Legal Practice Pro» Search Engine Optimization

Why Your Law Firm Website’s Ranking Depends On Who You Know

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:00:11 +0000

You hire a search engine optimization company to get your law firm website to the top of Google. But is search engine optimization becoming more a matter of who you know?

The cornerstone of your law firm online marketing efforts is, as of this writing, Google. And if your law firm website isn’t at the top of the search engine results page you may as well take your ball and go home. Hit the top organic spot and you’ll grab about 56% of the clicks for the search term. From there, the potential client is yours to lose.

But here’s the thing: what you see when you search online is not what I see. In many cases it’s not even close.

If you don’t already know about it, you need to understand Personalized Search. Once you do, you’ll see the true value of using social media platforms and building your law firm website ranking the right way.

Your Browsing History

When you’re signed into your Google account, the search engine personalizes your search experience based on your Web History. When you’re not signed in, your search experience is personalized based on past search information linked to your browser, using a cookie.

If you do a search for “Raleigh divorce lawyer” and click on your law firm website, the next time you do the same search it will come up higher in the results.

If you hit the +1 button next to a specific site, that will factor in as well. You’re being given more of what it’s assumed you want to see.

Your Location

According to Google, about 20% of all searches have what is called “local intent.” That means 2 out of every 10 queries are somehow tied to a local event, product, service or item. Google knows whether you’re searching for something local. And when it comes to people looking for a law firm, that’s most likely local.

In fact, in August 2010 Google was issued a patent for “a system and method are disclosed for determining local intent. Local intent may reflect whether a search query should receive results and advertisements that are geographically specific. The local intent may be determined using probabilistic models that analyze historical searches to determine whether search terms tend to have local intent.” Yeah, they’ve got an algorithm for that.

I’m in New York City, so when I search for a pizza place I’m going to get restaurants that are closest to me. And when I touch down in Chicago, I’m going to get totally different results.

So, too, for lawyers. When my potential client looks for a bankruptcy law firm they’re going to get attorneys in New York.

Once again, the searcher is given more of what they want to see.

Your Social Circle

But there’s more to it. The search giant also uses input from your social media circles to serve up results. Your friends’ activity on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook (assuming their accounts aren’t set for privacy) has a huge impact on personalized search results. The thinking is that if you know someone and interact with them on Twitter, Facebook or a variety of other platforms then you will likely be more interested in seeing their stuff.

Now that Google Plus is on the scene, you can sure that your Circles will display prominently on your results. My law firm website is sure to show up for those in my Circles.

You know a lawyer in New York, you live in New York and search for a law firm to help out with a problem. You’re going to be more likely to want to see my website because you (theoretically) know, like and trust me. We travel in the same circles, after all.

Let’s say we’re connected on Twitter. You search for “search engine optimization for lawyers.” My book comes up pretty high in the search engine results page. Google knows we’re connected, so it gives you more from the people you know.

Yet again, the searcher is given more of what they want to see.

Proof That Your Google Is Not My Google

Let’s look at two screenshots. The first one was taken when I was logged into my Google account:

You immediately see a few things. First, I’m seeing one of my websites, ShaevLaw.com, at the top of the search engines. I’m also seeing a map of Manhattan, which is my local area. I’m seeing the other website for my law firm, NewYorkBankruptcyHelp.com, in the third position. And finally, I’m seeing Rich Feinsilver’s website in fourth place.

Looks as if my law firm websites are doing well, but Rich is coming up behind us. I like Rich, but not enough for him to overtake me.

So now let’s log out and clear my cookies. Run the same search and you get this:

Now we’re seeing a totally different story. ShaevLaw.com is still at the top of the search engines. But neither NewYorkBankruptcyHelp.com nor Rich Feinsilver’s site are “above the fold” for this particular search.

Why? Because Google served up my own site, which I share on my social networks, as well as Rich’s site because he and I are connected on Facebook and Twitter.

