Hosting Hack: PHP 7 Vulnerability

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The Vulnerability

Over the weekend, a vulnerability was found within recent versions of the PHP7 programming language. The vulnerability allows hackers to take over servers through a remote code execution (RCE). Luckily, not all PHP servers were affected.  More technical information can be found here. 

Our Clients

Thankfully for Mockingbird’s clients, who host through our provider (WP Engine), the vulnerability was not an issue.

 

“WP Engine Security has reviewed the recent PHP vulnerability and have determined that we are not vulnerable because at least one of the NGINX prerequisites is not present.” -WP Engine

Next Steps

If your site is not hosted by WP Engine, I strongly advise that you reach out to your host and have them check your server settings for the vulnerability, and then update to the most recent version of PHP.  If the host has not already handled this, It may be a good time to think about switching to a new hosting company.

How We Can Help

At Mockingbird, we realize that you have way more important things to worry about than technical maintenance and hosting issues. That is why we recently launched our maintenance package. Our goal is to bring you peace of mind, knowing that the technical aspects of your site are monitored and maintained. Not to mention, top of the line hosting on WP Engine is included!

Call us today to learn more about our maintenance package, and any of our other digital marketing services.

Please Spend Time on Your Practice Area Pages

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Imagine a consumer going through a crisis. A legal crisis. They turn to your practice, visit your website, and check your practice area pages for the crisis they’re currently in. What do you want them to see?

 

The Bare Minimum

If you want that consumer to become a client you need to show them what they need to see. That is:

  • Whether you cover their type of case
  • Some advice on their crisis so that they know you know what you’re talking about
  • Assurances that you have experience
  • Personal touches to prove that you aren’t just a machine that spits out legalize 

 And, most importantly:

  • More than a single paragraph that briefly describes their crisis and then tells them to call

 

Flesh It Out (Just a Bit)

So now you have the basics of what your page should have. Let’s add some more.

Things that aren’t difficult to add to your page but really do help include:

  • Pictures
  • FAQs
  • Links to resources
  •  Internal linking
  • Past case results
  • Reviews/testimonials

Some of these (FAQs, results, testimonials) might already be available elsewhere on your website. Put a few of them on your practice area pages as well. Give the consumer more information than they need, make them feel like you’re willing to put in the effort. 

 

Content is Worth It

Organic traffic is the most common form of internet traffic, by far (pdf). Failing to adapt your pages for SEO is turning away potential clients before they even get to the door. We get it, lawyers are busy. You shouldn’t be spending your time writing and designing practice pages. Luckily, you can pay other people to do that for you.

If you would like to set up a plan for your website’s content, contact us and we can help you figure out what you need. You might be busy, but, with our help, your firm might be a lot busier.

How to Compete in a Saturated Market

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Breaking into a competitive market can feel like trying to be seen in a crowd of thousands. It might feel like this because that’s essentially what it is. You are struggling to catch the eye of a consumer who’s eyes are already full of ads. Some estimates put the number of advertisements the average American is exposed to daily at over 5,000. So how does yours stand out?

 

What are your competitors doing? Don’t do that.

Research your top competitors. Then research their top keywords. Finally, research their client base. Find out where your target audiences overlap and where they break apart. Focus on where they break apart. 

 

Once you’ve found your isolated market you can start targeting them. Remember those competitor keywords you researched earlier? Don’t use those. Find your niche and work for them. If you succeed in turning your target market into clients, you’ve started breaking in. 

 

Get your name out there

Name recognition can’t be undervalued. PPC ads help with this. Even if no one clicks on them, they still see them. Show them enough and they might even remember your brand name. 

 

The other way to increase name recognition is by getting your work into the news or collaborating with established publications via link building or asking them to publish a well-written article you wrote. The goal is expanding your reach within your market.

 

Quality content

It’s been said before and it will be said again, but creating original, high-quality content can make a substantial difference for your business’s visibility. If you decide to follow through with collaborating with an established publication, they will be more likely to work with you if they can see a dense portfolio of well-produced works. 

 

Content doesn’t need to be directly related to your business, but there should be a through-line. If you’re a personal injury law firm you can have a regular publication on interesting drug trials. It’s a niche group and can be linked back to your “Medical Malpractice” or “Defective Drugs” page. 

 

Focus on your assets

This might seem obvious, but it’s worth saying: put your best foot forward. Make sure consumers know the best aspects of your firm first. You can use keyword data for this as well. See what modifiers people use when searching for businesses. If any of them describe your business, advertise that. 

