On driving traffic to law firm websites: “High quality content and search engine placement go hand in hand. Once a website is established with relevant, high quality content, good rankings start taking place and online traffic increases. We assist law firms with natural link-building from relative sources where users are seeking information on the topic. We also utilize press releases that are distributed throughout the United States.” – Consultwebs Vice President Magnus Simonarson

On the importance of using key links in content development: “Links must be quality and relevant. Anchor text is made up of words linked to websites or pages with deeper information. Search engines will also look to see what is relevant to the firm you are linking to.  It is also telling the search engine how the phrase is applicable and generates search engine visibility for that phrase. Don’t overdo it though. Four or five links per page is enough. The idea is to provide resources for readers and bring value to those sources as well.” – Consultwebs Marketing Director Tanner Jones

On how excellent content adds value to attorney websites: “Our goal is to provide content that converts website visitors to law firm clients, so the content we provide has to help our clients’ websites rank high in search engines, so web users will find them. The content has to capture the users’ attention and interest so they stay on the site and learn more about the firm.  Content is just one piece of the puzzle though. Everything we do is closely coordinated with our designers, programmers, project managers and other team members. It all has to fit together to work.” – Consultwebs Content Editor Guy Loranger, Esq.

On solving law firm content needs: “We can provide short-term and long-term solutions. Here’s an example: We have a client that focuses on product liability litigation. News breaks that a prescription drug, medical device, or other product has been recalled because of reports of injuries.  In the short-term, we can help the client by immediately providing a blog post or press release. In the long-term, we can develop content for Web pages and entire satellite sites that are focused on this product, and we can work with our search engine optimization team on planning and executing a Web strategy that can go on for several months or even years.” – Consultwebs Content Manager Mike Dayton, Esq.

On Consultwebs.com’s commitment to providing quality content for law firm websites: “Several years ago, I felt that content would be critical to search engine ranking success and to converting Website visitors to clients.  I recognized that lawyers do not have time to develop quality content on an ongoing basis.  We made the commitment to find experienced, licensed attorney writers to manage our content department.  We had the good fortune to obtain Mike Dayton, JD, the editor of Lawyers Weekly North Carolina and Lawyers Weekly South Carolina for twenty years.  We also obtained Guy Loranger, JD, a Lawyers Weekly writer.  Mike and Guy manage our attorney writers and journalists and work with them to turn out superb content for our clients.” – Consultwebs CEO and President Dale Tincher.

Now, 16 years later, in 2012, Gates was right on the money. 

Content has become king, and competition among content-rich websites is as fierce as competition among law firms. 

Consultwebs.com works with law firms looking to establish or improve their online presence through prominent web design, quality content and targeted search engine optimization. 

Developing excellent content containing the most commonly searched keywords, specific to a firm’s practice areas, can drive Web users to your site and convert them to clients, says Consultwebs.com marketing director Tanner Jones. 

“Several components make content excellent,” says Jones. “It must be compelling, geared to readers, easy to understand, and it must contain effective keywords.” 

Consultwebs CEO Dale Tincher agrees. 

“Content is the most important component of successful SEO,” he says. “If content is high quality, relevant and updated frequently, visitors will read it and search engines will factor the activity into their search engine rankings. 

“It is difficult for law firms to have and maintain the expertise and find the time to accomplish all of these criteria,” Tincher continues. “Our attorney writers develop content that delivers what the search engines seek.” 

 Vice president Magnus Simonarson adds one more concept to the mix: “sharable” content. 

“Sharable content is the idea of reaching out to the social media world, broadening the clients’ exposure on the Internet,” he says. 

Content must stay relevant to rank at the top of search engine results, says Consultwebs.com’s Content Manager Mike Dayton, who is also a licensed attorney. 

Search engine optimization strategy changes constantly, he says, and effective content providers must adapt to those changes. Stale content can set back a website’s search engine rankings. 

“One of the keys for our website content is making sure that it is fresh,” he says. “We follow a process that’s called ‘review, revise, and replace’ to make sure content doesn’t get stale.” 

