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The key to any successful digital marketing strategy is knowing your audience. When you know your audience, you can customize your website, your content, and even your business to meet their needs. However, you may be surprised to learn just how often the needs of people with disabilities are overlooked. 

For law firms, personal injury law firms in particular, ensuring your digital marketing plan is accessible is essential. This is especially true because personal injury law firm clients are often those who have become disabled because of a severe injury. 

Your web marketing team at ApricotLaw will tailor your plan to meet your law firm’s needs—which means addressing accessibility concerns before they ever become a problem. Below, we go into further detail about why web accessibility is important, some of the more common accessibility issues, and ways we’re prepared to address them. 

Why Web Accessibility Matters

Making sure your website is accessible is essential if you want to reach as much of your target audience as possible. By failing to meet accessibility needs, you could turn your back on a considerable number of potential clients who need your help. 

Not to mention the fact that making websites as accessible as possible is the only ethical thing to do when so many people suffer from disabilities. 

Common Accessibility Concerns and How to Fix Them

Inclusive marketing campaigns are often based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Some of the more common accessibility issues and solutions include:

• Writing for readability
• Including text descriptions for images
• Having a hierarchical layout
• Providing labels for form elements
• Pairs of colors in a sites color scheme should have a 4.5:1 contrast ratio
• Use closed captions and transcripts for videos with audio
• The site needs to be navigable without the use of a mouse
• Font choices should be simple and easy to read

As seen, there are many minor details that go into making a website accessible for people with disabilities. 

As a law firm or business, it is in your best interests to do the right thing and keep these individuals, and your potential clients, in mind when designing your site and curating content both for your website and your social media presence. Your digital marketing strategy should include close attention to these details if you hope to avoid any accessibility concerns in the future. 

Contact Digital Marketing Experts for You Lawyer SEO

When you have accessibility issues and concerns that you can’t or cannot address, your digital marketing team at ApricotLaw can take care of them for you. 

Whether you have an established site that needs auditing or are starting with a brand new one, accessibility concerns will be a thing of the past. Fill out the quick contact form we included below or call us at 877-203-0751 so we can inspect your law firm marketing plan. 

Getting traffic to your website is a key part of law firm search engine optimization, or SEO. But how do you get the attention of potential clients? You may have heard the phrase “search intent,” but how do you apply this idea to your website and pull in traffic from new clients?

Understanding and using search intent for law firm SEO is key to building an audience for your website. But it can be difficult to get started, especially if you’re new to SEO. Here are a few tips for you to keep in mind as you build your website and seek out an audience for your legal services.

What Is Search Intent?

When you’re building a digital marketing campaign, your main goal is to capture what potential clients are looking for and offer solutions. Focusing on what clients are looking for helps you offer products and services that benefit them.

Search intent speaks to the purpose behind a potential client’s search terms. For example, let’s say someone was injured in a car accident, so they searched “best car accident lawyers near me.” Their search intent is to hire a car accident lawyer in their area.

Knowing why someone is searching for a particular product or service can help you market your pages toward those goals. If you’re a divorce lawyer, you don’t want your pages to get traffic from people looking for traffic ticket attorneys or work accident lawyers, for example. But how do you optimize your website and content to account for search intent?

Using Search Intent for Quality Traffic

As Google’s search algorithm advances, searches are better understood and can help people find the solutions they’re looking for. Because of this, you may need to optimize your site based on the searches your clients may be using.

Including questions on the page that you believe people are searching for is your first step. For example, a lawyer looking for family law cases may add questions like, “What are my visitation rights as a grandparent?” Pages including these kinds of questions have a better chance of ranking better and getting more traffic from relevant visitors.

Using search intent to your advantage can help you connect to the right potential clients. Rather than relying solely on keywords—which may even get you the wrong kind of traffic if chosen poorly—you’ll have a chance to talk to people who need your specific services.

Make Search Intent Count—Contact a SEO Company

When you’re trying to maximize the quality traffic to your website, you need to know how people are searching for their needs and how to make the most of those search terms. But you may not have experience or access to the tools you need. Search intent can be complex, and it’s easy to make a mistake that could hurt your traffic.

