Nolo's Lawyer Blog

Lawyers: Learn how to increase your online visibility, generate more traffic and get more clients from your website with these top ten tips.

This is the first in a series of posts on the most important things attorneys can do to optimize their websites and increase bottom-line results. Learn how to rank higher in major search engines and drive more qualified traffic to your site by following these simple top ten tips. Here are the four major goals for improving your website:

• Search: Get listed higher on major search engines like Bing, Yahoo and Google
• Traffic: Increase qualified traffic to your website
• Visitors: Get more people to your site and keep them browsing longer
• Convert: Convert site visitors to clients

People search online for good, relevant information, so the most important element of your website would be good, relevant content. Using search-friendly text and key words that help inform potential clients about you and your practice are critical . But what is the best way to create that content and what do I do after I've got all of my information ready?

For now, we'll start with important tips to improve your website, with more detail on each in our upcoming blog posts.

1. Strategy Overview: Do a basic review of your website and online marketing strategy and set realistic goals for improvement.
   
2. Website Analytics: Implement some basic tracking capabilities on your site to measure visitors and traffic, like Google Analytics.
   
3. Website Content: Create good, relevant content and topic-specific articles for your site.
4. Blogs: Create a blog to keep your site fresh and current.
5. SEO: Optimize your site's page titles with relevant keywords so that search engines can better find you.
   
6. SEM & PPC: Consider search engine marketing and Pay Per Click (Google Adwords) advertising.
7. Link Building: Let other sites know you exist and have them link back to your site.
8. Email Marketing: Invite your visitors to join an email list for periodic newsletters about your practice.
   
9. Social Networking: Learn to utilize Linked In, Face Book and Twitter to help drive traffic qualified traffic to your site.
10. Client Intake Form: Convert site visitors to paying clients by adding a simple intake form.

Online marketing, like any form of marketing, is a step-by-step process. Check back with us next week to learn more about how you can improve your online strategy.

Tom and I arrived in Tucson, AZ via Las Vegas to clear & sunny blue skies with a slight breeze out of the southwest and an outside air temperature a lovely 92º. After dropping the top down on the Sebring and rolling through a few off-the-beat-and-path construction zones on the southeast side we finally headed west and up into the rolling hills of the Tuscon desert and arrived at the JW Marriott Star Pass resort for the start of the 2009 National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) winter workshops.



More than 500 attorneys attended these Continuing Legal Education (CLE) seminars and workshops on topics ranging from better practice management to the finer points of filing a Chapter 13. Approximately 150 attorneys, many of them Nolo members, stopped by our booth for their free books and to let us know how their directory profiles were helping their business. The response from our Nolo attorneys was overwhelmingly positive and over 90% of our attorneys said they were more than happy with Nolo partnerships!



After the conference ended, we headed for the hills, Mt. Lemon to be exact and drove up to 8,000'. If you've never been to this part of the country, this desert, these Saguaro cacti, it's a must see, in our humble opinions.

Tip #2 - Write a Good Tag Line

Next to your profile picture, the second most important part of any online attorney profile is a good tag line. Similar to a headline, you want to capture the viewers interest and attention right up front. Being witty, literary, clever or even cute can be OK but more importantly, you want to get your message across right up front, letting people know who you are and how you can help them right now.

Here are a few key pointers when thinking about a tag line for you and your firm as part of your online social networking profile.

• Keep it Simple - The best tag lines are short, clear, and concise, spelling out exactly who you are and what you do in simple plain English. Good tag lines are typically six to eight words but can sometimes be shorter.

• Be Specific - Grandiose, ambiguous or overly general tag lines take away from you and your core message. "We help people in their time of need" doesn't tell a potential client what you do or how you can specifically help them. "Reputable & Discrete Bankruptcy Attorney Serving Southern California" may not be the sexiest tag line on earth, but it it is a clear and strong message that will resonate with potential clients and set you apart from the pack.

• Borrow from Others - Find other profiles of attorneys that you like and use what stands out. Being totally original is one thing but getting the job done is another. Not that we would even condone plagiarism but use best practices from other attorney profiles can be a good way to help you in developing your own.

• Get Feedback - Typically its best to have two or three different tag lines that you like and then bounce them off of your staff, partners, spouses, colleagues, family and friends to get some encouragement and feedback. Don't try to create something this important in a vacuum.

Remember, your tag line should represent you. Spend some time reviewing your core competencies and strengths and identify the one or two key words that really sum up who you are and what you do.

For more in-depth information on how to create a great law firm tag line, check out Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg by Carolyn Elefant and her post - 'Tag(line) - You're it!'

Tip # 1 - Start with a good picture

When we think of social networking profiles, whether they are personal or professional, we tend to think of this standard dictionary definition - an informal biography or a concisely presented sketch of the life and character of a person. More relevant to this post perhaps, is this definition - profile is a picture or representation of the side view of a head.

The first and most important part of your profile is YOU! Sure, you can wax poetically about your educational background and your most recent victories in court but the first and most important thing that people are going to see and remember is that profile picture of you.

So of course it makes sense to post the best picture possible. Even though it may be tempting to whip out the ole point and shoot and have your secretary take a snap shot indoors with the flash, here are a few key suggestions to consider when creating and uploading your attorney profile picture.

• Neutral backgrounds are best - Typically we don't tend to pay much attention to the background but often backgrounds can make or break your photo. Unwanted and distracting lines, shapes, colors and textures can take away from the visual impact of your image. TIP: Stand as far away as possible from the background and then have the photographer stand as far back as possible from you, and then zoom the camera lens in all the way!

• Facial expressions are key - It's not just smile vs. frown. It's all about communicating emotion. If you want to show people you are a happy person, think of something that makes you happy and then smile. If you want to communicate strong and aggressive, think about strong and aggressive emotions.

• Get a second opinion - It's always best to have a couple of your favorite images to choose from. Pick your two or three favorites and then Try a couple different expressions and a change of wardrobe and background.

• Hire a photographer - When all else fails, go with a professional. Since your image is so important to your online persona, consider this small but important investment and hire a photographer. In most towns and cities both large and small you can usually find a decent photographer from online classified listings like Craig's List that will do headshots for less than $200 a session. This is usually a small price to pay for someone else to focus on you and to get you quality images of yourself that you can use for both business and pleasure.

A good headshot should just show you; your face, head and shoulders and nothing more. You might want to do some full-length body shots in addition but the primary goal is a good single shot of you.

Finally, you should try and keep your profile picture as current as possible. Sure, we all have that one picture that we like from ten years ago but 21st Century web 2.0 lawyering is all about who you are in the here and now.