FUN AND INTERESTING BACK STORY

The Academy purchased an existing Attorney directory called Search-Attorneys.com in 2002. For about a decade we maintained the directory and listed all Academy Members, Partners and Associates in “Premium” or featured positions on all searches made.

The reason that the purchase made sense then, and still does, is because the directory ranked very, very well. Even though we have not maintained the directory for the past several years, it is still ranking well! One main reason that Search-Attorneys.com and also AAEPA.com continue to rank well is because they are considered sites with “high domain authority.” All that means is, they are credible and established sites with years of good behavior and a good reputation. Sites like these tend to automatically rank higher than newer sites.

It’s difficult to know how many clients were generated for Member firms through Search-Attorneys.com. Several years ago, when properly maintained, the site had 4,500 or so visitors per month. BUT, we weren’t really using the site as a place for Members to be found by a consumer. What we were going for was MULTIPLE HITS for Members on a Google Search.

Imagine if you will, if you’re a firm with three attorneys, and consumers Google [your town estate planning attorney], each attorney listed on the Academy Member Listing, each link they have for a blog, each attorney listed in the Search-Attorney.com directory and possibly your AVVO listing would be pulled. It was not uncommon for a Member to have EVERY listing shown on the first page (everything but the paid positions on a Google search).

What are the chances that a consumer would find someone else? Zero. Nobody goes to the second page of Google to look for more, especially when there is this one firm shown over and over on the first page of the search!

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME?

The Online Marketing Group (OMG) Team has completely redesigned this old site and it’s BEAUTIFUL. We’re still working on a number of things but we will be introducing this directory to allow NON-MEMBERS of the Academy to add themselves at no additional charge in the coming weeks.

YOU NEED TO TAKE A LITTLE ACTION!

Go to this page and “create an account.”
Log in and complete your profile. ADD PHOTOS, VIDEOS, ADDITIONAL PRACTICE AREAS and OTHER DETAILS.
Remember to add or edit the profile information as your Attorney Team changes, this is your profile to maintain.
Academy Members already have a listing in the directory, but we invite you to log in to add additional information. OMG Gold and Platinum Members already have photos uploaded and profiles optimized with keyword-rich descriptions. All other Members will need to add some of those things to help your rankings! Email Search-Attorneys@aaepa.com if you need your login details.
Be SURE that each attorney in your firm checks their profile, if we missed someone, it’s easy for that attorney to add him/herself and email Search-Attorneys@aaepa.com to give us a heads up to mark them as a “Member.”

Jennifer Price
Chief Operating Officer
American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys, Inc.
9444 Balboa Avenue, Suite 300
San Diego, California 92123
Phone: (858) 453-2128
www.aaepa.com