Visibility and advertising are difficult to get right and especially difficult to figure out if you don’t have a degree in digital marketing or years of experience. Fortunately, you don’t have to do this alone. Give us a call and we can discuss what’s best for your law firm! 

Writing to be Skimmed

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How do you get a message to someone who isn’t paying attention? You make it easier to digest.

 

Most web users don’t read every word of every page they visit, and they can’t be expected to do so. The internet is full of pages dense on complicated information (have you ever tried researching mathematics on Wikipedia?) and much of it is written for a specific audience of people who will understand.

 

Unless you’re writing a scholarly article, you probably can’t assume your audience is up for densely packed-information. 

 

As a law firm, your website is probably full of content (or it should be) and your target audience probably isn’t deeply familiar with the topics being discussed. If you want visitors to turn to clients without expecting them to stop skimming your pages, you need to adjust your content.

 

Practice Area Pages (Use Headers)

Practice area pages need balance, just like everything else. They need to show what topics you cover and that your firm is knowledgeable, but they shouldn’t overwhelm the reader with information. Save that for the blog.

 

If your practice pages cover multiple areas of the same practice, use headers. Visitors are looking to see whether you will cover their case and if they see a large header of their issue they will know that you do. 

 

Blog Posts (Summary, Background, Conclusion)

Blog posts are your opportunity to be more informative. People are reading through your blog looking for detailed information. For blogs, the best way to convey information quickly is by structuring. Every section and every paragraph should have a basic “Summary, Background, Conclusion” format. 

 

If your post is long (at least 2 printed pages), ensure you use headers. If it’s especially long (5+ pages), consider a table of contents. 

 

Improving Content

Keep sentences short and sweet and make sure every word has its purpose. Don’t get too attached to any sections, as you might find that they’re superfluous and will have to cut them. 

 

Remember to give yourself a break if your message doesn’t get across your first few tries; writing content for the internet is writing for both algorithms and humans. It takes time and trial and error. We can’t all have the character efficiency and keyword optimization skills of Ernest Hemmingway. 

If you think your website could use an SEO audit or would like to learn more about how to improve your website, contact us! 

Choosing the Right Images for Your Article

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When creating a blog post, article, or informational page it’s important to respond to the visual elements of web design and add a relevant image. According to a study done by Skyword, pages with relevant photos get 94% more visits than their counterparts without images. 

 

What Images Work

“Images” is being used as an umbrella term here and refers to pictures, graphs, infographics, illustrations, and anything other than straight text. The image should add to the message of the text, helping the reader reach a further understanding. Graphs should make data digestible, infographics should make broader concepts fun and interesting, and photos or illustrations should make the reader empathize with the message.

 

Beyond being relevant, images should be of high quality. They should have a reasonable pixel count; nothing dates a web page like low-quality images. If you’re using stock photos, make sure they’re not too generic. If you’re taking your own photos, make sure they’re intelligently composed and well lit. It’s worth it to bring in a professional photographer or invest in photography lessons. 

 

How Photos Improve Practice Pages and Resources

As a law firm, you might already know the importance of images for your resources and practice pages. The number of divorce practice pages featuring photos of sad couples turned away from each other are countless. It can be hard to tell where the line is between overly generic/safe and overly relevant yet distasteful. The number of personal injury blogs with images of people on stretchers after car accidents is much lower than the sad divorce blog couples. These pages might be served better with statistical images: graphs and infographics. 

 

What Does “Relevant” Even Mean

As previously touched on, relevant refers to the image’s ability to add to the text. For example, the below photo is relevant because it shows how one might begin a photo search:

screenshot
This screenshot of a search on the website Pexels.com shows the generic nature of most stock image sites

 

As seen in the photo, most of the images available on the stock image sites are more generic than constructive. 

 

Sometimes images are completely irrelevant but provoke an emotional reaction that can’t be ignored, as shown below:

Salamanana
This image, also from Pexels.com, is deeply disturbing.

 

I have doubts that this example will help this page’s pageviews in any way, but it can still be considered relevant due to it being an example of irrelevance.

Getting Help Finding/Creating Images

A good graphic designer should be able to find or create images that are relevant and tasteful to your website and page, but not every firm has the resources for an in-house graphic designer. Luckily, there are services available for businesses that need help with web design and site-building. 