Jones agrees. 

“You have to keep your website active,” he says. “It is smart to not only add pages, but to also keep the old pages updated, even if all you do is adjust keywords. When Google re-crawls that website, it will note that the page has been updated.” 

Simonarson adds: “SEO is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Google, Bing and other search engines frequently change their ranking algorithms, and this often affects rankings.” 

Focusing on high quality, relevant content that keeps the user interested and informed will enrich websites and keep them at the top of search engines. Linking to relevant websites is also a good way to lead users to more information, Tincher says.  Press releases can reach a wide audience, and social media is serving an important role, he says. 

Jones has advice for law firms who want a top ranked website. 

“Keep the site fresh and alive, and continue to modify and improve your content because that is what search engines look for,” he says.

My, how times have changed. Google+ has made serious inroads to Twitter and has picked up millions of new users – it was over 90 million at last count and has been forecasted to hit 400 million by year’s end. Google+ has released pages for brands and businesses, a potential game changer for law firms. And the very latest release, Google Search plus Your World, rewrites the rules for your law firm’s search results.

What does all this mean? It means your law firm needs to be on Google+ if you want to take advantage of the boost that this up and coming Social Media service can provide to your website’s rankings. We’d like to offer five reasons for signing on. Before we dive in, let’s get a little terminology out of the way:

• Google+ Profile. A Google+ Profile is an online Google+ page for an individual person. Each profile allows an individual to share photos, movies, biographical information, as well as items of interest in their life or from the web. You can read more about the individual elements of a profile from one of our Law Web Marketing posts, “Google Social Media, Your Law Firm Web Marketing Is About To Change.”
• Google+ (Brand) Page. A Google+ Page is very similar to a Google+ Profile with the exception that it is intended to be used by businesses or brands. There are some subtle differences like the fact that a Page needs to be added to one of another user’s circles before the Page can add that person to their circle. Otherwise many brands would just endeaver to add everyone on Google+.
• Google+ Direct Connect. Google+ Direct Connect is a mechanism created by Google to allow web surfers to directly connect with brands by typing the brand’s name preceded by the “+” sign into Google’s search page. For instance, “+Pepsi”. This will take you directly to Pepsi’s Google+ Brand Page.

Ok, onward to our main points. Following are the reasons we believe Google+ should be an integral part of your law firm marketing in 2012.

