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Many thanks to Ryan Nelson, Director of Operations at LegalWebExperts for this guest blog entry. He can be reached at (619) 569-1002 and ryan@legalwebexperts.com.
1. Generate traffic by any means necessary. The more people there are viewing your site, the more people you’ll have contacting you. The number of people who view your website – can be increased through a number of marketing tactics like pay-per-click advertising, banner ads or search engine optimization (SEO). Advertising puts out instant links with a marketing message, and SEO works over a period of several months to gradually move your law firm’s website up to the first page of results in Google. At our legal web design firm, we've found that a combination of the two can provide both instant and long-term results.
Blogging is also an excellent way to generate more traffic. Managing a blog either within the company website or externally (with links pointing back to the law firm’s website) can boost your SEO campaign as well as generate interest from your human audience. Blogging helps brand your legal practice, which keeps clients loyal and interested in you. For tips on how to blog effectively, see Robyn Raybould's post here.
2. Find out what people are looking at on your site. Take a few minutes to sign up for Google Analytics and install the tracking code on every page of your website (if you work with an internet marketing agency, they could do this for you). Using the “Traffic,” “Referring Sites” and “Visitors” tools can help you see which web pages and search engines are sending traffic to your site. You’ll also be able to see which pages are the most popular on the site, and you’ll be able to make changes accordingly.
3. Put links to the contact form on every page. Using banners and buttons around the site with a call-to-action message can be effective, but attorney website viewers may be more drawn by internal links. Be sure that no page is without an internal link back to the contact form. If your site contains informational pages, use Google Analytics to see which of them your viewers are looking at most often and add an in-text prompt to ensure that they can get in touch with you.
4. Be sure your contact form is effective. Your website’s “Contact Us” form is an absolute necessity to find out what on the site is converting. Within Google Analytics, you can set a goal with your contact form to see which pages are leading people to fill out the form. You’ll be able to improve the pages that aren’t converting as well as keep the pages that are converting in top shape. Keep the form itself short and simple – most people don’t like filling out long forms, so three to four fields is preferable.
5. Focus on what physical spaces on the web page viewers will be looking at. Studies show that people tend to first look across the top of a web page from left to right (where a banner would be), and then their eyes travel down the right side. Use this on-page real estate wisely. Choose images of people over buildings or corporate-looking pictures; you want a friendly site to make the user feel more comfortable and signal that you’re a trustworthy, professional law firm. A well-designed page will entice more visitors to contact you for your services. By taking extra care with your law firm's site, you’ll draw in more traffic and make visitors to your website more likely to turn into leads. How much should a website cost? Check out this post for some insight.
Time is running out to register for our new, free webinar, “Keywords to Success: How to Generate More Business for Your Law Firm with Search Engine Optimization” to be broadcast on this Tuesday, December 6, 2011. We are applying for CLE credit for the program.
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