Last week on VirtualMarketingOfficer.com I wrote about How To Promote Your Law Blog and it turned out to be a pretty popular post, so I figured there are enough readers who are looking for ideas in this regard—thanks to all who re-tweeted the post; Twitter was driving a lot of the traffic according to my WordPress Stats. Over the weekend, I thought, hey, I wonder how many blogger/readers are using Alexa? (I have no business interest or other connection to Alexa, except being a registered user.) Then I thought, why not ask? Are you using Alexa to monitor the health of your blog, understand your audience, and build a more strategic approach?

If the purpose of your blog or website is to gain exposure and influence readers to pick up the phone and hire you, you should know about Alexa and add it to your blog or website tool kit. What is Alexa?

Alexa is “The Web Information Company.” It provides (free) information about all websites including data about; Top Sites, Internet Traffic Stats and Metrics, Related Links, Site Reviews, Site Ownership contact information, and a few other really valuable paid services. They’ve been pursuing their vision of intelligent Web navigation since 1996. Alexa is one of the largest Web crawls with an infrastructure that can process and serve massive amounts of data.

Okay, so what does this mean for you? Read on…

Web Intelligence

To promote your blog or law firm website (Going forward in this post I use these two types of sites interchangeably.) and to develop the right audience (the one most likely to engage your services), knowing how these sites are performing in search results across the web will be an important component of your strategy. With Alexa tools you can do that.  Further, you can see how you compare with your competitors’ websites. This type of competitive intelligence should allow you to make some informed choices that will make your site a better tool for revenue generation and not just a millstone around your neck.  

Install the Alexa Toolbar

There are two choices. You can install the toolbar up top in your browser menu or install it as a status bar at the bottom. Either works. I use the status bar.  Open your site (or any site) in a browser window and then right click the little icon in the status bar and you’ll get an expanded menu of options.

Select Traffic Stats. A window will open and give you all the traffic stats about the open site in your browser. Other choices include:  Search Analytics, Audience, Reviews, Related Links, Clickstream, or Wayback Machine to see earlier versions of the website or blog.

Traffic Statistics

Before I started using Alexa I relied solely on my WordPress Stats and Google Analytics (all good). I’d learn which posts were most popular, how many visitors a day, where they were coming from and what search queries they used, but with Alexa I can uncover a whole lot more to help me gain clearer focus.

The Traffic Rank shows me what percent of total visits to the site are referred by search engines. Approximately 12% of all visits to my blog site are referred by search engines.

Alexa tells me that: 32% of visits to my blog site are bounces (one page view only), but two thirds stay approximately seven minutes, spending 60 seconds on each page view.

In plain English, this data allows me to make some assumptions:  My search optimization is working but I’d like that 12% to become 20% as readers who reach my blog via search are likely brand new prospects. A third of my visitors hit the home page, read the current post and leave. But, at least two thirds read more than one post! Keeping an audience for seven minutes tells me that readers are getting a deeper picture of my knowledge base and expertise.

It also tells me that because visitors are spending a minute on each page view a lot of my content can be skimmed or read in a minute—this has always been one of my goals—making content easy to skim—I write to reach busy professionals. I want them to be able to quickly assess my value, how that might help their law firm, then pick up the phone and hire me to fill in any “specialty marketing” gaps.

Alexa tells me that 73% of visits come from the US where it has attained a traffic rank of 274,702 (not bad considering my niche focus but certainly can be improved) and my audience, based on Internet averages, is comprised more frequently of females who are in the age range 45-54, have no children and are graduate school educated. (Perfect! Leaders and decision makers!)

Search Analytics

The most recent top search queries sending visitors to my blog are “virtual marketing,” “proskauer rose” (I did a post about their iPad purchases), “jayne Navarre,” “alternative fee agreement,” “marketing officer,” “law firm business card,” “where do CMO’s get their ideas from,” “marketing partner forum,” and “social media secrets.”

