Attracting Local Customer to Your Website

There are three key elements you’ll need to focus on: content, search-engine rankings and design.

You’re off to a good start with content. “The best thing to do is to step back and think of the top three things a client would want to see on the site,” recommends Tom Grant, executive Web producer at Blue Ray Media in Denver.

Your site highlights the areas of law that your firm practices, but you should build upon that to give visitors more information. “Potential clients will want to know if you have handled situations like theirs. The site should help them answer that question,” says Grant. “Some areas of the site start to answer that question, but each could go further by offering details of each area of practice.”

Your “Bankruptcy” section, for example, explains what it is and how it affects people. But other topic areas, such as “Estate Planning,” provide no such information. Grant thinks you should bring each practice-area page up to the level of your bankruptcy section — then take each a step further by creating a topical “client stories” page. There, you can give prospective clients a sense of what a typical case you handle looks like.

“This will help them see where you were successful, giving them a better chance to call you if the case sounds like theirs,” he says.

Expert tips

Another way to build out the practice-area pages is by providing articles for each. Many in need of legal advice will first try to find answers on their own. If you publish articles, potential clients will appreciate the free information and also have a higher regard for the lawyers who wrote them.

“They think, ‘If she writes about this stuff, she must know what she’s talking about,’” says Grant. “You position yourself as an expert.”
Talk back: Share your advice

Linking to useful resources will also help build your credibility. Your “Bankruptcy” page links to a recommended credit-counseling class and explains the process of obtaining a completion certificate. That’s a great model to follow on other pages. For example, you can link visitors to the site where they can pay local traffic tickets, or to a page with detailed information on North Carolina’s divorce laws.

To keep the content fresh, try to update at least one article each month. That has a bonus advantage: It tells search engines that your information is timely and relevant. You could also repurpose your articles into content for a newsletter sent out regularly to subscribers.

“Your tagline is ‘a law firm for life,’ so you should make sure your services go beyond serving prospective and existing clients,” Grant says. “Some clients may not realize you have these other areas of practice, so this will keep them aware that you’re still there.”

to view more go to www.indypros.net/blogs.html

Advertisement