When people are searching for a law firm, the first place they will look to find one is on google.com. Whether it be through a laptop, tablet, or mobile phone, by typing in ‘best local lawyers’ or any of the other 20 million possible variations of this phrase, they will then decide which of five or six results on page one of that search they are going to click.
Google My Business (GMB)
It’s becoming increasingly likely that whichever firm appears at the top of these results – whether it be on page one, two, or three – will get vast amounts of traffic from this single source. Therefore, ensuring your business is list and properly optimise with Google My Business (GMB) has never been more important if you want to capitalize on new leads.
When you are deciding whether to list your business on GMB, the first question most people ask is ‘do I really need it?’ My answer to this would be yes. Even if you don’t use the account yourself every day, there is no reason not to have one set up with all of your company information presented across all platforms available. If nothing else, it will help protect your brand name against cloning by other unscrupulous law firms!
GMB Law Firms
There is really an abundance of benefits of having a gmb for law firms page set up and optimised. Here are some of the main ones that attract consumers when searching for a service online :
- A photo of their business can be include, which helps potential customers familiarise themselves with what they look like and what their business is about before meeting them.
- It helps to build the search engine rankings of your website, as having a presence on Google My Business often provides links directly back to your firm’s website. This not only improves the SEO of your site but also makes sure that even more traffic comes straight through to you from search engines if they are looking for law firms in your area specifically.
- The page can include up-to-date information regarding opening hours, contact numbers, map location etc. – making it far more likely that you will give off an image of being professional and organised to anyone reading this information online.
- You can provide direct links so customers can book or make enquiries with very little effort, which means they are far more likely to take the action you want.
- You can even respond directly to reviews of your firm on GMB, allowing you to interact with customers in a way that is not possible anywhere else. Although this might be seen by some as an unnecessary risk if negative feedback has been posted, I view it only as an opportunity to put people’s opinions right and prove your reliability – or just help them see things from another perspective!
On the other side of the coin, there are many cons regarding having no Google My Business page present for your law business too:-
- Customers will not get enough information about who you are and what you do, so they cant make an informed decision about whether or not to give you a call.
- Your website will receive a lower rank on Google, meaning it will be harder for people to find your law firm online.
- The first page of your local ‘Google Maps’ results will very often have all the best lawyers listed in that area, and if they do not, then at least half of them will normally show up there (i.e., competing firms such as yourself). If this is the case, you can expect that most of your business from search engines like Google comes from these listings – which means that having no presence here leaves revenue on the table.
- You run the risk of clients finding out about other law firms before hearing back from you, possibly resulting in lost sales and damaged reputation.
As you can see, there are strong reasons for setting up a Google My Business page if your law firm has not done so already. You should also bear in mind that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Google My Business, but hopefully, this article helped to explain some of the benefits and looked at why it might be worthwhile for your law firm. If in doubt, do not hesitate to contact an agency like Solicitors Marketing which can provide more clarity on how GMB can help your law firm.Â