How to Market a Law Firm
Google products are immensely helpful for business owners who are looking to obtain new customers and clients. This fact is especially true for law firms, who must rely on providing helpful information to prospective clients.
Google Business Profile, previously known as Google My Business, can help law firms obtain new business. However, there are right and wrong ways to use a profile. Below are some tips that can help you get started.
The Importance of Google Reviews and Aggregate Score
Positive Google reviews are important for businesses, as they increase the chances of showing up in Google’s Map Pack and Local Service Ads. Both products are near the very top of search results.
You should always aim to have a higher aggregate score and more reviews than your competitor. As an attorney, it is critical to demonstrate to Google and prospective clients that you provide a good experience. Providing good user experience is perhaps one of the easiest ways to dominate local search rankings.
You should make it a bi-weekly task to check your reviews and aggregate score against your competitors. If you are an attorney, this can be done by doing a simple “near me” search for your practice areas. For example, personal injury attorneys would want to search “personal injury attorney near me” or “car accident attorney near me”. These are only two examples of search terms that generally have high volume, and are therefore critically important.
Be sure that you are in your area of operation when performing the search and always use a Chrome Incognito window or a browser that does not track cookies. Also make sure you do not have a proxy activated, as it can give you inaccurate results by tricking the search into thinking you are searching from another location.
How to Get More Google Reviews
Obtaining more Google reviews is not always an easy process. For example, criminal defense attorneys are more likely to struggle. However, being honest with your clients about how your firm would benefit can sometimes work, as can attaching a link to your Google Profile in your email signature, on your website and on your social media profiles. Reviewers do not have to type any details into their reviews, and can simply leave a star rating.
If you are sending out email newsletters around a holiday or at the end of the year, and prior clients gave you permission to send them newsletters, then you could also attach a link to your profile at the top or bottom of the text.
Be wary of businesses and platforms that claim they can obtain more positive reviews. The same is true of any business or platform that claims they can remove bad reviews. In some cases, terminating services with these platforms and businesses can lead to a massive drop in reviews. The best and most tried-and-true method for obtaining reviews is to do so honestly.
Never, ever have anyone associated with your law firm or family, such as an employee or family member, leave reviews. If you have a person “game the system” in such a way, Google could suspend your profile. Reviewers must have had some type of interaction with your firm and its services.
Always be sure to carefully read the Google Terms of Service for this product. If you feel that is too taxing, then hire a professional to manage your profile.
Google Business Profile and Photos
As a law firm owner, you should personalize your Google Business Profile. Photos are one way to accomplish personalization. If you have a photo of your team or yourself, be sure to upload it. Photos should be professional, so be sure to use a headshot. In addition, it is important to only add real photos of yourself, your team, or your business to any posts on Google Business Profile.
If you do not know where to begin looking for photos that may already exist, then check your social media profiles as well as your Avvo or Lawyers.com profile. In many cases, firms who have been around for a while likely worked with a marketing team at some point. These marketers most likely used real photos on social posts or on your profile at some point in the past. Also be sure to check your website. In fact, having the same photos on your website and Google Business Profile can be beneficial.
Optimizing Google Business Profile
There is a lot of information you can attach to your Google Business Profile. Be sure to check and make sure your profile has the following:
- The correct primary category. Make sure your Google Business Profile’s primary category reflects the type of cases you want. For example, if you are a bankruptcy attorney, make sure that is your primary category. This will help with overall search performance.
- List your practice areas and write a short description. You should make sure to list your practice areas. When doing so, make sure to use high-volume keywords. For example, bankruptcy attorney, is a high-volume keyword, as is “Chapter 7 bankruptcy”. Make sure to use a mixture of high-volume keywords with a high difficulty rating and semi-lower-volume keywords with a lower difficulty rating. Make sure these keywords also appear across your website and social media profiles. Definitely make sure they appear in the description field for your Google Business Profile.
- List your hours and location. Never put up a profile with incorrect business hours – anywhere. Especially on Google. The same is true for your location and areas of operation. Certain types of mailing addresses may get you into trouble with Google and make it more difficult to create and manage a profile.
- Do not ignore social and site links. Be sure to include a link to your website on your Google Business Profile. You will likely also benefit if your Facebook and other social profiles appear on your listing. In addition, you can create regular posts on your Google Business Profile much like you would on any other social platform. Be sure to use keywords related to your practice areas and real photos.
- Keep an eye on the competition. Chances are, you have competitors who are correctly using a Google Business Profile. Find out what they are doing that works or hire someone who can investigate.
Co-owner Dale Wooddy has a lot of experience optimizing Google profiles. Expect future blogs on Google Business Profile and Local Service Ad optimization. This blog in particular is very long and yet only covers the bare minimum on optimizations. For example, future blogs may discuss how to utilize FAQs on your profile.
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