When used effectively, LinkedIn is a valuable tool for getting local business

Most people have heard of LinkedIn, the social media platform for professionals. On LinkedIn, you can connect with colleagues and potential clients in your local area. You can find people you already know and also get introduced to people you’d like to know.

Many professionals have created a profile and added connections, but aren’t sure what to do next. The answer: use it as a marketing tool. LinkedIn is very useful for local search marketing for law firms and other small businesses. Just don’t use it for blatant self-promotion.

What is Local Search?

Local search is what people do when they look for products and services in or near their neighborhood. Before the Internet, people turned to the phone book or community business listings published by their local chambers of commerce. Today local search is moving online. In fact, about 20% Google searches include location information.

How Can LinkedIn Help Your Local Search Marketing?

You may wonder why a lawyer even needs search marketing. After all, unless your message arrives right when someone needs a lawyer, it’s not likely to result in new business. Remember, though, that marketing is not the same as advertising.

You can discretely market yourself on LinkedIn by positioning yourself as an expert in your field. Fill out your profile completely, using relevant keywords, including location. Create a separate profile for your business as well, using similar keywords. This doubles your odds of appearing in search results.

Other things you can do on LinkedIn to increase your credibility:

• Give and Receive Recommendations: When you recommend others, you help them gain credibility as well as get your name onto their profiles, where people can see it and click through to your profile. When others recommend you, it boosts your image.
• Join Groups: Not all groups are local, but you can still meet new people who may become a source of information, collaboration or referrals. You can offer the same benefits to them.
• Answer Questions: When you answer questions, you appear helpful and knowledgeable. When people read your answers, they gain a favorable impression of you and are more likely to think of you when they, or someone they know, need a lawyer.

Every action you take on LinkedIn is an opportunity for local search marketing, potentially increasing your visibility to both human searchers and the search engines.

A successful PPC landing page will engage your visitor

In PPC Landing Pages, Part 1 we defined pay-per-click advertising and discussed the importance of landing pages. In Part 2 we’ll cover the elements of an effective PPC landing page.

A well-designed landing page is important to the success of any law firm pay-per-click advertising campaign. These pages engage your visitors and prompt them to take immediate action, increasing your conversions.

What is a well-designed PPC landing page? It’s one that visitors can immediately identify as related to the ad they clicked. Web surfers have a very short attention span, so without that initial recognition, they are likely to leave without trying too hard to find what they are looking for.

Successful PPC landing pages tend to have:

• A headline that mirrors the ad: If your PPC ad promotes your services as a Napa family lawyer, the first thing your visitor should see, at the top left of the page, is the words “family law,” not something about, say, incorporating a business. Many law firms practice more than one area of law. Keep your landing pages focused on just the area highlighted in the PPC ad.
• Bullet points: Visitors who click on your PPC ad are busy and want to quickly figure out what you can do for them. Instead of long, tedious paragraphs, use short, snappy phrases presented as bullet points to draw the eye and get your point across efficiently.
• A prominent call to action: Place it “above the fold,” that is, make sure it is visible without having to scroll down the page. Present it as a big button or bold, oversized words that grab your visitors’ attention and tell them what to do next, whether it’s “Ask us now” or “Request your free consultation.” Avoid the generic “click here,” which is boring and unclear.
• Graphics: A page of plain text is dull, even with ample use of bullet points. Graphics can create a more pleasing presentation, just don’t overdo it. Keep images small and related to your service: happy people signing a contract, for example.
• Limited off-page navigation: Visitors click a PPC ad for a specific reason, so don’t encourage them to browse your site at this point. Other than the call to action, include links only to a privacy policy and either an About Us page or a Contact Us page, for people who need more information before committing. These links should be significantly smaller than the call to action, but still easy to find.

Remember to keep each ad campaign tightly focused to a single message. Since lawyers often provide multiple services, PPC for law firms might involve several ad campaigns, each spotlighting a different service.

Photo courtesy of Nyul

Law firms new to pay-per-click advertising often think an appealing ad and a link to a Web site’s homepage is all that’s necessary for a successful campaign. However, a law firm’s homepage needs to appeal to a wide range of visitors, from those looking for a specific service to those casually searching for information. A PPC ad campaign, on the other hand, targets a specific segment of your audience, and your PPC landing page should speak directly to them.

