Legal Search Marketing

Youtube has upgraded its mobile presence and its now easier to use youtube on a mobile device.  If you goto youtube.com, it will then redirect you to m.youtube.com on your phone and its setup to make it easy to find videos and navigate the site, its very slick.

Its key your law firm site also has a mobile presence, so that when a user lands on your site while using an Iphone, its easy to navigate the site and contact you.

FROM THE GOOGLE MOBILE BLOG:

It’s well known that the mobile internet is huge and growing fast; what’s surprising is exactly how fast. According to a recent report, within 5 years more users will connect to the internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs. YouTube consumption on mobile devices has also grown considerably — playbacks were up 160% in 2009 over the previous year. And we’re excited to announce that YouTube Mobile now receives more than 100 million video playbacks a day. This is roughly the number of daily playbacks that YouTube.com was streaming when we joined forces with Google in 2006.

We launched YouTube on mobile devices in 2007 with about 1,000 videos available on the mobile site (m.youtube.com). While this suddenly opened up the possibility to access videos on the go, our site, mobile browsers and the hardware had limitations that prevented the mobile experience from keeping up with YouTube on the desktop. Today, more than ever, we know that you want to be able to find and access your favorite videos wherever you are. That’s why we’ve been working hard to roll out an updated version of the mobile site.

Here’s what’s new about the new mobile site:

• It’s really fast.
• The new user interface incorporates larger, more touch friendly elements, making it easier to access videos on the go.
• It incorporates the features and functionality you’ve come to expect from the .com site, like search query suggestions, the options to create playlists,the ability to designate “favorite,” “like,” or “unlike” videos directly from your device.
• As we make improvements to Youtube.com, you’ll see them quickly follow on our mobile site, unlike native apps which are not updated as frequently.

Visit Google Mobile Blog

The latest lawyer web design project we are working on is creating a new wordpress theme design for an existing wordpress site. The beauty of creating your website with Wordpress is that you can easily change the theme and change the overall design of your site.  Sometimes you might start out with a very basic design and then later decide to upgrade the look and feel of the site.

It’s better to get a basic site up right away and start adding content and blogging and then later on you can always upgrade like we have done here. We created a new theme including a new color scheme, updated logo and different images that rotate on the home page for the Lynnwood Personal Injury Lawyers.

The Lynnwood, Washington Personal Injury Law Firm of Robert Kornfeld handles clients with major personal injury, medical malpractice, wrongful death, car-pedestrian-bus collisions and accidents with trucks, construction and maritime injuries, serious injury claims involving the knee, hip, and spine and those catastrophic injuries, such as burns, chemical exposure, paralysis and quadriplegia, and nursing home or elder abuse cases.  Contact Lynnwood Personal Injury Lawyer Robert Kornfeld for a free consultation. No Recovery, No Fee.

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Contact Lawyers Court for assistance with legal blog design and wordpress sites for lawyers.

• Creating a new personal injury site/blog for a Washington attorney at http://www.lynnwoodpersonalinjury.com #

Twitter is supporting 800 million queries a day, or 33 percent more than it said it was handling back in April, according to co-founder Biz Stone, who spoke at the Aspen Ideas Festival today.

That means the company, which is trying to brand itself as an “information network” rather than a social network, is handling 24 billion queries a month. The last time the company reported daily search volumes was back in April at its inaugural developer conference, Chirp, when it said it was supporting 600 million queries a day.

It’s hard to compare Twitter’s monthly query volume to that of Microsoft’s Bing or Yahoo, since worldwide figures for their traffic are fairly old. Comscore reported that Bing was supporting 4.1 billion monthly queries worldwide while Yahoo was handling 9.4 billion in December.

Daily volumes also vary widely. The company, at times, was handling up to 750 million queries per day back in April, its then director of search Doug Cook told SearchEngineLand’s Danny Sullivan.

Growing search volume should help underpin the company’s advertising strategy, which depends on sponsored tweets appearing atop its results.

Twitter is growing every day and people are starting to actually search at twitter like they would at Google or Bing. So it makes sense that your law firm has some kind of legal twitter presence.  Tweeting is easy and you can do it from your phone, which then can be setup to also post to your blog. Its time to get aboard the twitter train lawyers!

