Now that 2012 is winding down, even more attorneys are learning how to use Facebook for marketing.  The most recent ABA Legal Technology Survey Report indicates that about 55 percent of law firms are using Facebook for marketing, with more joining the social media website every day.  It doesn't have to be difficult to learn how to market on Facebook.  Especially if you already have a personal Facebook page, using Facebook for marketing is just an extension of what you already know.  Here are a few tips to get you started.

How to Use Facebook For Marketing, Tip #1: The Personal and the Professional

Solo practitioners have been some of the biggest adopters of blogging technologies, so these lawyers may be most eager to learn how to market on Facebook as well.  However, if you're a solo practitioner, you need to exercise caution with social media.  

It is never—never!—a good idea to start using Facebook for marketing on a personal page, rather than a fan page or a group page.  Keeping your personal and professional lives separate is critical if you want to know how to market on Facebook.  If your great aunt is posting about her gallbladder surgery, your college roommate is posting a picture of you with red Solo cups from your partying days, and your angry brother in law won't stop talking politics on your wall, you won't be putting your best marketing foot forward.

Instead, take the extra time to create a Facebook fan page, even if you're all on your own at your law office.  It'll be easier to learn how to market on Facebook when you're working exclusively with posts about your professional life.

How to Use Facebook For Marketing, Tip #2: Check the News

A great way to engage with your readers, especially if you want to know how to market on Facebook locally, is to discuss news articles on your feed.  Local, regional, and state news that is relevant to your users will often bring in comments and likes.

When you're using Facebook for marketing, you should try not to just link stories but also to provide at least some level of commentary.  You're not really learning how to market on Facebook if you're not adding your own content as well as posting the content of others.

If you are a blogger, it's even easier to learn how to use Facebook for marketing in conjunction with news links.  Whenever you make a blog entry about a local news story, you can just link it with an attention-grabbing headline—suddenly, you're using Facebook for marketing without needing to do much beyond just writing the blog entry.

How to Use Facebook For Marketing, Tip #3: Start a Poll

Professionals who know how to market on Facebook know that readers tend to be more engaged when you ask questions and start conversations.  That's why you should learn how to use Facebook for marketing polls.  Polls can not only give you a fun way to engage an audience, but also help you learn better how to market on Facebook.

You don't just need to ask questions about legal issues when using Facebook for marketing polls.  Consider polling your existing fan base about three or four different potential advertisements, and see which one they like best.  

How to Use Facebook For Marketing, Tip #4: Dispel Misconceptions

Another great way to engage with your audience is to start using Facebook for marketing to get rid of the misconceptions that people come to your law office with.  Do you find that people often come to your law offices with little idea of what really goes into cases like the ones you handle?  Do you often see people repeating a piece of “folk wisdom” that could get them into big trouble in the courtroom or during a traffic stop?  Get writing!

Not only is dispelling misconceptions a great way of using Facebook for marketing, it's also a good way to educate your local community.  When you think of how to market on Facebook with these kinds of posts, make sure that you're not in any way talking down to your audience.  No matter how much you know about how to use Facebook for marketing, you'll never succeed if your audience feels condescended to.

How to Use Facebook For Marketing, Tip #5: Schedule Your Posts and Pinned Posts

Recently, using Facebook for marketing has actually gotten somewhat easier because of Facebook's new “timeline” feature.  While this feature was slow to roll out and is somewhat tougher to read, it's also better for lawyers who are trying to figure out how to market on Facebook.

Why?  Because now you can “pin” a most important post when you're using Facebook for marketing.  Pinned posts last up to seven days, so you can pin something new to show at the top of your Facebook page once a week or more.

When you're learning how to market on Facebook, you should also start scheduling your posts.  You can click the clock icon on the lower left of the posting window.  As you continue learning how to use Facebook for marketing, odds are you'll find out that some times of day are more likely to lead to posts being liked, shared, and commented on.  Schedule your posts for those times and you'll have the best luck with using Facebook for marketing.