Alexa also told me that this month the search query “corporate counsel social media” is driving traffic to the site at an increased rate of 1.30%, while “law firm business card” has declined by 1.22%.  With this information, a strategic choice would be to write a new blog post about “corporate counsel and social media,” “social media secrets” or “iPads in AmLaw firms.”

If you’re working a Search Engine Marketing campaign, Alexa will give you a run down on the most apparent opportunities for you based on Query Popularity scores and Query Competition Index (QCI). A topic for another day….

Reputation Score 

The Alexa Reputation Score is based on how many “incoming links” a site has. Links coming into a website are important because they indicate to search engines a measure of authority and popularity of site content.

Click on the Reputation Score for your site (or any site) you’ll get a list of the top sites that have added an inbound link to the content.

Then, make a few assumptions.  Based upon “who” is linking in to your site and “what” content on your site has been attracting inbound links you could create more content like that to attract more links.  Or, use the information to uncover the types of bloggers or sites interested in your content and then search for and reach out to similar bloggers (use the Alexa Top Site Category Search) or site owners by email with an excerpt of a relevant post and a link to it; just in case they are so inclined to one day use it for an outbound link. Though this takes more work than writing a check to a Link Building agency, the links will be authentic, valuable, meaningful, and ethical (and make you a richer blogger as you drive new revenue through the threshold of your blog).

Don’t neglect to link your blog or website from your profile on directory sites. While not of the same quality as being linked to from a top blog or news site, these do count as inbound links and grows your Reputation Score. ** see note below

As your reputation grows, it can open up doors that didn’t exist before. For example, I’ve been contacted by a publicist to review several very high profile business books, which I assume was in part based upon my ability to drive inbound links—it’s a web! (The more links you attract, the more authoritative you become.)  Although I primarily review books to alert my readers to great resources, as an added bonus the inbound links they create builds my web credibility!

If the purpose of your blog or website is to market your law practice, and your site doesn’t have any incoming links, there’s a problem. Either your content isn’t getting found or isn’t being read by other bloggers, news sites, or those who could link in to your content. In this case, you’ll need to work a little harder at creating some connections and build strategic content that will attract inbound links. Go to other similar sites such as yours that have high reputation scores and study their Alexa data to see what they are doing and what you might replicate.

Claim your site

Don’t forget to claim your site with Alexa. With a free registration, you can “Claim Your Site” and update site title, description and contact information which is all effective for making sure the search engines know what your blog or site is about.

Paid Services

For a small fee, via Alexa paid services, you can optimize your site, grow your traffic, and improve user experience without a long-term contract. The Alexa Site Audit performs a deep analysis of your site to reveal potential problems and provides recommendations to help you improve your site. You can get the one time audit or sign up for the monthly plan. Learn more…

Alexa Search

I’m going to leave this for another post because there is so much you can do with an Alexa Search,  but meanwhile, when you’re on the site, try it out, play around in there. You can learn a lot by looking at Top Sites in specific categories to see how you measure up and what you could do to improve.

Conclusion

If you or your law firm use Alexa, tell us about your experience in the comments; love it, like it, lukewarm? If you’re not using Alexa, check it out and remember to come back and tell us about your experience. Thanks!

**Note on Inbound Links from profiles on social networking sites like LinkedIn. Alexa only counts the first inbound link from any site. Therefore, if all the attorneys in your firm have the law firm website link in their LinkedIn profile, it only counts as one inbound link. No big deal, but just wanted to clarify that. Still, any lawyer in your firm with a blog site should definitely include that link in their profile to generate a separate inbound link to their blog site.

There’s been a curious amount of discussion among law firm marketers, this New Year, about branding. When it comes to launching brand campaigns for law firms, the past two years have been as flat as the world before Magellan. It seemed as if everyone locked down the steering wheel and few boats left the harbor.

However, one seaworthy crew from a well-established Norfolk Virginia law firm, with roots back to 1918 and offices overlooking the lovely Elizabeth River and the world-famous Port of Norfolk, smartly set sail on their journey despite the gloomy outlook.

