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Why (and How) Your Law Firm Should Use Website Pop-ups

For a while there, it seemed as though every website was using pop-ups just for the sake of jumping onboard the trend. Now that the furor has died down, we’ve had a chance to learn about how website pop-ups best contribute to the user experience.

With fewer websites utilizing pop-up messaging, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of. It’s simply a matter of understanding why visitors want to see website pop-ups and knowing how to effectively design them for to meet that expectation.

Why Should Your Law Firm Use Website Pop-ups?

Pop-ups are primarily something used to communicate a special message to visitors of your website. Most commonly, these messages aim to seal the deal and convert visitors into paying clients (or, at the very least, get them part of the way there).

And they’re pretty darn effective in doing so, too.

According to a Sumo study of nearly 2 billion pop-ups, it found the average conversion rate of a website pop-up to be 3.09%.

On the other hand, it found that pop-ups that were especially done well had a conversion rate of nearly 10%.

Think about that for a second.

Let’s say you were to use a free WordPress plugin to add pop-ups to your website. Aside from the initial configuration of the plugin and the ongoing monitoring piece, there isn’t much of a time or monetary investment.

In exchange, three to ten visitors out of every 100 “convert”. This could mean they sign up for a consultation, subscribe to a newsletter, or become a paying client. But those are three to ten more people you wouldn’t have necessarily converted if it hadn’t been for the pop-up.

Tips for Using Website Pop-ups Effectively for Your Law Firm

Now, with a law firm website, you want to be careful about how you use pop-ups as your pages contain vital information for prospective clients and you don’t want them to get in the way of that.

Here are some tips for using website pop-ups effectively for your law firm.

Tip #1: Consider the Type

Typically, there are three styles of pop-ups:

Modals -These are the traditional pop-ups that open in the middle of the screen.

Interstitials -These take up the full screen and are usually encountered upon first entering a website or right before leaving.

Banners – These are small strips that stick to the very top or bottom of the screen.

As screen sizes get smaller and visitors adopt pop-up blindness, banners are a smart choice. That said, there are some instances where a larger modal pop-up makes sense (like sharing a privacy statement or soliciting visitors to subscribe to a newsletter). Think about what you need to ask, where the ideal placement is, and then choose the right style.

Tip #2 Be Aware of Google’s Penalties

Google penalizes websites that improperly use pop-ups on mobile. Since Google now ranks websites based on their mobile versions, it’s important to abide by these guidelines.

Google has three rules it asks website owners to follow:

Never allow a pop-up to cover more than a quarter of the web page, effectively blocking out essential information behind it.

Never display a pop-up on the first page of a website and keep visitors from getting to the page they expected (unless it’s a privacy statement or age-related gate).

Never use pop-ups that confuse visitors in terms of interaction (e.g. pop-ups that take up a full page, but can’t be dismissed because they require a user to scroll).

Basically, if it confuses visitors or intrudes on their ability to quickly access information, don’t use it.

Tip #3: Add Value

Unlike something like an e-commerce site that can display pop-ups to advertise special deals, promote a free gift, or ask visitors not to abandon a shopping cart, a law firm’s options are a bit more limited in scope. When creating pop-ups, think about what sorts of messages would be relevant and add value.

Take, for example, this banner from Small Law.

It’s a brief news bulletin at the top of the website. When you click on it, you’re taken to a special page that announces their move to new offices (which is helpful for clients trying to find them).

With privacy an ongoing concern (especially in light of GDPR in Europe), more and more websites are displaying privacy notices in pop-ups as Springhouse Solicitors has done:

There’s the example of the triggered pop-up on the Arnold & Itkin LLP website:

The free case evaluation pop-up only opens after a visitor clicks on the pen-and-paper icon stuck to the right side of the screen.

Live chat is another way to wisely use website pop-ups that are relevant to the content of the site and will be well-received by visitors.

Tip #4: Time It Just Right

Obviously, throwing a pop-up onto the screen the second someone enters is a bad idea. As such, take some time to understand your client’s journey as he or she walks through the site, so you can deliver a pop-up when they actually want to see it.

Tip #5: Keep the Design Simple

Keep all aspects of a pop-up simple and attractive:

Make the pop-up small, but darken the site behind it so as not to distract from the message.

Use minimal messaging and images, but display a strong call-to-action button.

Include a contact form, but make it quick and painless to fill out (no more than two or three fields).

Have an easy way out (an “X” in the right corner), but make the offer in the pop-up so intriguing they can’t help but click on it.

  Website Pop-ups Are Here to Stay

The style of website pop-ups and the abundance of them may have changed, but that doesn’t negate the fact that they continue to be a powerful marketing tool. If you’d like to explore ways in which you can use pop-ups on your law firm’s website, give us a shout and we’d be happy to discuss the possibilities.

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8 Best Online Review Tools for Law Firms

There are a number of reasons why online reviews are crucial for law firms [link to article]. In addition to reviews helping you quickly and effortlessly bolster your reputation online, they improve prospective clients’ ability to choose a law firm that will serve their needs best.

It might seem as though there isn’t much work to do in terms of generating online reviews. But once you start reviewing and managing reviews, you’ll see that there’s much more to it than meets the eye.

That’s because online review management is also about reputation management and relationship management.

Because there is so much that goes into managing online reviews, you don’t want to try to do this on your own. It’ll leave you feeling frustrated as you spend excessive amounts of time hunting down reviews left around the web. Or, worse, discovering that clients haven’t felt inclined to leave any reviews at all.

You need to take ownership of your online review channels and optimize the way they are managed. You can do this with online review tools.

  8 Best Online Review Tools for Law Firms

Online review tools perform a number of functions. Your goal in choosing one is to find the tool that streamlines as much of the work involved in online review management as possible.

1. BirdEye

Highlights from BirdEye:

Take control of all your online business listings and create a consistent message for your firm across each platform.

The second a negative review is left somewhere, you will be notified so you can respond.

Send review requests by email (or SMS) to clients after their cases have wrapped.

BirdEye isn’t just an online review tool. It has other tools for reputation management, like social media sharing and search rank monitoring.

  2. Grade.us

Highlights from Grade.us:

Receive real-time updates whenever you receive a new online review.

Create automated review campaigns and send to clients via email, text, or printed cards.

Share review highlights directly to your website (which helps with SEO) or your social feeds.

Respond to reviews left on Facebook or Google from your dashboard.

  3. Law Review

Highlights from Law Review:

Use this to build a better balance of reviews on the platforms you want feedback left on (e.g. Google, Yelp, Avvo).

Automate review requests and drive clients to your preferred landing page.

Monitor your Net Promoter Score to see what all of these reviews and feedback translate to for your law firm.

Convert the best online reviews into testimonials for your WordPress site.

  4. Podium

Highlights from Podium:

Podium provides review request templates you can then text or email to clients.

Whenever new online reviews post, you’ll be notified right away, giving you a chance to respond in a timely manner.

Gain insights into keywords that commonly show up in your reviews so you may infer what this says about your firm.

Compare your online reviews and overall firm reputation with up to five competitors.

  5. Pozative

Highlights from Pozative:

It’s free to use.

Sync your Facebook and Google online review pages to your account and drive clients directly to them with a text message.

Before Pozative sends them to the review platform, it asks if they were satisfied. If they say “no”, it gives clients a chance to email you directly with the negative feedback instead of posting it online.

Upload your recent client lists and automate these review requests.

  6. ReviewPush

Highlights from ReviewPush:

Receive instant email notifications when new reviews publish. You also have the option to respond to reviews from those emails.

Use this to keep tabs on how each of your firm’s locations are performing and drill down into what’s working and what’s not.

If you have more than one person in charge of managing online reviews—like an assistant at each location—grant them custom access to the dashboard.

ReviewPush scans the web to make sure you have and own an online review page on all key channels.

  7. ReviewTrackers

Highlights from ReviewTrackers:

Choose from over 100 online review sources to connect to your ReviewTrackers dashboard.

Connect with your most satisfied clients and ask them to leave you a review.

Multi-location law firms can use this to monitor how each brand is doing in terms of client satisfaction.

ReviewTrackers helps you manage review generation, monitoring, and responses. It’s also a full-scale reputation management platform so you can keep an eye on the competition as well as your individual firm’s performance.

  8. Synup

Highlights from Synup:

Includes a free listings and reputation scan to tell you what the current state of your firm’s review channels looks like.

Synup doesn’t just monitor online reviews. It will also scour social media for mentions of your law firm.

Use the review response templates to ensure you respond to feedback in a professional manner.

Not only can you monitor all reviews and mentions from a single dashboard, but you can leave internal notes so you have a record of action taken on them.

  Summary

By now, you have a good sense for how important online reviews are to your law firm. In addition to helping you win more clients, they also provide a great opportunity to learn more about what your firm is doing well and what it needs to improve upon.

With one of these review tools on your side, you can optimize your online review management efforts while still keeping your focus on running your law firm.

If you’re not feeling confident about managing your firm’s reviews and think an online review tool will only create more work for you, then it might be time to outsource to Trial Law Digital. Contact us today to schedule a quick discovery call.

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Bad Reviews Are Bad for Business: What Will You Do with Them?

Online reviews are a crucial part of marketing for your law firm. They enable clients to provide a recommendation of your services while also providing others with insights into your process. It’s a great way to drum up business for your firm.

But, as you’re well aware, not every client is going to walk away satisfied.

As such, you can expect any grievances clients feel towards your law firm to eventually make their way to the online review platform of their choosing in the form of bad reviews. So, what do you do?

Lash out in anger?

Shrink away in denial?

Get defensive?

Delete your business page on that platform and hope that shuts down the criticism?

This brief guide will teach you what to do with those bad reviews.

  What to Do with Bad Reviews Online

Bad reviews happen to even the best of law firms. You see it all the time. They have near-perfect 5-star ratings, with the exception of a few bad reviews. While they might not be enough to destroy a law firm’s reputation, the way in which they’re handled could turn prospective clients’ scrutiny to complete distrust in no time at all.

So, here is what you need to do to handle bad reviews properly:

  1. Read All of Them

There’s no point in trying to ignore bad reviews (or even online reviews altogether). Whether or not you publish a business page for your law firm on Google My Business, Facebook, or Yelp, your clients will find a way to have that page created so they can leave reviews for others to find.

That means you should take ownership of those key review platforms and, then, use an online review tool to seamlessly monitor and manage them all in one place.

2. Always Respond

Clients are leaving reviews online – especially in popular forums – because they want to be heard. If you stay quiet, it’s only going to stoke the fires even more.

Worse, if you leave a comment like this hanging with no reply, you’ll instill fear in prospective clients who use online reviews to vet the qualifications of law firms. Don’t give anyone a reason to think your law firm is unprofessional or uncaring, even if the case has long since closed. All feedback is worth your time.

3. Don’t Take It Personally

When it comes to engaging with bad reviews online, remember that it isn’t personal. There’s no need to make excuses for why one of your lawyers acted the way he or she did or to try to pass the buck for why you lost a case.

The client is upset about the outcome and is looking for a way to lash out. Don’t make the response be about you and do not, under any circumstances, reveal details of their case as a way to justify the complaint.

4. Verify That It’s a Legitimate Review

One of the problems with enabling consumers to leave feedback online is the anonymity of it. If someone held a personal grudge against your law firm, they could do so without having to submit any real proof they were ever a client.

In this example, the reviewer was indeed a client unhappy with their results. However, they decided to immaturely lash out while referencing a workshop they hadn’t taken part in. The firm’s partner did a good job of stepping forward to correct this inaccuracy so that readers of the review would understand the context from which it came.

