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14
Jul, 2021
a lawyer records blog ideas on a notebook

By OppGen

How Important Are Blogs to Legal SEO?

What is SEO and Why Does It Matter for Law Firms and the Legal Industry?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a digital marketing strategy with the goal of getting your website to rank high on search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keyword searches.

Unlike search ads, SEO is an organic strategy, meaning you don’t pay the search engine to place your law firm’s website on SERPs for certain keywords.

Depending on the area of law your law firm specializes in, paid search ads can be very expensive. For example, personal injury law ads are one of the most expensive advertising segments on Google — and that is across all industries, not just the legal industry.

SEO is a marketing strategy that can help bring in more clients and cases more efficiently, more consistently, and more cost-effectively compared to other options (though you certainly can — and should — invest in paid search and SEO).

OppGen Marketing’s SEO packages include blog posts written by our in-house content writing team. Contact us to learn more about our SEO services.

 

Why are Blogs Important for Legal SEO?

The best legal SEO programs are made up of 4 components:

 

1. Technical SEO

Technical SEO focuses on tackling issues like website speed and coding. Google has been moving toward a mobile-first system with SEO, meaning that websites are judged first by how quickly they load on mobile devices.

At this point, it is a must to have a website coded for mobile devices and not just desktop computers.

 

2. Local SEO

In most cases, law firms are local to specific locations. This puts them at a good advantage for SEO provided they know how to use it.

One common Google search involves looking for a service or company “near me.” Google takes a searcher’s physical location at the time of their search and will display whatever they searched near them based on that location. When a prospective client nearby searches for “law firm near me,” it’s imperative that your law firm shows up, whether as a search result or on Google Maps.

One way to do this involves making sure your law firm has a Google My Business account with the correct business name, address, and phone number. It also helps to make sure your law firm is listed in relevant directories, too, and in the legal field, there are many listing options available to you.

 

3. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO revolves around the content on your website. “Content” can be many things: videos, podcasts, photos, and blogs.

For those slightly familiar with on-page SEO, you might think that filling up a webpage with the same keyword over and over again can get you to rank high. This is no longer the case.

Today, on-page SEO means you need to create highly detailed, relevant content that your target audience finds valuable. This also means you need to make sure your content is readable — not only will your target audience be reading this, but so will search engines. Search engines read websites similarly to how humans do.

 

4. Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO refers to the processes of link building, shares on social media, and getting five-star reviews.

Link building occurs when links on other websites point back to your law firm’s website. The more links that direct people to your law firm’s site, the better (as long as those pointing back to you are good resources, that is), because search engines recognize that when more people are sharing your content, it means your content is useful.

 

What Do Any of Those 4 Components Have to do with the Importance of Blogging for SEO?

Each of these components play a key role in SEO, and you can’t have one without the others if you truly wish to have an effective SEO strategy.

That said, blogging is a key part of on-page SEO strategies. Even though you can’t keyword stuff pages anymore, you still can create valuable content for your target audience. It’s those pages that are most likely to be shared with others and can help you build a system of backlinks, pushing your website higher up on SERPs for relevant keywords.

Although search engines are beginning to include audio and video into searches, blogging will always be one of the most efficient and simplest ways to rank on Google and Bing for relevant keyword searches.

It’s much easier to set up a target keyword and try to rank for it compared to audio and video, which are still new. Compared to those other mediums, blogging has a lower entry point. Videos and audio require equipment and editing software. If you don’t know how to edit audio or video (both of which are time-consuming processes), you’re going to struggle to create good content, which is the goal of on-page SEO.

Everyone can write — but that doesn’t mean just anyone should.

 

Why Should I Have a legal SEO Writer?

Though you don’t necessarily need to hire a legal SEO writer, you should consider working with someone who writes with SEO in mind.

Writing isn’t as easy as it looks, and that goes for SEO content writing, too. Writing about a subject you’re overly familiar with often means you may use jargon that most readers won’t understand. Let’s be honest: the average American isn’t going to read a legal document for fun. Most legal documents are dry and hard to read. That is the exact opposite of what you need for your law firm’s blog.

You can’t write a blog for a more general audience (compared to your colleagues in the legal industry, at least) that’s written like a legal document. It needs to be simplified in a way that anyone can understand. And that is a skill not everyone has.

It’s important to have a good writer who understands SEO and can weave target keywords into an easy-to-read blog post.

 

How to Write a Good Legal Blog Using SEO

Choose Your Keywords

The keywords you choose to target will determine the likelihood of your website ranking for those keyword searches. Some keywords are nearly impossible to rank for, while others are easy to rank for but aren’t searched very often. You won’t know the keyword difficulty or search volume unless you use a website like SEMrush or ahrefs. These websites track keywords, search volume, keyword difficulty, and more. Ideally, you’ll want to use keywords with a relatively low keyword difficulty and high search volume. These websites do require subscriptions. If you don’t understand some of the terms or ranking information on these sites, it may be a better investment to partner with a marketing agency that has access to them and will create content for you, such as OppGen Marketing.

Another consideration to take into account: Would someone who is looking for your law firm’s services use any of the keywords you may want to use? If not, drop those from the list. Knowing your audience and what keywords they could use matters a lot.

Last but not least, make sure your keywords are relevant to what it is you offer. Relevance is really important, and you don’t want to market something you don’t offer. But that doesn’t mean you are limited to just writing about legal issues. Look into a newsjacking approach. Newsjacking is a strategy that utilizes current events and writing about them from an angle you’re familiar with. For example, if you’re a personal injury lawyer, you could write about the Surfside condominium collapse in Florida and discuss what legal actions, if any, people have in a situation like that one. 

There are many different topics and keywords out there — it’s a matter of researching them.

 

Make an Outline

Before creating the blog, make an outline and think about section headers. Blogs should not be formatted like a book or legal document. They need to be broken up into sections. Not only that but these sections should also be related to your keywords. If you can make sure your keywords are part of some of the headers (your keywords should always be included in the h1 header, which is also known as the title header).

