Strategy

November 7, 2012

6 Steps to SEO Blogging Success for Law Firms

One of the most difficult tasks in legal internet marketing is motivating and showing attorneys how to write their firm’s blog. I have decided to create a recipe for blogging success.

Step 1: Know your audience. Understand that each blog that you create has a target audience. Do some research and put some thought into it. If you’re a personal injury attorney in Duluth, MN writing about Mesothelioma, your most likely audience is going to be the taconite miners and their friends and family. Stop writing generic articles about premises liability or product liability. Speak towards your client’s needs. Instead of writing about faulty drugs, write about specific drug’s side effects. So for example, this blog will be targeted towards personal injury attorneys wanting to generate organic seo traffic through blogging.

Step 2: Be sure to value what the customer values most. Since our target market was defined earlier, I think we all know personal injury value above all else…money. I am kidding. Quality relevant cases without wasting time on irrelevant leads. Be sure to always have what your customer values most in mind when writing your blog. Each client is different but over the course of a law career trends will become apparent. It also helps to be unique and original in your topic selection and write about rare and uncommon topics where your competition is too slow or inept to respond to the market, or the market might be viewed as too small to warrant a blog post.

January 31, 2012

Were You Looking For Law Firm SEO or Paid Search?

by AttorneySync

I spoke with a number of lawyers over the last several weeks that came to our agency in search of law firm SEO services……..at least that’s what they thought they wanted.

Really what they were looking for was more business through the internet. The particulars of which strategy they should use in order to make that happen was the reason they were talking to me in the first place. However, there is enough hype around SEO these days that most law firms assume this is route they need to take.

If a law firm has the appropriate budget, time, and resources available they should be involved in SEO, paid search, email marketing, social media, content creation, and every other type of online marketing avenue But in many cases, time and money are finite resources. As a result, a law firm must prioritize which strategies make the most sense depending on the needs, goals, and resources available.

January 25, 2012

8 Tips On Writing Great Web Content For Your Law Firm’s Website

by AttorneySync

I talk with lawyers everyday that have websites they need help marketing. They want their websites to bring in more traffic, more leads, and more clients. When I ask how often they are updating their sites and what type of content they are producing, the other end of the line is usually met with silence. The fact is that in today’s online marketing universe, you need to produce new content for your website on a regular basis.

Why Do I Need To Create Content?

There are a myriad of reasons why you should produce new content for your site on a regular basis. In the interest of keeping this post succinct, I’ll list 5 of the most important reasons in my opinion:

October 26, 2011

My Experience Searching For An Attorney

by AttorneySync

My wife and I moved at the beginning of September to another apartment in the city. We had a few issues with the previous landlord and our security deposit. The situation escalated to the point that I needed to speak with a landlord/tenant attorney.

I have 3 different friends living in Chicago that are attorneys. However, none of them practice in the landlord/tenant field. So naturally, I asked around to see if they could refer anyone who could help with my specific problem. One of my friends gave me the name and number of a lawyer that handled landlord/tenant issues.

What Happened Next

October 20, 2011

Organic Web Strategy For Law Firms

by AttorneySync

My colleague, Gyi Tsakalakis, recently put together this excellent 17 page, guide on organic web strategy for law firms.

Organic web strategy for lawyers from Gyi Tsakalakis

August 22, 2011

Social Media Is Sexy, But Don’t Forget About Search and Email

by AttorneySync

We have short attention spans these days. Especially in marketing. Everyone wants to be on the bleeding edge of the next big thing (yes even some lawyers). Social media has been talked and written about incessantly, from Facebook to Twitter to Google+. When it comes to digital marketing channels, social media is new and sexy. However, a Pew Internet study came out recently that reminds us search and email remain the top online activities.

The Econsultancy blog discusses the study in a recent post:

According to the study, 92% of internet users in the United States use search engines and send email. The number using social networking services? 65%.

August 19, 2011

Google Related: The Competition Now Has A Listing On Your Firm’s Website

by AttorneySync

Google recently announced the launch of Google Related.

Now with Google Related, a new Chrome Extension and Google Toolbar feature, you’ll automatically see interesting content relevant to what’s on the page you’re viewing, right where you’re viewing it.

Here is a video that describes the new tool in more detail:

August 4, 2011

Google News Badges & Subject Matter Experts

by AttorneySync

Google News recently became more social by releasing Google News Badges.

According to the update:

“The U.S. Edition of Google News now lets you collect private, sharable badges for your favorite topics. The more articles you read on Google News, the more your badges level up: you can reach Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and finally Ultimate. Keep your badges to yourself, or show them off to your friends.”

The Greater Significance

At this time, the impact of these Google News badges isn’t entirely clear. However, when you start to look at the bigger picture you can see the puzzle pieces Google is putting together.

The grand plan appears to be a fundamental shift in how Google views authority on the web. Google wants to tie authority and expertise back to individuals and real people. Proof can be found in the approach with Google+ and usernames and changes such as Authorship Markup. They are looking for signals beyond links and social is becoming a more important component of the algorithm. Google wants to identify subject matter experts and deliver their expertise to its users.
Continue reading

July 28, 2011

Google Places: Updates To The Look But Not The Algorithm

by AttorneySync

Google recently revamped the layout and look of their Places pages. They made a number of changes including removal of the review snippets from 3rd party sites, an aesthetic redesign for a cleaner look, more prominent call to action buttons, and removal of “More About This Place” results which gave insight into citations Google found for a Places page.

What the leading experts in the local space have stressed is that you should not confuse the updated look to mean there is a new algorithm.

Let’s take a closer look at the various changes.

July 13, 2011

What Is Inbound Legal Marketing?

by AttorneySync

Inbound legal marketing is marketing that is focused on getting found by customers. It is the art of “pulling” customers to you rather than “pushing” your message out to them through interruption-style advertising.

No one does a better job of explaining the philosophy and practice of inbound marketing than Hubspot, pioneers in the field. Here is a short explanation from Hubspot on Inbound Marketing:

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.