How to Use Facebook For Marketing, Tip #6: Reconnect!

Building your social network with Facebook can be a great way to get new clients.  No discussion of how to use Facebook for marketing would be complete without telling you to regularly check your personal contacts and add them to your list of friends.  Some of the best marketing on Facebook can actually be targeted at people who are your fans and friends.

You never know who a client lead will come from.  Making sure that you're connected to your old friends and that they know about your professional page as well as your personal one can help you get new business quickly.

Everything About Facebook Advertising Revenue

Facebook advertising revenues have been steadily increasing ever since the website began implementing ads in 2006.  Today Facebook has over 845 million users, and those users have created an advertising behemoth: currently, Facebook advertising revenue figures are around $3.15 billion per year.  Keep reading to find out more staggering figures about Facebook advertising revenues and how you can make your ads work for you without costing an arm and a leg.

Recent Controversies and Their Effect on Facebook Advertising Revenue

Earlier in 2012, Facebook advertising revenues suffered something of a setback when the company settled a class action civil suit.  The suit pertained to “sponsored stories” appearing in people's news feeds and using photographs of people who had not given explicit permission for their photo to be commercialized in this way.

In spite of having to pay millions of dollars because of the class action suit, overall Facebook advertising revenues are up.  The site currently takes in about $10 of Facebook advertising revenue per user in the United States and Canada, and slightly less than that in other regions globally.

Although some big players have withdrawn their support for Facebook advertising after seeing less than ideal results, this has had little impact on overall Facebook advertising revenues.  Overall, Facebook advertising revenue has actually gone up even as click through rates (CTRs) have declined by about 8 percent over the last year.

Is Facebook Advertising Revenue Really Worth the Time?

Since you now have to pay more to get less, are the Facebook advertising revenues your firm could get really worth it?  You have to ask yourself these questions more and more, particularly if you're not able to see a direct stream of Facebook advertising revenue for your company in the current economy.

Remember that your Facebook advertising revenues may not all be obvious.  Not every client who researches your firm using your Facebook page or by looking at who “likes” you will let you know during their consultation visit.  

The effects of Facebook can be very subtle, and it's best to try to track Facebook advertising revenue from all sources, even if some of that revenue comes from clients who didn't click your direct ads.  Visibility and reach are key to expanding your practice, and you can't necessarily put an easy price tag on building an engaging web presence.

What Law Firms Will See the Biggest Facebook Advertising Revenues?

Before you decide on an advertising budget for your new campaign, you need to ask yourself how much Facebook is really worth to your law firm.  For some types of firms that market primarily to other professionals, Facebook advertising revenues may be minimal compared to what you could bring in using LinkedIn for more professional networking.

If, on the other hand, your law firm's advertising strategies usually rely on B2C marketing, you'll be much more at home on Facebook.  Firms that fulfill the needs of very specific demographics and know what their niche markets look like can do better on Facebook than general practitioners.  If you think that you do most of your business with a particular age group or people with some shared interest, you can make that work for effective, targeted ads that will deliver the best value per click and make your Facebook advertising revenues grow steadily.

How Can I Increase My Facebook Advertising Revenue?

Facebook advertising revenue is likely to be highest for firms that can leverage sponsored stories to their advantage and use landing pages.  Just making these two changes can vastly increase your conversions and overall Facebook advertising revenues.

Landing pages work for any kind of direct pay per click ad, but if you want to have real Facebook advertising revenue with your campaigns, you'll definitely need them to grab social media traffic.  People today want to be able to get through websites and find the information they want quickly.  

If you don't direct visitors to a relevant landing page, you'll be losing out on a lot of traffic and it won't matter what you bid for your clicks—people won't stay long enough to find out that you're a great law firm with great things to offer.  People decide whether they want to talk to you within the first ten seconds of reading the first page they're directed to on your website.  Without landing pages, that first ten seconds will be confusing and potentially frustrating.