1. Sheer number of users. Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, predicts the number of Google+ users will skyrocket from 62 million in December 2011 to 400 million by the end of the year. Google recently announced its Social Media platform had over 90 million users, with 60% of those members using the service daily and 80% using it weekly (Edit: It has been pointed out that this metric is describing usage of all google services by users with Google+ accounts). With the increased number of users and the new possibilities for interaction (circles, hangouts, video), Google+ is an important online outlet you won’t want to overlook.
2. A Direct Connection to Your Law Firm. Fire up Google in your browser and type in “+Pepsi”.  If you are logged into Google, This takes you to the Pepsi Brand Page on Google+. What you’re seeing is the Direct Connect mechanism at work. That feature also gives you the option to automatically add pages you have searched for to your circles in the future. This is huge. If users opt in to this, then it means that anytime someone enters “+Your Firm’s Name Here” into the Google search bar, you are automatically added to their circle of people they follow if you have the Direct Connect functionality active. And that means that your posts will show up in their stream. Now, imagine your firm’s name is “Smith Law Firm” and another firm across the country is also named “Smith Law Firm” and they already have a popular Google Brand Page that users can find by simply typing in “+Smith Law Firm”. Because they beat you to the punch, visitors looking for your site will be taken across country to the other firm’s site. Admittedly, Direct Connect is not a widely used convention yet, but the fact remains that a firm’s name is one of the top keywords used to find a firm’s website. It won’t take most users long to figure out that they can just stick a “+” in front of the name they are searching for to save themselves a few clicks.
3. The Power of Referrals. In the book Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends are the Key to Influence on the Social Web, author Paul Adams states: “In independent studies … people were three to four times more likely to trust a friend or acquaintance than a blogger or expert for product purchase advice.” Google already connects people to brands via their search results and adwords products. Imagine you search for a plumber and find that your friend Bob, who hired a company a few months ago, had such outstanding service that he recommended (+1’d) their page and commented favorable on Google+. That referral or recommendation will skyrocket to the top of your Google results and you will see that Bob recommended this company. This is the power of the social Web, and this will mean great success for companies that truly care about their client’s and show it by the service they provide. If you provide great service to your law firm clients, don’t be shy about asking them to click the (+1) button for your page.
4. Cutting down on the Noise. Google+ is designed for the multi-faceted life. One of the biggest hindrances for companies using Facebook is the marketing “noise” – those items you don’t care about that enter your news stream. The problem with Facebook for most companies, including law firms, is that it is not very easy to compartmentalize the feeds you get. Everything is in one stream. With a Google+ page, law firms have some unique opportunities. They can break up their communications into separate group – for example, past clients, possible referral candidates, media contacts, employees, etc. That makes it possible to communicate with each in unique ways and as ethics rules allow, cutting down on that noise factor.
5. You are the Authority. The biggest reason to create a Google+ page: the ability to create authoritative content. If you have a personal Google+ profile tied to your blog posts, Google knows that information is from you and can weed out content scrapers and knock-off sites. Google can also get a metric for how popular you are through the number of people that have you in their circles, which is an indication that you have something relevant to say to them. In the end, that could boost your overall rankings. Similarly, having a Google+ business page linked to your website lets Google know that that is your page. The more circles you are in is another metric that Google can use to determine the popularity of your firm. Unlike Facebook, Google+ is tied to search. There is a possibility that Google could use this information in their page-ranking algorithm at some point. Early adopters to Google+ pages will have a lot easier time gaining followers than those late to the game since new users signing up will be looking for people or companies to fill their circles with. How quickly did your friend list grow on Facebook in the first few months, compared with the last few years?

Bottom line: we highly recommend Google+ Pages for all firms. In our opinion, it is crucial to your marketing efforts, and now is the time to get started.

Contact Our Law Firm Marketing Experts Today

Contact Consultwebs.com today for help setting up your Google+ page. If you would like to talk further with an experienced legal Internet marketing strategist, reach out to Consultwebs.com, Inc., today. Call us at (800) 872-6590 or e-mail us at marketing@consultwebs.com.

The site, which can be viewed at www.scottgottlieblaw.com, features a video library with personal injury attorney Scott C. Gottlieb discussing the benefits of working with his Binghamton law firm.

The personal injury site offers detailed information on injuries from New York car accidents, NY medical malpractice, New York construction accidents, Binghamton hunting and firearm accidents and ATV / boating accidents. Answers to personal injury FAQs and the latest New York personal injury legal news can also be found on the easy-to-navigate website.

Scott C. Gottlieb, Injury Law Attorney, serves residents of the New York communities of Broome County, Tioga County, Chenango County, Delaware County, Cortland County, Tompkins County, Binghamton, Vestal, Johnson City, Endicott and Endwell.

Consultwebs.com handled the site’s redesign. For more information, see the firm’s Binghamton personal injury website or contact Consultwebs.com.

Those charged with DUI can visit www.mi-dui-lawyers.com to understand their legal rights. The website offers detailed information on Federal and State DUI Laws, Michigan Drunk Driving Penalties, Repeat Offender Information and the Super Drunk Law.

The website also covers information on Michigan License Restoration Options, DUI Court Decisions, answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Michigan DUI and the DUI Legal Process.

Paul J. Tafelski, Michigan DUI Attorney, serves residents throughout Detroit, Troy, Rochester Hills, West Bloomfield, Bloomfield Hills, Royal Oak, Plymouth, Canton, Wayne County, Oakland County, Macomb County and the state of Michigan.

Consultwebs.com handled the site’s design and content. For more information, see the firm’s Michigan DUI website or contact Consultwebs.com.

