Let’s pretend, if only for a few moments, that your law firm has finally decided it is time to revisit your marketing and business development strategy. If you haven’t taken a critical look at how you are pitching your firm online over the past decade, it might be time to have that discussion. And don’t think you’re alone. There are plenty of Canadian law firms, big and small, that need a solid rethink on promoting themselves online.

It’s likely that any marketing negligence is only due to the fact that you’ve been fighting hard for your clients in the courtroom. Fair enough, and it’s not an uncommon story. However, when considering how lucrative the Canadian legal market is, don’t you deserve the right to be competitive amongst your peers?

So, let’s assume that you are looking at the current state of marketing affairs in your firm, and the obvious conversation topic will likely fall around, “Are the Yellow Pages still worth the money – what have they done for us lately?” and “What are we going to do about our website?”

Well, if you are going to dip your toe into the idea of a new site, chances are that a web development company has already pitched you on the idea a new site, and applying an “aggressive SEO strategy”. We’re here to tell you, tread carefully. When getting into SEO, it can all sound very impressive, grand, and expensive. In fact, very expensive, so make sure you are clear on what you are getting.

The Old Guard of SEO

The old guard in SEO pitched their value to clients on the following equation:

Search page rank leads to traffic, and traffic leads to business.

This is not necessarily true. This is only half the story if your marketing vendor (and you) is focused on page rank / site traffic as their value to you.

What is really important is:

• Site Bounce Rates (folks coming to a site and turning away)
• Phone Call Conversions
• Inbound Email Conversions

These are the crown jewels of putting retainer money in your firm’s pocket and it is what you, as a firm and web vendor, should be most concerned with. All the page rank and traffic in the world will not generate revenues if your ability to convert traffic is out of alignment. This story rings even truer for anyone who wants to get your firm involved with Pay Per Click (PPC). What’s the point of paying for a click if the click never calls you?

What we tell our clients

At JustLaw, we tell our clients to not get distracted by Page Rank and Site Traffic. It’s a shallow view of what is really happening with your firm’s marketing dollars. We want their eyes only focused on phones ringing and inboxes filling because that’s where the real value is. We sell our solutions on a month-to-month basis, justifying our value and relevance, accordingly.

If you are going to make that push to compete in the new Canadian legal market online – demand real conversions as your criteria for value and see what vendors are willing to stand by their work on a long-term, conversion based, agreement. You’ll be surprised how many vendors will shy away. When they do, just call us.

If they don’t take time, chances are they aren’t very good for you. Well, that principle applies at least when considering organic search engine optimization for law firms. When looking at search engine giants like Google, Yahoo, Ask, and Bing, they can be a bit like congressional government. No one over there likes things moving too fast, and they try and keep anyone from making a fast one on their search page results (SERPs).

These guys, and their algorithms, aren’t dumb. They know when you’ve skipped 20 pages in a day, cutting to the front of the line. If you are personally responsible for your law firm’s web site, you need to start asking questions if you are near the top of page 1 within a month. There is a chance that the web development group building your site, promising stellar search engine results, has done a few underhanded things to make that happen. In the SEO business we call this black-hat practices.

What might this include, you ask? Well, it can be anything from white text on a white background, to excessive keyword stuffing, use of shady link farms, or duplicate content. It may all smell like roses for the first few months but once the search engine authorities, the true gatekeepers online (Google, Yahoo, Ask, or Bing), catch up to you it can be game over – literally.

Consequences of black-hat practices

Well, there is an array of things that can unfold after a few months of illegitimately riding high on your search results. At the very least, a company like Google will eventually take full stock of how your site is manipulating their search algorithm and they will dock you accordingly.

Consequences may result in a sudden drop in the search results. We’re talking hero to zero. As fast as you rose, you can find your firm’s site right back there on page 20 of personal injury lawyer (insert your city or town).

In severe instances, a company like Google may even blacklist your site (and domain) from their search engine, entirely. Having your domain barred from a search engine is equivalent to ripping the sign off the front of your shop. Unfortunately, there are very few ways to get it back. For Google they refer to this as “the sandbox” or domain purgatory. Really, it’s just hell if you have other marketing dollars invested billboards, business cards, email, and other collateral rolling around with your web address on them.

