Lawyer in need of desperate advice to dominate local market!!!

by Internetlawyer

Posted: 14 years ago 25 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Hi guys im a young aspiring lawyer trying to dominate in my local market. I practice in Johannesburg South Africa. I did some keyword research and bought a whole bunch of domain names only to find out that I did it all wrong.

I did the searches on broad in google keyword reasearch tool first and it showed lots of searches only to find out that I need to be doing it in the exact criteria and it now shows zero searches. I did it in market samurai and also got similar results for instance the keywords I went for were.

keyword //searches per day //seot
attorneys johannesburg // 79 // 33
johannesburg attorney // 62 // 26
lawyers johannesburg // 33 // 13
law firms johannesburg // 24 // 10

Those were the results in market samauri for the broad search (local of course) but when you put it to exact or to phrase everything drops to 0

Am I just wasting my time here? I would really like to create a site and then rank for keywords but it seems that there is no traffic? Is the braod search really such a poor indication?

Really feeling down about this as all my plans hinge on my ability to get a client base for myself and I thought the internet would be a great place to start?

I would really appreciate some help on this one, ive already spent money on web design hosting and domain names, has this all been for nothing?

Please help me warriors.

#advice #desperate #dominate #irony #lawyer #local #market

mike.leembruggen 14 years ago

No... definitely not all for nothing. They are good domain names. (If you did actually buy those keyword targeted domains)

Take everything keyword tools say with a grain of salt. You will still have people searching for those keyword terms... but that's not to say you can't rank for other search terms.

All you need to do is play with your title tag and your meta description tag. Get some backlinks to your site with the domain specific anchor text and start ranking for those terms.

Once you are dominating those search terms then you will accurately know how much traffic you can get with those terms.... then start creating more pages on your site targeting broader search terms and start getting backlinks to those pages.
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Terry Hatfield 14 years ago

I think you must be using your tool incorrectly. Isn't that the largest city in South Africa?

My Google keyword tool in the United States is showing 2400 exact global for attorneys johannesburg.

Definitely worth going for.
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- Internetlawyer 14 years ago
  
  Thanks for the advice so far.
  
  I dont see how I am doing it wrong, in market samurai I chose region : South Africa and then did keyword analasis on attorneys johannesburg and then chose the match type exact.
  
  And then all the results are 0 and on the broad match the results are as:
  
  keyword //searches per day //seot
  attorneys johannesburg // 79 // 33
  johannesburg attorney // 62 // 26
  lawyers johannesburg // 33 // 13
  law firms johannesburg // 24 // 10
  
  These are the domains that I currently own are as follows:
  
  1. attorneycapetown.co.za
  2. attorneyscapetown.co.za
  3. attorneysincapetown.co.za
  4. attorneysinjohannesburg.co.za
  5. attorneysjohannesburg.co.za
  6. capetownattorneys.org.za
  7. divorceattorneysjohannesburg.co.za
  8. divorcelawyerscapetown.org.za
  9. divorcelawyersjohannesburg.co.za
  10. johannesburgattorney.co.za
  11. lawfirmsjohannesburg.co.za
  12. lawyerscapetown.co.za
  13. lawyersinjohannesburg.co.za
  14. lawyersjohannesburg.co.za
  
  You will see that i own attorneysjohannesburg.co.za but my market samurai says the exact local searches are 0?
  
  Im not sure what to do, at the moment I have a site up at attorneysjohannesburg.co.za but I was not happy with it so im getting some proffesional webdesigners to create me a better site. But now Im not sure whether Im going to get any local traffic?
  
  My entire business plan was hinged on getting clients from the net.
  
  Thanks
  
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Sparhawke 14 years ago

Exact URL searches definitely help but they are not the be all and end all of the equation...they are simply the people most likely to be finding your site naturally if they happen to type it in.

With good articles and stuff people want to read you can do well, and the second example you gave, "Johannesburg Attorney" would make a premium domain, it fits well and the grammar is good. Though Lawyer tends to get far more searches.
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Terry Hatfield 14 years ago

When I looked up on your local google for the term attorneys johannesburg I see a lot of people building backlinks to their sites.

