When you have traffic on your insurance website, you are only
halfway to your goal. Google wants to see high quality websites with
error free code and professional design. Designs that offer easy
navigation for both your end user and the search engine bots are key to
getting favorable rankings in the search engines.
Once you have a professional insurance website with inbound links,
and your website appears on the first page of search results, then it
is time convert traffic to new policies.
Your insurance website must include a call to action. What do you
want your visitors to do? Do you want them to read about your
achievements, your history and your education? Certainly those are all
very important items to have on your website to build a level of
confidence but ultimately, you want a quote request.
The best way to improve your website’s conversion is through a call
to action. You must tell your visitors what to do. For example, you can
have information about your insurance lines, and then periodically
interrupt with “click here to get a quote” That link should, of course,
take your visitor to a detailed contact page or quote form.
Another important element for conversion is making a short contact
form readily available. On every single page of your website, you
should have a basic contact form or ability to start the quoting
process. You do not want to make your prospective clients work to find
out how to contact you.
Make it obvious and make it simple.
Those three items are the most important components of search engine marketing.
To get to the first page of Google and other search engines, you
need links to your website. That is to say, you know other websites to
link to yours without you linking back to them. By now, most people
looking into search engine optimization have heard that.
What is the best way to do that? Content and syndication. When an
article is written about your company and posted into blogs that
syndicate into Google Blog Search, article directories, how-to’s, etc,
then it becomes available for the public to use.
As your content is used in other blogs, websites, and syndicated
using RSS (really simple syndication) feeds, your link is syndicated
with it; thus, rapidly building your inbound links.
While Google discourages link exchanges, they always encourage the
development of new quality (heavy emphasis on quality) content.
To get to the first page of Google and other search engines, you
need links to your website. That is to say, you know other websites to
link to yours without you linking back to them. By now, most people
looking into search engine optimization have heard that.
What is the best way to do that? Content and syndication. When an
article is written about your company and posted into blogs that
syndicate into Google Blog Search, article directories, how-to’s, etc,
then it becomes available for the public to use.
As your content is used in other blogs, websites, and syndicated
using RSS (really simple syndication) feeds, your link is syndicated
with it; thus, rapidly building your inbound links.
While Google discourages link exchanges, they always encourage the
development of new quality (heavy emphasis on quality) content.
When you have traffic on your law firm’s website, you are only
halfway to your goal. Google wants to see high quality websites with
error free code and professional design. Designs that offer easy
navigation for both your end user and the search engine bots are key to
getting favorable rankings in the search engines.
Once you have a professional website with inbound links, and your
website appears on the first page, then it is time convert traffic to
new cases.
Your website must include a call to action. What do you want your
visitors to do? Do you want them to read about your achievements, your
history and your education? Certainly those are all very important
items to have on your website to build a level of confidence in your
legal abilities. Ultimately, you want an email or phone call.
The best way to improve your website’s conversion is through a call
to action. You must tell your visitors what to do. For example, you can
have information about your area of practice, and then periodically
interrupt with “click here to contact the Law Office of Joe Lawyer.”
That link should, of course, take your visitor to a detailed contact
page.
Another important element for conversion is making a short contact
form readily available. On every single page of your website, you
should have a basic contact form that visitors can easily click on to
contact your firm. You do not want to make your prospective clients
work to find out how to contact you. Make it obvious and make it simple.
Unlike other legal marketing
and search engine optimization companies, we like to express an honest
expectation of how search engine optimization works. The search engine
optimization process is progressive, which means a newly optimized
website will gradually make its way to the first page of Google for its
related search terms.
So at first your attorney website
may rank on page 5 (shortly after the SEO re-indexing) then it will
work its way to page 3, then 2, and then ultimately to the first page.
So does that mean you are not going to see results for months? Not
at all. Utilizing a series of traffic sources is what gets you to the
first page.
You have two main elements of search engine optimization: onsite
relevance and third party websites linking to your law firm’s website.
The inbound links build credibility for your website, thus resulting in
a high ranking.
What are the traffic sources?
Newswires – On most of our standard plans, we write two press
releases every month for your law firm. Those press releases go out to
newswires that syndicate to Google News and other relevant news sites
and blogs. As people read your press releases from these sources, they
click through to your website, thus building not only links but traffic.
Blogs – Your website blog can be syndicated to Digg, your Business
Facebook page and Google Blog Search (Google’s search engine for
blogs). As content is posted to your onsite blog, it gets syndicated
and distributed throughout the web – again, carrying your link and
leading web traffic back to your firm’s website.
