Finance and Law

Pleading a Case: 3 Ways Lawyers Can Use the Internet to Appeal to Clients

<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">There are 1&period;3 million lawyers and 437&comma;540 law firms in the United States as of 2021&period; That’s up about 0&period;6&percnt; from where we were last year&comma; and the industry is expected to grow another 4&percnt; by 2029&period; With all of that competition&comma; it’s difficult for a lawyer to stand out from the crowd&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The key to finding new clients is building a unique brand for yourself&comma; and ensuring that clients can see it&period; The secret to both of those things is the internet&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">91&percnt; of people say they read online reviews before hiring someone or making a purchase&period; 84&percnt; of them say that they trust those reviews as much as they trust the recommendations of their friends&period; Those statistics give you a brief glimpse into how important your online reputation as a lawyer is&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">So how can you ensure that potential clients like what they see online&quest; What are the secrets to driving traffic to your website&quest; We’ll take a look at the answers to those questions and more as we explore how you can use the internet to appeal to clients&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Search Engine Optimization&colon; What Is It and How Can It Help You Appeal to Clients<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Search Engine Optimization&comma; or SEO&comma; is the process of optimizing your online content so that a search engine will show it at the top of the results page when a keyword is searched&period; So&comma; let’s say you’re a lawyer in Nashville&comma; Tennessee&period; When someone searches &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;best Nashville lawyers” you want your website to pop up first&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">According to a 2014 study by Advanced Web Rankings&comma; 67&percnt; of all search engine result clicks go to one of the top five results&period; That means that if your website shows up past that fifth result when someone searches for lawyers&comma; it’s unlikely that they’ll click on it&period; That’s where SEO comes in&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">You can improve your search results now by taking these practical steps&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Publishing Relevant Content<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Your content should be interesting to people who are looking for a lawyer with your specialty&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">For example&comma; let’s say that you specialize in divorce proceedings&period; You can draw more traffic to your website by posting content about how to get divorced&comma; legal issues that come up in divorce&comma; how asset splitting works&comma; or other topics centered around divorce&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The key is to think about what keywords your target audience is searching for&period; That way&comma; potential clients can come across you organically while they read content that’s helpful to them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Update Your Content Regularly<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Search engines see regularly updated sites as being more relevant&period; They’re less likely to show your results if nothing has been added to your site in a while because&comma; for all they know&comma; you’re no longer in business&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">To keep yourself relevant to search engines and readers&comma; you need to post new content on a set schedule&period; If you’re posting blog-style content&comma; this could be a few times a week&period; If you don’t have time to devote to that&comma; try updating the contents of your website at least every three months&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Incorporate Alt Tags<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Describe any photo or video you post using alt tags&comma; also known as alternative text descriptions&period; This allows search engines to determine what kind of content is on your page for people using text-only browsers or screen readers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">It’s a great way to practice accessibility for everyone and let a client know that you keep their needs in mind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">As a lawyer&comma; you’re probably too busy to spend time focusing on SEO&period; If you want to get results now&comma; without having to take on the task yourself&comma; you can hire <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;stellarseo&period;com&sol;law-firm-seo&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">a reputable SEO agency for lawyers<&sol;a> to do it for you&period; That way&comma; you get increased authority&comma; visibility&comma; and revenue without having to handle the strategizing&comma; researching&comma; and brand-boosting yourself&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">That gives you more time to focus on the most important thing&colon; the needs of your new clients&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The Wonders of Web Design&colon; How an Attractive Website Can Help You Get a Good Verdict<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">38&percnt; of people say that they’ll leave a website if its content or layout is unattractive&period; On average&comma; it takes them less than a minute to make that decision&period; That means that you have less than one minute to convince a potential client to give your internet presence a good verdict&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">So how do you do it&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">First&comma; your website needs to be visually appealing&period; There shouldn’t be too much going on&comma; but there should be eye-catching elements&period; If you don’t have an instinct for that kind of thing&comma; don’t worry&comma; you can find a web designer&comma; or use a pre-made website theme&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Think simple and professional when it comes to choosing a theme&period; People have a certain image that comes to mind when they hear that you’re a lawyer&comma; and your website needs to reflect that&period; Fun fonts have a place&comma; but it’s not on a professional website&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The second step to optimizing attractiveness is to make the site easy to use&period; No one wants to spend 20 minutes searching for the information they need&period; Create a few easy header tabs that contain the most relevant information they could be searching for&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The last step is ensuring you have attractive content&period; High-quality writing&comma; photos&comma; and videos are a must if you want to keep people online and engaging&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h2 style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Selling On Social&colon; How You Can Use Social Media in A Professional Way<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">According to the American Bar Association&comma; about <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;americanbar&period;org&sol;groups&sol;law&lowbar;practice&sol;publications&sol;techreport&sol;abatechreport2019&sol;websitesmarketing2019&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">80&percnt; of lawyers use social media<&sol;a> professionally&period; The most popular site by far is LinkedIn&comma; with 79&percnt; of lawyers using it to connect with each other and clients&period; Behind LinkedIn are <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;newsforpublic&period;com&sol;hidden-facebook-features-need-know&sol;">Facebook<&sol;a> &lpar;54&percnt;&rpar;&comma; Martindale &lpar;38&percnt;&rpar;&comma; and Avvo &lpar;23&percnt;&rpar;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">The report didn’t include information on other popular social media platforms&comma; such as Instagram&comma; Snapchat&comma; and TikTok&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">With these numbers in mind&comma; the chances are good that you’re already on social media&period; The question is&comma; are you using it to its full potential&quest; Here are a few ways you can effectively boost your client base using social media&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">&NewLine;<li>Decide who your target client is and post content that appeals to them&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Establish that you’re a professional by sharing information from reputable sources and answering any questions that people may ask in the comments&period; This gives you a chance to showcase what you know&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Interact with your audience&period; Leave comments on reviews about you&comma; share their successes&comma; and like their posts&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Join professional social media groups&period; People often go to location-based groups to ask for recommendations&comma; so this is a great place for you to advertise&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">Remember to keep your interactions professional&comma; and honest&period; You don’t have to be someone you’re not&comma; you just need to show off your expertise and let potential clients know you’re a real person&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; justify&semi;">These three tactics can help you plead your case to potential clients&period; What they see online can be a deciding factor in choosing you as their lawyer&comma; so take the time to create an appealing internet presence&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Hardik Patel

Hardik Patel is a Digital Marketing Consultant and professional Blogger. He has 16+ years experience in SEO, SMO, SEM, Online reputation management, Affiliated Marketing and Content Marketing.

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