Legal Internet Marketing Blog

Why Blending Your Work Life with Your Personal Life isn’t Always a Bad Thing

By SLS Consulting on October 7, 2014

You’re an attorney. When you’re in the office, you’re all business.  When you’re out of the office, you’re all about rest, relaxation, and spending time on your personal self. But why do the two always have to be mutually exclusive? They don’t have to be, and can create a more complete web presence if you take some time to forge the two together.

Let us tell you a little story about SLS. Not too long ago, everyone in office kept their personal lives completely separate from their work lives. From the time they clocked out from the time they clocked back in again, SLS employees were off to do their own thing and SLS was essentially non-existent until the work week rolled around. Our social media profiles were filled with marketing industry news, and there was no personal touch to be found anywhere other than the occasional staff photo or two. Put bluntly, it was almost as if the SLS brand was faceless, with no personality whatsoever. Then, we took a step back a bit and started to think more about our brand image and how we wanted others to view us on the internet.

At first, we thought that we solely wanted to be branded as authorities in the realm of legal internet marketing. After all, demonstrating authority in your field instills confidence in potential clients. This approach works on a website and even to a certain extent on a blog, but it simply did not work on the social side of things. Flash forward a couple of years and social media is more interwoven in our society than ever. Nowadays, companies are EXPECTED to have a presence on social sites and failing to have a profile on one often (unfairly) raises red flags with those looking to do business with the company. Read the rest »

What is Link Building in 2014 and What Does the Future Hold for Links? (PART 2)

By SLS Consulting on October 1, 2014

So, now that we know what used to work in terms of link building, let’s take a look at a few more things that law firms can do to build stronger link profiles for their websites.

For starters, make sure that you have all of the basics covered. Your state bar association more than likely has a profile for you on its website, so be sure to fill out all the information fields it allots you. Often times, this includes a link to your website. Other legal associations, particularly those in which you hold positions of authority, may offer the same, so be sure not to overlook these easy, deserved, and EARNED links. Read the rest »

What is Link Building in 2014, and What Does the Future Hold for Links? PART 1

By SLS Consulting on September 29, 2014

In the not too distant past, link building was a relatively easy thing to do. In the same way that you could get web pages to rank well by keyword stuffing, you could also strengthen your site’s link profile by submitting it to every web directory that you came across. Sometimes, it didn’t even matter what the directory was affiliated with. As long as you had a link back to your site, you were in a great spot.

Flash forward to today’s internet, and there’s a much different story playing out. Search engines like Google prefer quality over quantity and reward sites that follow this lead. So, what constitutes a quality link and what makes a link not worth the submission time? Let’s take a look…

Over the past couple of years, Google updates have more or less nuked the various spam directories out there. Long gone are the days of submitting URLs in bulk, and so too are the benefits of those bulk submissions. The directories that have managed to survive managed to do so because they provided something of value for web searchers. Read the rest »

How is YOUR Law Firm Keeping Track of Client Intake?

By SLS Consulting on September 25, 2014

At SLS Consulting, we’re not just about websites. We have a vested interest in our clients’ success and will offer any advice we can to make that happen. One of the most important things that we’ve realized over the years is that the more organized you are, the better you set yourself up for future success. For law firms, organization is definitely important, with one of the most important aspects being how the law firm keeps track of where it’s getting its clients.

A lot of other marketing companies out there will build you a website and help you get that website to rank well. Unfortunately, that’s where their interest typically tends to wane. As long as they’ve helped your site go from page three to page two in the SERPs, they’ve done their job and aren’t overly eager to do anything more for you. While there’s definitely A LOT MORE that goes into making a law firm successful, this is often where the marketing companies and the law firms they work for tend to drift apart. Read the rest »

Give Local Reviews to Land a Client or Two in the Future

By SLS Consulting on September 22, 2014

There’s no denying that reviews on local search sites, like Google+ and Yelp, are critical pieces of the search result rankings pie, but the approach that personal injury attorneys take towards obtaining new reviews doesn’t need to be as daunting as they think. While it is certainly beneficial for attorneys to get reviews from satisfied former clients, it’s also important that they don’t forget to create a review symbiosis with the other local companies that they frequently do business with.

Let’s say, for instance, that your law firm hosts a monthly lunch for your staff. Sometimes you go out to a restaurant, while other times you have the food catered. Since your law firm is doing business with these local businesses, it is well within review site guidelines for your law firm to leave a review for them (you can easily write reviews as your law firm on Google+). While the restaurant or catering company may not be able to reciprocate and leave your law firm a review for its legal services, that doesn’t mean that writing such a review for another business is a complete waste of time. Read the rest »

If You’re Not Getting Cases, It Might Not Be Your Website’s Fault…

By SLS Consulting on September 18, 2014

Here at SLS Consulting, we always try to go above and beyond for our clients. We design websites according to their exact specifications, we continually tinker with their site’s SEO to make sure that everything is running at optimal levels, and we examine their content on a regular basis to make sure that it’s converting effectively.