Social Networks – Social networks are a great traffic source. In
fact, we now work with over 6 social networks. These networks allow us
to post content to their high traffic, high page ranking networks. As a
result, your information and website links reach a targeted audience of
potential new clients looking for information related to your area of
practice.
The combined search engine optimization process will yield immediate
clicks and traffic to your website, even before your website is ranked
on the first page of search results. However, this isn’t necessarily
the case with all law firm marketing
companies because no other company offers the combined press releases,
articles, blogging, social networking and writing services as a
standard part of their law firm marketing package.
As the web standards change, your website may become an obsolete part of your law firm marketing
effort. However, not all attorney websites are over the hill. You may
in fact own a search engine friendly website that just needs a few
modifications.
Here is a checklist to determine whether or not you need to upgrade your site’s design.
Format – Is your website written in HTML, ASP or ASPX, PHP, or CFM
(Coldfusion)? If it is written in something other than HTML, is there a
content management system that allows you to edit online? Many older
content management systems are not SEO friendly. If you are using a
program that is sub-hosted by a service provider, chances are, it is
also not SEO friendly. However, if your website is in HTML and has a
fairly modern design, you can probably get away with doing search
engine optimization on your existing site without having to build a
brand new one.
Navigation – When talking about navigation on a website, we are
referring to the method of which your visitors get from one page to
another. Are text based links present? Do you have a menu that is
intuitive? Or are you using fancy Flash effects? If your menu is text
based, you might be in good shape. However, image and Flash based menus
are not SEO friendly. Therefore, if you are exclusively using those
types of menus, you may need to do a full upgrade.
Design – If your design was ahead of its time, you may be able to
keep it. Visitors generally like larger buttons, lowered text, and an
overall easy to read website. Put your main points at the top and
everything else below. If your existing website does that, you’re
probably in good shape and just need some SEO attention.
You can ask us to review your existing website by visiting http://design.seolawfirm.com. Keep in mind, we offer both design services and search engine optimization only services for websites that are SEO compatible.
Upgrading your law firm’s design could possibly upgrade your
website’s performance. Imagine for a moment that you are shopping
online for an item. You use the usual methods to find websites that are
selling the very item you need or want.
Finally, you stumble across two sites – they both have the same
product, but one is more expensive than the other. The more expensive
item is offered on a nice website that has a professional design, easy
to navigate menu, and even has an intuitive checkout process. The site
offers clear images of the product, even multiple angles and comments
from other buyers.
You could save ten to fifteen percent if you buy from the second
website. This website has random moving objects that are distracting.
The bright green text is placed atop a black background making it
difficult to read. And while the website assures you that you can
purchase online, the “buy now” and “checkout” buttons are not obvious.
More than likely, you will spend the extra money and buy from the cleaner website.
The same rules apply to your law firm. When an individual or company
is seeking legal representation, a professional website that offers a
clean, easy to navigate user experience and a substantial amount of
useful information will lead to greater response.
Your website has to attain what you or a representative of your firm
would traditionally do which is achieve a comfort level with your
prospective client. Your law firm’s website has become the new marble
floors and imported furniture in your lobby. It is the very thing that
will either scare your prospective clients away or encourage them to
contact you and setup a consultation.
I invite you to monitor your own web surfing habits. Take note of
the types of websites you gravitate toward and notice their quality of
content, design and simplicity. Then ask yourself and those around you
if your law firm’s website gives off the same positive feeling.
As new methods of online law firm marketing
surface and existing forms get enhanced, it’s important to notice
another change in the webosphere. Things are getting prettier.
Sometimes we like taking a trip down memory lane and looking at the
exhibits of yesteryear. First stop, the museum of website design. In
1990, an application was introduced called the WorldWideWeb Browser. It
just so happened to also be an editor. You can see a screenshot of this
masterful work at http://www.w3.org/History/1994/WWW/Journals/CACM/screensnap2_24c.gif.
The concept was simple. A website was little more than a bunch of
textual pages linked together. A few pages of content, some links to
other similar content, and tada, you have a website. Was it built for
conversion and optimized for the 20 nonstandard search engines?
Probably not. But it was a website and it laid the foundation for the
Internet we now have.
Nearly twenty years ago, there was much fascination with the concept
of publishing something that could be accessed from anywhere in the
world that had an Internet connection. The first Windows web browser
that allowed background imagery was cause for excitement. But now, the
honeymoon is over; the web is all grown up.
Believe it or not, some law firms still have websites that look like
they were made with the above mentioned 19 year old program
(WorldWideWeb). But to make it to the first page of Google, your
website needs to put on some makeup and its “Sunday best.”