5. Be Sincere

One of the things you should always do when responding to a bad review is to thank the reviewer for their input. Just remember that it needs to be sincere. If your response sounds canned or like you’re subtly giving them the brush off, you run the risk of increasing their attacks on your firm like this:

It’s also not a good sign when others “Like” the negative feedback they’ve left for you. Someone is clearly listening to the conversation, which means you’re losing business as a result.

6. Stay Calm

Another thing to keep in mind is that you want to keep things civil and never go on the offense. Stay calm, respond succinctly, and try to leave it on a positive note if you can’t work to resolve the issue.

7. Take It in Private

When a bad review hits the Internet, don’t continue the conversation in public. When possible, respond to their review online and try to move them to a phone call.

While it would be great if you could resolve their complaint and get them to change their review to a more positive one, that won’t always be the case. Even if they don’t change their mind, you’ve conducted yourself with decorum which may lessen the damage the review could’ve otherwise done.

8. Learn from Bad Reviews

Often, consumers look to reviews to sniff out common trends in complaints. So the last thing you want to do is receive bad review after bad review that says your lawyers were unresponsive or that your law firm charged exorbitant fees.

Use these bad reviews as a way to learn where your law firm falls short and repair your business accordingly so that no one has any reason to leave another bad review again.

Bad Reviews Are Bad for Business

The world wide web has given consumers a way to air their every thought, complaint, and desire in the public forum. Which means there’s no getting away from the fact that bad reviews abound online.

Online reputation management can be difficult for a law firm, especially when you’re busy tackling cases for current clients. Reach out to Trial Law Digital today and let’s talk about how we can help.

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Law Firm Facebook Ads to Inspire Your Own Paid Marketing Strategy

What began as a means for connecting college students to one another, and later became a way to stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues, Facebook is now a key element in a business’s marketing strategy. And that includes law firms.

There’s much that can be said about the viability of Facebook as a social media marketing platform for lawyers. There’s even more to say about how law firms have to be prepared to put time and money into it in order for it to work in their favor.

Now, you’re no stranger to the idea of using Facebook ads to connect with prospective clients. You know why they must be part of your marketing strategy and you even know how to use Facebook ads effectively.

Today, we want to show you some real-life examples of law firms that are using Facebook ads to connect with new clients. Each of them plays to their unique strengths and should serve as inspiration as you work on writing and designing your own.

  11 Examples of Law Firm Facebook Ads to Inspire Your Own

As Facebook says:

Be it Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger, placing your ads in front of prospective clients at the right time and in the right format could drive a significant amount of new business to your law firm.

But, first, you must have ads that grab attention in a meaningful way. This may mean:

Promoting your law firm’s website and services in a relatable manner.

Promoting a blog post that’s informative and valuable to your prospective clients.

Sharing of recent news that strikes at the emotional core of clients and why they’d seek out your legal services in the first place.

Offering free consultation services.

And more.

Here are some inspiring examples from around Facebook that we’re particularly fond of (and why):

Arnold & Itkin

Arnold & Itkin is a Houston-based law firm that represents personal injury cases. As such, they promote related messages in their Facebook ads:

At first glance, this may seem totally self-promotional. However, the post itself discusses a specific type of injury and one that’s relevant to those living in the Gulf regions, too.

Video does extremely well on Facebook, so it’s a smart move on Arnold & Itkin’s part to include a playable video right within a sponsored post. Video is much easier and quicker to consume, so this helps appeal to prospects who might not take time to read the message.

One other example from Anold & Itkin that’s particularly rave-worthy is this blog post promotion. There’s a brief description of the accident paired with an eye-catching image and clearly written headline. It’s bound to get lots of attention.

  Cellino & Barnes

Cellino & Barnes is a personal injury law firm based out of New York state. While this particular sponsored post is generic in nature, it has two things going for it:

Unique imagery sets an otherwise unforgettable ad apart from anything else in a targeted user’s news feed. Pair that with the free consultation offer, and they’ve given them something worth clicking on.

  Cordell & Cordell

Cordell & Cordell is a domestic litigation firm for men. That highly targeted specialty, in and of itself, gives their marketing strategy an edge. But the ads they share with their prospective male audience are quite unique too:

We have another great example here of video used in Facebook ads. However, take a closer look at the message and link. They’re not promoting a client testimonial or blatantly trying to sell their legal services. This ad promotes an upcoming webinar.

This ad makes it a little more obvious that a webinar is being promoted. But check out the title beside the webinar details: “The 10 Stupidest Mistakes Men Make When Facing Divorce (and How to Avoid Them)”. If that’s not a killer hook, I don’t know what is.

  Greenberg & Bederman, LLC

Greenberg & Bederman, LLC is a law firm that focuses on personal injury cases. A number of their specialties revolve around harm caused by the medical or pharmaceutical industries, and they’re using Facebook ads to get the message out:

This is a good example of how to offer value without going straight to the sell. The image isn’t necessarily pretty to look at, but it does get the message across:

DANGER.

Here’s another example of how this law firm uses a sense of risk and urgency to pique curiosity and draw attention to their ads:

Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton

The personal injury law firm of Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton boasts the claim that they “are committed to helping individuals from every walk of life stand up for their rights and fight for the justice they deserve.”

Being a law firm with a wide range of specialties falling under personal injury, you might think they’d go the boring route and just promote their page… which they did:

But take a closer look at that message. They’re not just asking for meaningless Likes to drive up the number of followers on Facebook. They promise safety tips in return.

They’ve also run ads that promote a specialty, but do so by promoting a blog post on the site, which gives this particular message more value:

What makes their Facebook advertising efforts even more special is that they aren’t just zeroing in on their areas of specialty. They’ve used ads like this one to reach a particular kind of client:

Because this kind of legal case is so specific, it’s much easier for the firm to target ads to artists, writers, developers, musicians, and others who have had their work stolen.

  Wrap-Up

With a little bit of creativity, a well-chosen image or video, and a value-driven message, your Facebook ad campaigns can be a highly effective way to gain more clients. But it does take some work and research to get this formula right, which is why you should work with a Facebook Ads professional [link to Facebook Ads page on TLD… when it’s ready] who can handle it all for you. And ensure you maximize results from this investment.

Get in touch with Trial Law Digital today and let us know what we can do for you.

The post Law Firm Facebook Ads to Inspire Your Own Paid Marketing Strategy appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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Facebook Ads — A How-To for Attorneys

You’ve probably wondered at some point if Facebook would be a worthwhile investment in terms of adding it to your social media strategy. The answer to that is “yes”… but it comes with a major caveat.

Facebook is a must-have in an attorney’s social media strategy, but it must be handled with care. Because Facebook regularly changes its algorithms, and it’s more and more growing in favor of those willing to pay to play, it’s important to adjust your strategy to align with Facebook’s “rules”.

Facebook may not officially be a pay-to-play platform, but there’s no way to make any progress with its audience if you don’t. At least to start. Facebook isn’t the only one doing this either. Google has given more of its precious real estate to those willing to pay for ad placements. Amazon has now begun to do the same. This is the marketing landscape nowadays.

That said, just because the system seems to favor those with money to spend, doesn’t mean you have to be a big spender in order to win. Facebook advertising can be both cost-efficient and effective. You just have to do it right.

How to Set up Facebook Ads the Right Way

Facebook advertising isn’t one of those things you can throw money at and it will instantly work in your favor. Some time and consideration should be put into strategizing a Facebook ad campaign.

Here is what you need to know about how to set up Facebook ads the right way:

1. Understand Why It’s So Effective

Facebook ads are unique within the context of marketing. Think about it like this:

This is typically what a Google ad looks like. It’s not too exciting. Just a page title, a brief description, and maybe some extra details regarding the business. It’s effective in reaching more people simply because it sits at the top of search results pages… but is it enough to set your law firm apart from the sea of others?

Now, here is an example of a Facebook ad:

  Your company name sits at the top of the dedicated block in which your ad is encased. There is a custom-written message that’s short and to the point directly below it. There’s a visual element included, too. This one happens to use a mouth-watering video. And, below that, you have an opportunity to share a compelling call-to-action.

Oh, and targeting an audience with Facebook ads can go much deeper than other platforms, as you might imagine. Facebook gathers a lot of data on its users. Demographics. Geography. Interests. Behaviors. Search history. And more. Reaching prospective clients with ads of real interest to them could greatly improve your chances of success.

2. Create Your First Ad

If you have a Facebook Business page, you are now eligible to start running ads from it. To do this, go to your business page on Facebook and locate the Ad Center tab.

Click on Create a Promotion to view the available options for advertising on Facebook. These include:

Boosting a post that already exists.

Promoting your Facebook Business page.

Promoting a call-to-action on your Business page (like “Message Us” or “Visit Us”).

Promoting your website.

Creating a custom ad.

Your goal here isn’t just to get a bunch of eyes on your ad. You want real engagement. People should be compelled to comment on or share the post with others. They should also want to click on the link to find out more about your offer. Learn more about your law firm. Sign up for a free consultation. Submit your questions on Messenger. Follow us for news related to workers’ compensation litigation. And so on.

Whatever sort of post you decide to put money behind, be sure it’s something prospective clients will find value in.

Choose the right offer.

Write an accurate, succinct, and engaging message for it.

Use a custom and eye-catching image or video.

Decide where you want them to go: stay on Facebook or visit your website?

Then, create it.

3. Focus on Targeting

As I said, there’s a whole lot of data to tap into within Facebook’s network of users. Make sure to put it to work for you as you target the ad.

As you can see, Facebook allows you to drill down based on characteristics such as:

Gender

Age

Location – you can get much more specific than country or state if your firm serves a smaller geographic region

Facebook also lets you use more detailed targeting pertaining to interests, employment, behavior, and so on. Just be careful with this as too narrow of a targeted group will prevent you from achieving positive results with your ad placement. Thankfully, Facebook will tell you when this is likely to happen:

Be practical in your selection here, but also don’t be afraid to branch out a bit too. You know your client base well, but you may learn something new about who they are and what their user profile looks like on Facebook by running ads.

4. Set Your Budget

The final question Facebook asks is about your budget and timeframe. While it might seem like a good idea to run an ad indefinitely (after all, won’t a longer campaign lead to more views?), it’s not—especially if this is your first ad.

Tread lightly in this first go-round with Facebook. Set a small budget to start and run it for a week. Give the ad some time to stretch its legs and monitor it daily to see what sort of impact it’s having. At the end of the campaign, you can assess the results and use them to make future decisions regarding Facebook ad spend.

Wrap-Up

With the right setup, Facebook ads will get you in front of the right audience and will, in turn, help you land more clients. But this requires a lot of work.

Facebook may make the setup of ads seem simple enough, but there’s a lot of research, configuration, tweaking, and analysis that goes into succeeding with Facebook ads. Plus, if your Facebook Business page or WordPress website aren’t ready for the limelight, you’ll need to give them a professional polish before opening your wallet.

Trial Law Digital can help you create a killer Facebook ad campaign and fix up your site in anticipation of it. Learn how now.

The post Facebook Ads — A How-To for Attorneys appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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Best Caching Plugins to Speed Up Your Law Firm Website

When your website takes a while to load, there are a few thoughts that may cross your visitors’ minds:

“Am I even on the right site? Maybe I’ll give it a couple more seconds.”

“What’s taking so long? I only wanted to schedule a consultation with someone.”

“I’m not waiting for this. I’ll contact another law firm.”

