Is Google My Business the New Home Page for Your Law Firm?

For many law firms, you have to rely on Google to drive local traffic to your business. But what if your WordPress site currently doesn’t sit at the top of search results? How do you get potential clients to notice your law firm?

Well, Google has an answer for that and it’s called Google My Business.

Think of it like another home page for your website. Rather than hope that consumers are willing to sift through pages of search results to find your firm, you can use this business listing tool to place it front and center in search.

10 Reasons Your Law Firm Needs a Google My Business Page Today

I know, I know… You’re probably thinking, “Great. Another social media platform I need to set up and manage.” But this is different.

Yes, Google My Business exists outside of your website. But, no, it’s not a social media platform (Google has Google+ for that). Think of this as a mini website or billboard for your law firm – one that, when optimized well, will show up at the top of local search results.

If you’re not sold on the idea of creating yet another web property for your firm, consider the following reasons to turn your attention to Google My Business this year:

1. It’s 100% free to use.

2. It’s quick and easy to set up.

3. You have full control over what information is published on it.

4. If it satisfies Google’s algorithmic requirements – “relevance, distance, and prominence” – you’ll find your listing pushed to the top of search even if your site hasn’t made it there yet.

5. It’s directly attached to the Google universe, which means this information directly feeds into local search results, Maps results, and even Google+ posts.

6. A Google My Business page results in a more detailed and visually attractive search engine result.

7. This provides another opportunity for you to collect reviews from satisfied clients. Google will, in turn, include those reviews and ratings in your search results.

8. You can link to your law firm’s website, which gives you another strong backlinking opportunity to use in your SEO efforts.

9. Since it’s connected to Google Maps, this will make it easier for prospective clients to navigate to your business from their mobile devices.

10. This will be especially helpful in reaching local clientele now that Facebook has changed its algorithm [link to “Facebook Is Changing Its Algorithm Again… And It’s Not in Your Favor”].

How to Set Up a Google My Business Page for Your Law Firm

We’ve already seen why a Google My Business page is essential for your local law firm, so let’s review how quick, easy, and painless it is to get one up and running.

Step 1: Search for Your Firm

Before you create a new Google My Search listing, be sure there isn’t one already created.

To confirm, run a search in Google for your law firm’s name. If a Knowledge Graph pops up on the right with expanded details of your business, then the profile exists. Click on “Claim this business” and take over ownership rights.

Step 2: Create a New Page

If a Google My Business listing doesn’t exist, then it’s time to create one from-scratch.

Step 3: Fill in the Details

Google will lead you through a series of questions to populate your listing with relevant data.

Enter the name of your law firm:

Provide the address of your firm. If you have more than one location, create separate My Business listings for them:

Make sure the pin drops in the right spot:

Choose a category for your business:

Want clients to call you and visit your website? Enter that here:

Step 4: Verify the Listing

Google requires that all Google My Business pages be verified by the owner of the business at the exact address of the business. In the next step, confirm the location of your law firm’s offices and request that a postcard be sent to your address:

You will then receive a postcard in the mail with a PIN. Follow the directions on the card and confirm your page.

Step 5: Add Other Relevant Details

Once your account is verified, add other relevant details like hours of operation, additional categories under which your firm falls, etc.

You should also upload photos here. Your firm’s logo is one that should definitely be included. Add a cover photo as well. This could be a photo of the firm’s offices or your team. Upload other high-quality and professional photos as you see fit.

Step 6: Monitor and Manage the Listing

First, review the Settings for your page. Set up automated alerts for:

• New customer reviews
• Tips on what to do with photos
• Status updates on your listing’s health
• Tips about clients visiting your page
• And more

This will take some of the work out of monitoring your page for activity. Then, make sure you acquaint yourself with the Insights for your page. These will tell you about how many people view your listing, where they encounter it (in search, Maps, Google+, etc.), and so on.

In Sum

When a consumer finds your law firm in Google search results, your Google My Business page is often the first impression they receive when they encounter it.

