Voice search is no longer a novelty. Increasingly, people are using personal assistants like Siri and Google Assistant to ask questions and perform basic searches. In May of 2016, approximately 20 percent of all searches performed on Google's mobile app and Android devices were done by voice. The popularity of products like Amazon Echo and Google Home will only increase consumers' comfort with voice search. Research by ComScore suggests that 50 percent of searches will be voice-based by 2020.
Nov 22
Insights from BrightLocal’s 2016 Local Consumer Review Survey
For six years, BrightLocal has been surveying consumers to better understand how they evaluate local businesses and make purchasing decisions. This year's survey assesses how consumers interpret and use online reviews to come to conclusions about businesses. Key findings show that people form opinions very quickly and that online reviews play an important role in developing these views.
Why are reviews important?
Online reviews are a form of social proof. A consumer searching for a service can...
Read MoreNov 15
Overcome these top marketing obstacles facing lawyers in 2017
Marketing is a constantly changing practice. What may work one year or even one month may not work the next. What may help one law firm may harm another. For firms of any size, finding the right marketing mix, one that contributes to growth while consuming a manageable number of resources, is an ongoing balancing act.
All industries face marketing challenges, but lawyers face the additional burdens of state bar rules and ethics decisions, which are continually evolving. And...
Read MoreOct 31
How law firms can take advantage of evergreen content
The pressure to constantly produce fresh content is turning many businesses into would-be publishers. Apparel retailers offer tips on clothing fit and accessories. Outdoor outfitters provide resources about backpacking must-haves and publish articles about how to train for specific adventures. Pistachios and Tic Tacs are on Twitter. Online, silence is not an option.
Having a daily article quota may work for journalists, and even big brands, but it is unrealistic for attorneys. Attorneys should play the content marketing game,...
Read MoreOct 7
How to find the right content mix for your law firm
Bill Gates wrote his essay, “Content is King” in 1996. Twenty years later, the phrase still continues to dominate the online marketing world.
Companies in all industries are in a rush to produce as much content as possible, hoping that something sticks — that some piece of content will hit upon the magic mix of luck, quality and value and become a viral sensation.
This rush has created glut of articles, blogs, lists and posts that are...
Read MoreSep 23
Google Penguin 4.0 is live and running in real-time
Google revealed today that it has rolled out Penguin 4.0, the first confirmed Penguin update in nearly two years.
Google's announcement of the long-awaited release confirms what many in the SEO industry have long suspected (and hoped for). Penguin is now running in real-time. Additionally, Penguin is running at a more “granular” level, meaning it is looking at individual pages, rather than holding a single url's link spam against a whole site.
The current MozCast forecast,...
Read MoreSep 7
Google’s Labor Day Weekend Update is a Big Win for Keyword Stuffers
While the number of algorithm changes so far in 2016 has been lower than average, several no-name updates have stormed through Google's search results, disrupting top-page standard bearers.
In May, Google started issuing outbound link penalties and devaluing media sites. This caused a big shakeup as the ripple affect dethroned many highly-ranked page one listings and introduced some new websites to the top.
On Friday, September 2nd, Search Engine Roundtable reported that search engine marketers and tracking...
Read MoreAug 13
Four common misunderstandings about attorney website design (and how to fix them)
It happens to the best attorneys, designers and marketers. You embark upon creating a website together. You brainstorm, you prototype, you test, and you build what you believe to be a great new product. Then, at some point, you realize that something has gone awry. Online conversions are down, bounce rates are up. Time on site is suffering. A mistake has been made, and it is more than a mere typo — the design is not functioning as intended....
Read MoreAug 5
How to clean up your local citations (and why it matters for law firms)
Local citations tend to proliferate regardless of whether you are paying attention. Even if you have done very little active citation building, your firm's local information is likely listed tens if not hundreds of places across the web. If you are working actively on local SEO, you will likely find thousands of sites on which a you can build a listing for your firm.
Ensuring the accuracy of your local citations is critical to your firm's SEO efforts. Search engines...
Read MoreJul 9
HTTPS is taking over Google search results: Are law firms keeping up?
It's been two years since Google announced that a secured (HTTPS) connection was a minor ranking signal. While most websites that conduct transactions or have user registrations and other features that involve processing data already utilize an HTTPS connection, law firms rarely do.
HTTP vs HTTPS Simplified
By default your website is accessible via an HTTP connection. With an SSL certificate, you can change your prefix from HTTP to HTTPS. An HTTPS connection adds an extra level of encryption between the...
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