As a psychologist, you are known to a fairly select group of people, or so it seems.  Much of your advertising is done by other health services agencies, law enforcement, or former clients.  But, did you know there’s another very handy way for growing your business, if that’s what you want to do?

That method is called search engine optimization, or internet marketing, if you prefer.  Increasingly, people are looking for businesses, services, and products online before they talk to a friend, neighbor, or relative.  As a result, it’s becoming much more important to be visible to Google, so it knows where, and how highly, to rank you for various keywords.

Search engine optimization is the primary method used for increasing your rank, but it is really a small part of an overall “digital marketing” strategy.  While SEO helps get people to your website, there are many other strategies used to keep them on your site and eventually get them to contact you about your services.

First, you have to have a marketing strategy geared at showing how you can help the typical patient solve personal problems he or she is currently facing in life.  You might be focused on a particular problem, such as an addiction or mental illness, or you might be more general.

Next, your site’s writing has to reflect your ability to provide solutions in language that is simple-to-understand for the average person.  While this sounds like a rather simple step, many self-employed individuals and small business owners think they can do this writing themselves, but then end up representing their businesses very poorly.

Third, any decent internet market strategy involves a clearly-defined call-to-action, which leads to a higher rate of conversions.  There  are many techniques involved in creating calls-to-action, and that’s where the help of a professional proves invaluable.

When you combine all these factors, the net result is much more traffic to your website, and finally, many more clients.  There are of course many more factors involved in growing your online business, but these are some of the main ones.

Are you looking to gain more clientele for your law firm, but you’re not quite sure how to do it? Or, are you looking to gain that clientele in a cost-effective way?

If you are a lawyer, and you have heard about internet marketing, read on further to learn how search engine optimization (SEO) and internet marketing can help gain more clients.

The Number One Reason to do SEO

The main reason you as a lawyer should do SEO is because many other lawyers, and most large law firms are doing it. In the past, it used to be enough just to have a website. But, that is no longer the case.

Now, SEO, which helps your site rank higher for keywords your clients are searching for, helps spread the word about your business. Not everybody is doing it at this point, but most lawyers are. In fact, there are many internet marketing agencies whose only clients are law firms!

In order to keep up with the competition and keep your name in front of the faces of potential clients, it is important to be visible online. Word of mouth used to spread in person when people met and talked with one another. This still happens, but increasingly, people communicate and spread things via word of mouth on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook.

How Can You Become More Visible Online?

Here are some simple steps you as a lawyer can take to grow your online visibility:

1. Make sure you have a well planned website.
   Having a website is the first step in the process. Make sure it has an organized design and user-friendly graphics. Tell all your customers about your website so they know where to go for free and helpful information.
2. Make sure your website has free and useful information.
   Your website should have a blog and other general information that is of use to your clients. Update the information on at least a weekly basis. When writing on your blog, however, keep your audience in mind. Legal terminology is complex, and when you write for your audience, they’ll only find the information useful if they can understand it.
3. Make sure you are present in all local business directories.
   There are many directories to choose from, but make sure you have a listing in all that have active users. Skip the marginal ones unless their traffic is really relevant to your niche. People search directories such as Yelp and Angie’s list to find everything, even a lawyer. These sites also allow people to post reviews, so make sure to encourage your satisfied clients to post their own.
4. As a lawyer, you should use social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
   These sites are a large part of online marketing and word of mouth. Provide regular tweets which are informative for your clients. Give them links to useful information. Do not – I repeat – don not use them to spam them with ads. Every status update or tweet have to provide value.
5. Make niche sites focusing on topics. By doing so, you can achieve becoming a recourse in your field. Not just a supplier of law-related services. You will also then gain trust in the market. One of our clients running a law firm in Oslo, Norway has done this with big success, so this is something we know for sure is going to help you grow your lawyer practice.

SEO and Internet Marketing Takes Time – But it’s Worth the Effort

Search engine optimization and internet marketing consume large amounts of time. But, in the long run, they are effective ways of growing your reputation and gaining clients. As your blog and Tweets provide valuable information to potential clients, and as people give you positive reviews, people will find you more online and then come to your business in real life!

Keep in mind that while this may be time-consuming for you, there are plenty of SEO and internet marketing firms out there who are willing to help any lawyer for a reasonable fee. Devenia is one of them.

I just got some spam claiming their big news is that they are now offering “deep linking seo service”. Huh. Is that right? They have not understood before now that it is all about deep linking and always has been – or at least as long as I have been involved in the SEO field.

If you have been running around trying to get home page links, you have really missed out, and it’s time to start changing your strategy. The first thing you could do, is simply filling out the form on our contact page, and we will handle it all for you. Getting those deep links to your inner pages can be difficult, but luckily we can handle the whole thing for you – from A to Z.

The problem with inquiring deep links to inner pages is that you need to have precise control of  the page linking to your page. This includes you need to have control of the exact link word or phrase. Using traditional methods can be difficult, since you have limited control of the location you get linked to, and also the link text.

Let us show you how elegant we can handle this for you, so you get those difficult to get inner page links that you so desperately need to get the traffic to the right pages.

What is your experience? Is it enough with links to the main page, or have you seen better results with deep linking?