Other SEO blog outlining tips:

  • Include your keyword(s) in the h1/title head and at least one in an h2 header
  • Use only one h1/title header per blog
  • Make subsections using h2, h3, h4, and make sure that h2 is larger than h3 and h3 is larger than h4
  • Make the last section header a call to action (CTA)

 

Write the Blog Post

Now that you’ve created the outline, you can finally start writing the actual blog post. You can certainly use the target keywords a few times, but be careful not to overdo it.

If you include images in your blog (and you should!), make sure you utilize the alt text tag. Alt text describes the image and will appear on screen readers. This helps people with visual impairments know what is in the image. Plus, it’s a good place to include a keyword, but the keyword is not the most important thing with alt tags — that would be accessibility.

 

Have Someone Outside Your Law Firm Review the Blog

As much as you may want to have one of your fellow attorneys review the blog post, it’s a good idea to have someone who isn’t in the legal profession read it. This could be a friend, a spouse, or the person who handles all of your law firm’s communication. As long as they don’t have a law degree or practice law, anyone is fair game.

Once you find someone to read and review the blog, ask them to summarize what exactly it is they just read. If they’re able to summarize what it was about correctly after reading it, congrats! You have a blog post that is accessible to the general public.

 

Post the Blog

Now that you’ve had the blog reviewed and made any edits or changes as needed, it’s time to post the blog to your law firm’s website. But there are a few things you need to include before you hit that post button, starting with a featured image.

With featured images, it’s important to use an image you have the rights to use. There are free stock photo sites that allow you to use photos for free, such as Pexels; and then there are subscription-based sites like Shutterstock. Both types of sites have their advantages and disadvantages, so it is a good idea to use both.

Another option for images is Creative Commons, which allows you to use images provided you follow the requirements for each type of license. For example, most Creative Commons content requires you to credit its creator. This can be done at the bottom of the blog post. But make sure you review each license carefully; there are some that will not let you use the content for commercial purposes. Others won’t let you modify the images in any way. Always review the Creative Commons license before using any content. 

You’ll need a meta description, too. Meta descriptions are the summaries that appear on individual search results. Meta descriptions should include the keywords you want to try to rank for and should be no longer than 160 characters in length. Anything longer than that will be cut off.

You can also adjust how the blog’s title (known as a title tag) will appear on search engines, too. It’s generally recommended that your title tag is somewhere between 50 to 70 characters in length, though Google has said there is no limit to the title tag’s character length. However, there is still a cut-off point measured in pixels, and this is where using a plug-in like Yoast can come in handy, as it can give you an idea of when the title tag is too long.

When posting your final draft of the blog, make sure its URL contains the keywords you want to rank for, too. This makes it easier for search engines to find, and it’s far more organized than letting the content management system (sometimes abbreviated as CMS) use the publication date or a string of random numbers for the URL.

Another thing to check before hitting that publish button: use your name as the author of the blog post to help establish not only your law firm’s authority, but yours, too. 

If you don’t want to publish your blog immediately, most content management systems allow you to schedule it for publication on a specific date and time. Otherwise, go ahead and click the publish button.

And now, you wait for an increase in traffic and hopefully emails and phone calls from prospective clients. Keep in mind that SEO is not immediate or automatic — it will take time before you see any increases in clients.

 

Share the Blog to Social Media

Your post has been published. Now what? Easy: Share the blog to your law firm’s social media accounts. It’s an easy way to build up backlinks and possibly have others in your social (media) circle share it, too.

You may want to sit back and celebrate the publication and shares of your first legal SEO blog — but the journey’s not over yet. You’ll have to keep creating SEO-friendly blogs if you want to continue to see an increase in clients for your law firm. Search engine optimization is an ongoing strategy that never truly ends. Once you start, you should not stop.

 

Contact OppGen for More Information

For some people, the fact that SEO is a never-ending strategy is too much to deal with. It’s too easy to run out of blog topics or keywords. Maybe you’re too busy to keep track of SEO.

Whatever the reason, it’s a good idea to hire a legal SEO writer or a digital marketing company that can create original content for your law firm’s website and brings in more clients. And OppGen Marketing is here to do just that.

To learn more about OppGen’s legal SEO marketing program, contact us today, or fill out our free digital audit for valuable feedback about where you can improve your law firm’s SEO strategy and more.

12
Feb, 2021
3 lawyers pleased with PPC cost per click

By OppGen

How to Improve Your PI Law Firm’s Google Ads Quality Score

Personal injury law is one of the most expensive and most competitive industries when it comes to the cost per click of a pay per click (PPC) search ad on Google. Generally speaking, law-related ads tend to have a higher cost per click as it is, but personal injury law firms in particular are still going to face an even higher cost per click.

Depending on your PI law firm’s budget, a single click from a prospect could result in depleting your advertising budget. This means it’s really, really important to have the right people clicking on your ads. But having a good Google Ads quality score can help with some of the cost as well as helping the right clients find your PI law firm. 

Learn more about how OppGen Marketing’s PI law firm marketing program can help improve your Google Ads quality score and lower the cost per click.

 

What is a Google Ads Quality Score?

A Google Ads quality score is a score that is meant to give you a sense of your PPC ad quality. The score works on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the lowest score and 10 being the highest.

The quality score has 3 components:

  1. Landing page experience: Rates how relevant and useful your landing page is
  2. Expected clickthrough rate: Estimates how likely a prospect is to click on your ad (does not take ad position or ad blocking extensions into account)
  3. Ad relevance: Rates how closely your keywords match the message in your ads

The better the above components are, the higher your quality score will be.

 

How Can My Google Ads Quality Score Help My PI Law Firm? 

Because personal injury law is an expensive industry for PPC, you want to make sure your ad is being shown to the right person while making sure the CPC is within your budget.

Having a higher quality score can help your PI law firm have better ad placement and lower your ads’ cost per click, which will decrease your cost per conversion.