Keep it white-hat

If you are currently involved with an SEO-based web company that is building your law firm’s next website, keep an eye on how fast you are rising and question the techniques that are getting you there. Inquire about how they are organizing your information, keywords, and in-bound links. Never be afraid to ask questions, and then ask some more. In the murky realm of search engine optimization there are a lot of bucks to be made, a lot of grey space to work within, and a great deal of brand equity on the line for your firm.

The Canadian Bar Association’s Canadian Legal Conference & Expo was held this year from Aug 15-17 in Niagara.

The keynote speaker  was Richard Susskind who is an Internationally renowned legal academic, CBA Special Adviser and best-selling author.  He presented a thought-provoking and engaging session where he shared his latest thinking and research on what’s next for clients, lawyers and law firms.

His views are very interesting to a firm like ours. We have taken on the mission of preparing law firms for the new trends and demands that come along with client acquisition in this internet age. Susskind has taken on his own challenge of preparing law firms for the the effects that globalization will have on the practice of law in years to come. Susskind faced a lot of criticism when he predicted in 1996 that the internet would be the main source for legal research rather than the library.

‘The End of Lawyers’

Susskind is at it again. In his newest offering, ‘The End of Lawyers’, Susskind predicts that the delivery of legal services will be very different due to cost considerations and changes in demand. A February, 2008 interview with Lawyers Weekly stated:

“The drive to control legal costs will compel companies to search for less costly alternatives.
“The traditional way of delivering legal service, crafting the solution from scratch starting with a blank sheet of paper, is a luxury that no one will be able to afford,” Susskind argues. “A lot of legal work is routine and repetitive; we can do it in different ways, it can be outsourced, off-shored, done by computers, standardized.” The drive to control legal costs will compel companies to search for less costly alternatives.

“The traditional way of delivering legal service, crafting the solution from scratch starting with a blank sheet of paper, is a luxury that no one will be able to afford,” Susskind argues. “A lot of legal work is routine and repetitive; we can do it in different ways, it can be outsourced, off-shored, done by computers, standardized.”

Susskind has independent research to back up his claims. An independent research company predicts that by year 2040, a firm with 1000 lawyers will be considered mid-sized.

Help is an e-mail away

The times sure are-a-changin’ and Susskind’s predictions prove that law firms will need to consult with proven experts to keep up with the trends. Don’t be afraid to reach out and get some advice.

It’s a task that few want to be saddled with – developing the law firm’s next website. Senior partners and associates are too focused on paying the bills and winning decisions. The IT guy is too busy fixing someone’s email, or server issues, and the student in the office just doesn’t seem up to it.

So, you start shopping for quotes from web development agencies. Well, before you go shopping for quotes, you should have a few solid expectations in mind.

What will be driving the site development strategy?

If it’s not quantitative data, find a door and get out. When representing any client, a web development agency should be facilitating an exhaustive “discovery session” with your firm to find out exactly what business you want to be in. After all, you likely have plenty of clients. What you should be interested with is getting better ones. A target should be attracting the clients that match your expertise, specifically, offering you the opportunity to maximize positive results, yields, and profit margins.

This type of quantitative data that I refer to is search engine research. This involves going out and taking the keyword points from a firm’s initial discovery session and compiling search phrase / keyword data that confirms early suspicions, or sheds light on new opportunities and spaces where the law firm can effectively compete online. Beginning any site development with the structural bones of hard data ultimately results in more traffic and focused client conversions.

Keep everyone in the room accountable

Typical web contract relationships start with an initial deposit, and then a final payment. That’s it. The concrete is setting, you have paid your money, and now you hope the site you just bought from the web agency will bare fruit.

What if it doesn’t? What if it’s performing under expectations? You are suddenly out of pocket and coming to realize that the “salesmanship” of the web site experience well outweighed the sustenance you expected. There is no recourse in these scenarios.

The way we see it at JustLaw is to partner up with law firms and allow them to pay us on a pay-as-you-go basis. Have you never heard of this before? Not likely. Basically, if you don’t like the site, its search engine / in-bound phone call performance, the aesthetic design, or even your bio’s head shot – you can stop paying. Fire us. Cut it off.

It’s that simple. If JustLaw can meet the expectations we have created with our sales pitch, we truly expect to keep your business. The upside for you and your firm is that financial risk has been instantly minimized, you get exactly what you want, and there is a team of online law marketing experts constantly doing the gardening for you, making sure you are performing on a monthly basis.

