Archive for the ‘Law Firm Internet Marketing’ Category

Creating Learner-Friendly Content

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

If you know why you are writing each piece of content you publish, then it is likely that your writing reflects that passion. Whether you are writing for yourself about issues which center around your work, your hobbies, your family or your feelings, or you are writing for a paycheck, you must always write for a reason. People across the globe are literally fascinated by details; if you can write in a way that shows why the subject matters to you, it is likely it will also matter to your readers. Many websites are not learner-friendly; they may have a lovely design, be very accessible, have usable interfaces yet can lack the learner’s goals or needs. This is assuming that the writer is even aware of what the learner’s needs are.

If you take a look at the entire industry of the web, you will see that as writers we may not have worked hard enough to create content-rich websites which allow exploration and learning. In other words, even though we all know the importance of keywords, compelling headlines and short, snappy sentences and paragraphs, this is not enough. Our readers are also learners who want an interactive, discoverable environment. Does your writing provide that environment, or is this an area of your content which might benefit from a little tweaking? First, take a look at your narrative then build on that for learner-friendly content.

How Storytelling Benefits Your Content

Narrative—also known as storytelling—is crucial to learning. A huge portion of the communication we as humans have with one another revolves around telling a story. We use this technique to provide information as well as to make an emotional connection. We use storytelling to align what we know about our world with what our readers know. When people enter into an exchange of a story, trust is built as readers work their own narrative into the content you’ve provided. Storytelling allows readers to easily move from one portion of your content to another, and helps bits and pieces of information turn into actual knowledge.

Interact With Your Readers

Once your narrative has created a bond with your readers, the next step is to interact with your reader in a way that changes them or prompts them to act. Learners jump into content-rich sites in the hopes of being changed in some way. They hope that what they find in your words will change their outlook on a specific subject, shift their view of the world, or give them something they did not have prior to reading your content. Learners need context in their reading to allow them to integrate what they already know with what they are now reading. The greater amount of context you provide, the more your readers will learn from your content.

How Your Readers Will Discover When Reading Your Content

As you are probably aware, different people learn in different ways. While some learners require exceptionally organized blocks of information others will take a more random path of exploration and investigation. Some readers will want to satisfy their curiosity rather than following a prescribed path, and discoverability which is built into your content can allow them to do just that. In short, content which is discoverable allows readers to choose their own path, build their own adventure. Sites such as Wikipedia are highly discoverable in that readers can move from one block of content to another as their interests take them. Ideally, every piece of web content will be a piece of the huge puzzle which, together, creates a rich landscape of exploration for all readers. So long as writers write for a reason and know why they write, learner-friendly content will be the result.

Cutting the Fluff on Web Text

Tuesday, April 17th, 2012

Since web content should ideally be about 50% of the length of the printed word it is imperative that web writers learn to ruthlessly cut any extraneous copy from their web content. Most writers learned to write using a particular “formula” which included an introductory or lead-in paragraph. Web readers tend to completely skip the intro paragraph, skimming the page for more actionable content including features of a specific product, a bulleted list, or hypertext links. This means that should you use an introductory paragraph in your web content it must be short, snappy and get directly to the point by quickly explaining the purpose of the rest of the page. In other words, an introductory paragraph on a web page is never the place to add filler or platitudes.

Why Write an Intro at All?

Despite the fact that web readers tend to skip introductory paragraphs, they nonetheless have a valid role when writing compelling web content. Intro text can give the web reader a quick answer to the question of: “What’s this page all about?” It can also offer a context for the content which follows, but must set the stage quickly and in a no-nonsense fashion. Let your web reader know exactly what they will gain by reading the remainder of the page and do so compellingly or your web reader will be gone in the click of a finger. Even if your web reader initially skips the introductory paragraph, if it does not look long or intimidating, they may return later to gain a bit more insight into the subject. Make sure your introductory paragraph answers “what” the reader will find on the page and “why” they should care, and you will have a successful web intro.

Get to the Point and Solve the Problem

The primary reason a web reader is reading a particular site is to get specific information. The web reader wants their problem or issue solved as quickly as possible so they can leave the site and get on with their life. Most web readers are either looking to purchase a specific item, or have a question or concern they want answered immediately. The dog has swallowed a popsicle stick—what should I do? What type of resume’ grabs an employer’s attention? What will the weather be like tomorrow? What entertainment is available in Austin, Texas? These and hundreds of thousands of other questions need answering, and those answers must come in the most expeditious manner possible.

