Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Traffic Driving Tips

I just love reading tips on how to drive traffic to your web site. Many of them seem like good, or even great ideas, but I always end up thinking the same thing: “how do you know it drives traffic?”. Sometimes I’ve actually asked the question, and each time I have, I get the same answer: “I just know it does”. Of course, the question isn’t whether a technique drives traffic to your site (or blog). The question is whether it drives more traffic than an alternate technique. To know that, you would have to compare the two side-by-side on the same site, or at least get a large enough sample to develop statistically significant evidence. “Tip” techniques rarely qualify for a study topic. That leaves you with trying techniques, which on most sites is difficult or expensive to do. (Of course, our platform gives you the opportunity to do that very easily, particularly as it relates to pay-per-click advertising).

My advice is to use your gut when it comes to adopting someone’s traffic-enhancing “tip”. You should know your intended audience well enough to know whether the tip will pay off.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Page Rank

There’s some buzz today about Google adjusting PageRank, particularly for sites that sell links.  This should be a non-issue for most lawyer web sites, as I can’t imagine why a lawyer would waste time trying to sell links on his or her site.  Lawyers, however, should be aware of what PageRank is, so here are two articles that discuss the topic in a user-friendly way:

Search Illustrated: Google PageRank Explained

What Is Google PageRank? A Guide For Searchers & Webmasters.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

How Popular Is Your Web Site?

I’ve been running my Employment Law Website for seven years now.  I’ve learned many things over that period, but none more important than the willingness of web site operators to overstate the popularity of their web sites.  I still cringe when I hear someone say that their site gets a million “hits” a month.  A “hit” is a completely useless statistic that tells you almost nothing about the number of people that visit a particular web site (see hits vs visitors).

So, if hits aren’t important, what is?  That’s a tough question, and one subject to reasonable debate, but for lawyer web sites, the most important metric should be the number of unique visitors.  That is, how many different people visit your site each day.  Unfortunately, there is no exact method to determine unique visitors, somthing discussed in this New York Times article (October 22, 2007).  As they say, “nobody can get the basic visitor counts straight.” Understandably, the lack of accuracy frustrates most lawyers because they see things like web site analytics and SEO as snake oil.  When you add all the marketing firms promising nonesene, like “we can get you the top search engine spots”, it only makes matters worse.

I would suggest that most lawyers concentrate on unique visitors measured over time (which is what I do).  This is particluarly important when you first launch your site.  If you’re doing the right things, you should see a pretty steady increase in traffic.  The upswing will probably flatten out over time, but it still should give you an idea as to whether you are making the right moves to attract new visitors.

Friday, September 28, 2007

Law Firms, Recruiting and the YouTube Generation

Great article in the New York Times on law firm recruiting.  I love the last quote about “true personality”, particularly when it comes to using actors to portray your associates.

Solos and small firms should take note of the trend, however.  Recruiting trends should be a few years ahead of other business marketing trends because recruiters have to appeal to the next generation, not the one currently making decisions.  These recruits will soon be making the important decisions - like which lawyer to hire.

So what are you doing to attract that type of client?

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Job Market For Lawyers

Check out this sobering article from the Wall Street Journal: Hard Case: Job Market Wanes for U.S. Lawyers.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Is Conversation More Valuable than Content?

It’s been suggested to me that engaging in an interconnected blog conversation might be as important as providing new, unique content.  That is, talking about a topic raised by others might give you as much marketing punch as if you raised the topic yourself.  I don’t think there is any way to test that suggestion, and, even if there were, what does that say about your marketing efforts?  Providing insight into a trend or newspaper article is one thing; but talking for the sake of talking seems disingenuous.

It also raises the issue as to whether successful blogging is about nature or nurture.  Those selling blogs will tell you that anyone can learn to be an effective blogger (by, for example, engaging in blogging best practices, like “just talk about it”).  I’m not so sure.  I read blogs where people have either a unique perspective or expertise on a particular topic.  All lawyers should fall into the latter category and make blogging work for them.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site

The New York Times announced today that it would stop charging for select content on its web site, a move that was made exactly two years ago.  I am a devout reader of the New York Times online and remember vividly when they made the decision to start charging for content.  I was also certain that this signaled one of the first moves on the Internet to a fee for content-based model.  I guess you can’t always be right.  What’s interesting about the Times’ decision is the fact that it’s based on traffic lost from search engines like Google and Yahoo.  Basically, the Times recognizes that it can earn more income from advertising sales generated through search engine traffic than it can by charging for its content (roughly $10 million a year).  I don’t think that you can underplay the significance of this calculation and the underlying importance of search engine traffic, whether you’re a solo practitioner or the New York Times.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Video Killed the Blog Star?

