By Ian M. Bardorf

Many attorneys are looking for effective ways to market their legal services on the Internet. Done properly, Internet marketing is undoubtedly one of the most cost effective and productive ways of growing your firm. However, attorneys suffer from the relentless bombardment of inbound solicitations that claim will change their business, and drive highly qualified clients to the doorstep.

Claims like “Guaranteed 1st page Google ranking” and “We’ll put you on the top of Google“, and “Your firm will have an exclusive listing” will certainly lead one to believe that dominating the web in any particular practice and geographic area is only a credit card charge away. The reality of many of these offers is often only realized when the only noticeable increase are those appearing on your monthly credit card statement.

Determining which offers are worthwhile and which offers are scams may be nearly impossible to decipher unless you dig in and do your homework. Unfortunately for attorneys, there simply isn’t enough time in the day to practice law AND effectively manage a marketing strategy that produces results.

Thus, I am sharing my Golden Rule of Internet Marketing. Keeping this rule in mind will undoubtedly save you time, money and a boat-load of frustration:

The Internet is a market place and should be treated as such. As with the real estate market and the stock market, there are no “guarantees”.

When it comes to filtering those relentless email offers, here are a few more tips to help identify the worthy from the worthless:

• Be aware of claims that boast “top listing on Google 100% of the time” and the like. All of these services involve limiting variables and search criteria to a highly controlled and limited function.  You may often appear at the top for a phrase like “Boston Bankruptcy Attorney” but the service does not include the hundreds, if not thousands of other highly qualified search variations and combinations.

• Most everything is measurable on the Internet. Before you purchase a listing in a directory get appropriate data from the provider. They should be able to provide you with the previous six months search volume, and click-through rates of searches specific to your practice and geographic area. If they can’t, move on.

• Know what services are unique versus those services that are offered through the search engines free of charge. The classic example is the claim “We’ll get you top listings in your geographic area” for $199. per month. The service is actually the search engine’s respective Local Business Directory or Maps Directory.

• There are no short-cuts for obtaining long lasting and meaningful results on the Internet. Establishing a formidable presence on the web requires a solid foundation and a variety of marketing channels. It is highly unlikely that one subscription or lead generation program is going to be your reliable, long-term resource for new business.

In the end, good old common sense goes a long way. If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is.

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.

Ian M. Bardorf is an Internet marketing and social media advisor to attorneys and law firms seeking to grow and advance their business via the web. This article is copyrighted as original content by Ian M. Bardorf and Bardorf Legal Marketing. This article may be reproduced or republished with appropriate attribution and credit.

Competition among lawyers, especially in today’s business environment, is as fierce as ever. As a sole practitioner or small law firm, every little advantage that you can create against competitors is going to benefit you. Many attorneys put themselves at a distinct disadvantage without even realizing it. For those attorneys who are not Internet savvy, here are three simple online marketing suggestions that address common mistakes, are easily implemented, and will give you an advantage over the competition.

1. What’s with that email address?

Even something as small and as simple as an e-mail address can have a large impact on your business when it comes to determining whether or not you are going to earn a new client’s business over the competition.

When the internet was first taking off a few years ago, nearly everyone was signing up to utilize free web based email services such as AOL.com, Verizon.com, Gmail.com, Yahoo.com, etc. These free, or generic, web-based email services were very convenient and were primarily created for individuals that wanted email accounts. Even if the account was created for small business purposes, it was acceptable then, but this has changed significantly in recent years.

Now that we have moved so far forward in the realm of digital business, something looks fishy if you are still using one of these free email service providers as your primary business e-mail address. In fact, you may actually be giving people the wrong idea about your law firm by telling them that you are not serious about what you do. Because it has become so important for attorneys to have websites, you should already have an email to correspond with your website name, meaning that there is absolutely no need for using a free web based service for your email needs.

Solution: The cost to coordinate your website address and your email address is no more than $20 – $50 per year. The positive business perception created with perspective clients make it worth every penny and then some.

2. You should really update your website…..Really.

In today’s Internet world, even clients who are referred to you by a colleague or previous client will eventually visit your website. What they find, may be their first impression of you and it may very well be the deciding factor as to whether they call you or the other attorney.

Your website is undoubtedly the most cost effective way to market your services. A website informs people of your services, experience, and credentials. It gives perspective clients a “sense” of who you are and what you can do for them. A website is accessible to nearly everyone. It is certainly available to everyone who is searching specifically for You. Your website is working 24/7 and since you own it and manage it, it conveys a message and an impression of who you are.