I would say their is definitely money there.
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indexphp

14 years ago

don't listen to Market Samurai. It is a great tool, but it could really go without its keyword tool portion

Use Google Insights for Search + the Google Keyword tool (in that order)

better yet, gather up your keywords and test them out with Google Adwords

Thanks
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seoweb2000

14 years ago

Originally Posted by indexphp

don't listen to Market Samurai. It is a great tool, but it could really go without its keyword tool portion

Use Google Insights for Search + the Google Keyword tool (in that order)

better yet, gather up your keywords and test them out with Google Adwords

I agreed, you should pick out some keywords that you are planning to use and spend a few dollars and run a test ppc campaign on adwords. The key ios to look at the number of impressions you get for 1 day. This will give u a better idea of the real traffic. It is definitely better if u can run the campaign for longer than 1 day. I would do like 1 week or even 1 month. remember the few dollars u spend will save u countless hrs of hard seo work .

Thanks

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SageSound 14 years ago

"Exact search" means just that, and IMO it's irrelevant for marketing purposes.

It's like asking "how many people search for 'joe j. johnson, esq'?"

So what? That's a handful of friends, neighbors, and professional colleagues.

What you want to do is show up when they do NOT know your name!

So what ARE they searching for -- in GENERAL?

Put yourself in the shoes of your prospects. What are THEY MOST LIKELY to be typing in that YOU want to show up for?

People are usually doing two things when they're searching for stuff online:

1) research

2) looking to buy something

It's just my opinion, but when someone is searching blindly for a service professional online, they're not going to head straight to a list of names. Would YOU do that?

Well, maybe at first, but then I'd back off and do some topical research and see who comes up that way.

Searching for "divorce lawyer <city>" is going to bring up a ton of names. Then you have to sift thru them all and at some point you might come up with a list you want to contact. Why are you going to pick some and not pick others?

Ask a woman and she'll say, "the colors on the web site", "how attractive their photos are", "do they have a nice smile", etc.

Ask a man and he'll say, "I want to find his win/loss ratio; his batting average; his ERA; you know, what are his STATS?!"

(yeah, yeah, it's stereotypical, I know. The point is, SOMEONE is probably using these example criteria, RIGHT?)

"divorce lawyers in johannesburg with pretty smiles, nice photos, and expensive suits"

How are you going to SEO for THAT??? Because THAT is what SOME are THINKING, even if they can't issue a query like that.

I once talked to an attorney about how to hire a good patent lawyer, and even though she was one herself, here was her recommendation: "search around and find out who has the best record at winning patent infringement cases". She recommended a guy in town who's got one of the best records in the country. He doesn't get a lot of publicity, obviously, but he sure knows where to find holes in patents. Do you think he knows how to write good patents?

Maybe that's a stretch, but ... THINK LIKE YOUR PROSPECTS!

Tools like Market Samurai cannot tell you what your prospects are thinking when they're searching for someone with your skills.

-David
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Quentin 14 years ago

Me I would only be using one domain and then use blogging to target all the diffent areas of your business.

Then distribute to many different channels.

Take our free business course and you will get a much better idea how to do it.

Lead Generation for Offline Marketers and Web Designers

Quentin
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Internetlawyer 14 years ago

ok so from the advice so far, it seems that i should still go after the term attorneys johannesburg? even though market samurai is showing me no local searches?
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Quentin 14 years ago

Why do you use software.

Just go to google and do a search to see whats really happening.

Put the term in quotes and see whats happening.

Really it seems like people are complicating the whole process with a whole lot of tools that just confuse the whole thing. Go to the place you want to see the results and test it there.

http://www.google.co.th/search?hl=en...=&oq=&gs_rfai=

"attorneys johannesburg" - Google Search

Quentin
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- StephenGates 14 years ago
  
  You said " My entire business plan was hinged on getting clients from the net. "
  
  Now why would you do that when youn don't have any internet marketing experience ?
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  You said " ive already spent money on web design hosting and domain names, has this all been for nothing ? "
  
  Yes & No . It depends on how you look . I have spent a ton of money on things that did not work right then or at all . I just hope i learned something from it or it takes me on to something worth while.
  
