If you’re an attorney who caters to consumers, clients SHOULD be finding you through your website.  Your website should be one of your top three sources of new clients.

How can you make sure that your website is functioning as it should?  Great question.  The answer is a design that lends itself to lead generation.  Here are a few tips I give all of my attorney clients.  If you’re an attorney OR someone who caters to consumers, you definitely need to look through this list and make a mental list of the things you (your brother/ uncle/niece OR a legal marketing firm) must change about your site.  Trust me, you’ll be happy you did!

1. Make sure that a client can contact you the second he or she lands on your site.  No scrolling, no clicking, no hunting.  Your contact information needs to be large and clear and at the top of your home page.  Remember, most website visitors stay on a site for less than two minutes and look at fewer than three pages.  Make sure that even in a short amount of time, they can find your contact information and call you!

2. If you have a contact form on your site (and you should), be sure it is short and sweet.  Get the information you need to contact the client and nothing more.  The more fields you add to the form, the fewer people will complete it.

3. Add the really important information on the top left-hand corner.  This is where people naturally look when coming to a website.  Get your name, phone number and email address in that location.

4. Make sure you have great content.  For those potential clients who browse around the site, you want to look like an expert (even though your state bar rules may preclude you from saying that).  Add content that is useful for the potential client: no “legalese” and no case law.  Clients don’t care about that.  It doesn’t matter how many classes you AmJured or how many times one of your cases was published.  They don’t know what that means and they don’t care.  They just want to know that you can help them with their legal issues.  Keep that in mind.

If you have any questions or concerns about your own website, please contact us.  (What the heck?  Send your brother/uncle/niece our way, too!)  We’re happy to give all of you a free website evaluation and discuss some things that may improve your site.

So, you have an old, crummy website and it needs a little something.  If you have limited time and a limited budget, the thing you’ll want to do first is to give the site a face lift.  And, I mean the Demi Moore kind, not the Michael Jackson kind.  Just a little something that can help things out without freaking out your regular website visitors.

Here are a few things you can try to give your site just a little boost it needs to increase the conversion rates and raise its self esteem.  Of course, before you do anything you can’t reverse, you’ll want to do some A/B testing and figure out if these minor changes help as much as you’d like.

1. Change the font in your header.  It can be just that simple.  Sometimes a font can really date a site.  If you haven’t updated the design of your site in more than two years, it may be time to freshen up the font.  Here are a few ideas.  Have fun, but make sure that whatever font you choose is easy to read.

2. Upgrade the color.  When you need something fast, slapping on a coat of paint can do the trick.  There are literally billions of colors out there, so the choices can certainly be overwhelming.  However, my new favorite site can help you choose a great palette.  Warning — you could get sucked into this site for hours just looking at all of the beautiful colors!

3. Change the images.  If you have a few images on your home page, experiment with different ones.  Be sure to only change one image at a time and track the traffic changes with each new image.

4. Add a little something.  If you generally like the site colors and images, you may be missing something with the layout.  Look at where you’re losing people on the site. If they’re only looking at one page, you may need to add a contact or buy element to the home page.  (This is probably a good idea, anyway.)  If you have an ecommerce site, you may want to add a “suggestion” feature to the site to increase sales.

5. Content, content, content.  When all else fails, rewrite the content!  As you probably know, the content of a site can either encourage people to buy or scare them away.  You want the former!  Trust me!  Take a look at the content and send it to an honest friend.  Ask them if they would buy something from the site.  If not, ask what content could be changed to increase the chances of a sale.

OK, website fans!  That’s it for this week.  If you have a website in need of help, be sure to check back soon for the second part of the series!  If you really need help, contact us.  We’re ready to take a look at your site and give you some ideas.

So, to attempt a “proper prepping” and to act as a resource for the future (when I inevitably improperly prep), here is a mini-list of things to expect when you’re working with an online marketer.

1. Expect a lot of communication with the marketer, and expect to help out a bit.  The marketer knows how to market, but she doesn’t know your business like you do.  She understands social media and content writing and affiliate deals and PPC and the rest of it — but she doesn’t know YOUR business.  (At least, not as well as you do.)  She will need to know the goals for your business, time lines you’re working with, previous marketing you’ve done and probably more information along the way.  Please, please, please communicate openly and often with the marketer.  Believe me, the better the communication, the more successful the campaign.

2. Expect to hear about and to be open to new ideas.  The marketer is coming at your product/business/website with a fresh set of eyes.  This can actually be helpful to you!  She is looking at a problem with her own experience and will come up with some ideas that you have never tried.  That’s what she’s there for!  Be open to the ideas, and add to them.

