You may have heard the buzzword “Web 2.0”. You may also be familiar with “bookmarks” in your Internet browser and even “viral” web marketing. I want to focus on one particular element of Web 2.0 that lawyers can use to promote their websites: social bookmarking.

First of all, what’s “Web 2.0”? Simply put, web 2.0 references online systems that support contribution of multiple users. The Wikipedia is a good example of “Web 2.0”; it has an open structure where many users can contribute and edit content. The “Web 2.0”” expression of a search engine is “social bookmarking”. Imagine this: instead of a search engine deciding who should be #1 by itself, wouldn’t it be great if they could get the input of thousands of users like me and you? Sites like Del.icio.us, Shadows.com and Furl.net are (free) social bookmarking sites where end users can bookmark their favorite sites for others to see. Those bookmarks are also associated with tags (like keywords) that describe the site’s content. (So, when bookmarking a legal site, tags used would be lawyer, attorney, law firm, litigation and other area-of-practice specific terms.) When many, many people set bookmarks for a site or article, they rise in the rankings of the search system’s results according to their tags.

So who notices? Yes, you’ll get some traffic from the sites themselves… but traditional search engines like Google also notice – and that’s what’s important. Social bookmarking your own site (and encouraging your colleagues to do the same) effectively “reminds” Google that your site is worth reviewing. My suggestion: go to the three social bookmarking sites listed above, sign up and bookmark your site(s)… bookmark sites you find useful… and bookmark any new page or article you have published. Create one account at home and one at work, if you’d like. As part of a larger online marketing campaign of on-page optimization, link building and PR, social bookmarking can be a useful tool.

[tags]social bookmarking, bookmarks[/tags]

Just wanted to say hello to LawRex.com – nice looking site! I’m looking forward to seeing how the attorney directory works out. The Internet Marketing section already has some interesting articles as well.

LawRex.com – Lawyer to Lawyer Referrals

McDonald’s has a new website, www.filetofish.com, where you can go and play online games centered around their food – namely, the Filet O Fish sandwich. Other than being sort of cool (I like “Aquatic Tennis“), what’s the point?

First, this is a perfect example of linkbait: an online article, widget or game that attracts visitors but, moreover, attracts bloggers and online news outlets to link back to the site.

Next, the touchy nature of dealing with a game and legal topics forces you to consider the “alternative” markets for your legal website.

When it comes to the world of online gaming, gamers are no longer restricted to the typical niche demographic ruled by young men. Online gaming’s “snacky” nature appeals to mass audiences. According to the International Game Developers Association, around 100 million Americans will play an online video game this year.
Online Gaming Clearly Mainstream with Latest McDonald’s Campaign · MarketingVOX

Do I envision every lawyer out there developing an online game? Definitely not… it’s not for most firms. But I do see the right firm making a marketing splash with an “accessory” game. Perhaps a child-focused game where you navigate the immigration process is a good idea. Could a railroad accident law firm create a buzz with a Tetris-like railyard game? Could it go as far as a Spy Hunter-like game where the firm’s message is displayed on the post-crash splash screen… Thoughts?

[tags]lawyers, filet-o-fish, linkbait[/tags]

Something I look for when I’m assessing a website is the site’s conversion elements. Generally speaking, conversion elements are slogans, quotes, images and metaphors used to convey a message. They urge visitors to act – either to click on a link, submit a form or download a PDF.

One of the first impressions a firm makes is with their primary slogan or tagline. Traditionally associated with television and radio commercials, these are the catchy sayings that run along with a lawyer’s or firm’s name…

What are the merits of using a slogan? A quick Google search turns up a few articles on the matter:

• A Slogan Can Create A Brand That Clients Will Remember
• How to Build Your Law Firm’s Brand Using the Internet
• Establishing your brand in the law firm marketplace

I particularly enjoyed the “How to Build Your Law Firm’s Brand Using the Internet” discussion by Jerry Lawson, Brenda Howard, Dennis Kennedy. In it, they specifically address lawyer slogans:

Taglines or slogans are frequent components of a branding campaign. Web usability consultants recommend them… but in general I tend to be skeptical about taglines for law firms. What do you think?

(DK): …Events can turn your slogan into an ironic comment. I’m not sure that I’m as skeptical in general as Jerry is, but I am very skeptical of slogans and taglines written by lawyers or, worse, committees of lawyers.

(BH): …I LOVE tag lines. It’s akin to a mission statement that a client can understand. When you have a tag line for your law firm – you have a mission that a client can understand. More precisely, your law firm has a mission that it can understand. Jerry, your own tag line on your web site is wonderful, “Internet Tools for Lawyers.” Your visitor knows immediately where your focus is and you can keep that focus because you have identified a “one sentence mission statement”…

If we side with those who think attorney slogans are effective, let’s also consider whether an website slogan should be different than one delivered through traditional media. I would say they are very similar in their goal of converting viewers to clients, but I think the online slogan has other requirements. Namely, an online legal tagline would ideally reference the firm’s practice areas and would necessarily appear in real text somewhere on the site. Online marketing is all about reinforcement of a short, direct message or association. By creating a slogan that is somehow inclusive of words focused on their area of practice and then by creating it so it can be easily spidered by the search engines, the firm can best create a slogan that’s effective and relevant. Tie relevancy to rankings and you can see how an online slogan does have special considerations above and beyond offline applications.

