Legal professionals frequently explain to me that while they put out the work to write and maintain a blawg, they have difficutly finding ways to get new readers. I have written a checklist of 5 tips that with minimal work, will help to give more visibility to your blog.
1. Distribute the blog to pertinent directories. Even though this might seem obvious, I am amazed at how many attorneys fail to actually do this. Submitting your blawg to directories can help to provide people searching for your blog material the ability to discover it. The following is a list of a few blog directories to get you started: Blawg, Technorati, MyBlogLog, and ABA Blawg Directory. There are numerous others as well. Simply perform a search for “Legal Blog Directories” and get started submitting.
2. Take advantage of Twitter to publicize your blog posts. The great thing about Twitter is that like-minded folks can locate one another and discuss tips and articles around the web. You can use a program, like twitterfeed, to automatically send out your content as you publish them to your site.
3. LinkedIn Groups and Facebook. Sharing your posts and ideas with fellow attorneys and group members by way of LinkedIn and Facebook is a good means to gain further exposure. Start out by subscribing to pertinent LinkedIn groups such as Legal Blogging, Lawyer Marketing, Legal Marketing, and any others that might be more practice specific. Share your posts with the groups. If you write intriguing content, people will visit to read and subscribe.
4. Comment on other Firm’s Blogs. The very character of blogging lends itself to communicating and dialogue. Take time to read other interesting blog articles and comment, sharing your thoughts. DO NOT SPAM. The idea of this exercise is to involve yourself in the blogging community and participate in the dialogue, not spam others.
5. Use social bookmarking sites to submit your most effective articles. Submitting a great article to sites like Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, and Delicious can drive readers to your blog. If individuals like the posts you wrote, they will “vote” for it. This will bring new eyeballs to your blog.
Attorney web marketing begins with a built-in disadvantage concerning the material you are writing for your website. The reason being the subject material is complex, comprehensive, and necessitates an advanced degree to understand completely. The content on your site is confronted with the unenviable task of explaining, in layman’s terms, extremely sophisticated subjects while at the same time struggling with the fleeting focus of internet users.
It is essential to recognize that crafting content for your website is unique and really should be approached differently than other forms of conventional writing.
Effective attorney internet advertising calls for understanding how to craft internet copy
I am going to focus on writing website copy from the viewpoint of user friendliness and engaging your audience. While it is also beneficial to recognize how to write web content for search engine marketing,I will reserve that subject for another article.
The following are a number of tips to consider when crafting copy for your law firm’s website:
- Individuals visiting your website scan through the articles…they do not read them – Make your paragraphs and sentences simple. Employ headlines and bolding that spotlight your primary messages.
- Utilize bullet points – Consumers love lists on the internet. Whenever lists and bullets are utilized appropriately, a customer can more quickly look at and process the points you address.
- Be conversational, less “marketing speak” – I consistently point out that consumers prefer to buy from other people, not faceless law firms. This is especially legitimate when selling professional services. Make certain you compose with your style, while retaining a professional tone.
- Stay away from legal speak – Not only doesn’t the average person have an understanding of it, but these people will quickly dismiss your articles and move ahead to another site. Attention is short lived online, if a prospective client doesn’t have an understanding of what you are expressing, they will quickly go to another firm’s site.
- Employ images, video tutorials, and illustrations in your articles (where appropriate) – This can make your content much more aesthetically attractive and draws the users in.
A great book to read on the subject is Net Copy by Nick Usborne. It is a easy read that addresses how to approach writing for the web.
Taking a deeper look at the copy on your legal will improve the success of your law firm internet advertising.
Getting your law firm noticed in local search results is becoming progressively more important. Almost 40% of all search queries conducted every month have some kind of local purpose (ie: state or city name, zip code, neighborhood, and so forth.). There are particular strategies and variables that are important in helping your law firm website perform nicely for local queries.
1. Categorize Your Practice Correctly
Selecting the appropriate categories for your firm in local listings is especially important. Quite a few firms do not devote enough time taking into consideration which category labels to use. They discount this as a trivial step. When your potential clients are not looking up a specific firm by name, they first seek out lawyers by category. If you don’t associate your firm with the category they’re looking for, you won’t be found.
2. The Necessity of Links and Citiations
Hyperlinks From Other Sites: Hyperlinks are the currency of the internet. A hyperlink to your website is like a vote for your site in the eyes of the search engines like google. All else being equal, a law firm site that has additional hyperlinks from local and related sites will acquire more visibility in local search results.