If you need assistance building or designing your website, contact Mockingbird Marketing and we can help you find relevant images for every page.

Should I Be Focused on My Rankings?

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When it comes to SEO blogs and advice it can feel like people talk about rankings like how people talk to teenagers about SAT scores; they are somehow both vital to your success, but they also don’t really matter if you know where your focus is. Because of these opposing viewpoints, it can be useful to take a look at where ranking high can help, and when to take a step back.

 

I’m Not Ranking High in Searches for “Lawyer Seattle”

Ranking high as a small or unestablished business online can be near-impossible, especially for competitive keywords. This is where you can make vast strides up the rankings by narrowing and improving your keywords. If you need advice on how to optimize your keywords, we here at Mockingbird have just about typed our fingers off with blog posts about keywords.  

 

Where Do I Need to be Ranking Higher?

To improve your online audience you’ll want to find your specific audience, possibly with some PPC help. You want to be ranking high with your consumer base. If 100,000 people are looking at your site but none of them care about your law-firm then you don’t have any clients. If 50 people look at your site but all of them need a lawyer, you’ll get new clients. Ranking high won’t help if you’re not ranking where it matters.

 

How Much Do My Rankings Matter, Really

As you’re probably picking up by now, that depends on your goals and where you’re ranking. If your website is ranking high for “Lawyer Seattle,” then congrats! You managed to get into a very competitive keyword race. If you are a general practice lawyer, this is great. If you only defend people whose neighbors steal their livestock, this probably won’t help you very much. You should be competing in the “livestock hustling lawyer” keyword rankings. Your rankings matter if they’re properly aimed at your audience. 

If you need help with your website’s rankings or ad campaigns, contact us to schedule a conversation.

See Your Competition’s Backlinks

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Whenever you set out to get more organic calls to your website, one of the first things you do is get links. As you can imagine, there are a LOT of ways to go about doing this, some tedious, some creative, some misguided, some lucrative. So before you get started training to set a world record for most knives juggled while blindfolded on a tightrope for a link from Guinness, make sure any easy, high-value opportunities have been identified.

What Easy Links Does Your Competition Have?

One of the first things to do for linkbuilding is to run a competitive audit. This is one of the best ways to make sure your bases are covered when it comes to easy backlinks, as well as a way to pinpoint creative strategies for down the road. In a nutshell, this article will help you identify which competitors to emulate, dig up their backlink profile, and recognize and acquire good opportunity links.

1. Identify Competitors.

To do this, simply run a search in Google for whatever keywords you want to show up for. If you’re a personal injury lawyer, these might be “personal injury lawyer”, “car accident lawyer”, “medical malpractice”, etc. Note the top organic search results for the range of terms you’re targeting. Skip the ads, the map, “People also ask…”, we’re looking for the first true organic landing pages. I recommend getting a list of 5 or so domains from these results (the highest in search results). What we now have is a list of competitors that are doing well at what you want to do well at. As a starting point, why reinvent the wheel when it’s possible to see what’s making their sites tick?

2. Competitor Backlink Scan

Now that you have a big list of competitors, it’s time to narrow that number down. For this part you’ll some sort of backlink analysis tool. I like to use Ahrefs.com, but Majestic and Moz Open Site Explorer do the same thing (note: only one of these, Moz, is free, and unfortunately you get what you pay for). All of these tools have some variety of a bulk domain upload. If you’re using Ahrefs, yours will look something like this:

 

From this list, depending on how involved you want to get, you can take a closer look at one or all of these domains, starting with the highest. I’ll typically take three.

3. Identify Opportunity

Once you’ve chosen your domains to zoom in on, plug that domain into the domain analysis tool you’re using (no longer on the bulk tool, but using the  individual domain tool) and navigate to the backlink list. in Ahrefs you’ll see this:

Where do we go from here? This is the more labor-intensive part. It’s now your job to comb through all the websites pointing to competitor’s sites and identify links that can be recreated. Particularly easy opportunities are directories. On the list above I see a “http://www.bdirectory.org/”. Now that we have a linking domain picked out, we have a few questions that need answering:

  • Is this a website that you want a link from? Check out the article I wrote on this here. Basically, is this a legitimate website that has users and a caring webmaster, or is it spam? If spam, opt out.
  • What’s involved in getting a link? Some of the time this can be as simple as building a profile and hitting submit. Sometimes this requires a bit more legwork. After assessing the site (by means of the article linked to above) determine how much time and energy is appropriate for what links. This takes some trial and error to get a sense of, but really boils down to reaching out to webmasters in creative and persistent ways asking them to feature content that already exists on your site.

