[youtube id=”TpZan96KHOM”] 12/15/2010 // West Palm Beach, FL, USA // Rene Perras…… Le Buzz // Rene Perras

Lawyer Marketing News: Recent changes to Google Places, otherwise known as Google Local or the Seven Pack has made it easier for people to locate law firms and attorneys in their area. But, to have your law firm placed in the number 1 spot on Google search engine result pages (SERP) has just become trickier, leading many attorneys to turn to lawyer marketing services and SEO experts to help them gain the top placement on SERP.

When correctly set up, your law firm will appear at the top of SERP with your law firm’s name, address, phone number, a link to your website with a pin-point on Google’s local map, showing potential clients where your law firm is located in their area. In addition, Google Places has added new features, which allow users to get snapshots of your homepage, videos or photos with a click of a button from the search page.

But, there is a downside. With all of the new features added to Google Places, a change was made to how websites are listed. Up to seven local websites and places have replaced the first placement spots on SERP, which has cut down the number of organic listings that show on page one. Before, the local listings were grouped together at the top of the page with a map, instead of consuming half of the results page. Optimizing for local listings is even more crucial to ensuring that your website will be on the first page of SERP.

Although you can set up a Google local lawyer listing yourself, it is not recommended if you want top visibility and placement on SERP. Google determines who gets listed by using its local algorithm, which is a formula based on multiple variables and keywords. These variables determine who will get the top spot and the prime Internet real estate on SERP. Obtaining the top placement is no easy feat; your competitors are also battling for the same real estate.

Obtaining a lawyer marketing consultant and SEO expert is imperative to acquiring and maintaining the listing and driving business to your law firm. Law firm marketing professionals know what types of keywords and variables to target, ensuring your law firm will have high placement on Google SERP. Trying to set up your local listing yourself will likely hurt your efforts in gaining high visibility for your lawyer website.

Internet searches are one of the most successful ways to obtain new potential clients in the highly competitive legal field. Having a law firm website properly optimized along with a prominent listing for Google Local are key components for driving traffic to your law firm website, turning inquiries into cases.

For more information on SEO for lawyers or how Google Local for law firms can ramp up your lawyer marketing efforts, contact Rene Perras.

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