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Google Maps is an incredibly useful tool that provides aerial, satellite, and street views of a location, directions and route navigation to specific areas, and other detailed information about geographical sites worldwide. This powerful web service also lends itself to providing helpful information about businesses in a particular location. But did you know that Google Maps can also be utilized to scout the right location for your law firm?

Reach out to Small Firm Legal Marketing today for customized strategies to help you grow your legal practice.

The Importance of Google Maps for Initial Location Research

I recommend using Google Maps as the first level of analysis when deciding on the right place to drop a pin for a law firm. It is a free service that can be used as often as needed and a simple keyword search will reveal what the landscape looks like for your competition. You can utilize this information to find the best competitive area with a higher population and lower market competitiveness by simply browsing around Google Maps and looking at different geographies or areas of the city.

Steps to Take When Using Google Maps to For Location Scouting

Searching for your practice area in Google Maps is one of the first and most important steps to take when trying to find the right location for your firm. You will want to start with broad terms; for example, divorce lawyer, personal injury lawyer, tax attorney, et cetera. The top results will be the big dogs in the area – who you would be competing against.

Once you have this information, you will want to see where these firms are located and try to see where there are gaps. For example, if you are a personal injury lawyer, you will want to ask yourself: where is an area of town that has a moderate population but not much competition or no personal injury attorney?

When you find a neighborhood that you think could be a good fit based on competition and population, your search query will expand to include that location. If you type in “personal injury lawyer, Montrose,” for example, and see that the results are coming from other neighborhoods, not from Montrose, this might be the perfect area to drop your pin. This is because getting results from other locations means there are likely no competitors in that area.

When the broad keywords have been explored, you can get more specific within your practice area. For example, all personal injury lawyers handle car accidents, but some specialize in premises liability or slip and fall incidents. If this is the case for your firm, you could search for “slip and fall lawyer,” see what comes up with that result and follow the same steps as above to zoom in for specific locations. This is an especially important step if your practice focuses much of its time on a niche area of the law.

Get in Touch to Learn More About Using Google Maps to Find the Perfect Location for Your Law Firm

If you are in the process of location scouting, contact Small Firm Legal Marketing for guidance. We can help you utilize Google Maps and other tools to find the right location for your law firm to enhance your success.