In fact, the moment I talk with one attorney in any geographic area about his or her web presence it is a necessary exercise for me to do a complete analysis not only of that firm’s website, but of all of the competing firms as well. How can you be competitive if you don’t know what you are competing against, right?

There are several typical practices that I see in regards to domain names (the website address) that I want to discuss with you. In this post I give some bad examples and then get to my thesis which is that the domain name is THE most important part of your website. Here are four bad practices:

1. The vanity name: Perhaps the most common domain name type that I see used by firms that are less than happy with their firm’s web ROI is the vanity (or ego) domain name. By this I mean a URL that is a version of the firms name. For instance, Dewey Cheatham and Associates, PLLC might choose the domain “DCAss.com.” While the domain name may be a perfectly appropriate description of this (randomly made-up and fictional) firm, without knowing anything more about the URL, I’m going to think it’s got something to do with politics. It tells me nothing about what the attorneys do. In fact, it doesn’t even tell me who the attorneys are. Vanity names are great for business cards, but not so great for attracting new business through search engines or pay per click advertising. If your firm has a vanity domain, chances are you are not getting as much focused traffic as you could.
2. The “public” domain name: There are many places where you can get a “free” blog on the internet. The most popular is Google’s Blogger or Blogspot. It’s a great platform. And anybody can set up a blog in less than 10 minutes, at zero expense. And they even look pretty good. These are great if you are doing a temporary blog about your travels, or what to show off the collection of cats that you are fostering and trying to adopt out. But if you are an attorney and trying to build your online infrastructure, why would you share a common top-level URL with everybody else (i.e. – “yourblogname.blogspot.com”)? You do not own that domain name and you never will. When you want to switch to your own domain (and you will), you will have to start over, nearly from scratch, and build the credibility and trust of the new domain.
3. The general website: By this I mean a general law domain name, such as “thebestlawyersaround.com” in which a firm highlights multiple areas of practice. I think it is a dangerous practice to focus on more than one area in any given website. This is because niche sites convert better than general ones. Your DUI clients will be highly suspicious of any firm that does medical malpractice and DUI. Any educated client will assume that the DUI cases finance the higher-end contingency fee cases.
4. The landing page masquerading as a niche domain name: Ever clicked on a website you wanted to visit and discovered that the site looked robust, with many topical links? But then, when you click on any of the many links, you are transported to a different website? Some firms that have multiple practice areas think that it is sufficient to erect a one page website on a DUI-related domain name that refers people back to their general site. This is like putting a DUI related caption on a motion or brief that you file in a DUI case, but all subsequent pages are about an unrelated divorce case. While I’m sure everybody knows a judge or two who never reads any defense brief, this is still malpractice per se. Not only is it a web strategy that is unlikely to pay off, it is also deceptive to users of the website.

Original domain names are cheap. They can be registered for as little as a buck or two. Then again, you could pay thousands of dollars for a decent domain name (one without hyphens, numbers, that is a dot-com with practice and geographical specific keywords in it).

Whenever possible, it is better to have an exact match domain. This is a domain that is the exact thing that qualified users search for. As an example, in 2002 or 2003 I acquired the domain “duiarizona.com.” I got a great deal on it, but in all honesty I would have paid a couple of thousands of dollars for it if I had to. In real-estate, location may be everything. On the web, your domain name is the most important piece of your initial investment in your online infrastructure. While “yourcityduionline.com” may be available for original registration for $7.99, if you can get “yourcitydui.com” (without the trailing “online”) for 100 times that price, “yourcitydui.com” is a MUCH better bargain.

Attracting good clients online used to be cheap, or free, when everybody was still under the spell of the phone books, and spending their money there. Now that the smart money has shifted online, a sound investment in a good domain name just makes sense.

If you are like me, you probably get at least one cold call a day from somebody trying to sell you “SEO.” They claim to have a relationship with google. They claim to know Google’s algorithm. Some even try to claim that their own excrement doesn’t smell… and that’s all just in the first breath before you get to say anything. Sound familiar?

There have been an alarming number of companies recently, when questioned during these calls (yes, sometimes I don’t just hang up), who either admit or even use as a selling point the fact that they have “relationships with thousands of websites that have high page rang where they will buy links back to your site.”

BIG RED FLAG!

First problem: I seriously doubt there are “thousands” of high-page-ranked URLs that are relevant to a DUI practice. Even if there were thousands, I can’t imagine that there are thousands selling links and still able to maintain their high page rank.

Second problem: Assuming problem number one above, then it appears that they would be purchasing links on pages that aren’t directly relevant. Ever seen a children’s learning toys site with a link to a DUI attorney? It just looks and smells suspicious, right? It’s an irrelevant link.

