Internet Newsletter for Lawyers |
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The latest research shows that the most popular search engines in the UK are MSN 42% (now owned by Microsoft who are investing heavily to make their share even bigger), Google 32%, Yahoo 26% and Freeserve 17%.
Search engine registration is typically not difficult. Most search engines have a link at the bottom of their page that reads something like "Add URL" or "Submit Site". All sites have easy to follow guides on how best to submit a URL, including warnings about spamming and tips on keywords.
Search engines consider keywords in the code as well as the relevancy of the text used on the page. Google considers link popularity i.e. the number of times a site is linked to by others. Getting listed can now take up to 3 months - or it may never happen. There are no guarantees with non-paid for site submissions.
It is a good idea to research the best terms for your site, and searchenginewatch.com provides a list of resources for this. It can also be useful to study your competitor's pages that rank highly in various search engines.
Search engine optimisation (getting the best ranking possible for your site) is more of an art than a science, because no search engine uses exactly the same method. However, here are some basic tips.
Title: The title should include your firms name and a reference to what the site is about. You should probably not use more than 60 characters (5-10 words) in the title.
Description: The meta name description provides the sentence about your site in the search engine listings. Although it should include important words, it should be as readable and enticing as possible, to encourage surfers to visit your site. This field should probably not be more than 150 characters.
Keywords: The meta name keywords should be limited to about 50; using them in groups of 2-3 word phrases helps, each separated by a comma. A good free site is www.scrubtheweb.com. Their "Meta Tag Analyzer" will tell you what is wrong with your meta data, giving you character counts for your title, description and so on, and telling you how many times you are using certain words and risk being banned for spamming.
If you are using an external agency to submit your site, choose wisely. Many claim to be able to submit your site to 'thousands of search engines each month, automatically'. Not only are there not thousands of search engines worth considering but automatic and frequent re-submission is now frowned on by the search engines.
To choose an agency, consider asking them for a free verbal or written tutorial on their key optimisation tips. Ask for references and ring their key customers to find out how happy they are with their services.
Overture, at www.overture.com, operates the 'Sponsored match' paid-for listings for Yahoo and also supplies ad listings to most other search engines, including MSN, Lycos, Altavista and Wanadoo. Google operates its own AdWords scheme.
In terms of paying for inclusions, it is probably only worth considering MSN, Google and Yahoo, which are the most popular UK search engines. In each case, ensure you are only getting listings on the UK versions of their sites. Accessing the .com (US) versions of their sites and competing with a global audience for search terms is unnecessarily expensive (unless you operate globally).
All the search engines have pages explaining their adwords process. In principle, you tend to pay per click through (cost-per-click or CPC) according to the popularity of the search term and (with Google, for example) you can set a daily/annual budget which determines the number of times your ad will be shown each day and the click throughs you will receive.
For example (and hypothetically - I haven't checked the cost) if the cost (i.e. popularity) of the term 'solicitors Swindon' is judged to be 50 pence per click and you want to limit your annual spend (the ads run for 365 days per annum, you cannot choose set dates) to £500, Google will allow you 1,000 clicks pa (or an average of 2.7 per day). Once you've had your 2.7 click throughs, the software will automatically remove your advert from appearing on the search result pages for this term. This is why the adverts listed appear to change over the course of the day. In addition, Google ads will also change position (rank) based on factors including relevancy of the text, CPC and click through rate. If the text in an ad is considered irrelevant by users, they won't click on it and it will move down the page. This makes choosing the correct keywords for your allotted 95 characters (title and description) crucial.
The search engines all state that they have fraud detection elements in place, for example, to ensure that a competitor doesn't repeatedly click on your listing, just to exhaust your allotted clicks for the day.
Three of the most widely used legal online directories are:
There are many referral sites for areas like conveyancing and personal injury. Searching on these keywords brings up an overwhelming list, which is a mixture of individual law firms with branded sites aimed at the consumer and sites that operate a panel system of law firms nationally, to whom they refer enquiries. Not surprisingly, this market is very competitive and the referral/panel sites are spending significant amounts on sponsored listings to ensure they get the best rankings.
Perhaps the best known for conveyancing and accidents respectively are the following:
Conveyancing:
Accidents and personal injury:
You generally need to pay to become part of the panel and you are usually required to adhere to their rigorous protocols and their fee scales. Most also operate a referral fee policy. Easier2Move is fairly typical, charging the law firm a £125 referral fee for each case, which it must disclose to the client and cannot add to the client's bill.
Opinions vary about the value of referral sites. Some firms seem to receive a good number of enquiries although all would admit that the margins involved are tight and that the firm needs to be resourced and equipped in the right way in order to make worthwhile profits from these prices. Others query the volume and quality of enquiries received and, because of the low margins, prefer to remain independent.
Before deciding on advertising with any of these commercial directories, you should take the following steps:
You could embark on a link request programme with relevant but non-competing commercial websites. Most sites will only consider a reciprocal link, so you will need to create a useful links page to add their links to your site. It is also advisable to publish a general disclaimer statement on your site about the content of any linked sites.
Do not confuse those who have genuinely searched from scratch (eg 'solicitors Swindon') with those who searched by your firm's name. The latter is not a true search engine-generated enquiry. For most B2B businesses, much less than 10% of your business will come via 'cold searching' so do not worry too much about how well you are ranked for cold search terms. Instead, focus on ensuring that you rank well when your name is searched for (including variations and misspellings of the name).
Nicola Webb is the founder of Implementor, a marketing consultancy focusing
on the professions - see www.implementor.biz.
Email Nicola@implementor.biz.
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