More on Getting "Googled"

The Google Small Business blog has two great posts about using Google Places to build your marketing. I suggest you read them, especially in light of the fact they come from the search engine god itself:

Building your web presence with Google Sites and Google Places

How to Run, Get Online, and Promote Your Business with Google Tools

Remember, I'm intensely satisfied with what Google has done for my law firm website and marketing.

More on Google Places

I Love, Love, Love Google Places. I think it's a fantastic concept, and for me, reaps a lot of benefits.

GP is easily my best investment, for the cheapest price. Tom Kane, author of the Legal Marketing Blog, agrees.

In his most recent post, Tom discusses why he believes that Google Places (he calls it Google Maps) is the place to be. He also, which I think is great, links to a couple other "how-to" posts by Tom O'Leary. These are excellent pieces for beginners. 

The thing I love most is that the "free-factor" gives you the powerful marketing tools your law firm needs, without having to spend the enormous dollars. More precisely, Google Places puts your law firm where it needs to be, and instantly gives you a viable, searchable, findable, web presence.

Google Places

I don't market my law firm anywhere else but on the internet. Sure, I have the obligatory white pages listing I get when I installed my office line, but that's so indescribably boring that it's hardly worth mentioning.

What has been the true "make it, or break it" marketing maven is my firm and personal listing on Google. I've discussed the benefits of Google, and how my listings on Google influence the types of cases I want to develop. When I ask people how they got my information, "the internet" or "Google" are the two most common responses.

Well, now Jay Fleischman has delved into helping you create and utilize Google Places to your marketing advantage. Jay has two posts, here and here, which effectively and succinctly describe what Google Places is, and how to take advantage of the Google behemoth, all for free.

One of the keys that Jay suggests, which I think is the money quote, is get a separate Google account. I didn't do this when I started my firm's marketing scheme, and frankly, it didn't even cross my mind. Now however, the separate account would be nice. The problem I've realized is that have your marketing connected to your private account will create headaches in the future, i.e., what if you want to sell your business? Your public marketing efforts are intricately tied to your private account. It's unseverable without fully transferring my private Google account. The easiest thing to rectify this problem: get a Google apps account for $50 per year. 

Other than that small glitch, I love (as I've gloated before) seeing my names in the 1 and 2 spots on the Google search page. Even more thrilling is that my names come before the BigLaw firms who have mucho denaro to market with.