We’ve outlined two considerations to weigh when deciding if a multiple website strategy will work for your law firm and your Internet marketing budget.

Focus the site.

Your law firm’s main website should be general in nature, using content to expand upon each of your firm’s practice areas. In contrast, a satellite website should be targeted. It should focus on a particular practice area that provides a strong source of revenue for your firm, or a practice area that has the potential to bring in a high number of strong inquiries.

For example, if you have experience at handling truck accident cases and wish to market that practice area more heavily, a satellite website is an excellent marketing tool to publicize your credentials, experience and results with regard to truck accident cases. This satellite site strategy would be focused on “home runs” – or, quality cases. A firm cannot expect daily inquiries from a site this focused, given the rarity of the accident itself. However, they can certainly expect a strong return on investment when they do sign a case from the site. See Munley, Munley & Cartwright’s truck accident website as an example.

If the firm preferred to market a particular practice area more aggressively, a focused satellite site would be the ideal strategy. Although your firm’s main website may be optimizing primarily for a certain area, a satellite site would further supplement those efforts and results.

Potential clients are comforted to see a law firm’s focus on their particular injury or situation. If you needed an eye doctor, would you feel comforted by a general practice doctor who claims to have experience in audiology, cardiology, dermatology, neurology, nephrology, pulmonology and, oh yeah, ophthalmology? Of course not; he would likely be perceived as a “jack of all trades and a master of none.” It’s the same way with your potential clients. A focused satellite website avoids sending mixed signals to your visitors. When they see your dedication to their area of legal need, trust is built and the fit is strengthened. For supporting information regarding conversion statistics for satellite sites, see the results of our recent survey of over 200,000 visitors.

Another strategy when using multiple sites is to focus on a specific geographic market area. If your main website does well at driving traffic and inquiries from the city where your main office is located, consider creating a city-specific site that targets outlying areas. Do you have satellite office locations? Focus the satellite sites around those market areas. Google and other search engines are committed to serving local results. Use that to your advantage and strengthen your presence in those areas through the use of a geographically-focused satellite website. You will want to use a local phone number for that site and tie it into your Google Places profile. Strengthening your local Web presence is becoming even more critical as we get into 2012 and as search engine algorithms continue to focus locally.

Apply an ongoing SEO plan to the site.

Before you decide if a multiple website strategy is right for your firm, please understand that there are simply too many websites competing today to build a satellite website, launch it and let it sit. If you want the site to generate revenue for your law firm, you need to market it. There are a number of ways to do this, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay-per-click (PPC), TV ads, billboards and radio advertising. The most cost-effective strategy is to implement an ongoing search engine optimization campaign.

It is recommended that you support the site with quality and relevant incoming links, strong content and properly structured metadata. You should plan to keep the site active with updated content, either by adding new content each month or repurposing the content already on the site. By continuously adding pages to the site, or by repurposing existing content, you illustrate to Google and other search engines that the site is relevant and active – ultimately working to become the best resource for a searcher interested in your services.

You should also track the results from the site. Track all inquiries that come through the site through the use of Google Analytics and call tracking. Analyze conversion data to improve the effectiveness of the design. Set up rankings reports for your site and track your competitors’ rankings as well. Through the help of this data, you will be able to identify trends and continuously improve to keep your satellite website successful.

If you are asking yourself, “should my law firm have multiple websites?” the answer is likely “yes.” The Internet is obviously becoming more competitive. Law firms that expect to continue receiving all of their leads through their main website will soon be surprised and disappointed as those leads thin out. Many firms’ leads will dissipate if they are depending on only one Web property to generate all of their Web business. Satellite websites are important and can quickly become a valuable addition to your overall Web strategy when implemented properly.

Contact Our Law Firm Marketing Experts Today

If you would like to talk further with an experienced legal Internet marketing strategist, reach out to Consultwebs.com, Inc. today. Our team of experts will work with you to identify the most optimal practice area or geographic location for which to target your satellite site(s). Call us at (800) 872-6590 or email us at marketing@consultwebs.com.