Which brings me to a stopping point: I’m led to wonder what the best and WORST law firm slogans are that are out there. Which ones have caught my eye for the right or wrong reason?

• “Tell Them You Mean Business…” – how many firms use this one???
• “All we do is work” – Jackson Lewis LLP, Labor Lawyers – very effective, short and relevant
• “Integrity. Commitment. Results.” – Lakin Law Firm – not much use for SEO but it’s a strong, memorable message
• “Give experience a try, call Robert Debry” – Utah personal injury lawyer Robert J Debry’s slogan is catchy – hey, it rhymes – but could be better defined for online use.

I’d like to compile a few more. Anyone with an opinion?

[tags]law firm slogans, slogans, legal marketing[/tags]

I’ve been messing around with PDF files lately – trying to make sure they’re able to be spidered by (at least) Google. Here’s a crash course in what I found. Using a full version of Acrobat, open the PDF you want to optimize and press CTRL + D. This will open the Document Properties. Within the PDF’s Document Properties, enter in the PDF’s TITLE, Author, Subject and Keywords. Be accurate, be succinct and don’t spam.

The TITLE you set in your PDF Document Properties will show up in Google as the PDF’s link. (Without it, all of your PDFs will be indexed as Untitled.)

What about the rest of the document? Can the search engines read my PDF? Well, the answer is “it depends“. In general, if you open the PDF and can use the text tool to highlight individual lines of copy, it’s going to be indexable by Google. Another way to tell: open the PDF and press CTRL + A to select everything in the document. Then press CTRL + C to copy everything. Go to Notepad and press CTRL + V to paste what you just copied. If real text appears in your open Notepad, it’s searchable.

What about scanned PDFs? If you’re unable to select any text using the Text Tool, it’s likely your PDF is just an image of text — not searchable. What can you do about that? My best advice is to try to use Acrobat’s native OCR feature to convert that image to real, searchable text. Once the OCR has run, it won’t be apparent that anything has happened – that’s because Acrobat keeps that original image “in front of” the converted text. The converted text is now there, but it’s behind the scenes and only readable by “users” like search engine spiders. NOTE: the quality of the OCR is poor. I’ve never had much luck with it. To see what the converted text is, use the CTRL + A trick. This time, it will copy the converted text. When you paste it to Notepad, you’ll be able to see the quality of the results.

To answer the question “Are PDFs Searchable?” the answer has to be… sometimes. Use the tips above to find out if your PDFs can be read as real text. If not, don’t worry, setting the Document Properties will at least let you convey the PDF’s TITLE to the engines.

[tags]PDFs, PDF optimization[/tags]

Quick note to start the new year — I’m always on the lookout for free legal directories, so I thought I’d highlight one I’ve found useful in the past: Lawyer-Spot.com. As their site says “Lawyer Spot is a free legal resource for anybody and everybody looking for people and websites related to law.”

But this summary is somewhat misleading; take a moment to check out the site and you’ll find they have legal articles that span a range of topics. Not only are these interesting, but it’s a good place for firms to document their thoughts on their practice areas.

Shhh, don’t tell anyone but I found a good new legal website directory at http://www.legal-help-directory.com/. Pretty good PR for a new directory and a solid guy (Brent) behind the scenes.

The site is growing, but currently divided between Legal Information, Litigation Support, Practice Areas and Practice Support. Although there doesn’t appear to be a free submission option, the measly $5 the site requests for a listing is not too hard to part with — and well worth it!

One day, maybe when I don’t feel so protective of my sources, I’ll post a more comprehensive list of low-cost legal site submission spots. Until then, take this tip and go with it!

I’m pleased to announce CaseDetails.com is now WAP enabled! What’s that mean? Visitors who access the “normal” www.casedetails.com URL via cell phone, Windows CE device, BlackBerry, etc. will be redirected to an XHTML compliant version of the site where past and present posts are available for review.

Now that I’ve got this up and running here, perhaps I can pass along how easy it was so you can get your WAP enabled legal website going as well. (This temporarily bypasses the soon-to-be-addressed issue of why you should have a WAP enabled website for your firm.) This advice is for WordPress users only at this point.

In short, upload wp-wap to your site. Then add a few lines to your .htaccess file to detect and redirect mobile devices:

RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} (x-)*(application|text)/(x-)*(vnd[-.])*(wap[-.]|wml)+
RewriteRule ^(index.php)*$ wp-wap.php [L]

That’s it! I’ll update this space in the near future with instructions for non-WordPress users.

[tags]wap enabled,legal websites,mobile devices[/tags]