What Makes a Good Web Page?

Good web writing sticks to the facts, is simple to read and understand, and offers the web reader relevant information. Short sentences and relatively simple words are critical since the average reading level for American web readers is between sixth and eighth grade. Don’t use more than one idea per paragraph, and do your best to summarize the paragraph in the first sentence. Keep paragraphs around 5-7 lines long—once you think you are done, re-read and omit all the unnecessary words. Meaningful and informative sub-headings help the reader scan as they separate groups of information. Bulleted lists are great for offering specific facts in a concise form, but don’t overdo.

Keeping Your Web Reader’s Attention

Never assume your reader has read the preceding pages such as a print reader would do. Web users can enter a page from a variety of points therefore each block of text must stand on its own. Remember, if you are unable to hold your reader’s attention from paragraph to paragraph, other tempting distractions are simply a click away. Placing a compelling image on your page may coax some readers to stay and read however you must ensure the image doesn’t completely distract from the text. Asking questions is a good way to keep your web reader’s attention focused, especially if that question is germane to their own life and the answer could make their life easier or better in some way. Humans are curious animals, and when a question is asked we want to know the answer. It is imperative that you use concise details and snappy narrative if you want your reader to read your page from start to finish, so do away with the fluff and alter your concept of the “proper” way to write good copy.

Top Ways to Get More People to Read Your Website Articles

Wednesday, March 28th, 2012

Great copy is, arguably, the primary way for your website to move straight up the ranks and land in the spot of honor. How do you produce the type of article which everyone wants to read, while filling it with the best search engine optimization? Such a balance can be difficult, but not impossible, and the rewards are well worth the effort. Once you’ve designed your website for detail and visual appeal as well as ease of use, the next critical step is filling it with highly targeted, extremely interesting, superior quality copy on a consistent basis. Unfortunately, too many websites have a great design, but once a visitor begins reading, their interest goes out the window.

The Goal of Your Website Articles
The copy on your page must grab your readers and pull them, then once you’ve gained their undivided attention your article must inform, entertain, educate, offer a solution to a specific problem, and convince your visitor to purchase your product or service. Pretty tall order, right? Well, take a deep breath and get ready to learn how to deliver consistently high-quality articles to your readers time and time again.

Get to Know Your Audience
You should know your audience the same way you know your best friend, meaning you must be aware of their likes and dislikes, must know what they want when they come to your site and must know the best delivery system to capture their attention. Who is your target audience? What does that audience typically read, and what do you have to offer them that nobody else can do quite as well?

You want to make your visitors feel good in the same way you would want to make your best friend feel good. Care about your readers, and take the time necessary to present crisp, interesting articles which simply flow from one sentence to another. Remember—although you want to entice your readers to take advantage of what your website is offering you don’t want to bombard them with high-pressure sales.

Make Your Website Usable
If you’ve done your research you are well aware that people read web pages in an entirely different manner than they read a book. We tend to scan web pages, hitting the highlights and looking at the paragraph headers to determine whether or not we want to continue reading. Highlighted words are a good way to draw the eye, but avoid overuse. Hypertext links are one form of highlighting, while changing typeface and color are others.

Your sub-headings should be meaningful, and give your reader a good idea what they have to look forward to. Bulleted lists are a good way to get your reader’s attention, and one writing style you might try is the inverted pyramid style in which you start your article with the conclusion. Keep your articles about half the length of the normal written page in order to hold their attention until the very end.

Know Why You Write
This may seem pretty obvious, but many times articles are written simply to throw out some necessary keywords or stay with the goal of three articles per week, or something similar. If you write passionately about a subject you feel strongly about, it will shine through in your finished article. Give your readers the details, and show them why those details matter. If you really don’t care about your subject, it will shine through, and if you are bored your readers will be bored as well. Write honestly, and be willing to bare your soul when it matters.

