Legal Marketing & PR

Forget About Web Sites, and Focus on Google Maps

By Tom Kane

That may be a bit strong. But not too far off for law firms that market to consumers vs. corporate firms. Tom O'Leary, a law firm internet marketing consultant, reports his clients are telling him that they are doing much better with Google Local Listings than with their web sites. In fact, some of his clients don't even care where their web site shows up in regular search results.

And the listings are FREE. Several have said that the volume of calls from prospective clients has increased many fold due to their placement on Google Maps. 'Google Local Business Listings' and 'Google Maps' and 'Google Places' are all really the same thing, and lead to the same place.

O'Leary has three posts on his Attorney Marketing Blog which will help you set up your listing and help position it so it is found high up on the first page of Google.

You should read his Introductory piece (and view the video) on getting your firm on the first page of Google, followed by Part I, Preparing to List Your Law Firm On Google Place, and Part II, Building Your Law Firms Google Local Business Listing, which takes you through the process.

He doesn't pretend that it is easy and quick to set them up, or to maintain them. It requires some work. The smaller the geographical area of your practice the simpler it is to obtain and keep a high position ranking on the local map. It is harder the larger your market area, such as Atlanta, New York, LA, etc. And it will only become more difficult as more and more law firms put an effort into utilizing Google Maps, in which case, I would recommend you use someone like O'Leary to set it up and maintain it.

The important thing is that it really works, according to O'Leary, as well as a husband and wife bankruptcy boutique here in my local area with whom I spoke on Tuesday. They told me they get on average five calls a day due to their Internet presence, and likely most of that is from their top or 'A' position on Google Maps.

This is something you really need to look into, if you haven't already. 

Full post as published by Legal Marketing Blog on September 30, 2010 (boomark / email).