Kevin O’Keefe at LexBlog recently posted on the notion that video might, in part, replace text based blogging. I can’t imagine that even a small percentage of bloggers, particularly lawyer bloggers, will adopt a video-based posting model. The truth is that most bloggers don’t have the presence or production values to make me watch more than a few seconds of a video post. It would take you twice as long to watch a video of me saying what you’re reading now and I would probably come off poorly...I’m no Brian Williams. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t post a video or two online, but make sure they’re not off-the-cuff and that you meet some basic production standards.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Analytics and Optimization…A Catch 22?

I just read a post about tailoring your site copy based on keyword phrases you find in your analytics reports (your website analytics reports will tell you what search terms visitors are using to get to your site).  The post suggests that you should optimize for these keywords because it will help drive traffic to your site.  I’ve heard this many times before, and it always sounded like good advice, but it got me thinking...isn’t this a catch-22? 

People find your site based, in part, on what your site already says.  Those words and phrases are in your analytics reports because they either already appear on your site pages or are used in links pointing to your site.  Now you can increase traffic by optimizing for those keywords, but it doesn’t answer the more fundamental question: what keywords are searchers using to find the service you’re selling?  Your analytics shouldn’t answer this question because they’re based only on what your site already “says” (in quotes because I mean that in the largest sense of the word).

Put more simply, if you’re an employment lawyer in New Jersey, you shouldn’t find the following keyword phrase in your analytics report “treatment for low voltage electric shock” (an unfortunate search I recently had to run ).  That phrase wont be there because you don’t deal in that subject matter.  The important thing to note is that you’re not going to find “New Jersey whistleblower laws” if your site doesn’t already address that topic.  The bottom line is that your first SEO mission is to ensure that your site discusses all of the legal topics that your ideal client is likely to face.  Once you’ve done that, you can then sort out which phrases are driving the most traffic.

Thanks!

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

8 Point Checklist…For Lawyer Websites!

MarketingSherpa has an interesting checklist of eight improvements worth testing on your web site.  The post isn’t written specifically for law firm web sites, so I thought I’d take that extra step.

1. Refocus Your Home Page

I think this is probably the biggest mistake that solo practioners make when it comes to their website.  Most lawyers simply don’t ask this basic question: “who is my ideal client?” Your homepage should be geared toward that (hopefully) small group of people.  Young (meaning new) lawyers might have the urge to appeal to a broad range of prospects in the hopes of securing a client base, but as the old-adage goes, “if you want to broaden your appeal, narrow your focus.”

2.  Move Your Useful Links to the “Small Window Fold”

The idea here is to have your key links in the place visitors will most likely be looking—the upper-left hand portion of your page.  Not everyone expands their browser window to accomodate your site design, so you want key links to appear in the portion that’s most likely to be in view.  Key links for lawyers include the profile pages (firm and lawyer) and contact us links.

3.  Use Your Most Used Links for Navigation

If your site has been up and running for some time, you should have internal search reports that include the most commonly used site search terms.  If a large majority of your visitors are searching for “age discrimination” it’s probably a phrase you want in your “nav” bar.

4.  Don’t Use More Than Three Columns

I don’t have the evidence to support this claim, but Sherpa swears it’s true.  90% of the sites I visit have three or less columns, so I’d bet that more isn’t very useful.

5.  Dump Adsense

Some lawyer sites (particularly blogs) have started running banner ads in order to generate some extra income.  I cannot imagine that these ads make any significant amount of money and it sends the wrong message to prospective clients.  Would you hire a lawyer that needs extra cash from banner ads?

6.  Use Bigger Typeface

It makes sense, but I think the underlying message is: make your site easy to understand.  Your prospects should know within 90 seconds whether you can help them.  Bigger typeface might not help, but if you can’t fit your current text in 12 point font, then you probably have too many words.

7.  Fast Load Times

There is no reason for a lawyer’s home page to load in more than 10 seconds, no matter the connection speed.  To me, graphics are just wasteful (particularly flash) because clients don’t hire lawyers based on visual presentation.

8.  Sell The Sizzle

Your home page has to answer one basic question: how can you fix what’s broken?  It may seem simple, but people need lawyers because they have a problem that they can’t fix on their own.  Your home page needs to convey that sentiment - that you are the person who can solve their problem.  A prospect doesn’t really want to know that you handle sexual harassment cases, she wants to know that you can stop her boss from making unwanted sexual advances.  So write about your clients first and then let them know how you can help them.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Do most law firm websites stink?