  ** look at getting your business under local listings for Google , Yahoo and Bing. Go Learn ( study learn how everything works and flows) all you can about online phone directories and get in them all. ( just one aspect for local internet marketing )
  
  I know about some things in this arena. UBL is a great service that is reasonable price and will be very vital in your local business.
  
  Welcome to internet marketing or for that matter marketing.
  
  It takes Money & Time to learn things sometimes !
  
  Thanks
  
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Internetlawyer

14 years ago

it would seem that my searches are not 100% as I am not running the latest version of market samurai, i got the latest information through an updated version of market samurai that the keyword "attorneys johannesburg" is getting 79 local exact searches. So its not allot but it is something and fortunatley I own attorneysjohannesburg.co.za

Thanks
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GeorgeO7

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Internetlawyer

79 searches per day
30 days
-----------------------
2370 per month

Thanks

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thesweetspot 14 years ago

As far as all your domain names, just host them , add a blog, create some backlinks,,and go for rank for it, add ads, adsense, etc...and then flip it to other lawyers for thousands of dollars or keep them and rank for them and have them all talk about you in a indirect fashion.
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- rhinocl 14 years ago
  
  Remember that Market Samarai shows daily searches whereas most tools show monthly. Also when buying domain names look at both singular and plural forms of the words. Google treats them differently-I have one site at number 3 (with non competes such as Wikipedia above me), but for the singular of the same search I'm on page 3.
  If you can get some clients by other means it might make more sense to spend your time working as a lawyer and hire one of us to help you get traffic and convert it.
  
  Thanks
  
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Lakezilla 14 years ago

My experience is not to take the keyword tools too seriously. Sometimes they work good and others times they don't. Use common sense, if it sounds like a good phrase then it should work.

I just did a Google keyword search for attorneys johannesburg and it pulled up nothing but johannesburg attorneys pulled 2400. Go to the Google Search Engine and type in johannesburg attorneys and it pulls 370,000 results. Next look at the results and look at the keywords that the top results are using. Pull up their websites and look at the meta descriptions and titles to get other ideas. Also target 3 and 4 keyword phrases.
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Loren Woirhaye 14 years ago

I recommend a content strategy where you blog or make videos
and build an opt-in list.

I would focus on being the best local lawyer at providing top
notch free information on the internet. It will be hard work
for you, but if you need to market online it's more aligned
with what internet searchers are looking for these days:
quality content.
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- prahna1 14 years ago
  
  Dude, it's not about domain names or keywords or websites. It's about what problem are you solving for your clients.
  
  Driving traffic, generating leads, and converting leads is the easy part. There is tons of free info on that within this forum.
  
  It's about content and providing value. All I hear is about YOU. YOU bought domains and you want this... What do your visitors want? Do you even Know?
  
  If not, why are you trying to waste time and money getting websites ranked and getting traffic. That will come when your message to your audience is established and clear.
  
  Do you have a list of exactly who you are selling to? Demographics? What area of law are you trying to focus on? How specific can you make it?
  
  How many articles have you written on your topic and submitted out to the web, to your blog and to your visitors? How many videos have you made answering the questions that your visitors have?
  
  If you want to rank, then you need to focus on content. Then do research around that topic and write articles and do videos on those keywords.
  
  We have been doing this for over 10 years. I've tried Market Samuri and all the other free and paid keyword tools. I come back to using Google's free keyword tool and Traffic Travis, which if you are into SEO then you should get this software.
  
  Get a list of all the keywords and then add modifiers. Do searches in Google with and without quotes, for exact and not exact queries. Then look at the gaps.
  
  if you see no quotes at like 10 million then with quotes like 13,000 results, chances are that you can rank for that keyword pretty easily and fairly quickly.
  