If you search for anything that is popular on Google, you will
notice that most of the websites on the first page look fantastic. They
are easy to navigate, are very intuitive to work through, and the
images and coloring make the site an overall pleasant experience.
For your law firm’s website to compete for page one, it’s going to
need some improvements. Do a search for other law firms in your area,
and notice how many pages their website has. Notice the simplicity for
contacting the firm and getting information. Notice the colors used -
are they soft or are they contrasting and obnoxious? Compare what your
firm has to what other firms have and think to yourself, “If I didn’t
know anything about either firm, which one would I call?”
Of course, sometimes it’s best to have an unbiased third party
review it. Go ahead and request a quote from us at http://design.seolawfirm.com and give us some of your competitors to
compare websites. We will then make suggestions to improve your
performance.
Last week, we discussed the simplistic, clear, and intuitive brand
of Apple. With their easy to identify stores, no frills image, and use
of negative space (white space), they have been able to dominate their
markets in a way that “clutter as much as possible” Microsoft has not.
When comparing Apple’s strategy to determine how you can integrate their wisdom into your law firm marketing
strategy, we must first express that Apple’s website design style is
unique to their size. They don’t have to include their keyphrases such
as Apple, iTunes, iPhone or iPod because they already have the weight
and strength to get top placement in the search engines for those terms
with a minimal amount of text.
But you can still design your law firm’s website with Apple-like simplicity and still achieve Overstock-like optimization.
First, focus on the top. The very first things you want your
prospective clients to see are what you can do and who you are… in that
order.
At the very top of your page with as little distraction as possible,
you should identify the type of law firm you are. Then identify how to
contact you.
Below that top heavy introduction is where you should introduce
content. The content should be easy to access, easy to read and always
geared towards your audience contacting a lawyer. Content is how Google
can identify your firm’s site as being relevant to your practice area.
It’s always best to break up your practice areas into as many
sub-pages as possible to build a website that offers a substantial
amount of relevant information. For example, if you are a divorce
lawyer, you shouldn’t have just one page called “family law,” but
rather break it up into sub-pages such as divorce, custody, adoption,
prenuptial agreements, etc.
The more pages you have to offer, the more substantial your website
appears to be. You can have a lot of content, simplistic easy to use
design, and achieve high conversion rates from Apple-like clarity.
An easy way to stay ahead of the competition is to look at other law
firms in your area to see what they are doing, and then implement a
better strategy. That’s actually basic marketing. However, to really be
an innovator in your field, look around at other industries and see
what you can learn from them.
This week, let’s look at Apple. Everyone is familiar with the Apple
culture of simplicity and clean design. When you walk past an Apple
store, do you see big red letters that say, “Computers and MP3 Players
Here at the Apple Store”? No. You see a silver background and the white
Apple logo. They don’t even include the rightful trademark symbol at
the top right of their logo…it would take away from the simplistic feel.
I remember several years ago being in New York City looking for the
Apple store on 5th Ave. I was meeting someone there and they assured me
I couldn’t miss it. Many companies strive to make their major metro
location bigger and more extraordinary than their suburbia locations.
The New York City Apple Store, however, is in a basement. It is
different than the other stores, rising above the platform is a 2-3
story glass square with the Apple logo in the middle. The basement is
the same light pine wood colored table filled concrete floor experience
that you will get at any of their other locations. But it’s simple.
It’s clear. It communicates with their target market. Even with its
simplicity, it stands out.
What law firms can learn from Apple is their dedication to
simplicity. If there is ever a market that needs simple clear
direction, it’s your target market; those who are in need of legal
counsel.
The mistake that many attorneys make is their desire to put
themselves at the top of the highest billboard with flashy colors and
clever statements of toughness and dedication. However, if you placed
two billboards side-by-side for two attorneys, and one was red and
yellow with “We Are Dedicated to Getting Results” and the other had a
white background with easy to read text that simply said, “After an
Accident, Call…” the simple method will always convert better.
When developing your law firm’s website, think simple. What are your
clients looking for? What is their point of stress at that very moment?
In as little words as possible, how can you convince someone that you
are what they are looking for? The answer is always simplicity.
On the other side of the issue is the need for content on your
website. Certainly Apple can get away with a lot of white space and no
valuable textual content on their homepage… after all Apple’s company
name is their most valuable keyphrase. But you, as a lawyer, have a
wider list of keywords that need to be addressed. A picture is worth a
thousand words, but a thousand words can be read by Google.
In our next article, we will conclude this feature with Part II
discussing how to marry the simplistic “Apple like” tone with the
content needed to succeed in search engine optimization.
