Posted by Ryan Nelson on April 18, 2011 at 10:35 am
Media today is not media yesterday, and it might not be media tomorrow. As we move into a more digital era, however, there are still many forms of media and marketing that will be here for a while; the press release is one of them. Some say that the press release doesn’t work, while others believe it to be one of the best forms of SEO.
Those in the public relations industry and those in the SEO industry often are – and have been for years – too focused on only their respective industry. Many public relations agencies do not use SEO to their advantage, and many SEO experts focus on page ranking and back-linking, when other forms of public relations and marketing would help.
But this is starting to change a bit, and although there are some who say the press release is dying, it is in fact here to stay. The press release’s function is simply changing. If done correctly, they can benefit your audience and be a great source of relevant information.
Here are 5 tips for making your press release perform in the search engines:
Say it quickly. While this is true for all business and informational writing, it is even more so with the press release. Your audience wants the facts, and they want them fast. Internet readers are even more impatient than paper readers, so cut out any fluff. Furthermore, many sites will only offer readers a snippet of the first section of your article and leave out the rest, so it needs to grab attention right away.
Keywords at the beginning. The headline will be used by the search engines to auto-generate important HTML fields like the description tag, the header tags and title tag. These tags are what the search engines have to sort and index your article for queries. Use interesting, engaging keywords, and do it early. If a title is ten words, the first five will carry more weight with Google than the last five.
Hyperlinks. Use keywords that you are targeting to create links back to your site. Be sure to link them to specific pages, so that your efforts are not all going to just one page on your website. This gives readers more direct and relevant information, and will help with SEO efforts in the future.
Make it newsworthy. It’s up to the public relations and marketing community to keep press releases alive. Write about newsworthy topics that will help the general public – otherwise press releases will start to be seen as full-on advertising and people will stop reading them. Also, most press release websites have people proof reading them, and they will reject your article if it looks like propaganda or is not newsworthy.
Incorporate social media. You should post a link, at the very least, on your social media profiles, both business and personal. Social media is a great tool that can be used to spread the word on just about anything. It will spark conversation and keep people interested, so long as your release is stimulating!
For more information on Internet Marketing for Law Firms, contact us here, or at our legal web design website.
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Posted by Ryan Nelson on April 12, 2011 at 4:47 pm
April 11, 2011 (San Diego, CA) – After analysis of a report recently published by the New York State Bar Association, legal web design and marketing firm Legal Web Experts reports that law firms will need to modify and update their legal practices in order to stay ahead during a rough economic period for attorneys. Among other key modifications, legal website design and programming services can help keep clients and help the firm run more efficiently. The slow economy means not only that fewer people are seeking legal assistance; the needs of those who do seek legal counsel as well as legal professionals’ experiences working in law have also changed with the economy.
The report, titled “Report of the Task Force on the Future of the Legal Profession,” describes the changing climate within law and how the influence from the poor economic climate has affected the way law firms work. Beyond influencing client volume and services, the Bar Association’s report claims that the troubled economy calls for changes in the structure and billing methods of private law firms, new practices in the education and training of attorneys, the ways a dedicated lawyer must reconcile his or her personal/family life with a demanding work environment, and technology’s influence on legal firms. Clients are seeking to take more control of their legal services, have greater access to their attorneys, pay lower fees, and they are also more willing to fire their lawyer and seek a new one if they are unsatisfied with his or her performance. Many tasks within the office have been computerized, and the billing model has also been changed to reflect clients’ ideals.
The influence of technological advances on law firms has affected the way offices are run as well as client expectations of legal services. As more access and off-hours interaction with their attorneys afforded by online services – such as Virtual Law Offices – has brought increased client satisfaction, clients are now more insistent than ever on having comprehensive and full-access legal aide.
The virtual law office system allows for full interaction online or over-the-phone between client and attorney. Much of this interaction occurs via an online portal, where clients can log in securely and store important legal documents as well as file forms and communicate with their attorney. “We are currently working with three clients who are integrating virtual law offices into their websites,” reports Ryan Nelson, Director of Operations at Legal Web Experts. “When used properly, the system can save the law firm a lot of time and money.” Lawyers who choose to implement a virtual law office system can leverage technology to work more efficiently. As client needs and expectations have increased, it is essential for attorneys to adapt technology in their firms in order to keep their clients satisfied.
About Legal Web Experts
Legal Web Experts, a fully-owned subsidiary of New Wave Enterprises LLC, provides legal web development, design, and law firm marketing – including custom programming and virtual law office integration. For more information, visit www.legalwebexperts.com.
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Posted by Ryan Nelson on March 27, 2011 at 3:29 pm
Updated 8/25/2011 — Google, Yahoo and Bing have always had one goal: give people the most relevant search results possible that will provide them with the answers to their questions. As you can imagine, doing so is not always an easy task. It involves creating a formula, referred to as ‘algorithm’ in the industry, that will comb through millions of sites and find the most useful information. The trends we’ve seen in the recent months are to favor relevant content from trusted sources. As an attorney or law firm, you need to find a way to provide that content and make the search engines trust you.
