Lawyer Marketing March Madness: (8) Firm Website vs. (9) Organic Search

Published on 24 March 2009 by Gyi Tsakalakis in Blog

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Lawyer Marketing March Madness Day 6

Today’s match-up: (8) Firm Website vs. (9) Organic Search

Keys to this lawyer marketing match-up:

Law firm websites are a vital piece of any firm’s marketing puzzle. You firm website is the cornerstone of your web presence. It allows you to position your firm’s expertise, demonstrate your knowledge and skill, and provide a personal face to your potential clients. However, like your firm’s blog, your site may have one huge achilles’ heel, visibility.

Like everything else on the web, if you don’t get found, you really don’t matter. Let me say it again, if you don’t get found, you really don’t matter. Time and time again, lawyers have this concept that all they need to do to leverage the internet as part of their lawyer marketing plan is to put up a firm website. Without efforts to make your site visible, this is a complete waste of money.

Enter, organic search… For those who are still new to the internet, organic search is the list of search engine results that come up naturally according to a search engine’s “relevance algorithm.” In a nutshell, a search engine has to produce relevant results for its users or its users will stop using the search engine.

In the search engine marketing world, organic search rankings are often viewed as the “holy grail” of search. They can give your firm high visibility and you don’t have to pay the search engine for the listing.

The main misconception with organic search is that it’s free. While it is true that you don’t pay the search engine directly for the listing, if you are in an area that has any level of competition, you will find there is a cost to ranking. Whether it’s a cost in time to write good content, pay an SEO (search engine optimization) consultant, or participate in black-hat SEO efforts, there may be high costs involved in getting a high organic search ranking.

Another often overlooked aspect of the high visibility of organic search is targeted versus untargeted traffic. While being highly visible will certainly drive more traffic to your site, you may be receiving more untargeted traffic.

While “ranking” as a general proposition sounds great, be careful that you aren’t making large SEO investments for untargeted traffic that isn’t turning into new clients.

Prediction:

In the end, the online game is all about visibility. While you can pay for visibility through pay-per-click campaigns, there is simply no substitute for targeted organic rankings. Your website, your blog, heck any online ad you have depends on whether it is getting found. As of now, the best way to get found is through organic search results.

Vote Now!

Don’t forget to check out these other lawyer marketing match-ups:

(6) Directory Listings vs. (11) Blog

(7) Paid Search vs. (10) Marketing Consultants

(1) Referrals from Colleagues vs. (16) Newsletters

(2) Client Referrals vs. (15) Yellow Pages

(5) Seminars vs. (12) Billboards