  We also use SEO logs keyword rank tool to see a 2nd opinoin on how hard or easy it is to rank, then we use the MS commercial intent tool to see if it is a money keyword or not.
  
  Just getting a domain name won't work. It needs to be aged, have links, traffic, web 2.0 properties, videos, articles, and all that other stuff pointing back to it. Plus subpages need traffic too.
  
  This is exactly why there are seo and marketing companies like mine. It's not something that is just a quick thing that any one can do. it take time, effort, money, testing, tweaking.
  
  We have actually done a campaign for an attorney to actually dominate their area. We did a WP blog. 20 QA videos, articles, and submitted everything based around 5 keywords initially. Grabbed all the RSS feeds and submitted them. Did some social bookmarking and pinged URL's. Then over time we focused on adding new keywords and landing pages with content specifically around those keywords. It's like compound interest.
  
  You want to know how to dominate your area, there it is. Do all that stuff and I guarantee that your competition won't know what hit them. You'll be everywhere.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  P
  
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Preston Rahn is founder of VideoSalesLeads.com. Visit to get 2 free reports on how to use seo, social media, and video marketing to generate more traffic, leads and sales.
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  Thanks
  
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  4morereferrals 14 years ago
  
  It's about content and providing value. All I hear is about YOU. YOU bought domains and you want this... What do your visitors want? Do you even Know?
  
  Uhhh - isnt that what he is now doing - looking to see what his visitors want - by doing keyword research on search volume for different terms - associated with his professional service?
  
  Keyword research is two-fold at least ... knowing where the search volume/traffic is - and knowing what the competition for it is.
  
  There's likely a ton of stuff he could survey people on to find out what they want - but not all of those items would translate into actual Google searched terms with any volume.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  ExRat 14 years ago
  
  Hi internetlawyer,
  
  Wow, an 'aspiring lawyer' 'in need of desperate advice'.
  
  Please help me warriors
  
  Sure - we charge £150 per hour - 'discounted' to £250 if you're 'desperate'.
  
  {Disclaimer - being a kind, caring person who doesn't like to tar all people of one career-group with the same brush I wouldn't normally show such disregard and callousness to a random person in desperate need of advice, but in the circumstances (where the OP has plenty of good, free advice already) I felt it to be acceptable and appropriate as a form of 'comment'. Besides, if the OP is ever going to make it in the cut-throat world of ambulance-chasing they need to be able to 'cock a deaf 'un' to any group-criticism therefore my comment could be viewed as 'free training.'}
  
  Tags: irony
  
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patadeperro 14 years ago

Maybe my comment is really basic, but maybe the problem is that people is not looking for "lawyers" in english since most of the population speaks Africaans an Zulu, my Google tool show me several more searches for that term in English, but maybe most of the people are looking in a different language could that be possible?

Example, even in Canada that is a bilingual country, most of the searches in Quebec are done in French, think about it, unless your clientèle is just the English speakers, I think you should go for the main language of the regions.

Hope it helps
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Diver's 14 years ago

write local article about your service and submit to EZA... advertise in mainstream online local news website.. good luck!
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The Copy Nazi Banned 14 years ago

All:
God save your majesty!

Cade:
I thank you, good people—there shall be no money; all shall eat
and drink on my score, and I will apparel them all in one livery,
that they may agree like brothers, and worship me their lord.

Dick:
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers websites.

Cade:
Nay, that I mean to do.

Henry The Sixth, Part 2 Act 4, scene 2, 71–78
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Steve Holmes 14 years ago

Get yourself into Google local listing now... at least you will have a telephone number up there and it can take a while for it to show up anyway - so you may as well get one sorted asap.

Then you can learn how to optimise it and get the top listings.

Attorneys johannesburg only has 1000 results which isn't many, especially for a market like this and there are pretty much no reviews on any of them.

Take the easiest money..

Steve
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Lawyer in need of desperate advice to dominate local market!!!

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