NEW FEATURE: Add Video To Your Articles For More Impact!

As you write articles, consider increasing their impact by including a supporting video.  Videos provide an entertaining and informative way to reach consumers who are searching for legal information, and can help validate the content you are writing about.  

Here is a great example of an article published on DrunkDrivingLawyers.com that includes supporting video footage.  This article titled “How Do You Win a DWI/DUI Case? Part 1: Probable Cause To Stop”, written by Attorney Paul D. Reynolds, highlights key components for winning a DWI/DUI case.  Also included in the article body is video footage from an actual arrest. This video is not only an attention grabber, but more importantly, it provides supporting details to reconfirm his point-of-view.

As consumers search online, it is believed that locating an article with video can increase the readership of that article.  The more time a consumer spends reading your article and watching the video, helps increase the average time spent on the page as a result of a search. This is a key metric in determining the effectiveness of the search results and makes your article more relevant in future searches.

If you want to include a video in your next article submission, you can either provide the embedded code for the video, or a link to where the video is hosted when you upload content to our publishing platform.  We will make sure that the code is properly embedded to display your selected video.  Enter this information in the “Body” field as pictured below.

If you have any questions about adding videos to your articles, please contact us today.

Fresh New Look!

You may have noticed we recently updated the design of many sites in our network.  This new design features an easier layout to help the thousands of daily visitors quickly navigate between the different sections of information.  With a fresher, more user-friendly layout, you can still expect the same great benefits of advertising with ExpertHub.

Below is a sample from the homepage of LawFirms.com to show you some of the new changes:
 

You can see from this sample, the primary focus of the page is the “Contact a Professional” box located at the top center of the page. This will make it easier for potential clients to connect with local professionals.  Also, we better defined the many sections of our homepage.  This will allow consumers to quickly scan and locate the information they are looking for.  Whether it be the search for “Lawyers Near You” or “Popular Articles”, the information is now better organized and provides additional avenues of driving traffic to your profile page.

As you see familiar sites in our network change, feel free to contact us if you have any questions.  We appreciate your feedback and hope you enjoy the new look.

Divorcenet.com Included in “Top 50 Divorce Blogs”

Divorcenet.com, one of our divorce related websites, was recently highlighted in the “Top 50 Divorce Blogs” posted on MastersInCounseling.com.

Divorcenet.com is featured under the category of “General Divorce Advice & News,” and displays links to several of our current subscriber’s blog feeds. Blog content on this site ranges from stories on divorce and family law to collaborative divorce and risks of divorce.

Check out these great blogs for divorce information and contact us with any questions you may have.

NEW Anatomy Pages: Contribute Expert Advice and Showcase Your Firm’s Expertise

We are excited to launch a new type of content page on the Experthub network.  Our Anatomy Pages are a great way to contribute your expert advice quickly, while gaining additional exposure online and driving potential clients to your profile page. As a test, we are starting this new content type on BankruptcyLawFirms.com, and will roll out more anatomy pages over time across our network.

These new content pages allow consumers to research and understand the process of a case that could pertain to their legal needs.  Descriptive information is provided for each stage of a case explaining the legal process consumers could face if they chose to pursue this type of action. 

Lawyers subscribed to our network are able to offer expert advice at each step, which will establish subject matter expertise and motivate potential clients to seek you out for assistance with their needs. This approach gives our clients another way to get exposure with very little investment of time.

The graphic below shows stage one of a sample Anatomy Page.  If you wanted to provide your potential clients with advice regarding one of the sections, simply click on the red “Add Your Advice” button located to the top right of each section.  A box will pop up for you to type in your information and click submit.
 

Once you submit your information our SEO team will review the content for approval, and as it is published you will be highlighted as a contributing author. The photo or firm logo you supplied on your LawFirms.com profile page will be displayed with your name.  Consumers can scroll conveniently through the author menu by clicking the orange arrow button, as in the graphic below.  At this time we are only allowing five authors to contribute to any one section so early contribution is recommended.

As a consumer selects the advice they want to review, clicking on the lawyer’s name will display the expert advice contributed.  We can see in the graphic below that Colorado Attorney, Ted Taggart, has contributed his advice for the section on “Choosing the Type of Bankruptcy.” Also present in the advice box is a link consumers can click on that goes directly to Attorney Taggart's profile page for more information about his firm and the services he can provide.

Our goal is to create many exposure opportunities for our subscribers throughout our entire network of sites while providing consumers the best legal resources. In addition to publishing articles on our network, our new Anatomy Pages will boost your online exposure, and increase your opportunity to generate more leads each month.  To access this new section, go to BankruptcyLawFirms.com and scroll down to the "Browse Bankruptcy Topics" section.  Check out our sample Anatomy Page to review all seven stages of this case. For more information on these exclusive content pages and submission guidelines, please contact us today.

Missed our recent webinar? Access the information, today.

We recently held a free webinar that focused on the benefits of our expertSYNDICATION program and the convenience of tracking your advertising campaign through our expertSTATS.  The webinar also explored our new publishing platform and ways to increase your online exposure.

If you are interested in learning about these two programs as part of your ExpertHub subscription, or would like to refresh the information you currently have, click here for a full recording of the presentation.

We are in the process of developing new webinars to help you leverage your ExpertHub subscription, so please keep an eye out for future emails announcing those.  We would also like to hear your feedback about this webinar, contact us with questions or comments today. 
 

Take Advantage of Your Featured Author Badges

Here are two examples of current ExpertHub subscribers taking advantage of their Featured Contributor and Featured Author badges.

In the below example, Denver Bankruptcy Attorney, Teg Taggart, displays his badges conveniently on an internal page of his firm’s website. He chose to couple the two badges on this page, and by doing so, provides easy links to all his articles. This also allows him to tout his firm as a featured contributor with ExpertHub and highlights the 33 positive ratings received from potential clients who found his aritlce’s information useful.