Consider The Impact

I’m connected with my colleagues, but also news reporters, public relations folks, local lawyers who practice in other fields, and people who live around me. When they search for something that I’ve written about, they see me more prominently than anyone else. And if their search has local intent, so much the better – I show up multiple times.

The more people you’re connect with on Facebook and Twitter (along with the rest), the more often your sites are going to show up in their search engine results. That translates into greater traffic and, ultimately, more clients for you.

You can spend a bunch of money on a search engine optimization firm, but they’re not going to get you very far if you’re competing against people who are well-connected on social media platforms. Your on-page optimization may be excellent, your site structure pristine, your coding cirsp and clear. You may have thousands of relevant backlinks from well-regarded sites. But without social connections it’s not going to add up to much.

So tell me, is social media still a waste of your time?

Image credit: jasonpcasey/Flickr

Why Getting Involved Is Good For You

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 06:00:02 +0000

There’s an old (in Internet terms) saying that “markets are conversations.” That means when you come to my stall to buy something at the market, we talk. In doing so, we form a relationship that makes you like and trust me enough to make a purchase.

Blogging is supposed to be a way for people to take that conversation and move it into the virtual world. I talk, you talk back through the comments. In a perfect world, the blog post would be the germ of an idea and the comments would flesh it out. It’s like electronic Mad Libs – there’s a framework of a sentence, but the players get to fill it in.

The Wall Of Silence

Look around and you’ll find that most articles on Legal Practice Pro get a handful of comments. I love to hear what’s on your mind, and every single comment makes me happy (even the comments that disagree with me).

But most readers are passive, consuming the information and moving on. In fact, most bloggers say that 99% of the people who read your blog will never leave a comment.

Those numbers make sense if you look at your own law firm blog. You sweat bullets over a post, craft it lovingly, fret before publishing it, and then – nothing. Some traffic, but no comments. You have no idea if it’s resonating or if you’re wasting your time.

Interactions Are Elsewhere

Maybe you’re getting a bunch of tweets, Facebook Likes, Stumbles and what-not on your posts. I get that – our social media-fueled world is taking those conversations to other places. That’s cool, but it doesn’t let everyone else see into your head. And you, in turn, can’t see into theirs.

You come to my blog and read something that strikes a chord. You click “Like” and walk away. The next person who happens by won’t have the benefit of why you liked the post, or what in particular spoke to you. You, in turn, won’t know if someone else agrees with you or not. It’s all a vaccuum.

That’s been fed in large measure by the blogging platforms. When you leave a comment on a blog fueled by WordPress, Typepad and Blogger your name is a link to your own website; unfortunately, those links don’t give you any benefit in terms of search engine optimization.

It’s a one-sided game – the site owner gets comments but those who contribute to the conversation get nothing except the thrill of seeing their name in (the electronic equivalent of) lights.

Two Reasons For You To Get Involved

I want your thoughts on what you find here. So over the last few days I installed a few plugins that will not only give you some SEO love for you comment but will also help you promote your own work here.

Do Follow is a simple and free plugin that takes your comment and removes the “nofollow” attribute, thereby giving some SEO link love to the URL you put into the author area.

The second plugin I installed for you is CommentLuv. CommentLuv is another free WordPress plugin that does something very cool. If you put your blog URL into the author URL area when you comment (not into the body of the comment itself) then CommentLuv will automatically add your most recent blog post (or one of the last 10 posts, it’s up to you). Someone comes here and sees your comment, they also get to see what you’ve been writing.

Together, these plugins give you a reason to get involved and share your thoughts here. A little SEO love, a little promotion of your own content.

On the flip side, I’m expecting more spammers to find this site. That means all comments will be moderated so I can make sure none of the icky stuff gets through. I’m willing to do that work for the greater good.

For 1% of you, this isn’t going to make a difference. You comment, reach out to me and share your ideas. For that I am grateful.

