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Avvo Lawyernomics: Website Best Practices
- 2. 15 Years Ago
- 3. Germany To Ellis Island
- 4. Genealogy & Web Design
- 5. The Manifest & Anna
- 6. 7 Stops, No Dice.
- 7. The “Henkel”
- 9. Here’s the point. 5 SECONDS
- 11. “I want to be different.”
- 12. Don’t be a Purple Cow. NO.
- 13. The Nifty Benchmark Study: Best Practices
- 16. Average of 945 words on ranking page
- 17. 90% used location in title tag
- 18. Truncate…
- 19. 54% used firm name in title tag
- 23. 25% had a link to reviews
- 28. 89% more likely to remember youhttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/logo-placement-brand-recall/
- 29. 18% had no CTA
- 30. Prominent Trust Signals 36% had no trust signals
- 31. The Nifty Benchmark Study: Low Adoption Trends
- 33. 9.5% had parallax effect
- 34. 1% had background video
- 35. No No #1 Atypical Navigation
- 37. Simplify Choices & Increase Engagement
- 38. Don’t Nest Your Nav
- 40. Home / Bio Practice Areas Contact
- 41. No No #2 Using a Slider
- 42. 1%
- 44. A Slider =
- 45. 61% didn’t use a image of themselves
- 46. Reinforce Header & Footer
- 48. No No #3 Poor Mobile Design & Performance
- 49. goo.gl/ozWFB8 Google Page Speed Insights
- 50. 10% weren’t responsive vs. 82% 2 years ago
- 54. USERS WEBSITE
- 55. Oh crap.
- 56. Dead Cow No-No #1: Lack of Accountability
- 59. Call 85% Form 15% PREFERRED CONTACT METHOD: NIFTY CLIENTS
- 60. Where performance is measured, performance improves. Where performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates. - Tommy Monson
- 61. Thirty Of These
- 62. GETS ME THIS?
- 67. Dead Cow No-No #2: POOR INTAKE TRAINING
- 68. “LAW OFFICES.”
- 71. goo.gl/65H5O0 ABA Benchmark Study on Law Firm Intake Process
- 72. Dead Cow No-No #3: Looking / Sounding Like Everyone Else
- 74. “I’ll fight for you.”
- 75. “One Call That’s All”
- 76. 35% more likely to contact when seeing real people
- 80. COMMODITY
- 86. But how do you “know”, know?
- 87. Don’t let this guy get his way.
- 89. photofeeler.com
- 90. Usabilityhub.com
- 91. Post Launch
- 92. Visual Website Optimizer Heat Map
- 93. A/B Testing
- 94. Dead Cow No-No #4: Lack of Focus
- 99. Dead Cow NO-NO #5: LACK OF LOCALIZATION
- 101. TEST TEST TEST
- 106. PRIMARY LOCATION
- 107. SUB MARKET CONTENT
- 108. LINKS TO NJ LOCAL LANDING PAGES
- 110. Practice areas x Local Markets = OODLES of Pages
- 112. Boiling The Ocean
- 113. Google’s City Center For The Search “Criminal Defense Attorney Houston
- 116. Get Tactical.
- 118. #5 ORGANIC HOUSTON
- 119. Local Landing Page
- 120. Dead Cow No-No #5: IGNORE USER EXPERIENCE
- 128. Chad Henkel Follow Me on Twitter @ChadHenkel Visit Niftylaw.com
Editor's Notes
- Hit a dead end for nearly 10+ years NO leads
- Hit a dead end for nearly 10+ years NO leads
- Many of your future clients, who have yet to solve what attorney they should hire, often find it too hard to figure out who you areit’s your duty to make sure your website connects the dots and makes the experience as easy as possible. Typically, you have about 7 seconds (not 10 years) to win over a prospective client and your visitors aren’t patient. I’d like to share several best practices, research, and tools that will help you in stand out and make it easier to hire you and your firm.. Just like many of your future clients, who have yet to solve what attorney they should hire, it’s your duty to make sure your website connects the dots and makes the experience as easy as possible. Typically, you have ~5 seconds not 10 years and website users aren’t nearly as patient. Over the next few minutes, I’d like to share several best practices, research, and tools that will help you in stand out and make it easier to hire you.
- Start Story
- I’d like to share a story my dad recently recanted to me. I never could decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. I remember fire man being on a paper. Ironic foreshadowing that manifested in a abstract way. I spent a summer of my life working here - it was hard work. I spent 9-10 hours a day cleaning these elevators, I found myself up to my chest at times shoveling dust from corn and grain into a manhole.