It’s all in the Details
When you begin writing, let your beginning paragraph concisely declare what your piece is about, then organize what follows through the use of an outline. Your high school English teacher taught you about outlines for a reason—they work! Keep your reader relaxed as you expand on your subject, and explain your arguments in relatively short paragraphs. Offer concrete examples and personal experiences to back up each of your points.

People love to hear how others faced a problem and solved it successfully. Highlight the advantages of your product or services, but don’t overdo it. Give your readers plenty of resource information by telling them where they can get more information on the subject you are talking about. Finally, step away from your article for a bit, then come back, re-read, and proof one more time. Mistakes can make you look unprofessional, and alienate your readers.

Promoting Your Site through Article Marketing

Monday, March 12th, 2012

While article marketing is not particularly complex, it does require two things—patience and persistence. The impact of a single article may never be particularly huge—although there are exceptions to this rule—therefore it’s the sheer quantity of quality articles you get out there along with the backlinks you receive back to your site. It’s important to look at the overall process of writing articles on a regular basis as a major campaign to slowly but surely bring in huge amounts of web traffic. Article marketing is an SEO strategy which has been around for years, but has remained a solid, trusted manner to drive traffic to your site and generate highly relevant one way links.

What Makes Up a Great Article?

Every article you write must be highly keyword-focused as well as being highly readable. If your reader is not convinced they should read through the article to the end, they will be unlikely to reach the resource box with your link. Before you begin writing, have a clearly defined goal for what you intend to accomplish. Think seriously about the image and brand you are building, and develop a message which revolves around your stated goals.

Make a comprehensive outline of your proposed article, making sure there is a clearly delineated beginning, middle and end. When you are outlining your article, think about what you want to leave your reader with, as well as the idea of leaving them anxious to read more or your articles, ensuring they will follow your link back to your site. Generally speaking, choose one particular keyword to focus on in each article, and use this keyword or keyword phrase in your article’s title, in the first paragraph once or twice and in the link text in your resource box.

What Does Article Marketing Accomplish?

When you are engaging in article marketing you are promoting yourself as a respected expert who can provide serious and innovative solutions and insights for problems which real people experience and need help with. When those same articles are also highly keyword focused your site’s link popularity can literally soar. When you use article marketing to generate revenue and increase traffic, more and more people will see your articles leading more clicks to your site.

Developing Contextual Links within Your Article

Embedded links within the articles you have targeted for article marketing gives them much more cache’ with the search engines while also establishing a good fan base for your site and your articles. In fact, you can create a huge group of people who adore your writing simply by promoting those articles which have many resources to offer to the reader. People who truly love your writing will begin to post your link on social media and bookmarking sites. Contextual links are, literally, links from your content. You gain back links by using targeted keywords, related hyperlinks or anchor text. Contextual linking requires high quality links and high quality content.

Some tips to help you develop good contextual links include taking care to check the page rank of any blog or site prior to accepting a link, and being cautious on the specific keyword phrases you choose. Getting a link from a top ranked page can greatly help your site, and developing strong contextual link building strategies through bookmarking and social media sites is also beneficial.

Article marketing can do more for your website than virtually any other single SEO technique, so it’s important to learn the specific techniques and incorporate them into your overall plan.

Elements to Consider When Using Anchor Text

Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

There are a variety of factors you should consider when using anchor text within your website. First of all, for those unfamiliar with the term, anchor text is any text on your page which is visibly hyperlinked—it is colored, usually blue, and when you click on it, it takes you to another page or another site. Normally, anchor text is used to indicate the subject matter of the page it is linking to. In other words, if my website sold solar panels, then if I have a hyperlink within one of my articles of “Austin solar installation,” this link would presumably take the user to a solar installer within the Austin area. There are many consideration when you are adding anchor text to your content, so here are a few of them:

