SEO for Law Firms – Case Studies

I thought I’d step into the real world today, take a few [tag]lawyer websites[/tag] and outline what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong in their [tag]online marketing campaign[/tag]s. As I do so, I hope readers will pick up some tips for use on their own sites.

The first case study is www.peekcobb.com (Peek, Cobb & Edwards, P.A.) – a Jacksonville FL personal injury, medical malpractice and nursing home neglect firm. What can we learn from their site? First, a screenshot:

One of the first things I notice is the firm’s location and primary areas of practice are immediately presented. Good. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run across sites that give absolutely NO information about the law firm other than “Welcome, we’re glad you’re here.” In terms of SEO, one of the more important features is that these areas of practices are cited within text linked to relevant pages deeper within the site. It’s good to have your keywords on the page, but it’s better to (sensibly) include those [tag]keywords within link text[/tag].

Looking at the [tag]site navigation[/tag] along the left hand side of the page… I have an immediate aversion from using images of text for the site’s main navigation. [tag]Search engine spiders[/tag] cannot “read” [tag]text rendered as images[/tag] and, quite often, images of text are usually very hard to read for human vistors as well. This is a negative one-two punch alienating both the search engine spiders and site visitors. If using images of text is unavoidable in your site navigation scheme, do as this firm has done – repeat those navigation links in real text somewhere on the page (most likely the site footer). This makes sure the links are spidered AND it ensures the spiders make note of the [tag]anchor text[/tag] associated with that link.

One more thing we can learn from the PeekCobb.com site: the worth and worthlessness of Flash on [tag]legal websites[/tag] is something I often see discussed. The downside: copy and [tag]links within Flash[/tag] aren’t spidered by most search engines. The upside: nearly limitless animation and design possibilities. This firm has made a fairly good compromise in that their site header, coded in Flash, takes advantage of the animation and font choices available but that’s it… no content is delivered within the Flash and navigation is definitely not rendered via Flash. All in all, we learn from this that Flash is not a categorical “no-no” in SEO circles but using it to deliver your site content or navigation is not a good choice.

A second site I’d like to look at today is www.robbrobb.com – Robb and Robb from Kansas City Missouri. Like others, this site does make the “mistake” of rendering their navigation structure as images. This is something they should either convert to real text or at least repeat those links somewhere on their pages. But I digress… I’ve called this site to attention because of a very simple feature: their address information in the footer.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but firms should make sure they list their physical address somewhere on every page of their website PLUS list their local telephone number. Robb & Robb have done a good job of doing this, better establishing themselves as legal authorities in the Kansas City MO area. Search engines take note of this (along with your content, of course) and index you accordingly.

A third site I’d like to look at for slightly different reasons: www.thekahnlawfirm.com. The Kahn Law Firm are attorneys serving the greater Houston area in personal injury, wrongful death and auto accident litigation. Their site does make the cardinal mistake of rendering far too much text as images, but let’s look at what was done right…

The thing that I’d like readers to notice about this site is the extensive use of “[tag]conversion mechanisms[/tag]“… friendly ways of drawing the site visitor in and engaging them in what you hope will be an ongoing discussion of their case. This site effectively captures visitors’ attention with the red light at the top right, urging “Don’t sign anything, Don’t say anything.” As a reader, I’m definitely listening. As the reader’s eye moves down the page, they’re continually engaged with advice and statements of the firm’s philosophy. Familiar faces like that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are presented, with appeals to common human emotions with statements like “Don’t pay for someone else’s mistake”. This firm is really reaching out to the reader, consoling them but, at the same time, urging them to act under their expert guidance.

Summary Ideas:

• make sure your firm’s location and area(s) of practice are clearly stated on the homepage
• if your navigation is composed of images, Flash or Javascript, make sure you put text link versions of those in your site footer
• feature your primary office location’s address in real text somewhere on the homepage or, better yet, on every page
• include “conversion mechanisms” within your site and, particularly, on your homepage. These include i) calls to action like “Call Now!”, ii) attention-getting visual metaphors, iii) appealing philosophy statement(s) and iv) taglines focused on common hopes and fears.

Take care of these basics and you’ll be in a better position to benefit from blogging, [tag]content development[/tag] and link building.
[tags]seo for law firms,seo case studies,lawyer seo,attorney seo[/tags]