 

How Can I Improve My Google Ads Quality Score?

Use Relevant Keywords

The more specific you can be with your keywords, the better. General keywords can lead to your ad being shown to prospects who aren’t in need of your services, or are seeking something entirely different.

Pay attention to the keyword match types you’re using in your ad campaigns. It’s possible to have your ad displayed for searches that aren’t relevant if you’re using the default match type setting. The 4 keyword match types are:

 

1. Broad Match

Broad match is Google Ads’ default setting, and it can be used to reach the widest possible audience. With broad match, your ad can appear when any word in your keyword phrase, in any order, is searched. This means it’s possible for your ad to be displayed irrelevant prospects — a waste of your lead generation efforts and marketing budget.

You can, however, create a list of negative keywords to ensure this doesn’t happen (we’ll discuss more about negative keywords later), though you’ll likely have to research and continue to add to this list.

OppGen Marketing’s analysts will do the research for you as well as monitor your campaign. Contact us to learn more.

 

2. Modified Broad Match

Modified broad match gives you a little bit more control than the default broad match. It allows you to “lock” individual keywords in a phrase, which tells Google that the search must include that specific word. With a broad match, the phrase car accident lawyer could bring up your ad for any searches involving the individual words “car,” “accident,” and “lawyer” in any order.

With modified broad match, you could lock “accident” and “lawyer,” which would display ads to any searches that include those terms. The order of the words can change, though. So you could end up with clients who searched for motorcycle accident lawyer or lawyer automobile accident and found your website through an ad!

 

3. Phrase Match

Phrase match, like the modified broad match, gives you more control over who sees your ads. It has a higher level of control than phrase match, as it requires keywords to be searched in an exact order. Phrase match can include search queries that add extra keywords before or after the phrase.

Using the car accident lawyer search as an example, you could set those three keywords as a phrase. Prospects could pull up the ad when they search for car accident lawyer near me or columbus ohio car accident lawyer because the phrase car accident lawyer is used in the search.

 

4. Exact Match

Exact match is the most restrictive keyword match type — and here, restrictive is not a bad thing. It ensures that people searching for the exact phrase find your ad. If they search for car accident lawyer, and those words are what you have set as an exact match, then your ad will likely be shown to them.

It’s worth noting that Google has made some adjustments to exact match keywords, which allows them to display your ad when there are slight variations of your keywords. This includes making a singular word plural (car accident lawyers instead of car accident lawyer), certain synonyms (automobile accident lawyer instead of car accident lawyer), and variations that involve the same intent, are paraphrased, or are implied.

With exact match, you can anticipate a reduction in unwanted costs and higher conversion rates. While these are positive things, there are still some downsides to exact match.

The downsides to exact match are a reduction in traffic due to lower search volume. But for PI law firms, exact match keywords can be very useful for filtering out unwanted traffic and bring in those who are most interested and likely to convert.

 

Organize Keyword Groups

The way you group your keywords matters. It can help keep your ads more relevant to prospects’ searches. Consider organizing keywords by more specific types of personal injury law, such as keeping all car accident-related keywords in the same group. That way, if someone searches for a car accident lawyer, they aren’t going to find themselves looking at an ad that will lead them to your PI law firm’s FAQ page. Be sure to keep your keyword groups up to date and don’t be afraid to see if there are any new search terms that might be effective to add to your keyword groups.

 

Write Effective Ad Copy

Ad copy is super important. It’s what catches prospects’ attention, and you need to do it quickly and efficiently. Don’t make the ad too complex. Keep it simple. Focus on what makes your PI law firm better than your competitors. 

Don’t be afraid to change things up with your ad copy. Experiment with A/B testing to see which copy is more effective than others, then shift to the one that is doing better. A/B testing is a strategy in which you change only one part of an ad at a time. Too many changes at once makes it difficult to determine what exactly was effective and what was not. For example, you can start by changing the ad’s headline text. Google’s system rotates out ads within an ad group, so you’ll be able to determine which ad worked better. Then, you can use the same headline and change the body copy.

Last but most certainly not least, include a call to action. Do you want prospects to fill out a form? Call you? Make sure that your call to action is clear.

 

Optimize Landing Pages

You need landing pages that effectively align with what prospects are searching for. If prospects are searching using a phrase that might be on a Frequently Asked Questions page, then make sure your landing page is your law firm’s FAQ page. The content on the page should be useful as well as relevant.

Transparency is also important — your landing page needs to make it clear as to what it is you do. Share information about your services before going right to the contact form.

Your landing pages should load quickly and work effectively on all devices — desktop and mobile — and be easy for prospects to navigate. 

Essentially, you need to make sure your PI law firm’s landing page follows Google’s landing page experience guidelines.

OppGen Marketing develops landing pages that are made to improve conversion rates. Click here to request more information.

 

Add Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are not keywords that are inherently bad or… well, negative. It’s a term that refers to unrelated keywords that bring up your ad. For example, if you set up a broad search ad for car accident lawyer, your ad may be shown when someone searches for car accident on Main Street because both keyword phrases use the word car accident.

To avoid this, you can create a list of negative keywords on Google Ads to ensure that your ad won’t be displayed in searches containing those words. You’ll need to stay up to date on any possible queries that could include your keywords, especially in a broad keyword match type search.

Our analysts monitor your PPC campaign and can help your business stay updated about new queries and better keywords. Contact us to learn more.

 

Improve Your PI Law Firm’s Google Ads Quality Score with OppGen

OppGen is a highly specialized digital marketing agency located in Columbus, Ohio, that works with clients across the nation. We’ve worked with PI law firms and have lowered their PPC campaigns’ cost per click through our holistic, one-of-a-kind marketing strategies. All of our clients receive a different marketing plan based on their specific needs and goals. We will work with you to create that plan. Get started today by filling out our free digital audit or contacting us for more information.