A website that has been neglected, and is out of date from both a content and design perspective will have a negative impact on how perspective clients view you. A website with bright colors, big fonts, and appears as though it was completed with the help from your 14 year old nephew, will not help you earn clients.

Solution: You may not frequent your website everyday, but keep in mind, perspective clients do. It makes sense to invest in the one resource that will effectively represent you and your services. It doesn’t have to cost big bucks; it just has to be done right.

3. LinkedIn is a reputable, professional networking resource.

If you were to choose one online networking resource, it should be LinkedIn. It does not cost anything to become a subscriber. Establishing an account is quick and easy. From a marketing perspective there is significant value in completing the narrative of your profile, and adding links back to your website.

The value of having a LinkedIn profile is not only establishing a professional network, as you can connect and keep up to date with colleagues, but it will also convey to “Internet generation” clients that you’re engaged.  Additionally, your LinkedIn profile will also show up in the search engine results which give you another online marketing resource in addition to your website.

Solution: Sign up and get started with LinkedIn by visiting: www.LinkedIn.com

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.

Well, you’ve got to love the enthusiasm surrounding this question.

I’ll assume your asking about getting great rankings in the organic search listings as opposed to the Sponsored Listings or the local business listings which comes at the top of the search engine page when someone search with a geographic reference, like “Boston, MA divorce lawyer“.

This is referred to as SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Although there are many components to a well optimized web site, it basically comes down to this (according to Google):

• In your site design, use text rather than images and Flash for important content

• Have relevant and descriptive content on the specific topics you focus on.

• Make your site work with JavaScript, Java and CSS disabled

• Organize your site such that you have pages that focus on a particular topic

• Avoid HTML frames and iframes

• Use normal URLs, avoiding links that look like form queries (http://www.example.com/engine?id)

• Market your site by having other relevant sites link to yours

• Don’t try to cheat the system (by stuffing your pages of keywords, or attempting to target specific content at search engines, or using link farms)

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.

If your law firm sponsors an event make sure you ask the host to add a link to your website from the online description of the event.  Here’s why.

Many times an event coordinator will ask an attorney to speak at an upcoming event on an area of their specialty or focus. In their own marketing efforts the coordinator will publish the details of the events highlighting the speakers invited.

The value of publishing your website (and getting an active hyper-link to your site) in their online listing is significant. It’s significant not because people attending the event will see your site and click through to visit your website, but because a link from their site to your website serves as “a vote” in Google’s eyes. Even better, if the event is about Massachusetts real estate law, and the listing details topics about Massachusetts real estate law, then links to your website which also discuses Massachusetts real estate law, then you’ve potentially established a highly effective link. The more effective links you create, the more “authority” your site will earn in the eyes of the search engines. More authority equals more visibility.

Got a question? Let me know if you have any questions about building effective links to your website.

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.

Isn’t “optimizing” a website just the task of adding lots of targeted keywords?

Although adding appropriate keywords to any web page is a critical step in properly optimizing a site, it is just one task from various interdependent actions and processes required to effectively optimize any site.

Perhaps the most important factor regarding the “process” of adding appropriate keywords to your website is specifically ‘how its done’.

The most severe ramification for improperly optimizing your site is becoming “blacklisted” by the search engines. That means, your website will never be served in the search engine results. One would really have to be totally negligent or willing to take a tremendous chance for potential short term value to become blacklisted for improper implementation of keywords, but it does happen.

For a more complete answer regarding the optimization of your website, I would invite you to read my article title SEO 101.  Let me know what you think.

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.

The practice of search marketing has significantly progressed over the past few years and businesses from Fortune 100s to the two attorney law firm in South Boston, are reaping the benefits. However, still most businesses fail to embrace what is arguably the most cost effective means of marketing and advertising their services by continuing to believe that effective marketing on the Internet is simply having a website.

Search marketing is a continual process of integrating and optimizing various online components. The fact is, there is only so much real estate on the search engine result page (SERP) and we all know that Google is not going to present your website ten times as the only choice. The search engines look for variety. They select websites, blogs, directory listings, social profiles, videos, press releases, PDF files, and just about anything digital that they can index.

Effective search marketing converts searchers into clients by ensuring your brand appears within the SERPs in the right place, at the right time and with the right message. Your chances of obtaining optimal SERP real estate for highly appropriate and targeted search terms significantly diminishes if you simply rely on your website alone.

Typically, one decides to invests in search marketing, also often referred to as search engine marketing (SEM), to achieve a defined business goal like; to obtain new clients, increase visibility and brand awareness, drive qualified traffic, obtain a competitive advantage or integrate off-line marketing initiatives with an online target audience.

