Get Free Advertising and Leads for Your Law Firm in Google My Business

Google is just about the only Yellow Pages everyone uses. Unlike the old printed Yellow Pages, Google allows free placement for your listing. Google has called its service Google My Business, Google Business Listings, and now Google Business Profile.

Google Business Profile is for every lawyer, whether or not you have a website. Google does not require your law firm to have a website to be listed on Google Business Profile.

Google Business Profile is just like the old Yellow Pages because it is a business directory for local businesses, including attorneys. Whether your law firm has a website or not, you must have a physical address. Google will verify that you have a physical address.

Since over 90% of the traffic my websites get come from Google, Google Business Profile listings are crucial. With more and more people talking to their cell phones to find a lawyer, you must have a Google My Business listing. When you ask an android phone, “find a personal injury lawyer near me,” it will show you the Google business listings.

How to Get a Free Google My Business Listing

If you haven’t done it yet, the first thing you should do is claim your existing Google My Business listing or create a new one. Even if you haven’t set up a free listing, Google may have already found your business and listed it with missing or incorrect information.

If no listing exists for your business, then you should create a listing at Google My Business immediately. See the instructions to add or claim your business listing at Google My Business Help.

You can easily create your Google Business listing for free. If you’re wondering how your listing is going to stand out from hundreds of other lawyer listings, that’s the next issue to tackle after creating your listing.

How to Optimize Your Google My Business Listing, so It Stands out from Other Lawyers

Just like an attorney’s website needs search engine optimization to be found in the Google search listings, your Google Business Profile listing also needs to be optimized.

It’s not hard to optimize your Google Business listing, but it will take time. This article will show you how to optimize your listing. Setting everything up, uploading, and maintaining your listing also will take time.

If you don’t want to or don’t have the time to optimize your Google Business listing yourself, there are companies that will do it for you. Just call your attorney advertising agency, website company, or SEO company.

Whether you want to optimize your Google Business Profile listing yourself or have someone else do it, take a look at the following tips, which you should know about.

Tip 1: Designing the Title for Your Google My Business Listing

The title of your business listing is crucial because it’s really the only thing searchers see, so it’s what needs to stand out from all the other listings of competing lawyers.

It is against Google’s guidelines to use keywords in the business title, so you can’t use “Your State Accident Lawyer.” If you use keywords in your title, Google will eventually disable or take down your business listing, and you can lose any reviews that have been posted.

Instead of using keywords in the business title, you need to use your business name, trade name, or brand. Lawyers using a brand or vanity phone number in the title have an interesting advantage.

Using a vanity phone number such as 1-800-HURT-911® in your Google My Business listing title stands out, attracts attention, and makes people want to click on your listing.

Read about why a vanity phone number substantially improves the conversion rate and ROI of online advertising.

Vanity phone numbers are allowed in your business listing because they can be a business name, trade name, or brand. 1-800-HURT-911® is a brand.

Personal injury lawyer’s Google My Business local listing

You can also use a vanity phone number together with your law firm name. If you don’t have a vanity phone number, using a brand such as “Sting Like a Bee – Jane Lawyer” will stand out from the crowd of lawyer listings.

If you use a vanity phone number or brand, be sure to tell the company setting up your Google My Business listing to use it in your business title.

Tip 2: Submit Posts on Your Google My Business Listing

You can publish posts with photos on your Google business listing. Unfortunately, they only last for seven days, so you have to keep reposting. Again, your website design company can routinely post articles for you.

You can also publish events that will last until the end of your event and can last longer than seven days. In the image below, the photo in the Google business listing shows a cause marketing billboard for motorcycle accidents hanging in Costco stores for the month of May, which is Motorcycle Safety and Awareness Month. The Google post will show for the entire month since it is an event.

Google My Business post advertising lawyer’s event

Tip 3: Ask for Reviews on Your Google My Business Listing

Ask your clients to leave reviews of your law firm on your Google My Business listing. Reviews will substantially increase results, even if you have negative reviews!

When people look online for anything, they always look for reviews. If potential clients see some negative reviews, it makes all of your reviews look more credible. Just be sure to politely reply to negative reviews. In fact, you should also apply to positive reviews.

The best and easiest way to get reviews from your clients is to use review software. Again, just ask your lawyer advertising agency, website company, or SEO company about review software.

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