21
Jan, 2021
An empty courtroom

By OppGen

The Best Lead Generation Channels for Attorneys

Clients are what keep law firms and attorneys employed. Without clients, you wouldn’t have a practice or law firm. It’s imperative that you have a lead generation strategy to ensure you have a regular influx of clients.

But which lead generation channels are the best ones for attorneys? Schedule a complimentary strategy session with OppGen to find out which ones may be most effective for your law firm.

There is not one single answer, but the following details some of the best lead generation channels available today:

 

Google Ads

Google Ads happens to be one of the best channels for generating leads, regardless of field. Advertising on Google comes in a few different options:

 

Search Ads

Search ads, sometimes referred to as “PPC” (pay-per-click) for shorthand, are ads that appear on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) and look like individual search results. They are placed at either the top or bottom of each SERPs page.

One of the perks of these search ads is that they can only be shown when a prospect searches for a specific query that you set parameters for. Simply put, you can make sure these ads are being seen by people who are looking for your services in a set area. PPC leads are usually high-quality leads because they are actively searching for your services, meaning they’re more likely to convert.

Another perk? You are only charged when a prospective client clicks on the ad.

The cost for search ads is determined by a bidding system, in which you bid on how much you’re willing to pay for certain keywords. This doesn’t mean you should go with the lowest possible offer, though — Google rewards advertisements with higher quality ads and higher bids by placing them in more advantageous positions. 

Ideally, you want your ad to be placed on page 1 of the search results, preferably at the top of the page. The second page isn’t bad, either, but anywhere beyond the second page is no-man’s land. Relatively few people go beyond the second page of search results, and fewer are going past the first.

It’s worth noting, however, that certain practice areas of law are more competitive and as a result, are more expensive. Depending on your marketing budget and law firm’s practice area, you may want to consider other lead generation channels outside of search ads.

OppGen Marketing can help you find the most effective lead generation channels for your firm. Contact us today for more information.

 

Display Ads

Display ads are not placed on the SERPs; instead, these image-based ads are placed on relevant websites and take a prospective client’s search history into account. These ads are best for retargeting, a strategy that aims to have prospects who have bounced from your site go back to it and take a specific action.

If you’ve ever left items in a virtual shopping cart, you might have seen ads on another website featuring those items. Even if you don’t click on the ad, there’s a good chance you’ll go back and check out the items you’ve left in the cart. That’s a prime example of retargeting.

 

Local Services Ads

Google has recently started offering local services ads for certain types of law firms and other businesses.

Should your law firm specialize in one of the areas Google has opened up for local services ads, it’s well worth looking into.

It takes a bit of work to set up a campaign, as the process includes a background and verification check, as well as a Google My Business account (more on that later). But it’s worth it, especially because these ads allow you to dispute leads. If one of your leads wasn’t one that came through, you can contact Google and they will likely refund you for the less than ideal lead.

Given that local services ads aren’t available for every type of business out there, it’s a little less competitive in that regard, too.

 

Facebook

Facebook is yet another great channel for generating leads. Because social media platforms like Facebook take users’ information upon registration (such as their name, age, job, location, sex) and pay close attention to the pages they like and content they share. This allows Facebook to push highly relevant, targeted ads to prospects. Facebook ads often use some kind of visual element, such as images, slideshows, and videos, along with text.

Another way you can utilize Facebook is through a Facebook business page, where you can share helpful information, legal advice, and more to prospective clients. Setting up a Facebook business page is easy and free, so there’s no reason not to have a page for your law firm.

The end goal with a Facebook page is that eventually, when a prospect is in need of your law firm’s services, they’ll reach out to you.

With its visual media options, powerful ad targeting tools, and business page, using Facebook to generate more leads for your law firm is a fantastic strategy.

 

Organic Traffic

Paid search and paid social ads are a great short-term strategy for generating leads, but if you want to generate leads consistently, focusing on boosting organic (or unpaid) traffic is the way to go.

A search engine optimization (SEO) strategy can improve your organic traffic by improving your law firm’s SERPs position for relevant keywords and phrases.

At OppGen, we recommend using a four-step approach to SEO:

 

1. Technical SEO

Technical SEO is all about your website’s speed, organization, and accessibility. Your website should be fast on all devices, especially mobile devices. Google has started ranking websites using sites’ mobile versions first, so if your website doesn’t operate well or quickly on mobile devices, it’s going to hurt your ranking.

Your website should also be easy to navigate and accessible to all users. A simple design is almost always going to be better than one with all of the bells and whistles. In the case of website design, less is more. Not to mention simple designs tend to perform better on mobile devices as well.

Website design is easier than ever before, but that doesn’t mean you should go ahead and design it on your own. It’s a good idea to reach out to web design experts who can optimize your website’s lead conversion rates and see what they can do for you.

 

2. Local SEO

Assuming your law firm isn’t a national brand, a local SEO strategy is a must. Local SEO focuses on getting your law firm to rank high on local searches. You can do this by claiming a Google My Business page and creating a Facebook Business page, as well as making sure your law firm is listed in relevant local directories.

When setting up these pages, make sure your law firm’s name, address, and phone number are all correct across the board, from your website to each and every listing entry your law firm is included in. Mismatching or incorrect information will hurt your SERPs position, and worse yet, could confuse prospective customers who may find the services your law firm offers elsewhere.

 

3. On-Page SEO

On-page SEO is all about your website’s content. Content comes in many forms these days, and it’s a good idea to use as many content mediums as possible, provided they’re offering high-quality content and information that can help prospective clients.

In-depth, well-researched blog posts can be great resources for potential clients and also prove to them that you know what you’re doing when it comes to the law. With blog posts in particular, you’ll want to make sure it’s something that the average person can understand, so keep jargon to a minimum. Avoid keyword stuffing, too. Though keyword stuffing was once an effective SEO strategy, Google’s bots will crawl your pages and flag potential keyword stuffing. Plus, these bots can read content close to how humans can, so making sure they understand what you’re discussing is a must. 