But for the other 99%, this gives you something in return for your participation. I think it’s only right, don’t you?

The Floor Is Yours

Dig into the archives here and let’s hear what you think. Or simply hang around, reading the new content and letting it sink it. Whatever you choose, I’m looking forward to hearing your side of things.

Why I Use Headway

Jay Fleischman — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 19:00:06 +0000

A handful of times each week someone – usually someone for whom I’ve done one of my $0 WordPress installations – asks me which theme to use for their WordPress site or blog. After all, there are a ton of them out there. Some of the freebies are pretty nice to look at, and some of the paid themes and frameworks are terrific as well.

But over the past year or so I’ve been working primarily with Headway. It’s a solid choice, especially for someone like me who believes that it’s important to concentrate on content before blowing big bucks on a designer for your website or blog.

Why did I spend the bucks on a premium theme when I have gone on record as saying that free is good? A number of reasons. First, I’m an old friend of the developer. Second, lots of those free themes may actually do harm to your site.

Better safe than sorry, right?

If I want to spin up a new site on a moment’s notice (which is pretty much exactly what I did when I took over and re-branded The Inspired Solo as a time management and productivity blog) I want to be able to get something in place and make it look better than some out-of-the-box skin.

That’s exactly why I’m using Headway on most of my projects these days. Sure, I use some other terrific premium themes on sites like Bankruptcy Law Network and Money Health Central; they’re excellent, and I highly recommend them to you if you’re so inclined.

What I like about Headway is that I can change the fonts, the colors, and layout and a whole mess of other things using a nifty visual editor. That means if I change the font on the sidebar, I can do it with a click of a button and see the results right there on my screen. Way cool.

Sure, the search engine optimization features are excellent and the coding is rock-solid. But that’s all secondary, I think, to the ease of use for someone who’s not a designer at heart.

But let’s say you’ve got a site that’s been doing pretty well for awhile. You’re getting some traffic and would like a pro’s hand at the wheel when it comes to the look and feel of the site.

No problem; a kick-ass WordPress designer can help you out without a hitch. My choice has been Rowboat Media, but there are a number of competent people out there who can help. In fact, the design that Rowboat Media is currently doing for this site will blow your mind. I publicly said that it scared the shit out of me when I first saw it – in a good way.

In the end, I stand by my argument that content comes before design. That’s exactly why I like Headway – I can concentrate on creating rich content without having to spend money on design until I’m good and ready.

In case you’re wondering, I am an affiliate for Headway and have been since it launched. If you buy the framework using any link in this post (in fact, on this entire site) for the product then I get a few bucks.

But if I thought it was crap, I wouldn’t be using it on my own sites.

Are you using Headway? If so, let me know how it’s working out for you in the comments section below.

How Vulnerable Are Your Online Legal Marketing Efforts?

Jay Fleischman — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:00:01 +0000

Even if you’re at the top of the search engines, you’re vulnerable to new competition. Go to sleep at #1, wake up at #4. Is this a risk you’re willing to take when marketing your law firm online?

A few days ago, I was semi–involved in a debate that was raging on an e-mail discussion list in which I am a member. One person asked a question about marketing your law firm online with a blog, and a lawyer started touting the fact that his website ranked at the top of the organic search engine results for his chosen search term. The lawyer in question does no blogging whatsoever, and essentially stated that blogging was worthless to his efforts at marketing his law firm online.

Of course, this being a marketing discussion group, chaos ensued fairly rapidly. The resident legal marketing professionals jumped all over this poor guy, and basically proclaimed him to be full of shit.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Not only does the lawyer in question do no blogging, he produces no content on any of its websites. They’re all extremely thin, and none of them stand out whatsoever. They’re all filled with the same trite, empty language that is so pervasive on law firm websites. To him, marketing his law firm online didn’t require any content production strategy. And his results were, to his mind, proof that his theories worked.

