Website Development not a One Time Effort

Typically, when attorneys face a lull in their workload, they have a burst of energy and update their website.  Then that passes and they move on to other things. The website gets no attention and in a year or so it begins to look old and forgotten.

Link Popularity

Among search engines’ basic goals are to bring useful information to as many people as possible.  Yes, it’s also about their own advertising revenue, but we’ll look beyond that for now.  Search engines detect the potential for traffic as it relates to your site, both inbound and outbound.  Inbound links that comes from other sites has an impact on your page rank, as do outbound links that lead visitors from your site to other related site.  Peeling back a layer, the quality of the sites that are linking to your own have impact on your page rank. In that way, quality traffic begets quality traffic.  Among the most coveted inbound links are those from a .edudomain, learning institutions are seen as sources of quality information by search engines.  Links from reputable, established, information-rich domains will contribute to your SEO value and rank.That’s all great, but how do those inbound links come into being?  Now it’s time for the workout. The first step is to ensure that your own site has quality content, demonstrating that there are compelling reasons to capture those inbound links – this is a must.  It circles back to your content, which should be on-topic, sincere, informative, timely, and rich with key words.

Basics of Trading Links

Now some research is in store.  Find sites that are complimentary to your own, that deal with an aspect of your business where you think viewers or customers may generally find a connection.  You may be able to submit a linking request to their webmaster, in which case it may be reviewed, and ultimately published. Trading links with a related business is an established practice, but to reiterate, the key is in finding businesses that have something in common with yours – especially a similar kind of customer.  And the higher a linking site’s page rank, the better for your own visibility.Look for sites that encourage community involvement, including blogs and forums that publish contributor comments is another place to look. Social networking sites and directories usually provide you with the opportunity to display your profile, with space for your URL. If you have the time and energy, engage in that community, read, listen and contribute your own ideas and commentary.

Remember OutBound Links Matter Too

Outbound links have value as well.  Using keywords that pertain to your business as part of the text that comprises the link is an effective way of drawing a search engine’s attention to the link.  A descriptive phrase tells the search engine so much more than the tired phrase “click here”.Just as a personal trainer will advise on what NOT to eat, there are some SEO practices that a site owner would be wise to steer away from.  A “link farm” is a site that has nothing but outgoing links to a myriad of businesses, for the purpose of deceiving search engines into rewarding a site with a higher rank.  Some years ago the search engines got wise to this ploy and wrote programs to detect them.  A link from an unscrupulous source actually decreases your page rank, so be careful when approached by anyone using this kind of tactic.

Ken Begun has always liked animals and has worked with people whose loved ones died and didn’t make arrangements for their animals. Ken decided to put his love and experience together to help others plan for their pet’s future if it happens without them. His blog, Trust Your Pet will feature tips on how to make sure that people make arrangements for their furry loved ones. DSD designed his blog to be warm, friendly and easy-to-read.

But it’s not all bad news, there are numerous activities that you, as a WordPress website owner, can undertake to incrementally improve your ranking.  By taking a series of sensible steps, and exercising moderate patience, you should be able to track the rise your site’s ranking.  In this series of tip, we point out challenges and solutions for each of the top factors that go into search engine page rank.

Content

As search engines continue to evolve, their level of sophistication and intelligence has increased in parallel.  It is no longer easy to trick the search engines into placing a listing at the top of the page.  Google, Yahoo, Bing and the other major players dedicate enormous resources into making their products more intuitively useful to PEOPLE.  Gone are the days when you could “trick” a search engine into a high ranking by repeating keywords hundreds of times, or by rendering key words in white text over a white background (generally known as “black hat” practices). When preparing content for your site, your priority should be on richly describing your business with sincerity, accuracy, and honesty, the way you would go about doing it in a conversation with a PERSON.  The use of long tail terms – phrases that describe your business, product or offering – enable the matching of specific requests to specific results.

The notion that “content is king” still rings true in the SEO world.  Be yourself, and be honest about it, you can still do it with enough eloquence and meaning that will be impactful to the humans who are looking for matches.

WordPress enables easy creation of web pages and blog posts, providing endless opportunities to set search hooks that will help drive search traffic to your site.  Careful planing and use of post categories can further help organize your content, make navigation easier for your visitors, and increase your chances of improving search engine page rank.

Your Practice: If you are focused on consumers as a criminal defense attorney, personal injury or even estate planning, Twitter could cut both ways. The advantage to Twitter is you can reach lots of people, gain followers and get business. However, the downside is the ethical risk of having your efforts considered advertising so you need to be very careful what you say, how you say it and who you say it to. On the other hand, if your practice is aimed at in-house counsel, you are less likely to reach a huge audience however, if what you have to say is pertinent to them, you will gain quality followers over quantity.