The Future of Facebook Advertising Revenues: Mobile Advertising

As of summer 2012, only about half of advertisers are adding to their Facebook advertising revenue by running sponsored stories.  These stories appear in a person's news feed, in the same place where a status update from a friend or a link shared by a colleague might be.  This high-visibility placement is especially effective for generating higher Facebook advertising revenues when you're posting frequently to a blog and can turn those entries into a constant stream of fresh sponsored stories.

If you're not currently optimizing your Facebook ads for mobile marketing, you're missing out on the most lucrative source of Facebook advertising revenue.  Studies have shown that these ads can be up to 11 times more likely to generate click throughs than ads in a desktop browser.

How Can I Tell If I'm Getting a Good Return on Investment?

One of the best ways to tell if your Facebook marketing efforts have really been turning into Facebook advertising revenues is to ask clients to fill out comment cards.  On these comment cards, you can ask where someone researched your firm before deciding to use you as a lawyer.  This way, you'll find out about clients who saw your professional presence on Facebook and used it in their decision-making process.

You may want to ask an outside analytics company to analyze your results if you want to maximize your return on investment and have already tried all of these strategies to increase your Facebook advertising revenues.  The problem with your Facebook advertising revenue stream may be something unusual, and a professional web traffic analyst can help you get your revenues back where you want them from your Facebook pages.

Everything About Facebook Advertising Rates

The most recent Facebook advertising statistics are astonishing: over $5 billion is projected to be spent by businesses on Facebook advertising this year alone.  Perhaps more exciting than this figure is the change from Facebook advertising rates just a few years ago: today's revenues are six times greater than in 2009.  Keep reading this guide to find out more Facebook advertising statistics that can help you evaluate Facebook advertising effectiveness for your firm.

Why Would I Want to Advertise on Facebook?

According to Facebook advertising statistics, the reason that 61 percent of companies buy Facebook advertising is to increase awareness of their brand.  53 percent of companies pay Facebook advertising rates because they want to grow their audience, while just under half—44 percent—use it for direct conversions.

What these Facebook advertising statistics mean is that you don't necessarily need to get direct client referrals from social media in order to measure your Facebook advertising effectiveness.  Even if your Facebook presence is just great for increasing your number of inbound links and helping your search engine optimization, it's doing something great for your firm and you may still want to pay Facebook advertising rates.

One reason to advertise on Facebook, in particular, is that it gives you great tools for targeting your ads.  It's easy to increase Facebook advertising effectiveness by changing the hyper focused demographics that can see your ad copy.

Unlike Google AdWords, you won't have to pay different Facebook advertising rates depending on which keywords you want to advertise.  Instead, you can choose to increase your Facebook advertising effectiveness by picking the exact groups of people most likely to need your legal services.  

Facebook advertising statistics show that the most common criteria for targeting ads are age, location, interests, and connections.  It may surprise you to learn that for most advertisers, Facebook advertising effectiveness is not impacted by gender targeting.  Some attorneys may want to target a specific gender (for instance, child custody attorneys who specialize in father's rights issues), but most have better luck talking to men and women equally.

Some Facebook Advertising Statistics You Need to Know

You can improve your Facebook advertising effectiveness by doing things your competition hasn't yet picked up on.  For example, Facebook advertising rates for targeting specific zip codes can sometimes be significantly cheaper than targeting a broader geographic area, according to recent Facebook advertising statistics.  If your firm works primarily with people from just a few local zip codes, this level of hyper local targeting is statistically likely to be more effective for your advertising.

One place that many advertisers are now falling short is targeting based on connections.  Facebook advertising effectiveness actually increases when you target it toward your fans or the friends of your fans.  It's much more likely that paying Facebook advertising rates will be worth your firm's budget if you are targeting this group—but Facebook advertising statistics show that only about a third of advertisers are even bothering.  Get ahead of the competition by being the first in your area to use this kind of marketing.

Getting Help: Software That Can Make Targeting Easier

According to 2012 Facebook advertising statistics, today only about 15 percent of professionals paying Facebook advertising rates are actually using outside software to help them improve their Facebook advertising effectiveness.  You can install several different tools that will let you take a closer look at how you can generate more narrow audiences based on locations, connections, and demographic features.

