Posts Tagged ‘Legal SEO’

Building Links for Your Legal Firm’s Website without Anchor Text

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Anchor text references the words which make up a link on your law firm’s website—for example if you have the sentence “If you have been in a car accident, call a personal injury attorney,” the words “personal injury attorney” are your anchor text which links back to your legal website and the name of your firm. Anchor text is used when you want your website to rank for a specific keyword, however it’s easy to go overboard with anchor text when optimizing your law firm’s website; too much and you will end up accomplishing the exact opposite of what you intended, as Google will penalize your site.  When you are clear on which keyword you want to target, and are getting links on your website with the desired keyword, that’s all well and good, but you must be careful about having too many links which look exactly the same. If 99% of the links which point to your law firm’s website pages are “personal injury attorney,” a red flag goes up to Google that these may not be “normal” links. Because people have exploited anchor text in the past, everyone must now be more careful about how they use it.

Build Your Legal Website’s Links for Branding and Alternative Keyword Phrases

Your goal is to build links to your business/brand name so the brand becomes much more authoritative in Google’s search results. This goes back to Google Instant results in that if someone only “sort of” remembers the name of your law firm and begins typing in hopeful letters in the search bar, you really want your name to pop up under Richardson Law Firm once the potential client has typed in “Ric.”  On the flip side, if your potential client is not really sure of what they are looking for, Google’s suggestions may send them off in a direction that is, unfortunately, not toward your law firm.  Make a list of the keywords your legal website uses, then start typing each one of them into Google’s search bar and see what suggestions come up. This little exercise may send you in another direction when you are considering anchor text. Other major search engines–such as Bing–offer keyword alternatives, so take advantage of that when considering alternative keywords and anchor text.

Why Anchor Text is Important

It is actually possible to achieve top ranking for extremely competitive keywords even though you may have not even a hint of on-page legal SEO elements.  Consider that Monster.com consistently sits in the number one spot when one types in “jobs” in the search bar but that the word “jobs” does not appear on the page in actual text form. By the same token, if you type in “computers” on the Google search bar, six of the top ten pages don’t even contain the word “computers” in the copy, meaning the search results are due solely to the anchor text of inbound links. Therefore it is impossible to say that anchor text is not important, but your firm needs to learn how to use it wisely when building links.

Using Anchor Text Wisely

Anchor text must be used judiciously when building your firm’s legal SEO as using the wrong words can take you even further away from the links you need. It is advisable to avoid using the anchor text “click here,” as the phrase is not specifically related to the content on your legal website—when the crawler examines the “click here” anchor text it may not see any relevant keyword even if that particular link points to a relevant part of your legal website. When considering legal SEO and your law firm’s web design, you should try to use as many keywords as possible from the list you developed during the planning process. Then determine what anchor text is absolutely essential to your firm’s site, and use only the most critically important.

The Importance of Online Marketing for Your Legal Website

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011

Having a great legal website design and fabulous legal SEO can allow your law firm to become much more focused—and the more focused your firm becomes, the more quickly they will be recognized as a specific niche area expert. Once that happens, you will find that other attorneys will begin referring cases to you which are applicable to your specialty, and soon you will find that while other attorneys may be forced to take any case which walks in the door, you will be attracting your ideal client. While television ads go out to all those watching television, the Internet can be a much more specific magnet which attracts only those clients who are looking for a specific attorney to deal with their specific problem. It is this specificity which makes online marketing essential for legal firms, and gives law office websites tremendous marketing power.

Free Advice concerning Legal SEO and online marketing.  Speak with an expert not a sales representative and get REAL ANSWERS to your questions. Call (769) 218-6099 for free tips and ideas on online marketing for law firms.

You may have seen solo practitioners who list every known practice area on their website—a strategy which is almost guaranteed to be unsuccessful. This is typically known as the “shotgun” approach, and while the jack of all trades attorney may feel he is attracting more clients by specializing in everything but the kitchen sink, the reality is that potential clients may feel there is no focus to the practice, and quickly click to an attorney website which does offer focus. The second reason these types of attorney websites are often unsuccessful is due to the fact that there is not enough information on any one subject, meaning nothing shows up in the search engines.

The Ideal Client

The ultimate goal of your online marketing strategy is to attract your ideal client, not just any client. If your staff is constantly answering phone calls from clients who either do not have particularly attractive cases or cannot afford your services, then your online advertising budget is being wasted. Internet marketing can give you the capability to specifically focus with precision and accuracy—if you use it wisely. Your ideal client is interested in seeing a focused attorney who successfully represents clients with the same specific problem they are currently experiencing.

The potential client who turns to the Internet to research attorneys can now put in very precise search terms to find the most experienced attorney in a particular practice area. Your ideal client has likely screened several attorneys from the comfort of their home before they ever pick up the phone to make an actual call. Should your client want to pursue a personal injury claim following a bus accident, they will likely type in “Bus Accident Attorney in Albuquerque,” to find a local attorney devoted to their issue. By the same token, the client who has recently been charged with a DUI or DWI is looking for an attorney who focuses exclusively on drunk driving defenses; if the client’s case involves a breath test reading then he or she will want an attorney who has demonstrated the best strategy and has the most experience in fighting the Breathalyzer used in their jurisdiction.  It is also much more likely that the client who is putting in such specific search terms are also willing—and able—to pay for your services.