What is PPC Advertising?

PPC ads are the most popular way to advertise online today. Most PPC ads consist of two lines of text and a linked headline. Advertisers “bid” on keywords for which their ads will appear, and they pay only when someone clicks on the ad. A sample ad could be:

Chicago Truck Accident
Consult with experienced IL truck
accident lawyers with big case wins
www.prstruckinglaw.com

If the keyword phrase “Chicago truck accident lawyer” is chosen, the above ad will show at the top or along the right side of the search results page when that keyword phrase is searched on.

What is a Landing Page?

In broad terms, a landing page is the first page a visitor “lands” on when arriving at your site. A PPC landing page is the page to which you send people who click on your PPC ad. Landing pages should expand on the message in the ads, and every ad campaign should have its own landing page. If you create a group of ads for a campaign about trucking accidents, it’s ok to use the same landing page for them all, since the message will be similar for each.

Why Do You Need a Landing Page?
If you send clicks from your PPC ad to your homepage, visitors may not be sure what to do once they get there. Many firms offer legal services in more than one area of practice, so the typical law firm home page will cover more than one topic or specialty. Web surfers are impatient, and they want to find what they are looking for without extra effort. Therefore, if visitors land on a page without a clear call to action that does not mirror the words in the ad, they may get confused and leave.

A well-designed PPC landing page delivers that immediate satisfaction. Visitors to these pages are more likely to convert, because they can easily see what they came to find. Using the ad above as an example, a good landing page headline for that ad would be “Chicago Truck Accidents Lawyers.” All content on the page should be focused around truck accidents.

If you’re concerned that PPC campaigns for legal services are different from those for physical products, don’t be. PPC for lawyers is no different from PPC for the clothing boutique next door. A successful PPC advertising campaign will have an eye-catching ad and a landing page that captures visitors’ attention, guiding them to the next step.

Part 2 of PPC Landing Pages coming soon!

Use basic SEO principles when setting up your Twitter account

These days, with the prevalence of mobile devices, a smart, forwarding-thinking law firm should consider creating a “brand” or presence for itself within the social media sphere. Twitter.com is a popular player in that space, so let’s take this opportunity to discuss Twitter, SEO and branding your law firm through social channels.

Social media is defined by SearchEngineWatch.com as

A category of sites that is based on user participation and user-generated content. They include social networking sites like LinkedIn or Facebook, social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us, social news sites like Digg or Reddit, and other sites that are centered on user interaction.

One of the brightest and biggest stars in the social media sky is Twitter, where users send out short messages to their “followers” describing anything from what’s on their minds to what’s for dinner. Messages, or Tweets, can be sent from a mobile phone or computer. Users can amass hundreds, even thousands, of followers who receive the users’ tweets on their respective phones or computers. Followers can respond back to the user with their comments or questions, thereby opening up an exchange or dialog on the subject at hand.

Maybe you view Twitter as a passing fad for the self-involved, or perhaps it seems too “tech-y” and confusing to get your head around. Whatever your issue is, it’s time to get over it. Twitter is a direct means of engaging with your clients or customers, and a way to get your name, information about your services, and your philosophies or thoughts out to potential and existing clients.

SEO expert P.J. Fusco, in her article Twitter 101: Tweetable SEO, lays out the importance of Twitter as part of a strong SEO marketing plan: “Twitter is about people, participation, and persuasion. Grasp this one concept and you’ll be able to surpass your online rivals to lead your niche in online marketing, brand buzz, and reputation management.” Set up a Twitter account today and you can be one of those who’s one step ahead of the competition.

Taking baby steps is OK. Your first step: sign up for an account. Go to Twitter and click the “Get Started – Join” button. Choose a user name (14 characters or less) that is easy to spell and remember. If your firm name is The Law Office of Caleb Kershner, a good username for your firm account could be ckershnerlaw.

Now enter something about yourself in the profile settings. Upload a photo, your company or firm logo, and a link to your website. In the “Bio” field include information of use to potential and existing clients, limited to 160 characters, and (like with your other SEO practices) include primary keyword phrases that would attract your targeted users and the search engines. If you focus your practice on criminal law, your description could read “I’m Caleb Kershner, criminal lawyer in Leesburg, VA and formerly a prosecuting attorney for Loudoun County. I handle DUI, traffic violations, and felony cases.”