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The Fastcase iPhone app has been selected by the American Association of Law Libraries as 2010 New Product of the Year.  This is the app that lets you do full case law and statute research for free on your phone.

The award recognizes new legal information products that enhance or improve existing law library services or procedures. It will be presented during the AALL’s annual meeting in Denver later this month.

According to Fastcase’s press release announcing the award, an iPad version will be released at the AALL meeting and versions for the Android and Blackberry are in the works.  – From the Law Sites Blog

The Fastcase App for your iPhone

Have you ever found yourself in a courtroom hallway preparing for oral argument and wishing that you could search for a few more cases? Would you like to be able to log some legal research time during your subway or bus commute? How about double-checking a statute provision before walking into a client meeting or a settlement negotiation? Now you can.

Fastcase for the iPhone is the largest free law library on the iPhone and it uses smart search technology from Fastcase’s fully-featured Web-based legal research application, which allows you to sort the most relevant results to the top of the list, customize and re-sort search results, and integrate citation analysis tools right into the results list.

This application is free, but you will need to register an account so that you can save favorites and your own customized search history. There are tons of customizable features, so the more you use the Fastcase App, the better it fits you!

Recently Google published an official statement about quality links and their effect on your website rankings. In the statement, Google wants to explain their viewpoint on earning quality links.

FROM GOOGLE:

A popular question on our Webmaster Help Forum is in regard to best practices for organic link building. There seems to be some confusion, especially among less experienced webmasters, on how to approach the topic. Different perspectives have been shared, and we would also like to explain our viewpoint on earning quality links.

If your site is rather new and still unknown, a good way marketing technique is to get involved in the community around your topic. Interact and contribute on forums and blogs. Just keep in mind to contribute in a positive way, rather than spamming or soliciting for your site. Just building a reputation can drive people to your site. And they will keep on visiting it and linking to it. If you offer long-lasting, unique and compelling content — something that lets your expertise shine — people will want to recommend it to others. Great content can serve this purpose as much as providing useful tools.

*** Here Google is saying its a good idea to visit other blogs and forums and contribute to them by leaving comments and also a link to your site.  They are also saying that if you have good quality content, that people will visit your site and LINK to it. So as always, the key is CONTENT. ***

A promising way to create value for your target group and earn great links is to think of issues or problems your users might encounter. Visitors are likely to appreciate your site and link to it if you publish a short tutorial or a video providing a solution, or a practical tool. Survey or original research results can serve the same purpose, if they turn out to be useful for the target audience. Both methods grow your credibility in the community and increase visibility. This can help you gain lasting, merit-based links and loyal followers who generate direct traffic and “spread the word.” Offering a number of solutions for different problems could evolve into a blog which can continuously affect the site’s reputation in a positive way.
** Giving away quality information  for free is a good way to get people to link to your site and to establish yourself as an expert in your practice area.  Creating videos is a good way to engage  your audience. **

Humor can be another way to gain both great links and get people to talk about your site. With Google Buzz and other social media services constantly growing, entertaining content is being shared now more than ever. We’ve seen all kinds of amusing content, from ASCII art embedded in a site’s source code to funny downtime messages used as a viral marketing technique to increase the visibility of a site. However, we do not recommend counting only on short-lived link-bait tactics. Their appeal wears off quickly and as powerful as marketing stunts can be, you shouldn’t rely on them as a long-term strategy or as your only marketing effort.

It’s important to clarify that any legitimate link building strategy is a long-term effort. There are those who advocate for short-lived, often spammy methods, but these are not advisable if you care for your site’s reputation. Buying PageRank-passing links or randomly exchanging links are the worst ways of attempting to gather links and they’re likely to have no positive impact on your site’s performance over time. If your site’s visibility in the Google index is important to you it’s best to avoid them.

** This is important. Google is saying you should not buy links or do random link exchanges and saying it won’t have much positive effect in the long run.  Any legitimate link building strategy is a long-term effort.  There are many ways to generate links to your site but creating quality content and videos for your site and blog are among the best ways to generate links in the long run.