So, if you have an incomplete profile that looks like a ghost town, what does that say about you?

Take the time to create a complete Google My Business profile for your law firm and give your business a competitive advantage in local search.

The post Is Google My Business the New Home Page for Your Law Firm? appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

7 Best Premium WordPress Themes for Law Firms

Your law firm needs a website, but your firm’s partners are stressing about how much it’s going to cost. You’ve carefully weighed the options and decided you would like to try the DIY approach. After all, with a content management system like WordPress and its many integrations on your side, how hard could it be?

Truth be told, WordPress is not an insanely difficult platform to learn. That said, it’s not as simple as installing WordPress and getting to work on writing the verbiage for your website. It needs a professional-looking design. It also needs to work well across all mobile device screens. And it needs to be optimized for search. (Among many other requirements.)

The great thing about the DIY approach is that you have WordPress themes to help you handle the design piece of your website build… and you’ll never have touch a line of code either. In fact, if you find the right WordPress theme, there might be very little to do aside from adding your logo, text, and custom images.

But you can’t just pick any theme.

The following guide to the best premium WordPress themes for law firms will make the process of selecting a high-quality theme a breeze.

 

What to Look for in a Premium WordPress Theme for Law Firms

It’s important to remember that WordPress and its themes are nothing more than software. You wouldn’t sign up for an unknown finance management tool and immediately give it access to your credit cards and bank accounts without doing research on it, right? Security, performance, ease of use, and how well it fits the intended purpose all need to be considered before purchasing anything for WordPress.

That’s why we’ve put together this quick reference guide.

WordPress themes can be great, but not all of them are made equal. There are a number of features you have to look at when determining, first, the quality of the theme and, second, whether it fits your needs.

Ideally, this is what a WordPress theme for law firms will have:

• Cost: You will get the best quality, built-in features, tailor-made designs, and developer support when you pay for a premium WordPress theme.
• Responsive design: This is one that naturally adapts to whatever screen your website is viewed on. (It’s also incredibly important for SEO.)
• Security: While a developer won’t add a security plugin to your theme, you can review the developer’s credentials as well as the comments left by customers to ensure there are no issues with corrupt coding or vulnerabilities.
• Performance: Your site needs to run super-fast (we’re talking opening in a matter of two or three seconds). As such, your theme needs to be lightweight and not bogged down by unnecessary plugins and scripts.
• Drag–and-drop editing: WordPress is user-friendly enough, but a drag-and-drop editing tool will make it exponentially easier for you to update your content.
• Templates: Never use a WordPress theme without pre-made templates for lawyers or law firms. These will save you time in building your site from-scratch while also helping you adhere to web design best practices.

Now that we’ve told you what to look for, let’s make it even easier and show you the best premium WordPress themes for law firms to use.

 

7 Best Premium WordPress Themes for Law Firms

You’ll find the list below has a mix of multipurpose WordPress themes (that cater to a variety of business types) and lawyer-specific ones. There’s no right and wrong here, but you do want a theme from a designer who understands your niche and has simplified the amount of work you need to do.

1. Digital Law

Highlights from the Digital Law theme:

• Retina-ready for super sharp images
• One-click demo (template) import
• Full-page and section templates for the home page, appointments, attorney bios, specialties, and more
• Compatible with the Visual Composer (drag-and-drop), Contact Form 7 (contact form), and bbPress (forum) plugins you’ll likely need

 

2. Forstron

Highlights from the Forstron theme:

• Modern and youthful design (great for law firms representing younger clientele)
• Super lightweight
• Comes with Beaver Builder page builder (drag-and-drop)
• Includes sharp-looking yet minimally designed pages law firms need

 

3. Law Services

Highlights from the Law Services theme:

• Various pre-made layouts available
• Very buttoned-up and professional-looking design
• Includes a page builder plugin for easy drag-and-drop customization
• Modern design touches (like counters, gradients, masonry grids)