Citations: Citations are references to your law practice name, address, and telephone number on other web sites. These references do not have to incorporate a link to your web site. A good illustration of a citation might be an online attorney directory where your business is shown, but not linked to. Yet another would be a local yellow pages website.
3. The Listed Title Of Your Law Practice
Your law firm title (ie: the name of your law firm) is an especially significant factor for ranking well in the local search engines. You want your title to be consistent across the listings as well as having it contain pertinent keywords to your firm’s practice. Having consistency helps your practice establish trust in the eyes of search engines. Incorporating appropriate terms in the title helps your practice receive better positioning when individuals perform searches. For instance, The Law Offices of Joe Smith, located in Chicago, could create a title called Law Offices of Joe Smith | Chicago Personal Injury Law Firm. Just keep it consistent and uncomplicated. Don’t attempt to stuff too many search phrases into your title.
A law firm website that is hidden from the search engines will never perform as well as a site that avoids law firm search engine optimization mistakes. We observe lawyer sites every single day that could perform much better in the major search engines with just a handful of small adjustments. Below are the top 5 lawyer search engine optimization mistakes to avoid:
1. Zero Incoming Hyperlinks – A law firm site that does not have other sites linking to it is going to get lost within the abyss of the web. Links are the currency of the internet as far as search engines like Google are concerned. It’s essential that you get other, legally related websites to link to your site. Ignoring your inbound backlinks is a classic attorney Seo mistake.
2. Do Not Add Articles – Not adding fresh, relevant content to your law firm’s site is a classic error. The times of creating a static law firm website and expecting to bring in a large amount of visitors are over. You need to add new articles to your site on a steady and frequent basis. We typically recommend 2-3 unique articles per week at a minimum. Incorporating content will help increase the presence your site has on the online and create additional channels for consumers to come across you.
3. Make It Challenging To Post To Your Site – Most sites these days are developed on a CMS (Content Management System) platform. There are many different kinds, however the most important function they all accomplish is making the updating of your site quick to accomplish. As opposed to having to learn HTML code, you can easily revise your website via an easy to use interface and publish the information. If your website is challenging to update, you simply won’t do it. This can hurt your presence in search engines like Google.
4. Don’t Perform Adequate Keyword Research - Yet another classic mistake lawyers make is not performing keyword research. Understanding the keywords that individuals have historically searched for to find your services as well as understanding the relative competitiveness of those keywords is important to the success of your site. Frequently lawyers will just “go with their guts” or decide on words and phrases they “think” people might search for. This is not the way to accomplish keyword research. Using Google’s Keyword Tool is a great place to begin.
5. Do Not Use The Keywords You Identified On Your Website – Utilizing keywords throughout your site will help the search engines better recognize what your website is about. Including keywords in your site’s title tags, headers, and the body of your website is a best practice. You do not want to do this in an obnoxious way where it becomes obvious to someone browsing your website.
Avoiding the above mistakes should help provide your site more visibility when people are looking for your legal services in the search engines. For a more in depth conversation of your law firm’s site and seo contact us toll free at (877) 619-5775.
Education based marketing is the skill of presenting your expertise as a vehicle for marketing your firm. The idea is that by offering a bit of your expertise and educating a possible client, you will develop trust and establish yourself as a valuable source of information. Here are 3 ways you can use education based marketing for your law firm online:
1. Start A Blog – Authoring a blog is an excellent strategy to market your firm online. Submitting informative articles about your practice area serves a couple of purposes. It gives you more exposure and visibility online any time potential clients are investigating their legal concerns. It also creates an opportunity for dialogue because clients can leave responses and interact with your articles.
2. Educational Guides – Another great method to get prospective clients to interact with your website is to provide free e-books for download in exchange for a client’s contact information. As an example, if you run a bankruptcy practice you could write a concise guide “Top Ten Misconceptions About Bankruptcy”. You can offer the e-book for free in exchange for a client’s name and e-mail address. As soon as the prospective client fills out a form giving you the required information, you e-mail them a hyperlink to your e-book. You now have an opportunity to begin a conversation with the prospective client.
3. Online Videos – A great way to present your expertise is by creating a short video. This is a very intimate setting where the prospective client is presented with a chance to see and hear you rather than just looking at text you have written. Any time you are creating an online video for the law firm it is crucial to keep in mind not to simply talk about your firm and how fantastic you are. Speak to the prospective client about their troubles. Answer common concerns or offer information regarding how to do something. Stay away from shameless, self-promotion.