Directory entries are often mentioned as another way to promote young sites in the Google index. There are great, topical directories that add value to the Internet. But there are not many of them in proportion to those of lower quality. If you decide to submit your site to a directory, make sure it’s on topic, moderated, and well structured. Mass submissions, which are sometimes offered as a quick work-around SEO method, are mostly useless and not likely to serve your purposes.

** They are addressing the issue of getting links from directories and are basically saying that yes there are some directories that make sense and would offer a high  quality link to your site BUT that there’s mostly a lot of junk directories that don’t really do much for your site.  So for a legal site, it doesn’t make sense to have your site listed in 100’s of different general business directories or non legal directories.  Usually you want to have your site listed in Yahoo, Open Directory (Dmoz.org), Best of the Web Directory and a few others, as well as any legal directories that match your firms practice and location.  If your a dui lawyer, then it makes sense to get listed in a DUI Lawyer directory.  Yet you want to get listed in a DUI legal directory that has been around awhile and its also important that the link you get from that directory is a FOLLOW link and not a NO FOLLOW link, otherwise it wont count.  **

It can be a good idea to take a look at similar sites in other markets and identify the elements of those sites that might work well for yours, too. However, it’s important not to just copy success stories but to adapt them, so that they provide unique value for your visitors.

All of this is important because the bottom line is that the more quality links you get, the better your search engine rankings will be.  Creating high quality content on  a regular basis will help and is very important, yet there are many different things you must do and it all takes time. Yet getting top SEO rankings can be a great source of new clients, so its all worth it!

The opportunity to earn CLE credits using mobile apps also makes the iPhone an attractive option for attorneys.

Most states require lawyers to earn a certain number of continuing legal education credits in order to maintain their license. Over the past few years, many organizations have allowed attorneys to take advantage of the availability of online CLE programs to earn these required credits.

Now those online programs are going mobile, and attorneys can earn CLE credit at their convenience. West LegalEdcenter launched CLE Mobile (free; app2.me/2385) in December. It allows iPhone and iPod touch users to download more than 2,000 audio courses and earn CLE credits or just listen to programs covering the hot law topics of the week.

“The reason I bought the iPhone is the CLE app,” Smallhouse said. “I can do CLE on the go.”

Lisa Della Rocca, general counsel for Black Diamond Data and SigniaDocs, recently found the ability to complete CLE credits using her iPhone to be invaluable as she rushed to meet her compliance deadline for the California Bar Association. With more than 20 credits to earn in the week before her Jan. 31 deadline, Della Rocca used a combination of online and mobile CLE programs to avoid any penalties for incompletion.

CLE Mobile (right) gives you more than 2,000 downloadable audio courses to earn CLE credits on-the-go.

“I had just bought my iPhone on Dec. 30 and thought, ‘OK, it’s do or die.’ I could sit in front of the computer all day or download the app. That app made it possible for me to meet that requirement,” Della Rocca said.

CLE apps also allow attorneys to make their downtime more efficient. Lisa Keyes, the professional development partner at King and Spalding in Atlanta, recently completed a CLE program on her iPod touch while sitting in a hospital waiting room.

“The app made it easy to be productive. I normally don’t have 90 minutes in my day to do a CLE program,” Keyes said.

This seems to make perfect sense for lawyers and a reason to get an Iphone yesterday! Lucky you, you get a version 4! I will be reviewing this app and other Iphone apps for lawyers in the near future.

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An article in this months Iphone Life talks about how lawyers are starting to switch to the Iphone from the Blackberry in growing numbers. I think that trend will continue because the Iphone is very useful, especially because of all the Apps available.   Over time, you will see many apps geared specifically for lawyers.

From Iphone Life….

For years, mobile communication in the American law firm has been based primarily on the BlackBerry, but the tide may slowly be turning to the iPhone. The much-buzzed-about Apple device has gathered legions of devoted fans, including attorneys who appreciate the phone’s Web browsing capabilities and ever-expanding catalog of apps. And with online communities of iPhone-centric lawyers forming around blogs like iPhone J.D. and The Mac Lawyer, it’s easy for novice iPhone users to learn how to use their new devices in a professional capacity.

