Take Advantage of Googles Local Results

In case you haven't noticed, Google has been displaying it's own local results for a far wider array of search terms recently. Even search terms with no regional keywords will bring up Google's "Ten Pack". How is this going to impact how people find lawyers online? I played around looking for various types of lawyers, "traffic ticket lawyers", "immigration lawyers", "criminal lawyers", "medical malpractice lawyers" and so on. Almost every time I saw the Google ten pack in the fourth spot, with map, phone numbers and websites.

Claim Your Local Spot

If you haven't done so already, claim your local spot on google maps. It's a straighforward online form, and all you have to do beyond that is let someone from Google call you or reply to a post card, both designed to confirm you're actually a local business.
It's a great way to get some traffic from local searchers, but make sure your website is up to date and at it's best. It will be posted along side all the other local attorneys' sites, so a good first impression will likely be the biggest differentiating factor for this type of marketing.
If you don't have a website, or if your site is a bit dated, use your lawfirms.com profile page instead. You can update it with video, all the lawyers in your firm get their own page, you can add various bit's to build your "resume", include recent case results, your contributed articles... the list goes on. It's a rich page that will establish your experience at first glance, and give the local searcher what they're looking for.

P.S. If you try to replicate my searches, check out some of Experthubs other legal web properties while you're at it. They'll be easy to find.

Ruf ruf