 

4. Lawyers

Highlights from the Lawyers theme:

• Great looking design with sharp juxtaposition between minimal and bold
• Pre-designed page templates and layouts
• Widgetized home page to personalize sections and the order in which they appear
• Includes plugins and widgets for video, testimonials, Google Maps (important for local SEO), and blogs

 

5. MF

Highlights from the MF theme:

• Multipurpose WordPress theme (pay attention to the Lawyer demo)
• Includes subtle animations
• Design elements allow you to add more customizations and personalized styling
• Particularly great if you have a large group of lawyers and a lot of information to share

 

6. Ronneby

Highlights from the Ronneby theme:

• Lawyer’s agency demo is a single-page website (which is a growing trend right now)
• Perfect for new law firms that want to make a strong impression, but don’t have a lot of information or a large team of lawyers yet
• Includes templates for all essential law firm pages
• Uses subtle touches of movement and animation to keep visitors engaged

 

7. Total

Highlights from the Total theme:

• Multipurpose theme with a pre-designed Law Firm demo
• Drag-and-drop editor enables you to edit all aspects of site – even header and footer (which isn’t always possible)
• Design is simple, elegant, and focuses on the message
• Design template comes replete with placeholders for essential call-to-action buttons your law firm will need

 

Summary

Now that you know how to go about getting a professionally-made design for your law firm website, do you feel confident about using the DIY approach? The 7 best premium WordPress themes above will definitely get you moving in the right direction, but you might be feeling a little nervous about the time commitment involved… not to mention everything else that goes into optimizing your site for the user experience as well as search engines.

If that’s the case, reach out to Trial Law Digital today. We offer professional web design services at an affordable price, and are happy to step in and relieve you of the responsibility of building your law firm’s website.

The post 7 Best Premium WordPress Themes for Law Firms appeared first on Trial Law Digital.

Should Law Firms Use Yelp for Reviews? Absolutely.

I recently had a law firm client who came to me with a serious complaint about Yelp. Turns out, they worked their butts off to get Yelp reviews, only to have all of the reviews “filtered” (i.e. taken away) by Yelp. Why? Because it was in violation of Yelp’s rather stringent policy against asking customers or clients for reviews.

So, what’s the moral of this story? Does it mean you shouldn’t use Yelp as a review aggregator or even to host your law firm’s listing? After all, there are a number of other business listing and review sites:

There’s the Better Business Bureau and ConsumerAffairs which collect customer reviews in the hopes of informing the public about the quality of service or product a company offers. There are sites like Yellow Pages and Manta that offer businesses a place to set up a profile and allow clients to leave reviews. Of course, there’s always Avvo, which is a lawyer directory and review site designed specifically to help the general public find good legal counsel.

That said, these review sites don’t have one thing that the likes of Yelp or Google My Business have. And that’s search engine clout. Sure, you could copy reviews from those sites onto your own, but that requires work. Why not use a review platform that plays well with the search engines and that is well-trusted and already highly utilized by consumers?

In other words, I think we need to talk about the value of a Yelp listing and, more importantly reviews for your law firm.

 

The Value of Yelp Reviews for Your Law Firm

Let’s start with the basics: client reviews and why they’re valuable for any business. It’s as simple as this:

In 2017, a Bright Local survey revealed that “85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations”.

That’s a huge deal, especially for the legal industry. Think about it: how likely is it that someone in need of legal assistance has a family member, friend, or colleague who has run into the same type of issue and can recommend your services? Probably not all that likely. And, so, having online reviews from clients would serve as just as strong a testimonial to your services as a personal recommendation.

Let’s also talk about the value of reviews as they pertain to the legal industry. According to Review Trackers, 83% of consumers consult with online reviews as a way to find and assess the quality of a lawyer. That means that roughly four out of every five people that end up becoming your clients did their research on you first.

Now, let’s bring this all together: the value of Yelp reviews for law firms.