Remember, linkbuilding is only limited by your creativity and persistence. Competitive auditing is one way among many of finding links and finding inspiration. As you go through competitor link lists approach each of them from a creative standpoint on how you might be able find an in and get a link, this can vary wildly from site to site. Remember that you will get frustrated. Of the webmasters that you reach out to, less than 10% will respond. That’s just part of the game.

How Politics Can Help Your Firm

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Politics exist in everything we do, from the clothes we wear to the food we eat. It’s in our cars, our ears, and in your law firm, and you should think about leaning into it. By politics, I’m not referring to current climate or partisan issues, I’m talking about the policies and issues that are built into our society. Consumers are becoming more focused on whether the businesses they support share their beliefs, so meet your clients and find out what you share.

 

Who’s Your Audience

As a lawyer, your audience is probably made up of people who have been wronged, one way or another. Since they’re your clients, you probably believe that the policy wronging them is wrong, you share that belief. You probably share other views as well. Find out which of your views are exciting to your audience.

 

How to Use it

People respond to passion, and you probably have some. Take your passions and use your expertise in the law to do something about it. If you are passionate about women’s rights set up a pro-bono portion of your practice dedicated to defending victims of domestic abuse. Start a legal blog outside of your practice that focuses on the issues that are important to you. People respond well to actions done for the good of the people rather than for the benefit of the business. Luckily, if done well, they can go hand in hand.

 

The Potential Benefits

If you have done well, you (and your firm) could get increased media coverage, focused on the benevolence of your practice. This is some pretty great PR, and could increase brand visibility and recognition.  

 

The Potential Risks

Just as the benefits can be high for businesses that get political, the risks can be pretty high too. Brands that have taken stands that don’t align with their audience can tank the business’s reputation. Make sure you know where both you and your clientele stand, and if it isn’t together maybe stay safe and stick to your business.

If you think your firm could benefit from some good PR or designing an advertising campaign contact us for a discussion about your practice and your goals.

The Role of Meta Descriptions in Your Business

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Meta descriptions often fly under the radar for both consumers and website builders. Google has crippled their authority by excluding them from the ranking process and often simply rewriting the descriptions webmasters created for their pages. Despite all this, meta descriptions can serve a vital role in your webpage’s click-through-rate. While a bland and boring meta description can disappear like hay in a haystack, an interesting description can make a link stand out during a search.

 

What Are Meta Descriptions

For those just joining us, meta descriptions are the small blurbs that appear below the website during a search. They give a brief description of the webpage and often highlight the keywords that appear in the consumer’s search.

Meta Description
The Meta Description for Mockingbird Marketing

 

Writing a Good Meta Description

Good meta descriptions can be the difference between you or your competitor getting a new client. The recommended length of a description falls between 135-160 characters, as longer descriptions get truncated to fit into the snippet provided. Google is also more likely to replace your pre-written description with an automatically generated one of their own, often composed of the first couple lines of the page. Sometimes this is unavoidable but doesn’t mean you should give up. 

A good description is brief and attention-grabbing. It describes the purpose of the page without being a summary. Think of a mixture of a blurb on the back of a book and the way coffee beans are described (it’s never just “dark roast with nutty flavors,” it’s always “an invigorating blend grown in the heart of South America with each bean individually roasted and infused with the spirits of warriors and hints of cocoa”).  Take advantage of the fact that the consumer probably isn’t sure what they want yet. Make them want to see what you have to offer.

 

Writing a Bad Meta Description

A meta description can be bad in more ways than it can be good. It can be boring, misleading, poorly written, and/or vague. This doesn’t guarantee that your page will fail, but it won’t help. Some common mistakes to avoid when writing meta descriptions include:

  • Stuffing in too many keywords
  • Not using any keywords
  • Describing the brand instead of the webpage
  • Copy and pasting similar descriptions for different pages
  • Neglecting rich result optimization
  • Simply not writing meta descriptions

When it comes to your firm’s search results it’s best not to leave things to chance or to Google’s algorithms. Mockingbird Marketing specializes in all areas of SEO for law firms, including designing meta descriptions. Contact us to learn more about how your site could be improved, from the bottom up.