Legal tech: Is a website enough?

By Peter LaSorsa Most attorneys by now have a web presence of some sort. The range in the complexity of a firm’s presence on the web is enormous. Some attorneys have a basic one page website while others incorporate video, links and hundreds of pages of content. My website has hundreds of pages of content as well as around 15 videos. Another thing my website has are links to both of my blogs. I believe having a blog is as important as having a website and mandatory if you expect to achieve a high Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”). Basically, one goal of a website is to show up in the first page of an Internet search a prospective clients does on your area of the law. Whether your website shows up in the first page or 50 pages later, depends on your SEO and your SEO depends on many factors. One factor I will discuss in this article is a blog and how it can help your website achieve a high ranking. Search engines like Google and Yahoo rank WebPages using algorithms and those algorithms take into account how often the content is updated and how relevant the content is to the subject matter in the website. So if you are an attorney with a heavy practice in criminal law, a corresponding blog on criminal law which is updated daily and linked back into your website will rank higher than a website with static content. Many attorneys mistakenly view their websites as an electronic brochure and don’t take full advantage of the interactive and information sharing nature of the Web 2.0. A blog is the best way to take full advantage, show yourself as a leader in the field and help your website attain top rankings. Maintaining an effective blog requires discipline and dedication but the rewards are worth it. I usually wake up, grab some coffee and write my blog entries first thing every morning as part of my routine and as part of my waking up process. Once you get in the habit of updating daily, it will seem natural and you will be happy with the results. So if you want your website to rank higher without spending a bundle of money on advertising, add a blog to your website and update daily. Peter LaSorsa can be reached at lasorsalaw.com.  He also publishes a blog at www.illinoissexualharassmentattorneyblog.com