If you have invested in a new website and expect it to immediately perform well without the consideration of a search marketing strategy, then you’re better off shooting for early retirement by doing a quick pick on the Mass Mega Millions lottery tonight.

The bottom line is this, effective search marketing is not a single “item” like a website, nor a one time “event” like launching your new website. Search marketing, when implemented and managed properly is a process that utilizes a variety of digital assets to achieve specific business objectives. The results can dramatically change your business.

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.

A quick and easy way to determine if your website has been indexed or is even being recognized by the search engines is to do a simple search engine index check.

Here’s how:

To determine how many of your web pages the search engines have discovered and indexed use the following techniques. If your website has 50 pages and you see that the search engines have only indexed 25, then you know that half of your web pages are not appearing on any search engine result pages (SERPs).

Yahoo! To determine if your site has been indexed by Yahoo! you will use Site Explorer.  This allows you to explore all the web pages indexed by Yahoo! Search.

Google: To determine if your site has been indexed by Google, you can simply type “site:yourdomain.com” in Google’s search box. Be sure to enter your website’s domain, and not ‘yourdomain’

Got a question? Let me know if you have any questions about your search marketing strategy.

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.

Twitter is getting a good ol finger wagging, browbeating, reprimand from its users. Why you ask? Well, its simple. And its kind of complex too. The short of it is that Twitter has decided to remove a feature that allows users to “Reply” to all users who are part of the conversation, whether they follow you or not.  Twitter says they implemented this change because:

“based on usage patterns and feedback, we’ve learned most people want to see when someone they follow replies to another person they follow — it’s a good way to stay in the loop. However, receiving one-sided fragments via replies sent to folks you don’t follow in your timeline is undesirable. Today’s update removes this undesirable and confusing option.”

However, many Twitterers have responded negatively to this abrupt change and through the hashtag feature, folks are voicing their displeasure in a somewhat Twitter uprising by adding #fixreplies to their Tweets. Here, you can see how it works for yourself: #fixreplies.

The underlying issue for Twitter is this. If you build a social community that becomes popular, like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and lots of others, then you (Twitter) need to keep in mind that its the community of users that have made your property so successful and will continue to make it successful. Because individuals have selected your community as a place they wish to live and visit, they expect to be included in decisions that affect their quality of life in their community. Its the age old struggle between an authoritative party who think they know best and the people who are affected. Online social communities are not exempt from this dynamic. So, Twitter, lets have a Tea Party!

Ian M. Bardorf has over 15 years of sales and marketing experience in Internet technology, with a specific focus on Internet marketing and online advertising.

Social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and all the rest may have seemed a little adolescent, juvenile, immature (you choose your favorite) just a few years ago but today they are undoubtedly integrated into the vast majority’s daily lives.

A few short years ago many folks, ahem, my age, didn’t see the value of subscribing to such online communities believing wholeheartedly that they were for high school and college kids who were living their reckless youth. Forget about the older generations (meaning, older than me) as they feared all sorts of catastrophic repercussions for such reckless online behavior. From simple online privacy intrusions, comparable to the 1980’s telemarketer calling at dinner time (drove my Dad nuts), to the idea that somehow your ATM pin number and credit card information would inexplicably spread throughout the world, the older generation had very little interest in this “fad”.

Well, perhaps these social networks are maturing beyond those awkward adolescent years because today, social networking communities have successfully integrated in to all generations and lifestyles. You can find a community for anyone regarding just about anything. I’m not talking about online groups with a few thousand participants – plenty of those too. I’m talking about communities, actually more like online cities and nations, with hundreds of thousands and even millions of citizens. This aint’ no fad grandpa. Online social networking communities are here to stay. They are becoming more sophisticated, advancing according to how we live our lives and prefer to network as noted by Nielsen Online in this article.

Dave Peck’s blog, NewMediaChatter sums it up nicely:

“…. social networks are here to stay and they are going to grow and change from the way we are using them today. The way we use them will evolve. Once the wheat is separated from the chaff (i.e when they have matured). Social networks will focus on what we need them for most. They will evolve from still being somewhat of a nice way to catch up and trade flair with friends to becoming even a more useful tool. A tool you will need in your everyday life. This will be the key. The possibilities are endless.”

So embrace your online community. Enjoy it, live it and help it advance the way you want it. And as you would live your brick and mortar lives use your common sense online too. There are always bad apples, bad ideas and bad deals. That’s life.

Bardorf Legal Marketing is a Massachusetts Internet marketing and advertising firm working with lawyers and law firms on enhancing their online effectiveness in the areas of SEO, paid search, social media, affiliate marketing, blog and website development, and targeted local search marketing campaigns.