In this example, we can see Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorney, Rodney Mesriani, has chosen to display his Featured Contributor badge prominently on the homepage of his firm’s website.  This badge conveniently connects his potential clients with the articles he has written, highlights him as a featured author on the ExpertHub Legal Network and confirms that he is a content expert in his field.  Plus, the 730 positive consumer ratings add to the firm’s credibility, while building good rapport with potential clients.

These easy and convenient badges offer many benefits and can be added to your firm’s website, preferably the homepage, with the HTML code provided when you log in to your online account.   You can select between different sizes to accommodate your current homepage layout.  Mix it up by adding one or both of the badges to your website, your professional LinkedIn or Facebook pages or blog sites.

If you have any questions on how to access the code used to create these badges, please contact us today.

Free Webinar, Register Today!

We are hosting a FREE webinar focusing on the benefits of our expertSYNDICATION program and tips to help track the effectiveness of your ExpertHub advertising campaign.

If you are looking for new ways to leverage your current campaign, register for this webinar and learn more about an underused program that comes with your subscription, and tour some of the benefits our new Publishing Platform.  

A few things you will find helpful:
•    How to brand your firm through quality content
•    How to gain more exposure online
•    Tips for understanding your article stats
•    Convenient ways to track your ROI

At the end of the presentation there will be time to submit questions for our team, so register today and let us provide insight into new ways to optimize your ExpertHub subscription.  Register now for your chance to win a free article to be posted to our network. 

Date:  September 30, 2010
Time: 10 AM PT / 12 PM CT / 1 PM ET
Click here to Registration

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Google Citations Boost Your Firm’s Placement in Google Maps

There are several approaches you can take to build and improve the ranking for your firm’s website.

One “must have” is registering your firm’s website with Google maps. Using Google maps is a great way to not only gain free exposure in your search results, but will also help drive more traffic to your firm’s website and build inbound links to your website.  

In addition to establishing good inbound links to your firm’s website, it’s also important to consider the number of citations your website receives (ie: citations are mentions of your business name and address on another website, not just links to your website). There are many ways your site can receive citations that can range from directories and profile pages to blogs.  And because some sites carry more authority and relevance in the eyes of Google, it is believed that receiving citations from those sites will ultimately increase your rankings (i.e. Wikipedia, BBB.org, etc.).

Your advertising profile on the ExpertHub Network is a great way to gain more citations. Because we offer several subscriptions plans on a network of highly optimized websites in various categories, you will benefit from the citations our sites can provide. For example, an attorney subscribed to the practice areas of Debt Settlement and Bankruptcy will receive citations on five different sites in our network:

•    LawFirms.com
•    BankruptcyLawFirms.com
•    TheBankruptcySite.org
•    FilingforBankruptcyOnline.com
•    DebtSettlementLawyers.com

This is something that no other legal marketing platform can provide.

Below is a sample search for a maritime attorney located in Maine.  Attorney Nicholas Walsh appears in the Google maps results displayed below.  Next to his name is a link for “more info,” which when clicked displays all the citations available for this firm listing.

Google maps 7-pack

Attorney Walsh received 17 citations from authority websites, which includes LawFirms.com and AccidentAttorneys.com . These citations helped place his firm’s listing prominently at the top of Google map’s 7-pack, as displayed above. The more citations he continues to receive, the better his chance is of remaining in this section.
 

Examples of Google Citations from LawFirms.com and AccidentAttorneys.com

For more information on advertising your firm on the ExpertHub Network, please contact us today.

Our Publishing Platform Makes It Easy to Manage Your Articles!

We understand you put a lot of time and effort into writing articles to demonstrate your expertise and increase your visibility within the ExpertHub Legal Network and search engines like Google. To help streamline the submission process we developed an easy way to upload and manage your articles from the “Publishing” tab of your online account, formerly called “Articles”.

When you log in to your account, you will see the “Publishing” tab clearly located on the green navigation bar that runs across the top of your screen.  Clicking this tab will take you to the new publishing central where you can view:  topic suggestions, article drafts, and published articles. Can’t figure out what to write about?  The “Publishing” tab also provides you a list of topic suggestions based on the practice areas you subscribe to.

Another great feature is the ability to track your article’s progress.  Once you submit your article, a member of our SEO editorial team will review it to make sure your content complies with our submission guidelines, as well as optimize it for better search results online.  Don’t worry about formatting the article, we will handle that on our end. 

To track the progress of your article, you will click on Drafts (as pictured below) and will be able to see the title of the article you saved or submitted, the date submitted and where the article is in the approval process.  For example, an articles not yet published will have a status of “Waiting for Approval”.

Getting started is easy:

1. If you have content ready to upload or want to write a new article, log in to your account and click on the “Publishing” tab.
2. Click the Contribute New Content link highlighted in blue and located on the right side of the page.
3. You will then land on a page to insert the required information (see image below). You can type directly in the fields provided, giving your article a title and the body content.  If you prefer to copy and paste the information from a Word Document, that is fine also. 
4. Once you are ready to submit your article for approval, click the Submit Content For Approval button located at the bottom of the screen.  If you would like more time crafting your content, you can chose to click the Save Draft button and return to continue at a later date.

Locating topic suggestions and managing your articles in one spot is now more convenient than ever.  Check out our helpful tips for user friendly articles and submission guidelines to guide your writing. For more information or if you have any questions, please contact us today.

Grab Attention with a Powerful Profile Teaser!

Adding a profile teaser to your LawFirms.com profile page provides your potential clients with a short message that highlights important details about your firm. Conveniently positioned at the top, the teaser is often the first bit of information visitors read when landing on your profile. This element is key and motivates potential clients to read the rest of the information about your firm.