So what can I do to appeal to the Search Engines?
While there is no simple answer, at our attorney web design and marketing firm, we have seen the growing importance of having new, original and relevant content on your site that is connected with your firm. Not only will you show up in more searches as you create more and more content, but Google will begin to look at your site as an authority. This is why Wikipedia, WebMd and other similar sites are continually appearing at the top of your search results. They have thousands of pages of relevant content that give browsers the answers they are looking for. By following that model, you can create a great form of marketing for your law firm.
Why is blogging a good option?
When you create a blog that is either linked to your site or contained within your site, you will be able to easily create and update posts yourself. Blogging software such a Blogger or WordPress are free, and any good legal web design company can integrate your blog into your site.
What do I blog about?
Lend them your ears: listen to what your current clients are saying. What questions come up continuously? Start blogging about these issues; if current clients are having them, there are 10x more potential clients out there that are having the same issues. If you can be the trusted source when they put their questions into Google, your site will get traffic and you will get new clients. Further, blogging about topics in the news also helps. Follow legal trends closely and write your opinion about any big issues. Doing this, people may see your article and post a link on their site (or Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and this will increase the value of your site in the eyes of the search engines.
Can I do this myself?
If you don’t yet have a website, just start a blog for now. Having a website is necessary because it will help you monitor much more closely your marketing efforts, and it looks more professional; however, if you don’t yet have the resources for this, just get started with the` blog for now. Wordpress and Blogger are both free and good options, and a web design company can customize it for you in the future.
How much to I need to write?
What we recommend is an entry of about four paragraphs each week. But, you can never be writing too much. Try to have two or three people in your office each make one post a week on a relevant topic. Having three posts a week will start to give you results after a few months. Our company and many others also offer content writing services. These are a good option since marketing companies know how to write and post links that will boost search engine rankings for both your blog and your website. You can use your site and your blog to leverage each other and increase your legal service’s search engine appeal.
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Posted by Ryan Nelson on March 4, 2011 at 2:13 pm
What exactly is eDiscovery?
Discovery, of course, is the initial phase in litigation when both parties gather, submit, and exchange any information or evidence that is relevant to the case. E-discovery is the same, except it is specific to any type of data that is stored electronically. This data may include emails, attachments, storage media, text/instant messages, computer logs, and just about anything else held in an electronic device. As people rely more and more on these devices each day, keeping track of it all becomes not only more difficult but also more important.
Fortunately, there are companies who specialize in this. They vary in the specific types of procedures, the methods used, and of course the cost. From industry consensus, hiring one company to handle all aspects (identification, preservation, collection, archiving, analyzing) is generally the best idea. While we at Legal Web Experts do not have experience with the eDiscovery process, we understand the headaches that are alleviated from choosing to deal with one provider. It’s the same in the legal web design and marketing industry, so your best bet here is to pick one good company and stick with it. So, how do you pick one?
Choosing a software provider: 5 tips that can help you choose a provider
1. Don’t break your stride.
The eDiscovery process can take a long time, and the company you hire will need access to a lot of your workers’ files and information. Make sure that the company is flexible and can work around your employees, not disrupting their day-to-day activities. While some companies will do the process remotely, others come on-site to collect the data. One may not necessarily be more effective than the other, but if they are coming on site during normal working hours, it could be disruptive.
2. How is it all sorted?
The necessary data should be easy to find once it is discovered and indexed. Make sure there will be some type of search function and a good, well mapped out index so that it can all be sorted and classified systematically.
3. Tread lightly
The data that is searched for and found must not be altered or harmed in any way. Any company in the legal internet and electronic industry will be very careful in doing this. Ask the provider to explain exactly how they will collect the information and not corrupt it in any way. The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) is the eDiscovery industry’s standard for procedures. Make sure they are up-to-date on these and fully certified.
4. Integration electronically
While we noted integration into the work day of your employees is important, the system must also–and even more importantly so–integrate into your electronic system. This means support across multiple email platforms, phone software and storage systems. Their software must be able to open and configure any file type. If you have a PC and you’ve ever had trouble with opening a file from a Mac, you know what we mean. It is unacceptable to have this happen in eDiscovery.
5. Turnaround Time
The software and the provider need to be effective right away. Having something that will only provide information after months of discovery is near useless. Ask the provider about time constraints and make sure you can obtain critical information quickly.
For your firm, the discovery process is simple. Choosing a good provider of eDiscovery is crucial and should be done now if you ever envision needing the services. As attorneys need to access electronic data more and more frequently, getting it off the ground now gives you a big advantage.
For any other advice about attorney web design and marketing services, you can contact us from here.
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Posted by Ryan Nelson on February 28, 2011 at 1:31 am
Google announced last Thursday that they have made a change in their algorithm in an effort to increase the visibility of sites with high-quality content and filter out sites with low-quality content. Periodically Google will make such an announcement if the change is one that will effect a large number of queries. This change is anticipated to effect about 11.8% of all searches. The change to Google’s algorithm is nothing new or unusual. Google makes about 500 changes to their algorithm a year, but most are very minor tweaks.
