Slide deck from a legal marketing webinar presented by LawLytics on February 4, 2016 to a group of lawyers talking about how to choose the right domain name for a law firm or solo law practice.

1. Choosing a Domain Name
for Your Law Firm

2. Presented by:
›
Attorney & LawLytics CEO
Dan Jaffe

3. About This Webinar
● Domain name basics
● Picking a domain name
On today’s docket:

4. Domain Basics
● An identifiable string that defines
an autonomous realm on the
internet.
● A domain is not a website, but
rather a way of pointing to
resources.
What’s a domain name?

5. Domain Basics
● Short Answer: Thin air!
Where do domain
names come from?

6. Domain Basics
● .com, .net., .org
● .us, .info, .me
● .co, .tv
● .ninja, .guru
● .law, .attorney, .lawyer
What is a top-level domain?

7. Domain Basics
● An accredited entity that
manages the reservation of
internet domain names.
● Think of the registrar as the
county recorder’s office.
What is a registrar?

8. The Building Blocks of a Law Firm’s Web
Presence (Simplified)
Registrar - Registration = $10 - $15 / year
Domain Name System (“DNS” for short)
Websites Email Other

9. Registrar
“Who owns it?”
DNS
“Traffic director.”
Destinations
“What people see
and do.”
The Building Blocks of a Law Firm’s Web
Presence (Simplified)

10. Domain Registrars
Registrars include:
● GoDaddy
● Register.com
● Google Domains
● 1,000s of domain resellers

11. Registrars Offer Upsells
Most registrars offer upsells such as:
● Privacy protection
● Email
● Web hosting
● DNS management

12. What You Need From a Registrar
When using LawLytics, you only need:
● The domain name.

13. Protect Your Domain
Make sure you:
● Own and control your registrar account
● Lock transfers
● Don’t give out your password, or change it
if you have
● Register for the maximum time

14. Picking a Domain Name
for Your Law Firm
Choose a TLD that will avoid ethics headaches.
“A law firm domain name is a communication about a lawyer's services and a "professional
designation" and thus must comply with the Rules of Professional Conduct. However,
domain names do not have to be identical to the law firm's actual business name as long as
they otherwise comply with the Ethical Rules. For-profit law firm domain names cannot be
false, misleading, deceptive, self-laudatory, or imply special competence or affiliation unless
true. Therefore, private law firms cannot use secondary domain names that imply some
exclusive affiliation with a bar association or governmental entity, nor may they use the top
level domain suffix ".org" if they are for-profit.”
Source: http://www.azbar.org/Ethics/EthicsOpinions/ViewEthicsOpinion?id=273 (3/2001)

15. Picking a Domain Name
for Your Law Firm
Choose a TLD that will avoid ethics headaches.
“A reasonable person, desiring to verify whether an entity is non-profit, would not rely solely on the
entity’s website address.
“In light of the foregoing, the Committee does not believe that the mere use of “.org” by a for-
profit law firm is a violation of the Arizona Rules of Professional Conduct. Opinion 01-05 is
modified accordingly.”
Source: http://www.azbar.org/Ethics/EthicsOpinions/ViewEthicsOpinion?id=717 (11/2004)

16. Picking a Domain Name
for Your Law Firm
These domains are currently available for $9.99 for a reason:
● SeattlesBestLawyer.com
● GetAwayWithSexCrimes.com
● LawyersWhoGolfWithJudges.com
● WeWinAllCases.com
● DivorceThatBastard.com
Choose a TLD that will avoid ethics headaches.

17. Picking a Domain Name
for Your Law Firm
● Choose a TLD that:
○ Matches your website’s purpose
○ Is easy to remember and commonly used (avoid obscure ones not commonly
used in your country or region)
○ Isn’t easily confused with another firm that has a website that already exists

18. Picking a Domain Name
for Your Law Firm
● Choose a good TLD:
○ .center, .company, .institute, .ninja ?
○ .lawyer ?
○ .attorney ?
○ .abogado
○ .law ?
○ .com, .net, .co
○ .info, .us
○ Using novel or foreign TLDs to spell things...

19. Should You Use Hyphens In Your Law
Firm’s Domain Name?
● Hyphens:
○ Hard to remember
○ Hard to say
○ Easy to get wrong
○ Puts visitors off
○ High correlation with spam
○ Never use more than one hyphen (per Moz).

20. Legal Domain Names:
Price vs. Value
● Arizona-Franchise-Lawyer.com ($9.99) vs. ArizonaFranchiseLawyer.com ($9.99)
● ArizonaFranchiseLawyer.com ($9.99) vs. ArizonaFranchise.Lawyer ($49.99)
● Portland-Property-Lawyer.com ($9.99) vs. PortlandPropertyLawyer.com
● PortlandPropertyLawyer.com ($9.99) vs. PortlandProperty.Lawyer ($3,499.99)
These are currently available to register:

21. How Long Should It Be?
● Shorter is usually better:
○ Easier to remember
○ Easier to brand
○ Less opportunity for typos
○ Shorter domains are typically
more valuable

22. Firm Name, Practice Areas, Etc.
● Things to consider:
○ Multiple attorneys?
○ Musical attorneys?
○ Single practice-area focus?
○ Single geographic focus?
○ Informational/public service site?

23. Defensive Domain Name Registration
● Protect yourself:
○ Your name
○ Your firm name
○ Your brand
○ Similar sounding domains
○ Misspellings

24. Hoarding Domains
● An undeployed, non-defensive domain
portfolio is usually not a good
investment.
● No real benefit to forwarding multiple
domains to your site
● Usually ignore people who email you
about domain names.

25. Dealing With Snakebit Domains
● Consider the sunk-cost fallacy.
● There’s always forwarding.

26. Maintaining A Portfolio
● Own and control a single registrar
account.
● Consider using folders in the account.
● Consolidate renewal dates.
● Use auto-renew for valuable domains.
● Let useless domains expire.

27. Final Domain Selection Tips
● Don’t buy the first name that looks good.
● Make a list. Narrow your choices down.
● Get 2nd, 3rd and 4th opinions.

28. Q & A
Submit questions via the GoToWebinar Control Panel

29. Thanks For Attending
Email: info@lawlytics.com
Call: 1-800-713-0161
Web: www.LawLytics.com