I had an exceptional opportunity to converse with the ever-illustrious, first-rate mate, Janet L. Davis, (JLD) law marketer at Kaufman & Canoles, P.C, last month after the launch of her firm’s fresh new branding and client service initiative that was in the making since 2007. The following summarizes some of the detailed information, she so generously shared, about how her firm developed core values and incorporated them into a firm wide brand identity that encapsulated what the firm stands for, and how that identity helps them focus internally. Perhaps her experience will give you some wind for your sails.

JN: What was the over-riding or critical event that caused you to revisit your core values and carry out a full-on client service initiative?

JLD: Kaufman & Canoles has always been proactive in regularly reviewing their strengths and weaknesses internally with their lawyers and staff, and compare them to other law firms in our market.  We continually conduct casual interviews with our clients to determine their satisfaction and recommend areas for improvement.  However, the key event was our new chairman’s commitment to branding as part of his vision for leading the law firm into the future.

JN: How did you get started?

JLD: In 2007 we conducted an internal attorney survey, using an online survey tool, to uncover their opinions on the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for the firm. In 2008 we enlisted our marketing firm, OTTO, to conduct personal interviews with 20 select attorneys to dig deeper into their thinking, their personal vision for the firm and their opinions on various management and client service topics.

We began to recognize common themes and threads in what we observed and heard both internally with our staff and externally from clients. Using initial value statements developed by the firm, along with the insight from research and interviews, we arrived at 11 core value statements and a brand promise:  “We Can. And we will.”

JN: What happened next?

JLD: After further refining of the value statements through a newly formed Branding committee which consisted of key attorneys, the Director of Administration, the Marketing Director (me), and our CEO, Bill Van Buren, and with the help of our outside marketing firm, we distilled these 11 core value statements into three easy-to-remember ideals; integrity, stewardship and innovation.   We knew that these core values were important to the future of the firm. During the internal launch of our new brand we formally presented the entire staff with a brand architecture model providing a visual framework for the core values and brand promise.

JN: I understand that the branding campaign wasn’t limited to a new tag line, but also placed a high priority on getting the firm to buy into a new era of service.

JLD: Yes, we believe the core values must adopted by everyone in the firm from the receptionist to IT to secretaries to attorneys.   Each person has a specific and important role to play as they interact with our clients and their peers. So, we implemented GEM-Going the Extra Mile.  The GEM program recognizes staff members who adopt and personify our core values.  Any person can nominate any one in the firm and a prize and certificate are given out monthly to the winner.   Winners are photographed accepting the award and the photo is posted in the firm’s newsletter. The firm also has The Beryl Atkinson Award; given annually, with a generous cash award, to the staff person who exemplifies the firm’s commitment to client service.

JN: What do you consider the highlights of the client service part of your brand initiative?

JLD: Return calls or emails within 24 hours; give feedback and updates to our clients about their cases – sometimes regardless of whether they want them (i.e. Hunter Sims video ); and offer more educational seminars and newsletters for clients with the latest, relevant information for their business.

JN: What were some of your first obstacles?

JLD: Variety and diversity of opinion about what the new brand identity should look like.

JN: What are the ongoing challenges?

JLD: Successful branding can’t be completed and placed on a shelf. We continually look for strategies to reinforce our core values among staff and promote them consistently to our clients through our actions.

JN: How long did it take to get things going and how long did it take to arrive at a point where you felt you achieved your goal?

JLD: Once the momentum started, most people were on board and excited about the prospect of having a unified reason to be the very best law firm we could be for our clients and for future generations. The process took about 12 months.

Thanks Janet.  Visit www.kaufcan.com to see their BRAND new website. Check out the videos tab on the upper right utility bar. They’re some of the best I’ve seen!

Do you have a new brand roll out in your future? Let us know how it’s going…

I just got back from a little trip around the legal blogsphere and I was pretty surprised to find that A LOT of blogs written by lawyers and law professors don’t use Categories. What’s up with that?

Categories help readers navigate your blog.

As a blog reader, a blog without Categories is like a restaurant without a menu. Why lawyer bloggers aren’t including Category menus in their sidebar is a puzzle to me.