- Little did I know I was also working one of the most dangerous jobs in America at 16 years old. The dust could become so dense that the slightest spark would cause an explosion. I was climbing ladders, sliding down poles, doing really hard work, so my childhood dream manifested in an indirect way I guess
- My point is, your home page has to have a purpose and know what it wants to be when it grows up. Design it poorly and your ROI will flounder.
- I’ve heard this rephrased about 200 different ways. A talking audio website, a website that looks like a book, etc. Before you can be different you have know what you want…or don’t want Being different for the wrong reasons
- Users get confused. Your site will not convert. Follow best practices from a layout perspective Keep things predictable, simple
- Here are some best practices to help you stay in line with top ranking websites For better or worse – you’ll find that top ranking sites aren’t doing EVERYTHING right by the book
- BenchMark Study of Top Ranking Sites 50 Cities 4 Practice Areas Correlation isn’t Causation But, if you can out tacticalize you can grab some victories. In top ranking local results we did a study to across 4 practice areas and 100 of the biggest markets in the US. I’m sharing this partly because there are a lot of weaknesses that Top ranking sites have and there is room for attorneys doing the right work to mix things up. Overall, these are all signals for local and you need to take these things into account as you design and market your website:
- STUDY: Average Words on Ranking Page (Mostly Homepage): 945 Share best practices No less than 500 words “scan able” Don’t wiki - heavy diction, buzzwords
- 90% of firms had location in Title Tag Ranking signal Character limits to 50-60 characters Or Truncate
- Will lower CTR Or Google will replace your chosen title for one of their choosing algorithmically
- 54% of firms had firm name in Title Tag
- 46% had their NAP marked up in Schema Only 5.5% had reviews on their site and marked up in schema Schema Tells Search engines what certain data means
- Studies have shown that sites using schema markup rank 4 postiion HIGHER than ones that don’t https://blog.kissmetrics.com/get-started-using-schema/
- Huge for user experience Social Proof People want to do what other people do
- Only 5% of websites ranking scored “A grade” for onsite score Nearly 50% scored “C” grade
- Only 5% of websites ranking scored “A grade” for onsite score Nearly 45% scored “C” grade Less than 5% had an “A” grade Title Tag seals the deal for what the page “should” rank for But the content of the page is MOST important https://www.seroundtable.com/google-title-tag-critical-21499.html
- Remember Correlation isn’t Causation USER EXPERIENCE
- When it comes to User Experience and follow the best practices Logo Top Left Phone number top right Combine phone number with a call to action 4. Strong Image with a strong headline 5. Leave Body
- Than logos place on the right
- Badges, press mentions, local mentions, super lawyer, 30/30, 40/40, etc User queues that you are authoritative and capable
- Let’s go over some really simple best practices that if you aren’t following, you should consider implementing Paralax and Background Video Keep Color Consistent
- If I’m a competitor and I’m looking for a way to standout and I’m not number 1 or 2 or 3 etc, I’m using this design effect to build credibility.
- Purple Cow No No #1: COMPLICATE YOUR NAVIGATION Don’t use outside the box ideas that confuse USERS/ CLIENTS, KISS
- Position Navigation at the top of the page but below the CTA / logo, not below the fold Bounce rates go down Pages per visit go up Conversion go up Child pages
- NON STANDARD Also don’t separate your navigation into multiple areas on a site, it’s untraditional and difficult to predict for users. Keep navigation simple Specific Keep the order of importance in check
- Generic labels and drop down menus Typically, Bad for usability and SEO
- PRIORITIZE your NAVIGATION Most important first and last, stuff in the middle not as important Home/Bio Practice area /blog Testimonials / Contact us
- Purple Cow No No #2: COMPLICATE YOUR NAVIGATION Don’t use outside the box ideas that confuse USERS/ CLIENTS, KISS Several things to consider before going this route: 1. Low Click Through
- PICTURES - Users couldn’t find the offer Otherwise disregarded the slider, making it ineffective
- Notre Dame Study 1% of users clicked feature (slider) Of the 30k that did click 84% are clicked the first slide The other 4 sliders made the rest Takeaway: users ignore these and majority will click the first one BANNER BLINDNESS
- Predictable Better for SEO Better for Mobile Layouts Increases Conversion
- Gets into philosophy of the site which we’ll talk more about later
- Keep an embedded map, and contact info in Footer (NAP, Important links, FORM) If you’re interested in knowing how many visitors make it to the bottom of a page here are a few resources
- Plugin that integrates with GA and creates goals to understand scrolling behavior of visitors
- NONO #3
- Purple Cow No-No #3: HAVE A POORLY DESIGNED MOBILE SITE (OR NONE)
- 10% of TOP ranking websites in local weren’t responsive. We did this study 2 years ago, only 28% were responsive. Make sure your site is mobile friendly (responsive) At least 3 anchor points Mobile phone, Tablet, Laptop, and Desktop
- Benchmark Data: Study on Top Ranking Sites Mobile Speed Huge HUGE Opportunity as Google makes a huge push to increase importance of mobile friendly
- HIGH USER Experience scores for top ranking sites, there were a few outliers but overall this was around 96% Few issues affecting how a user engages with the site OR how indexing/search engine issues
- Your website and users need to get along.