Because it's unlikely that your competition is also using this kind of software, you can improve your chances of Facebook advertising effectiveness really simply this way.  You'll usually find that it takes much less time to set up a new split test or otherwise measure the performance of your ads when you're able to use automated targeting to take some of the guesswork out.

Agencies can also help you design split tests and figure out the answers to targeting dilemmas.  While 2/3 of advertisers currently report looking at split tests to decide which ads to run, most are only analyzing their targeting or their ad copy.  Few are even looking at their landing pages to determine whether a particular landing page is impacting how people interact with their website.

A Word About Facebook Advertising Effectiveness

If it isn't new, it's not trending on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites.  Facebook advertising statistics show that Facebook advertising effectiveness is highest during the first 72 hours you're running a new ad.  That means that you should be constantly cycling through new images and text, and targeting your advertisements at different demographics.

If you're waiting for a week or longer to change your ad copy, you're paying Facebook advertising rates for nothing.  Changing your copy can have a near-immediate impact on your Facebook advertising effectiveness, and because ad headlines on Facebook are so short it doesn't need to take a long time to make new effective copy.   

Because the life cycle of a Facebook ad can be a matter of just days, you should also feel free to pull underperforming ads quickly rather than seeing if they'll pick up speed—Facebook advertising statistics show that you're better off just using something new.

Should I Be Afraid of Rising Facebook Advertising Rates?

Facebook advertising statistics definitely show that as of now, Facebook advertising rates are increasing.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, though, because new types of targeted ads are actually making Facebook advertising effectiveness increase too.

Today's Facebook advertising statistics indicate that while it may cost about 50 percent more on a per-impression basis to use mobile sponsored stories than to get an ad into someone's sidebar, they're over 11 times more likely to be clicked on.  11 times—that's a huge increase in Facebook advertising effectiveness, and all for making a relatively small change.

To capitalize on these trends, you'll need to make your landing pages mobile friendly.  If you make your telephone number easily accessible, the easiest way to see your Facebook ads paying off may be watching your lines light up as new clients start calling your office based on mobile advertising.

Web Analytics Tools for Social Networking

Do I need a Web Analytics Tool for Social Media?

If you’re an attorney and you haven’t marketed your services through social networking, it’s likely that you’re behind your competitors in your area.  Some web analytics tools offered by Google and Yahoo can indirectly measure the results social media had on visitors to your main website, but you should consider a web analytics tool that measures your social media sites directly. 

Free Web Analytics Tools for Social Networking and Law Firms

1. Social Mention

This web analytics tool allows you to search results in real-time for social media websites.  The web analytic tools allow you to establish alerts for keywords or your firm’s name and then receive daily emails telling you the number of people tracking you through social media.  You can also download a widget to receive alerts in real-time, but the website recommends that you rely on email alerts to track your results over a period of time. 

2. Twazzup

 This web analytics tool is easy to use and is much simpler to use compared to most web analytics tools.  You do not have to download any software to your computer, and you can type in keywords (such as your firm’s name) to see what people are saying about your services on Twitter.  The web analytic tools offered by Twazzup also allow you to search for what people are saying about your services on other websites and blogs. 

3. Addict-o-matic

The web analytics tools offered by this service are considered some of the best for monitoring social media websites.  This web analytics tool allows you to monitor results on Twitter, Flickr, Bing, Google Blog Search, WordPress, YouTube, and many more.  The web analytic tools are easy to use and you can see what social media websites are talking about the services of your firm.

4. HowSociable

The web analytics tools offered by this service allow you to measure results on some of the most popular social networking websites available today.  The web analytics tool allows you to measure results on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, and numerous other websites.  The web analytic tools give you a visibility score that allows you to measure your firm’s performance and brand awareness.  The results are sent through email alerts.

