Big News from YouTube/Google

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

I was originally skeptical when my company started selling video for websites to our clients, but after the first year results I was a converted believer.  It wasn’t that our clients’ videos were bringing more people to their sites, but rather that the people who visited the websites were much more likely to pick up the phone and schedule an appointment.   And so, sites with videos didn’t increase their traffic (nor their Cost Per Click), but they were certainly getting a much better return on their Cost Per Conversion (CPC).

As great as increased conversion rates are, what would make video all the better would be if on-site videos showed up in the Universal Search results on Google.  Sure, YouTube hosted videos show up, but when you click on those you just taken to YouTube, not to the website of the law firm that produced the video.  And once someone finishes the video, they are just as likely to click on another person’s “related video” as they are to figure out the URL of the original video’s creators.

Thankfully, all this might be changing.   As of today, YouTube is allowing video producers to put clickable, call to actions RIGHT IN THE VIDEO.  As explained on the YouTube Biz Blog, video creators who have advertising accounts with YouTube will be able to have a text appear on the screen at a chosen time, inviting the viewer to click that text and be taken to the creators website.  (There is no charge for these call-to-actions, you just need to have an account setup that enables you advertise on YouTube.)  This, in turn, might be the boost that video has been waiting for. Conversions are great, but marry those higher conversion rates to more traffic, and it becomes harder to discount the importance of video on attorney websites.

Something to note is that the Call-To-Actions only appear when viewing the video on YouTube.  If you embed the video on a blog, the ad never appears.   For that reason, I am not embedding it here, but if you want to see it, go to this link:  CLEAN WATER CALL TO ACTION YOUTUBE VIDEO

By the way, when YouTube tested this out back in March, this charity made $10,000 in just ONE DAY from this video.  Yes, my people, video is for real.

New Family Law & Immigration Site for Russakow Ryan Johnson

Friday, May 15th, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

Congratulations to my client Russakow Ryan Johnson in Pasadena, California on the release of their new Family Law & Immigration Website.

This is the third website we have created for the firm, with the others being their Probate Litigation site and another website that focuses on Business Litigation.     All of the sites are custom sites, but they all are designed with the same brand image in mind.

Pages on the new site include:

Family Law Pages

• Child Custody and Visitation
• Child Support
• Divorce
• Domestic Violence and Restraining Order
• Paternity
• Property Division
• Spousal Support

Immigration Law Pages

• Asylum
• Deportation and Removal
• Family-Based Immigration
• Federal Court Litigation
• PERM and Employment-Based Immigration
• Visas for Nurses and Health Care Workers

Eye-Tracking & Universal Search

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

Anyone who has spent any time comparing the value of Organic Results vs Pay-Per-Click has probably seen a copy of an Eye-Tracking or Heat Map Study.  They are very effective at conveying just how much more important it is to have your site show up in the organic results.    Here is an example:

Google Heatmap

I use this image or one like it a lot when I meet with prospective clients who aren’t sure whether they should invest in a better website or more pay-per-click.

But what this heat map doesn’t show is what happens when a search is done that returns results in Google’s “Universal Search” format.  For who don’t know, Universal Search refers to Search Engine Results Pages that come back showing a mix of text links, images, videos, local results, etc.

I recently read a blog post put out by Google that shows some incredible changes to the way people looks at results within UNIVERSAL SEARCH.

Put simply, when a SERP pages is broken up with Images and Videos, the tradional heat map is no longer valid.  Pictures and Videos grab people’s attention, and their eyeballs will jump to those spots on the page and will then move up and down from there, often times in an “E” like pattern.

And it makes sense that this is so.  On a page of mostly text, it only makes sense that a person’s eyes would naturally fix on the thumbnail images.  They are different, so they stick out.

I think is another example of why it is so important to consider adding video to websites.  If there is ANY chance that your video will show up in a search, then you can only benefit from it.

That being said, I also imagine that over time this advantage will dissipate.   Right now, videos on attorney websites are still rare, and properly hosted one rarer still.  But in a few years they will be commonplace, and just having a video won’t be much of an advantage.

Still, there is always an advantage at being a “first-mover”, particularly in this age of the Internet.

A few of my clients recently launced video on their websites.  I think they are great examples of quality videos for attorney websites.

