CASE STUDY: How We Helped One Lawyer Rank #1 On Google, Sell His Practice, And Retire in Hawaii

Follow Us

Homepage

Search Engine Optimization

Images Are For Blogs

by

No one enjoys reading solid blocks of text. Break up your blog posts with attractive, relevant images that reinforce the subject or theme of the post. The right images make your blog posts easier on the eye and more likely to be read. Here are some tips for using images:

You must have permission to use an image. If you can shoot photographs or design graphics yourself, do it. Wikimedia Commons is probably the best internet site for finding free pictures and graphics that are in the public domain. If you don’t mind paying a small fee, iStockphoto is a superior source of photos and graphics. Exception to the rule: you can use a corporation’s logo as a graphic if the corporation is a subject of your post. Don’t even be tempted, however, to use Google Image Search; almost everything there is copyrighted.

  • You’ll want and need to tweak the images you use. Crop the borders and adjust the alignment and dimensions as needed to make the graphic look proper on the webpage. Otherwise, it can look like you “just tossed something up there.” You’ll probably need to resize (smaller) anything larger than 600 x 400 pixels.
  • Dozens of software programs are available for graphics, and many are good, but all you really need are Microsoft Office Picture Manager and Microsoft Paint; both are included with Windows 8. You may also want to look at Picnik, a site that allows you to perform basic photo edits for free and advanced editing for a small charge.
  • Be sure to put an attractive graphic at the top of your page to draw in your reader; it’s equivalent to a newspaper putting a dynamic photo “above the fold” on their front page. A photo at the bottom of a long scroll is useless in helping you attract readers.
  • If you don’t feel confident about doing all of this on your own, don’t hesitate to hire a social media marketing company to help with any aspect or all aspects of your internet marketing. A social media marketing company can provide the blog content you need and relieve your blogging anxieties.

The Power of Analytics

by

Understanding and using the data you can obtain from website analytics is essential if you want to bring more visitors and potential clients to your website.

Website analytics identify the “behavioral patterns” of online visitors and tell you precisely the number of visits, their duration, where those visits are from, and what visitors are looking at on your site.

Analytics are essential for a successful website that draws both new and returning visitors. Analytics offer a lot, but these are the areas where you should focus:

1. Visitors: Website analytics will tell you how many visits your website receives in a given period, how many are new visitors, how many are returning, and how much time they’re on your website (“duration”). You can even determine if visitors are coming to your site directly, from search engines, or through links on other sites.

2. Bounce Rate: The average duration is simply the average length of time visitors spend at your site. The bounce rate is determined by the visitors who only viewed the page they landed on and then left your site. A high bounce rate (50 percent or higher) means people are leaving your site without seeing other pages. You’ll want to find more (and more effective) ways to engage your audience.

3. Exit Rate: The exit rate is like the bounce rate, but it measures the visitors who viewed more at your site than just the first page where they landed. It also tells you which page they “departed” from.

Analytics can determine your website’s weak points, but analytics can also tell you what’s working, drawing visitors, and bringing them back. While a variety of analytics packages are available, Google Analytics are probably the most widely-used analytical tools. The insights provided by website analytics can help you create a popular site that keeps them coming back for more.

Guest Posting

by

“Guest posting” is writing for someone else’s blog. It’s a good way to connect with a new audience and a good strategy for enhancing your own online influence. Bloggers need good content, and it’s often difficult to come up with three original blog posts – or even one – week after week. Becoming a “guest” blogger identifies you as an authority, gets your post shared on social media, and draws new readers to your own blog and website.

Of course, you offer guest posts to other bloggers on only one condition: the host blogger must include a link to your own blog or website. These backlinks will be identified by search engines, and all of your content will become easier for readers to find. But probably the best aspect of guest posting is that you’re being introduced to an already-existing community and sharing your message with it. If you provide real value to this community, it soon translates into more readers, fans, and followers. On the other hand, if all you’re doing is selling, you’ll drive away potential customers, and you probably will not be asked to guest-post much in the future. Add value, serve others, and have patience; before long, your work will begin to pay off. When your guest post appears online, link to it from your own blog and website, and share that link on Facebook, Twitter, and anywhere else that’s appropriate.

What about asking others to guest-post on your own blog? Do it! Relationships with other bloggers obviously need to be reciprocal, and introducing your own guest posters gives your audience new advice and information. Be judicious; make sure that anyone you invite genuinely has something valuable to offer. Your readers will appreciate your willingness to “get out of the way” on their behalf.

One last benefit; except for the time it takes to write the text, guest posting is free. Talk to other bloggers and start looking for guest posting opportunities; many bloggers will be more than happy to take a week off and offer their readers a fresh perspective. It’s a first-rate strategy for extending your reach and enhancing your reputation online.

