Archive for May, 2013

Optimizing Your Law Firm Website For Top Search Engine Rankings

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013

SEO — search engine optimization – is to Google and lawyer websites, what Boolean searches are to Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw. Feeding specific search terms into the search engine quickly produces reliable results consistent with the search terms. SEO relies on keywords and key-phrases (e.g., search terms) that have been narrowed by feeding criteria specific to your practice into the latest web traffic reporting tools.

Lawyer Success, Inc. uses these results to decide to the best and most frequently used keywords and phrases and, more specifically, those likely to generate the highest volume of web traffic to your lawyer website. Google then uses algorithms that interpret the SEO to evaluate your lawyer website and determine your search rankings. When a prospective client uses search terms that contain your keywords and phrases, the SEO elevates your lawyer website search ranking producing consistent search results for both you and the prospective client.

These important tips can complement your SEO campaign:

  • Titles. Your page title is the most important tool you have to attract new clients from Google search listings. Productive titles incorporating SEO increases search engine visibility. SEO is how prospective clients find you on the Web, and factors into their navigation of your lawyer website by guiding them to the specific page that is useful to them.
  • Answers. Clients expect lawyers to answer their questions. Prospective clients searching your lawyer website expect your legal content to answer their questions. Our goal-driven nature sends us to the Web in search of a specific find or to accomplish a particular goal. The next website is just a click-of-the-mouse away, making efficient and relevant legal content interspersed with SEO critical to meeting the needs of prospective clients and keeping them on your lawyer website.
  • Design. Effective lawyer website design complements SEO and promotes the prospective client’s goal-driven search. Remember, you are branding your name and marketing your practice — not advertising. Animation, flashing text, pop-ups, and banners give the appearance of a gaming business, and not a lawyer website. Make your professionalism stand out through tasteful lawyer website design and legal content.
  • Color. Changing the color of visited links guarantees ease-of-navigation for prospective clients visiting your lawyer website. This allows them to exclude pages already visited, and to proceed to pages that spoke to a particular issue or otherwise piqued their interest. Links are generally tied to SEO. For example, links labeled “personal injury” and “product liability” are likely to contain cross-over information; yet, each topic has its own link allowing the prospective client to discern the difference. The changing color link also helps visitors easily identify and recall pages on your lawyer website that were helpful.
  • Format. Your legal content needs to be “scannable” meaning you are writing for an online audience, as opposed to a print media. Prospective clients are drawn to the use of short paragraphs, simple writing style, highlighted keywords, bulleted lists, and subheads. The idea is to draw the visitor’s eye to your page using understated, yet highly-effective formatting.

The SEO experts

At Lawyer Success, Inc., optimizing your lawyer website for great search engine rankings is our biggest goal. We provide that critical keyword research, and guarantee the results. Our consultants are happy to show you how to stay competitive and increase your client-base through no-obligation strategies. Our lawyer website design and 24/7 client-support saves you both time and money! Ask about our Free, No Risk lawyer website design when you call.

Call For Free Advice & Guidance From Experts, Not Sales People! Call 1 (800) 877-2776 Today.

Blogging Makes for A Well-Linked Lawyer

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

The benefits of blogging just may be the best kept secret on the Internet. When added to a lawyer website, blogs naturally attract both prospective clients and search engine traffic. Blogs are set-up to link every page back to other main pages on your lawyer website and are, therefore, exceptionally well-linked!

If you’re writing your own blog, here’s a couple of tips to get started:

  • Brainstorm. Identify legal content to use in your blog. The topic should be relevant to your practice areas and prospective client you wish to attract. The object is to hold their attention long enough to read your blog, and to encourage them to further explore your lawyer website.  Get to the point of your blog post quickly – like a couple of seconds into the visit – and interesting enough to compel them read further or leave a comment.
  • Think short and scannable. Follow the same formatting guidelines used on your lawyer website (e.g., short paragraphs, simple writing style, highlighted keywords, bulleted lists, and subheads). You want to grab the attention of a prospective client, causing them to at-least scan the document, but preferably read it. The typical web-surfer scans a page, then spends mere seconds deciding whether to read-on or leave and click into the next website. Scannability and visual appeal are blogging musts!

Regardless of what your high school English teacher told your, one or two sentence paragraphs are a good thing when it comes to writing legal content for blogs. Keeping paragraphs short makes blog posts easier to scan and read. Long paragraphs become scannable when legal content is broken into bulleted or numbered lists. Bold headlines are excellent attention-getters, but overuse makes your blog post appear cluttered and difficult to read.

Increasing the traffic to your lawyer website

Blog post titles are the first thing noticed by prospective clients upon arrival at your blog post. Intermingling SEO (search engine optimization) with your creative titles increases traffic to your lawyer website. This goes back to the algorithms used by Google to interpret the SEO and evaluate and determine search rankings on your lawyer website. Search engines, such as Google, weigh your blog post title heavier than the actual content; so, make the titling count!

Why Google and other search engines love blogs:

  • They are easy to spider
  • They offer fast upload times
  • They have RSS capabilities
  • They allow for commenting
  • They have constant fresh content that is relevant and resourceful

We match lawyer website design to blog posts

The skilled team at Lawyer Success, Inc. creates custom designed WordPress blogs from scratch, or we can incorporate the elements of your existing lawyer website design into your blog design. Coordinating the website and blog designs provides continuity that allows prospective clients to navigate between the two with clarity that comes from the same look and feel. Our consultants can save you both time and money with no-obligation strategies and  24/7-client-support for your lawyer website. Give us a call and ask about our No Risk, Free lawyer website design!

Call For Free Advice & Guidance From Experts, Not Sales People! Call 1 (800) 877-2776 Today.