Surprise! You may not own your website. Well, at least not the most important part. You see, there are a number of law firm web marketing companies that are actually “leasing” their domains to law firms. Now, let me be perfectly clear, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this arrangement. So long as the law firm understands the distinction.

Unfortunately, many lawyers don’t realize that the domain their site is on, isn’t registered in their name. Since the domain is the most valuable part of any web property (due to the fact that links go with the domain), if the domain isn’t registered in your name, you may only be a renter.

Under this model, the law firm internet marketing service retains ownership rights to the domain. In the meantime, the lawyer writes content, which grows the site/blog, attracts links, and builds authority to the domain, which again is owned by the web marketer! Brilliant. When the law firm decides to part ways with the marketing company, the marketer rents the domain to the next firm. All the while, the domain continues to become a more valuable property for the law firm web marketing firm on the law firm client’s dime!

It’s like renting a house and investing in renovations which make the house more valuable for the landlord.

So, how do you determine whether your domain is registered in your name or in the name of your law firm search engine marketing consultant?

Try Whois

Scroll down to the registrant information. See your name? No? Then you might just be a renter.

Renting vs. Owning

When it comes to renting vs. owning your law firm website and domain, think about the factors that you would consider if you were considering renting vs. owning real estate. While the short term costs and benefits of renting a domain may seem attractive, typically, the better long-term strategy is ownership.

If you thought you owned your website, but are concerned that you might be a renter, contact us to learn your options.

The online legal marketing space is one of the most competitive around. Advertising costs for legal-related key phrases commonly exceed $10 per click and can even reach $50-$100. Real estate for organic, or natural, search engine listings is becoming more and more saturated as well. Let’s face it, there are only ten organic results on any given Google results page. Combine that with the fact that as much as 90% of organic click traffic goes to the top three listings, and it is clear that the actual competition is even greater than many lawyers may suspect.

Unfortunately, there are many lawyer internet marketing firms that will represent multiple competing law firm clients in a particular practice area and geographic location. In fact, some of these law firm seo firms will take on over 30 competing clients. The simple fact is that some of these companies’ clients have to take a back seat to other clients. As previously stated, there is only so much online real estate. Someone has to be relegated to the second, third, and fourth pages, and beyond.

That is why it is so critical to consider exclusive law firm internet marketing agreements. Under an exclusive, or limited-competition, agreement, your lawyer internet marketing consultants are limited in the number of competing law firms they can take on as clients in a give practice area and geographic location. With a limited-competition agreement, you won’t find yourself in a bidding war against your competition with the company you are paying to generate business for you online. It’s the classic Coke vs. Pepsi situation. Would it make sense for these competitors to hire the same advertising/marketing firm? Obviously not.

Another issue that arises from too much competition is the “watered down” effect. If everyone in your legal services market segment is employing the same company, they’re also probably using the same law firm marketing strategies, techniques, and methods. Generally speaking, the more your campaign is the same as your competition’s, the less effective it may be.

Exclusivity is just one of many aspects of hiring a law firm search engine optimization firm. There are many traps, pitfalls, and tricks that you really want to avoid. To learn more about the lawyer seo hiring process, download our free guide.

The ways in which consumers use the Internet to find information, goods, and services vary significantly. In fact, it would be an effort in futility to try to describe all these different ways here. Even within the segment of online legal services consumers, there is great diversity in usage.

Understanding the differences between these different types of users is critical to marketing your law firm online. For example, let’s take a look at two of the most common types:

The Researcher

This online legal services consumer wants information. They will typically perform multiple searches and their searches will be topical in nature. In other words, they are more likely to search for the issues related to their need for legal services than to search for a more general “lawyer” or “law firm” term. For example, if The Researcher has been arrested or charged with a crime, they are likely to search for terms related to their crime.

With regard to website usage, The Researcher wants information. She wants to find specific detailed information about her legal situation. In order to “convert” her into a potential client, the law firm website needs to demonstrate their expertise in handling her type of legal issue.

One of the best strategies to appeal to this consumer is a law firm blog.  Your blog can be used to demonstrate what you know about your field of law.  It can share relevant firm news and other pieces of information that position you and your law firm as specialists in your practice area and geographic location.

Education-based marketing also strongly appeals to The Researcher.  Offering e-books, whitepapers, and other informational items for download, is an excellent way to engage this type of online legal consumer.

The Yellow Book’er

At the opposite end of the spectrum is the Yellow Book’er.  This online legal services consumer has had years of experience using the Yellow Book to find the goods and services she needs.  She will typically perform very few searches to find a law firm.  In fact, many Yellow Book’ers will perform only one search.

These consumers will search for much more broad terms.  They may search for a practice area / geographic / legal key phrase (like “chicago injury lawyer”).  They may even search for extremely broad terms like “lawyer” “attorney” or “law firm”.

When it comes to website usage, many of these consumers will never even get to your law firm’s website.  Many of them will call a number displayed right on the search results page!  The Yellow Book’er has a very short attention span and even shorter patience.

While some “law firm marketing gurus” might tell you that people don’t use the internet this way, it’s simply not true.

The truth is that in order to have success with your online marketing efforts, you need to appeal to both.  That means that your need to have high visibility in search engines AND you need to have strong education-based content on your law firm website.

Marketing a law firm online presents unique challenges from marketing other businesses on the web. What works in other industries, doesn’t necessarily work for law firm marketing. Also, there are many ethical considerations that are unique to law firm marketing the rules for which vary from state to state.

Due to the unique challenges of marketing a law firm online, it is that much more important to seek out professionals that specialize in internet marketing for law firms.

Like the practice of law, their can be no substitute for experience. SEO for law firms is part technical science and part technique. For most law firm seos, these skills are developed by working with clients and producing results. Again, experienced specialists in seo for law firms know how to navigate many of the obstacles, pitfalls, and challenges associated with web-based practice growth.

From keywords, to linkerati resources, to content production and publication, those that specialize in online law firm marketing have a competitive advantage over other internet marketing consultants that don’t have experience handling legal specific web campaigns.

One great way to distinguish specialists from more general search engine optimization consultants is through the use of targeted searches. For example, searches for “search engine optimization consultants” won’t produce as targeted results as searches for “law firm search engine optimization consultants”. Using legal modifiers like lawyer, attorney, and law firm in your searches for search engine optimization companies will help you find those that specialize in working with law firms.

Since a large part of law firm internet marketing is about “getting found” in various search engines, like Google, law firm SEO firms that rank-well in the organic listings for these types of terms provide good empirical evidence that they “know what they’re doing”. Keep in mind that this is more of a guideline than a rule.

Some law firm search engine optimization companies will push the envelope of acceptable practices. So, while these companies may enjoy short term success in the search engines, over time their rankings begin to diminish. Performing multiple searches for targeted relevant terms is a good way of weeding out some of these more short-minded firms.

If you’re in the market for a law firm seo company, be sure to check out our free guide on hiring the right consultant. We’ve identified some of what we believe are the most common law firm search engine marketing traps to avoid. Quite frankly, there are a lot more questionable firms than any of us in the industry would probably like to admit.

Even though a lot has changed since 2007, Matt Cutts’ overview of Google’s search engine results is still helpful for those trying to understand how and why Google displays its results.

Matt discusses the anatomy of a search result, and provides insight as to how you can improve how your site appears in Google. He covers all the basics including page title, page description, and sitelinks.

Understanding what is displaying in a search result is a great place to start if you’re considering marketing your law firm on the web.