If I were to hazard a guess I would say that the attorney has ensured his high rankings based on off–page search engine optimization. By that I’m talking about massive numbers of back links to his site from other sites, with appropriate anchor text tied to his chosen search term.

Assuming this to be the case, and further assuming that there is no funny business or “black hat” tactics being employed, then I applaud this attorney for his efforts. Undoubtedly, he gets a tremendous amount of traffic and, I would assume, quite a bit of business as a result of his efforts to market his law firm online.

So, you see, this stands as proof of the fact that you need not blog in order to attain a high search engine ranking for a single term. I would go so far as to say that you don’t need to blog in order to do well for any term whatsoever.

The fact, however, doesn’t mean a thing. We all know that Google and the other search engines reward websites with more content over those that are thin. We also know that people who visit your website are more inclined to hire you after seeing the depth of your expertise reflected in your blog posts.

So even if this attorney ranks very well for a narrowly-defined search term (which may or may not get enough traffic to sustain him), it’s unlikely that he’s able to capture a tremendous percentage of those site visitors and convert them into paying clients. People are searching for information, and won’t stop looking for answers until they find them. If they happen to find them on the top–ranked site that matches their query, then they will go no further. However, if their first click does not result in an informative answer to their question then they are likely to move to the next site presented by the search engines.

I’m sure that my colleague does very well now, but his attitude with respect to his efforts to market his law firm online makes him an easy target. If one of his local competitors establishes a new website and continually adds content that is relevant, in formative, and optimize for the search engines as well as for human visitors then the likelihood is that this new site will quickly rise to the top of search engine rankings with very little effort.

How about you? Are you willing to take on this sort of risk when marketing your law firm online?

Image credit: mlhradio (Flickr)

Online Legal Marketing Secret Revealed – Why No Web Content?

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 15:00:09 +0000

We’ve all been there. Some smart ass comes along and tells us we need to start a blog for our law firm, and how terrific it is for our online legal marketing. How Google loves fresh web content, how people flock to blogs, and how it’s pretty much the best thing since the cool side of the pillow. But there’s something that stops you, isn’t there?

The reason you don’t start creating web content isn’t because you don’t believe in the raw marketing power. It’s not that you think the bloggers are full of crap.

Maybe you hide behind the veneer of “it’s too technical,” but let’s get real with one another – you and I both know the learning curve isn’t that steep. You can hire someone to set up a WordPress blog for you (heck, dozens of people have hired me to do an installation for them). You can get a graphic designer to make it pretty.

Nope, this isn’t a matter of technical skill or lack of proof that web content drives online legal marketing.

You think you’ve got nothing to say.

Let me ask you something. Think about the answer before you answer.

In the past week, has someone asked you a question?

Have you answered it?

Guess what? You’ve got a blog post right there. Just begging for you to release it to the world.

I know, there’s the whole matter of search engine optimization and making sure your legal blog shows up high in the rankings. I’m working on something to help with that, so no worries.

But put the SEO stuff aside for a moment. If someone asked you a question, don’t you think they would have asked Google first? Or maybe after they got your answer?

The only way to get over your insecurities about web content and online legal marketing is to look around.

We have a wealth of knowledge and information at our disposal, things the non-lawyers find useful and interesting. Our war stories are instructional and entertaining to those who have the problems we solve, and they serve a purpose.

The stories enlighten. They clarify. They entertain. They humanize us, and make people more comfortable using our services. Because people hire people they like and trust.

Web content gives you that opportunity to be liked and trusted. Ir provides information. it is the ultimate form of online legal marketing.

Do you want your potential clients to get the answers from you, or from some other lawyer? Even worse, do you want them to get their legal advice from a non-lawyer and inadvertently make their situation more difficult to untangle?

Online Legal Marketing Tip – Check Your Site For Broken Links

Jay Fleischman — Wed, 26 May 2010 20:18:57 +0000

Your website or blog is critical to your online legal marketing efforts. It’s got to be clean, well-organized and accessible. Take the time to do some housekeeping to maximize your search engine results.

