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7 Must-Haves for Your Law Firm Website

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People use the internet to search for all kinds of information. Where to shop, who to date, the weather report; the possibilities are truly endless. The ubiquity of the internet search has made web searchers more savvy and impatient when it comes to the sites they choose in their searches and also which sites they choose to continue to read before clicking away.

Law firms have an even more difficult challenge because most of the searchers who look for your practice have a legal issue. This makes them urgent, impatient, and self-conscious and they haven’t even picked up the phone to contact you yet. So how does a law firm ensure that its site will be intriguing and helpful enough to keep its visitors’ interest?

Here are some fast ways to tell if your website has staying power.

The Hero Section

The #1 mistake I see on modern law firm sites is this: The firm fails to make their clients the hero of the story. Don Miller of StoryBrand fame crystalized this idea and he’s spot on. If the homepage of your website has a picture of just you or you and your team, you’re missing a major opportunity.

The law is intimidating. If your clients see someone with whom they can identify on your home page, you are infinitely more likely to get them to continue reading on. They want to see themselves finding a solution with your firm. Make no mistake, they’ll want to know all about you too, but first, they must be able to see themselves in your success stories. Have an image of your ideal client represented on your homepage, then lead them to your credentials.

Website Load Speed

I don’t know about you, but a slow loading website makes me crazy. If it’s a potential client for my line of work, it’s one of the easiest things for me to demonstrate that they need to update their website. Web searchers are impatient and if your site doesn’t load in under 3 seconds, they are gone for good. Use this website to check your load speed. If it is too slow, talk to you web developer or reach out to my team to fix any issues that are beyond your technical expertise.

Easy to Navigate

If you were to ask your family members or friends, NOT professional colleagues, to go to your website and share with you what you do in under 5 seconds, could they do it? If your website doesn’t clearly state how you help people, what services you offer and how best to contact you, you need an overhaul.

Essential Pages to include on your website:

Homepage
Practice Areas (if possible, offer one page/practice area)
About / Team
Reviews
FAQ/BLOG
Contact Us
Privacy Policy
Disclaimer

If you have Google Analytics installed on your site (and if you don’t, please, please call me) look at the traffic to the pages on your site. If some of your pages are grossly under searched, it could mean they are hard to find.

Be sure to include clear options in your navigation bar, ideally with …. (see next paragraph)

On Page SEO

Much like the legal field, websites and digital marketing can have foreign and intimidating language. If you find yourself lost in the digital jargon, I’ve got you covered. Here are some of the website requirements that will help your firm rank in Google:

Meta description
Title tag
Headings tags
Keyword optimized copy
Keyword in URL (think navigation bar)
Short URLs
Alt tag in images

If you can add keywords to all of these areas, you’re on your way to an optimized site.

Google is an aggregator of data. In analog terms, it’s a filing cabinet. Each page needs to be labeled in a way that indicates where the file goes. Folder, section, cabinet, room, etc. Google does the same thing, just digitally. When your law firm, especially if you have a lot of competition, doesn’t digitally indicate where your site belongs, then it gets relegated to no man’s land.

Clear Practice Areas and Contact Info

Visitors to your site are there for one reason: They’re looking for a lawyer who can help them with a specific legal issue. So, it’s important to highlight your services on your home page, and have clear links in your navigation bar to pages describing each of your practice areas. Even though a client finds you online, they’ll often reach out through email or a phone call when they decide to consult you. It’s a good idea to keep these two contact methods highly visible at all times. For added mobile responsiveness, you can use click-to-call and click-to-email CTA formats. Other methods of contact, such as contact forms, live chat via a chatbot, social media messages and location information are also great way to leverage your website to connect you with potential clients.

Call to Action

If you have a website that doesn’t IMMEDIATELY encourage someone to contact you, you are behind the game. Your Call to Action (CTA) can be anything you want, but you want it to make the web visitor take an action right away. Book a consultation. Call us Now. Book your appointment. It may seem silly, but it works. You must be crystal clear about what you want your potential client to do when they come to your site.

Responsive design (mobile, tablet and desktop)

It’s 2023 (almost). Though it can vary by industry or practice area, chances are 50% (or more) of your first website visitors are on mobile. This number will continue to rise. Google is also prioritizing the performance of most mobile layouts over the desktop. So, that means your mobile layout is impacting your Google ranking more so than your desktop layout. If you’re not sure if your website is mobile friendly, chances are it is not. If you’d like to know for sure, use this link.

At GoBeyond SEO, we’ve been helping local law firms scale with simple lead gen and optimize their site for success since 2009. Contact us for a free consultation. We’d love to hear from you.