Categories are a navigational convention. Readers browsing a well-designed category structure will benefit from the organization and will likely stay on your site longer, read more content, and be more likely to subscribe to a feed.

I’m a big fan of Categories. They help me to efficiently cover a lot of real estate in the least amount of time. ProBlogger recently suggested that blog owners  watch a first time visitor read your blog. It is an interesting exercise that should help you understand what’s important to your readers and why and how they navigate your blog. If you were to watch me visit your blog for the first time this is what you’d see….

After I skim the post I linked to, I will rely on your Categories to learn more about you and your focus. Your Categories will help me to determine if I want to subscribe to your feed. If there are no Categories on your site, you’ll probably lose me as a reader because I will likely scan your blogroll and find something interesting there, and leave your site.

Archives? –Too much trouble. Search? -If I know what I’m looking for, A-OK. Calendars? –Like a box of chocolates, you never know what’s inside. Categories? –essential.

Don’t make me think too hard either.

I don’t want a zillion Categories – why bother. Here’s an example where it looks like  the blogger created a separate category for each blog post.  The Trademark Blog In all fairness, this blog is 7 years old. (WOW!) There is a lot of great content that covers a lot of ground.  However, it’s not a bad thing to retool categories every year.

I want the Category names to be clear, and I want them to be consistent –in tone and style. This eliminates guesswork, enhances my reading experience, and brands the blog in my mind.

I want the Category menu to tell me how many posts are in each category -that helps me to know which Category the blogger is more fluent in or passionate about. For a good example of a category list see Adam Smith, ESQ

Like newspapers have conventions making them easier to read, the best blogs will also follow some well-established conventions. One of those is Categories in a drop down menu on the right sidebar. Takes up less space than a list and is just as easy to use. I like an original and attractive blog face, but not a tricky interface -Category menu is in the right sidebar.

This blog, Crime and Consequences, changed the name Categories to Issues. No big deal, but it tripped me up the first time I visited.

Don’t give me a category that I can’t understand; e.g. Expressions of Cleverness.   Surprises are good when it comes to the prize in a box of cracker jacks, but not when I’m browsing your content and have limited time to do so.

Multi-author blogs sometimes use the Categories feature to separate out each author. Here’s an example: The University of Chicago Law School Faculty blog

A name tells me nothing about what I’m going to find within that Category.  It will probably lead me somewhere that I don’t have time to go so I leave.  I understand the practicality of the organization in the mind of the blog owner, but I personally think this is an ineffective use of Categories.

I don’t mind if you make your Categories into Pages. The Categories then become your primary navigation. It’s becoming more conventional, especially for blogs with very focused content. Using Categories as navigational architecture moves your blog into more of a traditional Web site. It replaces those non-descript  About Us, Practice Areas, Attorneys pages, and so on.

Two good examples of blogs that use Categories as Pages in the top nav bar are  Biker Law blog and Scotusblog.com

Categories, are probably more important to me than to most. (Maybe I’ll add it as a Category!)  The non-use of Categories takes me back to the days when law firm Web sites were new. Their interface just didn’t make it easy for the visitor to find real content.

I know this blog has readers, so what think you? How do you use Categories? Do you think Categories are as important as I do?

For those readers who fall into the small-town-upbringing category….Happy May DAY!

If your law firm Web site has decent architecture and a serviceable content management system, a face-lift or resurfacing may be just enough to get you through till the next generation of the Web hits the market.

If you’re having a tough time convincing yourself or your firm to invest in a face-lift, you’re not alone. Plastic surgeons are also wondering what to do in light of the down turn in elective surgeries.

Here are a few things you might consider to determine if the face-lift investment is right for your law firm:

1. What interactions are prospects having with your Web site?

It’s a fallacy to think that you “get” clients from Web sites. As I stated in Renovations Part I

Engaging someone to quarterback your legal needs is a high involvement purchase. It’s not like purchasing a book download for your Kindle.

