Discover Canadian Lawyers - Online directories or referral services: which option provides biggest bang for buck? - Comments http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/ Lawyer & Attorney Directory & Referral Services en Copyright 2010 Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:51:39 -0500 Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:51:39 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Natalie Waddell Great post about directories versus referral services! But I just want to point out that note all Directories are considered “bad”.

Directories can help by creating incoming links to your own website. Creating incoming links (especially from websites related to yours, i.e., law), adds to your Page Rank, and ultimately increases your rankings in the search engine results.

But this doesn’t mean you should rush out and get as many directory listings as you can – there are many things to consider first. There are “good” links and “bad” links (which could, ultimately decrease your search engine rankings).

I will write a post about "What makes a good link?" In the coming weeks.

]]> http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18017 http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18017 Internet Marketing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:55:29 -0500 Mark Robins Gyi Tsakalakis Some good contrast and analysis. While I don't have any specific experience with Canadian-Lawyers.ca or Canadian Law List, I will say that the effectiveness of any legal directory will depend primarily on search visibility and profile visibility within the directory. http://bit.ly/9Un9Vh

On the other hand, pay per lead advertising, and subscription based referral programs present their own set of issues.

In the end, the above best advice truly is the best advice: Do the research. If your online source of new business doesn't have high search visibility for search terms relevant to your practice, it is a lot less likely to produce results.

Ultimately, if Google implements its experimental search results pages, both of these sources of online leads may suffer. http://bit.ly/cQehGi

]]> http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18021 http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18021 Internet Marketing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:55:29 -0500 Mark Robins Greg Frank Mark,

As product manager at LexisNexis Canada for the Canadian-Lawyers.ca, I agree with a lot of what you are saying about directories and referral services.

Canadian-Lawyers.ca has been classified by you as a directory and not a referral service. We disagree with that classification as there are many referral tools that we offer - simple ways to reach out to the lawyer of choice (or to reach out to multiple lawyers at once in order to select the best from several replies). Canadian-Lawyers.ca is much more than a directory.

The information contained in our network is pulled from the extensive Martindale-Hubbell database - the premier provider of lawyer information since 1868 (yes...1868) and is customized by each lawyer/law firm based on their expertise, case history, awards and recognition, education and more...there is nothing generic about this information.

We rely on our extensive article/author database as well as client and peer reviews to help consumers find lawyers and law firms that best meet their needs and who they would feel most comfortable working with - precisely because of the control they had over the selection process.

We do not yet have a telephone referral service because we believe that the consumer should decide who is best qualified for their legal issue, and not the referral service deciding from among their limited pool of customers.

Thank you. I look forward to hearing your response.

]]> http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18140 http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18140 Internet Marketing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:55:29 -0500 Mark Robins Mark C. Robins Mr. Frank,
Given your own comment “we offer - simple ways to reach out to the lawyer of choice”
I stand by my assertion that Canadian-Lawyers.ca is a Directory and not a Referral service as I described in the post.
Lawyerlocate.ca Inc provides Fully Screened Referrals to our member lawyers, these referrals come from the General Public, Corporations, and Other law firms globally.
They can complete a simple referral request form on our site or they can call us to request a referral.
As well they can research our Members profiles by Geographic areas, or Areas of law and arrive at a multi Page Profile for each of our member lawyers.
So you can see it seems to me we are comparing apples to oranges.
We provide vastly different services to the legal community in Canada than yours does.
And after 10 years we are considered to be #1 at this process.
Mark C. Robins

]]> http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18729 http://www.discovercanadianlawyers.ca/internet-marketing/online-directories-or-referral-services-which-option-provides-biggest-bang-for-buck/#18729 Internet Marketing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:55:29 -0500 Mark Robins