Tags law firm internet marketing, law firm marketing, law firm seo, marketing for law firms, marketing strategy

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How to Stay Engaged on Social Media in 2023 (Plus 3 Bonus Tips)

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In just a couple of weeks, the social media consumer blitz on your senses will have subsided, and you’ll be able to scroll through IG and Tiktok mostly unbothered by ads. The holidays are fun, but this can be a welcome relief.

But what happens when your business still needs to stay connected with its audience–how do you maintain a meaningful digital presence without being overwhelming?

Here are four simple tips to prepare for next year and stay engaged on social media in 2023 (without the holiday blitz).

1. Do a Content Makeover

Remember when makeover shows were all the rage? We owe a debt of makeover gratitude to Queer Eye, both the modern and the OG.

If you aren’t confident about the content you share on social media, or worse, you’re sharing the same stuff over and over, this will cause your audience to lose interest.

Instead, try going further with your social media posts by including elements encouraging discussion and debate. This will improve your Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook engagement and demonstrate your commitment to being an interactive and transparent brand.

You should also vary the length of your social media engagement posts. Both short- and long-form content is effective. By adding variety to your content strategy for social media, you can easily capture the interest of your audience and keep things fresh.

2. Adjust Your Scheduled Posts

Scheduling social media engagement posts in advance is the norm. So if you’re not already automating your posts, buy yourself some time and do it.

That said, your followers can quickly get bored if you don’t mix it up a bit. Track which posts get the most engagement, then play around with your scheduling. It would behoove you to see which post topics and which timeslots get the most attention. Audiences from different platforms have varying preferences regarding the frequency of social media engagement posts.

Here are the recommended number of posts by platform according to Hootsuite:

LinkedIn: Two to five posts per week
Facebook: One to two posts per day
Instagram: Three to seven posts a week
Twitter: One to five tweets a day (in light of recent changes, this may vary widely in 2023)
TikTok: At least one video a day

3. Prioritize Engagement

Social media can be a bit of a time suck and, frankly, a pain in the ass when you have a business to run. But the whole point is to connect with your audience and have them interact with you. So you’re better off with fewer social platforms and doubling down on engaging with the audience of one or two of them.

Here are the reasons why engagement, more than having a billion social media accounts, matters the most:

Trust. The days of businesses being seen as faceless entities in ivory towers are over. Your clients know you’re an actual person (or group of people). And most clients can discern your brand voice in emails and blog posts. The fact that they know it’s you instills trust. Customers don’t expect brands to be perfect, but they expect them to be authentic. Engagement demonstrates that.

Market Research. You can literally ask your clients what they want and they will tell you. How can we improve? What would you like us to start offering? Who else do you know that might want to work with us? You’d pay big bucks for that kind of money and yet, you can get it for free straight from the horse’s mouth.

Relationships. Be of value. Be of service. Build a relationship. Fostering a community of loyal customers and advocates who will speak highly of your brand is better than any kind of paid advertising you can find.

4. Get on Board With Video

Thank you, YouTube and TikTok! Visual content can do wonders for your social media campaigns as it generates more engagement than any other form of media. Don’t feel camera ready? Don’t worry–the realness that comes across in video content is actually a good thing.

So how can you effectively integrate video into your content strategy for social media?

Be consistent with your branding (and be yourself). Try to make it a habit to use your brand’s colors and imagery so your audience can immediately recognize you, but don’t make yourself crazy over it. Here’s a branding hack: Being yourself is the best and most consistent way to brand. Of course, colors, vibe, and font help too, but you’re the star.

The GIF that keeps on giving. GIFs capture attention quickly, especially if they get a laugh. They’re perfect for fast-paced social channels like Twitter and can also increase Facebook and IG engagement. Humor is a great way to connect on a human level, and a well-timed and tasteful GIF is always a good idea.

Go mini. Short-form videos such as Reels and TikToks are incredibly effective in increasing engagement. The video can be funny or educational. Want to be a superstar? Make it funny AND educational. To take it one step further, you can create a video series that tells a success story, a how-to, or details of an upcoming event. This will keep people coming back for more and improve your visibility within the platform’s algorithm. Win-win.

Using some or all of these tips can greatly impact your social media and help you foster a genuine connection with your audience in 2023. Want more ways to stay connected with your target audience and improve your branding? Reach out to GoBeyond SEO today.

Tags marketing, Social Media, social media engagement, social media marketing, social media strategy

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Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Marketing to Gen Z

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It can be tempting to assume your target audience doesn’t include members of Generation Z. But you’d be short-sighted to cut them out of your market.

Consider that Gen Z is the most digitally connected generation, and they rely heavily on reviews when purchasing a product. What else is influencing Gen Z, and why do they matter in the grand scheme of your marketing efforts?

Here’s how to not let generational differences be a blind spot in your marketing.

What’s Influencing Gen Z in the Market?