It’s a question that’s being bantered around, but I think Duo Consulting has hit the nail on the head.  That is, it’s a chicken and egg question.  The only way you can know whether or not your website stinks is to first know what you’re trying to measure.  I know that there are some objective measures by which you can rate websites, but determining whether or not your website is an effective marketing tool has got to rest on your overall marketing strategy.  If you don’t have a marketing strategy, you can’t possibly know whether or not your website actually stinks.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Who is Your Opposite?

Seth Godin has an interesting, dare I say Taoist, post on branding. He suggests that you need to know your opposite in order to effectively brand yourself (or your product). I guess that makes sense for the purpose of branding as a marketing technique. Things like Gap and Pepsi can have opposites because they spend massive amounts of money defining who and what they are. The hardly offer products, however, that are opposite from their major competitors. In fact, the opposite (no pun intended) is true—you need to effectively brand yourself when you offer very similar products to very similar audiences. If you think that Coke and Pepsi or McDonald’s and Burger King are opposites, you should get out more.

So how does this relate to legal marketing? I think the same holds true—if you’ve got a lot of competition in your space, you should spend more time and money branding yourself. To that extent, you should ask how your major competition is branding itself, for better or worse. I don’t think you have to worry about creating an opposite, but determining a solid distinction on which you can rest your brand.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Beating Lawyers Over Their Heads

Why is it that so many former lawyers, who now sell legal services, feel it necessary to beat practicing lawyers over their heads about adopting new technologies?  Now, I’ll admit that I’ve been one of those former lawyers.  I don’t think I’ve been that direct, but I can recall saying things like “technophobe” and “behind the curve” when it comes to lawyers.  After reading a particularly harsh post about lawyers, it made me wonder what an awful sales technique it is.  If you’re product or service (tied in with sales and marketing) doesn’t convince someone to buy, it’s your fault, not the consumers.  Stop telling them how stupid they are and start asking why you aren’t converting more!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Is blogging for every lawyer?

No.

It’s just that simple.  How do I know?  I’m really not that good at it.  It takes me a long time to sort out what to write about and how to write it (like not ending a sentence with a preposition).  Maybe I’m dense, but I’m fairly certain that I can do more productive work than hunch over my keyboard for 30 minutes writing a one paragraph, not so interesting blog post.

Of course, the blog experts will tell you how wrong I am and how much money rolls in because of their blogs.  To me, it’s like Tiger Woods saying “of course you can hit a 350 yard drive, all you need to do is strike the ball like this....”

Now, I would encourage everyone to try blogging.  It shouldn’t be that expensive or time consuming.  As long as you give it a fair and honest shot, you’ll know within a few months whether it’s right for you.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Legal Tech Trends for 2007

I’m a little behind in my reading!  I just came across the April 2007 Dennis Kenedy article in Law Technology Today titled Seven Legal Technology Trends for 2007: Widening the Digital Divide in Law Practice.

I was particularly interested in the lawyer websites section of the article:

B. Blocking and Tackling – Creating a Helpful Web Presence.
Not much has happened in the world of lawyer websites for many years. In fact, you can read the articles I wrote on the subject in the late 1990s and find that most of the same principles and techniques still apply. Yes, blogs have come into play in some exciting ways, but only a small percentage of lawyers have blogs, although with great impact and results.

The vast majority of lawyers have websites that are dated, unattractive, not regularly maintained, and not especially relevant to their target audience. Law firm websites, as a general rule, also make it difficult to get contact information and other basic information.

In 2007, we will see a somewhat surprising move by law firms to spruce up and revamp their websites in light of the growing role of the Internet in the way people shop for and purchase services. In most cases, we will not be talking about introducing some kind of Web 2.0 presence, rather a focus on the basic blocking and tackling necessary to have an effective website. There will be a great focus on traffic and analysis of numbers on the website. We will see more blogs, podcasts and video on law firm sites, but largely integrated into existing sites, with a greater emphasis on publishing information relevant to the likely audience and with a concern for giving the website a contemporary look and feel.

I agree with 99% of what Dennis has to say, with the exception of the introduction of a Web 2.0 presence for lawyers.  Our Websites are entirely Web 2.0 animals! As Dennis points out, most lawyers will not be early adopters—but it only takes a handful to get the ball rolling.