The new website, http://www.socialsecuritydisabilitycleveland.com/, offers critical information on Ohio Social Security Disability, Cleveland Supplemental Security Income, Long-Term Disability and Veterans’ Disability Benefits. The site also includes answers to frequently asked questions and the Disparti Law Group’s team approach to handling disability cases. 

Disparti Law Group P.A., serves Social Security Disability clients in Akron, Canton, Cleveland, Elyria, Lorain, Mentor, Parma, Warren and Youngstown and surrounding communities.

Consultwebs.com handled the site’s design and content. For more information, see the firm’s Cleveland Social Security Disability website or contact Consultwebs.com.

The new website, http://www.socialsecuritydisabilitychicago.com/, features information about the many types of government benefits that are available to qualified individuals.Visitors to the site can find information on: Types of Disability Benefits, Chicago Veterans’ Benefits and Illinois Railroad Disability.

Additional information includes answers to frequently asked questions and the firm’s resources and experience.

Disparti Law Group P.A., serves residents of Chicago, Aurora, Naperville, Elgin, Waukegan, Buffalo Grove, Rockford, Champaign-Urbana, and all across Illinois and the United States.

Consultwebs.com handled the site’s design and content. For more information, see the firm’s Chicago Social Security Disability website or contact Consultwebs.com.

This raises two questions: First, how much content is necessary? And how often should you update that content in order to be found by your potential clients?

How Often?

Regular updates to a website are strong signals to the search engines that your law firm website is relevant and up to date. At Consultwebs.com, Inc., we recommend updating your law firm website (one that is “static” or informational) with substantive content at least twice per month. Blog websites should have articles uploaded on a more regular basis. Around two or more times per week is an acceptable number for blogs. See examples of some of the legal blogs we manage below.

• http://blog.munley.com
• http://blog.louthianlaw.com
• http://www.flainjurylawyer.com/blog/
• http://www.frankjenkinslaw.com/blog/
• http://www.salvilaw.com/blog

How Much?

When considering how much content or how many pages to have on your law firm website, there is no generic, all-encompassing answer. At Consultwebs.com, we recommend adding as much content to your site as is relevant to your target audience. You never want to add unnecessary or irrelevant content simply to be adding content.

First and foremost, your website should serve as a resource for your visitors. A child injured by a drunk driver, a woman going through a divorce or a son whose father was neglected at a nursing home are all examples of potential clients that are looking to the Web for answers and legal help. If your site has very little or outdated information, that client will likely go elsewhere to find that help.

Your site’s content should be in-depth and well-written. This will build stronger relevance for search engines and help your target audience stay engaged. In short, if you develop good, high-quality content, the more the better.

If you are not sure how many pages of content are on your website, type “site:www.yourdomainname.com” into the Google search box. The number of results that show up is equal to the number of pages on your site that are currently indexed by Google. There are other ways of finding out the quantity of pages on your site such as RavenTools and similar products.

Note: If Google reports fewer pages than you think or know you have on your site, there may be a problem with your sitemap or optimization process.

Contact Consultwebs.com today to for assistance on this and other issues relating to your Internet marketing campaign. You can reach us at (800) 872-6590, or by sending an email to marketing@consultwebs.com.

The site features an eye-catching, easy-to-use design. It also provides important information to aid those who cannot work due to their injury or disability.The website includes details on Social Security Disability (SSD), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Florida railroad disability and South Florida Veterans’ disability benefits.

Visitors to the site can also find answers to frequently asked questions and specific information related to widow/widowers disability benefits, regular disability benefits and long-term disability benefits.

Disparti Law Group serves Florida residents inTampa, Holiday, Miami, St. Petersburg, Port Charlotte, Fort Myers, Naples, Bonita Springs and surrounding areas.

Consultwebs.com handled the site’s design and content. For more information, see the firm’s South Florida Social Security Disability website or contact Consultwebs.com.