Metro Lawyers Get Seo And Google Places Perk

By Author: Jason Bland
Total Articles: 4717
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Last year, Google merged Google Places with its search engine rankings, making the search engine optimization of a website work together with the Google Places profile to determine the website's ranking. While that helped many law firms, it hurt suburban attorneys.

When a user types in a term like “Tampa divorce lawyer”, all of the Google Places rankings that appear are law firms in Tampa, Florida. This seems logical. However, just 10 miles east of downtown Tampa is the suburb of Brandon. Many law firms in Brandon optimized for keyphrases related to “Tampa” but their Brandon, Florida address now puts them at a disadvantage.

This is true everywhere. From Cambridge, Massachusetts to Bellevue, Washington, law firms in cities surrounding major metropolitan areas are at a disadvantage in Google Places.

Does these mean your law firm needs to pack up its office and move to a high rent suite downtown? Not really, as your firm has a couple of options to remedy this problem and help your law firm marketing.

1) Satellite or virtual office †...
... The easiest way to tap into the metro market is to get a virtual office or virtual address within the major metropolitan area. You would list this address in Google Places as “by appointment only”. Most virtual address/virtual office plans come with conference rooms and meeting spaces. Aside from helping your Google Places ranking, maintaining a virtual office may help service clients closer to the city core.

2) Capitalize on the outskirts of town †Another option your firm has is to dominate your local town rather than compete in the city. Suburban keyphrases generally have less competition, but substantial search volume. With the lower levels of competition, dominating high page one rankings can take place sooner and convert better than city terms.

Generally, a law firm can expect to pay $75 to $150 per month for a virtual address in a major city. It may sometimes be more, depending on the available features. However, the investment may be worth it if it means competing in the metropolitan market.
About Author:
Jason Bland is with SEOLawFirm.com, a law firm marketing and legal marketing company. To learn more call 1.800.728.5306 or visit http://www.seolawfirm.com.