Below is a sample profile page from Pennsylvania Personal Injury Attorneys Lowenthal and Abrams, P.C. You will notice the profile teaser positioned at the top and highlighted in blue.

Here are a few examples of current ExpertHub subscribers who have completed their profiles. You will notice that each profile teaser varies in focus and includes statements about firm experience, areas of practice and even attorney fees.  The sky’s the limit!

• Indiana Disability Attorney Steven R. Jacobs : “Contact the experienced attorneys at the Law Office of Steven R. Jacobs to have your case evaluated. No fee unless we get you benefits.”

• Florida Bankruptcy Attorneys Hagen & Hagen, P.A.: “Fighting for your rights.”

• The Alia Law Center, P.C. located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: “Practice Areas: Bankruptcy, Foreclosure, Real Estate, Debt Settlement And IP Law, Including Patent, Trademarks, Copyrights.”

• California Bankruptcy Law Offices of Eric Johnson: “Discounted Attorney Fees for Overlapping Cases: Bankruptcy, Workers Compensation, and/or Social Security Law.”

A great feature about your LawFirms.com profile is that you control the content you want potential clients to see about your firm.  Be creative in how you differentiate your firm against the competition. For more tips and ideas about creating a powerful profile teaser, please contact us today.

Why Was My Article Denied?

One of the least costly and most effective ways our clients can gain additional exposure is by submitting articles to our network of legal sites. Not only does this drive additional traffic to your profile page, but utilizing the link back can also drive traffic to your own site, as well as that all-elusive SEO value.

While many attorneys use this feature on a regular basis, newer subscribers will often submit articles that they have posted elsewhere. Unfortunately, we don't publish content that's already been posted online. As a rule, content that is not unique will not be published on our network. Every time a new contribution comes through the system, one of our SEO team members will do a quick Google search to ensure the content is unique. If it's found that the article has already been posted and indexed by Google, it will be sent back for a rewrite.

This rule may sound a bit harsh, but it's put in place for the benefit of our clients. Almost 100% of the traffic coming into our network is through organic search. Content that has already been published will not be indexed by search engines a second time on another site. If it does get indexed, it almost always gets dumped into a secondary index, and will only be displayed when a searcher specifically asks to "view omitted results". This means if we "re-publish" content from another site, it just won't get any traffic. Additionally, if any site is found to simply be regurgitating existing content, it can potentially be flagged as search spam and penalized with lower rankings and little traffic.

Now, I have had attorneys tell me, "I don't care if it doesn't get traffic from Google, people will read it when they land on your site from another page and browse around". Not really. If you look at some of the statistics, and these are true for any "informational" type site, visitors tend to view just under 2 pages on average. What this tells you is that they come in and land on an article about something they were searching for, read it, and either 1) decide to contact a lawyer, or 2) move on. If they don't land directly on your page, they are not going to read it.

Another question I get is, "What if I post it to your network, then to my own blog?" Well, there's not a lot we can do about that. Once we deem an article unique and publish it, it stays there. After that, it can be posted in any number of places. Our sites are so well indexed, our version will be displayed in search results in a matter of hours, something that takes most smaller sites weeks to achieve. As a result, our sites "version" of the article will almost always be the one displayed in search results. In this case, it really doesn't matter where else it's published. As a matter of fact, many aggregation sites syndicate our content which really has no impact on our traffic, other than to drive even more links back to us.

This may all seem like a hassle, but the fact is, publishing content to the ExpertHub Network is far more effective than posting it anywhere else online. Having 60+ SEO-optimized sites targeting specific areas of law allows our clients the most effective means of distributing their content and getting more eyeballs at very little or no cost. Having our guidelines in place helps to maintain a level of quality and authority that benefits both our visitors and clients.

Please contact us with any questions you may have or for more information about contributing content to our network.

Uploading Videos is Quick and Easy

Many of our subscribers have asked how to upload a video to their LawFirms.com profile page. To make things easy, we have create a 4-step process that can be accessed right from your profile page.  If you already have videos on your firm’s website or videos hosted on a service like YouTube, Yahoo! Video, DailyMotion or Vimeo, you can easily upload those or other videos to your profile page at any time.

When you log in to your profile page, on the right hand side you will see how complete your profile is.  Just below that you will see two options to start the process of uploading your video.  You can click on the “Adding Videos” button from the list of remaining items to upload or you can click on “Add Video” from the videos section.

When you click on either button to add your video, a box will pop up (make sure your pop up blocker is turned off) with step-by-step instructions on how to link your video to your profile page successfully.  If you are wondering how to locate the “embed” box or need examples of what the code looks like, you can click on the examples we have provided.  You will see these in Step 2 and Step 3 as displayed in the sample below.

Videos are an entertaining way to target potential clients with important legal information.  If you would like further assistance with your videos, please contact us today.

July’s Honorable Mentions

1. Auto Accident Attorney, Anthony D. Castelli, completed his LawFirms.com profile page to 100% and continues to contribute quality article content to our network.  His most recent article, 7 Steps to Finding a Great Car Accident Attorney, provides his potential client with tips on choosing an attorney to handle their auto accident claim. 

2. The Utah-based Personal Injury Law Firm, Gregory & Swapp, PLLC, uploaded five great examples to the Case History section of their profile page.  In addition to having a completed profile, these details on case history provide potential clients with a more rounded picture of the success the firm has had with past clients. This helps demonstrate the ability of your firm to handle their case.

3. Uploading a photo or firm logo to your profile page is important, as it allows potential clients to connect with the firm they will be contacting.  Gallagher & Associates Law Firm, P.A. provided several photos of the attorneys representing this firm.  In addition to photos, the firm uploaded several helpful videos on “Foreclosure Defense” and “Foreclosure Relief”. 

