Six Ways to Increase Your Website ROI

by Doug Jasinski, LLB

Your Website is Your Top Marketing Tool
Two recent surveys conclude your firm website is your most important marketing tool. The statistics are American, so consider them persuasive, not binding, but don’t ignore them.

A 2005 survey of nearly 1000 small law firms (20 lawyers or less) by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell found websites are the number one marketing tool.

Eighty-nine per cent of respondents considered them valuable.

A 2006 survey of 119 U.S. corporate, transactional and defense firms of varying size conducted by Alyn-Weiss & Associates arrived at a similar conclusion – websites are now considered the single most effective marketing tool, surpassing seminars and presentations/ speeches for the first time. This makes sense considering your website’s many roles:

• Strangers use it to find you;
• Prospects use it to verify you;
• Clients use it to validate both you and their own decision to retain you;
• Prospective students and lateral hires use it to assess you; and
• Other counsel use it to size you up.

Okay, it’s Important. Now Make it More Profitable.
Here are six relatively simple steps you can take to increase your site’s return on investment (ROI):

1. Beef Up Your Bio
Most clients hire individual lawyers, not law firms, so don’t skimp on bio content. Update your transactions, cases, and other accomplishments regularly.

2. Load Important Content Near the Top of the Page
Google’s ranking formula gives greater weight to text appearing near the top of the page than to that lower down.

3. Create a Practice Group Blog
Search engines – and clients – like targeted content, updated regularly. That’s what blogs provide. Most Canadian firms still aren’t on board, so get ahead of the curve.

4. Include Keywords in Your Title Tags
Title tags appear at the very top of your website browser window. Search engines consider them important. You should too. Most potential clients will type “Victoria family lawyers” into Google, not your firm name.

5. Add Directory Listings
Online directory listings include both free and paid varieties and benefit your site in two ways: they provide additional “front doors” to your site, and they improve your search engine rankings. It’s a judgment call on how many constitute “enough,” but they are growing in importance.

6. Run a Google Adwords Campaign
Ninety-nine per cent of Google’s US $6 billion in 2005 revenues came from “AdWords.” Smart marketers understand their effectiveness. AdWords are listings that appear down the right hand side of the page when you perform a Google search. As an advertiser, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can choose the search terms you want, and tightly control costs. Want to cap spending at $1 a day? You can.

That’s six potential ways to generate more business. Pick one and initiate it today.

Doug Jasinski LL.B. is the Principal of Skunkworks Creative Group Inc. (www.skunkworks.ca) and the President of Access Legal Systems Inc. (www.lawone.ca).

This article was published in the June 2006 issue of BarTalk and is subject to the copyright by the British Columbia Branch of the Canadian Bar Association, 2006, all rights reserved.