  • Include your company name within your anchor text as you manually build links. You can use the company name with and without spaces. Regarding a press release for your company, you would probably have your company name as anchor text, and that anchor text would take the user to your website’s homepage. In the same vein, you can use your URL as anchor text, using variations such as http://www.thesolarinstallers.com or simply www.thesolarinstallers.com or even just the name: The Solar Installers in a hyperlink which takes the user directly to the website.
  • Use keywords judiciously in your anchor text in order to greatly enhance the relevance of the target page. Although the page which contains the anchor text is also enhanced to some degree, the target page is even more so. This knowledge can help you build relevance into each and every page of your website through the use of highly optimized anchor text which not only contains your most relevant keywords, but is also theme relevant to your other pages.
  • Search engines love anchor text, plain and simple. Because of this, incorporating your highly targeted keywords into your anchor text can make a huge difference in how your site ranks with Google as well as other search engines. Google in particular has a gadget which picks up text only from within the anchor text of indexed pages, making it clear how much weight they assign to such text. In its recent algorithm changes, Google actually added even more weight to anchor text, meaning that if you add highly targeted anchor text, you could see your ranking substantially increase.
  • Although it may sound technical, it is actually fairly easy to find good places to insert anchor text throughout your website. A caveat, however, when you are linking to your own internal pages, it works better if you hyperlink relevant keywords rather than unrelated words. In other words, it’s not a good idea to hyperlink, say, the word “here,” as in “For more information regarding solar installation, click here.” Although the hyperlink will take you to the same place as the targeted keywords would have, using such unrelated text will only hurt you as the spiders search your site. Always use your best keywords when working on anchor text.
  • While your goal is to use your most highly targeted and important keywords in your anchor text, you don’t want it to sound stilted or unnatural. Insert your keyword phrases in ways that sounds as though they were written in from the beginning. If they sound very natural, you will not have destroyed the reading experience of your website’s users. And let’s face it, although getting users to your site is important, keeping them is even more so.

Make sure you have used your keywords in your title and paragraph headings, as well as sprinkling them naturally throughout your content, concentrating the bulk of them above the fold. Anchor text can offer your site a huge boost, you just need to learn how to use them correctly.

Social Media + Search Engine Marketing = a Successful Law Firm Marketing Plan

Sunday, December 5th, 2010

Most legal firms are well aware that social media has made dramatic changes to old-school marketing techniques; in the past you may have felt like your marketing efforts boiled down to your lone voice shouting out to an ever-increasingly distracted crowd, attempting to entice them to your firm. While there are some similarities between old-school marketing and the newer social media marketing, social media marketing takes away your lone little voice, replacing it with people who are telling others about your firm; they’ve been there, done that, loved it and want to pass along the news. Social media marketing, can take your law firm to heights you never even imagined in the grand marketing scheme.

Plan for Success

To make sure your social media search marketing efforts are highly successful, you must begin with an overall plan. Ask yourself who your audience is, and what your primary objectives for your marketing campaign are. Once you determine you audience and objectives, think long and hard about what strategy you will use to achieve your objectives, and what tactics will make your strategy a rousing success. Never forget that the goal of social media marketing is to influence potential clients to use your legal firm, therefore your goals should include increasing the number of connections, comments and re-postings.

Give to Get

Social Media Marketing requires that you encourage people to your site and your services rather than browbeating them to purchase. Offering free reports which give great, useful information is a great motivator as is constantly updating your website with information your potential clients will absolutely want to read and changing your blog frequently using the same criteria. Remember that simply taking your “regular” marketing or advertising campaign and putting it into Facebook will likely backfire, even possibly getting you banned should your messages be too overtly commercialized.

Always Be Upfront and Honest…But Realize You Can Never Absolutely Control the Message

You always want to strive to create honest yet professional social media to ensure that you don’t alienate the very people you are attempting to establish relationships with. In turn, your satisfied readers will tell others about your social media leading to excellent, yet responsible marketing strategies. Never lie or come across as fake; some examples of this include starting fake blogs which are populated only by employees. This type of practice can permanently harm your legal firm’s vital reputation.  In old-school advertising you were totally in charge and could control the message completely. In our new social media marketing world, however once something hits the Web, people are free to adapt, change and interpret as they see fit—making honesty on your part even more important. Even though you need to protect your brand to the extent possible, you must know that controlling information on the Web can be next to impossible.

SEO….Yes, Again!

You may have the hottest legal website around, have a legal blog that is truly unparalleled, or sending out the greatest Tweets imaginable, if no one knows you exist, none of these things will matter at all. Search engine optimization is key to your success, and you must give it the seriousness it deserves. Remember that three out of four adults in the United States use the Internet for legal advice and information—only six years ago that was hardly the case. Today’s Internet is the biggest source of legal information in the United States, leading the number of people who currently ask friends and family for legal advice in a decline of over 35%. Think about it—why ask anyone else for advice, when Google is only a few keystrokes away? This means that the challenge of having your website and blog found, easily and consistently is an incredibly important one, and legal SEO is, at the end of the day, what makes it happen.