Next, tweet something. Start with information about yourself, your practice, or a useful tip on an aspect of law. Post around 10 tweets over the course of a day or so that give potential followers an idea of what to expect from you. Use keywords within the posts to attract followers that could be searching on those terms.

Now that your account is set up and you’ve tweeted (congratulations!), you’re ready to search for people to follow. That will be our next topic. For now, set up a reminder in Outlook or on your mobile to tweet something at least once a day, so that you’ll get in the habit of tweeting. Keep your tweets informative and ask questions. Soon you’ll have followers who may answer back, opening up a dialog and maybe resulting in a business lead or client.

Photo courtesy of shubijam

It seems Google is using Twitter to find out what topics are hot enough to trigger the “Query Deserves Freshness” algorithm (that’s the algorithm that brings the newest pages to the top of the search results).

That made me stop and think. If Google is watching Twitter, shouldn’t I be watching Twitter too? What makes Twitter so valuable, anyway?

It all boils down to knowing what people are talking about and making the most of it. One of many tools to help you do this is Trendistic. Enter a couple of keywords about your practice or things that affect your practice, and see what has come up over the past 24 hours, 7 days, or whatever period takes your fancy. Also, take a look down the right hand column to see the most popular topics under discussion on Twitter right now.

Another tool, specifically useful for lawyers: LegalBirds. Use this Twitter directory of legal professionals to find competitors/colleagues and see if they are tweeting about a hot topic you should know about.

You can also utilize Twitter’s own Trending list. This list is based on location, not keyword, but it’s worth checking to see if you can relate any of the current hot topics to your area of expertise. How to use it:

• Look for a topic: Search for keywords related to your area of practice to see which ones are trending up. Then write a post on that topic.
• Find out when to post what you’ve already written: If you have a topic you expect to become popular – an upcoming conference, for example – let Twitter trends tell you when to post.

In both cases, post near the peak of the topic’s popularity.

How does this information help you?

• If there’s hot news about the legal industry, you can cash in on it as soon as it breaks. Add a short article to the front page of your web site and get pulled into the top news stories.
• Be the first to spot new trends and write about them on your web site. These are good for the front page or a strong sub page.
• Learn what people care about and use that to make your web site (and advertising) more effective.

Tracking hot topics on Twitter can give your website a freshness advantage that will result in higher ranking and thus more traffic around popular topics. By following Twitter, you could well become a leader.

Photo courtesy of sqback

On February 7, 2010 an explosion ripped through the Kleen Energy power plant in Middletown, Connecticut, killing five workers and injuring a dozen more. The blast, determined to have occurred while workers were purging a natural gas pipeline, caused property damage to the surrounding communities, and was heard as far as 20 miles away from Middletown, a southern suburb of Hartford.

Local police, fire fighters, search and rescue teams, and emergency crews were the first to respond, followed by forensic scientists, OSHA and other groups. This is fairly standard. But another, now-standard response also began – the response by some Hartford-area personal injury and workers compensation lawyers.

While more traditional methods of speaking with the families of victims and the injured were employed by the local attorneys, two Connecticut firms utilized online marketing to reach out to potential clients. How?

A search on Google for “Middletown explosion” brings up a local firm’s ad via Google’s “pay per click” keyword-driven advertising system. The ad headline: “Gas Explosion Cases – CT.” Clicking on this ad brings you to the personal injury law firm’s website.

Another firm created a series of eight videos about the explosion and posted them on YouTube. The videos are set up like news interviews, with the law firm partner answering questions on filing workers compensation claims and other related topics. Links to the law firm’s website are next to each video.

Without being able to see the number of click-throughs the ad is getting or knowing how many clients (if any) each firm has acquired as a result of these activities, we can’t know the specific outcomes of these firms’ online marketing efforts. The number of views of the videos on YouTube is not all that high, but, according to a Small Firm Business article, the firm does claim to have gotten one client via the videos.

