The Effects of Google Search Console’s Speed Reports

Written by

Google just announced the rollout of a new report in their Search Console, a report six months in the making. Designed to let webmasters quickly identify problems and areas for improvement, the new reports will show which pages have fast speeds and which are slow, as well as which pages have identifiable issues. The speed reports will have a ripple effect on page quality and views. 

 

Graph showing sample speed report
Sample Speed Report, from webmasters.googleblog.com

 

Bounce Rate

One of the main causes of a high bounce rate is slow loading speeds. With the technology to identify which pages are slow, webmasters can improve bounce rates. This will help to increase conversions and site visits in general.

 

Identifying Updates

Knowing when to upgrade plugins can be difficult for novice webmasters, at no fault of their own. Running a website means keeping track of many moving parts, often while also running a business. Having speed reports can help webmasters identify which pages need their plugins updated.

 

Improving Site Design

Many slow sites can find the culprit for their speed in the design of their site. This could mean that they’re using too many fancy features, their images are too large, or they’re using embedded videos. If a page is being marked as slow without having an issue, it could be an indicator that it should be optimized.

Running a website is tough work and can require a level of expertise and commitment that not everyone is willing to devote. That’s a role that Mockingbird Marketing is ready to fill. We build and manage websites for law firms, including doing routine maintenance and technical audits. If you want to know more about how Google’s new speed reports can help your business, call us!

BERT: The Newest AI

Written by

It’s Halloween today and I tried to think of something spooky, and an AI that can think like a human is normally pretty scary. Sadly, a program named BERT that’s just trying its best to help people find what they’re looking for isn’t exactly the Skynet scenario that’s built to frighten. Anyway, onwards with the informative part:

 

What does BERT do?

BERT is Google’s most advanced user-intent AI. Its algorithm will help the search console decipher vague queries. Google has employed user-intent AI’s in the past, but BERT is more advanced than the past programs could have ever dreamed to be.

 

What results does BERT affect?

BERT is still in the process of being rolled out but is expected to impact upwards of 10% of searches. It will affect rankings on those searches and can also impact featured snippets. What’s important to remember is that this update is designed to improve user experience, not webmaster experience.

 

Can I optimize for BERT?

Nope. BERT is not designed to be optimized for. If your content is relevant and well designed for the user’s intent you might have a better chance of ranking higher than in the past, but that is up to BERT. You cannot negotiate with BERT.

 

How does BERT work?

BERT was designed through open sourcing, machine learning, and many Google employees working overtime. It is described on the Google AI blog as “deeply bidirectional, unsupervised language representation, pre-trained using only a plain text corpus (in this case, Wikipedia).”

 

So how should I proceed with my content?

Keep making good content, keep making it relevant. The same rules that applied before still apply now. 

If you’re unsure how to create a content plan or optimize your website for the modern age, contact Mockingbird Marketing and we can talk about it!

Please Spend Time on Your Practice Area Pages

Written by

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

Written by

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

Written by

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

Written by

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?

Written by

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.

Your Size (Or Lack Thereof) Is Your Strength

Written by

Being a small business comes with its struggles. You don’t have the endless funds and limitless protections of a multinational law firm. You don’t get to go to large company retreats. These factors might make you glance at larger law firms with envy in your eyes, but from an advertising standpoint, you’ve got the upper-hand.  As a local business, you have the trust of the community. You have a local office that your customers can visit and, more importantly, find on Google.

 

Google My Business

When a consumer does a Google search for businesses in their area, Google will show them business with locations near them. Small-town firms benefit the most from this since large businesses are less likely to have a physical location in town. That being said, it is vital that you have your Google My Business profile set-up and up to date. Google My Business will only benefit you if Google actually has your address.

 

The Local Factor

 As a local business, you probably already know people in the area. You probably already have connections through friends, family, social events, and just being a local. This improves your trustworthiness. An even better way to improve your name recognition and local reputation is by contributing to the community. Participate in local events, sponsor local services, and get your name out there. 

 

Connections are everything

If your town still has a local newspaper make connections there. They can be a vital resource for link-building, local advertising, and partnering for local events or sponsorship programs. The same goes for local radio and television stations. In a place where everybody knows everybody, make your firm’s name stick.

 

Emphasize Your Size

As a small firm, every client is personal. You know all your employees and care about everyone who walks through the door. Or at least that’s the image you want to project. Large firms may have fleets of lawyers, but they don’t have the personal touch. Consumers respond positively to locally owned businesses, so capitalize on that. 

Advertising as a small law firm can be difficult: without a marketing department, digital ad campaigns can be overwhelming and expensive. If you are a small law firm looking to grow your business, contact us and we can discuss how we can help you get more clients.

How Politics Can Help Your Firm

Written by

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.