As we head into Thanksgiving, we’re all preparing to spend time with our families, stuff our faces, and celebrate the good things we have to be thankful for. Sure, there’s the usual: friends, loved ones, having a roof over our heads, and having delicious turkey (or tofurkey) to eat, but we at SLS wanted to go one step further and talk about what we’re thankful for here in the office.
To that end, we asked each of our departments what hardware, software, or other work-related “tool” they were most thankful for!
So, What Are You Most Thankful For?
DESIGN says: Adobe Photoshop
At first, our Design Department wanted to name “all Adobe products!” as their favorite tools to get the job done—but they agreed that Photoshop was the most vital one. Though it’s been around since 1988, Photoshop has evolved with the times and become indispensable to designers, photographers, and digital illustrators alike!
(We know this because it’s now a verb.)
Through a cloud-based subscription service, our Design Department uses Photoshop to create website layouts and edit image files. Though it has been called “too powerful” for most layman users, we at SLS are thankful that our design professionals have a great, feature-filled program to work with!
WRITING says: Copyscape
We all learned that plagiarism is wrong way back in grade school, and that even includes copying something you’ve already written yourself (like a call to action). And while it’s certainly useful to check out competitor websites and note what they’re doing well as far as content is concerned, we always recommend producing unique content to make sure you aren’t compromising your site’s rankings. Any duplicate content issues on your website will make Google question your tactics, which could very well lead to a drop in search placement.
This is where Copyscape comes in. This subscription service allows our Writing Department to scan a chunk of text and see if it exists anywhere else on the web, and in what percentage. We are thankful that we get the chance to review every written word that goes out and comes in to our office, so we can make sure your content is unique and won’t leave readers scratching their heads, thinking, “Didn’t I just read that exact same paragraph on that other lawyer’s website?”
SEO says: Xenu’s Link Sleuth
This free computer program was named after the galactic ruler of the universe in the Scientology mythos. What can we say? Nerds will be nerds. And no; our SEO Department is not using this freeware just because there’s a Scientology outpost right down the block from our Raymond Avenue office in Pasadena. We just appreciate being able to check all our clients’ websites for broken links.
Link Sleuth “crawls” a website, similar to the way Google’s bots do, and performs verification on links, images, maps, and other files contained within. It analyzes the site’s structure. It reports broken links, which our search engine optimization specialists then hop in and fix. Since too many broken links are bad for your onsite SEO and frustrating for your potential clients, we’re thankful that we have Xenu’s Link Sleuth to fix them!
SOCIAL MEDIA says: Facebook Debugger
When you think of social media, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are probably the first sites that come to mind. Our Social Media Department uses all three, but we pay special attention to Facebook because that’s where almost every person and company has an online presence these days. To make sure our Facebook posts always looks as engaging as possible, we use Facebook Debugger before clicking the “Publish” button.
Facebook’s Sharing Debugger shows us a preview of every post we intend to share on our clients’ FB pages. Is there a problem with the image? We can fix it. Is the url broken? We can fix it. Is the description snippet inaccurate? We can fix it, and no one will ever know! It’s easy to post a blog quickly and move on to the next thing, but that’s where errors slip by. By previewing posts before they go live, our Social Media Department can thankfully ensure they make sense (and look good)!
LOCAL SEARCH says: Google My Business
Where would we be without GMB? Our Local Search Department is as happy as a kid in a candy store whenever Google rolls out new features for Google My Business. This free tool allows businesses to manage how they appear on Google Search and Maps, with photos, reviews, phone numbers, about us features, and all sorts of goodies that encourage browsing clients to call. The only requirement is that the law firm have an actual brick-and-mortar office at the specified location!
Since almost all search queries these days are conducted through Google, our Local Search Department makes sure our client law firms’ GMB profiles are as accurate, complete, and properly optimized. When your ideal clients search for you, a GMB profile popping up on the right-hand side of the search engine results can be that nudge they need to pick up the phone and dial. We’re thankful Google continues to connect people with the services they need, and we’re glad to be here to help!
…And We’re All Thankful for the Internet!
Since SLS Consulting is exclusively an online legal marketing firm, our jobs revolve around the Internet—and we’re thankful for it! The advent of search engines, and the ability for businesses to develop a presence on the web, is both a gift and a challenge that our SEO specialists tackle every day!
We hope that by sharing this knowledge, our clients gain a greater appreciation for what goes on “behind the scenes” at SLS. What tools are you most thankful for at your law office?
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