Regardless, these attorneys have the right idea: a powerful way to reach the maximum number of people around a specific topic is under your fingers. Millions of searches are performed daily. For the cost of a few videos, or a modest budget for a pay-per-click ad, you can get your firm’s message out to hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of people. Even if it doesn’t result in a client right away, it does give you and your firm exposure, and a stronger online presence.

photo courtesy BJN

When a person searches for “Kentucky fried chicken“, Google’s primary goal is to try to understand whether you’re in Kentucky looking for fried chicken or in New Jersey (like I am) looking for the local KFC. In a nutshell, that’s an example of how a searcher’s environment… their associations and place in the world give context to the search that’s taking place.

With that goal firmly in their sights, Google has helped move us from the world where rankings are driven by keyword density to one where context is king. They are looking for cues of what the searcher (you and I) is really looking for when they search for Kentucky fried chicken. Take that same kind of richness of context and apply it to the text itself on your website. It has become increasingly important to ensure your website’s copy not only addresses your visitors’ core search, but their motivations and environment as well. What do I mean? In a simple example, when a person is interested in immigration, they also are likely to have questions or ideas about becoming a citizen, the naturalization process, getting a green card… legally, work in the US, visas, worker status, help and more. For both your user and your search engine rankings, this sort of in-depth understanding of the words and concepts related to your topic is key as we move into 2010 and 2011.

Great, Clay. You’ve proven you’re a nerd and like tangents (like Google does???). How can you put this sort of Latent Semantic Analysis (“LSA”) to work for me? I’ve found LSA is great for rankings but, more practically, it’s great for giving you ideas on where to go with your web content development. If you can tap in to the relationships and concepts associated with your topic, it makes it much easier to produce interesting copy that’s useful to your visitors.

Here’s how you can put LSA to work for you using “motorcycle accidents” as an example. Search for the phrase and note the first web URL they return that has good content on the landing page. Take that URL, copy it, and visit the Google Keyword Tool at https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Under “How would you like to generate keyword ideas?” select the Website content radio button. Paste the URL into the input box and check the “Include other pages on my site linked from this URL” checkbox. Click to search and Google will go out and gather LSA ideas for you! The results returned include grouped keywords centered around concepts.

The first URL returned is http://accident-law.freeadvice.com/auto/motorcycle_accident_statistics.htm. Analysis shows related concepts like personal injury, motorcycle helmets, safety, learning to ride, head on crash, motor bike crashes, etc. Note those LSA keywords.

Move on to another top URL returned by Google: http://www.vtwinmama.com/accident_survivors.htm. Using the Google Keyword Tool on this URL, we get more keyword concepts like Harley Davidson, motorcycle safety, leather motorcycle jacket, motorcycle class and more. Each URL you research will return variants that are often useful. Of course, there is a lot of repetition of concepts like motorcycle accident attorneys and motorcycle safety but there are always gems in the results.

Thoughts?

When working on a law firm SEO campaign, one of the trouble spots can sometimes be finding content. A lawyer’s time is valuable and, as a service provider, my team can’t spend all day with an attorney asking him/her for details of the practice. So the challenge becomes creating quality, easy content about a law firm without disturbing the firm more than necessary and without having to cite case law itself.

There are a number of content creation methods but let’s look at one example of low-hanging fruit: video. Yes, yes – everyone knows that online video is great and YouTube results get good rankings in Google. But what I’m talking about is using a lawyer video as the source of text content for the firm’s website. A prime example of easy content can be found on the website from Phoenix criminal lawyers Billar & Donald. The firm presents good information within the video… let’s use that on the website too! Take the time to transcribe the audio to text and include a few links in the text when doing so. Hey, maybe even experiment with publishing it as a PDF transcription. What’s great is that all of this can be done without having to produce new copy or pass the content in front of the powers that be for pre-publish approval.

In all, “easy content” can be produced as fast as you can listen and type if you use a video as the source. Sure, the search engines will eventually get good enough at understanding video to make this practice unnecessary, but as a content development technique – let’s say for accessibility – it’s a nice one to keep in your back pocket.

A quick search turns up a few service providers, for those not interested in doing the transcription themselves:

• www.videotranscription.net
• www.gmrtranscription.com
• www.transcriptionsservice.com
• www.transcriptionstar.com

P.S. It looks like Google has issued a standard for video transcripts.