If you look at the events and factors that affect Gen Z, it’s truly fascinating to see how they could translate to your marketing. Gen Z members:

Live in a post 9/11 world
Watched their parents struggle with money during the Great Recession
Witnessed some of the most vitriolic elections in history
Have owned smartphones since age 12 or earlier

It’s truly fascinating to see how these historic events are impacting this generation.

The older echelon of Gen Z is post-college and starting to make more in-depth purchases. Their childhood was impacted by the Great Recession, their purchase decisions are influenced more than ever by reviews and referrals, and having a smartphone in their pocket makes them more educated about what they want to buy and why.

How Gen Z Is Shaping the Market

Young Millennials and Gen Z are drastically changing how purchase decisions are made, and small businesses need to adapt. These young people are also more apt to start a small business and infinitely more encouraged to have a say in the purchases their PARENTS make. And yes, you read that correctly!

Parents are leveraging the knowledge and consumer discernment of their young adult offspring.

Gen X and older millennial parents of Gen Z are more collaborative with their children than the Boomers or Silent Generation. Parents trust and rely upon the feedback of their children, especially when it comes to technology purchases or finding well-reviewed products.

Some fun facts about Gen Z as a viable market:

They are true digital natives
They are financially minded despite their age
They are shrewd consumers
They are entrepreneurial
They are influencers

So how can you prioritize visibility and solicit reviews or referrals, both for Gen Z and the rest of your target market?

Claim Your GMB to Improve Your Reach

One of the most important things a small business can do online is to claim their Google My Business (GMB) page and actively pursue reviews. Although it may seem arbitrary, the significance of this task grows every day.

If you have the knowledge and time to do so, claim your GMB page and be sure to include posts, images and make sure your NAP data is correct (Name, Address, Phone number). You’ll also want to reach out to happy clients and encourage them to leave reviews.

If this sounds like a lot of work, our team at GoBeyond offers software that can automate this process for you. We can set it up in no time and have you up and running before you can say ‘delegate and outsource’.
Click here to schedule a short demo for our Review and Referral Booster Plan. It’s very efficient and inexpensive when building your GMB page to reach all your customers, not just Gen Z!

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Why Family Law Firms Need to Implement Internet Marketing

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Millions of Americans use the Internet every single day. They search for information, they seek entertainment, and they look for the services and products they need. While there is still a decent amount of people who watch television, most prefer to pick up their phone, search for what they want to watch and tap Play. The reason we are telling you this is because family law firm marketing is changing. Gone are the days of newspaper and Yellow Book ads. Now, the focus needs to be online. Law firm Internet marketing is here and it’s here to stay.

Reasons Family Law Firms Should Focus on Internet Marketing

What does someone do when faced with one of life’s challenges? Depending on how private he/she wants to keep it, the person may turn to a good friend OR a search engine, like Google. With the ability to search for any topic, people can seek support from those who have gone through a similar situation or are currently dealing with one.

Even when someone turns to a friend first, the chances are high that person will end up online at some point to collect information. This means that at some point in a person’s struggles, he/she will be looking for help online.

The enormous amount of information and resources online make people turn to the Internet. What many businesses, including family law firms, don’t know is that Internet marketing is what makes them visible to the ones who are online.

Internet marketing is what brings family law firms out of the darkness in the online world into the limelight. It’s what gets them exposure when people are looking for and yearning for guidance during a living nightmare. They are looking for something or someone to cling to for help and Internet marketing is what brings those people the lawyers and law services they seek.

Boost Online Visibility

No matter where you live, there is competition to be seen online. Even if you’re a local law firm serving area residents, your site still competes with other law firm sites throughout the country. How do you stand out from your competitors locally and nationally?

Content marketing – a part of Internet marketing – puts out the information people are searching for in their times of need. Knowledge is contained in articles, pictures and videos that live on your website. This knowledge is what ends up being placed on search engines and comes up as an option to those who may be looking for it.

Establishes and Develops Trust

Internet marketing not only attracts people to your site to gain information from your content, but it also establishes and then develops trust. People who feel as though you’ve helped them will feel as though they can trust you and will want to see what else you can offer them. This is when your services may be the perfect remedy to their situation.

Promotes Services

As mentioned above, when people find what they need, feel as though your family law firm marketing gives them the help they need, they will be more likely to convert (as in reach out for your services).

Content on a website isn’t the only way to utilize family law firm Internet marketing. There’s also:

SEO
Google Ads
Social Media
Email Marketing

SEO Increases a Family Law Firm’s Visibility on Search Engines

SEO, which is Search Engine Optimization, is the act of optimizing a website for search engines. Since search engines function based on codes, they look for keyword phrases to understand what a website is about, and then they look for other factors to know how valuable the site is to search engine users.