4. The Oklahoma Family Law Firm of Lily Debrah Cruickshank & Associates, PLLC completed the Overview section of their profile page, providing an in-depth explanation about the firm. By completing each section of her profile page, Attorney Cruickshank has increased her chances of generating free leads through her profile page.

For more helpful tips on optimizing your profile page, please contact us today.

Boost Your Monthly Leads

Many ExpertHub subscribers have asked how they can generate more leads each month. In prior posts, we explored the importance of having a completed profile page and submitting articles to the ExpertHub network.  Whether you are on a flat rate or pay per lead payment option, completing these two things will help boost your dashboard numbers.

Profile Page: Having a completed profile is a surefire way to motivate consumers to contact you directly through your profile page. Through the “Contact Us” box, potential clients will select the appropriate practice area and enter their zip code.  After clicking the “Next” button, they will be taken to a form to provide detailed  information on their case. Your firm will be the only one to receive their information if that consumer is requesting an attorney in your subscribed location. 

The best part, you are not charged for any lead that comes in through your profile page.

Contributed Articles: In addition to branding yourself as a content expert and providing great SEO value, articles open an additional avenue for potential clients to contact you directly. In the body of each article you submit, is a micro profile that shows your photo or firm logo, your name and a button to contact you directly. 

The best part, you are not charged for leads that come in through the articles you submit.

 Please contact us for more information on connecting with potential clients.

How to Gain Additional Exposure: The New “Most Recent Article” Section

Use your contributed content to gain additional exposure, it’s easier than you think.

You may have noticed a new section on our redesigned homepage called “Most Recent Legal Articles”. This section shows up on the homepage of LawFirms.com and on the homepage of each relevant site in our network. This area also displays the 5 most recent published articles for that practice area. For example, your article on “Liablity for a Dog Bite Injury”would show up in the “Most Recent Legal Articles” section on LawFirms.com and PersonalInjuryLawyer.com.  In order to ensure consistent exposure in this section, you need to continually submit fresh content to our network.

So in essence, the more content you submit on a regular basis, the more exposure you will gain.

For topic suggestions to help guide your writing or tips to optimize your profile page, please contact us today

Stats To Help Track Your ROI!

Tracking your online advertising campaign has never been easier. Through our powerful expertSTATs performance dashboard, you get real-time reporting to help you track your return on investment with ExpertHub. This monthly report tracks your exposure within the ExpertHub network (profile views, article views, etc.) and the leads you generate (lead volume and detail), while showing you how your potential clients interact throughout our network.  

Your dashboard is also a great place to review recent leads and recent messages that have been sent regarding your account. 
 
Here is our sample dashboard.  As you generate profile views and leads, the numbers will populate in the corresponding sections on your report.
























Access your dashboard report 24/7 from the “account tab” by logging in to view your profile. Please contact us with quesitons regarding your profile or about reading your dashboard report.    

Promote Your Contributed Content

You spent the time writing an informative article; now get the biggest impact from it! All published articles will automatically display on the homepage of LawFirms.com and any other related site in our network (example: an article titled “Bankruptcy Laws in California” will display on BankruptcyLawFirms.com).  Your articles will also receive a permanent link in our category pages and display in our search results.

There are many more outlets to promote your expertise.  Here are a few ways you can show off your articles: 

• Link articles to your firm’s website:  ExpertHub provides a “Featured Author Badge” that you can place on your firm’s website, which contains links to your most recent articles.  This badge creates a convenient place for current and potential clients to read information related to the area of law you practice. Each article demonstrates your expertise and shows potential clients that your work is published on prominent websites, adding additional credibility.  The Featured Author Badge HTML code can be accessed by logging in to your dashboard. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the size appropriate to match the current layout of your site. 

• Link articles to your professional blog: Many ExpertHub subscribers are active with their own blogs and providing a link directly to your profile page or to individual articles is another great way consumers can access the legal information you submit to our network. You can even add your “Featured Author Badge on your blog as well.

• Link articles to your Facebook or Linkedin pages:  If your firm also has a professional Facebook page or Linkedin page, providing links or creating discussions around your articles will gain you more exposure among your colleagues and the groups in your social network.

Win the Title of “Most Popular Article”

We added a new “Popular Article” section on the homepage of LawFirms.com. Each new article that you contribute will have the opportunity to be showcased in this section for 30 days.  A “rating scale” displays the numbers of positive consumer ratings next to each article, helping to establish each attorney as a content expert.  The rating system will determine which articles are displayed in the “Popular Articles” section.

For more information on how to promote your articles or to add the "Featured Author Badge" to your website, please contact us today!

8,406 Article Views…and Counting!

Personal Injury Attorneys, Jeff Lowenthal & Dennis Abrams, P.C. have contributed 24 quality articles and received 2,138 article views and 338 profile views during the month of May alone!

Over the course of their subscription with ExpertHub, they continue to submit new content, which has resulted in over 8,000 article views to date. Article contribution is a great way to generate more traffic to your profile page and in turn, produce additional leads to help you build your business. And because consumers can positively rate your articles, it’s a great way to build credibility in your industry.

