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.

It’s Time To Start Making Video Content

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I know, it’s an investment. Making high-quality video content requires expensive gear and loads of time both in front of the camera and editing. You need scripts and producers and lighting and a boom guy. Your lawyers are lawyers, not actors.

Here’s the thing, you don’t need all of that. Sure, you need a camera and a microphone, and someone who knows how to edit videos, but there has never been a better time to be producing video content.

 

Improved Data

With Google’s recent announcement that videos will appear in searches and webmasters will be provided comprehensive data on the performance of the video, producing tailored content is simple, or at least as simple as any other form of digital marketing. With improved access to data, adapting your campaigns will be a sharp learning curve.

 

Video Reach Campaigns

While you definitely shouldn’t have third-party embedded videos on your website (it can significantly slow down site speeds by full seconds), you should consider video advertising or posting regular informational blogs on a company Youtube channel. With Youtube’s updated video reach campaigns managing multiple campaigns is easy and cost-effective. If you don’t want to manage video ads, a video channel will help build your online presence.  

 

Editing

Simple videos don’t need complicated edits. As a law firm, you probably don’t want to be producing complicated videos in-house, but simple informative videos are easy to learn to edit. There are multiple free video editing programs that should cover everything you need to do.

 

What Kind of Content 

You’re a law firm, right? You know the law. Explain your practice to your viewers. If you have a legal blog some of your blog posts can be repurposed into more in-depth videos. FAQs can be answered with an actual voice, not just in text. Be creative! 

 

If you don’t feel comfortable expanding into creating video content, you don’t have to. Just know that marketers are prioritizing video advertising just below keyword searches and audience targeting. 

If you would like help to understand or designing a video marketing campaign, contact us and we can discuss your options.

Understanding Conversions (SEO 101)

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Website management programs record every type of action a consumer makes on a website. The digital marketing world designates each action with its own acronym and relevance. There’s the click-through-rate (CTR), which describes how many people clicked on your link; the bounce rate, or how many people left the page immediately after clicking on your link; and the conversion rate, how many consumers become clients.

 

How To Measure Conversions

Due to the complexities of both the internet and human behaviors, measure the exact numbers of conversions can be difficult. This means your conversion rate will change depending on the parameters you set for recording conversions, but you can decide which actions count as conversions. According to a Moz.com article on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), there are two types of converting actions: macro-conversions and micro-conversions:

From Moz.com

 

Things to Keep In Mind

Every time a unique visit results in a conversion, the conversion rate goes up. This often doesn’t account for the few unique visits before a consumer makes before they convert into a client. They might not register as the same consumer If they clear their cookies or visit your site from a different device and account. Conversion rates are never 100% accurate, but if you optimize your ads and webpages with conversion actions they should give a good sense of how long it takes for consumers to become clients after visiting your page.

 

Increasing Conversions

So the consumer is on your webpage, now it’s up to your product and your content to make them into a customer. SEO and advertising can only go so far as to get them to your page, once they’re there, you have to convince them. This can be done with pleasing web design, easy access to converting actions (commenting on blogs, filling out surveys, signing up for newsletters, etc.), and providing quality content and products.

If you would like help in setting up any aspect of what is discussed here, contact Mockingbird Marketing. We set you up with everything your law firm needs for a website and a marketing campaign.

Don’t Neglect Your Firm’s Social Media

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We live in a social world, and if you fail to participate you are failing your business. While many aspects of social media are fast-moving and trendy, near impossible for a hard-working firm to keep up with, simply having a presence will help build organic traffic to your website. Luckily, social media pages are easy to set up.

 

The Basics

To set up a basic social media presence, stick to the main 3 platforms: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. To be honest, you probably don’t even really need Instagram unless one of your attorneys has a passion for taking artsy photos of just out of focus legal briefs. As for Facebook, you can set up a business page with all of your information, which you should do. A Facebook business page gives you a platform to keep all your information. Even if you have a Google My Business profile, the more places you have your information the better.

The basic information you want to have on Facebook and Twitter is about the same as your Google My Business profile: address, hours, contact information, link to your website. Social media will also allow you to present your business to a wider audience. Make sure photos of your firm and your lawyers are easily accessible on your page(s). This adds credibility to your business and gives your internet presence a more personal feeling.

 

Adding More

Once the basics of your page have been set up, you can further increase traffic by uploading regularly. You can do this simply by connecting your legal blog to your social media firm. This will help your social media feed to remain active and increase the readership of your blog. If you don’t have a blog, consider starting one. If you don’t want to start one, try just sharing relevant articles. Active social media feeds let clients know that your business is still running with lawyers that keep up to date with current events. Post business updates: new hires, successful cases, attendance at conferences. Every detail about your firm will be a deciding factor for your potential clients, so give them as many good and honest details as you can.

 

If you already have a social media page make sure to check on it regularly. If you change offices update the address. Check and see if the page has photos. Think of your business as a person: if you (not your business) got contacted by someone you didn’t know and when you looked them up all you could find was a Facebook page with no photos or posts, that was made in 2007. You wouldn’t trust that person. The same goes for your firm. Make sure your firm is more trustworthy than the twelve-year-old empty profile of a stranger.

For advice on building a social media page or resources on improving your website’s traffic, contact us. We love lawyers!

You Need to Improve Your Firm’s Brand Story

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So you have a good business, you treat your clients well, your firm works hard, and yet your presence is barely felt online. You’ve worked on SEO, PPC, and every other acronym your digital marketing team has thrown at you. Maybe you need to improve your brand story, for both you and your clients.

 

The Client’s Story

Unless they’ve been referred by a friend, it’s unlikely that your client will show up at your website without first doing research into their case and other lawyers. This is that client’s story you need to work on. They need to go from not knowing you, recognizing your brand, to trusting you, to converting. 

This process begins with the client researching their problem, which is when you can come in with information. This is why having an informative and accessible blog is essential. If you’re a personal injury firm, maybe your client will find a blog about settlements from trampoline-related injuries when they’re researching how common the injuries they sustained on their friend’s trampoline are. 

Once they decide to take action, they will hopefully have your brand in the back of their heads as they research local law firms. Once the name is familiar, they are more likely to look into your firm. As they’re comparing firms, you need to make sure your personal brand story stands out.

 

Your Brand Story

Remember the three arts of rhetoric: Pathos, Ethos, and Logos. That’s right, we’re going back to High School English. Consider what makes your firm different, what gives it the upper-hand. 

What brought everyone into the firm and why do you do what you do? Pull those pathos strings; get them emotionally involved.  

What makes your lawyers so good? Was it their schooling? Their years of experience? Maybe they clerked for superior court judges in their youth. Show your potential client that you have the knowledge and authority to win the case. You must wow them with your ethos.

Finally, explain why your firm is the practical option. If you’re a personal injury lawyer who only charges a contingency fee, you’re probably more practical for someone trying to repair their life that a lawyer who costs $1,200/hour. If you’re a local business you are easily accessible to anyone nearby and know all the local regulations. You are the logical option, and you need to prove it with logos.

 

What If My Story Isn’t Interesting?

Any story can be interesting if it’s told correctly. Focus on emotions where the details get dry, focus on details when there aren’t many emotions to talk about and talk about your hopes for your brand’s future when there’s not much to say about emotions or details. Every person has some motivation for being where they are, and yours and your clients’ need to align when they find your website. Whatever you do, don’t make up your story. Fabricated details and emotions are easy to sense and can push potential clients away, even if they aren’t quite sure why. People respond to honesty. 

If you need help building your brand story or increasing your brand awareness, contact us and we will help you plan a comprehensive marketing strategy.