- The only thing worse than being a purple cow is being a dead cow. Certain things IGNORED CRUSH your site
- Dead Cow No-No #1: Not using a call tracking service NINJA TACTICS
- “You don’t know what you don’t know” ENTER CALL TRACKING
- You have to understand that consumers want to be able to call a business, this says 41% of the time, most of our clients are well over 9:1 ratio phone call / form fills
- Most of our clients are well over 9:1 ratio phone call / form fills
- WHAT CHANNELS ARE WORKING Tell me if you’ve ever wondered “What has my marketing company done for me lately?” Or even “Have they done anything at all?” What marketing channels are working? Billboard? PPC? Print? SEO? How much does it cost me to get a new client? CALL TRACKING isn’t the only answer, but it’s a good place to start if you don’t have it.
- ----- Meeting Notes (4/5/16 16:50) ----- Block their names / numbers
- USE IN CONNECTION W/ REAL OFFICE # PUT THIS IN THE CTA ABOVE NAV and REAL # IN FOOTER w/ SCHEMA MARKUP You’ll know: Baseline: M/M - Q/Q - Y/Y What channels are working? Quality control (record calls) Keyword tracking (what else can I use) Your business thrives on phone calls, so track them and understand what your clients are experiencing:
- CALL RAIL FOR SOMETHING MORE SPECIFIC, SAY IF YOU HAVE A PRACTICE MANAGEMENT SOLUTION ALREADY IN PLACE IF YOU HAVE NOTHING IN PLACE FROM A PRACTICE MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE, I’D POINT YOU TOWARDS AVVO IGNITE
- NO MATTER HOW AWESOME YOUR SITE IS, IF YOUR INTAKE SUCKS EVERYTHING LOSES
- Conrad Saam, our friend over at Mockingbird Marketing did a large study involving 70k phone calls and here’s the major takeaways: 42% of the time, law firms take three or more days to reply to a voicemail or web-generated form fill from a prospective client. ----- Meeting Notes (4/5/16 16:50) -----
- Going back to my story of North Dakota and finding my Grandmonther? Remember the first principle as it applies to building a solid website: “know who you are and lead with that, no matter what.”
- Some of you have probably used pictures like this on your site:
- These types of stock photography, IN PLACE OF YOU, make you look boring, stereotypical and position you to be a total commodity. They can kill conversion: MARKETING EXPERIMENTS A blog I’ve followed for years: tested a real photo of their client against their top performing stock photo Nearly 35% of visitors would be more likely to sign up when they saw the real deal. (http://conversionxl.com/stock-photography-vs-real-photos-cant-use/)
- THE NIFTY PHILOSOPHY ATTORNEYS ARE THE PRODUCT WHEN YOU USE FAKE PHOTOS YOU CHEAPEN THE PRODUCT THERE ARE TONS OF ATTORNEYS WHO DO WHAT YOU DO LEADING WITH YOU, IS HOW YOU CAN STANDOUT
- Farhan was concerned that because of his ethnicity people may not like or want to work with him- so he always steered away from using his name or associating his face with the site.
- CONTINUITY BETWEEN ALL MARKETING MATERIALS, LETTERHEAD, BILLBOARD, WEBSITE, RADIO, ETC BUT WHEN YOU WALK IN HIS OFFICE, THE EXPERIENCE IS THE SAME SCENT SPECIALIST STAINLESS SKULLS ON SCALES LEATHER FLOORS IN HIS OFFICE MODERN STYLE THROUGHOUT IT FITS VEGAS
- Get a photog, lead with your face, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT, get a professional, stop it with the Canon handheld and bad lighting. Invest in yourself and stand out.
- Loudest voice in the room get’s their way?
- First impression 5 seconds Questions Click test Navigation test Preference test
- Too often we can forget what purpose the home page and website serve This also leads us to Dead Cow no-no #4
- 3-headed monster Another issue that will negatively affect your conversion rate is taking the 3-headed monster homepage out for a walk: Peers (Fellow attorneys and/or judges) Your reputation, success, networking ability Potential Clients (Those who don’t know you) Your website!!! Current Clients (Those who do know you) Your customer service Your homepage has to have a priority to it.
- It’s important to remember that none of this information relates to how the website looks. Practical info to quickly assess if a business meets their needs – this is especially true in criminal defense and personal injury. Where time may be of the essence.