Here are a few of their article success stories:

1.    Rights of Injured Workers

• Published: October 29, 2009
• May 2010 pageviews: 348
• Pageviews to date: 726
• Found on www.LawFirms.com
• 20 positive consumer reviews
• Traffic generated from 22 keywords including:
• injured workers rights: 38
• the rights of an injured worker who is receiving private disability: 13
• legal rights for workers compensation: 11
• advice for injured worker: 6

2.   Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis of Cancer

• Published: January 19, 2009
• May 2010 pageviews: 141
• Pageviews to date: 862
• Found on www.MedicalMalpractice.com
• 18 positive consumer reviews
• Traffic generated from 148 keywords including:
• misdiagnosis who's at fault: 92
• suing for delay in diagnosis of cancer: 23
• thyroid cancer late diagnosis: 15
• medical malpractice misdiagnosis cancer: 14

3.   Examples of Medical Malpractice

• Published: December 10, 2009
• May 2010 pageviews: 123
• Pageviews to date: 3,486
• Found on www.MedicalMalpractice.com
• 6 positive consumer ratings
• Traffic generated from 263 keywords including:
• examples of medical malpractice: 480
• examples of medical malpractice cases: 78
• examples of medical negligence: 58
• example of malpractice: 51

It’s important to submit fresh content on a regular basis. You can write on the practice areas of your choice—not just the practice areas you currently subscribe to.  And because submitting articles is free, you are essentially increasing your lead volume without increasing costs.

If you are short on time, ExpertHub offers an article writing service. Each article is professionally written and fully optimized for organic search. (Article package: 5 article minimum for $250)

For more information on our expertSYNDICATION program, article writing services or for topic suggestions to help guide your writing, please contact us today.

June’s Honorable Mentions

1. Illinois Personal Injury Attorney Philip Berenz is taking full advantage of the expertSYNDICATION program as part of his ExpertHub subscription. In fact, he has received additional exposure on the homepage of LawFirms.com with high consumer ratings for his article content. Because his articles are syndicated on our relevant network sites, Attorney Berenz can also be found on CarAccidentAttorneys.com, TruckAccidentLawyer.com, PersonalInjuryLawyer.com, and AccidentAttorneys.com…just to name a few!

2. Family Law Attorney Thomas McCormack uploaded video to his profile page providing potential clients with tips on handling their divorce case. This video is an entertaining take on important legal information.

3. New York Bankruptcy Attorney Bruce Bronson has added details on case history to his profile page. These details help to build credibility in the eyes of potential clients while showcasing his firm’s expertise. Attorney Bronson has also completed the tagline, profile teaser and firm overview information of his profile.

4. The Premier Law Group, Wood & Eisenberg is taking advantage of the three links available from their profile page. The links provide SEO benefits to their firm’s website, while the custom anchor text improves their chances of ranking organically in the search engines.

Your LawFirms.com profile is the gateway to generating new leads to grow your business. By taking a few minutes to upload additional information, you are increasing your odds of retaining new clients. For more information on optimizing your profile page or about our article syndication program, please contact us today.

Lights, Camera, Action! Add videos to your LawFirms.com profile and reach your audience.

Educate and entertain your potential clients by uploading videos to your LawFirms.com profile.  Videos are an easy way to enhance your profile page while providing your potential clients with specific messaging about your firm’s services.  If you already have videos on your site or videos hosted on a service like YouTube, Yahoo! Video, DailyMotion or Vimeo, you can easily upload those or other videos to your profile page at any time.

Benefits of adding video to your profile:

• Offers an attention grabbing alternative to showcase your firm’s expertise
• Allows you to deliver specific messages focusing on one practice area at a time
• Provides an opportunity for in-person client testimonials that consumers look for
• Leverage any media coverage your firm receives 
• Provides SEO benefits
• Good video will increase the time consumers spend on your profile page, which reduces the bounce rate—both of which are signals that search engines use to measure the quality of a search result

Videos can showcase a variety of legal topics, themes or supporting details important in distinguishing your firm from competitors.  Here are a few examples of ExpertHub subscribers who have uploaded videos to their profile page.

Washington D.C. Injury & Malpractice Attorney Patrick Malone was featured on the Today Show.  He posted his interview with Matt Lauer on finding the best medical care and patient advocacy.



Pennsylvania Workers Compensation Law Firm of Lowenthal & Abrams, P.C. uploaded videos about Workers Compensation and their Medical Malpractice team.  These videos provide additional information on the firm’s expertise and how they meet their clients’ needs.

Utah-based Bankruptcy and Disability Law Firm of Pearson & Butler, PLLC offer multiple videos on their profile ranging from loan modification legislation to Chapter 7 & Chapter 13 Bankruptcy tips. Potential clients visiting this profile page will benefit from the legal information provided in these videos.



For information on how to upload videos to your profile page, please contact us today!

5 Ways to Help You Close the Deal (Part III)

 Here are the 2 remaining tips to consider incorporating into your approach to help you retain future clients.
  

#4 Create an Auto Responder
If a lead contacts your firm directly, an auto responding email is another option to ensure an immediate response to the consumer is provided. While the best response is a personal one as discussed in Part II, here are a few details you can add to your auto response email if that is the route you decide to take:

1. Overview of your firm’s expertise
2. Why they should hire your firm (ex: “80% of our clients end up with a reduced charge…” or “I just settled a case very similar to yours…”)
3. Highlight some of your firm’s success stories or link to your LawFirms.com profile page which already showcases this (ex: $750,000 Medical Malpractice settlement)
4. Let the consumer know when they can expect to hear from you again and how to contact you to schedule a consultation 
5. Optional: Whether or not you charge for a consultation, your retainer amount or hourly rate

Here is an example of an auto response email to show you what might work for your firm.  

#5  Follow Up

Following up on your lead inquiries and keeping their attention on your firm can be the deciding factor that prevents a consumer from going to your competition.  If you do not get an immediate response back from your lead, reconnect with a phone call and email to check in and see if your firm is a good match for their needs.  Make sure to let them know what they can expect as next steps from you, as well as what action you would like them to take. A clear stream of communication will ensure that neither party is waiting on the other to make the next move. 

Consumers searching online are looking for quick and accurate information. By adding multiple email addresses to your lead notification list and responding quickly with a personal message or an auto responder email, you are ensuring a better chance of closing the deal with your future clients.