Your Referral Network: Are you well connected with people who love social networking? People who are on their smart phones? Then they are the perfect audience for Twitter. And you might say something that resonates with them. They forward it on to folks who may jump on what you say and reach out to you for representation. However, if most of your network is still uncomfortable with email, then you shouldn’t bother with Twitter

Your Expectations: If you are just looking to get business from Twitter, don’t bother. Yes, you might get referrals or leads but it will probably take effort into continually tweeting about topics of interest to potential clients. Twitter offers a cheap way to deliver your message and to connect with potential clients but it mostly just a communication channel not a way to land new business. That said, I’ve heard stories about people getting business directly from Twitter but I have also hear stories about people winning the lottery

Your Time: Initially it will take time to get a profile set up and figure out how best to use Twitter. However, over time, it can perform on its own. Particularly if you are streaming blog content through your Twitter account. However, if you plan to be an active Tweeter, then it will take ongoing time to read what others are say, what they are saying about you and responding.
Think carefully upfront about how much time you willing to put into learning it and also how much time you will devote to maintaining it.

Your Other Marketing Efforts: Think about what else you do to market and develop new business. Are there ways to integrate Twitter into those efforts? You can tell people where you are speaking or tweet live at a networking event. Obviously if you blog regularly then it will be easy use that as your content stream on Twitter as you can set up automatic links to your blog from Twitter.

Your Interests: Using Twitter because you feel obligated doesn’t make sense. Its too much learn and unlikely to result in much direct monetary return on your sweat labor. However, if there are areas of the law that you are passionate about, then using Twitter is a good soap box. If you love being on top of social media trends, then you should tweet. Remember, Twitter is a communications channel.

The Payoff: There is probably little chance you will be able to Tweet your way to a successful practice so you need to think of other benefits. You will connect with people you would never connect with otherwise. You have something to talk about at cocktail parties. If you work with people under 50, then they are likely to connect with you and Twitter. Twitter or technologies similar to Twitter will become increasingly common so knowing how Twitter works will give you a heads up on all those people who bury their heads in the sand. But if you decide to keep your head in the sand, remember, you are in good company.

Click here to read more about Alan’s background.

Visuals are certainly one of the strongest components to consider, but they need to reflect the core elements upon which your business is built. Your service offerings, professionalism, reputation, and ability to deliver should have a way of surfacing in all marketing materials. But that’s not to say these elements are explicitly pushed to the forefront. Solid concepts in visual design and branding often rely on inferences that stimulate awareness of your business’ strengths and benefits in an indirect, but meaningful fashion.

Where do I start?

Make a simple checklist of all the materials that go into promoting your business. Some come to mind as clear cut necessities: business card, letterhead, envelope, website, brochure. Depending on the size of your firm and the activities in which you engage, you’ll have additional needs that may include presentation folder, powerpoint template, tradeshow booth, announcement postcard, invitation, yellow page ad, online banner ad. What’s important is to build brand unity between all these elements so that they have a meaningful and consistent message that casts your business in the best possible light. That’s where you benefot from working with a skilled and appropriately experienced designer.

Engaging with a designer

As designers, we work with clients that have varying degrees of branding in place. Some require starting with a clean slate, and with others there may be a need to adapt an existing program to cover a variety of needs. Our practice upon engaging with a new client is to listen closely to their ideas, probing with questions that examine how they view themselves, what sets them apart, or makes them similar to others in their field. One helpful exercise is to examine competitors, both local and remote, taking into consideration their audience and their offerings. How does your message, your strengths and value propositions stack up against others in your field? How do you differentiate your business from the pack? Initial conversations between designer and client should be wide open, and ideas should flow freely – even napkin sketches have proven valuable as brainstorming tools.

Why shouldn’t I do it myself?

The tools are out there, and they are at nearly everyone’s fingertips. Just as the desktop publishing explosion democratized the public’s abilitiy to produce fancier and more colorful materials, there’s also been an increase in the number of poor and unprofessional brochures, business cards, and presentations. Some tools are built into popular software programs, some tools are available as “wizards”. But is doing it yourself really such a great idea? Be ready to adopt he same thinking behind hiring a professional to prepare your taxes, or to repair your auto, or to make building improvements. When working with a seasoned professional, their expertise can ensure that the job is done reliably and thoroughly.

Rocky Laber, principal at DSD Law Site Solutions, is a graphic designer and web developer with experience that dates back to the early 90’s. Contact him at rlaber@dsdlawsitesolutions.com or call 510 488-4470.

For example, if you have successfully represented a couple pharmacies in professional liability litigation and you want to do more work with pharmacies. This means that to engage those clients you need to say more than that you are a “passionate advocated.” Instead try on,
“I provide result-driven representation for the retail pharmacy industry.” Then you can use your website to re-enforce that message to differentiate your practice.

Here’s an example of branding a website using the “retail pharmacy” model from above:

• Your photo, logo, font and color scheme subtly reflects the values and visuals of retail pharmacies.
• The text on your website has an engaging and professional tone.
• You create a industry/practice page geared towards the retail pharmacy industry.
• Your blog focuses on that industry’s issues.
• Your homepage prominently displays any industry association memberships.
• You promote any speaking events or articles geared towards that industry.
• Include other expertise as well but if you believe this industry is a strong niche, this allows you to differentiate your practice.

Look for the entire article about creating a website in an upcoming, “Big News,” the CA Bar Solo and Small Firm Section publication.