Legal Search Marketing Blog

Latest Legal Wordpress Site/Blog

Creating a legal blog with Wordpress is a great idea but you can also create a website with a blog using Wordpress. So you can get all the great SEO benefits and ease of use that you get when using Wordpress.

The latest lawyer web design we have done is for the national tax attorneys at the Law Offices of Ken Sheppard.  We have a created a site that will focus on helping clients in all 50 states with IRS tax audit and appeals matters.

This site has unique content and is full optimized for the search engines. The site has the tax blog built in which is a great way to keep the site updated with fresh content.

If your law firm needs assistance with search marketing services, lawyer web design, blogs for attorneys or would like a new wordpress site/blog, contact Lawyers Court today.

Wordpress Plugins for Legal Sites - Get Rid of Spammer Comments

One of the great things about using Wordpress is that you can add "plug-ins" which are programs that add functionality to your wordpress blog/site. There are 1000's of different wordpress plug ins and they are free and usually very easy to install and setup.

You can goto the Wordpress plugin directory to find all the different plugins that are available.

One of the first plugins you should have is the Akismet anti spam plugin.

Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not and lets you review the spam it catches under your blog's "Comments" admin screen.

This plugin really works great once installed because it captures all the spammer comments and if you don't have this in place, you will get bombarded with spammer comments that you will have to weed through in order to get to the regular non spam comments.

Download this plugin now.

You'll need a WordPress.com API key to use it.

Tips On Using Twitter For Lawyers

Excellent post on lawyers using TWITTER from Steve Matthews

Twitter is undeniably the social media darling of 2009. From celebrity stalking to Oprah coverage, the monopoly of micro-blogging is now pushing 10 million active users. The legal profession is equally aboard this bandwagon, with adoption numbers rising fast. Where tools such as LinkedIn and Facebook have traditionally helped to create value from existing relationships, Twitter is fast gaining its reputation as a tool to help generate new relationships. 

So Twitter gets your foot in the door? A great tool for business development, right? Unfortunately, the answer to that question is a very lawyeresque ‘it depends’. While deriving business value from of Twitter is indeed possible, that value is often indirect in nature and depends greatly on personal approach. Similar to all forms of the online participation, there’s no room for the Injured? Call now! lawyer. Those that can’t drop the advertising and solicitation approach are inviting failure. 

It’s these types of lessons that I hope to address in the list below – which tactics will put you offside, and which will add value. The following practices (I’m hesitant to call them ‘best practices’) are tips that either work for me, or methods that seem to consistently work for others.  Enjoy!

 The Dos

1. Do start by replicating your offline network on Twitter. There’s a much greater likelihood that people you already know in real life will follow you back.

2. Do be strategic, geography-wise, about who you follow. Consider whether you stand a realistic chance of future networking, referrals, friendship, or other value before clicking “follow”. 

3. In the same vein, do understand professional demographics. If you’re a tax lawyer and you know that a good deal of your work comes from accountants or other financial services professionals, seek out those people. Just as you would in real life, use Twitter to embed yourself in your chosen industry — show that you are in tune with the industries that relate to and intersect with your own.

4. Do exchange content and opinions.

5. Do be thought-provoking.

Read the full list of do's and don't for lawyers using Twitter.

Steve Ballmer Sees Traditional Media As Dead Men Walking

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sees traditional media as a dying advertising medium and that digital content will be the cause of their demise within 10 years.

Speaking at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival, Ballmer said the global advertising economy is moving to the digital space and that traditional media that does not move to the opportunities will be left behind, the UK Guardian reported.

"There won't be [only traditional] newspapers, magazines and TV programmes. There won't be [only] personal, social communications offline and separate. In 10 years it will all be online. Static content won't cut it in the future," he added.

"For media businesses to successfully evolve they must provide the right combination of context and relevance to make a compelling online proposition for consumers, according to Ballmer," the online newspaper reported.

WOW that's a real wake up call for anyone in traditional media.   No doubt though he is correct.

source

Lawyers Secure Your Twitter Name Now

Twitter is the latest rage right now and you hear about it all the time, everyone seems to be twittering or tweeting if you will.

WHAT IS TWITTER?

It is a way to tell the world what you are doing at that moment.

You can follow other people and see what they are doing and people will follow you.  It's a good way to keep people updated as to what you are doing and a way to get your message out and develop a loyal following. 

It's not for everyone but one thing is for sure, it's here to stay and it's a very good idea to secure your Twitter account name now. Otherwise someone else might take it, either someone else with your name, or someone who is trying to pretend they are you.

It's FREE, so just goto the twitter signup page and fill out the simple form below including your username to secure that name.  As you type in your name, it will automatically check to see if it's available.

GET YOUR TWITTER NAME NOW

Buying your domain name for you law firm name is no longer enough to secure your business brand on the web. You also need to secure your Twitter name.