For more information on connecting with potential clients and to optimize your LawFirms.com profile page, contact us today.

5 Ways to Help You Close the Deal (Part II)

Now that you added any additional email addresses to your lead notification list and are responding quickly to your lead emails, let’s focus on the information you are sending.

#3 Personalize Each Response
Messaging for potential clients is key.  Consumers are seeking legal advice and want to find a firm that is going to represent them well, and your initial response can be the deciding factor on whether or not they become a client. When you respond to their initial inquiry, it is a good idea to let them know you can assist with their case and why your firm is the best choice to represent them.

Personally responding to each inquiry will ensure you are able to reply with the correct information and that it is specific to the potential client’s need.  While you might think you don’t have time to respond to each inquiry personally, it actually takes very little effort. 

Stay tuned for Part III of this series to find out the two remaining ways to help you close the deal. For more ways to enhance your profile page, contact us today!

5 Ways to Help You Close the Deal (Part I)

One of the biggest benefits of your ExpertHub subscription is that the leads you generate are emailed to your inbox in real time.  To help you covert these leads into paying clients, it is important to keep a few things in mind.

The next few blog posts will focus on 5 important actions steps you should consider to help you connect better with your leads and retain the client.  If you have already developed a system that works best for you, that’s great.  If not, it might be helpful to consider the following.

To get started, let’s focus on how you receive the leads and what to do once you receive the lead email.

#1 Add multiple recipients to your lead notification list

A great feature of your Lawfirms.com profile is that you are able to add multiple recipient email addresses to receive the instant lead notifications.  No matter what size firm you have, it is in your best interest to take advantage of this feature. This will ensure that a consumer’s request can be responded to quickly and increase your ability to convert them into a client. Adding additional email addresses is also good to consider if you anticipate being out of the office for extended periods of time or won’t have access to your email (court, vacation, etc.).



#2 Respond quickly

It’s important to reply to each lead as quickly as possible.  This will inform your potential client that you have received their case information and are interested in learning more about the reason they are looking for representation—or that you are interested in representing them.

Stay tuned for Part II of this series to find out the remaining ways to help you close the deal. For more information on how to optimize your profile or how to add additional email addresses, contact us today!

Attract attention by adding details on Case History

Promote your accomplishments by adding Case History details to your LawFirms.com profile.  Not only is this important in establishing good rapport with potential clients, it can also help you generate more visitors to your profile, resulting in more leads. We are starting to see attorney profiles ranking for keyword searches related to the cases they add to their profile page.

Benefits of the Case History section:

• Builds credibility with future clients by showcasing your firm’s prowess
• Consumers can gauge from your track record why hiring your firm is the right choice
• Allows attorneys the opportunity to showcase a variety of case examples   
• Has SEO benefits and can increase the search engine exposure of your LawFirms.com profile page

Below are actual Case History details from The Cochran Firm, a litigation and criminal defense law firm with office locations throughout the United States.   In the first case example, the firm has started the case description with the phrase “$76 MILLION VERDICT.” 

In the organic search below, the LawFirms.com profile page for The Cochran Firm shows up on the first page of these results.  So we can see how important it is to consider the information you want to include when adding case details to your profile.  This additional information has also helped the profile page achieve a PR2 in Google in a relatively short time. 

 

Taking just a few minutes to add in some of your success stories and incorporate good search terms is another way of taking advantage of the SEO benefits that come with your ExpertHub Legal Network subscription.  For more information on how to complete your profile and add details on Case History, contact us today!

New design, same great benefits!

We recently updated ExpertHub’s profile pages with a cleaner, more user-friendly design.  This new design, which displays much like a website landing page, features a cleaner navigation style and content layout to better highlight your firm’s information and generate additional leads.

The profile elements have been repackaged for a fresher, more robust consumer experience with the same great SEO benefits as the previous layout.  For example, we placed the firm’s photo, tagline and practice overview information in the center of the page, and moved the backlinks, subscription practice areas, office location and video links to the right and left sides. Through a series of convenient drop down menus, consumers can choose the information they want to view by quickly scanning each subheading and then clicking the arrow to expand their selection.

Contributed articles are now prominently showcased in the centrally positioned “Articles Written” section.  This prime location will grab consumer’s attention and motivate them to read your articles as they transition easily between all elements on your page.

In the profile sample below, the new layout design features an eye-catching way for consumers to contact the attorney.  Removed was the  previous method of a smaller “Free Case Review” button, and the new “Contact Us” button allows consumers to enter their contact information and a brief summary of their case.  That information is then sent to the attorney in real time.

For more information on how to connect with potential clients and to optimize your profile page, please contact us today.

How consumers find attorneys on Lawfirms.com

ExpertHub subscribers often ask the question, “How do consumers find me on your site?” The answer lies in how the consumer is searching.  When a consumer comes to Lawfirms.com they can do 2 primary things:

1.    Search for an attorney immediately
2.    Search for information related to their need

If the consumer is interested in connecting with an attorney immediately, they can click on the Find a Lawyer tab at the top of the Lawfirms.com homepage or enter in their zip code in the “Contact A Lawyer” box. Either path will bring them to a 2-step form where they can describe their case and provide contact information, which is then sent to the attorney(s) who subscribed to that practice area and location.

A second path is through the Lawfirms.com Lawyer Directory.  When a consumer clicks on the Lawyer Directory tab on the homepage of Lawfirms.com, they will be able to easily search for an attorney by practice area and location.  Each attorney's directory listing provides a link to the firm’s profile page, the firm logo, address, phone number and tagline. Attorneys who participate in our expertSYNDICATION program by contributing articles, will also have a link to those articles within their listing. This not only provides additional real estate on the directory page, but it also demonstrates their expertise to potential clients. Consumers can also contact the attorney directly through the “contact office” button or phone number provided.