Internet marketing includes working on your website to ensure that it is properly optimized for your target audience. In other words, it contains the information people interested in your services seek and it is on the site in a way that search engines will be able to understand, so they will display it to people searching for what you’re providing.

First Place Ranking on Search Results with Google Ads

Google Ads, also known as Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising, is a great way to get your site in front of your target audience on Google’s search engine. The process is quite simple, but setting it up to be effective can be quite complex. Ads are created based on keyword phrases chosen that people who need your services use on the search engine. The ads need to be enticing to elicit clicks. Those clicks on the ad go to a landing page, which if designed well, converts people. A conversion includes calling or completing a form for additional information or a consultation.

This is an example of a Google Ad for two family law firms:

The cost of Google Ads is determined by the number of clicks an ad receives. Some keyword phrases used in the ads cost more than others. The phrases that have a higher chance of converting someone who clicks on an ad will cost more. The number of other family law firms trying to use the same keyword phrases in their ads also influences the cost of ad clicks.

Google Ads can generate a great ROI or go through your budget quickly without a single lead. This is why for this form of family law firm Internet marketing, it’s best to go with a professional.

Social Media Is a Source for Support

Most Americans are on at least one social networking site on a daily basis. They use it for two reasons:

Entertainment
Information/Support

When promoting a family law firm on social media, it has to be done in a way that not only lets people know it’s a reputable, trustworthy, and highly knowledgeable practice but also one that is available. People who are struggling with a family matter are not seeking entertainment on social media, but

rather support. They may turn to friends or strangers who have experienced a similar situation. The goal of social media for family law firms is providing information that other people can use as a resource to help those who are struggling.

Resources can be:

Articles
Videos
Infographics (images with information)

As you can see in the below Facebook post, this law firm presented a story to share information:

Those who have a similar situation will feel instantly comfortable to reach for help. You can see more examples of this on their Facebook page.

Social media marketing is a combination of promotion and information sharing. Usually, this happens seamlessly in one post while other times it can be in separate posts. Knowing how to balance it just right is how to succeed with this part of family law firm Internet marketing.

People Need Time – Email Marketing Gives Them That

email marketing for family law firm internet marketing

Email marketing is another part of family law firm Internet marketing. It is one that helps people who need a bit more time to decide whether your law firm is the right one for them. Email marketing is effective – the return on investment is $42 per $1 spent on it. Why is it effective? Mostly, it has to do with The Marketing Rule of 7. This rule says that prospects need to be exposed to the marketer’s message at least 7 times before taking action to buy a product or service.

Email marketing consists of sending emails to subscribers on a particular topic. These people have signed up for emails, so they are warm leads. When a family law firm sends valuable emails, the recipients will react similarly as they would to good content on a website or social network.

Promotional emails that don’t meet the needs of recipients will not work. The emails need to be highly targeted and useful for them to be effective. For instance, an email that offers advice on how to navigate a divorce can engage recipients greatly and make them want them to reach out for further legal assistance through the process.

Many email marketing tools exist to create attractive looking emails that spark people’s attention:

These are affordable options that are user friendly depending on how much time you have to invest in this part of your family law firm Internet marketing.

Family Law Firm Internet Marketing Services

Family law firm Internet marketing is more necessary than ever before. Law firms cannot rely on offline marketing tactics any longer. People immediately turn to the Internet when they are struggling with family issues. They search for answers to their questions on search engines and they turn to social media for support. When they find a website that has information they need to either work on their issues or feel better about their situation, they are more likely to reach out for services. This is especially true if they sign up for email marketing, which takes them from not knowing if they should move forward to knowing for sure that your law firm is the one for them.

Family law firms that struggle to bring in new clients usually do not have enough of an online presence to capture all of the people who turn to the Internet for help, which as you can see is a lot. If you’re not utilizing family law Internet marketing as part of your overall marketing strategy, you’re missing out on clients to competitors who are using it.

Now is the time to get ahead of the competition when it comes to marketing your family law firm on the Internet. We understand that you may not have the time to learn the ins and outs of it or implement best practices, which is why as a digital marketing company, we can help.

We offer website design and development, SEO, PPC, social media, and email marketing services to help improve your family law firm’s presence online. This will help your target audience find your website easier, increasing the chances of them contacting you for your legal services.

GoBeyondSEO has a team of professionals ready to take care of all your family law firm’s Internet marketing needs. Contact us today for more information.

Reasons Family Law Firms Should Focus on Internet Marketing

Boost Online Visibility

Establishes and Develops Trust

Promotes Services

SEO Increases a Family Law Firm’s Visibility on Search Engines

First Place Ranking on Search Results with Google Ads

Social Media Is a Source for Support

People Need Time – Email Marketing Gives Them That

Family Law Firm Internet Marketing Services

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