You can create a YouTube channel and embed videos into blog posts that discusses the content of these videos in a slightly different way. You could do the same thing with podcasts and summarize the discussion or include a transcript of the podcast.

If you’re ever running low on content ideas for your law firm, we have a list of over 27 blog topics that can help you come up with more. Although the ideas are more specific to personal injury law, many of these ideas are still applicable to other areas of law. At the very least, it can help you brainstorm.

 

4. Off-Page SEO

Off-page SEO focuses on spreading the word about your law firm and the content you’ve created. This is done through creating a backlinking strategy. Backlinks are links to your website that are shared on another website.

When a trusted high-quality, high-ranking website shares a link to your website, that does more than bring in more traffic. It also tells search engines that your website is a good resource. In turn, search engines will reward your law firm’s site with a higher SERPs position.

You can start building some backlinks by sharing your content to your business’s Facebook or Google My Business page. If you run a YouTube channel or podcast, include links to your website in the video or podcast description, and be sure to drop a verbal call to action (or CTA) in the video or podcast, too, asking prospects to go to your website.

Off-page SEO is also about your reputation, which is why it’s a great idea to have a Google My Business listing or Facebook Business page (or better yet, both and other directory listings) where users can leave reviews. More positive reviews will also improve your SERPs position, so encourage your clients to leave reviews. 

You should always respond to reviews, especially the negative ones. At the very least, responding to reviews shows you care about your clients and their experiences — even the ones that weren’t good, and that you did your best to work with them.

Remember: Reviews are often the final thing a prospect looks at before deciding whether or not they want to go with your law firm. So even if you aren’t interested in SEO, you should still be interested in reviews.

 

Referral Websites

There are many legal-specific referral websites that can help you bring in more leads, and many of them can even be part of your local SEO and off-page strategies.

Here are just a small handful of legal referral websites:

 

Avvo

Avvo is one of the largest websites in the legal industry, with millions of prospects visiting it every month. Avvo includes free legal Q&A services that help leads get their legal questions answered from real attorneys like you.

It also happens to be one of the largest review websites for attorneys, too. Building up positive reviews and a good reputation on several different websites can really help your law firm in many ways. It can boost your SEO ranking and make prospects be more likely to choose you based on the reviews they read.

Avvo serves all legal practice areas, so it’s a good idea to claim your Avvo profile as soon as you can if you haven’t done so already. Depending on the membership level you select for your profile, you may have the option to use targeted display ads and be recommended more to certain leads.

 

Nolo

Nolo, like Avvo, is another great source of free legal information and also receives millions of site visits each month. Nolo also allows you to create a lawyer profile page. It takes a more SEO-like approach by focusing mainly on content, and its pricing structure is based on a cost per lead.

Nolo has access to leads that may be shared with multiple attorneys as well as some exclusive leads, though these exclusive leads may be more expensive. However, the tradeoff is that despite the higher cost of an exclusive lead, these are leads who are more likely to convert to clients.

It covers all major practice areas, so unless your law firm is in a very niche specialty, you shouldn’t have a problem making a Nolo account.

 

FindLaw

FindLaw is a network of multiple legal directories and houses FindLaw.com, SuperLawyers.com, and LawInfo.com.

FindLaw combines the strengths of Nolo and Avvo into one website that offers both targeted advertising and SEO content. Unlike Nolo, FindLaw leads are never shared. FindLaw gives you an advantage for conversions because these leads are always exclusive and are not shared with anyone else.

The downside? You’ll probably pay more for each cost per lead.

However, FindLaw offers several different marketing packages that can help you and your law firm succeed.

 

Partnerships with Other Attorneys

Not all attorneys work in the same area of law. You can create a powerful lead generation channel by partnering with a local attorney whose firm doesn’t specialize in your practice area. Fostering good relationships with local attorneys can also be beneficial to all parties involved. You may find that the prospect you referred to a partner will think highly of you and recommend your law firm to others, even though you didn’t represent them. You’ll also have an ally in another firm who can refer prospective clients your way.

But be careful with who you partner with. Just because you decide to partner with an attorney does not mean that they are a good attorney. Your partnerships reflect not only your partner, but also you and your firm. Partnering with a law firm that has a history of ethics violations or handling cases poorly can and will hurt your reputation. Be smart about who you decide to work with.

 

Contact Us to Learn More About Lead Generation Channels for Attorneys

OppGen has built successful marketing campaigns for several attorneys and their law firms. Our marketing campaigns are tailored specifically for each of our clients, so we’ll be sure to help you determine the best lead generation channels for your law firm. For more information, contact OppGen today.

 

28
Sep, 2020

By OppGen

Google Local Service Ads for Personal Injury Lawyers

What Are Local Service Ads?

When you search for something like “personal injury lawyer near me,” Google will use your location to pull up the nearest results. The search engine results page (SERP or SERPs) will then display those results. The first thing you’ll see on that SERP is a series of three boxes with local personal injury law firm names, information, and phone numbers. Below that, you’ll see text-based search ads. And last but not least, you’ll see a map displaying the locations of nearby personal injury lawyers.

 

 

Those three boxes are a relatively new feature: local service ads. Google made local service ads with the intention of helping local businesses that don’t have robust websites or don’t have a website at all have a digital presence to generate leads from. All it takes is having a Google My Business page and going through a screening process.

But this doesn’t mean businesses that do have a robust website aren’t allowed to use local service ads. In fact, all businesses that can use this feature should be using it.

 

What Does This Have to Do With Personal Injury Law?

Because local service ads are a relatively new feature, they aren’t available for all business types to use. They’ve been used for more “emergency” type services, like plumbers or electricians. Lawyers are a relatively recent addition, but not all legal practice areas are available to use it yet.

But the good news is if you have a personal injury law firm, Google just opened up the doors for PI law firms like yours to utilize its local service ads feature.

OppGen Marketing can set up and run a local services ad campaign for your personal injury law firm. Contact us for more information.

