Legal Marketing Articles

Posts Tagged ‘organic search results’

Pay-Per-Click Search Marketing

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Pay-Per-Click (PPC)

Let’s discuss two types of search results: organic versus pay-per-click, or PPC.  Organic search results rely on your website content and the code behind it, plus other techniques on the more technical-side, to get you to the top of search results.   PPC, on the other hand, lets you pay to be featured on search engine result pages.

PPC has been reported to be more successful in attracting page viewers over the short term, although other processes have more longevity.   Ideally, it’s best to have a solid page that is optimized for search engines, backed with a marketing effort that targets social media and other outlets, combined with PPC efforts to achieve maximum visibility for your law firm online.

It’s a multi-pronged attack, but once you learn the logic behind each process, it all makes sense.

How PPC Works

In order to use PPC, you must bid* on the keywords you want to target. For lawyers, it is good practice to bid on keywords that are geographical; for example, if you’re a lawyer based in Dallas, TX, it’s in your best interests to bid on keywords that include “Dallas.”  It’s highly unlikely that a woman seeking a divorce lawyer who resides in New York is going to be interested in hiring a lawyer based in Texas; utilizing local keywords lets your most likely leads find you much more easily and weeds out clients that you won’t be able to help, thus saving you further time and money. 

An experienced marketing organization is your best bet for this type of campaign.  These professionals can monitor your results and will be able to choose the best keywords for your legal niche and target customer base to ensure you get the most bang for your buck.

Benefits of Pay-Per-Click

PPC provides you with nearly-instant results for your investment; your site will likely see a boost in visitors almost right away once you implement PPC.  It’s a quick way to generate new leads and attract clients away from un-sponsored competitor links. 

Your marketing manager will be able to see where visitors are coming from, what keywords get the most attention and provide the most cost-effective solution, and use that information to help you get the most possible leads.

*Some organizations don’t use a bidding process; they will establish a flat rate; however, the big operators who offer PPC all currently operate on a bid-based model.

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Posted in Pay-Per-Click | 2 Comments »

SEO

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

SEO and search engine marketing (SEM) is the best long-term solution for getting your law firm’s website or blog to the top of organic search results and keeping it there. 

SEO and SEM involve many different approaches to web content and design, plus external methods, that all come together to ensure that you’re providing helpful information to the right people (your local clients) and generating as many promising, legitimate leads as possible.

Link-Based SEO

Providing links to your content and website from external sources such as other websites and blogs tells search engines that your site is popular and relevant.  This helps you achieve higher rankings and visibility in organic results. 

You can participate in link and article exchanges with colleagues or other relevant establishments, which also boosts your rank.

Keywords in Your Content

Keywords, keywords, keywords.  They’re everywhere, and you can’t overlook them if you want to be successful in the online market and get the leads you want.  You can try to compete with the millions of others who are going for a slice of the same keyword pie, or you can do a little research and find some niche keywords that apply more uniquely to your particular area of practice and geographic location. 

A skilled marketing professional can work the right keywords into natural and useful copy to not only attract users, but deliver worthwhile information.  Having good optimized content on your side is great for your online and offline reputation.

Optimize Your Social Media Content

If you actively share updates and law information on a micro-blogging site, consider utilizing (or having your marketer utilize) SEO for this type of communication, too.  You can make these posts keyword-rich and encourage them to be picked up in search results.

Social media content, such as a regular full-length blog, needs to be optimized too.  Clients can find you via your blog or website if you use keywords (especially geographical ones), exchange links, and emphasize words, among other methods.  Attempting to gain attention on a social bookmarking website can have its advantages, but over the long-term, simply putting in the effort to optimize your social content as well as your website’s content will pay off and consume less time.

This blog covers but a few of the many possibilities that come along with SEO.  There are quite a few solid approaches to the process that all work very well together and yield the desired results.  Utilizing the knowledge you have about your client base, you can use the right keywords to attract the attention of the leads you want.

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Posted in SEO | 1 Comment »