Law firm in Minneapolis Minnesota and wanting a website for your firm?

Probably not. Most lawyers in Minnesota already have a law firm website and most are outdated and do little for their law firm.

Most lawyers in Minneapolis also don’t realize what a web presence can mean for their business. Many law firms in personal injury have caught onto this as have criminal lawyers in the state. That’s why the competitive nature of search phrases for lawyers in Minnesota is so fierce. If you have a website like Simmonds, Simmonds & Wright (http://www.simmondsandwright.com/) as a personal opinion example then you’re pretty much out of luck for ranking high on Google, MSN, or Yahoo to attract customers unless they are looking specifically for your firm. Otherwise, anyone typing in “minnesota personal injury”, “minnesota truck accident lawyer”, etc. wont be able to find you!

Practicing law in Minneapolis, Minnesota you can’t survive with online recruitment of new customers WITHOUT search engine optimization. Furthermore, unless you deal with someone who knows what they are seriously doing with S.E.O. with law firm websites then you’ll just be burning your money by going with a low balling priced S.E.O. expert. This is a highly competitive industry and I’d be very weary of low priced S.E.O consultants.

Your best bet is researching your potential web designer & search engine optimizer when finding someone or a company to take on your law firm project.

Here are some tips on finding the right Minneapolis Lawyer Web Designer:

• Portfolio: Look over the company or person’s portfolio to ensure they can back up their word with their work. If their portfolio looks like all templates, it probably is. They probably just stole their portfolio off a template website.
• Original Design: Getting a law firm website to rank high requires a custom design. A template based (super-cheap) way of getting your website high on the search engines will end in failure. Think about it this way. 20 law firms take the same group of templates and use them for their website. Google see’s this when you submit your site to its search engine and sandboxes (bans) you from high ranking listings.
• Who Are You Working With: Do they live locally in Minneapolis or Minnesota? Can you call them during normal business hours? If they don’t answer the phone do they call or email you back with an answer or a solution within 24 hours? Do they use proposals, contracts, and invoices? Or do they take the money and run? Are they an LLC, LLP, or established business… or just some guy out of his mother’s basement? Don’t get screwed and left with a website that does nothing!
• Pricing: We live in an economy where people get paid for what they do. When you pay less, you get less no matter who you deal with. An inside tip. Website designers who will charge you $500 or less will typically use a template (a big no-no for lawyers websites) and buy it for free or for $70 and then change some text on the website, submit it to google (which takes 10 seconds) then pocket the rest of the money for their “hard work”. Established web designers who consistently deliver results have realistic prices that deliver results and bring a postitive ROI for their customers.