 

Google Local Service Ads Management Platform

While all of Google Ads’ advertisement types (YouTube, search ads, display ads, etc.) are managed using the same platform, their local service ads are done elsewhere.

It’s much simpler than Google Ads, which makes it more appealing and more comfortable for those who aren’t as familiar with Google Ads and similar ad management platforms. Plus, the Google Local Service Ads platform allows business owners and marketers to pay only when a lead is generated versus other advertising products that do not guarantee a business conversion.

 

Requirements for Google Local Service Ads

In order to have a Google Local Service Ads profile, you need to have the following items set up:

 

Business Photo

You can upload photos related to your personal injury law firm. You can select a business photo to be used as a cover photo for your account’s profile. The image content must be related to your personal injury law firm.

Business photos are required to meet the following standards:

  • JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, ICO, or WEBP file types
  • High quality resolution of at least 640 x 640px
  • Max file size of 10 MB
  • Cover photo aspect ratio of 16:9 with a minimum size of 1440 x 810px
  • You must own the copyright to all images
  • Cannot include trademarked items, watermarks of other businesses, text, personal information, transparent backgrounds, clients or customers, or frames, borders, or collages

 

Headshot Image

You’ll need a headshot image for your law firm. The headshot must be an image of a person who works at your personal injury law firm. Keep in mind you can also add headshots of individual lawyers that will show up on the profile page.

All headshot images must meet the following requirements:

  • JPEG or PNG file type
  • High quality resolution of at least 500 x 500px
  • Max file size of 10 MB
  • Square aspect ratio
  • You must own the copyright for all images
  • Must be an image of someone who works at your personal injury law firm
  • Must show only head and shoulders
  • Face must be centered and looking at camera
  • Has a neutral background
  • Does not have text
  • Does is not in black and white or have excessive color filters

 

Background Check

For background checks, Google has partnered with local background checkers. These background checks are free to your personal injury law firm and the results are confidential.

The level and depth of background checks varies from service to service. For personal injury lawyers, Google’s local background check partners look at the following areas:

  • Owner check
  • Business check
  • Malpractice insurance
  • State bar license checks for each lawyer employed at your personal injury law firm

Owner background checks focus mainly on identity and criminal history (i.e., sex offender, terrorist and sanction registries). If there are multiple owners, all owners will have to undergo these background checks.

At the business level, these checks will look at things like civil litigation involving your personal injury law firm at the federal, state, and local levels.

For personal injury lawyers, malpractice insurance may also be required, though this varies from state to state.

Though this may seem like a lot to go through just to get your personal injury law firm to be listed as a local business ad, it’s going to be worth it.

 

Business License

As part of being on Google Local Service Ads, you’ll have to give Google your business license information.

Google’s background check partners will look into business licenses and business insurance, so make sure all of these items are up to date and correct — if you fail the background check the first time, you’ll have to wait 30 days before applying again. If you fail a second time, you’ll have to wait 1 year before reapplying.

Double- and triple-check all of your information to make sure it’s 100% correct before sending it over to Google.

 

Customer Reviews

Google will take your Google My Business page’s customer reviews into account when reviewing your status. It really pays off to have a lot of positive reviews, so be sure you’re encouraging clients to review your personal injury law firm if you aren’t already doing that.

 

Bidding and Budget

The bidding and budget system for local service ads are a little different. You’ll give Google your budget — how much you’re willing to spend — and Google will come up with a number for how many leads they can find for a certain price. Unlike PPC, these ads charge on a per-lead basis. Google allows services that are using this platform to dispute junk or spam leads, so you can get your money back if that happens, which is a very nifty feature.

 

Billing Information

You’ll have to make sure you have up-to-date billing information so Google can charge you whenever you get a lead. This can be done through a pre-existing Google Ads account or you can add a new credit card.

 

Lawyers

This requirement is specific to law firms (this feature has been open to some law firms and has just added personal injury law firms). You will give Google information for each of your practice’s lawyers: their names, state bar license checks and bar exams, and specialty areas.

Specialty areas are going to be one of the most important spots for personal injury law firms. Personal injury law has a lot of subcategories, and the more specific you can be about what areas your lawyers excel in, the better it will be for those seeking legal help in those areas.

 

Local Service Ads Step by Step

Step 1: Log in to Local Service Ads

Use Gmail account credentials here: https://ads.google.com/local-services-ads/

 

Step 2: Create Local Service Account

If you are a new advertiser, then select the option shown in the screenshot below. If your law firm already has a Google Ads account, then please select the second option. Google may use billing information associated with your existing Google Ads account for Local Service Ads.

Step 3: Create Your Profile

 

Business Details

In this section, Google will request business details as shown in the screenshot below.

Setting Up Your Service Area

If your law firm’s footprint is local and you would like to focus your investment in a specific area, this section becomes very important in setting that up.

You can select a zip code, city, or state as the service area for your law firm. We recommend starting with zip codes and city since that allows for a more targeted approach.

Setting Up Your Service Types

For personal injury attorneys, it is common to break down their service types into categories such as car accident, medical malpractice, slip and fall, etc. In this section Google would like to know more about your service types so ads can show on more relevant keywords.

Please select the service types that apply to your business.

This section also requests a professional license verification acknowledgment.

Business Hours

Since Local Service Ads operate on your law firm’s ability to actively take a phone call, it is important to have your business hours set up. This allows a prospect to connect with a representative immediately after they have called.

 

Ad Preview

It’s important to see what your ad is going to look like to people searching on Google for your law firm’s services. Here is an example of how it will be shown:

 

Step 4: Business Verification

As mentioned earlier in the article, you are going to need various details and assets to complete the Google screened process. This will include:

  • Headshot for your ad
  • Lawyer license
  • Background check
  • Customer reviews from Google My Business
  • Bidding and budget
  • Billing information
  • Lawyer profiles

Headshot for Your Ad: Please reference this link for photo guidelines on your headshot. Once you have found a compliant photo, upload it through the “choose file” button.