As mentioned above, Article Contribution is another great way consumers find you.  When you submit articles to our legal network, the ExpertHub SEO team optimizes them for better search engine results.  As consumers search for legal topics online, your articles could be included in their search results.  Included in the article is a micro-profile where the consumer can either contact you directly, click to view your Lawfirms.com profile page or go directly to your firm’s website via the free backlink offered in each article you submit.  Your articles can also be accessed via the legal article section of the Lawfirms.com homepage and each relevant website in our network.

For more information on connecting with potential clients and to optimize your profile page, please contact us today.

Profile Elements – What A Tagline Can Do For You

Your Lawfirms.com profile does more than just show prospective clients information about your firm, it can also help you get found in search engines like Google.  Each element of your profile page has a purpose and plays an active part in how you will rank in search engines.  So as you upload details on case history, firm overview and profile tagline and teaser, keep in mind that the information you are contributing will influence how you are found on the Internet.
 
Let’s consider the profile tagline for a moment.
 
The profile tagline is short in length, roughly 100 characters. Its purpose is to provide the consumer with a short, attention grabbing sentence that distinguishes your firm from your competition.  

The tagline is especially important when consumers search for local attorneys in the Lawfirms.com Lawyer Directory.  In addition to your photo and firm’s contact info, the tagline plays an integral part in motivating consumers to take the next step and view your profile.  In the sample search below we can see how the tagline highlights and differentiates two out of four Arizona-based firms: Goldwater Law Firm and Law Office of Donna M. Hougen. 

The tagline also provides SEO benefits helping your profile page rank for even more keyword searches.  Below is a sample keyword search on Google for “Utah’s premier legal services firm.” The LawFirms.com profile page for Utah-based bankruptcy and foreclosure law firm of Pearson & Butler displays in position #2.  This keyword search is part of their tagline.  Also ranked in position # 3 of the organic search results is another ExpertHub Legal Network website, ForeclosureLawFirms.com.  As a subscriber, Pearson & Butler receive exposure on and case leads from this site and any other websites in our network that generates foreclosure and divorce case leads.

Actual profile tagline: PEARSON & BUTLER, Utah's premier legal services firm. Se Habla Espanol.

From these examples, you can see how important it is to consider the information used to represent your firm as you continue to build your business online with ExpertHub.  By taking advantage of the tagline and other profile elements, it will ensure better lead generation and greater exposure for your firm. 
 
For more information or suggestions on how to optimize your profile, please contact us today.

Show off your articles with our Featured Author Badges

Highlight your articles and the positive consumer ratings you receive by taking advantage of the ExpertHub Feature Author Badges.  As part of your ExpertHub subscription, these badges provide another avenue of connecting your current and future clients with the articles you submit to our legal network.

Feature Author Badges will provide benefit by:

• Demonstrating your expertise to current and future clients
• Displaying the positive consumer ratings you receive from your articles
• Providing an additional location for consumers to access all of the articles you’ve written
• Showcasing you as an ExpertHub featured contributor and/or author
• Allowing consumers easy access to your Lawfirms.com profile via a direct link

These easy and convenient badges can be added to your firm’s website, preferably the homepage, with the HTML code provided to the right of each graphic.  You can select between different sizes to accommodate your current homepage layout.  You can use one or both of the badges, and can even add these to your professional LinkedIn, Facebook or blog sites.

 

If you have any questions about how to best use these graphics, please feel free to contact us today.

Get Found on Google with Article Contribution

If you are looking to maximize your ExpertHub subscription and increase your search engine visibility, submitting quality articles related to your practice area specialty is a simple way to achieve this. Article contribution is also a great way to generate more traffic to your profile page and in turn, produce additional leads to help you build your business. Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer Rodney Mesriani has contributed 148 articles to his profile page and during the month of March 2010 has received 8,523 article views, 386 profile views and 138 leads.

Mesriani article success stories include:

1. “California Meal Time and Break Laws: Employer Violations”

• Published: October 21, 2009 
• March 2010 Page Views: 169  
• Page Views to Date: 950 Found on: http://www.employmentlawfirms.com  
• Traffic generated from 624 keywords includes:

- California meal break law, 28    
- California code of regulations, title 8 §11040, 25  
- Ca law regarding lunch breaks, 24   
- Case of employment break + duty meals, 17 

 2. “Legal Limitations of Termination of At Will Employment”

• Published: December 1, 2009  
• March 2010 Page Views: 246  
• Page Views to Date: 952  
• Found on: http://www.wrongfulterminationlaws.com  
• Traffic generated from 71 keywords includes:

- Wrongful termination lawsuits, 30    
- Wrongful termination laws, 14    
- Employee rights wrongful termination Idaho, 13  
- Legal limitations of termination of at will employment, 7

3. “Employee Rights Against Favoritism or Nepotism” 

• Published: January 19, 2010
• March Page Views: 126
• Page Views to Date: 386
• Found on: http://www.employmentlawfirms.com
• Traffic from 189 keywords includes:

- Employment law married couples, 27
- Employee favoritism, 14    
- Dangers of nepotism at work, 11   
- Employee denied transfer, 11

ExpertHub optimizes every subscriber’s profile page for organic search and allows each subscriber to include 3 backlinks to various pages within their own website. With the help of these free benefits, Rodney Mesriani’s profile page has also achieved a high ranking in Google:

• ExpertHub page rank: PR3
• Mesriani Law website page rank: PR3

Fore more information, please contact us today.

