Law Firm Tag Lines

Tag lines for 101 leading U.S. and international law firms were compiled by Steve Matthews and are posted on his blog StemLegal.

My vote for the best attention-grabber is "Damn Fine Litigators," used by Foster Townsend Graham of London, Ontario. They are obviously not subject to the scrutiny of any state bar association in the U.S.

Search Engine Ranking Factors

Leading SEO experts give high ratings to keyword focused anchor text links from external sources, external link popularity (quantity/quality of external links), keyword use anywhere in the title tag, and the diversity of link sources (links from many unique root domains) in a recent survey of recommended search engine marketing techniques published by www.SEOMoz.org.

Questionable techniques for search engine marketing include various forms of cloaking and hiding text with same/similar colored text/background.

What this means for law firms that want to improve their search engine positioning is:

1. Effective search engine marketing includes both on-site optimization and off-site link building with reputable sources.
2. Quality of incoming sources is frequently evaluated by factors like Google Page Rank. (Do you know what your site's page rank is?)
3. Select your search engine marketing vendors carefully. Knowledge of the legal market is important.

Read the full search engine optimization survey results here.

Google Maps adds Place Pages

Local search engine marketing for lawyers just got a boost with "Place Pages" on Google Maps. A Place Page is a web page for every place in the world, organizing all the world's information for that place. There are Place Pages for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, landmarks, and cities all over the world.

Users looking for local law firms (and other businesses) can easily view ratings for your law firm, reviews, related maps, find nearby transit options showing them how to get to you, and take a look at your business with a Street View preview - and it's all on one page.

If you are not already on Google Maps, add your firm here:
www.google.com/local/add

From a lawyer's perspective (in addition to enhancing your own firm's listing), you can find a restaurant to take your client to lunch when you are visiting their office. You can also see what other prospects you might find in the building or neighborhood after your client visit, and tap into your social media network to get an introduction.

Local search is an important search engine marketing tool for law firms. Make sure your firm is found when prospects are looking for your legal services. Google is a good place to start.