How Important Is Your Blog?

by

A genuinely interesting blog, updated frequently, is central to almost any successful social media marketing strategy. Your blog is the place where anyone can learn about your company, your industry, your products, services, and mission. Providing great content attracts, keeps, and expands your audience. When your blog is shared by your audience with their own friends and followers, you’re doing it right. Ideally, your blog will also entice them to visit your full website and become your customer or client.

However, one impediment prevents some companies from taking full advantage of the opportunities a blog offers. The content that many businesses produce is not what prospective customers want or need. It’s focused back on the company, and like a company newsletter, it may interest employees and their friends, but not outsiders.

If you want to introduce a new product on your blog and brag about its features, that’s fine occasionally, but your principal focus must be on your readers, their needs, questions, concerns, and lives. These are just a sampling of the kinds of topics your blog posts should address:

  • How to Write a Living Will
  • How to Have a DUI Conviction Expunged
  • How Wine (or Whisky or Vodka) Is Made
  • Tips for Sleeping Better and Having More Energy
  • How to Spruce Up a Home Before Putting It Up For Sale
  • How to Apply for Social Security Disability Benefits

Posts about your company picnic or your move to a new location are simply not going to be shared or attract readers to your full website. Your blog is more like a magazine than a legal document or a textbook. Break up big blocks of text. Short paragraphs are better. Keep your text under 600 words whenever possible; 500 is better. Use graphics, bullet points, sidebars, and links.

Consider how the best magazines and websites deliver content; learn from the pros. If you’re not the world’s most creative person, don’t hesitate to hire a freelance writer or a social media marketing firm to create fresh, interesting, consumer-oriented content on your behalf. As a central element in your social media marketing strategy, your blog simply must be consistently interesting and effective.

Time For An Update

by

Your website needs to be updated, probably now. In fact, it might need a complete overhaul. If it’s been two or three years (or more) since you’ve updated the site, it probably even looks old. It takes a lot of energy, time, and thought, and it’s something that easily gets set aside to do “later.” The only consolation is that you’re not alone.

If you’re an attorney (and this holds true for other professions as well), you probably already know that the internet is by far the top place consumers go when they seek legal help. In the 21st century, your website is analogous to your law office’s front door and lobby. It must be attractive, up-to-date, and meet the expectations of 21st-century consumers. Here are several strong indications that it’s time to have the website brought up to speed:

1. Does your website look like a museum piece from the 1990s? A page counter or a blinking .gif is a sure giveaway. But even if you’re clearly in your own century, if it’s been more than a year, update. Your clients will be appreciative.

2. Did you start a blog and never pursue it? Scores of legal websites have a page that says something like “Welcome to our new blog” with a 2009 or 2011 date and no actual blog entries (or several outdated ones). Get that blog working for you; a freelance writer or a social media marketing firm can help you create regularly updated blog content and eliminate that embarrassment on your website.

3. Website navigation should be user-friendly, and information on the site should be thorough and accurate. Organize the site logically, and make sure it appears properly on mobile devices.

4. Do your website’s attorney bios sound like they were written by a criminal defense attorney? If you’re an attorney, you already know that potential clients are more interested in your last ten years than in what you did in 1973 or which state Supreme Court justice you worked with in the 1980s. Will you return calls? What kind of cases are you really good at winning? What do your former clients say about you? And watch it with the adjectives and adverbs; after three or four paragraphs about being “exceptionally skilled” and “extremely knowledgeable,” you sound like you’re trying too hard.

5. Consumers expect social media integration. Make it easy for visitors to find you on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other sites. A social media marketing firm can help you create and coordinate your marketing across the web.

Local Search

by

“Local search” allows search engine users to locate businesses and services in their own communities. For potential local customers and clients to find you quickly, your site should be fully optimized to take advantage of local search. Local searches are “explicit” or “implicit.” A search that includes a location, such as “San Francisco attorney” or “southern California real estate” is an explicit local search.

A search for products or services that are available locally, such as “criminal defense lawyer” or “auto parts retailer,” is implicit. Local search lets you precisely target those closest to you who are seeking your products or services. A website optimized for local search is one of the surest ways to help new clients locate you. Here are several ways to help optimize your website for local search:

    • Include your NAP (name, address, and phone number) on every page of your website.

Printed information included in an image doesn’t count; contact information has to be text so that search engines can “crawl” it. Identify your location in your title tags and text. Your title tag should be something like “Grand Rapids Personal Injury Attorney” or “Orange County Real Estate Broker.” Text somewhere on each page should include that same phrase.

    • Establish a business page on Google+.

This helps Google establish your identity and rank you in local search results. Be sure you’re listed at your professional or trade association’s local site and on local Chamber of Commerce websites. They provide “local citations” that Google uses to improve local search.

    • A consistent NAP across the web is imperative.

Your contact information should be identical on your website, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Angie’s List, and everywhere else on the web. A good social media marketing firm can help you maintain a strategic, consistent, and up-to-the-minute marketing campaign across the internet.

Tags:seo tips.