Publishing on the ExpertHub Network: Focus on the Long Tail

ExpertHub's mission, since we started, has always focused on 2 things:

1. Help consumers find high quality information about their legal/elective medical issue
2. Help local professionals build their business and their brand

We accomplish that mission by publishing information online with an eye towards having it found via organic search. Whether or not we author the article or we are providing topic suggestions to our members who publish their articles on on our network, we generally focus on the long tail of keyword topics. Here is a quick summary of the buckets of keywords that we target:

A couple things that we have learned:

• Head terms are great - we rank for a lot of them. They convert to leads at very high rates. However, if you limit yourself to focusing your SEO efforts on head terms, you're likely to be disappointed and you are setting your business up for failure as Google changes its algorithm regularly.
  
  
• Most attorneys websites only rank for name searches. This will be the leading category of keywords for any law firm spending a "reasonable" amount of money on SEO. For most attorneys, it will be the only category.
  
  
• Most attorneys are fixated on keywords associated with local searches (i.e. "cleveland divorce lawyer."). No doubt that these are valuable searches. They are also incredibly competitive. If you want to rank for these phrases (or if you currently do rank and you want to maintain that ranking), you need to have a viable link building strategy. You also need to understand how to use the Google Local Business Center. We'll show you how your ExpertHub profile can help you with both of those in a later post. However, what's most interesting about local searches is how many attorneys assume that this is the only way that consumers use the internet to find a lawyer. The reality could not be further from the truth.
  
  
• If you want traffic and leads (which is really what most attorneys want out of the Internet), then you should pay attention to topic searches. Why? See below:

• The vast majority of internet traffic - over 2/3 - of search traffic is for topic searches.
  
  
• Although the conversion rate (lead/visitor) for topic searches is lower than for local searches, if you have a low cost publishing approach, the overall cost/lead will be much lower for topic searches than it will be for local searches.

Of course, you want to rank for as many keywords as possible. Search behavior is changing rapidly every year and you want to make sure that your firm is plugged into the search stream. Our publishing platform in combination with our network of websites is truly a unique asset that will allow you to make sure that your firm is poised to take advantage of the Internet to generate new business.

To learn more, contact us today.

Pay Per Lead Option Announced by ExpertHub

Over the past 18 months, we've been hard at work building a platform to help local professionals effectively market their practice online. Although we have constantly been making changes to our platform, our mission has never changed - our goals have always been twofold:

1. Help local professionals generate new business from their ExpertHub advertising. This typically takes the form of leads that get emailed directly to the local professional.
   
   
2. Provide the tools so that local professionals can build their brand. All of our content syndication tools have this goal in mind - they allow you to publish content so that you can differentiate your practice.
   

Because we are so ROI focused, we realize that the first goal - generating new leads - should be the basis for how we price our advertising. Up until last month, our quarterly advertising subscription price was based on the historical lead volume that we have generated for the practice area and geography that you are practicing in. This has worked incredibly well and we have extremely high satisfaction rates among our current subscribers. Last month, we decided to offer an alternative to the quarterly flat fee - allowing local professionals to pay per lead.

Why We Released Pay Per Lead
All of the traffic and leads that we generate from our network comes from organic traffic. Because of this, there is natural variability in the number of leads that we generate each month for a specific practice area and county. This variability is most pronounced for lower volume categories . . . if we have historically generated 6 leads a month on average, that means in one month we may generate 3 and the next month 9. Although some local professionals don't mind the variability, others become concerned when lead volume dips and may question the ROI that they are receiving in a given month.

Pay per lead provides a solution to this situation. Now, when a local professional is contemplating their advertising spend, we show them both a flat fee and pay per lead option (see below)




Which One Is Best For You
The biggest lesson that we have learned over the past year is that a local professional needs to see at least 30 leads before they can really do an ROI calculation. After 30 leads, you will have seen enough leads to see what types of cases fit well with your practice and which ones don't. You will have had enough time to have interacted with the consumers and closed some business from your advertising. Our goal is to get you those 30 leads. Whether or not you choose pay per lead or quarterly flat fee is really up to each local professional. Here are a couple of things to think about as you choose:

Quarterly flat fee is best if:

• You want a predictable quarterly advertising expense.
• It allows you to lock in your rate - so if we continue to grow our lead volume (its up 50% in the last 12 months), your effective price per lead will be lower.

Pay per lead is best if:

• You are in a lower volume geography and want a guarantee on the lead volume for your advertising expense. If we have a month that is lower than our historical average - your advertising is automatically extended until we hit the target lead volume.

The reason we show every local professional both options is because we want you to have choice. Thanks to everyone on the ExpertHub technology team that has built out this functionality!

Publish Articles on the ExpertHub Legal Network and Benefit Big!

Article contribution greatly benefits your ExpertHub subscription, and one of the ways is connecting you with new clients searching for relevant, legal information. Taking advantage of article submission will benefit you by:

• Providing an outlet to reach thousands of consumers throughout our network of 16,000 websites
• Increasing your search engine visibility
• Building your brand online and establishing market leadership
• Generating new business
• Distinguishing the services your firm specializes in from your peers
• Allowing consumers the ability to rate the usefulness of your articles

To better showcase your published articles, we’ve added a new display feature to your Lawfirms.com directory listing that shows your recent articles with the consumer ratings they’ve received. This new feature maximizes the exposure of the quality content you submit and establishes you as a subject matter expert. Attorneys who take advantage of submitting articles, elevate their firm above the others by demonstrating their expertise to potential clients. As a result, consumers are motivated to contact an attorney who provides well-rated and relevant information over one who doesn’t. 

In the sample search below, you can see a LawFirms.com directory search for Personal Injury attorneys in Southern California. Out of the 4 attorneys listed, Allegiance Law naturally stands out due to the list of articles Attorney Jason Lundberg has written, and the positive ratings each article has received. Potential clients will naturally gravitate toward an attorney who can provide them with a more complete picture of their practice expertise.

  

For more information on submitting article content, please view our expertSYNDICATION guidelines or email stolai@experthubinc.com.