By: John H.Fisher
Lawyer websites are virtually identical. The navigation menu is the same: the lawyers’ biographies, case results, practice areas…blah, blah, blah. You, my friend, are a commodity with a website that looks like every other lawyer website on the market. There is nothing that makes you stand out.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. The design and content of your lawyer website doesn’t have to look like every other lawyer website—in fact, your website can be dramatically different. How? Buckle up for the ride.
Rule #1: Your Content should be Esoteric and Unique
Every lawyer website has the same content about car and truck wrecks. Boring! And here’s the problem, if your website has the same content as every other lawyer website, you’re fighting a hopeless battle. The internet is full of lawyers fighting for car wreck cases.
So, how do you stand out? Your content must be esoteric and unique. In 2010, I settled a medical malpractice case involving the failure to treat atrial fibrillation. I wrote a few paragraphs about the case and posted the case summary on our website,www.ProtectingPatientRights.
Intrigued, we checked for content about lawsuits involving the failure to treat atrial fibrillation and guess what we found? The only content was the case summary posted on our website. Do most consumers care about atrial fibrillation? No, not unless you have a claim based upon the failure to treat atrial fibrillation and in that case, you’re dying to know more. And guess who’s dominating the first page of Google? The lawyer who wrote the article that contains everything you need to know.
Write content on your website that is esoteric and unique and your content will dominate the first page of Google. Write about car or truck wrecks and you’ll wonder why your website sucks.
Rule #2: You must add Content to your Website on a Daily Basis
Warning! This requires some elbow grease and hard work, but it will pay off like nothing else. Add new content to your website on a daily basis for 45 days—yes, that’s all it takes and watch the results. This will take some time, but around day 30-40, you’ll be amazed by the new clients calling you.
Don’t have time to write content for your website? No problem, my friend. Hire a law student at your local law school to write the content for $12/hour. Better yet, go to the law review of your law school and hire a team of legal scholars to write content around the clock for your website. With this single step, your website will flourish while you’re sleeping.
Rule #3: Your Website should have only a Single Practice Area
Most lawyer websites are crowded with multiple practice areas, e.g., criminal defense, personal injury, traffic tickets, etc. Big mistake! These websites are screaming general practitioner and that’s a label you must avoid at all costs.
Your website should convey a clear message: you are the specialist in your field of law and you only do one thing. Even within the specialty of medical malpractice, we emphasize that our firm specializes in birth injury cases, a/k/a hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy cases.
When a malpractice victim has a case involving birth injury, they know they came to the right place when they find www.ProtectingPatientRights.
Rule #4: Your Information should be an Information Powerhouse
Virtually all lawyer websites have content about the lawyer’s achievements, e.g., settlements and verdicts. Boring! And no one cares (except maybe your mother). Rather than boasting about your achievements, focus on providing valuable, educational content for consumers.
No lawyer website does this better than BrainandSpinalCord.org., the brain child of Rich Newsome, Esq. the Newsome Melton Law Firm in Orlando, Florida. This powerful lawyer website provides tons of great information and resources for the victims of brain and spinal cord injuries on a state-by-state basis.
And the proof is in the pudding. BrainandSpinalCord.org is an absolute rock-star in the world of lawyer websites and the firm gets catastrophic brain and spinal cord injury cases across the country. This is the prototype for a lawyer website that every lawyer should emulate.
Rule #5: Make Link-Building Your #1 Goal
Are you up for a little secret? Some of the highest-ranking lawyer websites have very little content. That’s right, I’ve checked. BrainandSpinalCord.org has less than 250 web pages and the other first page websites for brain and spinal cord injury have about the same number of web pages. What gives?
The highest-ranking websites have one thing in common: LINKS from authoritative websites. Okay, fine, but how do you get links from the websites of governmental, educational and medical institutions? Begin by providing amazing content that .gov and .edu want to link to, e.g., “Rehabilitation Directory” for the victims of a traumatic brain injury.
Next, create a community marketing program that features a great cause, e.g., “Bikes for Kids”, “Teacher of the Month, or a Suicide Prevention Scholarship. No one does this better than Anneke Godlewski, Communications Director for the law firm of Charles E. Boyk Law Offices, LLC in Toledo, Ohio. Not a believer? Check this out—go tocharlesboyk-law.com/gives-back and check out the extraordinary community programs of Charles E. Boyk Law Offices, LLC.
Local businesses and schools will link their websites to your community programs. Community marketing is easy to implement, low cost and the links are crazy good. Then, why aren’t all lawyers doing this? Good question.
The Future is in Your Hands
I know what you’re thinking, this isn’t rocket science and you’re right. The 5 rules for internet mastery are simple and relatively low cost, but virtually no lawyers are doing any of this. Why? Because lawyers suck at internet marketing. 98% of lawyers would rather do the technical work and as a result, they ignore the most important thing they need to do: GET CASES.
The next step is in your hands. You can ignore this information (which I’m betting you’ll do), or you can take baby steps every day to make changes in your website. If you implement even one or two of these rules, you’ll be way ahead of your competition. And if you do anything, send me an email at jfisher@
No more excuses–it’s time to get started.
About John
John Fisher is the owner and founder of John H. Fisher, P.C., where he limits his practice to catastrophic injury law for injury victims in New York state. Over the last twenty years, John’s practice has been limited to the representation of catastrophically injured people.
First and foremost, John is an entrepreneur. John was selected as the national Marketer of the Year by Great Legal Marketing in 2013 and has been called a “master of referral marketing” by Ben Glass, Esq. John is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, has a perfect 10/10 ranking on www.Avvo.com, and is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and Notre Dame Law School.
John is the author of the best-selling book The Power of a System—the first of its kind book with explicit “how-to” steps for the technical, managerial, and entrepreneurial implementation of a multi-million dollar personal injury law firm.
John publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter at www.UltimateInjuryLaw.com and a monthly print newsletter, Lawyer Alert, with his best tips for marketing and managing a plaintiffs’ personal injury law firm to suit your ideal professional and personal lifestyle.