According to Kissmetrics research, the longer it takes a web page to load (even just by a second), the more people your law firm website will lose.

Obviously, you want to avoid that outcome at all costs. You want your website to load as quickly as possible, so that potential (and current) clients can get the information they seek right away.

One of the performance optimization tricks you can use to speed up your website is a caching plugin. Below, we’ll talk a little bit about what caching is and give some recommendations on the best caching plugins for your WordPress site.

What Is Caching?

There are a number of ways you can test your site’s page speed and diagnose the underlying problems with it. Google has a free PageSpeed Insights tool you should start with:

After you run your domain name through the tool, Google will present you with a Page Speed (the number of seconds it takes to load the site) and an Optimization score (how much work is required to fix it).

There are a few things to make note of in this assessment:

Desktop/Mobile: There are two tabs at the top of this assessment. Be sure to review both so you know how the desktop and mobile experiences perform.

Page Stats: This tells you how many resources (e.g. pages, files, scripts, images, etc.) your server has to round up and send to every visitor that arrives on the site.

Optimization Suggestions: These are tips on how to speed up your website. Notice how “Leverage browser caching” is included.

As you can see, there are a number of things you can do to get your website speed in good working order. But today we’re focused on caching.

Think about it like this:

The Takeout Order

You go to the counter of your favorite takeout restaurant and order food for the people in your party. This amounts to 7 burgers, 8 fries, 1 salad, 3 ice cream cones, and 6 soft drinks. The kitchen receives your order and starts preparing each of those items from-scratch, one by-one. Not everything is finished being prepared at once, so it takes 3 total trips for the cashier to get your entire order to you at the counter.

This is similar to what happens when someone tries to access your website.

Visitors enter your URL in their browser. This then asks your server to retrieve the website files and bring them to the browser window. Your server assesses the load, aggregates all of your files, scripts, images, and so on. The larger the files and the greater quantity of them, the longer it takes to get them over to the user’s browser. This is why some websites take so long to load.

Back to the takeout order analogy:

Think about what would have happened if the kitchen had been able to anticipate your order (or, at the very least, the general demand for certain food items). With beef patties on the grill, fresh fries cooking in the fryer, and salad ingredients already chopped, the preparation of your order could be done in no time at all, with your food being served to you quickly and freshly in one fell swoop.

This is similar to what caching enables your server to do.

Caching is a process by which your server saves a copy of your website as a single static file. When someone visits your website, and there have been no changes since that copy was created, your server can deliver the static file to the browser window immediately. When changes are made to the site, the cache clears and the process starts all over again.

In general, web page caching significantly lightens the load on your server and gets content to your visitors in no time at all. To say it’s a really handy tool to have for speeding up websites would be an understatement. However, implementation needs to take place at the server and browser level, which means you can’t do it on your own.

What Are the Best Caching Plugins for WordPress?

Because you’ve built your website in WordPress, there’s an easy solution to this: caching plugins. In essence, these plugins take care of creating this cached copy on your behalf. Depending on which one you use, you can also enjoy other performance optimization privileges.

These are the three best caching plugins for WordPress:

W3 Total Cache

Highlights:

Caches all content: pages, posts, scripts, feeds, search results, and database objects

Minifies all files and code

Includes server and browser caching

This is one of the most comprehensive caching plugin.

WP Fastest Cache

Highlights:

Uses server and browser caching

Includes other performance optimization tricks like file minification, code combination, and Gzip compression

More control over which pages are cached and for how long

This caching plugin gives you a greater degree of control over caching.

WP Super Cache

Highlights:

Offers three options for website caching: simple, expert, and a custom caching mechanism

Incredibly easy to configure

It’s made by the parent company of WordPress so it’s well-supported and safe to use

This is the easiest of the best caching plugins to use.

Summary

With one of the best caching plugins installed on your WordPress site, you can enjoy a host of benefits:

Improved server performance which leaves it free to handle other important tasks

More visitors as well as engagement with those visitors

Improved SEO (Google rewards fast sites with higher rankings)

There are, of course, other things to do to keep your WordPress site fully optimized for the user experience as well as for search. If you’re struggling to stay on top of it all, reach out to Trial Law Digital today and let’s see what we can do to help.

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Why You Should Never Buy a FindLaw Website

You’re likely reading this article because your law firm needs a new website and you’re weighing your options. You need something that looks good, ranks well, and doesn’t cost too much. But you also don’t know if you or your team have the time or skills to handle something like this in-house.

So, you do a search in Google and hear about this law firm website design service from FindLaw.

In general, the company seems like a trustworthy resource for people researching legal matters or looking to hire an attorney. It also has a hub dedicated to legal professionals. It appears that this company knows its stuff when it comes to law. Plus, it’s owned by Thomson Reuters.

Then, you discover that it offers marketing and website design services to law firms. It sounds like a fantastic deal: legal resources and done-for-you marketing by a self-proclaimed “award-winning” team.

Can you trust it? Is this a service worth paying for? Well, you’ve already seen the title of this article, so you know what our answer is:

No, you cannot trust it and, no, it’s not worth paying for.

Buying a FindLaw website or investing in its SEO and marketing services is never a good idea.

You might be thinking that’s just bias since we want to sell you on our website design and marketing services. But you don’t have to take our word for it. There are hundreds of complaints online from former employees and clients—not to mention the plethora of clients who have fled FindLaw and shared their story as they moved over to Trial Law Digital.

So, if you’re currently mulling the decision to buy a FindLaw website, let’s present you with the facts so you can see why we (and many, many others) don’t believe this is a good idea.

What They Want You to Think About a FindLaw Website

According to FindLaw, its lawyer directory and website receives 8 million visitors every month. That number is absolutely nothing to scoff at, which is why so many law firms are probably lured into paying for a FindLaw website that also comes with a companion directory listing.

FindLaw says that it has designed over 17,000 mobile-friendly websites for law firms. Each website is said to be:

Mobile-friendly

Custom-fitted to the law firm (note that it doesn’t say “custom-designed”)

Created by award-winning designers (though no proof of those awards are given)

Written by experts

Optimized for search

One additional point that’s made about these websites over and over is the inclusion of click-to-call phone numbers. It’s an odd selling point, but it’s something to take note of as we move on in our discussion regarding FindLaw.

Of course, the FindLaw website is only the tip of the iceberg. FindLaw also sells marketing services—PPC, content marketing, social media, web chat services, client intake forms, and what they refer to as “integrated marketing solutions”.

When you’re looking for a quick, painless, and relatively affordable solution, this might seem perfect. FindLaw has a plethora of resources on law and they seem to be a leading expert on the matter, so they must understand how to build websites and handle marketing for this niche.

Right?

Well, the truth about what you get isn’t quite like the picture it paints.

What Real People Have to Say About FindLaw Websites

Before we break down everything that’s wrong with a FindLaw website, we want you to first hear from real people that have either worked for FindLaw or who have hired the company to build their website.

Let’s start with some employee reviews from GlassDoor:

50% Satisfaction Rate

“Bottom line is the products don’t work a lot of the time. They work great for a few firms but many had issues. Over 50% of my sales resulted in unhappy customers. I left because I could no longer look clients in the eye and tell them to buy.”

Fulfillment Issues

“-More angry clients than happy ones. Dealing with customer satisfaction issues does NOT MAKE YOU MONEY -Products don’t work well overall -Overpriced -Gaining a negative reputation… -Issues with billing -Issues with fulfillment (building sites, social media, blogs)…”

Overpriced Services

“Findlaw has an awful reputation among quite a few of its clients, many of whom are overpaying for a poor overall service and looking to cancel. The companies [sic] SEO and Website Design are behind the competition and overpriced for the return most customers will receive over the term of their contract.”

SiteJabber doesn’t give FindLaw as abysmal of a score as some review sites, but still continues the same line of logic when it comes to complaints:

Poor Customer Service

“This is a company that is known for selling products on several year contracts and then leaving the client in the wind. Service is terrible and don’t expect them to do anything with your account once set up. Even if your [sic] spending thousand [sick] of dollars with Findlaw every month, it is not important enough for them to follow through on what they sold to my Firm.”

No Results

“Lots of promises at the beginning and several phone conferences before website is off and running. Then 5 minutes of social media advice and you are on your own. Awful company. Virtually no new cases, and we are competing with our competition within their Findlaw sub directory.

“Worst and most dishonest scam artists I’ve ever dealt with.”

0 Inquiries

“I signed up for a year to the tune of $18,000 on the representation that they would design a ‘state of the art’ website that would ‘drive business’ to my firm. They designed what looked like a pre-packaged, canned site. Pretty much looked like something that sold cleaning supplies. After a year of ‘optimization’, I got NOT ONE inquiry. Not one. Not one phone call. Not one e-mail. Not one client. Not one.”

The High Price of a FindLaw Website

We’d also like to point you to a post in the Law Firm subreddit called, “Findlaw. Worth it?” The question, of course, is whether or not they should talk to the FindLaw representative who keeps calling about their directory and website design services.

One of the most interesting answers comes from Sam Glover, the Editor-in-Chief of Lawyerist.com:

“FindLaw can produce good-quality websites, and can do better-than average SEO work if you are willing to sign a multi-year contract for ~10x the going rate for those services and give up the right to your content.”

While many of the complaints above focus on the various faults they’ve encountered with FindLaw, Glover aptly sums up everything that is wrong with this service by acknowledging that a good website is possible… but that it comes at a steep cost.

In this next section, we’re going to dive a bit deeper into why it’s never worth it to buy a FindLaw website. At any price.

What You Really Need to Know About a FindLaw Website

Look, we get it. You’re busy. You want an expert designer or marketer to name a price, so you can pay them to take care of your law firm website for you. But a FindLaw website is not the solution.

Here are 9 reasons why FindLaw is to be avoided at all costs.

1. It’s Expensive

A FindLaw website is not cheap. In fact, you’re likely to pay more to rent a FindLaw website (more on that below) than you are to buy a website that a professional web design agency custom-builds for you.

Many FindLaw customers who have jumped ship and come to Trial Law Digital have told us they were paying anywhere between $1,400 and $5,000 every month to rent a website.

The true cost of building a website for your law firm? If you use WordPress and do it yourself, it will maybe cost $150 a month (with some upfront costs like a premium WordPress theme and copywriting services). If you pay an agency or designer, upfront costs will be more, but the cost to maintain will remain the same.

2. It’s Temporary

A major difference between a FindLaw website and, say, one you’ve built on your own or through another web design service is the matter of ownership.

Think of it like renting a home. FindLaw says, “Don’t worry. We’ve taken care of building the structure for you. It’s sturdy and well-made. All you have to do now is live in it.”

So, you set up shop within your new FindLaw digs. Your logo and firm name are on the site. The content is personalized with your messaging. And look! There’s beautiful imagery, a boatload of blog content, and SEO already done for you. Might as well kick back and enjoy your law firm’s new digital home.

But what happens when you decide to move from that home? You might be able to take the domain name with you (if you purchased one on your own), but that design and content aren’t going anywhere if you didn’t pay the high price of having a custom-built website made.

This is FindLaw’s ownership clause:

It has been updated in recent years in response to a number of news outlets blowing the whistle on its unfair and unclear ownership terms. That said, there’s still some much to be concerned about. In other words, if you move your website away from FindLaw:

You lose access to stock photos, call-tracking numbers, live chat modules, and so on.

You lose access to source code and files used to build your website.

Your ability to license the website created for you exists while you pay for services with FindLaw.