3. Expect to test and test some more.  One of the most important parts of online marketing is the testing aspect.  Your marketer will come up with an idea.  You’ll agree to the idea and she will put it into play.  Now, the testing begins.  If you have a very large online presence, you may be able to test the idea in a couple of days or even a couple of hours.  However, if you have a smaller online presence (fewer than 5,000 unique visitors per day), it may take several weeks to see if an idea will work.  It’s part of the process.  Go with the flow on this.  Trust me.  Sometimes, the payoffs are huge.

4. Expect to give the marketer some time.  Nothing happens overnight online (well, almost nothing).  For search engines to “discover” website changes and properly rank takes weeks or months, for new campaigns to roll out may take weeks or months.  Do not expect to see much action before 90 days.  (If we’re being perfectly honest, it may take as many as 6 months to really see progress.)  This is completely normal, and you should be prepared.

5. Expect to spend money before you make money.  Things take time, particularly online.  You will definitely spend money before you make any.  Your marketing budget should be large enough that you can go for at least six months without a return.  Of course, this depends on your goals and your site.  However, six months is a good rule of thumb.

6. Expect some failures.  Marketing is ultimately about brainstorming for new ideas and taking a new approach to things.  As as result, some of the ideas won’t be home runs.  (Don’t get me wrong — some ideas will work beautifully, but not all.)  Expect to have a few set-backs and a few discussions about how to tweak a current campaign.  If you or the marketer knew exactly what would work and exactly how long it would take, we’d all be billionaires!  Remember, there is a very volatile third party involved — the consumer.  It’s not always (in fact it is rarely) that this group is predictable.  We can do our best to make an educated guess, but sometimes we guess wrong.

7. Expect to learn a lot about your business and get a lot of information from your marketer.  You should be getting reports about the work that is going on and the progress you are making.  You should be hearing from your marketer at least once a week with new information.  You should be able to contact your marketer and ask questions.  After all, she’s working for you.

Overall, online marketing can make a good company a great company, and an online marketer can help you succeed.  However, it’s very important (for you and for the online marketing firm you hire) that you have realistic expectations.  If, for any reason, you aren’t sure that you’re ready to take on a marketing campaign, wait.  Seriously.  You will be thankful and your marketer will be thankful.

If your goal is to show off your artistic skills, it may be fun to have a beautiful site that doesn’t do a lot.  It’s perfectly acceptable to for your site to be functionally void but with a gorgeous design. (Wait — I lost my place.  Am I talking about a website or Matthew McConaughey?)   If you’re an artist, an interior decorator, a photographer or even a website designer, your site should look stunning.  You want people to look at the design, because that’s what you’re selling.  (One word of advice — NO FLASH. Seriously. It’s too slow to load and it doesn’t work on mobile phones.  You’ll lose people.)

If your goal is to sell products or any other service, you want a site to function properly.  You’ve got to get the navigation working so people can easily contact you for more information or buy a product.  the idea is to put the fewest number of clicks between the home page and the sale.  Always think about that when you’re considering designing the website. Of course, the design needs to be pleasant, but it certainly takes a back seat to functionality.

So, there you have it.  In a nutshell — if you’re an artiste, go for design.  If you’re anything other than an artiste, make sure the darn things works and works well!

What type of site do you have?  Does it need a design/functionality review?  Contact us.  We’ll be happy to take a look!

It’s true that making sure  you have incoming links to your home page is very important.  However, what about linking to those other pages on your site (also known as deep links)?  Many times ignored (never the popular sister, for sure) deep links can really help get your site ranked in the search engines.

So, what’s the best way to get deep links?  It’s all in the details.  Here’s a short checklist to go through when you’re thinking about building deep links to your site.

1. Figure out the best pages on your website.  What are the pages that are really specific to your business?  Maybe they are geo-targeted pages (pages that contain content about a certain area), or maybe it is the page with your most popular product.  Don’t be shy — pick a big group of pages if you wish.

2. Once you have picked the pages, spread the word!  There are many ways to create deep links yourself.  (Some of these methods don’t carry “link juice,” but they will direct visitors to the site, which is great!) Get on your Facebook and Twitter and link to some of these pages.  Look for related blogs and use one of the pages as your “website” in your profile when you comment on the blog.

3. Work on getting text-based deep links from related sites.  Now, the hard part.  You need to get some text links to these internal pages.  How do you do that?  The simple answer is you look around the internet for a related, well-ranked site or blog.  Contact the editor, webmaster/owner and ask if you can write a blog post or provide content.  If he/she says yes, you’re in!  Be sure to place a deep link to your site within the post.