A former BlackBerry user myself, I switched to the iPhone last year when my company, West LegalEdcenter, began to develop an app that delivers continuing legal education (CLE) to iPhone and iPod touch users. Though I’m just beginning to explore the variety of functionalities and apps the iPhone offers, I’m taking advantage of new discoveries every day. My job frequently takes me on the road, and staying in close touch with my colleagues back at the office is a snap. In addition, the travel and restaurant apps come in handy when I’m headed to an unfamiliar city.

Why is the legal industry taking a closer look at the iPhone these days? Four attorneys recently shared their perspectives with me, and their positive experiences with the device won’t come as a surprise to any iPhone fan.

An all-in-one solution

Like professionals across the business world, attorneys appreciate the wide range of utilities that the iPhone offers. The device gives users the ability to combine the functionalities of phones, computers, GPS systems, calendars, MP3 players, digital cameras and other vital business tools in an easy-to-use format.

“I think that people find iPhones a little easier to use as a multipurpose device,” Keyes said. “It’s good for productivity, but it’s also fun.”

Many iPhone converts cite the device’s superior Web browsing ability as a clear differentiator between the iPhone and the BlackBerry.

“The Web browser is infinitely better for quick research on the go,” said Nilan, who also frequently e-mails herself cases to review outside the office.

For Della Rocca, the freedom to leave her computer at the office each night lightens her load, both literally and figuratively.

“I always feel connected with it. I feel like I’m not a slave to my desk or my laptop,” Della Rocca said. “I never thought I’d be that into a phone, but it’s given me a level of confidence that no other phone has ever given me.”

And when she has to be at the office while her family is at play, Della Rocca can feel like she’s part of the action through the photo and video files her husband sends her.

“I never feel out of the loop. It’s the best thing ever for a lawyer,” she added.

Read Full Article

YouTube, well technically the Google sites, topped 14.6 billion video streams in May according to comScore.

*Rankings based on video content sites; excludes video server networks. Online video includes both streaming and progressive download video.

read more at Reel SEO

I use the Iphone and love it and it seems like more and more legal professionals are using the Iphone.    The Iphone has many great features for lawyers and there are more and more apps geared towards the legal industry. I will be reviewing some of the best apps for lawyers over the next month.  The Iphone 4 just  came out and people are loving it, time to upgrade again!

IPHONE 4 REVIEWS ARE IN and they are all Great!

• Joshua Topolsky of Engadget has an incredibly well-written review, full of details, facts, pictures and videos.  And he loves the iPhone 4, concluding:  “We’re not going to beat around the bush — in our approximation, the iPhone 4 is the best smartphone on the market right now. The combination of gorgeous new hardware, that amazing display, upgraded cameras, and major improvements to the operating system make this an extremely formidable package. Yes, there are still pain points that we want to see Apple fix, and yes, there are some amazing alternatives to the iPhone 4 out there. But when it comes to the total package — fit and finish in both software and hardware, performance, app selection, and all of the little details that make a device like this what it is — we think it’s the cream of the current crop.”  If you only read one review, read this one.
• Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal writes that the iPhone 4 is a “big, well-designed update that, in my view, keeps it in the lead in the smartphone wars.”  He criticizes the AT&T network, but otherwise concludes that “Apple has built a beautiful smartphone that works well, adds impressive new features and is still, overall, the best device in its class.”
• David Pogue of the New York Times writes that the iPhone 4 is “amazing” and that it “feels solid and Lexus-like.”
• Ed Baig of USA Today writes that the iPhone 4 “demonstrates once again why Apple’s handset is the one to beat.”

OTHER IPHONE 4 NEWS

• Jenna Wortham of the New York Times writes about people waiting in line for an iPhone 4 yesterday.
• You can download the iPhone 4 user guide (243 pages) in PDF format here.
• Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun Times discusses iOS 4, as does Roy Forchgott of the New York Times.
• iSmashPhone looks at the Best 64 Features of iOS 4.