This is not to mention the fact that trying to move a website from FindLaw’s proprietary platform to any other (e.g. WordPress, Wix, Joomla, etc.) is near-impossible.

So, if you’re not able to commit to this for the long-term, think about the costs you’ll have to deal with down the line to have a completely new site built. Also, consider how important it is to you to have full ownership and control over your site.

3. The Contract Is Lengthy

On a related note, FindLaw’s website services contract is iron-clad and lengthy. And, by lengthy, we’re talking a three-year term, on average.

4. Maintenance Is Difficult

FindLaw websites are notoriously difficult to manage and maintain.

Websites are built on FindLaw’s proprietary and highly antiquated ASP.net content management system framework. When changes are needed, you have to rely on the assistance of FindLaw and, of course, it comes at a price. Even then, getting those changes implemented or getting any support from them at all isn’t a given.

5. There’s No Exclusivity

Once you’re signed up, FindLaw’s representatives are constantly going to hound you to buy more products in order to make your website better. Some will even bully you into buying more with the threat that, if you don’t use it, they’ll sell it to the competitor. It’s this constant worry about the competition that can drive law firms to make bad purchasing decisions as it relates to their website and marketing.

There’s also the fact that FindLaw has no issue working for a high quantity of competing law firms within an area. When designing low-quality, lookalike websites for law firms, this can become especially problematic as all websites end up resembling one another.

6. Many Websites Are Pre-Built

As Lawyerist’s Glover explained, law firms that pay top dollar for a FindLaw website can end up with something custom-built and truly optimized for search. But how many law firms are willing to shell out 10 times the standard rate of a website to do that? For those of you considering the compromise, consider what a pre-built website actually is.

There are two ways FindLaw likely sells these:

The first is by custom-fitting a pre-designed template to a law firm’s website. The template is designed well enough and seems to work on all mobile devices. FindLaw assures the law firm that it’s filled with optimized content, though that it’s probably boilerplate (meaningless) copy, too.

Now, think about how many other law firms are considering this option. If FindLaw’s estimates are correct, how many of those 17,000+ law firms compete within your market and niche? And how many do you think would choose a similar-looking design as the one you’ve opted for?

The second way FindLaw can sell cheaper website designs is by flipping websites they can prove do well in search.

It’s like flipping a house. Basically, they design a generic website for a specific legal niche (e.g. divorce, accident settlements, family law, etc.) It’s optimized for the kinds of search terms people use to find local lawyers (e.g. “Chicago divorce lawyer”). And, because it’s been live for some time, it does well in search rankings… though that doesn’t say anything about conversion rates of visitors to clients (especially since there’s been no real business behind the site!)

They customize the logo and law firm name, add some custom information about lawyers and location, and hand it over to the highest bidder.

These options are risky because it takes away the personalization that’s needed to make a true connection with clients. Also, pre-built sites can lead to issues in search if duplicate content (content copied across a number of sites) is detected by Google.

7. Designs Are Lacking

We had a designer take a look at a dozen websites FindLaw currently powers. Templating aside, we wanted to know what they thought of the results of this expensive website design service.

Here are some of the commonalities found across these websites:

Oversized Headers: The top headers are too big, especially for mobile device users. While having a clickable phone number may be important, a user shouldn’t have to scroll in order to find the actual content.

Overly Long Home Pages: Many home pages are poorly written. Modern design dictates that home pages should be short and to the point. These tend to be mindless brain dumps with too much copy.

Identical Design Elements: Although designs and images differ from site to site, the basic layouts and key elements are the same (even things like live chat look identical). This can seriously hurt brand identity if a direct competitor uses the same service.

Poor Planning: The pages themselves don’t seem to be very well-thought-out. They often contain an excess of content (probably for the purposes of keyword stuffing) and there’s an overwhelming amount of calls-to-action for users to consider.

Outdated Designs: Some of the websites look outdated in design. If templates provided to clients are a few years older, and there’s no one to steer them away from those choices, law firms could unintentionally end up with something that looks like it was designed five years ago.

A website that’s designed for a modern-day audience is a critical part of every business’s SEO strategy. Knowing that this part is lacking, let’s take a look at what else is going on with FindLaw’s SEO tactics.

8. SEO Tactics Are Shady

There was a time in the early ‘00s when it was revealed that FindLaw was utilizing a black hat (bad) SEO tactic known as a link scheme. Basically, it goes like this:

Marketers are aware that Google rewards websites with high-quality internal links and backlinks. This is usually a signal that a website is an authoritative source and one that deserves to rank highly in search. However, many agencies (including FindLaw) took advantage of this and tried to game the system by selling text links in their websites.

It appears that this has since been resolved, but that doesn’t mean FindLaw is using white hat (good) SEO practices now.

Here is what we know about current-day tactics:

Keyword research for custom websites aren’t great and there’s no strategy done outside the initial call with clients.

Many of the blog posts written for these websites are poorly composed. They’re too short, have little to no structure, are stuffed full of unrelated or nonsensical keywords, and contain no images.

Blog posts are almost always lacking compelling stories, too. There’s not much worth reading. It’s more about adding new pages to the site rather than adding value for visitors.

For the most part, attempts to optimize content for search are relatively shallow. While blog posts will contain links to high-authority sources, many of them go directly to FindLaw properties. If anything, SEO tactics on these sites are working to benefit the FindLaw in establishing authority since 17,000+ websites link to it (in the blog as well as in every footer…)

9. Poor Quality of Leads

Here’s the thing: many FindLaw websites will come out looking professionally designed and will rank at the top of search results due to link-building and content generation efforts. However, if the actual quality of content fails to connect with visitors, the site won’t actually be able to do what it needs to do. And that is to get you new clients.

This is ultimately the main failing of FindLaw’s website services. Yes, they’re expensive. Yes, they may do shady things to acquire top rankings in Google. But the worst offender is the fact that these websites do not get law firms any clients.

It doesn’t matter how optimized for search a website is, at the end of the day, the website needs to be optimized for your audience which means accurately reflecting who you are and what makes you different from other law firms. And this is something that FindLaw does not do.

The Bottom Line: Avoid a FindLaw Website at All Costs

Previously, we talked about why you should never let Google set up your AdWords account. While the configuration itself would be fine and it would check off all the necessary boxes to get your pay-per-click campaign running, Google doesn’t have your best interests at heart. It’s the same thing with FindLaw.

Remember: FindLaw is a website that began as a legal resource. Providing law firm website design services is a way to monetize that business model… but it’s, unfortunately, being handled poorly.

You deserve a website that is:

All yours and the property of no one else

Affordable

Easy to manage

Modernly designed

Personalized to your law firm

Ethically and correctly optimized for search

Effective in converting visitors into clients

We recognize that the cost and time that goes into building a website—not to mention coding knowledge—is intimidating. You want an easy solution, but a FindLaw website is not it. You deserve to own and control your own website, and to not have to be charged an arm and a leg for lackluster results.

If you’d like help getting your law firm website up and running (or you want help moving away from FindLaw), get in touch with us today. We’d be happy to help!

The post Why You Should Never Buy a FindLaw Website appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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Is Google My Business the New Home Page for Your Law Firm?

For many law firms, you have to rely on Google to drive local traffic to your business. But what if your WordPress site currently doesn’t sit at the top of search results? How do you get potential clients to notice your law firm?

Well, Google has an answer for that and it’s called Google My Business.

Think of it like another home page for your website. Rather than hope that consumers are willing to sift through pages of search results to find your firm, you can use this business listing tool to place it front and center in search.

10 Reasons Your Law Firm Needs a Google My Business Page Today

I know, I know… You’re probably thinking, “Great. Another social media platform I need to set up and manage.” But this is different.

Yes, Google My Business exists outside of your website. But, no, it’s not a social media platform (Google has Google+ for that). Think of this as a mini website or billboard for your law firm – one that, when optimized well, will show up at the top of local search results.

If you’re not sold on the idea of creating yet another web property for your firm, consider the following reasons to turn your attention to Google My Business this year:

It’s 100% free to use.

It’s quick and easy to set up.

You have full control over what information is published on it.

If it satisfies Google’s algorithmic requirements – “relevance, distance, and prominence” – you’ll find your listing pushed to the top of search even if your site hasn’t made it there yet.

It’s directly attached to the Google universe, which means this information directly feeds into local search results, Maps results, and even Google+ posts.

A Google My Business page results in a more detailed and visually attractive search engine result.

This provides another opportunity for you to collect reviews from satisfied clients. Google will, in turn, include those reviews and ratings in your search results.

You can link to your law firm’s website, which gives you another strong backlinking opportunity to use in your SEO efforts.

Since it’s connected to Google Maps, this will make it easier for prospective clients to navigate to your business from their mobile devices.

This will be especially helpful in reaching local clientele now that Facebook has changed its algorithm [link to “Facebook Is Changing Its Algorithm Again… And It’s Not in Your Favor”].

How to Set Up a Google My Business Page for Your Law Firm

We’ve already seen why a Google My Business page is essential for your local law firm, so let’s review how quick, easy, and painless it is to get one up and running.

Step 1: Search for Your Firm

Before you create a new Google My Search listing, be sure there isn’t one already created.

To confirm, run a search in Google for your law firm’s name. If a Knowledge Graph pops up on the right with expanded details of your business, then the profile exists. Click on “Claim this business” and take over ownership rights.

Step 2: Create a New Page

If a Google My Business listing doesn’t exist, then it’s time to create one from-scratch.

Step 3: Fill in the Details

Google will lead you through a series of questions to populate your listing with relevant data.

Enter the name of your law firm:

Provide the address of your firm. If you have more than one location, create separate My Business listings for them:

Make sure the pin drops in the right spot:

Choose a category for your business:

Want clients to call you and visit your website? Enter that here:

Step 4: Verify the Listing

Google requires that all Google My Business pages be verified by the owner of the business at the exact address of the business. In the next step, confirm the location of your law firm’s offices and request that a postcard be sent to your address:

You will then receive a postcard in the mail with a PIN. Follow the directions on the card and confirm your page.

Step 5: Add Other Relevant Details

Once your account is verified, add other relevant details like hours of operation, additional categories under which your firm falls, etc.

You should also upload photos here. Your firm’s logo is one that should definitely be included. Add a cover photo as well. This could be a photo of the firm’s offices or your team. Upload other high-quality and professional photos as you see fit.

Step 6: Monitor and Manage the Listing

First, review the Settings for your page. Set up automated alerts for:

New customer reviews

Tips on what to do with photos

Status updates on your listing’s health

Tips about clients visiting your page

And more

This will take some of the work out of monitoring your page for activity. Then, make sure you acquaint yourself with the Insights for your page. These will tell you about how many people view your listing, where they encounter it (in search, Maps, Google+, etc.), and so on.

In Sum

When a consumer finds your law firm in Google search results, your Google My Business page is often the first impression they receive when they encounter it.

So, if you have an incomplete profile that looks like a ghost town, what does that say about you?

Take the time to create a complete Google My Business profile for your law firm and give your business a competitive advantage in local search.

The post Is Google My Business the New Home Page for Your Law Firm? appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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7 Best Premium WordPress Themes for Law Firms

Your law firm needs a website, but your firm’s partners are stressing about how much it’s going to cost. You’ve carefully weighed the options and decided you would like to try the DIY approach. After all, with a content management system like WordPress and its many integrations on your side, how hard could it be?

Truth be told, WordPress is not an insanely difficult platform to learn. That said, it’s not as simple as installing WordPress and getting to work on writing the verbiage for your website. It needs a professional-looking design. It also needs to work well across all mobile device screens. And it needs to be optimized for search. (Among many other requirements.)

