The current recession has hurt a lot of people – particularly attorneys. Maximizing your marketing dollars is more important than ever. Its also important to maximize FREE! In this post I have included a number of relevant listings that will improve your web presence while costing you zero dollars.

– Make sure your local business listing is included in all of the local/map results for MSN, Yahoo and Google. This is easy to do. Just go to GetListed.org. The site will let you know if you are already listed and allow you to sign up for each listing if you are not.

– Leverage Client Testimonials. Besides adding to your website, there are many places online where you can add testimonials for FREE!

-Sign up for the Cornell Lawyer Directory. Fairly visible and FREE!

-Start a wordpress or Blogger Blog. Extremely effective and FREE. The downside is that it does take a time commitment to do it well. I would recommend at least 1 post a week. The best in Arizona is Joseph McDaniel’s bankruptcy BLOG – guy is a BLOG posting machine. Its actually quite entertaining as well.

–Sign up for Linkedin.com and update it. Ensure that you add build contextual links back to your site, update your college information and add a summary.

–Update your Avvo.com profile. This is a ranking website for lawyers that is getting more and more visibility. *Warning* If the Bar has taken action against you in the past – do not do this since updating will trigger a very bad ranking.

-Answer Legal questions at FindLaw Answers and Avvo Answers.

-Post a free legal ad on Craigslist.

– There are a number of websites that allow for a free online business profile. These are useful for reputation management and may drive visitors to your firm. *There is one listing here that is not free – an enhanced listing in AZbar.org. For a solo attorney its $49/year and well worth the small investment.

-Make sure you get your site listed on Randy Swart’s website. Randy is an account manager at West Law and keeps a list of the largest law firms in Arizona. If you aren’t already on the
list, email Randy and he will add a link to your site when he has time. This is a very relevant

– Make sure your FindLaw profile is up to date and showing up in all of the relevant FindLaw practice area directories.

– This may sound obvious, but make sure that your website URL is on your email signature block and that your website address is featured in your after hours voice mail.

– Start a Firm Facebook page – read this first though!

None of these items are a silver bullet, but they will all help drive more visitors to your firm, improve your web presence and best of all they are all FREEEEE!!! Of course there are tons of paid legal directories out there as well. Some are good, many are not though. When the phone is not ringing its often tempting to fall for a salesperson’s pitch. Promising hundreds of new clients if you only sign up for the last top spot in our directory. which you have to do before the end of the day…. When evaluating any online directory product – please follow my online marketing golden rule;

-Ask for at least 5 attorney testimonials
-Demand traffic figures
– Contact Me (Chances are I have had a client in that directory)