- LESS IMPORTANT not equal NOT IMPORTANT This just simply means that in general this isn’t the first things a local pot. Client is looking for So how do you balance the needs of your home page? How do you create local content?
- WHAT LOCAL CLIENTS WANT TO SEE TO HIRE YOU YOU MAKE IT HARD IF YOU DON’T HAVE BASICS
- All of you can certainly write a very technical page on the website but this will most likely kill your conversion. From a general perspective follow these best practices: Don’t wiki'ize your top navigation content keep it simple but informative 1000 words is best Less than 500 better 300 words = Not good enough Recommend checking the reading level and prioritize the content level according to the types of clients you want to attract
- Content Best Practices: Don’t wiki'ize your top navigation content keep it simple but informative 1000 words is best Less than 500 better 300 words = Not good enough Recommend checking the reading level and prioritize the content level according to the types of clients you want to attract
- No one wants to read your wiki content or the bylaws - they want to understand how you can help them.
- But to help them you need to be where they are!
- From a strategy perspective too many websites are thinking about ranking for “Texas Personal Injury Lawyer” or “California Criminal Defense Lawyer” This content strategy is broken if you indeed want to rank in markets that are important to your practice. Let me introduce you to the most misunderstood animal in the animal kingdom:
- I’m referring to GOogle Pigeon of course: In June 2014, Google’s Pigeon rolled out to make 3 things very clear: Radius is smaller SERPs are based on location of device Traditional signals (LINKS/CONTENT) TOO MANY FIRMS ARE OPTIMIZING “FLORIDA ATTORNEY” OR “CALIFORNIA” PAINTS INTO CORNER Pigeon is a learning algo and bases results on where the machine is located...so if you live in Sugarland (suburb) and search for Houston DUI attorney you’ll probably get a Houston page….however if you search for dui attorney...you’ll most likely get a Sugarland attorney page….too many attorneys do not understand this. This is why you can’t put all the eggs in the State, Metro or Suburb basket. Radius’ for local maps results have shrunk….not to mention the number reduction of local results (from 7 to 3) more recently. Traditional signals like (Links and Content) are now part of this local algo All of these things point towards attorneys/lawyers needing to understand local content and localizing their content:
- PREPARE YOUR NAV:
- Main Nav tab practice area needs to be Primary location focused, we’ve seen a bump in rankings when following this from 3rd to 2nd page and 2nd to 1st page:
- What if you have multiple offices or markets of focus? Recommend nesting in contact us area
- Ability to navigate to practice areas for each location on local landing page
- If you want to rank in a town, suburb, or metro organically you have to produce content (AND LINKS) 10 practice areas and 20 markets: 200 pieces of content, minimum *this doesn’t include other supporting practice area content and/or hyper local blogs
- PRIORITIZE: Focus on what matters most: where you have a physical location; dominate your own backyard first Then branch out into other areas. Consider ROI by doing quick keyword research; some pages will be easier to rank for and have less traffic potential; others opposite
- ROI GOES DOWN AND EFFECTS NEVER SEEN HERE’s HOW IT TRANSLATES INTO REAL LIFE
- HOUSTON IN RED HOUSTON CRIM DEF ATTORNEY IS SOOOOO SMALL
- WORSE CASE SCENARIO AND HOW TO BEAT THE PIGEON
- Get tactical and pick your battles (THINK ROI)
- Ranks for BELLAIRE NO CHANCE FOR LOCAL EVEN THOUGH CLOSE TO THE CITY CENTER
- Dead Cow No-NO #5: IGNORE USER EXPERIENCE
- As a sophomore I learned an important experience that I’ve carried with me when I consult others on website conversion best practices. I attended a football camp at Boise State University. The first day was awesome. Someone reminded me to bring baby powder and I didn’t and I paid dearly for the remaining 5 days. The heat was over 120% on the SMURF turf and that + football pants + running - caused some friction. I don’t have a picture but this will suffice.
- Reduce Friction Getting more out of your site is all about eliminating friction. Here are some takeaways from our study on some visual and quantitative aspects of conversion that will impact your site’s conversion rate: 16% of sites didn’t have a click to call functionality Make this easier by creating clickable buttons Run your site through Google’s mobile friendly test 18% HAD NO CTA? How is this possible?
- DON’T Forget about the client who may not be able to call!
- First off, consider achieving optimal conversion rate of your form by evaluating the number of form fields: 11% USED CAPTCHA 14% HAD TOO MANY FORMS FIELDS
- HONEY POT
- Design an awesome site that reflects you Be you, avoid being the purple cow of awkwardness. Create Local Content, implement ROI best practices, and track success. Crush it in 2016 Thank you.