LawHelp/NY Produces Online Marketing Toolkit for Nonprofits

Feb. 14, 2011 - PRLog -- LawHelp/NY (www.LawHelp.org/ny), the award-winning legal referral and information portal for low-income New Yorkers, has developed a guide to search engine optimization (SEO) and social marketing for nonprofits.  Available for download, the toolkit describes the techniques and strategies used by LawHelp/NY to improve its search engine rankings and maximize online outreach.

LawHelp/NY kicked off its SEO and social marketing initiative in 2010.  With increasing numbers of New Yorkers grappling with problems such as foreclosure, eviction, unemployment and consumer debt, LawHelp/NY sought to ensure that low-income people in need of legal assistance found their way to its site.

“LawHelp/NY helped nearly half a million visitors last year, yet hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need, despite our efforts to date, still don’t know about us,” said Leah Margulies, LawHelp/NY Project Director.  “Search engine optimization and social marketing have a critical role to play in ensuring that our target audience of low income and vulnerable New Yorkers find us when seeking legal assistance on the Internet, rather than being steered to for-profit providers who may exploit them.”

The toolkit explains in detail how other nonprofits can follow the steps LawHelp/NY took to expand its online outreach efforts, including developing keyword lists and link building to optimize website pages, as well as increasing its presence on social networking platforms and via blogging.  Key metrics and evaluation are also covered.  The toolkit is available for download at http://www.lawhelp.org/ny/toolkit.

LawHelp/NY is a comprehensive online source of free legal aid referrals, know-your-rights information and self-help tools.  It’s maintained by the New York LawHelp Consortium, a collaborative association of 10 New York legal aid organizations and Bar associations and Pro Bono Net, a national leader in increasing access to justice through innovative uses of technology.  LawHelp/NY was launched in 2001 and last year assisted more than 461,000 visitors.  

This project was funded by a grant from the Legal Services Corporation’s Technology Initiative Grant (TIG) program to Legal Services NYC on behalf of the New York LawHelp Consortium, with additional support from the New York State IOLA Fund and the New York Community Trust.

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About LawHelp.org/NY: LawHelp/NY is a one-stop legal information portal for low-income New Yorkers. It’s overseen by The New York LawHelp Consortium, which consists of organizations serving low-income people throughout New York State: Legal Assistance of Western New York, the City Bar Justice Center, Legal Services NYC, The Legal Aid Society of New York, Pro Bono Net, Volunteers of Legal Service, Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York, Empire Justice Center, New York State Bar Association, Legal Services of the Hudson Valley and Nassau/Suffolk Law Services. LawHelp.org/NY provides visitors with expert-written information on their legal rights, a directory of nearly every free legal service provider throughout the state, and information on navigating New York’s court system.