Andrew Stickel

This is probably the question we are asked most often. How can you improve your law firm’s Google Rating? The easiest thing is to help your SEO company (or if you are doing your own) get reviews for your company.

Confusion, right out of the gate

The first issue you will face is that all reviews are not created equally. You will look at another company and say, “He only has 20 reviews and I have 35! Why is his rating higher on Google than mine? Here’s the deal. It is not about the number of reviews you have. It’s about the number of keywords that are used in your reviews.

You can’t write them yourself, can you?

You can’t say, Hey client. I really appreciate your business. I trust you were happy with the service you received. If so would you mind clicking here to leave me a review? Please be sure to say orange county divorce lawyer six times in the first 3 lines of text. No. But you can do the next best thing. Try this.

Ask the questions

Send your client an email. Tell them that you hope they were happy with the service you gave the. Ask them if they would give you a review. Say something along the lines of, “To make it easy for you, I will send you some basic questions. If you follow this guide you can leave your review in seconds. Thanks so much!”

Then send them this prepared questionnaire:

• What was the problem you had prior to coming to our law firm?
• Where did we represent you?
• Why did you choose our firm specifically over any other law firm?
• What did you like about working with our firm?
• What was the outcome of your case and how has your life changed since achieving this outcome?

If you ask these questions then they’ll answer them. This is an easy out for them and great tools for you.

For example:

Question: What was the problem that you had prior to coming to our law firm?

Answer: I got arrested for a DUI or I was going through a divorce.

Immediately you have your keyword.

Question: Where do we represent you?

Answer:  You represented me in Orange County, California or in Baltimore, Maryland

You got your keywords for SEO optimization and your location which will help you on Google maps.

If you want to improve your law firm’s Google rating, you have to concentrate on reviews. Often times clients intend on leaving a review, but time gets away from them. Make leaving a review easy for them and you will get what you need and your rating will reflect the change.

A question we are often asked is what kind of budget lawyers should set up for Facebook advertising. For example, One firm asked, “What is your recommended budget for Facebook ads for something like wrongful-death?” To answer this question there are a couple of things you need to consider. First, what is the average settlement you usually get on a case? You see, in order to answer the question, you have to work backward. It is always better to see what your ads already cost you and then determine if it is a good price or if you need to spend more or less. When you find the dollar amount that gives you the return on investment you are happy with, take that number and run with it.

You will factor in the following:

• What is the average dollar amount that you recover for a wrongful death settlement?
• How much did you spend on the particular advertising venue that attracted that case?
  • Note: it is wise to know where your clients heard about you for this very reason.
• How many of the cases (like this one) do you want?

Finding those numbers

Assuming you have run ads before, how much did it cost you to run your ads? Did you have to pay someone to run the ads? This is what it costs to grab X number of clients/cases. If the numbers you find are acceptable, and you are making the required profit margin for your company, then figure that dollar amount times the number of clients you really want to grab off this advertising.

There is a better way

Again, I don’t like running ads. They are too hard to track and they are difficult to follow-up on. Instead, offer a cheat sheet or some sort of bait that will get them to download your material. For example, offer them a free chart that gives them step-by-step instructions on how to set up a  Go Fund Me account to help with final expenses. Find a small problem and offer them a solution. Maybe you can give them a guide on how to set up an account for their children’s college funds. When they download the guide, you can email them. Tell them you are sorry for their loss and ask them if they need any help with the guide you sent. When they request your free offer you have their information. Contacting them on their email will not be immediately forwarded to the spam file.

You will not get a reply to every guide you send out. But you will get business. Some people will not call right away. They are not ready. But when they are ready, they will remember you in most cases. Anyway, you will get enough trackable data to make your budget.

These people are your friends for life. They will recommend you to their friends. This kind of advertising is priceless.

We are often asked what is better for local SEO tracking, Local Falcon or Local Viking. The fact that you have asked the question tells us that you know the importance of local SEO tracking. Local SEO involves optimizing your site. The purpose is to make it more visible in results for local searches.

Any program can tell you how you are ranking in a town or city. But a Local SEO involves optimizing your site to make it more visible in search results for local search queries. a good Local SEO program will tell you how you are ranking in various neighborhoods or locations in town. This allows you to look deeper. Do you have competition in an area where your numbers fall off? Does the demographic change in that area? You have the numbers, changing them is up to you.

We have used Local Viking and Local Falcon and we find Local Viking is the best service. As you grow your business, you will find more reasons to look to your local SEO numbers. Local Viking is our recommendation.

How can you stand out on Facebook with their ads? What do your ads look like now? To stand out on Facebook, it is not enough to run your ads if they are cookie-cutter versions of everyone else’s ads.

Break it down

How many times have you been on Facebook and an ad pops up of Jack and Jill Divorce Attorney? This will happen time and time again. Your client may be seeing this ad and they may need a divorce attorney. But, there is nothing about that ad that prompts them to take action.

Divorce fears

People going through a divorce have concerns. They worry that a nasty divorce will mess up the kids. So change your ad to something like, “Are you going through a divorce and you are worried about how it will affect your kids? We can help!” You have identified the problem and offered a solution and that will grab their attention. This is an advertisement that gets calls. You can offer a free ebook that they can download on how to protect your kids during a divorce. You get their contact information and they get a starting point. This puts your firm way above the other attorneys. Your ad is a call to action.

Bankruptcy unknowns

Just the word bankruptcy strikes fear in the hearts of the average person. They imagine being forced from their homes, having their bank accounts locked up. They worry that their employer and neighbors will know that they failed in life. If you are a bankruptcy attorney, a free e-guide is your best friend. Your ad should be calm but firm. You can say, we know what you are going through. You do not have to lose your home or your automobile. Now is your chance to legally consolidate all of your debts into something you can pay so you can afford to live. Use our free guide to get your head above water and get out of the mess that is controlling your life. They will ask for your free guide and you provide them with the steps they need to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Then you can reach out to them and seal the deal. This is not only easy, but it is also a pretty good feeling to know you helped someone who is in a struggle to survive.

Facebook is a great avenue for advertising. The problem is people don’t take advantage of the tiny window of opportunity. You can spend your seconds saying, this is me and that’s where I am or you can say, “Hey, this is what I do.” That small change makes a major difference.

Recently I was asked the following question:

“We are a law firm that specializes in private equity, real estate, and media/entertainment.

Does it make sense to have three separate YouTube channels for all three practice areas or does it make sense to have one channel with playlists for each area?”

Modern technology is there to make our lives easier. It is always better to take the easy route. In most cases, if the technology if easier for you, it is easier for the end-user. That is why I recommend staying with one YouTube channel and to set up separate playlists. It takes about 10 seconds to set up a playlist and it is a 10-second task well spent as your clients will find you quickly and effortlessly.

If you need help setting up a playlist click here.

It is kind of funny that you are asking me the best way to see my Livestream recording as I’m recording it. I am sitting here with an iPhone and an IPad and I am having issues with the camera. So it’s funny that I am giving advice. To be honest, I use a software program called OBS. It is free and you can use it with an external camera. Or, you can use a webcam and a microphone on your computer. I have tried another software called Wirecut, but I never did figure it out, so I do not recommend that one.  I am sure there are other programs and other people who understand them, but OBS does the job and it doesn’t cost anything so that’s what I use.