The changes are coming about as Google has been hearing a number of complaints about certain sites dubbed ‘content-farms’. These sites, like ezinearticles.com and suite101.com, take information sumbitted by users or stolen from other sites and use it to automatically generate content on popular search queries. As a result, they will appear high in a search query on the related topic, as Google ranks them partially based on the amount of content the site has. Google’s new alteration is yet another in a series of changes to find sites with the highest-quality, original content.
“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites — sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other Web sites or sites that are just not very useful,” says Amit Singhal, the head of Google’s core ranking team.
How Might This Affect Your Firm’s Rankings?
This change will not affect the large majority of sites, helping many. High-quality content has always been a key to search engine rankings. In our legal web design and marketing company, we have realized that and begun a large push to writing new content. This often means creating a blog or rewriting and adding content to your current attorney site. Creating a blog either within your site or one that links to your site is a good step forward, so long as you actually update it.
Consider creating a blog for your law firm’s website and either hiring someone to write it, or using someone on staff who is a good writer. The more frequently you update the blog with quality content, the better. If the writer does not have experience in writing to appeal to search engines, have them read up on it to get an understanding of keyword density and writing on relevant topics.
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Posted by Ryan Nelson on February 24, 2011 at 12:06 pm
We always get the same two questions when a firm comes to us looking to establish or better their online presence: Where do we start? and How will you help grow our firm?
The first answer is rather simple: you need to start with a well developed website that is built to perform well in search engines. The second answer is a bit more complex, but in this post I will explain the steps that any law firm must take to gain momentum and use the web to find attract new clients.
1. Website Design
When you are selecting someone to develop a law firm website, make sure you ask them how they will search engine optimize your actual site. This means creating headers, footers, tags and ‘metadata’ that search engines can read and will use to rank your page. Be careful if you choose to use a template site, because often it will not be optimized. Its low cost only allows for a generic template that will likely be missing these crucial factors. Having an optimized site is the first step in an online marketing campaign.
2. Search Engine Marketing
Marketing your site through search engine optimization is the next key factor. We often use a simple analogy to explain why this is a necessary element if you want to gain new clients: If you are opening a store, what is the first advice you get from outsiders? Location, location, location. You might have the nicest store–or website–in the whole world, but if no one can find you, you go out of business. On the web, people, especially younger generations, find you today through search engines. The word ‘lawyer’, for example, is searched over four million times each month. The term ‘lawyer New York City’ is search more than 18,000 times. Showing up on the first page of those searches means more clients, plain and simple.
There are many ways to help you get ranked in the search engines, but as more sites spring up every day, it is most important that you get your site up and live as soon as you can. Search engines favor older, more established sites — the longer you wait to launch a site, the harder and more expensive your marketing efforts will become. To help your firm grow, you should find a legal marketing and web design company that has experience in both fields. There are many to choose from, but be sure that you go with a reputable company that has a good track record.
Posted by Ryan Nelson on February 23, 2011 at 1:19 pm
In working closely with law firms and legal software, legal web design firm Legal Web Experts is reporting an increased trend toward virtual law offices in recent years. A method of delivering legal services from anywhere the client or attorney can access the Internet, virtual law offices are joining a trend set by other industries in taking many primary business functions online.
While a traditional law office requires much face-to-face contact and constant in-person meetings, a virtual law office has the advantage of delivering legal services completely online and over the phone. This is done through an online client portal allowing clients to log in and communicate securely with their attorney. This portal affords the same amount of security as an online bank login, and a similar system (dubbed a “patient portal”) is becoming increasingly popular amongst physician practice and hospital websites.
The legal client portal allows for full interaction between client and attorney up through payment transactions. This is not only a more convenient system for clients; the online access means that they can consult with their attorneys and resolve legal matters without leaving home. Many portals also feature legal document storage, filing, legal forms, organization of legal documents, and other services. Clients of virtual law offices can access their legal documents through an online portal with no need to contact their attorney in advance.
The system also has many advantages for law firms. Virtual law firms are often completely paperless, which saves money, space, and has added environmental benefits. They also enjoy lower overhead expenses, more flexible hours and travel considerations, and the ability to reach out to clients in different locations. “Virtual law offices aren’t just a new opportunity for law firms who are in the market for more clients,” says Ryan Nelson, Director of Operations at legal website design firm Legal Web Experts. “They’re a way to increase the quality of your services and improve the way you run your practice.” With the growing trend of legal practices leveraging technology to improve and streamline services, Legal Web Experts predicts that the American legal community will see an increasing number of virtual law firms offering accessible, online legal services in the coming years.
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Posted by Ryan Nelson on January 2, 2011 at 8:29 pm
Welcome to our Blog. We created this blog to keep attorneys and law firms informed about the latest trends in marketing, specifically for attorneys, and to learn more about it from the online community. There are millions of pages about marketing and how to power a business, and it’s easy to get lost in them. Our goal with this blog is to find the information that is relevant to attorneys. We want this to be an area to collaborate — to share what we know and to listen to what you want. If you want to contribute, please contact us at info@legalwebexperts.com or just leave a comment.
Thanks and enjoy!
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