Marketing Your Legal Firm from an SEO Perspective

Search engines are uniquely designed to find a particular page on a website which most thoroughly answers the consumer’s questions. Therefore, the more helpful—not to mention detailed—your firm’s website is, the more likely you will other sites linking to your pages, and the greater chance you stand of being known as an authority on a specific topic. The more websites which link to your pages, the more likely your pages will show up in the search engines. If you want to optimize your law firm’s website, you must have a great amount of unique content on one specific practice area as well as more interior pages which deal with the many issues related to that practice area.

Of course you need to make sure you have a well-designed website with an easy-to-use navigation system, as well as a content management system which allows your attorneys to visit the site frequently, adding and editing content as necessary. The quality of your online content is extremely important, as are the links to other interior pages on the website relating to a particular issue. Your local telephone number and address need to be easy to find, and, ideally, on every page of your site.  More and more important are the number of links from social media websites, as well as the outbound links to other websites which deal with the specific issue. In any case, tailoring your website for your ideal client, while being extremely aware of SEO, can make the difference between run-of-the mill clients vs. your ideal client.

Free Advice concerning Legal SEO and online marketing.  Call (769) 218-6099 for free advice and tips.  Speak with an expert not a sales representative and get REAL ANSWERS to your questions.

SEO and Social Media Marketing – What Your Law Firm Needs to Know

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

As you are probably already aware, law firm marketing has made a concerted shift toward online avenues in the past few years, the result being that the cost of online advertising has skyrocketed. The simple rules of supply and demand, plus the greatly increased cost have pushed many smaller law firms completely out of the market, while the larger law firms may be vastly overpaying for their own online marketing. Considering that some law firms who were spending as much as $5 per click for Pay-Per-Click ads just to claw their way to the top spot on Google, are now paying an astonishing $15 (and more) per click. If you do the math, and figure that the average online conversion rate is a paltry 1-2%, and that a firm such as the one described above could conceivably receive anywhere from 300-1000 clicks per day ($4,500 per day, $135,000 per month) then you get a good idea of the enormous amounts of money currently being spent on legal online advertising. The same law firms which are spending these big bucks for PPC ads, are likely also paying large amounts to advertise in legal online directories, which have been found to be semi-effective at best.

Set Yourself Apart From the Crowd with Great Legal SEO

So, what’s a legal firm to do, you may ask? If dedicating massive amounts of financial resources to get your firm noticed online is not the way to go, then just what should you be doing? The ultimate goal–and one you should never, ever forget when designing your online presence–is to set yourself apart from the crowd. Get yourself noticed, not because you spent the most money for online advertising, but because you are an amazing, cutting edge law firm who rightfully should be noticed. In order to be noticed for all the right reasons, your first line of business should probably be to completely re-evaluate your marketing campaign, putting many more eggs in your social media marketing and SEO baskets than before. Once you are firmly established as a legal firm who generates useful, high quality content for its potential clients, posting it on a blog and sharing with the social world gives you a personal connection to your visitors, inspiring them to contact your firm rather than your competitor’s when they need help. In order to ensure you get the very most from your online marketing campaign, you must, of course, utilize SEO in every conceivable way. Proper SEO will get your legal website, articles, blog, right up to the top of the search engines, increasing visibility and exposure, thus conversion and, finally, revenue.

The Cost of Social Media and Law Firm SEO

If you haven’t already figured it out, the cost of social media marketing and search engine optimization are a mere fraction of what Pay-Per-Click, television commercials, online legal directories or print ads will cost you. As a large law firm you could easily be paying $100,000 per month on this type of conventional advertising, while a social media and law firm SEO retainer can cost you from ten to fifteen thousand per month—and achieve exactly the same results. Once your website and online content has built up its rankings, the marketing budget can be cut even further.

Does Social Media Marketing Really Work?

If you are skeptical about the power of social media marketing, remember that social media gives us the opportunity to be a part of a community which allows us, if we listen closely, to learn things regarding our market we may not already know. In the quest to establish your authority and promote your legal brand, you can make valuable contributions to the social conversations, quickly becoming recognized as an authority on your particular specialization. When you are seen in many places on the internet, there is a greater likelihood people will follow links back to your website where they can learn more about your particular expertise.

Social media has completely changed the legal marketing game, making your law firm more accessible to your clients and potential clients as well as allowing you to successfully engage the community regarding particular areas of law. Remember that even though your time is limited by your caseload, social media gives you the kind of virtual presence that is literally 24/7. Many law firms hesitate to jump into the social media waters due to privacy concerns, however you should carefully balance these concerns with the incredible benefits you can reap from an active social media online presence.

FREE ADVICE – Call (769) 218-6099 to speak to experienced law firm SEO and Social media expert marketers, not sales people. Call today!