new tools will become available. There are several internet marketing and promotional ideas for lawyers and law firm websites and navigating the options can be confusing. Today, I suggest that you embrace these free and paid tools and services to create a solution that works for you.