How do people find lawyers? Just ask Mr Google

Potential clients will use online searches to check out your law firm and others, so you had better create a smart online presence, writes Trish Carroll.

A 2014 survey conducted by FindLaw.com (part of global giant Thomson Reuters) shows that people’s willingness to search online for professional services has grown by a massive amount. That should not surprise anyone. What is surprising is how things have changed since the dark ages of 2005 when asking a friend or relative was the dominant way to find lawyers.

In what I think of as the “ask Mr Google age” or any of her relatives, such as Bing, Yahoo, Firefox or Safari, there are real implications for lawyers, and anyone selling a service that needs customers, about how they get found on the internet. The FindLaw report was conducted using a demographically balanced survey of 1000 American adults. Given that Australia is the most Americanised country in the world outside the United States, it is hard to imagine the results would be much different if the survey was conducted in Australia.

Here is the heads up.

Internet
2014: 38%
2005: 7%

Ask a friend or relative
2014: 29%
2005: 65%

Consult local Bar association
2014: 10%
2005: 13%

Yellow Pages
2014: 4%
2005: 10%
Source: FindLaw Survey 2014

The cynic in me wants to argue that any survey conducted by FindLaw would be biased towards finding this result; it is reminiscent of Big Tobacco commissioning research that proved smoking was not harmful to people’s health. But the difference with the FindLaw research is that, unlike tobacco company studies, it supports what we see and do every day and with great health benefits because it is saving us time and connecting us with the type of businesses we are seeking.

Online takeover
Just think for a moment about how you go about sourcing services or suppliers that you do not use all that often, or when you are looking for an alternative because you are not happy with your current provider. You ask Mr Google. I am not suggesting big corporations use Google to search for lawyers to do their next takeover or deal with a bullying CEO in a listed entity who has just bullied an employee. These people have a solid network of current suppliers and an even more solid network of corporate buddies who can give them advice.

What I am suggesting is that many thousands of ordinary people in our great country use the internet to find lawyers who can help them with the everyday stuff in their lives: things such as their divorce and everything that entails; pre-nuptial agreement; violent husband, wife, de facto, child or flatmate; drink-driving charge; children’s break-and-enter charge, lease dispute; organising their will, or dealing with a deceased family member’s estate or their claim against an estate; understanding the 100-page contract an elderly parent needs to sign before buying their way into a nursing home; a personal injury claim caused by a traffic accident, an injury at work; a total and permanent disability claim under their income protection insurance; a claim under their life insurance policy; a health professional they think has behaved in a negligent manner; or when their telecommunications carrier, gas or electricity provider is enforcing some unknown aspect of their impossible-to-understand contracts.

These sort of legal needs are what keep many thousands of lawyers in business and is where Google is invaluable in helping to track down just the right lawyer, with the right skillset in the right location. According to Google, 97 per cent of people searching on Google are specifically looking for local small businesses, and that is what the bulk of Australian law firms are – local small businesses.

Quality checks
It is not enough to have a website to get found, although that is certainly a good start. A report by Hinge Marketing called Beyond Referrals: How Today’s Buyers Check You Out, involved 1000 buyers of professional services. This research, also American, showed the following:

Look at their website – 80%
Search online/Google – 63%
Ask friends/colleagues – 62%
Social media (LinkedIn) – 59%
Talk to a reference they were given – 55%
Don’t check them out – 0.7%
Source: Hinge Marketing Report 2013

The most interesting finding in the Hinge report is that less than 1 per cent of potential buyers are not using these tools to check people out. This is very strong evidence of the need to have effective online strategies to be found.

Again, just think about what you do when you are looking for a new supplier. You do your homework and more and more of that homework is done online. Once you have shortlisted the best-suited suppliers you make the call or complete the contact enquiry form. Back to your website – it needs to be a website that has the right amount of information people need. It does not need to be lengthy. It needs to be targeted to the type of clients you want to attract and to give them the information they need before making that all important phone call or completing your online enquiry/contact form.

Your website needs to reflect your firm’s brand personality. It needs to look, sound and feel authentic and be written in a way that appeals to the type of clients you want to attract. Let us assume you have done your website well – it looks appealing, it is easy to use and provides the right level of information your potential clients need. All your lawyers also have equally appealing LinkedIn profiles.

Focus on SEO
In creating your website, and in keeping it up to date, you need to constantly review your search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy. You will be familiar with the need to focus on popular keywords, such as “criminal lawyer Sydney”, but you need to think more carefully than that because you will be competing with hundreds of other criminal lawyers and law firms in Sydney with that phrase.

You need to think about the sort of questions your potential client would ask themselves and try to consider as many search term combinations as possible that go beyond the obvious phrases. For example, “criminal lawyer in Campsie that speaks Lebanese and deals with Centrelink offences” or “criminal lawyer in Campsie that deals with indecent assault charges”. This approach will improve how you get found and enable the search result to put you higher up on the page.

Google has lots of free advice and tutorials to help you improve your chances of being found more readily. Google AdWords Keyword Planner is a great start and will help you identify various search terms, and Google Trends gives you an overview of search terms that are popular by geographic location. No doubt there are people in your firm, your family or your network who would love to help you get started and are familiar with these tools.

SEO is not rocket science, but it does feel like it to the uninitiated. So do your homework, use all the available resources that Mr Google and his relatives offer and then speak with your peers, family and staff and see how they can help. You have probably got clients who are dealing with similar issues; perhaps you could start an SEO or SMO (social media optimisation) discussion group – it may be your best business development idea yet!

Trish Carroll is the founder of Galt Advisory, an advisory firm focused on helping firms and individuals devise successful business strategies. Trish can be contacted at trish@galtadvisory.com.au.