As mentioned above, a large percentage of social networking websites offer their own unique web analytics tools.  Some of these web analytic tools are easy to use and can measure multiple results, but by using any web analytics tool above or below, you can measure results from multiple websites at a time. 

Web Analytics Tools for Social Networking with a Price

1. Scout Labs

This web analytics tool offers a free 14 day trial before you officially sign up.  The web analytics tools offered by this service allow you to easily track your advertising campaigns and those of your competition throughout several different social media websites. 

2. HootSuite

 The web analytic tools offered by this service are offered in a free version and a paid version, and you can try the paid version for a whole month before deciding which version is best for your firm.  The web analytics tool allows you to evaluate the performance of your advertising campaign through multiple social media websites, and you can also monitor comments about your services with the web analytics tools as well. 

3. Trackur

The web analytic tools offered by this service also come in a free and paid version.  The web analytics tool only charges about $18 per month and—according to a large percentage of reviews across the internet—stands as one of the best web analytics tools for monitoring social media websites.  You only have to pay for the web analytic tools you choose to use with the service, and the company prides itself with its simple design and user-friendly tools. 

4. BrandsEye

The web analytic tools offered by BrandsEye offer starting packages as low as $1 per month for legal bloggers and increases prices for packages that are offered to businesses and firms.  The web analytics tool is considered one of the best on the internet for monitoring the reputation of your brand, which can prove extremely beneficial to your firm if you’re advertising across several different social media websites. 

The web analytics tools offered by this service allow you to search various websites on the internet and the service provides an overall score determined by what people are saying about your brand and services.  By using the score and web analytic tools, you can make adjustments to your advertising campaign and measure the results with your score over a period of time.

5. Radian6

Even though this web analytics tool is one of the more expensive social media tracking services offered on the internet, it’s also considered one of the best.  The web analytics tools provide a dashboard for you to track multiple websites at one time and there are also professional web analytics tools. 

For example, you can use Radian6 to examine multiple case studies across several different social networking websites, and you can also review e-books and other services to help your advertising campaign. 

Conclusion

You should check out several different web analytics tools before you decide what service is best for your firm.  You might consider choosing a free web analytics tool before pursuing options that require a monthly fee so you can get adjusted.  Many firms hire outside help to manage an advertising campaign across social media websites, but you’ll have to decide whether you have the time and motivation to pursue such a campaign by yourself. 

Comprehensive Guide to CPM Rates, SEO, and Social Media

What is a CPM Rate?

CPM rates can work in two different ways.  For one, a website that hosts advertisements for other websites can calculate an average CPM to see how much revenue the entire website is making from advertisements compared to the amount of visitors to the website. 

Additionally, an attorney or firm can conduct an average CPM (cost per 100 impressions) for the amount they spent on the advertisement compared to how many customers the advertisements have brought in and added profit to the firm. 

Clickthroughs and a CPM Rate

An attorney or firm can use two different equations to figure out an average CPM.  A website that posts advertisements for the attorney or firm only needs to use one equation because they do not need to adjust their ROI (return on investment) before figuring out a CPM rates.  If an attorney or firm wants to figure out a CPM rate, they first need to figure out the ROI for the advertising campaign.  This is simply done by subtracting the costs from the revenue generated by the website. 

Then, the firm can calculate their own CPM rates using the following equation:

Total site revenue / total site page views X 1,000= Average CPM

Just like a website that provides advertisements, a firm will also want a low CPM rate so they can spend a low amount on advertising but yield a high profit margin from the advertisements.  There are certain ways that a firm can lower their average CPM, and suggestions are provided in the following sections:

Ways to Decrease a CPM Rate

A CPM advertisement is usually used for brand exposure, but there are ways to use a CPM advertisement and increase web traffic to an attorney’s website.  The most important factors include the structure marketing of the advertisement and the information located on the website as well as other SEO techniques.  According to a survey performed by MarketingSherpa in April of 2011, the following initiatives were proven effective or ineffective for SEO:

As indicated from the graph above, the best way to decrease your average CPM and bring more consumers to  your website through a CPM advertisement is by offering great content, title tags, landing pages, and the URL structure.  The graph also indicates that CPM rates can be reduced through social media, but a large percentage of the social media category only states the initiative can somewhat decrease a CPM rate. 