Lawyer License: Please have your license number and expiration date ready to complete this section. This takes up to 2 days to verify.

Background Check: Google is using Evident as their partner to conduct background checks. Sign in using your Google account through this link.

Customer Reviews: Reviews for your law firm can be pulled in from your Google My Business listing. You will need at least 1 review to get started with LSAs.

Bidding and Budget: Based on how much you would like to invest, you can set up a weekly budget for your ads through this section. This section also allows you to pick between a maximize leads bidding strategy versus a maximum per lead strategy. Both strategies are effective in driving phone calls. However, Google recommends the maximize leads strategy for any new account.

Billing Information: In this section, you will be asked to add billing details where advertising spend will be charged. This is typically done by adding a valid credit card.

Lawyer Profiles: Based on the number of attorneys practicing law in your firm, you can create their profiles in this last section. Details such as their license number, expiration date, and headshots are required to complete the process.

By following this step by step process, receiving verification, and passing the background check, your law firm should be able to advertise on Google through Local Service Ads.

 

Contact Us for More Information

For more information on Google Local Service Ads and how they can help your personal injury law firm, contact OppGen today. We will be more than happy to help walk you through the screening process step by step, and show you how this new advertising option can do your law firm a lot of good in finding new cases and clients.

21
Sep, 2020

By OppGen

Top 5 Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing Trends of 2020

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, 2020 has been a year unlike any other in recent history. From working from home to returning to a very different office, this year has made it more difficult to find new cases and clients.

If there’s anything 2020 has taught us, it’s that we need to be prepared for anything. Staying ahead of marketing trends is one way to do that, and OppGen excels at doing just that.

Here, we’ve identified what we consider to be the top 5 personal injury law firm marketing trends of 2020.

 

1. Focus on Getting High-Intent Clicks

Pay per click (PPC) search ads, though still very expensive in the legal industry, can still be a useful tool. The trick with PPC is to focus on high-intent clicks. You don’t want just anyone clicking on your search ad. You want a lead, someone who is most likely to click on the ad and send you their contact information. Some leads are better than others, so you need to know how to filter the lukewarm leads to the ones who are definitely looking for your service.

Another option for getting those high-intent clicks? Search engine optimization, or SEO for short. SEO is a process of optimizing your website to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) for relevant keywords.

Contact OppGen Marketing to learn how we can get you more high-intent clicks.

 

2. Optimizing Your Personal Injury Law Firm’s Website

There are a handful of ways you can make sure your website is at optimal performance, particularly for SEO:

 

Fast Loading Times

People aren’t as patient as they used to be with page load times. Your website needs to be able to load quickly, regardless of device a prospect is using.

 

Mobile-First Sites

Google has transitioned to mobile-first when deciding where to rank your website. This means Google will review your website’s mobile version for accessibility and speed before the desktop version and place higher emphasis on the mobile version’s performance over the desktop’s.

As a result, websites that are not optimized for mobile use will not rank as high on SERPs compared to websites that are.

 

Simple Website Navigation

When determining where a site should rank, search engines have bots crawl the site. If your website is unorganized or difficult to navigate, it often makes it more difficult for the bots to crawl your site for information. From a non-SEO standpoint, having a site that’s difficult to navigate also affects the people who are trying to use your website.

Keeping your website’s navigation menu watered down to just the basics goes a long ways in terms of accessibility. Don’t be afraid to have a simply designed site! 

Oftentimes, it’s best to keep things simple than to use the newest features that everyone else is using. Because at the end of the day, your website is meant to help clients find your law firm and any information they’re looking for.

 

Branding

Your personal injury law firm’s website should reflect your firm’s brand. A brand is not just a color scheme anymore. A brand is who you are as a company. It is a key component of your firm’s identity and others’ perceptions of it.

Back to keeping the website simple: a cluttered, outdated website does not represent most businesses, including your firm, very well. If there’s any kind of disconnect between your website, social media, and your law firm’s physical presence, that is a branding issue, and that’s an issue that will push potential clients away.

 

3. Creating High-Quality Content

Making high-quality content is one of the areas where you have the most control over SEO. While you may not necessarily be in control of some more technical aspects of your website, you are in full control over what goes on your site’s pages.

The following types of content are going to be what sets you apart from competitors — and are likely to help clients find your personal injury law firm.

And one more thing to remember: all of these different types of content should include a call to action (or as marketers tend to call it, a CTA). A call to action is intended to get prospects to convert. In the case of personal injury law firm marketing, the conversion goal is to get more cases or leads, so you need to remind prospects who are reading, viewing, or listening to your content to contact your firm for a consultation.

And speaking of consultations, don’t forget to contact us for your free complimentary consultation.

 

Blogs

If you’re already somewhat familiar with SEO, you may also be familiar with the concept of keyword stuffing. Keyword stuffing refers to the strategy of using a keyword repeatedly throughout the body and header text of blogs. The problem is that nowadays, search engine bots have the capability to read more like humans do. If a keyword or phrase is used too much to the point it affects a blog post’s readability or if the bots determine the keywords are being used with the main intent to rank high on SERPs, then that blog post will not rank as high.

You should still, however, try to include keywords and phrases in headers and the title. In general, headers are incredibly useful and help break up blog posts in a way that makes them easier for people (and search engine bots) to read.

Quality is the main focus here, so you want to ensure your content is readable and easily understood by most readers. This means you’ll want to avoid too much jargon and technical terminology, though you can certainly include some. Just don’t forget to define those terms that may not be as familiar to someone who doesn’t practice law.

As for personal injury blog topics, write about what you know, recent case results, and any subjects that may help future (and even current), clients. Google in particular tends to rank pages that include content that helps its users and contains the best information out there.

Plus, when your blog ranks high on SERPs, it tells people that you’re an expert in personal injury law, which will result in more consultations and cases.

 

Videos

For the sake of keeping your website running quickly, avoid uploading any videos directly to your website. Instead, embed videos from YouTube, Vimeo, or other video hosting sites.