Don’t Forget….

You should encourage participation and feedback from your clients; if a client posts something about your legal firm on Twitter or on your website, do your best to get back to them with a response, letting your clients know you really are listening. This fairly simple exercise in paying attention can build your client relationships in incredible ways. Although you must post on a regular basis, don’t over-post. If you truly have nothing new and valuable to share with potential clients, then don’t share at all as it could cost you followers and fans in the long run.

FREE ADVICE offered by experienced law firm Internet marketing experts – not sales people. Call (769) 218-6099 for free advice today!

Free Advertisement Sites for Lawyer | Free Advertising Websites for Lawyers

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Lawyer Success, Inc. has and continues to compile a list of paid and free advertisement sites for lawyer clients. The sites are typically found in prominent positions on the search engines organic search results pages and provide an excellent opportunity to generate leads for your law firm.

Below are a few selected from our database of free advertising websites for lawyers. Lawyer Success, Inc for a nominal monthly fee will place you in numerous free and paid legal websites, attorney directories and other results oriented legal lead generation websites. Call (769) 218-6099 to get started. The fee starts at only $49.95 per month.

1. LawFirmArticles.com – Ranked #2 out of 44,000,000 web pages, LawFirmArticles.com enables your firm to submit articles by geography and practice area. The articles are picked up by search engines and rank extremely well on the search engine results pages bolstering your web presence. You may also link to your website to gain link popularity from a credible and well indexed legal site. The articles stay on the web as long as you wish and the service free.

Visit http://www.lawfirmarticles.com and sign up today.

2. Dmoz.org – DMOZ.org is a very important directory that feeds many search engines and websites directories. Google actually owns the directory and placement is absolutely free. This is perhaps one of the most important directories for your law firm’s website and it is free.

Visit http://www.dmoz.org for more information

3. Avvo is revolutionizing lawyer marketing with free solutions that will get you more business. Your basic profile is already here, all you have to do is “claim” it. Then use all of our free marketing tools to further distinguish yourself from competitors in the eyes of prospective clients.

Visit http://www.avvo.com/free-lawyer-advertising

Again, Lawyer Success, Inc. has an extensive list of paid and free advertisement sites for lawyer clients. These sites have been tested and tried to ensure their effectiveness. We are helping law firms generate tremendous online legal lead generation results for pennies on the dollar.

Lawyer Success, Inc for a nominal monthly fee will place you in numerous free and paid legal websites, attorney directories and other results oriented legal lead generation websites. Call (769) 218-6099 to get started. The fee starts at only $49.95 per month.

Free Lawyer Advertising | Free Legal Advertising | Free Attorney Advertising

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

Lawyer Success, Inc launched a new free lawyer advertising website a few months ago and it is already having an immediate impact financially for the attorneys that have been submitting law firm articles to the website. The website is called Law Firm Articles (www.lawfirmarticles.com) and it is one of the top ranked law firm article websites on the web.

The benefits are amazing for the small law firm looking for free attorney advertising. The following are just a few of the benefits of writing quality articles and placing them on LawFirmArticles.com.

  1. It is free.
  2. Only attorneys are allowed to post articles.
  3. You are allowed to link to your website.
  4. You are allowed to add you contact information for potential clients to contact you.
  5. There is no advertising or siphoning of leads from your articles.
  6. Every article is reviewed and activated within an hour of submission.
  7. 1 articles generates on average 75 page views per month.
  8. The articles you submit stay on the site as long as you want.
  9. The articles increase your credibility.
  10. The articles show up on page 1 in Google increasing your exposure!
  11. and many more positive benefits. Besides its free.

We recommend writing quality articles about the specific legal issues you resolve for legal consumer. Also, it is always a good idea to explain your fee structure to better pre-qualify your leads unless you are flexible.  So if you are interested in free legal advertising for your law firm, visit LawFirmArticles.com for the very best in article marketing for lawyers.