Category: Web Visibility

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Tips to Moving Your Law Website Away from FindLaw.com – Part One

We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing
We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Internet Marketing

Are you moving your law website away from FindLaw.com due to high monthly payments; sometimes over $2,800? You are not the only law firm that is planning ahead to move out!

As a professional internet marketing consultant, I find it very hard to believe that a $2,800 a month charge is not “bringing home the bacon” in regards to leads. Although FindLaw.com may be the perfect place for some law firms, I have one firm I am working with right now that does not feel that way and has complained about the high costs and low lead numbers.

We are moving this firm away from FindLaw.com and here are some tips to consider if you are considering moving out as well.

Do not wait until the last minute.
FindLaw.com requires a 90 day notice that you are leaving. Don’t miss this deadline or you will be forced to renew another year. That’s what happened to our client. He was so aggravated, that he made a note on his calendar for the next year and contacted us to move.

When you decide to move get started on a new website.
Don’t wait to get started on a new site. You may need 90 days to get your new site up. Although FindLaw says that the site you paid for and “own” (minus all their scripting that makes it work and images that makes your site beautiful)  is yours to move, I can tell you that the static site is nearly worthless and you may pay more to try to fix it than to simply start over.

Consider the static site they give you as a temporary  “Band-Aid”
The static site we got has missing scripts, missing images, the code is one huge glob, not even readable, navigation elements are missing or in our client’s case weirdly commented out to not show in the source code.  Consider this a site you can use only after significant cleanup for one to max. two years.

Push hard and early to get your static site sent to you.
We had to push the FindLaw rep to give us the static site 70 days out from stopping services to allow us time to try to fix anything we could. What we got I would call marginal. Don’t let them give you the static site a few days before you leave. Your webmaster will need a minimum of 30 days to work it over for it to work and look “good”.

Make sure to check back Wednesday for more on moving your site out of FindLaw.

 

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SEO Consultant or SEO Therapist

Looking for capable and competent help with SEO?
Looking for capable and competent help with SEO?

I am an SEO consultant NOT an SEO therapist! What a statement you might think, but more often than not, I am called by prospective clients that think that all they really need is an SEO therapist or SEO answer-man. They think that by getting their questions answered they can continue to do what they are doing and achieve placement in Google.

SEO is a craft and an art. What I would do as part of a program to improve visibility is not something that a do-it-yourselfer would routinely do or for that matter do well.

Want to Improve Organic Placement? Here’s What to Do

  1. Hire a qualified person.
  2. Make sure you have a reporting program to verify strategy.
  3. Don’t go on the cheap.
  4. Make sure you have a content strategy for your blog.
  5. Know your target keywords for your website content.
  6. Nail your keywords in your blog and website content.
  7. Don’t fragment your business into mini 1-3 page websites.
  8. Do regularly build out targeted content.
  9. Don’t go crazy with keyword stuffing, be readable!
  10. Do use AdWords to boost website traffic.

More often then not, I see successful lawyers, entrepreneurs, and successful business people feel that they can easily do their own SEO work. The truth is that a professional with the knowledge to help you garner placement over time and to be honest with you and accountable is worth their weight in gold.

If you are looking for a capable consultant to get you pointed in the right direction, I invite you to visit our website to learn more about our SEO and web visibility services.

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Site Chat = Leads + Sales

Online Site Chat Let's You Connect Immediately.
Online Site Chat Let’s You Connect Immediately.

Site chat apps do generate leads which do turn into sales.  I am a living testimony to that. Since I have installed the Drift app, which is an online chat app, I have had about 5 chats, some just about questions but two about services. One moved into contract and has spent about $4,000 for my services.

I’d say that having the chat function on my website has been good for business. What’s even better is that I am always on, but do not always enter a response immediately to a chat. Even with a live chat function, you can have weekends and a real life. Your business does not need to own you.

I do feel that my prospects do like the friendliness and immediacy of  live chat. The paid version of Drift, which I am using as a free version, does has an automated bot that fills in the gaps with responses which is nice and I may upgrade to it if I get more big sales.

I find that the really serious clients start out on the chat app but then move readily to email and then to phone calls. The client that found me via my online site chat closed in less than one week.

So, if you are looking for more sales, I do recommend installing on your website an online chat function. Drift is just one of them to consider, but there are others.

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Do You Have a Content Production Schedule?

Do you need a content production strategy?
Do you need a content production schedule? Yes you do!

A content production schedule, what’s that? Even if you do not blog and pay a service to blog for you, or if you don’t blog at all, a content production schedule is key to improving your organic search placement over time.

Start first by evaluating your important traffic generating keywords
You can typically identify the top keywords for your website by reviewing what generates the most leads for you in Google AdWords or by pouring over your Google Analytics statistics.

Take time to build website or blog content that speaks to these important topics
If you convert on a particular keyword phrase, make sure you are using it in your content or build out new website content to specifically address these phrases.  If you blog, consider using those important keywords in your blog posts.

Monitor your organic placement on your target terms
To see if you are moving up organically on your chosen terms focus for a full 30 days on building 12 blog posts or three website pages over 1,000 words each that speak to the phrase you are evaluating.

Make sure to measure placement before and at the 30 day mark. You may need another 30 to 90 days of hitting those same terms before you will start to see movement.

Plan your content ahead 30 days out
After you have evaluated your placement. Start a spreadsheet and create your page content or blog post titles that are keyword dense and then schedule time or have your writer create interesting informational articles that speak to these topics.

If you need help with a blog writing strategy for your website to boost your organic placement, make sure to visit our website to find out how we can help you with  a content strategy that works.