The rest of this article will argue how the right advertisement on social networking websites like Facebook can increase SEO and reduce your average CPM over a period of time. 

Lowering your CPM Rates with Social Media

By using the right types of advertisements on Facebook and social media, your CPM rate can drop and you can bring more traffic to your website.  The following considerations can help with your average CPM:

1.       Ad copy: test how consumers are responding to your ad by asking them to “Like” the ad if they believe it is working well.

2.       Image: try out several different images to see which advertisement will work the best.  You might find that different images work better

for certain demographics that could potentially improve your CPM rate.

3.       Interest groups: see what types of interest groups are liking your advertisement and thus helping your CPM rates.  You shouldn’t try to target interest groups that do not respond regularly.

4.       Groups within groups: once you’ve found which types of interest groups like the advertisement and helping your average CPM, try splitting the group up into different categories so you can adjust your ad or create several ads.

Select the Option for the CPM Campaign

Facebook allows you to select a CPC or a CPM for your advertising campaign, and you can indicate how much you’re willing to pay per 1000 impressions.  After you’ve set up your campaign, you’ll have to monitor your click through rates and adjust your advertisement for the best CPM rates. 

Your CTR will undoubtedly decrease over time, and you’ll be required to adjust your advertisement to help your CPM rate. 

Calculate a Cost per Fan Figure

In order to calculate a cost per fan rate, you’ll calculate like you do for your average CPM.  Once you see how the cost per fan number compares to your actual CPM rate, it’s likely that you have more fans that actual customers so the number for the cost per fan will likely be lower than the your actual CPM rates.  If this is the case, you should take steps to close the gap between the fan number and your average CPM. 

Bidding Higher will Get your Ads Approved Faster

The technique may seem obvious to help your average CPM, but Facebook knows which attorneys are willing to pay more for an advertisement.  The trick to getting your advertisement approved more quickly is setting your bidding rate high at first.  Once your advertisement is approved, you can lower your bidding rate to a lower price.  The faster you have an advertisement up, the faster you can check your CPM rate and make any necessary changes to help your average CPM. 

Conclusion for CPM Rates

Many of the tips provided in this article for CPM rates apply to advertisements outside of social networking as well.  The trick is getting your advertisement to appear as a useful piece of information that relates to a large group of the public.  If you need more information on your CPM rate, you should consider the article on this website titled, “Essential Information on Cost per Impression Rates.” 

Tips, Formats, and Statistics on Mobile Display Advertising

Statistics Relating to Mobile Display Advertising

According to Yahoo, advertising displays on mobile phones is expected to increase by 25% in 2012 alone.  Additionally, the following statistics released by Google reflect the increasing need for attorneys to adjust their advertising display for mobile devices:

·         81% of smartphone users use the internet on their mobile device

·         59% of smartphone users access the internet when they are waiting

·         72% use their smartphones while using other types of media such as television, music, books, etc.

Law Firms and Local Content

Local content is extremely important in mobile display advertising.  For example, the following graph shows actions that consumers took after looking up a local content on their smartphone:

Different Types of Advertising Display Advertisements for Mobile Devices

The following types of mobile display advertising are offered by Google Mobile Ads:

1. Interactive Video Ads

This type of mobile display advertising is displayed to users when they launch apps and click on certain banners.  Google recommends using this type of advertising display because you can mix video and audio content in order to draw in more clients.  Legal interactive video ads appear mainly on Android and iOS apps.

2. Interstitials Ads

These types of ads appear within an app and occur when there are breaks within the app.  Google recommends using this type of advertising display for the following reasons:

·         this type of mobile display advertising attract more customers than text or image ads

·         the places are eye-catching and offer great results to for websites

3. Canvas and Expandable Ads

This type of mobile display advertising is started by the user, and once they click on the ad, it expands to cover the entire screen.  Google recommends using this type of advertising display because rich media displays like this type are much attractive to potential clients.

