The parallel question—and equally important one in response to the above title is—“How can I improve my web site’s ranking in search engines?” The number one fact you should keep in mind when considering how to increase traffic to your website—which first requires a high ranking in the search engines—is that study after study has proven that web users almost never look past the first three pages of results when looking for a relevant site. Therefore, if your website is not within the top 30 results, chances are good you will languish in cyberspace.
First, you need to improve your website’s rankings; once you get the click onto your website, it is imperative that you grab them and hold on tight! The very basics to improving the search engine ranking of your law firm’s website include:
- Register your website. While this may appear to be a no-brainer, if you want to capitalize on your firm’s popularity, you need to be registered with the top search engines along with as many other high quality websites as possible. You can accomplish this by submission to the free search engines such as Google, submission to the paid search engines such as Yahoo!, Ask Jeeves, etc., registration at legal sites such as Findlaw.com. Law.com, Martindale.com, and by exchanging reciprocal links with professional organizations.
- Reciprocal Links. The best way, according to Google, to ensure a top listing for your legal website is for it to be linked to other, high-quality websites. This is known as “link popularity,” and is critical to the success of your website. Because Google’s automated search robots jump from page to page via hyperlinks, the more sites that link to your firm—or vice-versa—the more likely Google will list your website. It is important for you to contact other legal websites and ask for reciprocal links.
- Relevant content. It cannot be stated often enough that having relevant content on your law firm’s website is critical to your success. The majority of your potential clients have no idea what your law firm’s name is. Therefore, they do not type in “Richardson and Richardson Law Firm,” but rather search by either asking a question—“How do I find a divorce attorney in Austin, Texas?” or they type in a string of words such as “worker’s comp in New Mexico.” For your law firm’s website to respond to search questions like this, you must offer authoritative information on your practice via articles, newsletters, bulletin alerts, links, statistics, etc.
While there are many more ways to increase your search engine rankings, these are the basics of law firm website SEO. So, once you have made it to the top in the major search engine rankings, and potential clients are clicking on your law firm’s website right and left, how do you ensure they stay on your website and don’t move on to the next law firm?
A great legal website will first be visually appealing, using a combination of appropriate color choices, smart page layouts, visually intriguing graphic designs and carefully chosen image selections. When all of these components are taken together–while your visitor may not know why he or she wants to continue clicking on your website’s links, ultimately leading to a phone call to your office– your initial visual presentation keeps your visitor firmly on your website.
Following the ever-important visual presentation, keep the following tips in mind when thinking of how to keep your clients on your page:
- Make sure your content is the highest quality, most informative, interesting, factual content around. Professional legal web writers could be essential to the success of your web content, which can include articles, newsletters, blogs, etc.
- Make sure your firm’s telephone number is displayed prominently on each page of your website, and offer an e-mail form on each and every page. While you will have certain customers who will pick up the phone, others will prefer to send an e-mail, so cater to both.
- Offer a free e-newsletter, which will build your list of engaged readers and market your firm. Be sure you follow up by e-mailing out a newsletter at least once per month to keep your firm in the forefront of your potential client’s minds.
- Consider attorney biographies on your website. It has been proven that this is one of the most popular sites of a legal firm’s website. People feel a more personal connection with your firm when they can actually see the faces, and have some relevant information about your individual attorneys.
Increasing website traffic to your legal firm’s website is a constant and ongoing process, not one that you can do and forget about, however the payoffs can be a huge increase in your ideal client base. Call Lawyer Success, Inc. for a free website traffic coaching call by calling (769) 218-6099.