It may even be a good idea to create a YouTube channel for your personal injury law firm. It’s another marketing channel that doesn’t cost you anything to have, and it has the potential to bring in more clients. 

In videos, you could run a live-streamed Q&A, answering any questions people may have about your personal injury law firm, what to do in certain situations, among other things. For videos that aren’t live, reach out to a professional peer or former client and see if they would be willing to sit down and talk about relevant subjects, cases, and anything else that may be of interest to viewers.

 

Podcasts

Podcasts, in terms of accessibility and ease to create, fall somewhere in-between blogs and videos. While they do take more time to make than a blog, they’re not quite as intensive as video. Since nearly everyone’s computers have fairly decent mics installed along with very basic audio editing software, it’s easier to get into.

 

4. Utilizing Social Media and Relevant Online Directories

If you want your personal injury law firm to be found by more prospects, then you need to have multiple places where you can be found online. There are a plethora of marketing channels and directories out there that can help you achieve that goal and find more clients. Many of them are free to use, and it is to the best advantage of your personal injury law firm to use them.

 

 

Facebook

Having a Facebook page for your personal injury law firm is a great idea. It’s a free platform to use, and once you have that Facebook business page in place, you can also create highly targeted Facebook advertisements. Facebook ads can target audiences based on a wide variety of demographic and even psychographics:

  • Location
  • Age
  • Sex
  • Job title
  • Behavior
  • Interests

One of our favorite targeting tools is Facebook’s lookalike audience. All it requires is for you to input the above categories of the audiences who respond to your ads, and then Facebook will seek out users who share those traits and push ads to those users. It’s a great way to find people you might not have found otherwise.

Facebook business pages, like personal pages, have access to Facebook Messenger, which is an easy way to instantly communicate with prospective clients. Make sure you respond quickly to any messages — response time matters — that your page receives. 

 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn can be useful for legal marketing, even in the practice area of personal injury law. Like Facebook, LinkedIn allows you to create advertisements. The targeting options LinkedIn offers can be based on specific job titles and businesses, so you can push ads to professions that have a reputation for being more dangerous or more likely to result in a workplace injury case that your personal injury law firm can handle.

You can share articles you’ve written specifically for LinkedIn or links to your personal injury law firm’s blog. Again, these articles can be tailored to issues like workers’ compensation or slip and fall cases. You could even write an article sharing safety tips on how to avoid workplace injuries in the first place.

 

Online and Legal Directories

It’s always a good idea to be easily found in multiple locations. That’s why you should strive to make sure your personal injury law firm is listed in multiple directories. 

Online directories, such as Google My Business, Bing Places for Business, Yelp, and Yellow Pages, make it easier for search engines, and more importantly, the people using search engines, to find your law firm. Make sure when claiming or creating any listings on these sites that your personal injury law firm’s name, address, and phone number are correct. Incorrect locations as well as any inconsistencies can make it more difficult for you to be found and could hurt your SERPs ranking.

There are plenty of legal directories, too, which are well worth your time and investment. Some of them are even specifically created for personal injury practices, which helps prospects narrow down their list of law firms.

Many legal directories give clients and your professional peers the ability to review your personal injury law firm. Reviews are a powerful form of feedback that can make a huge difference for your law firm.

 

5. Gathering, Receiving, and Using Client Feedback

Working for your client is one thing, but listening to their feedback and taking it seriously is another. And that’s assuming you’re gathering client feedback in the first place. If you haven’t already been doing that, it’s never too late to start, so let’s get started.

 

Reviews

Believe it or not, reviews are often a determining factor for prospective clients. In 2017, Northwestern University’s Spiegel Research Center found that 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. While personal injury law is not so much a product as it is a service, the idea still stands: reviews matter a lot, and so do your law firm’s responses to reviews, especially the negative ones.

When responding to negative reviews (which you should always do), take them seriously. Don’t use a cookie-cutter response; those come off as insincere. Ask the client to reach out to you and see what you can do to improve future experiences based on their feedback. While most businesses offer a discount or refund in the case of negative reviews, law firms, as a service, may have to think outside of the box for how to “smooth over” the rocky relationship with this client. A refund? A free consultation in the future? In the end, it’s up to you to decide what the best course of action is.

 

Testimonials

Testimonials may be seen as a subcategory of review, but they’re a little different. While reviews tend to have some sort of rating system, typically a 5-star scale, testimonials are more about the client discussing their experience. Testimonials can easily be made into videos, podcasts, or even blog posts.

When creating testimonials, we recommend creating a list of questions and sending them to the client to answer. This could include sending clients Google Forms, a list of questions in the body text of an email, or emailing an attached Microsoft Word document. In the case of an interview, use those same questions and ask the client each one. You can then take some of the best quotes from these testimonials and highlight them on your website.

 

Case Studies

Case studies are a powerful way to tell the story of a client’s case and prove your law firm’s effectiveness and prowess. Case studies can be presented using text and images. In some cases, you could even create a case study as a blog post. However, it’s starting to become more common to see case studies formatted as brief documentary-like videos, where a client sits down and discusses how the law firm helped them.

Going down the trendier mini-documentary case study route may involve an investment in a video editor and potentially a quality film crew, though such an investment may be worth it. Video case studies tend to focus more on the narrative, the story, of the client, and the lengths the law firm went for them. Numbers and statistics can be thrown in, but they won’t be as effective in the video as they are when written.

That said, written case studies should highlight the statistics and numbers — how much the client received in damages or settlement (when allowed), how long the case took, and any other pertinent facts. We recommend sharing these in a bullet-point section, where they’ll be easily seen by readers in a digestible manner.

 

Stay Ahead of Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing Trends With OppGen

Despite the challenges that 2020 has thrown at businesses, OppGen has helped many of its clients succeed and continue to find more leads by staying ahead of the trend and being prepared for any others that are about to come our way.

For more information, contact OppGen today.

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Top 5 Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing Trends of 2020