Third problem: Paid links are blatant attempts to manipulate the results of the search engines. Do you like it when your client’s or prosecutors try to manipulate you? Of course not! What makes you think that the search companies like it when you try to manipulate them?

The probability is, buying links to try to artificially influence the ranking of your website can spell big trouble. It may even get you demoted or banned by some search engines. And rightfully so, I might add.

A quick case study on how to waste your money on useless or short term website manipulation:

I have a client who is engaged in a reputation management battle that is so serious it threatens to hobble his ability to attract and keep educated clients if not solved. He has suffered a multi prong attack on his reputation through the use of complaints websites. He engaged a rep management firm who has set up a series of splogs (spam blogs that essentially steal or duplicate content across the web) to propagate articles containing his name and his firm’s name. Sometimes, the exact article will appear on thousands of splogs, all with no or low page rank, and all of a general nature.

For example, an article about this DUI attorney might appear right before an article on a laundromat and right after an article touting the fact that the kids working in a local pizzeria have stopped humping the pizza dough. All of the articles are obviously damage control.

No surprise, this firm’s reputation management campaign is not working as promised. Instead of realizing that they may be using a bad strategy, the lead attorney decided to lean harder on the firm, who continued to promise great things. For just a little more money, the would buy hundreds of links and “drizzle” them in. Of course, it would cost the firm even more for the links. In my opinion, it will end up costing the firm more than just the cash they will be out for the useless or sleazy links.

If you want to build something good, you must start with a good foundation.

If good search engine optimization were truly that easy, everybody would just buy links. If everybody did it, everybody would benefit proportionally, and nobody would get ahead.

Firms looking for a quick short term gain may be able to profit for a little while by black hat tactics such as buying links, but in the end the progress will be backwards. It has to be. The search engines will continue to improve, and part of that improvement necessarily means eliminating or demoting sites that seek to manipulate.

Did you earn your law degree overnight? Was it cheap? Was there a trick to passing the bar that was so easy anybody could do it with a little money and the help of a cold-caller? Of course not! Why do you think the guy that cold-calls you about your web marketing can offer you such a thing. You are a lawyer, so what makes you so blind or dumb to buy into promises on the level which would get you disbarred if you made them about your clients’ cases?

Let me tell you two things they apparently missed at most law schools:

1) There is no free lunch. It might seem free for a while, but eventually it will make you sick, and then your medical bills will end up costing you more than the sensible and reasonably priced lunch would have.

2) Everything worth doing takes patience and time.

That’s it. Demand of the person or company that is doing internet marketing for you what you demand of yourself in you practice. Excellence. No short cuts. In the mad dash to compete online, don’t lose your cool, and don’t fall victim to anybody trying to sell you paid links.

Sincerely,

Dan Jaffe

Right now I wear two hats.

Hat 1 = DUI lawyer.

Hat 2 = Webmaster & Internet Coach for DUI Lawyers

As a DUI lawyer I cringe when potential clients have received poor, inaccurate or self-serving advice from other lawyers.

I’m noticing the same thing as a webmaster. I don’t solicit business. Other attorneys find me and contact me. When they do, I’m always happy to talk about the internet, SEO, website design practices, blogging, etc. I start by looking at the attorney’s current web presence. Here’s what I’m seeing a lot of, and it appears to be driven by the web development companies as much as the attorney’s need for flashy trashy fluffy web-junk.

- A lot of new sites are still using flash intros and splash pages. Big mistake. Even if you could credibly make the argument that search engines are getting more flash friendly, the fact that the site gives a good percentage of your users a headache or worse is still bad. (more on this in a future post)

- A lot of the sites focus on the firm, not on the client. Big mistake. Your clients don’t give a rip when you were named partner or that you were on law review. They don’t care that you were order of the coif (I’m impressed, but they aren’t). 42 percent of them think that if you are a “specialist” you aren’t even a lawyer (got it backwards, right… we’ll, are all of your clients genius material?). They will wipe themselves with your law school transcript, and when they read that you once wrote a law review article on the UCC (their internal voice probably says… “he’s down with UCC… yeah you know me). Which brings me to the real “OPP,” – Other Person’s Perspective.

OPP is where you need to start if you want an effective web presence. Look at things from your client’s perspective. Ask yourself not how great you are, but how great can you make your potential client feel about him or herself. What can you do for your clients? What have you done for past clients? What can you promise your client? How will you guide them? How will you make them feel special? What makes you different that other DUI lawyers in terms of what you can do for your client.

In case you haven’t gotten my message by now, your practice is not about you. Don’t make stuff up, but tell your audience what they want to hear, not what you want them to hear to soothe your ego or your insecurity.

If you want to discuss your web campaign, or just call to tell me I’m wrong, feel free to do so – 480-951-3200.

Sincerely,

Dan Jaffe