4. Tablet Image Banners

This type of mobile display advertising is used exclusively on tablets.  Google recommends this type of advertising display for the following reasons:

·         those using tablets engage more in graphical and image ads rather than text ads

·         research shows that in 2010, twice as many users clicked on image ads on an iPad than on standard ads

5. Static and Multi-Panel Banners

These types of mobile display advertising are available on smartphones, simple phones, tablets, and more.  Google recommends using these types of advertising display platforms because banners are cost effective and can often increase brand awareness for your firm. 

6. Click-to-Download App Ads

This type of mobile display advertising is a text or banner ad that provides a link to the app store for your app.  Google recommends using this type of advertising display because it provides consumers an easy way to travel to the App Store and download the app for your legal services.

7. InStream Video Ads (YouTube)

Google recommends this type of mobile display advertising for Android users.  The InStream video will run when the Android users play a video.  Google recommends this type of advertising display because it can increase brand awareness. 

8. Brand Channels (YouTube)

Google recommends this type of mobile display advertising for both Android and iOS users.  You can run your advertisements on a certain channel, and Google recommends this type of advertising display to increase brand awareness to consumers on varying degrees of mobile devices. 

Tips for your Mobile Display Advertising Campaign

Google recommends a several tips that can increase sales, improve results, make keyword lists more relevant to your services, and get you more leads.  Consider the following tips for your advertising display:

Tip # 1 Build a Mobile Site to Increase Business through Mobile Devices

If clients arrive at your firm’s website and it’s adapted for mobile devices, they are much more likely to engage with the website on their phone.  According to research release by Google, 57% of consumers wouldn’t recommend a business that had a poor mobile site. 

A good mobile website for mobile display advertising allows users to navigate without pinching or zooming, and the text should be visible at arm’s length.  Google recommends that you visit www.howtogomo.com to test your firm’s website and advertising display.  You will receive recommendations on how to improve the site, and you can find developers to build the website and the advertising display. 

Tip #2 Create Separate Mobile Campaigns

Google recommends that you create several different mobile display advertising campaigns that will only target mobile devices.  Google also recommends that you create an AdWords campaign along with your mobile display advertising campaign.  Google states that a mobile display advertising campaign can do the following:

·         create a mobile call-to-action that can help your services appeal to more mobile users

·         find the keywords that work best on mobile devices compared to those on desktop computers

Tip #3 Build User Friendly Keyword Lists

Google recommends that you create keyword lists that are shorter than normal for your mobile display advertising campaign.  For example, while searching on a smart phone, clients may be much more likely to type in a short keyword phrase like “divorce attorney Vegas NV” instead of “divorce attorneys in Las Vegas Nevada”. 

Tip #4 Use Click-to-Call Ads

Perhaps one of the most important recommendations for your mobile display advertising campaign from Google is to use Click-to-call ads in order to receive more leads.  If a consumer can speak with someone before receiving services, they are much more likely to use your services.  Google offers the following benefits of using click-to-call ads in mobile advertising:

·         click-to-call advertising display is responsible in a 6-8% increase in click through rates

·         a click-to-call costs the same a click ad to the website

·         these ads allow the firm to see how many calls they’ve received from each keyword

Conclusion

By using the tips and different types of mobile display advertising listed above, you can begin to launch a successful campaign.  You should also consider combining different types of search ads into your campaign. 

Everything About SEO Blog

Today, only about 12 percent of lawyers in small firms are using the single best tool for getting your firm's name into search engine results: SEO blogs.  If you're not yet doing blog SEO for your firm, you are missing out on new business and a way to really make your firm stand out from your competition.

How is Blog SEO Changing?

When search engines were first developed, they looked largely at how often a keyword was repeated in a web page to decide where to put a page in search rankings, leading to the rise of SEO blogs.  However, after some time, SEO blog spam—often computer generated—was coming up in search results ahead of genuine, interesting material.  