The great thing about the DIY approach is that you have WordPress themes to help you handle the design piece of your website build… and you’ll never have touch a line of code either. In fact, if you find the right WordPress theme, there might be very little to do aside from adding your logo, text, and custom images.

But you can’t just pick any theme.

The following guide to the best premium WordPress themes for law firms will make the process of selecting a high-quality theme a breeze.

  What to Look for in a Premium WordPress Theme for Law Firms

It’s important to remember that WordPress and its themes are nothing more than software. You wouldn’t sign up for an unknown finance management tool and immediately give it access to your credit cards and bank accounts without doing research on it, right? Security, performance, ease of use, and how well it fits the intended purpose all need to be considered before purchasing anything for WordPress.

That’s why we’ve put together this quick reference guide.

WordPress themes can be great, but not all of them are made equal. There are a number of features you have to look at when determining, first, the quality of the theme and, second, whether it fits your needs.

Ideally, this is what a WordPress theme for law firms will have:

Cost: You will get the best quality, built-in features, tailor-made designs, and developer support when you pay for a premium WordPress theme.

Responsive design: This is one that naturally adapts to whatever screen your website is viewed on. (It’s also incredibly important for SEO.)

Security: While a developer won’t add a security plugin to your theme, you can review the developer’s credentials as well as the comments left by customers to ensure there are no issues with corrupt coding or vulnerabilities.

Performance: Your site needs to run super-fast (we’re talking opening in a matter of two or three seconds). As such, your theme needs to be lightweight and not bogged down by unnecessary plugins and scripts.

Drag–and-drop editing: WordPress is user-friendly enough, but a drag-and-drop editing tool will make it exponentially easier for you to update your content.

Templates: Never use a WordPress theme without pre-made templates for lawyers or law firms. These will save you time in building your site from-scratch while also helping you adhere to web design best practices.

Now that we’ve told you what to look for, let’s make it even easier and show you the best premium WordPress themes for law firms to use.

  7 Best Premium WordPress Themes for Law Firms

You’ll find the list below has a mix of multipurpose WordPress themes (that cater to a variety of business types) and lawyer-specific ones. There’s no right and wrong here, but you do want a theme from a designer who understands your niche and has simplified the amount of work you need to do.

1. Digital Law

Highlights from the Digital Law theme:

Retina-ready for super sharp images

One-click demo (template) import

Full-page and section templates for the home page, appointments, attorney bios, specialties, and more

Compatible with the Visual Composer (drag-and-drop), Contact Form 7 (contact form), and bbPress (forum) plugins you’ll likely need

  2. Forstron

Highlights from the Forstron theme:

Modern and youthful design (great for law firms representing younger clientele)

Super lightweight

Comes with Beaver Builder page builder (drag-and-drop)

Includes sharp-looking yet minimally designed pages law firms need

  3. Law Services

Highlights from the Law Services theme:

Various pre-made layouts available

Very buttoned-up and professional-looking design

Includes a page builder plugin for easy drag-and-drop customization

Modern design touches (like counters, gradients, masonry grids)

  4. Lawyers

Highlights from the Lawyers theme:

Great looking design with sharp juxtaposition between minimal and bold

Pre-designed page templates and layouts

Widgetized home page to personalize sections and the order in which they appear

Includes plugins and widgets for video, testimonials, Google Maps (important for local SEO), and blogs

  5. MF

Highlights from the MF theme:

Multipurpose WordPress theme (pay attention to the Lawyer demo)

Includes subtle animations

Design elements allow you to add more customizations and personalized styling

Particularly great if you have a large group of lawyers and a lot of information to share

  6. Ronneby

Highlights from the Ronneby theme:

Lawyer’s agency demo is a single-page website (which is a growing trend right now)

Perfect for new law firms that want to make a strong impression, but don’t have a lot of information or a large team of lawyers yet

Includes templates for all essential law firm pages

Uses subtle touches of movement and animation to keep visitors engaged

  7. Total

Highlights from the Total theme:

Multipurpose theme with a pre-designed Law Firm demo

Drag-and-drop editor enables you to edit all aspects of site – even header and footer (which isn’t always possible)

Design is simple, elegant, and focuses on the message

Design template comes replete with placeholders for essential call-to-action buttons your law firm will need

  Summary

Now that you know how to go about getting a professionally-made design for your law firm website, do you feel confident about using the DIY approach? The 7 best premium WordPress themes above will definitely get you moving in the right direction, but you might be feeling a little nervous about the time commitment involved… not to mention everything else that goes into optimizing your site for the user experience as well as search engines.

If that’s the case, reach out to Trial Law Digital today. We offer professional web design services at an affordable price, and are happy to step in and relieve you of the responsibility of building your law firm’s website.

The post 7 Best Premium WordPress Themes for Law Firms appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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Should Law Firms Use Yelp for Reviews? Absolutely.

I recently had a law firm client who came to me with a serious complaint about Yelp. Turns out, they worked their butts off to get Yelp reviews, only to have all of the reviews “filtered” (i.e. taken away) by Yelp. Why? Because it was in violation of Yelp’s rather stringent policy against asking customers or clients for reviews.

So, what’s the moral of this story? Does it mean you shouldn’t use Yelp as a review aggregator or even to host your law firm’s listing? After all, there are a number of other business listing and review sites:

There’s the Better Business Bureau and ConsumerAffairs which collect customer reviews in the hopes of informing the public about the quality of service or product a company offers. There are sites like Yellow Pages and Manta that offer businesses a place to set up a profile and allow clients to leave reviews. Of course, there’s always Avvo, which is a lawyer directory and review site designed specifically to help the general public find good legal counsel.

That said, these review sites don’t have one thing that the likes of Yelp or Google My Business have. And that’s search engine clout. Sure, you could copy reviews from those sites onto your own, but that requires work. Why not use a review platform that plays well with the search engines and that is well-trusted and already highly utilized by consumers?

In other words, I think we need to talk about the value of a Yelp listing and, more importantly reviews for your law firm.

  The Value of Yelp Reviews for Your Law Firm

Let’s start with the basics: client reviews and why they’re valuable for any business. It’s as simple as this:

In 2017, a Bright Local survey revealed that “85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations”.

That’s a huge deal, especially for the legal industry. Think about it: how likely is it that someone in need of legal assistance has a family member, friend, or colleague who has run into the same type of issue and can recommend your services? Probably not all that likely. And, so, having online reviews from clients would serve as just as strong a testimonial to your services as a personal recommendation.

Let’s also talk about the value of reviews as they pertain to the legal industry. According to Review Trackers, 83% of consumers consult with online reviews as a way to find and assess the quality of a lawyer. That means that roughly four out of every five people that end up becoming your clients did their research on you first.

Now, let’s bring this all together: the value of Yelp reviews for law firms.

The Bright Local survey found that consumers trust Yelp and Facebook above all other review platforms—including the Better Business Bureau and Google. So, if you were thinking about ignoring Yelp in your online marketing efforts because you think that Google My Business, Facebook, or Avvo is easier to use or more effective, think again.

Yelp has been around for almost 15 years now and it’s managed to drum up an impressive number of customer reviews in that type. As of Q3 2017, that number was at 142 million. Clearly, this is a platform that your clients trust and, beyond that, one that they’re likely very familiar with.

In addition, Yelp is a platform trusted by the search engines. Let me show you what happens when you search for lawyers in Bing:

In addition to providing local results for layers in Philadelphia, Bing also sorts them based on their Yelp reviews—which they clearly display as a trust mark under each link.

Now, let’s say prospective clients don’t do a search in Bing for “lawyers in Philadelphia”. Let’s say they know that they’re interested in the Sadek and Cooper Law Offices and so they search for that.

See what Bing did there? The law firm gets its own shout-out in the sidebar, replete with not only their Yelp star rating, but also actual reviews.

Bing isn’t the only one that loves Yelp reviews either. Google does too:

Google will never promote Yelp’s reviews within the Google business sidebar (because they have their own reviews to push). However, what you’ll notice in each of these examples is that Yelp is almost always the first set of reviews offered when you search for a business in Google. Facebook is the only exception to that rule. And, in every case, those review pages show up on the first page of results—which is huge!

Obviously, Yelp reviews are a necessity if you want prospective clients to find you in organic search. The problem now is to figure out how to get them.

  10 Tips for Getting Yelp Reviews from Your Clients

Okay, so now that I’ve made the argument for getting Yelp reviews, I need to explain how to go about doing them… because it’s not going to be that easy. When you do, though, know that these reviews will go a long way in earning clients’ trust even before they become your clients. And, as a lawyer, trust is an indispensable tool in your line of work.

So, here is what you need to know to get Yelp reviews from your clients the right way

First and foremost, lay claim to your page, fill it with details, and monitor it regularly.

Review your local ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to ensure that you understand the rules around client testimonials.

Review Yelp’s rules, since the wrong move could cost you dearly if it violates their rules against direct solicitation of reviews.

When talking to clients in person, bring it up in a natural way. “Check out our page on Yelp” is a good way to approach this. If you explicitly ask them for a review or push them to leave a five-star rating, you may find yourself in hot water.

Be sure your site and Yelp profile are updated with information regarding the services you offer as well as how long you’ve been in business. These are two key details 48% of people look for when reading law firm reviews, so it would be nice to publish those details where your soon-to-be-reviewers can find them.

Also, on your website, include a Yelp badge that links directly to your page. You can also create a Yelp reviews widget that pulls the latest ones into your site—this would be great on the home page, the About page, as well as your blog.

Add a link in your email signature to your Yelp page as well. It doesn’t need to explicitly ask for reviews, just include the Yelp logo and “check us out” message.

You can also use your most shining Yelp reviews in marketing material. Just be sure you get permission from the reviewer to use it and that you include the Yelp logo beside it.

Put up “Find Us on Yelp” signage around your firm. You can send Yelp a request for one here.

According to Yelp, “Taking the time to respond to reviews and provide great customer service will go much farther in building a great reputation for a business on Yelp.” And it’s true. 30% of people from the Bright Local survey said that they use a company’s response to reviews as a key factor in their decision-making process.

  Wrapping Up

Getting reviews for your law firm needs to be an essential part of your marketing strategy as evidenced by the 83% of people who use them to research a lawyer before taking next steps. There’s also the search engine aspect to consider too. With Bing and Google putting such a heavy emphasis and trust in Yelp reviews, this is a platform you really can’t afford to skip.

The post Should Law Firms Use Yelp for Reviews? Absolutely. appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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7 Reasons Your Law Firm’s Website Needs a Live Chat Service

There is a bit of a disconnect right now between what businesses think their clients want in terms of customer service and what their clients actually want, expect, and prefer.

A recent Kayako Live Chat study demonstrated this point quite clearly:

The most popular type of customer service among consumers is live chat. While there are still some who primarily use the telephone, that trend is going away more and more with each passing year. LiveChat’s customer service report found that the demand for live chat services increased by 8.29% between 2016 and 2017.

This is a problem, however, since businesses aren’t yet up to speed with this reality:

Because they still believe that telephone support is the primary method of providing customer service, many are missing out on a huge opportunity to connect with customers and prospects alike.

Law firms and lawyers, in particular, would do well to install a live chat module and service on their websites. When your business model depends on your ability to communicate with clients and earn their trust in real time, live chat gives you the chance to do this while they’re already thinking about you.