In order to engage in online legal marketing you need to understand search engine optimization, that nebulous field that deals with maximizing your search engine placement and visibility. Without at least a minimal grasp of search engine optimization, your online legal marketing will never be as effective as it can be. Period. After all, how can you do something really well unless you know how to do it?

Remember that online legal marketing means attracting people to your content, keeping them involved, and educating them about how you can help. As a result, you become a trusted resource and more likely to get a particular client as opposed to another lawyer.

One of the important search engine optimization factors you need to know about is the use of links on your website. Links between pages on your site as well as links that go to other sites are useful not only to the search engines, but to your readers as well.

When someone visits your law firm website or blog and sees a link, they’re going to click it. If that link takes them somewhere else on your site, you’ve kept them interested and engaged. More interest and engagement leads to a greater likelihood that your online legal marketing efforts will lead to a paying client. Paydirt, baby!

That greater level of engagement also serves to reduce your site’s bounce rate, one of the visitor engagement metrics that’s so important to search engines when determining how and where to rank you. I’ve already talked about how to lower your bounce rate, and why doing so is an important facet of your online legal marketing strategy. Lower bounce rate means better rankings in the long-term.

Though external links don’t do much for your rankings, broken ones tend to annoy visitors. Ever go to a website, click a link and find out that it’s busted? That sucks, and you’re less likely to visit that website again. As the owner of the site, your online legal marketing efforts have been wasted if you lose a visitor because of something as simple as that.

On the pure search engine optimization front, you need to realize that the spiders are constantly looking at your site and making sure all those links work. If they do, everyone’s happy. But if they don’t, the spiders are decidedly unhappy. It looks like you’re falling down on the job, delivering a less-than-optimal user experience to visitors.

And if the search engines think you’re doing a bad job then your rankings are going to suffer. Bad rankings mean bad rate of online legal marketing return.

These are the reasons why you need to check your site for broken links, and do so often. The tool I use is a free web-based on called the W3C Link Checker. The tool will go through your entire website or blog and report back on any broken links. If there’s a problem, you know where to look for it – and fix it immediately.

So check those links with this free tool. Your wallet will thank you.

Guest Posting – The Dark Side

Jay Fleischman — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:00:32 +0000

Guest posting is important for blogging, search engine optimization, and legal marketing in general. When you guest post you have the ability to reach a new audience, expand your reach, and spread your message. You also get the chance to add a quality backlink to your arsenal, which is a major SEO boost.

That having been said, not all guest posts are created equal from a legal marketing standpoint.

Two weeks ago I undertook a familiar legal marketing tactic by doing a guest post on the subject of estate planning as it relates to bankruptcy. Rather than ask, I did the guest post and sent it off to the firm for which I wanted to see it appear. This particular firm has a nice blog and I assume it does well for their legal marketing efforts if for no other reason than the fact that it ranks well for a particular search term.

My post was about 450 words of solid content, and well written. Within 12 hours I got a response from the lawyer that he thought it was very good post and he’d get it up immediately.

About 10 minutes later I got the following email, sent to me by a “Legal Communications” person who apparently didn’t understand the concept of “reply all.” The email said:

This is how it works. Nice tie in. Now, we can identify some bloggers for to write the same kind of email to.

I’m not worried at this point. It’s good that someone who gets paid for this sort of thing has been taught the “hidden secret” of guest blogging as legal marketing vehicle.

The following day I get an email from the lawyer saying:

It looks like it needs a partial rewrite now that I have reviewed it (since there are some other alternatives) so I will simply borrow most of it, give you attribution and link to your site.

A partial rewrite? OK, no problem. A little editorial control in the interests of clarity is a good thing. After all, I’m not an estate planning lawyer.

Now remember why we guest blog, people – to increase our reach and audience, to provide value, and to get noticed in a field in which that may not otherwise be the case. Legal marketing in the online world, this is. Tried and true content marketing.