So the engineers working for Google, Yahoo, and other search engines had to figure out a way to separate legitimate SEO blogs and other websites from the content-less spam sites.

With every move Google made, spammers got cleverer with spam blog SEO.  When Google started lowering the search result rank of articles with excessive keyword density, spammers lowered their density too.  In 2012, Google has released new changes (called Google Penguin) to their search indexer.

With Penguin, blog SEO depends more than ever on the quality of your content and how often other people are linking to it.  This means that SEO blogs today need to focus maintaining quality, original content while also interacting with other websites.  If what used to work for your SEO blog doesn't seem to be bringing in clients any more, you may need to change how you think of your blog SEO.

Can SEO Blogs Help My Practice?

The answer to this question is an unequivocal yes.  If you're not already using an SEO blog to help drive traffic to your website, you need to start as soon as you can.  Over half of small firm attorneys have gotten new business as a direct result of their blog SEO.

SEO blogs can also help any social media initiatives that your firm has begun.  If you're not quite sure what to post on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter to keep your audience interested, an SEO blog is a great place to begin.  You can include a short piece of your blog SEO post, as well as the headline, and wait for your social media connections to start reading.

What Kind of SEO Blog Should I Start?

The answer to this question, of course, depends on what you're good at and what your practice focuses on.  In all likelihood, it's not a good idea for a criminal defense attorney to have blog SEO about divorces or bankruptcy.

Don't make your SEO blog topic too general.  Remember that there are already many other SEO blogs, and you want yours to stand out. You should pick some specific aspect of your practice area you know a great deal about, and keep your blog focused on developments in that area.

Even more important is your audience.  Who do you want reading your SEO blog?  Some lawyers start SEO blogs that are designed to attract clients who are searching for terms related to their legal case online.  Other attorneys prefer to make their blog SEO more attractive to other attorneys, who can then see the content and send referrals on to your law office or link your blog in their blogs.

Considerations about your audience can affect the topic of your SEO blog.  SEO blogs that are about more consumer-friendly topics may get a little traffic from other attorneys, especially if they want to link your content.  On the other hand, blog SEO designed for other lawyers will probably be over the heads of most clients.

How Often Should I Post to My SEO Blog?

There's a tricky line that SEO blogs need to walk when it comes to posting frequency.  If you post too many times, people won't have time to read all of your blog SEO content and may even stop reading.  Even if they don't stop reading, the time and effort you spent making SEO blog entries will have been wasted if people don't have time to read it all.

At the same time, you don't want to post too infrequently.  SEO blogs with no entries written for a month or more can look abandoned, and will have a much harder time bringing in new business.

Your SEO blog should shoot for a happy medium—which will also give you enough time to make sure that you can produce quality blog SEO content.  Try posting once or twice a week to start, and then see whether you feel comfortable with producing a third (possibly short) article per week.

Before you start any SEO blogs, it's a good idea to have a reserve stockpile of articles.  That way, if you get busy, your SEO blog doesn't suffer from a lack of content: just take an article out of the stockpile and post whenever you need to.

What Should My SEO Blog Entries Look Like?

The key to great blog SEO is having great titles that capture the attention of your audience.  When SEO blogs have confusing titles—or titles that don't really capture what the article is about—they are often indexed incorrectly or ranked much lower.

If you still want to have clever or cute headlines instead of descriptive ones, include them as sub-headlines within your article.  This will allow your voice to shine through but won't result in your blog SEO being misread by search spiders.

Don't flood your blog entries with too many repetitive keywords.  You should be making sure your keywords appear several times in your entries, but in the best case scenario, they should flow seamlessly as part of your prose.  Usually, just 2 or 3 repetitions of keywords will be plenty for a 400 word article.

You should also make sure that your blog entries link back to landing pages on your own website at least once or twice.  Don't just link to a firm homepage, but instead make sure that you're using targeted landing pages designed to generate conversions.