However, in some rare cases, we still hear that a client is not getting cases and, after evaluating everything that we do on our end of things, we’ve been absolutely baffled as to why this is happening. The website is getting plenty of traffic, the contact forms are regularly being submitted, and the number of phone calls hasn’t dropped drastically, if at all. It wasn’t until we picked up the phone and called one of our clients that we realized what the problem was – how the phone call was answered.

Proper phone etiquette can be more of an issue than you would think. It is often one of the most obvious problems, yet gets completely overlooked the vast majority of the time. In one particular scenario, we called a client and the phone simply rang and rang. It turns out that the law firm didn’t even realize that when the receptionist was away from the phone no one else was answering it or was even aware that it was ringing. Read the rest »

Knowledge Vault Is the Next Big Thing in Search Technology

By SLS Consulting on September 2, 2014

Recently, tech freaks and internet marketing bloggers alike have been tweeting about Google’s alleged big project known as the Knowledge Vault. Some are touting it as the next evolutionary step in search engine power, while others are hailing it as a sign of the oncoming digital dystopia. If you’ve been out of the loop, you may be wondering just what the big deal is.To understand the Knowledge Vault and all of its implications, it is essential to know about its perhaps soon-to-be predecessor, the Knowledge Graph.

Launched by Google in May 2012, the Knowledge Graph is the company’s existing knowledge base that pulls information from a variety of community-curated sources, such as Freebase and Wikipedia. By drawing associations between the billions of items contained within its semantic network, it is able to produce “smart” search results that aim to inform users rather than just supply them with links. Read the rest »

Don’t Abandon Ship Yet! Why Google Authorship Is Far From Done

By SLS Consulting on August 29, 2014

By now you’ve certainly noticed that Google authorship photos are long gone from the SERPs.  While your first inclination may be to focus less on your authorship efforts and more on other marketing endeavors, don’t give up on authorship just yet.  As we’ve seen in the past, just because a Google product gets put on the back burner for a bit doesn’t mean that its value is completely gone.

One of the most common theories behind why Google has done away with authorship photos has to do with its advertising program.  Specifically, many marketers speculate that authorship photos were taking attention away from paid ads in the SERPs.  Less attention on ads means fewer clicks, which translates to less revenue coming into Google via AdWords.  This theory makes complete sense, and hasn’t really been refuted by most internet marketing professionals. Read the rest »

Black Hat Beware! False Promises of Ranking on Page One of Google

By SLS Consulting on August 13, 2014

Has your business ever received a call from a marketing company guaranteeing first page results in Google’s SERPs?  Heck, we’re our own marketing company, and even WE get those calls, so chances are pretty good that your business gets them as well.  But is there any truth behind what these cold-call marketers have to say?

First of all, if you only remember ONE thing from this entire blog, please let it be this:

NO ONE CAN GUARANTEE FIRST PAGE PLACEMENT ON GOOGLE.  NO ONE.

With that being said, it’s important that you properly assess any marketing offer that comes your way.  Before entering into any sort of agreement with a company that literally just calls you out of the blue, be sure to do a thorough background check on that company.  Ask for their URL.  Ask them how their own rankings are doing and if they can tell you about one of their better success stories amongst clients.  Legitimate companies will always be able to point to past successes, while less than credible companies will merely try to fast talk you into signing some sort of deal. Read the rest »

Where to See Outdoor Movies in Los Angeles

By SLS Consulting on July 30, 2014

It’s hard to believe, but summer is winding down; however, that doesn’t mean the warm days and evenings in southern California are going to go away any time soon (as those who have spent any time in Los Angeles in September and October can attest to).

So, what does this mean for you? Well, there are two things Angelenos love: movies and being outside in the warm night air. So, it is fortunate that there are many locations in the area that will be home to outdoor movie screenings. These venues are budget- and (mostly) family-friendly and there is still time to catch some great movies before the summer ends.

Here are some movers-and-shakers on the L.A. outdoor movie front:

Street Food Cinema

If you like street truck food (and who doesn’t?) then you’ll love Saturday evenings with Street Food Cinema. In August through September they throw outdoor parties that include street food, live music, and yes, movie screenings. The locations vary throughout Los Angeles, so you might want to check exactly where the screenings are. For a comprehensive listing of films, locations, street trucks, and bands. Read the rest »