In hindsight my mistake was clear.

Fast forward to the other day. I get an email from the “Communications Director” of this law firm (my oh my, they do have a lot of people working in the field of communications) telling me as follows:

Sending you a link to the blog with did based on your recent email. Please note that you are quoted in the blog and we have provided a link to your website. Thank you for the suggestion.

The content is noted as having been written by the attorney, and encompasses the content I provided. Of course, it’s wrapped in pure promotion for this attorney’s firm and not offered as a substantive piece of content written to inform and educate.

I am quoted with a link to one of my sites, but it is not my post. I did not give this attorney an interview, and I did not agree to ghostwrite a post for him. I did not offer to feed him ideas, and I certainly did not knowingly give him a “suggestion.”

What this proves, however, is that this attorney does not necessarily control his own content. His “communications” people are handling that, thank you very much. And rather than either accept or reject a guest blog post they chose to co-opt the content for their own purposes.

No, I’m not telling you the name of the other lawyer. It’s not relevant.

What is relevant is this – guest posting is a valid form of legal marketing. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again. But before you submit a proposed guest post you need to remember that it is your intellectual property. You need to retain full editorial control or, at the very least, final say on the content being published.

Photo courtesy of chick pea pie.

Blogging For Your Law Firm? There Is No Middle Ground.

Jay Fleischman — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:00:44 +0000

Marketing your law firm with a blog is a romantic notion in a certain sense.

Law firm marketing folks – heck, all marketing folks – extol the virtues of blogging. Create a law firm blog and your business will soar, setting you apart from the competition and bringing you accolades of all sorts. Your law firm marketing efforts should center around a blog, they say.

Actually, that’s not true. Creating a law firm blog as part of your marketing efforts will set you apart from the competition, but maybe not in a good way.

Blogging is a content marketing mechanism that’s designed to provide useful information and show your stuff. By creating a law firm blog you build trust your prospective clients and the public, enhancing your reputation. It’s also terrific for search engine optimization, which exposes your words and thoughts to a wider audience and increases the reach of your message.

But unless you’re adding content on a regular basis, you’re not going to look so terrific to people to visit your law firm blog.

I’m not telling you to create content every day because I know it’s not realistic for lawyers to take that kind of time. But would it kill you to put down something on your law firm blog once a week, something valuable and helpful?

There’s a lawyer in my area who, in a fit of “I want to market my law firm,” went out and hired a designer to do two new sites for his bankruptcy law firm. The sites are beautiful, and very easily navigable. And they both have blogs.

OK, I can see someone creating more than one law firm blog – in fact, I have more than one. The problem is that both of the blogs cover exactly the same topic, with the only difference that one site allegedly covers New York City and the other covers Long Island (a distance of under 60 miles).

Since he launched these beautiful sites over six months ago, he’s suffered from a bit of over extension.

On one blog he’s done 10 posts since September 2009, which is respectable.

On the second blog he’s done 2 posts since September 2009. And one of them is a duplicate of a post on the first site.

A failure of consistency tells a visitor that you’re not serious. And if you’re not serious about this aspect of your marketing, how reliable are you as a service provider? Your law firm blog signals a commitment to provide information and share knowledge; your lack of consistency signals a failure to live up to that commitment.

In addition, failing to consistently publish content onto your legal blog will lower your site traffic. If there’s a blog I like, I’m going to visit it more frequently (as much as I love it, I recognize that RSS readers never really caught on with the masses). Once I show up a few times and see nothing new, I’m not visiting anymore. It’s like when I turn on the television every week to catch Big Bang Theory (which you should watch), I expect to see Sheldon in a new episode. If all I get is repeats for a few weeks I’m going to find something else to do on Mondays nights.

So, too, with your legal blogging activities. If you’re going to do it, understand that you’re in this for the long haul. If you’re in that’s cool. And if not, you need to go find some other way to market your law firm.