The Bright Local survey found that consumers trust Yelp and Facebook above all other review platforms—including the Better Business Bureau and Google. So, if you were thinking about ignoring Yelp in your online marketing efforts because you think that Google My Business, Facebook, or Avvo is easier to use or more effective, think again.

Yelp has been around for almost 15 years now and it’s managed to drum up an impressive number of customer reviews in that type. As of Q3 2017, that number was at 142 million. Clearly, this is a platform that your clients trust and, beyond that, one that they’re likely very familiar with.

In addition, Yelp is a platform trusted by the search engines. Let me show you what happens when you search for lawyers in Bing:

In addition to providing local results for layers in Philadelphia, Bing also sorts them based on their Yelp reviews—which they clearly display as a trust mark under each link.

Now, let’s say prospective clients don’t do a search in Bing for “lawyers in Philadelphia”. Let’s say they know that they’re interested in the Sadek and Cooper Law Offices and so they search for that.

See what Bing did there? The law firm gets its own shout-out in the sidebar, replete with not only their Yelp star rating, but also actual reviews.

Bing isn’t the only one that loves Yelp reviews either. Google does too:

Google will never promote Yelp’s reviews within the Google business sidebar (because they have their own reviews to push). However, what you’ll notice in each of these examples is that Yelp is almost always the first set of reviews offered when you search for a business in Google. Facebook is the only exception to that rule. And, in every case, those review pages show up on the first page of results—which is huge!

Obviously, Yelp reviews are a necessity if you want prospective clients to find you in organic search. The problem now is to figure out how to get them.

 

10 Tips for Getting Yelp Reviews from Your Clients

Okay, so now that I’ve made the argument for getting Yelp reviews, I need to explain how to go about doing them… because it’s not going to be that easy. When you do, though, know that these reviews will go a long way in earning clients’ trust even before they become your clients. And, as a lawyer, trust is an indispensable tool in your line of work.

So, here is what you need to know to get Yelp reviews from your clients the right way

1. First and foremost, lay claim to your page, fill it with details, and monitor it regularly.
2. Review your local ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to ensure that you understand the rules around client testimonials.
3. Review Yelp’s rules, since the wrong move could cost you dearly if it violates their rules against direct solicitation of reviews.
4. When talking to clients in person, bring it up in a natural way. “Check out our page on Yelp” is a good way to approach this. If you explicitly ask them for a review or push them to leave a five-star rating, you may find yourself in hot water.
5. Be sure your site and Yelp profile are updated with information regarding the services you offer as well as how long you’ve been in business. These are two key details 48% of people look for when reading law firm reviews, so it would be nice to publish those details where your soon-to-be-reviewers can find them.
6. Also, on your website, include a Yelp badge that links directly to your page. You can also create a Yelp reviews widget that pulls the latest ones into your site—this would be great on the home page, the About page, as well as your blog.
7. Add a link in your email signature to your Yelp page as well. It doesn’t need to explicitly ask for reviews, just include the Yelp logo and “check us out” message.
8. You can also use your most shining Yelp reviews in marketing material. Just be sure you get permission from the reviewer to use it and that you include the Yelp logo beside it.
9. Put up “Find Us on Yelp” signage around your firm. You can send Yelp a request for one here.
10. According to Yelp, “Taking the time to respond to reviews and provide great customer service will go much farther in building a great reputation for a business on Yelp.” And it’s true. 30% of people from the Bright Local survey said that they use a company’s response to reviews as a key factor in their decision-making process.

 

Wrapping Up

Getting reviews for your law firm needs to be an essential part of your marketing strategy as evidenced by the 83% of people who use them to research a lawyer before taking next steps. There’s also the search engine aspect to consider too. With Bing and Google putting such a heavy emphasis and trust in Yelp reviews, this is a platform you really can’t afford to skip.

The post Should Law Firms Use Yelp for Reviews? Absolutely. appeared first on Trial Law Digital.