Dan Hanlon Video

Mark Davis Video

Mark Baer Video

The Smaller the Niche, the Bigger the Impact

Saturday, March 21st, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

I’ve been writing about Niche Sites a lot lately.  I really cannot recommend them enough.    I was in a meeting the other day with a prospective client and we were talking about how his website used to do really well when he first launched it in 2003, but now it literally doesn’t crack the top 26 pages of any relevant Google search.

While much of the reason for that is simply that he still has a 2003 website in 2009, that isn’t by any means the only reason.  This attorney’s site was a mish-mash of practice areas.  Business, Immigration, Contracts, Real Estate – all jammed into just a few pages.   There is NO way for a site to look like an authority on any subject when it is constructed in this way.

The next day my colleague Alex Morris, an Internet Marketing Consultant in Phoenix, emailed me about his client, Snyder & Wenner.    Snyder & Wenner is a very presitgious Personal Injury law firm in Arizona, and from what Alex showed me they are clearly ahead of the curve with their Internet strategy as well.  Besides having a main website, the firm has recently launched sites pertaining to Negligent Security Lawsuits, Medical Malpractice claims, and Elderly Abuse cases.

It was the Negligent Security site that most piqued my interest.  I had never heard of such a specialty, but from their site I now understand it.   Basically, business owners have a duty to make sure that their property is safe for their customers, and when they fail to do so they can be held liable.  It is essentially an offshoot of premises liability law.

Some of their specific examples they mention on the site are:

Hotel Security Negligence

School & Campus Crime Liability

Aparment Complex Security Negligence

I’m sure this site will do very well for the firm.  Congrats to Snyder & Wenner for staying ahead of the competition.

Law Office Of Howard Kornberg

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 | Attorney Websites, Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

Howard Kornberg is an attorney in the Los Angeles metro concentrating on personal injury matters. He has an AV rating from Martindal Hubbell which is the highest rating an attorney can achieve.

Howard has practiced law in California for over 30 years and has an successful track record. He has settled cases for large sums of money and taken other cases to trial for a jury verdict.

I think Howard’s injury website is a great example of a website that brings a little of everything to the table.  It has great design, a lot of very specific information & is very easy to navigate.  But what really stands out to me is Howard’s use of video.  His video is NOT the garish type of video we often see of attorney websites.   Instead, it is very tastefully done, has a very high production value, and most importantly gives the prospective client a chance to see what Howard is all about.

There is a lot of confusion about the benefits of video.  Personally, I don’t think it helps with visibility all that much, but from a conversion standpoint I think it is incredibly powerful.  In many ways, attorneys with videos today are like attorneys who had websites back in 2002.  They are much more likely to be contacted by new clients because people searching the web for legal information will fin their sites, watch their videos and feel that they know more about them.

Tags: attorney videos, Howard Kornberg, website video, websites for attorneys

The Value of Niche Topics

Friday, March 13th, 2009 | Attorney Websites, Lawyer Marketing | Comments Off

“Bigger is better”, or so the saying goes.  But when it comes to creating content for your site, that really isn’t so.  Laser focused “niche” pages actually have a much better chance of delivering you the clients that you want.   Likewise, niche sites can do better than big mega-sites if all you are really looking for is one type of client.

I recently met with an attorney (who is not yet a client) who was a Personal Injury attorney in Los Angeles.  Although he practiced all types of PI cases, his preferred cases were Bad Faith Insurance cases.   While putting together my presentation I looked at the traffic reports for many of our PI and Bad Faith Attorney sites.   The general PI sites were bringing in anywhere between 7,500 – 20,000 visits per year, but a small fraction of those visits ever went to those firm’s Bad Faith pages (around 1,000 hits per year tops).

The Bad Faith only sites definitely had less traffic, ranging from 3,700 – 6,800 visits in a year.  Yet virtually every visit was from someone looking up Bad Faith Insurance law information.    If you are an attorney looking for Bad Faith cases, which would you rather have?  More traffic to your site, or less overall traffic but more Bad Faith traffic?

But not every attorney or firm can have multiple websites.  Still, the same principals hold true.  The more detailed your page subjects, the better.  Don’t just have one page for motor vehicle accidents, instead have a page for car accidents, a page for truck accidents & a page for motorcycle accidents.   Don’t just have a page for defective drugs, instead have a page for Avandia Injuries, a page for Vioxx injuries, etc.   Those individual pages might individually bring in less traffic than one big catchall page, but their combined traffic will most likely be greater and certainly be more qualified.