7 Reasons Your Law Firm Website Needs Live Chat

Businesses of all sizes and types would benefit from adding a live chat service to their websites. Here are seven reasons why your law firm needs it:

1. Customer Satisfaction

The LiveChat Customer Service Benchmark report shares statistics on real-time usage of its software. As of January 2018, 83% of customers that engaged with LiveChat software were happy with the experience.

Contrast that with customers who engaged with B2C professional services companies (we’re going to lump legal services in since there is no unique category for it), and you’ll see that satisfaction rate jump up to 85%.

Granted, the quality of customer service ultimately comes down to the people offering the assistance behind the live chat software. However, it appears that the majority of users are quite content with this method of service.

2.  Real-time Engagements

Customers want instantaneous support and answers to their questions. Phone calls require them to wait on hold. Emails require them to wait for a response. And social media can sometimes be a crapshoot.

Live chat, however, promises a real-time experience that connects prospective clients (or even current ones) with a real person. As you can see in the benchmark report above, it usually only takes about 49 seconds for a live chat representative to make first contact with a customer, so it happens really quickly, too.

3. Improved Relationships

Live chat puts your law firm in touch with prospective clients in real time. And by providing expert advice, immediate answers to their questions, and streamlining the process of scheduling in-person consultations, you’re improving the experience they have with your firm, all from within your website.

4. Privacy

Your business’s success depends on your ability to aptly handle sensitive manners. That’s why a platform like social media (which puts it all out there for the public to see) or email (which can make responses feel canned and impersonal) doesn’t always work so well.

While a phone call could accomplish the same thing as live chat, why force anyone off of your website if you have the means to keep them put? You’ve spent a lot of time crafting a message that informs them about everything you do. If they have questions about it or want to discuss next steps, it should take place on that same website.

5. Time Savings

According to the benchmark report above, businesses, on average, field 66 chats a day. With live chat software, though, you’re not restricted by how many conversations take place at once as you are with phone or email. You can handle concurrent conversations on live chat and cut down on the total amount of time spent talking to prospects.

6. Automation

If you’re short on time or want to make the most of your live chat service, you may opt to outsource live chat to another team member or a legal live chat service. Or you can automate with bots and save your firm even more time in handling incoming inquiries. As Szymon Klimczack, the CMO of LiveChat, told Small Business Trends:

“Currently, [bots] are completely ready to handle the most common and repeated inquiries which don’t require any human reaction. Thanks to them, companies can run complex, 24/7 support (even with limited resources) and improve customers’ satisfaction and loyalty.”

7. Insights

Using live chat software gives your law firm more insights into your client base:

What are the most common questions they ask?

What are their biggest concerns in signing on for legal assistance?

How much time do you spend talking to a prospect before converting them to a client?

By studying the trends, you can be better prepared to anticipate their questions and address their concerns. It will also save you time in handling the initial intake as you would have already gotten many of those questions out of the way.

Law Firm Live Chat: It’s a Must

Any time you introduce something new to your workflow—especially if it directly touches your client base—be careful. There are a lot of ways in which live chat software could turn the experience with your firm really sour, very quickly.

A slow response (or a complete lack of one),

Poor customer service etiquette of a lawyer or chat agent,

Intrusive software pestering clients while they’re trying to read content on the site.

A negative experience with live chat is just as bad, if not worse, than a bad one with one of your lawyers. Except, this time, you won’t necessarily be able to defend yourself to try to recover the relationship.

So, just make sure you do what is promised. Have someone monitor live chat during the published hours of availability. Have a legal expert on hand to answer their questions. Try to resolve all questions and issues quickly and on the first engagement. And be consistent in your responses.

The post 7 Reasons Your Law Firm’s Website Needs a Live Chat Service appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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SEO and PPC: Is One a Smarter Investment Than the Other?

If you want to effectively build a client base, then your law firm’s website needs to show up at the top of search results. There are two strategies you can use to make this happen: SEO and PPC advertising.

Both SEO and PPC are equally attractive options for law firms, but for very different reasons. Let’s examine the strengths and weaknesses of both marketing tactics and see if we can find the perfect solution for your website.

  What You Need to Know About SEO

The first search marketing strategy you could use is good old-fashioned search engine optimization (SEO). This is the process by which a website is designed to appease both search engine criteria as well as cater to the user experience. SEO strategy revolves around a number of techniques, such as:

Keyword-focused copywriting

Metadata

Regular content creation

Link building

Mobile-friendly design

Security

Speed

The better your website handles all these criteria (and more), the higher it will appear in search. Here is an example of how your website might appear in Google with SEO:

Here are some other things you need to know about SEO before jumping head-first into it:

It’s Free-ish

SEO is free… in the sense that you don’t have to pay Google or Bing or anyone else to rank your website. It’s not free, however, in that it takes a lot of time to set up and manage over the long-term.

It Requires a Lot of Attention

Search engines aren’t always transparent about what exactly makes for a well-optimized website. So, you have to pay close attention to algorithmic changes that affect your site’s traffic.

It’s Great for Local Businesses

SEO is a great option for businesses trying to rank for a specific location (as opposed to a global business).

It Takes Time

This is what the average click-through rates (CTR) for organic (non-paid) search results look like:

As such, it’s important to be aware that a really good SEO strategy can take anywhere from 6 to 12 months to start showing real results. It takes time to build trust with search engines, which is why you need to use other marketing strategies concurrently with SEO.

But Results Last a Long Time

Once you get your site on the first page of Google, it’s pretty difficult to get off of it unless your site is blacklisted (which, again, is hard to do if you’re playing fair).

Organic = Safe

As people grow more suspicious with advertisements (with some going so far as to installing ad blockers in their browsers), your only chance to reach some of them is through SEO.

  What You Need to Know About PPC Advertising

Another way you can launch your site to the top of search is by using pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. One of the most common platforms for this is Google AdWords. You choose a keyword, set a “bid” for it (the price you’re willing to pay for every click), and then run the campaign. This search strategy instantly puts you on the very first page of search results.

  In the same search I conducted before, here is how the PPC ad results appear at the top of the page:

The ads are nearly identical except for two things: additional information is added to the listing and these ads don’t require the user to scroll to find them.

Now, before you decide that the fast-pass of search marketing is the way to go, consider the following facts about PPC:

It Takes You Straight to the Top

When you pay a premium to Google or any other search engine, your website is placed in prime real estate space. For most of you, that will be at the top of the search results page. For others, it’ll be at the bottom.

There’s Much More Customizability

With SEO, you attach metadata to each page of your site that the search engines will display. But it’s only the basics: title and description. With PPC, though, you can write unique ad copy to show up in search results. You can also attach descriptors like your phone number, links to other pages, and, in some cases, attach a photo.

It’s Instantaneous

The second you launch a PPC campaign in Google AdWords, your listing starts showing up when users search for the keyword you bid on.

It’s Temporary

An effective SEO strategy will bring your website long-term success in search. PPC will not. Your site will only show up in search results so long as you throw money at it.

Legal PPC Can Be Expensive

This is usually a dealbreaker for a lot of law firms. The average cost per click, on average, is higher than any industry measured (legal is in the light orange):

To make matters worse, the average click-through rate isn’t too great either:

However, the average conversion rate is the second highest out of all industries:

So, even though it costs a lot more (usually) for law firms to use PPC marketing, and it’s tough to get users to click the links, the return is BIG. Clearly, there is something about PPC marketing that works well when you target the right people with the right keywords.

Google Sucks

Which brings me to my next point: PPC advertising should never ever be automated and left in the hands of Google. You already know that the odds are stacked against you in PPC. If you allow Google to assign default settings to your ads and to create lackluster copy that has no chance against the competition, you’re just throwing money away. Always create your own well-researched campaigns to get the most out of PPC.

  SEO and PPC: Which Is Best?

In all honesty, law firms need both SEO and PPC. Anything you can do to increase visibility in search is key, which means your website needs to be top-of-the-line and, yes, you will need to pay Google occasionally. Ideally, you will have a local search strategy in place, too, that gives your site a presence in Google My Business results. Consider it the holy trinity of winning the search game.

The post SEO and PPC: Is One a Smarter Investment Than the Other? appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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Why You Need to Get an SSL Certificate for Your Law Firm Website Before July 2018

Over the years, we’ve heard Google’s gentle reminders:

“Hey, maybe you should get an SSL certificate for your website.”

Those not-so-subtle nudges generally tended to come out right before Google pushed a new update to its search algorithm. As has become evident these past few years, Google strongly favors websites that prioritize security and rewards them in kind with higher search rankings. SSL certificates and HTTPS are a big part of this.

Fast forward to 2018, and Google is no longer being subtle about this.

“For the past several years, we’ve moved toward a more secure web by strongly advocating that sites adopt HTTPS encryption… Beginning in July 2018 with the release of Chrome 68, Chrome will mark all HTTP sites as ‘not secure’.”

So, here is what we need to ask ourselves today: What exactly is an SSL certificate? Do law firm websites even need them? And how do you get an SSL certificate?

What is an SSL Certificate?

The “SSL” in SSL certificate stands for “Secure Sockets Layer”. In layman’s terms, all it really means is that you have a certificate that places an additional layer of protection between your website’s server and your visitors’ browsers. It also moves your website to an HTTPS (as opposed to the non-secure HTTP) web address.

As a result, when visitors enter information into fields on your website (including payment forms, login screens, contact forms, and live chat), their responses are hidden from prying eyes.

For the most part, website security isn’t necessarily something visitors can detect. There’s usually no way of knowing whether a website has a firewall, anti-malware software, or even a spam blocker installed. With an SSL certificate, however, there is proof that the owner of the site has taken steps to protect visitors’ sensitive information.

You’ve seen this before: a “Secure” notification in the address bar. In addition, if you click on the padlock and security label, you can see an expansion of details about why it’s worthy of that designation.

When you click on the “Certificate (Valid)” link, you can actually see details about the SSL certificate.

This will look a little different from browser to browser though. For instance, here is what our SSL certificate looks like in Safari:

While there is a padlock that lets visitors know there’s some form of encryption protecting the site, it’s not as blatant as Google’s choice to paint it green, display the HTTPS part of the web address, and label it as “Secure”. But that’s why this July 2018 move is such a big deal. For websites without one, Google will explicitly post a “Not Secure” message in that spot.

Do Law Firm Websites Need SSL Certificates?

SSL certificates are meant to protect visitors that enter sensitive data into a website. But what if your law firm doesn’t collect anything other than a name and email address for the purposes of scheduling a free consultation? Is there anything worth protecting?

Perhaps not. And, to be honest, some visitors might not even know to look for a “Secure” message and HTTPS address in their browser window.

That said, for those concerned with security, they will know to look out for HTTPS. They may not necessarily understand the underlying technology that makes it secure, but they’ll recognize the green markers.

And that’s part of why you need to do this. For the benefit of having such a recognizable trust mark on display. There are other benefits, too:

Security: If you’re going to do business online, security must be a priority.

Authenticity: There are different kinds of SSL certificates you can obtain. Some of them provide visitors with a guarantee that your firm is an actual business entity.

SEO: Google has never been shy about letting people know that SSL certificates have a strong ranking signal. By securing your site with one, you can get you a boost in ranking.

In sum: yes, your law firm website needs an SSL certificate. Even if it’s just to boost visitor confidence.

How to Get an SSL Certificate for Your Website?

The first thing to do is to understand the different types of SSL certificates you can get:

Domain Validated (DV): This is the cheapest type of certificate. It basically just says you own a domain, you can provide proof that you do, and you want to encrypt it.

You get the padlock, “Secure”, and HTTPS.

