Frequently Asked Questions

For digital marketing suggestions personalized to your practice, contact Travis Hise at 714-918-1848
or thise@jamespublishing.com.

1. What next steps do you recommend if I have only a modest digital presence?
2. I am an active digital marketer. What can I do to enhance my results?
3. I practice in a large and competitive city. How can I move my website to Google page one?
4. I have claimed my Google Places listing but do not appear on page one. How can I improve my position?
5. Do you have any content writing suggestions for me?
6. Any parting advice?

1. What next steps do you recommend if I have only a modest digital presence?

• WEBSITE. Make sure your site has a call to action. Placing a submission form and prominent phone number in the upper right corner will help.
• CONTACTS. Collect email and physical addresses from everyone you come into contact with and stay in touch with them. You want to be top of mind when someone asks if they know a good lawyer.
• PAGE POSITION. Your website needs keyworded content to obtain decent page position on Google. Write or obtain a regular flow of articles (more on this below in #5).
• GOOGLE PLACES. Claim your listing!  It is the fastest and easiest route to appearing prominently on Google page one.

2. I am an active digital marketer. What can I do to enhance my results?

• Are you reaching out to your contact list regularly? If you are only using email to do so, add postal mailings to at least your best prospects and referrers.
• Have you optimized your website by cause of action and fact pattern? The more specific and numerous your articles and targeted keywords, the more on-target traffic your site will pull.
• Do you have more than one website? The more aggressive and successful digital marketers have several. Target your larger or desired niches with focused websites instead of trying to have one website serve them all.

3. I practice in a large and competitive city. How can I move my website to Google page one?

• Creating inbound links and keyworded articles are the keys to success. Both quantity and quality count.
• Remember that the battle is fought one keyword phrase at a time. To chalk up some small successes, aim at long-tail keywords with less competition.
• Your inbound links should come from websites with a variety of PageRanks. Not all of these should connect to your home page; some should be to interior pages. The links should use your targeted keywords in their anchor text. Growth in the number of links should come steadily rather than a lot at once.
• New articles should also flow regularly, contain targeted keywords in the headline and first and last paragraphs, number 400-500 words, and answer common client questions.

4. I have claimed my Google Places listing but do not appear on page one. How can I improve my position?

• Optimizing for Places is different than optimizing for organic page position. Creating consistent citations across dozens of directories is the key to success.
• Longevity counts, so keep building consistent directory listings and give the process time to work.

5. Do you have any content writing suggestions for me?

• Research keywords before writing. Google’s Keyword Tool will tell which phrases in your practice niche are most commonly searched.
• Place the target keywords in your headline and first and last paragraphs, writing naturally as possible.
• Draft several short (400-500 words) articles rather one or two long pieces. Use a different keyword phrase in each article.
• Write regularly. Set a schedule, say one article every two weeks, and meet it. The attorney who sticks with a regular writing schedule is very difficult to beat at web marketing.

6. Any parting advice?

• Stick with it. The slow but steady tortoise beats the sprinting then resting hare every time in web marketing.
• If you are unable to regularly carve out time for digital marketing and keeping up with its twists and turns, consider hiring a pro to handle it for you.
• Don’t procrastinate. Google rewards longevity, so the earlier you get started, the better your odds of success.

We offer a series of educational emails for attorneys who want to learn more about digital marketing.  Email mmargol@jamespublishing.com to be added to the list. No pressure; just helpful information.