Before signing the engagement letter, a prospect will do more than just visit your Web site. People use a variety of sources to find trustworthy information; including that which comes from the lawyers’ own mouths and from those they know, like and trust. Relationships.

There are a number of ways to gather that data.

2. Your can create a specific landing page with a call to action that requires the visitor to fill in a short, simple form. Call to action might be a give away something of value, a white paper, an audit of some sort, public domain cartoons they can use in presentations, anything that compels them to participate. Send them there via traditional marketing tactics; e.g. eNewsletters, advertisements, sponsorship events, etc. Make sure your page is optimized with key words to return high in key word searches and get some action from the general public.

3. Add a few questions in a client feedback form that draws out data about Internet usage and habits. Alternately, during a client interview ask your clients about what they do on the Web? What sites or services do they frequent to get their information? What kind of information do they go to the Web for? Do they read or read and participate. Do they buy stuff? How many hours a week are they on the Web?   It’s a short step from there to understanding the Internet usage of others in their industry that may be viable prospects.

4. Make sure you look at your Web stats a few days after submitting a proposal or going on a sales call. Did they go to your site? What pages did they visit? Did they download anything? Document that data and compare it monthly against client intake forms.

5. Use a service such as OpenTracker that shows you more than just the referring URL which may often be generic. It will convert the computer IP address to the name of the company. Who’s visiting you, what are they doing? How did they get there and WHY?

When you understand who’s visiting and understand what they want to know, you can determine if you should invest in an update to your law firm Web site. Key areas to update are:

1. Content. Reader friendly. Conversational. Benefit driven. Concise. Fresh. Contemporary. Key word rich.

2. Meta data. Title tags and page URL’s should be words, not code.

3. Design look and feel. Modern. Colorful. Clean. Simple. Avoid image cliches and flash.

4. Lots of resources. Content with links. Add blogs. Contact info in the footer of each page. Make it easy to find you. Good site search technology.

You may find that the perceived white elephant is actually a real work horse. Dress it up and you’re off to the races.

Can you add anything else to this list?

More often than not these days, I am speaking with law firms who are interested in renovating their Web sites –getting a face lift or adding search friendly content instead of rebuilding it. Makes sense.

Hey, many law firms and marketers are still skeptical that they “get clients” from their Web sites and hesitate to pour more money into a new one. Frankly, I’m still skeptical that a lawyer “gets” a client from anywhere except from their own wits.

Engaging someone to quarterback your legal needs is a high involvement purchase. It’s not like purchasing a book download for your Kindle. Before signing the engagement letter, a client will likely do a lot more checking on a lawyer than a quick browse of a Web page or two.

I previously blogged about the power of a referral in the development of new business, here.

People use a variety of sources to find trustworthy information prior to engaging a lawyer, including that which comes from the lawyer’s own mouth. Certainly their win/loss record is of interest, and certainly the number of successful deals they’ve done can be convincing.  It’s also pretty certain that you can’t underestimate the touchy feely stuff like presentation, demeanor, tone, and even chemistry.

So, if you think about it, a Web site can actually be a decent proxy for a referral. At the very least, it serves a purpose in the decision chain. I’m almost positive that even if Uncle John, the Mayor of Our Town, or a law school classmate refers a client to your firm, that prospect still does a search of your site to learn more about you.

Why wouldn’t you want that proxy to be as engaging and thorough as it can be? It hedges a solid bet in your direction if it is modern, well-executed, answers the right questions, speaks to the client, and represents your value proposition clearly and accurately without cliches.

Often these touch ups do not require an extreme make over. But, it is not a simple project either. It may cost less cash, but takes more staff and attorney time to get the messaging right and adjust the look and feel to the improved content.

If you’ve got decent architecture and a serviceable content management system, a face-lift or resurfacing may be just enough to get you through till the next generation of technology hits the Web.

There are more hidden gems in that pile of Web code sitting on your server. It just takes focus and creativity to make gems into valuable jewels.

I plan to write a follow-on post with suggestions on how to convince your firm to invest in the face-lift. Stay tuned.