June 1, 2018

Optimize Your Law Firm Ranking with Eye-Catching Visual Content

Websites are more than your information on demand, they are a marketing tool that allows current, past, and prospective clients to gather information, make contact in seconds, and provide feedback for your legal services.

Each year, websites evolve and become a true part of your law firm’s makeup. In the online world, content is — and always will be — the ruler of rankings. Content dictates how you are found, and by whom, as its website design and substance contribute highly to search engine optimization. Simply put, the better the content, the easier it will be to separate your firm from the masses. In today’s online world, content means more than excellent, SEO-focused writing. Content is all-encompassing and includes each item added to your website, blogs, landing pages, and beyond. Content is information. And information is exactly what your online searchers seek. Here are a few tips on standing apart from the legal crowd.

Content Diversity is Rewarded with Higher Rankings

No matter which search engine an individual is using, the algorithms behind the scenes will reward sites using diverse content with a higher ranking. Content is more than words, although great, purposeful writing is still a major factor. Content is the whole of your firm’s online composition. This can include:

• Infographics
• Data-driven visuals
• Photos
• Illustrations
• Screenshots
• Slide Share Presentations
• Embedded Maps
• Videos

When Google crawls the web for search engine results, the more diverse your content, the better ranking you will receive, as each component is awarded a different value. When prospective clients are searching for an attorney, their position must be on the first page. And combining visual effects into the site will create a tremendous boost that sustains.

Infographics & Data-driven Visuals

Law firms have more data-driven information to share than realized. Imagine each of your cases’ victories, monetary awards, and successes put forth in an infographic, instead of through text alone. The success of infographics and data-driven visuals is compelling, and enhances your reach, as they:

• Grab the reader’s attention
• Simplify communication
• Deliver attractive and compelling displays of information
• Answer legal-related questions instantly
• Demonstrate attorney expertise
• Boost credibility
• Drive traffic to the site

• Liked and shared through social media 3X more than any other type of content

Photos and Illustrations

Photos and illustrations are commonplace on websites, and certainly shouldn’t be overlooked when adding an original blog, practice area page, city page, or supporting page. Here’s why:

• Over 90% of the information that is transmitted to the brain is visual
• 40% of people respond faster (and better!) to an image than they do 1,000 words of text
• Visual images are processed 60,000 times faster than text
• Websites with images receive 94% more page views than online text content alone
• Images may appear in search engine results, serving as an immediate attention grabber
• Increases local search engine optimization

When adding photos or illustrations to your website, there are a few guidelines to improve your results while maintaining ownership of the content.

• Only use images that your law firm has purchased or own outright
• Research free images found online to ensure they are not being used by other law firms
• Ensure clarity by cropping the images to project informative, relevant value
• Create a photo credit for photos you own, so they are not used by others without your firm’s permission

Screenshots & LinkedIn SlideShare Presentations

Often, screenshots and informative visual platforms are overlooked, simply because the value of their use is unknown. Screenshots can provide a wealth of information to online viewers, simply by displaying exact and direct instructions. Attorneys can visually walk clients through a process, whether it is instructions on how to leave a review or testimonial to express their happiness with the firm, or how to upload documents for the attorney to review.

• The visual aspect of providing clients with screenshots leaves little room for error

In addition, LinkedIn’s SlideShare is becoming a monstrous online entity of its own, allowing firms to upload presentations, documents, and infographics through a completely visual platform that touts:

• 60 million unique visitors per month
• Among the top 120 most-visited websites globally
• Lead generating success

The online success associated with SlideShare also provides a credible backlink to your firm’s website, ensuring its existence is picked up by search engine web crawlers.

Embedded Maps

Chances are, your legal team is already a member of Google My Business, and benefit from the Google Maps that accompany the registration. The boost of having your location available at a glance online is only second to having a map or maps if there is more than one location, embedded on your website. The embedded map delivers:

• Free and effective local lawyer marketing for prospective clients in and around your area
• Local attorney search engine optimization through proximity and reviews
• Instant access to the law firm’s hours of operation and directions to each location
• Immediate contact buttons through talk, text, email, and social media to gain access to available lawyers

Video, Video, and More Video

When it comes to video content on your website, the importance of its inclusion cannot be overstated. The statistics and online engagement speak for themselves:

• Within two years, online videos will comprise more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic
• One minute of video is worth 1.8 million words
• Blog posts with video attract inbound links three times that of posts without video
• Video on landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%
• Companies that use videos in their marketing have:
  • 27% higher clickthrough rate
  • 34% higher conversion rates
• Viewers remember 95% of a video’s message; Only 10% of a message in the text
• 78% of people watch online videos every week; 55% every day

What Does This Mean to Your Local Exposure?

The short answer is everything. The Local Search Association (LSA) released the results of a study of those who search and buy local products and services online and found that:

• Local searchers reported viewing an online video while searching for services or products 44% of the time, of those people:
  • 33% visited the local business in person
  • 51% visited the local business’s website
  • 51% of those people moved forward with their hiring action on the same day 
  • 53% of these viewers contacted that local business after viewing their video online
• 67% of those studied did not have a business or service provider in mind when they began their local search
• 71% of those people ultimately made a local purchase or hired a local service related to the video they watched online

 

What Type of Video Content Should Attorneys Create?

Your law firm has specialized practice areas where you and your staff are legal experts. Begin your video production approach by creating a list of topics that help you stand out from other firms in your area. These topics can include:

• Introduction to the law firm, partners, associate lawyers, and legal support staff
• Image boosting videos regarding new attorney hires and accolades
• Victories through mediation or courtroom verdicts
• Local legal issues plaguing the community, and your solutions
• Hot topics in the local or national news
• Testimonials from legal clients who share their experiences with the firm
• Instructional videos on how to proceed with a legal claim in your respective practice areas
• Legal solutions and practice procedures for clients

The goal is to create informative content that is concise, relevant, and shareable.

Allow Visual Content to Participate in Your Growth: Share on Social Media Platforms

Statistics do not lie. Social media is, or should be, an important marketing tool for your business. Fortunately, increasing your visual content can provide easily shareable social media updates for not only your target audience to see, but for the search engines to crawl. Each time you create and apply a new image, infographics, presentation, or video to your website, share the visual content on your social media platforms. These platforms can include:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Pinterest
• Snapchat
• Tumblr
• YouTube

Here’s why:

• A social media post accompanied by an image is ten times more likely to be engaged
• Facebook posts that include images will receive 2.3 times more engagement than a post without
• Organic engagement on Facebook is higher when the post includes videos
• Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets
• 74% of marketers on social media include visuals content in their posts
• Articles featuring an image every 75-100 words earned double the number of social media shares as articles with fewer images
• Video content is responsible for 71% of all internet traffic

Conclusion: Visual Content is a Direct Contributor to Online Conversion Rates  

It is important to understand that visual content is pertinent to how your law firm is found, contacted, and converts prospective clients to actual caseloads. Each person who searches for an attorney can provide a boost to your bottom line, no matter the size of their case. The customer’s journey to your door, and their experience thereafter, will set you apart from competing attorneys in your area. And visual content is going to be a large part of their initial search results. It isn’t necessary to hire a production firm to create images or videos for your online applications. With access to high-resolution cameras and video recording devices, infographic tools, and online slide share platforms, the costs are contained, and the results are easily shareable. Consider topics that deliver useful and relevant information to your audience and make a list of the items you would like to expand on in a visual capacity. Need help? Contact the Attorney Marketing Network for a nudge in the right direction and learn how to expand your law firm’s online reach without breaking the bank.