You don't want someone else to start twittering under your personal or firm name. The last thing you want is someone out there twittering in your law firms name. Maybe they have good intentions, but maybe not. In either case, an "unauthorized" individual is out there actively engaging with the community in your name.

Go secure your twitter name NOW. Even if you're not ready to engage the community, secure your name before someone else does. Its a good idea to do other social media marketing things as well such as setting up a LinkedIN Profile, Facebook, Myspace and Digg.

If your a lawyer and need assistance with social media marketing for lawyers, contact us for further information. We can assist your law firm in setting up a social media mareting campaign, including a Twitter account.

Microsoft Sends $750K Warning To Click Fraudsters

The New York TImes reports Microsoft has filed suit against Eric Lam, Gordon Lam and Melanie Suen, of Vancouver, British Columbia. The suit comes after a year of investigative work by Microsoft in tracking down reports of click fraud.

According to the NY Times, these defendants allegedly:

Microsoft said it found a pattern of click fraud on its search pages, where lists ranked by relevance and popularity appear alongside a handful of paid results. Advertisers bid on what they will pay to appear in the paid-search results for certain keywords. The more an advertiser pays, the higher they are in that list, and advertisers usually pay for each click on their ad.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Wordpress Blogs For Attorneys

If your going to create a blog, use Wordpress. Its the best blogging system by far and its very flexible and easy to use. We have created a number of new wordpress sites / blogs for lawyers and the latest creation is for the Renton Personal Injury Lawyers. 

This is a new website that is just focused on the Renton Washington area, it has a blog setup as well and a blog is a great way to create new content and every time you make a new post, it creates a new page in your site.  Wordpress blogs when setup correctly are very search engine friendly and the best way to get top seo results. 

If your a lawyer that would like to setup a new website or blog using Wordpress, contact us today for further information.

SEO For Lawyers

DOES SEO (Search Engine Optimization) WORK FOR LAWYERS?  YES, BIGTIME!

In todays age, your law firm better have a good website that is easy to navigate and has useful content regarding your firms practice.  In addition its a really good idea if your site is optimized for the search engines so that your main practice areas and geographic locations come up when someone does a search at Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Optimizing and promoting your legal web site with the search engines is by far the best way to drive a steady stream of potential new clients to your site. Getting visitors to your site via the search engines comes from natural or organic search listings or paid or sponsored listings at the the different pay per click programs.

Optimizing your site doesnt mean your going to do something tricky or sneaky to try and get better rankings. It just means that your going to make your site easy for the search engines to find and index.   A big part of it is just having a lot of good solid content and then knowing what your main keywords are that people are searching on and creating the content around those keywords. 

The bottom line is that when you have a good website that is fully optimized, usually you have a steady flow of traffic from potential clients who will find your site when searching for what you do.  They will never find you if your site isn't setup right and not coming up in the search engine listings top 10.

We have helped many lawyers optimize their websites and achieve top rankings at the search engines.  We have most recently helped the houston divorce lawyers at the law offices of Dennis Slate get their legal website optimized.  The site had zero presence at the search engines but after only one week, its already coming up for a # of terms in the top 10 at Google.

Most law firms never take the time to optimize their websites, not even for partner names.  Yet it can be a good idea to organize your content and optimize the pages for keywords related to what you do, its pretty simple really.   The results can be awesome and getting new clients from the Internet is a really great thing!

If your law firm needs assistance with any Lawyer SEO Marketing, contact Lawyers Court for a free website SEO analysis.

Latest Version of Wordpress - 2.8 "Baker"

The latest version of Wordpress has been released and its always a good idea to keep up with the latest version. Usually you can easily download it and upgrade from within your wordpress site.

From the Wordpress Blog:

I’m very excited to announce to everyone that the latest and greatest version of WordPress, version 2.8 “Baker,” is immediately available for download. 2.8 represents a nice fit and finish release for WordPress with improvements to themes, widgets, taxonomies, and overall speed. We also fixed over 790 bugs. This release is named in honor of noted trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker. Here’s a quick video overview of everything in the new release:

 

Attorney Web Site Design

We have helped a number of attorneys put up new websites recently. Its key to keep your website up to date and sometimes you just need to start over with your site. Put up a fresh design with new legal images, updated content and new pages that are setup with getting top organic search results.

The latest attorneys we have assisted with creating a new lawyer web design is for the Fort Wayne Personal Injury Lawyers at Roebuck and Associates.  The firm focuses on personal injury and accident law and has offices in Fort Wayne, Indiana and Chicago, Illinois.

We helped the firm create a brand new website with a new firm logo, flash animation, better navigation and new updated content. The site is also fully optimized for the search engines.

If you need a new legal website or need attorney seo marketing work done, feel free to contact us for a free website evaluation.