At ExpertSearch Ltd we believe that the UK expert witness should display his or her details in all three of the leading UK expert witness directories - the 'Online Directory', the 'Law Society Directory' and the 'UK Register' - which jointly account for the overwhelming majority of all UK expert witness enquiries made via the Internet (the UK and/or international search engines being too blunt a tool to be effective in this context).

With these three excellent resources available we also believe that the UK lawyer will rarely have the time, need or inclination to cast his or her net more widely when seeking an expert witness for a particular case.

It is neither expensive nor difficult to set up a 'directory-style' web site - and many so-called 'Internet entrepreneurs' have entered this field in recent years. Several of these organisations continue to spam UK expert witnesses with contact details copied from this web site.

By displaying his or her contact information in the three leading UK directories the expert witness will receive high quality marketing exposure for his or her professional services - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year - locally, nationally and internationally - for a total expenditure of approximately £400 p.a. No other advertising medium reaches such a wide national and worldwide audience on a semi-permanent basis, or offers such exciting new business potential.

Our marketing philosophy, however, is that if an expert witness is to exploit the marketing potential of the Internet it is not sufficient to subscribe to one, two, three or more expert witness directories, however reputable and well-followed the individual directories may be. Realistically, the chances of a single entry in any large directory (whether in print or on the web) being heavily accessed and viewed are fairly small. Moreover, the single entry will not normally be individually promoted by the publisher of the directory, or anyone else. We believe it is necessary to draw the attention of prospective clients to one's own entry if the directory listing is to succeed in attracting a reasonable volume of 'hits', and, consequently, new business.

Web page address

By comparison, each 'Online Directory' entry has a 'user-friendly' web address, in the 'firstname.lastname' format; e.g. :-

www.expertsearch.co.uk/chris.wilson

This arrangement allows the expert to publish the address of his directory entry wherever considered appropriate (letterheads, other web pages, professional advertisements, directory entries, etc). In addition, the web page address can be easily communicated to any interested third party, and the page can be accessed 'direct', rather than several interim web pages, as is normally the case.

'Meta Tags'

Search engine registration is a complex and inprecise science. However, we believe it is essential that the directory entries should, if possible, appear in the search engine lists, since an estimated 80% of all web pages are discovered and accessed via the leading international search engines. Accordingly, we have developed the ability to insert up to 30 keywords relevant to the individual's expertise in our entries as invisible 'meta tags'. The practical result of this is that the individual entries are more efficiently registered by the search engines, and are returned higher in their results lists - meaning that the individual entries will be accessed and viewed by searchers who have no prior knowledge of this web site.


'Adwords' - a new concept in marketing Expert Witness services

'The Online Directory of UK Expert Witnesses' is widely considered to be the leading web-based directory of UK expert witnesses, and is currently being used on a daily basis by many of the UK's leading litigation firms (details). However, any reputable directory, whether print-based or web-based, contains several thousand entries, and the challenge, therefore, is to make the single entry 'stand out from the crowd'.

In an attempt to address this challenge (emulating a concept first developed by 'Google', the world's most popular search engine) ExpertSearch during 2004 developed the ability for an expert witness to raise the visibility of his or her entry in the 'Online Directory', by the use of our 'adwords' feature.

'Adwords' are, simply, keywords which are relevant to an individual's profession or areas of expertise. The practical effect of this concept is that the reservation of a specific 'adword' ensures that when any person makes a search against that word the expert's entry will be (a) prominently returned at or near the top of the list of individuals which is returned to the enquirer, (b) in bold typeface, and (c) accompanied by the expert's photograph and/or logo.

As an example, if a 'Profession' or 'Area of Expertise' search is made against 'accountant', brief details of about 350 individuals are returned. Similarly, an 'Area of Expertise' search against 'orthopaedic' returns details of about 300 experts. Clearly, if the individual's brief details are prominently displayed at the top of the relevant list, (i.e. rather than returned 'alphabetically', as is normally the case), this will significantly increase the number of viewings of the individual's full entry, and, consequently, the likelihood of the 'Online Directory' entry attracting new expert witness enquiries and instructions. The concept is simple, effective and unique in the UK expert witness field. Examples of the arrangement can be viewed by making either a 'Profession' search or an 'Area of Expertise' search against 'accountant', 'computer', 'orthopaedic' or 'dentist'.

An additional benefit of using the 'adword' feature is that whenever a search is made against any word which is included in the individual's profile the expert's brief details in the ensuing alphabetical results list are accompanied by a photo and/or logo - again serving to draw the searcher's attention to the individual's entry and significantly increasing the number of viewings of the entry.

The cost is a straightforward and finite one, namely £120 p.a. for four adwords. These 'raised profile' positions are limited to 10 individuals per adword, and are allocated on a 'first come, first served' basis. To enquire about the availability of any specific adword please send an email to 'adwords@expertsearch.co.uk' or phone our office on 029 2057 7000, whereupon we will be pleased to advise you as to the availability of your chosen adwords, and to set up the arrangement on a 'same day' basis, should you wish to proceed.