Organization Validated (OV): This is the next tier of SSL certificate. This one requires that an actual agent reviews your domain, company name, and business information against government records to verify that you are indeed conducting business as you say you do.

You get the padlock, “Secure”, and HTTPS. There isn’t an easy way to tell between this and a DV unless the visitor opens the “Certificate” link to see where it was issued from.

Extended Validation (EV): This is the highest level of SSL certificate. Websites that get these must adhere to the strictest of standards.

You get the padlock, “Secure”, HTTPS, and the official company name appears in green. Symantec is a good example of this:

For law firms, the DV or OV SSL certificate is what you need. While it would be nice to go the extra mile, it’s really not worth it unless you’re processing payments on your website.

In terms of where to get an SSL certificate, start first with your web hosting company or domain provider (if they’re not the same). SSL certificate add-ons are occasionally offered within hosting plans, so yours might already have one that’s inactive. If not, see about getting one added on and installed by your hosting company. It’s the easiest, fastest, and safest way to go about doing this.

The post Why You Need to Get an SSL Certificate for Your Law Firm Website Before July 2018 appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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Why You Should Never Let Google Set Up Your AdWords Account

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is a wise investment for any law firm looking to make a strong impression with prospective clients in search. And, according to Google, there’s a lot of money to be made from those paid advertising efforts if you use Google AdWords.

Google estimates that advertisers stand to earn $8 for every $1 spent in AdWords. That, of course, is assuming you have done everything you can to properly optimize your firm’s paid search ad campaign.

And therein lies the problem.

While Google does offer tools like AdWords Express and startup guides like this setup checklist to get business owners started, there is a tradeoff with those cheaper, quicker, and more hands-off options. But what exactly do you sacrifice when you allow Google to set up your AdWords account for you? And would it eventually pay off in the end?

Let’s dig into why you should never let Google set up your AdWords account and what you can do instead that won’t leave you intimidated, disgruntled, or broke from the whole pay-per-click system.

Why You Should Never Let Google Set Up Your AdWords Account

Look, it’s not as though Google is working against you and your law firm. In fact, they’re rooting for you to stay in business and to do well. Because the more success you see from your paid search advertising efforts, the more you’re going to use them—and that’s what keeps Google the #1 search engine.

But think of the default AdWords account settings (or the AdWords Express service) the same way you would a casino. You dump all your money into the slots or lay it out on the poker table, only to allow the machine or luck of the draw to determine what your winnings are, if any. Why gamble with your law firm’s hard-earned money if there’s a tried-and-true way to do PPC marketing?

What it ultimately boils down to is this: if you have the right AdWords account structure in place, you can win in search. But you need to take control of the game; you can’t allow the house to determine whether you win or lose.

So, let’s talk about what actually makes for a good AdWords account structure and what can happen if you don’t set it up the right way.

The Importance of an Optimized AdWords Account Structure

In an article written by Wayfair’s Brian Wood, he talks about how more search clicks are shifting from organic search results to paid. While his team’s findings pertain specifically to ecommerce companies trying to rank in search, the same likely holds true for local businesses—like your law firm—battling for the top spots in search.

With so many paid ads occupying prime real estate at the top of search—especially on mobile devices which require users to scroll numerous times in order to even find organic listings—it’s important now more than ever to get a solid PPC program in place.

PPC advertising is a fantastic way to drive traffic to your site as it ensures your law firm appears within the coveted top slots in search… but it will cost you. And this is why having an optimized AdWords account structure is essential.

If you want to do AdWords the right way, then you need to have control over:

Your keyword set (including negative keywords).

The kind of match you want keywords to make (Google sets the default to “Broad”, which generally doesn’t lead to the best results).

The grouping of keywords and allocation of them to your ads.

What kinds of ad extensions are appended to your listing (like customer ratings, physical address, relevant links to your site, and so on).

With whom your ads are shared.

When exactly those ads are shared with them.

The positioning of your ads in search.

Rules that keep your ad budget from becoming unwieldy.

Without a well-thought-out structure in place, you risk allowing your ad budget to leak away on bad search matches. In other words, the more poorly your ads match with users, the more expensive it becomes to run your ads… and then what’s the point?

Obviously, I don’t mean to disparage what Google has done here. They’ve given us a fantastic tool in AdWords. It’s just that the quick-and-dirty way of using it is totally ineffective and costly for companies like yours that want to make the most of their paid search investment.

How to Make the Most of PPC Advertising

Alright, so here’s the part where I talk about what you can do to make PPC advertising work for you. In other words, hire a PPC advertising agency with extensive experience handling paid search marketing campaigns for attorneys and law firms.

Here are the 7 things you need to look for:

Google Partner

The very first thing to look for when shopping around for a search marketing agency is their Google Partner status. These individuals and agencies are trained by Google to become proficient experts in all matters related to advertising.

Without entry into the Google Partner program, a marketing agency cannot become a certified expert in Google AdWords, so this is the very first thing that needs to be in place. And, if you’re curious about whether or not Trial Law Digital is a Google Partner, we are indeed. Specifically, we have attained Google Premier Partner status.

Google AdWords Certification

Next, you’ll want to look for Google AdWords Certification. As Google Partners complete training in the various basic and advanced search modules available, they become accredited to offer those search marketing services to clients. With this certification in place, Google then acknowledges these partners as trusted experts.

Trial Law Digital is currently certified in the following areas:

AdWords

Search

Display

Mobile

Video

Experience

Once you have identified an agency as a certified Google partner and expert, it’s time to look over their qualifications.

Every industry and business niche has a different way in which they win in search, which is why PPC advertising can be so difficult to do well. With the guidance of a marketing agency that has experience managing PPC advertising for lawyers, you’ll be in good hands.

Trial Law Digital has experience managing AdWords campaigns for lawyers all over the country, with some budgets as small as $1,000 per month and others as large as $75,000 per month.

We successfully manage multiple AdWords & Bing campaigns and have extensive experience managing campaigns for the following areas of practice:

Adoption

Asset protection

Bankruptcy

Criminal (all types)

Disability

Divorce

DUI/DWI

Family/Child Custody

Immigration

Nursing Home Abuse

Personal Injury

Trademark

White Collar Crime

Cost

Obviously, if you’re already planning to spend a lot of money to get greater exposure in search, taking the cheap, automated route of letting Google set up your AdWords account might seem like the wise choice. However, as we’ve already discussed, Google doesn’t always have advertisers’ best interests in mind when devising these settings. Sure, you might make some money, but they won’t be the optimal settings to get you the biggest payoff for your efforts.

If you work with Trial Law Digital, we offer flat fees starting at $1,000 for setup, and a flat 25% rate based on the total spend amount, so we keep costs predictable and manageable on your end.

Ease of Use

Similar to the Google quick-setup option, working with an expert marketing agency makes the process of setting up and running PPC ad campaigns for your law firm a cinch.

We understand your industry. We know what your audience is looking for. So, let us take care of making the most out of your PPC advertising campaigns.

Analytics

When you put your PPC advertising in the hands of a trusted third-party like Trial Law Digital, we take care of the analytical side of Google AdWords, too. This means integrating with your Google Analytics in order to track leads and conversions, as well as integrating call tracking with your website.

Reporting

And, of course, you want proof that the money you’re investing in paid search will net you that 8-for-1 return on investment, as Google estimated.

When you work with Trial Law Digital, we take care of providing you with detailed reports that outline your campaign performance. In addition, we provide recommendations on how to improve your account setup in the coming months to maximize your campaign’s performance.

What You Get When You Choose Trial Law Digital

Remember: Google is like a casino. Yes, they want you to win, but only enough so that you keep coming back for more. While it might seem like the economical choice to use their automated setup and services, you’re not going to see the best (or even very good) results if you go that route.

If you want to get in front of new clients—and the right kinds of new clients who not only click on your ads, but also convert—then you need to work with a trusted partner who knows the Google paid search system inside and out. And that partner is Trial Law Digital.

For those of you looking to get started with Trial Law Digital’s PPC Advertising services, give us a call today at (205) 451-3376. If you’re still on the fence and wondering what it is we can do for you, have a look at what you get with our PPC Advertising Services below.

Trial Law Digital: PPC Advertising

Setting Up Your AdWords Account

By the time you’ve appointed us for PPC management, then we’ve already had an initial look at your website, your ad space competitors, and your search space, and will have developed a rough idea about your account structure in connection with giving you a PPC Quote.

Appropriate PPC Campaign Structure

The first step in the management engagement is to plan your initial PPC account structure in terms of campaigns. To do so, we have to know your overall ad budget, and forecast some costs per click for your account. So, if we haven’t already done so during the PPC Quote process, then we may ask you some questions, and possibly even ask you to complete a questionnaire initially.

We also use our extensive library of law firm search marketing data to build out your campaigns quickly and efficiently.

Preliminary Keyword List

Once we’ve identified your PPC account structure, then we begin building a preliminary keyword list. Since we already have clients in quite a few industries, we may already have a pretty good idea about what keywords may work for you. Regardless, we customize a keyword list for you by analyzing your website, your competitors, and through our own research techniques.

Optimal Ad Groups

As we develop your keywords, we also begin categorizing the keywords into ad groups. Determining the appropriate ad groups for your account is critical to creating a successful campaign. We apply our research, judgement, and experience in determining which ad groups will work best for you. The final decisions for ad groups is always made by one of our most senior qualified PPC Professionals.

Initial Keyword List

Once we have established the appropriate ad groups for your account, then we begin buffing out the keywords within those ad groups. This generally involves increasing the number of keywords by a factor of 5x the preliminary lists. During this process we also develop a negative keyword list.

Initial Ads

Once the keyword research is done, and we fully understand the relative keyword values within each ad group as well as your competitors’ ad text, then we plan your positioning within your own ad space and begin writing your ads. Your own website will give us ideas for your ads.

Aside from that, we have our own survey tools which help us catalog ads which have been used across the U.S. by similar companies. We write a minimum of four ads per ad group. This enables us to perform ad split testing as a means of improving your ad content over time. We often maintain themes for ads across ad groups; however, every ad within a single campaign is unique.

Replication and Campaign Settings

Once the work at the ad group level is completed then we may replicate ad groups across campaigns, if necessary, adjust your campaign-level settings and test all of your ads as the final step in setting up your new PPC account.

Account Approval

Depending on what we have agreed in advance for the PPC management engagement, once we have completed the setup, we may offer you a chance to review the account before turning on the campaigns. Activating your ads, requires entering your credit card information within your Google / Bing account. So, if we haven’t already done so, then this would be completed before your ads can run.

With the increase in average CPCs over the last few years, you have to really be careful with your money. All the more reason to hire a team with experience!

The post Why You Should Never Let Google Set Up Your AdWords Account appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

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Why You Shouldn’t Worry About the End Results in Marketing

As a lawyer, what would you say is your primary focus in the day to day?

Do you look back on the previous failures of old cases and wonder what you could’ve done differently?

Do you look ahead at your current cases and think, “I’ve been on a good streak here. We’ll probably win this next one too.”?

Or do you focus on the process of gathering the facts, building your argument, and planning a counterattack against whatever gets thrown at you?

In order to do what you do, you need to be able to think practically and be strategic in your approach. Without that sense of logic and order and control, you’d likely be too distracted by everything else swirling around you—and you can’t afford that. In fact, I’d argue that no one who’s serious about their business can afford that.

This process-oriented approach to work is what’s known as process thinking. Process thinking is “a philosophy that emphasizes preparation and hard work over consideration of outcomes or results”. Now, that’s not to say that you don’t care what the verdict of your cases will be. Of course you do; that’s what motivates you to work so hard to defend your clients.

