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:
I haven’t seen it on TV yet, but the SearchEngineWatch Blog has put up notice that there’s a new Yahoo! television ad spot that’s supposed to start running soon. Here’s the video:
Did it excite you? *Yawn* was my reaction. Will this move the needle for Yahoo! search like Bing’s recent ad campaign?
It’s no secret that, during the day, I work for LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell as the Director of Web Services. That means that I have the daily opportunity to meet and speak with lawyers about their Internet marketing goals. As much as I learn about the business of law from the firms themselves, I like to give back and offer free online SEM/SEO advice to law firms. That’s where webinars and online video excel – easy delivery of information to a wide audience. So what online SEM advice have I made available to lawyers?
2008 Legal Marketing Videos – two online videos presenting i) the basics of Search Engine Marketing and ii) introduction to Search Engine Marketing services at LexisNexis
Now I’m the last person to want to be an Internet star and, yes, shooting a video can be a difficult process but the folks at LexNex were excited to give the “new” mediums of online video and self-guided webinars a try. These productions are very basic – so if you’re an SEO wizard already, these probably won’t benefit you very much. But, for the typical lawyer, these provide an easy to understand entry into the world of SEM.
Google will freely give you (almost) all the information you need to build websites that rank well and/or return investment on PPC campaigns. Often, I will try to use information they give about their AdWords paid advertising system to shed light on the natural SEO world. A recent review of the Google Advertising Professional (“GAP”) literature revealed a few new nuggets about video optimization that I think are useful to keep in mind. Since many lawyers are exploring law firm videos, I thought I’d present those ideas here.
Create a descriptive and eye-catching opening image (the image which users see before playing the video).
Entice users to click ‘play’ by using rich, sharp colors.
Include a few words to describe the product, service, and/or company.
Boost play rate with a call to action that tells users they can play the video to learn more.
Create multiple video ads with different opening image sizes to increase the number of placements where your ad is eligible to appear.
Keep the video engaging and no longer than necessary (play rates drop off significantly after 45 seconds).
Be clear about business offers.
Deliver key messages early in the video, because users may not watch the whole thing.
Provide clear next steps for users to take after finishing the video, such as making a purchase or visiting the website or store.
This is definitely great advice for all who are interested in online video optimization. Thanks Google!
In an interesting twist, the article also addresses law firms in this way: lawyers sometimes are too interested in telling you about every minute detail of their expertise rather than provide an easy to understand intro to orient clients. For law firms interested in video marketing, Google’s advice not only provides technical tips, but it reminds us that a solid lead-in is very important to engage and communicate your message to the viewer.
The idea that the video should provide an avenue for action is a good, but problematic one. Of course they mean the video should include a telephone number and/or URL, but how well are you tracking that to video as the conversion mechanism? Meaning, your video will be distributed on YouTube.com, Yahoo Video and the like. Clients who come from your video will not be easily tracked with that as the client acquisition device. Consider using a unique, tracked telephone number in your video projects. Additionally, direct viewers to a URL that is unique to your video’s message. Clients calling that number or visiting that web page can be tracked as a return on your law firm video optimization investment.
In all, lawyers interested in video optimization should remember: i) keep it short; ii) provide a solid intro; and iii) use unique URL and telephone info in the video intro and conclusion for the sake of ROI calculation.
