Getting FAST results with online marketing

In a law firm marketing group I’m a member of on LinkedIn, a colleague asked:

Here’s the situation: I joined this group months ago, with the intention of helping him market his firm. He’s one of the top DUI attorneys in the state, his reputation is great, and he gets referrals all the time [....] He asked for my advice. It seems his search engine rankings have dropped, because whoever’s been doing it has been slacking. And, last year, he devoted enormous time and energy to a high-profile real estate case, which allowed other attorneys to slightly usurp his status as THE traffic attorney.

What, in your opinion, will get the fastest, best results?

P.S. Yes, he has a pretty good website with a great domain name. In addition, I own ten top-level domains I’ve been sitting on.

Here’s my response:

For a quick win and quick ROI online, Google’s Adwords program, done right, is probably the most effective solution out there. As a quick win, I’d also suggest updating your news page where it says you aren’t taking any new clients.

Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and use of social media like blogging, Twitter, etc can also very effective in terms of driving marketing results, but they’re typically more about building long-term equity than about fast results.

For sure redirect those domains to your main site — they’ll help drive traffic in the long run. Just don’t expect the payoff to be immediate.