But proponents of process thinking believe that focusing too much on that end result can detract from successfully getting there. This is something that’s used heavily in sports, thanks to coach Nick Saban, and it’s something I’d argue has a place in marketing, too.

Proof That It’s the Process and Not the Results That Lead to Success

One of the more famous supporters and implementers of process thinking is Nick Saban. The story about how he came to develop “The Process” and change the face of college football is an interesting one.

Before he became the coach at the University of Alabama (which also happens to be my alma mater), Saban coached for Michigan State University. As the team prepared for an upcoming game against the Ohio State Buckeyes, he turned to his friend Dr. Lionel Rosen, a psychiatry professor, for help. The players were nervous and their lack of confidence was showing. Saban wanted to see if there was anything Rosen could do to turn that around.

This is when The Process was developed.

“Rosen emphasized that the average play in the football game lasted about seven seconds. The players would concentrate only on winning those seconds, take a rest between plays, then do it all over again. There would be no focus at all on the scoreboard or on the end results.”

Despite having a rough start to that game, Michigan State was able to systematically disable the Buckeyes through the use of Saban’s and Rosen’s “Process”. They stopped worrying about that final score and just focused on each play. In the end, they beat the Buckeyes, 28 to 24.

As Saban moved on to work with other teams, he continued to find that The Process worked, so much so that he led the University of Alabama to three BCS championships and an SEC title many years later.

Why You Shouldn’t Worry About the End Results in Marketing

I often notice that lawyers (as well as many of the other clients I work with) struggle with this concept of process thinking in marketing. Which I totally get. You’re investing money in something that has to pay off in the end. And so it becomes stressful and you unintentionally focus on things like:

How many visitors will my site get?

How many people will call us after the Facebook ads run?

How long before the search engines put us at the top of results?

But as process thinking and Nick Saban’s history with his own “Process” have shown, you can’t afford to let your brain go there. And the reason for it is simple: thinking about the past or the future as you work on achieving a goal is futile. These distractors cause an emotional reaction, which can keep you from handling the task at hand.

All you can do is take it step by step, day by day. Sure, it’s okay to glance up every now and again to make sure you’re still heading the right way, but then it’s time to put the blinders back on.

I think lawyers are at an advantage when it comes to tackling online marketing with process thinking. It’s already in your nature to work this way.

So, the next time you take a look at your marketing strategy, view it as you would a case. Think about how you can break it down into smaller, more logical, and more manageable pieces. Break up your website optimization based on top (e.g. speed, images, SEO, user flow). Handle the various phases of content creation separately. Spend time on specialized tasks like link building. Just keep in mind that the goal here is to give each task 100%. The marketing wins will follow.

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Facebook Is Changing Its Algorithm Again… And It’s Not in Your Favor

For as friendly a place Facebook has made itself for publishers like yourself, they certainly have a history of making the conditions under which you can thrive there more difficult.

In 2015, they updated their algorithms based on user feedback, claiming that overly promotional posts from pages were intrusive to the experience of using Facebook.

In 2016, they updated the algorithms again. This time it was to give priority to posts Facebook believed would elicit more interactions (namely, those from friends and family).

In 2017, Facebook “quietly” tested an update to the algorithm that would push all non-promoted posts out of users’ news feeds and into a separate tab. After the swift and harsh feedback they received, they killed the initiative.

Now, in 2018, Mark Zuckerberg has announced their latest update. While there is a lot of talk about wanting to improve people’s moods when using Facebook, what it boils down to is this: posts from business pages will be phased out almost entirely in favor of posts from friends and family.

Keep reading to find out what this means for your law firm’s Facebook page and what you can do to make this social media platform a worthwhile form of marketing going forward.

What Your Law Firm Should Do About the Latest Facebook Algorithm Update

Facebook has been saying the same thing for years and it always boils down to the same point:

“Our goal with News Feed has always been to show people the things they want to see. When people see content that’s relevant to them, they’re more likely to be engaged with News Feed, including stories from businesses.”

However, what they’ve shown us is that stories from businesses are in fact receiving less and less engagement in the news feed… because they’re not appearing there anymore. Organically, anyway. With each new update to the algorithm, Facebook has essentially told businesses that they need to pay for sponsored posts since users don’t find their content relevant or inviting.

But is that really the case with a business like yours that serves the public? If people have run into your firm on Facebook and actively liked and followed your page, then they must want to hear from you, right?

Based on many users responding to Zuckerberg’s announcement, it looks like both consumers and business page owners are concerned about this very point. Scott Ayres did a good job of summarizing this:

“Businesses built this platform and made it what it is. You’re taking that away more and more every day. Those businesses are also users, don’t forget that. Also small businesses are like friends in little towns. Pages by the Police department, schools, chamber of commerce, city, etc. are super important to see. To squash their Reach and make them pay doesn’t make sense. You need to rethink this.”

Regardless of how Facebook consumers feel about this, Facebook is not likely to reverse course on this decision or algorithm update which means your law firm needs to take steps to keep it from severely affecting your marketing efforts. If Facebook is telling you that your content needs to be more meaningful and engagement-worthy, then that’s exactly what you need to do.

Here are seven ways in which you can reshape your Facebook marketing efforts in the face of these changes:

1. Continue Using Facebook

Even if you struggle to get users to find your content organically in the news feed, your Facebook page is a strong authority in search when users are looking for local law firms.

2. Get Client Reviews

Encourage your clients to leave reviews of your law firm on your Facebook page as well. Those reviews, again, will help your firm show up in local search results.

3. Be Transparent

You won’t want to beg or entice your followers to engage with your posts as that could work against you. Simply remind them about the changes to the news feed and let them know that if they want to continue seeing updates from you that they can set you as a preferred contact in Facebook.

4. Be Mindful About What You Share

Facebook conducted a study with Carnegie Mellon University that revealed that users felt better about using Facebook when they actively engaged with others. If your post is only meant to promote your firm or is completely irrelevant to your followers, don’t share it.

5. Interact More

Rather than share more content in the hopes of breaking through news feeds, take more time this year to interact with others on Facebook and develop meaningful connections that way. You can discuss topics that your firm specializes in covering or you can provide answers to questions that you’re an authority on.

6. Use Live Video

Facebook says that “live videos on average get six times as many interactions as regular videos.” If they want to see more engagement, this is a great way to do that.

7. Pay to Play

Until the reconfiguration of your Facebook strategy through the above methods doesn’t work or takes a while to kick in (which may be the case), think about moving some of your paid marketing funds over to Facebook. It’ll give you the initial exposure you need to show new and old followers that your posts are worthy of reading and engagement.

Wrapping Up

This is likely to be very frustrating news for you as a local business owner and marketer. Facebook has always promised to be business-friendly, but more and more are making it too difficult to do so unless you’re willing to pay to play. It might not seem fair at the moment, but with an honest and thoughtful marketing strategy implemented, you can circumnavigate your way around these structures working against you.

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Challenges and Solutions for Law Firm Websites

Law firms face new challenges marketing their organizations. Online competition is fierce, suggesting lawyers need to consider going beyond the basics to garner a greater share of the potential client pool in their area. But, what steps really need to be taken in order to attract prospective clients with a law firm’s website?

We Define Your Goals

Website advertising is, in many ways, no different than any other form of advertising. Before spending a great deal of money on a website that doesn’t deliver the desired results, start with the basics. A preliminary step many organizations disregard is developing goals and determining what steps are necessary to achieve those goals. Search engine optimization (SEO) experts routinely agree law firms, like other businesses, need to determine what their short- and long-term goals are before spending money on a website.

We Understand the Unique Problems Facing Law Firms

SEO professionals don’t all have the expertise to develop and maintain websites for law firms. While generic designs are commonly used by some law firms, every category of business has unique characteristics setting it apart from other types of businesses. That’s why law firms need an ally who understands the nuances of lawyers’ websites and what types of design features are likely to provide the return on investment expected.

Style is Important

While some websites are too garish, others are too plain. SEO experts focusing on websites for attorneys understand there’s a balance that must be found between garish and bland for a site to attract potential clients. By working closely with SEO professionals, lawyers can define their needs and let the design experts take it from there. If changes prove to be needed, the site designers can make any modifications needed.

Focus on Local Markets

Most law firms tend to deal with local clients rather than those in distant cities. That means the SEO efforts need to focus on attracting potential clients in the immediate area. SEO experts routinely explain to clients that specific strategies must be implemented to attract local clients. That’s done using location-specific keywords and keyword phrases as well as other tools necessary for sites to get to that all-important first page of results when potential clients search for an attorney.

Content is Still King … But It Also Needs Marketing Strategy

Local SEO professionals understand how the algorithms used by Google and the other search engines work and encourage clients to use content the search engines want to see. Google emphatically demands websites be relevant and easy to navigate. They also demand that a site’s content be updated frequently. The question then becomes, how can that best be accomplished?

First, the rules are always changing, which means a site that ranks highly today might well flounder next month if search engine ranking techniques change. That’s why a “one-and-done” approach to building a website simply doesn’t work anymore. Updating is vital to retain a high ranking, and there are some excellent strategies for staying on top of the rankings.

• Use blogs to keep site visitors informed

• Videos are now a virtual necessity for sites seeking top ranking spots

• Interactive content and question/answer formats are encouraged

• FAQ areas are always popular

However, SEO experts working with attorneys recommend their clients don’t adopt strategies they won’t be able to keep up with. That means refreshing content must be done religiously to obtain the best results. SEO professionals work closely with clients to tailor their sites to best meet their needs and capabilities.

Stay On Top of Current Social Media Trends

The very way people communicate and do business is evolving rapidly. Tools like email are still used but are rapidly being supplanted by social media. Facebook is, of course, one of the top social media sites, but Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and a host of others are also popular and should be considered as a valuable tool for attorneys seeking new clients.

Not all social media sites are ideal for attracting specific types of clients. The trends are rapidly changing, which means the use of social media must be carefully tailored to meet a specific client’s needs. That’s only one area where the expertise of SEO professionals is vitally important.

Link Building Can’t Be Neglected

Top SEO experts will always discuss link-building strategies with clients, as solid links to relevant sites are a great tool for expanding a firm’s exposure in a specific area. Since poor-quality links can actually damage the credibility of a site and threaten its search engine rankings, this isn’t a task to take lightly. Professionals understand how to create effective links to enhance a site’s value.

Following Up to Improve a Site’s Performance

Successful sites for law firms generally include quite a bit of content. Some content will always be better at meeting the firm’s goals while other content may need to be improved or replaced. The only way to determine how a site can be improved is to take advantage of SEO reporting and analytics. That’s another reason working with SEO experts is crucial, as doing so provides access to the data needed to truly grasp what elements of a site work and which ones don’t.

When a problem is identified, SEO professionals work with clients to explore alternatives that could improve the site’s performance and, at the same time, the firm’s bottom line. For example, users are rapidly transitioning to using portable devices rather than laptop or desktop computers. If a site isn’t mobile-friendly, those users are likely to quickly move on to a site that is. Analytics help to identify many types of issues that can negatively impact a site, which allows site owners to take steps to eliminate those issues.

Getting Started

Local SEO provides a solution for lawyers searching for ways to enhance their businesses. Quality websites are definitely a way to accomplish that objective, but developing a site that will rank at the top of the search engines isn’t a simple process. We’re here to make the process easier both today and as client demands change in the future. To get started, contact our team of experts today.

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