Alternatives to FindLaw

If you are reading this blog post, you are most likely a law firm that is seeking out a website provider, and for many law firms, both FindLaw and Lawyers.com are the obvious choices.

This blog posts serves to highlight why I, a former Senior Consultant for FindLaw, branched out and began my own marketing firm located in Roswell, GA.

1. Marketing for attorneys online is a competitive environment, and if you can make a law firm show up in searches, you can most likely assist most any small business owner. Rather than limiting the focus of our business to one type of practice, we’re able to work with countless industries, and often times able to learn different techniques and tactics that can be leveraged for other clients.

2. The average FindLaw client has two attorneys, and is considered to be a smaller practice. Thomson Reuters is the parent company to FindLaw, and is a Canadian company that operates in over 100 countries with over 55,000 employees. I thought that small local law firms might prefer to work with a smaller company that understands the pressures of owning and operating a small business. heystac, is a smaller web marketing company that has much more in common with our clients.

3. In the greater Atlanta metro alone, FindLaw works with over 250+ law firms. How is it possible to make everyone show up for the same searches? heystac does work with competing law firms, but is extremely aware of ensuring client trust through openness and honesty. heystac is keenly aware of the pressures facing small law firms, and working with a marketing company that may also provide consulting services to competing law firms as is the case with FindLaw, is one stress that heystac tries to eliminate for our clients.

4. There is much more to success online than SEO. As a FindLaw consultant I was trained to highlight the importance of showing up in the search engines. At heystac we take a more holistic approach to marketing. At the beginning of a client relationship with heystac, I will guide clients as to where they show up in the search engines, who are their competitors, what are those competitors doing, and more importantly, what blend of services is needed to improve the success of the law firm’s online marketing program. heystac focuses on development, design, content, visibility, search, and social elements for law firms. Client goals determine the amount of effort, and expense is needed for each element of the client solution. Not all clients want to… or even need to focus on SEO as the cornerstone to their online marketing efforts, and heystac is fully aware of finding a client solution that meets the specific needs and goals for each individual client. heystac solutions are all custom, and there are no two heystac clients that have the same solution.

5. Success online, does not require upgrades. Each year, FindLaw brings out new client solutions into the marketplace. From directory submission packages, to blogs, video, social media solutions, each year brings more products for FindLaw clients to purchase. New service offerings are excellent, and they help ensure that FindLaw clients are relevant within the online marketplace. I take a different direction with my clients that differs from the “upgrade” approach offered by FindLaw. Each year, we review and assess the online marketing successes and failures from the previous year and then start from scratch to develop a new custom solution for each individual client. I’m a firm believer in heystac services; however, I’m also keenly aware that internet marketing is an ever-changing market. Each year, Google goes through roughly 400 algorithm changes, and the same holds true for Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, Google Plus, and Twitter. Click here to see all of the various algorithm changes that occur. If the market is changing, your marketing solution should too.

6. Leverage all available service providers. heystac as a company is aware of the fact that many other companies have service offerings that can benefit their clients. heystac is in the business of ensuring client success. On multiple occasions heystac has guided clients to FindLaw services, and there are also situations where a client has no need for services from FindLaw or any other web marketing firm.

If at the end of the day, as a law firm, you choose FindLaw or Lawyers.com, I can assure you that they are both excellent companies. If working with a smaller, and more localized marketing firm are attractive to you, then consider heystac, or any other firm that has provided design and SEO services for lawyers, and can demonstrate measured success.

If you are a law firm that is looking for a web marketing partner, look no further than heystac.

Don’t Get Hijacked, Be Careful How You Search For New Domain Names

Part of the exciting and fun part of getting ready to buy your own piece of the web is looking for the perfect domain — sometimes even before the business you’re thinking about exists. It’s fun to spend your Friday evenings looking up domains to buy, and doing laundry. Maybe you want it to be clever (youtu.be), or maybe you want it to be your business name (heystac.com), or maybe you want to get the SEO benefit of including keyphrases in the domain, which helps a good bit. I’ve been playing around with a few different ideas in the last month for my own personal blog, though, I’ll probably just end up buying the name my mother gave me + .com.

But I’ve got to warn you about that. Some people out there will take advantage of you and me while we search. It’s too bad, really, to have to worry about one more thing. But I don’t want you to get caught not covering your tracks.

The Warning: Some people are lurking around watching what domains you search for to buy them out from under you.

The Scheme: If you search for a domain and it’s available today and you don’t make the purchase, tomorrow someone might buy it, turn around and try to resell it for a severely inflated price, which may be referred to as cybersquatting.

The Perspective: This doesn’t happen all the time. Not all websites sell you out. But sometimes it happens.

The Solution: You don’t have to live in fear. Here are my two tips to avoid heartbreak.

1) Search safe. Use search websites that don’t share with 3rd parties.

Make sure of the following:

• domain search information is not shared
• domain search information is not stored
• whatever entity you get WHOIS information from also does not share, store, or use domain search information

Don’t feel like doing that much research? pcnames.com is safe, but from experience, it’s not always completely up-to-date. So it’s a good spot to do brainstorming, but before you marry yourself to a domain, click through to GoDaddy and see if it’s actually still available.

2) If you like it, buy it! This is the fool proof way of covering your tracks. If you’re in between a couple different ones, treat yo’self to a couple domains. They’re usually $8-$20 buckaroos a pop, and you’ll get them for a year or two. You don’t have to commit to a longterm renewal package or anything. Just reserve them for yourself so they’re ready whenever you are. Plus, you can always transfer them to another person’s account. Even if you’re searching the right way, someone else might unintentionally hijack a domain just by getting the same idea as you and buy that perfect domain for themselves. (Great minds think alike, so if you’ve got a great idea… chances are someone else might think of it too.)

How to check if your website is down for other people or just you

Uh, is this thing on?

“My website’s down. What’s wrong? Is it just me?” 

Or maybe, you know, you’re just watching Netflix one evening, and right when you’re in the last five seconds of a football game — about to find out whether or not the Dillon Panthers won the Texas state championship — it just stops. And you’re saying, “HEY! Did they win or lose?!” followed by “HEY! Is Netflix not working for everyone or just me?” followed by “Am I cursed? Or is everyone doomed?” followed by your husband saying, “You’re so dramatic! It’s just a television show,” followed by your anger.

Maybe you’ve been there before. Maybe you’ve called your mom in the middle of the night to make her check on her computer. (I plead the 5th.) Maybe you’ve pulled a blanket over your face in hopes it’d fix itself. Maybe you’ve called me.

Possible and real life reasons your site may appear to be down to you

• the Internet is down in your current location
• the website is stuck in the computer’s cache
• you’re in a fancy office building that has a network server; it may be blocked or stuck in the server’s cache of sorts
• your website hosting‘s down, for real, like seriously, get that fixed

You can find out whether or not you should direct your anger at your Internet service provider or at Netflix. And you won’t have to call your mom, or your cousin, or some estranged friend you haven’t spoken to in years (but maybe you should call them anyway, at a decent hour).

This website may not tell me how an episode of my favorite television show ended, but it will answer the main question:

“Is it just me, or…?”

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com

Use it. It’s smart. And my mom really likes it. She sleeps better at night now.