How to Report Sites Violating Google’s Best Practices

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

I am constantly asked how to report “bad sites” to Google.  Personally, its not something I do a lot of as I’m confident that Google will usually root out the Black Hats given enough time.  But, for those of you who do want to take action I think Google’s Matt Cutts has some of the best advice.

See Matt Cutts’ post here:  http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/how-to-report-paid-links/

Want Proof That Google Doesn’t Like Black Hat Tactics?

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

Although I’ve never heard it firsthand, a lot of my clients tell me about solicitations they get from other website developers and SEO companies and how they claim that their companies can get away with certain “Black Hat SEO” tactics because they have a special relationship with Google.

Now comes proof from Japan that Google doesn’t play favorites, even going so far as punishing themselves.

(see Techcrunch article here)

That’s right, when Google Japan played some games with their own PageRank, Google responded by lowering their PageRank.  So, to continue my train of thought, wouldn’t it seem very odd for Google to punish themselves but let other companies get away with Black Hat techniques because of a”special relationship?”   Of course that is absurd.

As I always tell my clients, Black Hat tactics can work for a while, and in some businesses with short shelf lives that might be fine.  But if your plan includes using your website for years into the future, it makes no sense to risk all of your hard work on a little bit of gain.  As this story from Japan shows, if Google feels you violated their Best Practices, you will be punished.

Congratulations to Fierstadt & Mans On the Launch of Their Website

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

Fierstadt & Mans

An overdue congratulations is in order for Jack Fierstadt & David Mans on the launch of their new Real Estate Law website. The firm decided to go with a conventional looking site, but they executed it in a very “classy” way. The Los Angeles and Pasadena city shots, including the Disney Hall photo, do a great job of expressing the geographic focus of the firm.

The firm actually practices in areas outside of Real Estate & Real Estate Litigation, and the site focuses on those areas as well. On the site you will also find pages on Business Formation & Business Litigation as well as Personal Injury.

The site has been up a few months now and already the firm has been getting great traffic & is showing up really well in the Search Engines. One page of the site seemed to get immediate traction, even on Statewide searches; Landslide Litigation. The power of this page is its uniqueness, and that is a direct extension of the firm’s unique experience with this complex case type. There just aren’t many lawyers with experience in landslide cases, so not many lawyers market that as a strength. The rest of that equation is pretty clear. Since so few firms handle these cases, very few sites include content on the subject, and therefore good content on the subject quickly bubbles up to the top of Google searches.

The lesson here for all firms is to market to your uniqueness. If you are an attorney who has handled cases that most others have not, make that the focus of your site. Instead of just talking about Criminal Defense, market your experience as a Fraud Defense Attorney. Instead of just being a Bankruptcy Attorney, market the fact that you are a Mortgage Modification Lawyer. Google loves unique content, and your potential clients will love reading about your experience in their specific case type.

A Video From Google Explaining What They Display on Search Engine Results Pages

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009 | Lawyer Marketing | No Comments

Many of my clients ask how Google decides how to display their results on the SERP pages.   Rather than just giving you my own explanation , I thought it might be helpful to hear for yourself via the following video.  Matt Cutts is a Google Engineer and currently the head of their Webspam team.  More important to us, he is generally regarded as the man who enforces the Google Webmaster Guidelines and helps educate the public on how to improve their visibility on the Google Search Engine Results pages.

In this particular video, Cutts discusses “Snippets,” which is the term used for the information Google displays on the Search Engine Results Pages about each site.

One of the most interesting parts of his example, I think, is his explanation of what are called SiteLinks.  In the video, it is the section at the bottom of the snippet that looks like an index of the Starbucks site used in the example (Store Locator, About Us, etc).    Many of my clients ask how they can get this added to their sites.

Important to know about SiteLinks is that it isn’t something you create or request.  It just happens, and it only happens if your site is laid out in a Google friendly manner and on sites with a good bit of quality content.  Most importantly, it only shows up for the top listing in any search.

For people who want to fully understand what Google is displaying and why, I recommend watching the video.