Of course, link building isn’t always so easy.  Sometimes, it just takes some patience and a lot of time.  Got questions?  Ask us!  We’re always ready for a deep, deep link conversation.

Amelia has an adorable aesthetic, and we wanted to make sure that played out on the site.  In addition, it was very important that readers could easily find information and that people were signing up for the newsletter.

Here’s where we started:

Before Lucky Marketing Firm

And here’s where we are now!  Nice!

After Lucky Marketing Firm

If you have a website that needs to go from drab to fab, give us a shout!  We’re happy to help make sure your website looks as good as it should.

So, let’s get right to it.  There are a few things you can do right now that will help your conversion rates begin to creep up a bit.  Take a look and let me know your tips for a higher conversion rate.

1.  Get social! Make sure that there is a “like” button by your product and other share buttons nearby.  When someone buys a product, add a small opt-out that encourages people to share that they just bought the product.  (Make sure it’s opt-out, not opt-in.)  People love to see what their friends are buying, and they may buy, as well!

2. Add compelling content.  More visitors = more conversions.  If you add a great article/blog post, more people will be drawn to the site and your conversions will begin to increase.

3. Delete some steps.  If it takes more than one click to get from the home page to the conversion page, start deleting.  Make it as easy as possible for someone to convert.  With each click, you will lose potential customers.

4. Take a look around your site.  Is it simple to navigate?  Can people find what they want very easily?  If not, it’s time to do some rearranging.  One of the top reasons people leave websites is because they get lost and cannot find what they want.

5. Exploit your best-selling products.  If you have one or two stand-outs, add them to the home page, start Tweeting and Facebooking about them, just get the word out!  (Yes I did just use them as verbs.  A grammar revolution is here — either join or be trampled.)  Your popular items can help draw people in, and since they are top sellers, they will convert at a higher rate than your site average.

OK, folks. There it is: My top 5 ways to help your conversion rate.  Are you working on your conversion rate?  Do you have other great tips?  (There are hundreds!)  Let me know how you lowered your conversion rate.  Or, if you’re struggling with your conversion rate, contact me.  We’ll talk.  No big whup.

Website goals are as different as the websites for which they’re written.  So, what are yours?

1. Build traffic

2. Sell more products

3. Sell more services

4. Raise awareness of your business

5. Solidify your brand

6. Connect with other bloggers

7. Increase the newsletter list

8. Add to your list of social marketing offerings

There are hundreds more!  The important part is deciding exactly what your goals are.  Once you do, you can be assured that your website will be on its way to success.

So, think about it a bit.  What do you hope to achieve with your website?  Sit in a room by yourself for 30 minutes or so and start brain storming.  Write down all of your thoughts.  Before you know it, you’ll have a list of goals.  Yes, they may seem unachievable, but I promise you, they are possible.  Don’t worry about how you’ll get there (we’ll get to that part soon).  Just have the list and commit yourself to the list.

As for me?  Oh. I’m so glad you asked.  My website was originally built in 2009 with the goal of raising awareness about my services.  It worked!  I started getting clients and was so busy that I ignored my poor blog.  But now I’m back with the same goal in mind — to raise awareness about my blog.

So, are you aware?

1. Make sure the site is easy to navigate.  When deciding how you want your site to look, try to think like an average web searcher.  Will someone who knows nothing about the site be able to navigate the site easily?  When he/she is looking for certain information, is the site designed simply enough that he/she will be able to find it?  If the answer is no, take another look at the design and make some changes.

2. Make sure your web team builds the site with a CMS system.  CMS stands for content management system.  Your site MUST have a CMS system.  This will allow you to make changes to the site yourself without having to ask the web builder each time you want to change information like your business hours or to add a picture.  This will cut down on a lot of time and effort on your part.  We at Lucky Marketing Firm insist that every new website is built with a CMS system.  Make sure your online marketing team is just as insistent.

3. Install Google analytics as soon as the site goes live.  Google analytics is a free program offered by Google to help understand the “back end” of your site.  With this analytics program, you’ll be able to see how many people view your site each day, how they find your site, how long they are on your site and which key terms they used to find your site.  It’s an absolutely amazing tool, and you will learn a lot from reviewing your site’s analytics.  

4. Make sure that the team you use to build your site understands your vision for the site.  Every business owner has a goal for his/her website.  Communicate your goal to your online marketing team.  Make sure that you’re all on the same page.  If your web team or marketing team doesn’t understand your vision or tries to change your vision, it may be time to look for a new internet marketing consultant. 

Websites can get complicated, but don’t let yourself get overwhelmed.  If you have any questions about your website, or if you’d like to build a new site, please contact the marketing team at Lucky Marketing Firm.  We’d be lucky to help you!