AVVO - What Attorneys Need to Know

AVVO rates and profiles every attorney. Every attorney should go to AVVO (http://www.avvo.vom/) and make sure they manager their profile.

I believe very strongly that every attorney needs to manage their reputation on the Internet. When you have a client that you know is very happy with the services you have provided please tell me them about sites like AVVO where they can go and rate your services. There are a lot of things that can be said anonymously which makes it too easy for negative comments. Get those positive comments out there so that people researching you specifically can learn about the real you and how you have been able to help people in the same situation as they are in.

Are People Really Looking for Attorneys Online?

The simple answer is YES. As the Internet has become more accessible for people, more people are going online to find a lawyer to help them with whatever issue or concern they may have. Why is this? Well, back in the 90's only about 30 percent of this country had computers at home and of those 30% a majority of them had dial-up access. Very slow and tedious. Not conducive to "surfing the net". Jump ahead to today. Almost 70% of this country (according to Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm#top) has a computer at home (you can buy a used one now for $100.00) and most of these people not only have access to the Internet, but also have high speed access. Now surfing the "Net" is easy and fun.

It's almost shocking when someone says they only have a dial-up connection to the Internet. So what is happening then? Well, whereas most people looking for an attorney got a name through the yellow pages, or a referral or some other method, most people are first going online to research their situation and then looking for a competent attorney to help them with their issue. What about referrals? People getting referrals don't need to go online. YES THEY DO! They now go online to research the referral given to them because it is so easy. Why wouldn't they. And if they cannot find anything of what they consider value in regards to you or your practice they will probably continue to surf looking for another Lawyer for their needs. Think about your own habits.

Jon B. Clarke - Business Bankruptcy Attorney

The right attorney in times of trouble is key. Jon B. Clarke is one of the top Business Bankruptcy attorneys in Colorado and would be happy to speak with you about any issues or concerns you may have.

You can learn more about Jon at http://www.jonbclarke.com/

15 Ways To Market Your Firm in a Tough Economy

Getting the Right Website & SEO Firm For Your Practice

I met with a law firm that just spent 10K on a website that unfortunately could have been done for 5 dollars per month (keep in mind, all that was provided to this firm was the hosting and a very simple template, nothing else). I hate coming across situations like this because I know they were taken advantage of but they simply did not know enough to make the right decisions.

There were over 100 pages of content on this site, ALL of it written by the firm. There were over 400 inbound links that had zero relevancy and zero page rank and a majority were either internal links or links from some photo site.

This website also had zero optimization done to it by this “SEO” Firm.

The person who is now in charge knows they got ripped off but cannot do anything about it at this time.

The older partners do not believe in the Internet, the younger partners know the power of the Internet and wanted a real presence online that would bring in business from clients that do not get referred to them.

Because of this rather large disconnect, they kept spending money here and money there. So what was originally about a $6,000 cost ballooned into $10,000. 6K was far too much for what they got and this money was spent because besides the template that was supplied and the hosting, NOTHING else has been done by this website company. The actual cost is not relevant though if the ROI is solid month after month. If you spend $3,000 per month but realize $25,000 in returns then you are making a great investment.

I am going to provide a very simple test for anyone contemplating a website for their business. Go online to Google (They get between 60-65% of all searches) and type in a random phrase like, “dui attorney denver” and see which websites show up on the first page. See who built those sites. But do this for a dozen or so random phrases so you can get a good idea of who to call. If the web design firm you are working with cannot show results like this then walk away.