Isn’t that how it should be?

Everything needs to be justified

When was the last time your “Color Pages” rep, or your last web agency, came in on a monthly basis to explain to why they were a good investment? It probably never happens. With the “Color Pages” they come around in September, take the money, and run. You might get a free lunch 365 days later. Other web guys are not much better.

With everything that can be tracked and measured online, you should have access to the monthly performance of you marketing assets. Sometimes marketing efforts can just go from strength to strength, and other times they can lull and require examination and adjustments. It’s in these moments of lowered marketing performance that you need to be aware someone is looking out for your invested dollars. Start looking at your your web agency and your website as a financial adviser tending to your website as it rides on a stock market of search engine rank pages (SERPs). You deserve to have someone come into your office on a monthly basis, explaining what they are doing with your firm’s money.

At JustLaw we meet with our clients on a monthly basis, providing monthly performance reports that layout where you are competing online, where your traffic is coming from, the keywords people are using to find you and what information they are seeking on your site. Above all, you need to know whether your site is converting on the goals we have set (phone calls & Emails).

If there are issues – it’s our responsibility to correct them. If we can’t, then we can’t expect to keep your firm’s business.

If you are a lawyer in Canada there is a solid chance you are shackled, this very minute, to a BlackBerry, HTC, iPhone, or other smart phone. In a short period of time, this wave of technology has dominated the way you and your firm does business. Everything from voice mail, email, instant text messaging, and direct phone access have made your practice more competitive and in tune with the business of your clients.

At JustLaw, we see search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask as a technological frontier that has yet to be exploited by the technology and offerings of the Canadian law industry. You may say, “yeah, I have a website (phone 20 years ago) already….I don’t need a ‘better’ one.”

It’s one thing to have a website, but are you really leveraging a technological asset that makes you money? Your smart phone makes you money – believe it or not. If you didn’t have a mobile phone line a significant portion of your clients simply wouldn’t do business with you. Not having a mobile phone could be considered unprofessional, unreliable, and limiting in your services to clients. Those might be a long list of harsh assumptions when just looking at your phone plan, but trust me, potential clients look at your website the same way.

Demand these things from your web agency

Two questions you need answered when investing in ANY marketing asset are, “does it make more money than I am spending on it?” and “what is my recourse if I am not happy with the performance?” When considering a site up-grade, or starting from scratch, it’s simply not enough to have a “nice looking” site. It needs to rank on search engine phrases that relate to your law practice, and the traffic you funnel in MUST convert.

Slick site designs are fine. However, if the design and calls to action don’t convert,  it leaves all of your search engine rank efforts in vain. If your site is performing incredibly well in the search results but the phone isn’t ringing, your “nice looking” site is costing you business.

85% of people go to the internet/Google to get legal information. So, if you are not well represented when these people are seeking legal help on the internet/Google, you are missing the boat and your innovative competitors are kicking your proverbial ascots.

Having your firm well represented on the internet/Google means the following:

• Having a website that you can rely on to speak confidently for your law firm
• Having a website that organically ranks on the 1^st page of Google for as many relevant search phrases as possible
• Working with a site design that converts web traffic into in-bound phone calls & emails to your firm
• Having a presence within as many portals/websites that refer people back to your own website (i.e. Social Media, Industry Specific Directories, Search Engine Registries, Map Registries, etc.)

At JustLaw, we see a ripe opportunity for lawyers in western Canada to grab a solid foothold online. It is a marketing resource that has yet to be fully exploited. Believe me. Take a look at what other legally competitive markets are doing and then take a look in your backyard. In western Canada law firms are missing out – big time. At JustLaw we aggressively stake out these pockets of the Internet for our clients. By researching, designing, building, and managing our client websites, we have enjoyed some great success in pushing Canadian law firms into search engine spaces where no one else is competing – purely due to competitive ignorance.

Is it September already?

This fall, when your “Color Page” rep shows up at the firm asking you for a boat-load of cash to run last year’s ad program again, give it a second thought. Or consider down-sizing your “Color Page” budget and re-allocating some of that cash to an online investment that may just bring your far greater results/conversions and measured accountability. If you really want to play hard against the bigger guys, just give us a call/email at JustLaw. We would be happy to show you all the business that you could have.