That’s where the SEO team at ApricotLaw can help. We have the tools you need to take advantage of your search terms and make a difference on your traffic. Ready to reach more people and get quality leads from these searches? Call 877-203-0751, or fill out the online contact form below.

Making a great first impression is key for many people looking for a law firm to work with. But it’s not just your content and your rank on Google that decides whether people will work with you. Your website design can make a difference to visitors and potential clients. 

But how can website design help your law firm, specifically? Below are a few principles we follow when designing your website. By considering what your clients may be looking for in a website, we can help you design a website that converts clients and supports your law firm. 

Accessibility for Clients 

When a client clicks on your website, they want clear, easy-to-read steps and answers for their most pressing questions. They may have just been through a difficult life experience, and a website that’s not very accessible can be a major hurdle for them. Worse, people with disabilities may be unable to use your site or navigate it easily. 

Your website designer should take in these considerations when designing your site. By making your site easier to read and navigate, you have a better chance of keeping readers on the page. Then, you have a better chance to make those readers into clients. 

Promoting Your Law Firm Brand 

Your website design should promote and mesh well with your branding. Your website designers can use your logo, logo colors, and other parts of your brand throughout the site. That means more opportunities for potential clients to recognize your brand and convert to clients. 

For example, you may use coordinating colors and include your logo on your site. These may seem like small steps, but branding your website can make a big difference. Clashing design elements can be just as noticeable and confusing as clashing information in your content for readers, so a cohesive website design is a key part of your branding. 

Boosting Conversion

When people look at your website, their criteria for conversion doesn’t begin and end with the testimonials. Maybe you have a long list of satisfied customers, but if your website is outdated, tough to navigate, and confusing, it can hurt your chances of conversion. Nearly half of the people in one Stanford study said a professional design made them more likely to choose that company.

A beautiful, professional website tells people visually that you mean business. But if your website hasn’t received that level of attention and care, it can be tough to convert visitors into clients. 

Connect with a Legal Website Design Company

Optimizing your website’s content and links for ranking and traffic are key parts of a successful website, but website design can help your law firm succeed, too. If your potential clients can’t navigate the page, how will you convert them into clients? 

Luckily, the designers at ApricotLaw can help. We have tools to make beautiful, fast, responsive websites for your firm. If you’re ready to build a great website, give us a call at 877-203-0751 or fill out the online form below to schedule your free consultation. 

Website design is more than just making a website look good. A lot of elements must work together to make your site shine and function for your business. 

Law firms offer legal services to their clients, but your clients can’t shop for those services on your site. Your site has a different purpose than other types of businesses. Your site must convince your potential clients to pick up the phone and call you.

That’s not always easy to do. There’s a lot of competition out there, and clients could choose any lawyer. You have to help potential clients decide why they want to choose you. That’s a lot or work a website has to do. So what elements are the most important to include on your website in order to get traffic to your site and get people to call you?

Elements You Should Include on Your Law Firm’s Website

One of the most important priorities for your website design should be easy navigation. Sometimes, the simplest websites are the most effective. You want your site to be easy for people to understand. You want to make sure it answers your site visitor’s questions in a clear, intuitive way.

Easy navigation is different for different people, but you should think carefully about what your site visitors will care about. For law firms, a results page might be important. Visitors want to see that you have had success in the past for other clients.

Another important priority for your website is the appearance, of course. You want to make sure your branding is on point and your website is appealing. What do you want your potential clients to feel when they arrive on your site? Do you want them to feel like they can trust you? Do you want them to feel calm?

Colors, styles, graphics, and media can all play a role on influencing the potential client. You want to make sure they feel comfortable on your site, not overwhelmed by flashing graphics, popups, and media. Think carefully about your site’s every design element.

Being mobile-friendly is more important today than it was in the past. A lot of people use their phones for everything. Many don’t even have a desktop anymore. Your website must be signed for the mobile user.

Get in Contact with a Law Firm Marketing Company

Law firm marketing companies are experienced in marketing websites for law firms. They already have website designers who know how to make your law firm sparkle online. You won’t have to lift a finger or worry about which design elements are most important. You can sit back and let your legal marketing company do the work for you.

If you’re still not sure if you want to hire a company, talk with someone about your website goals instead. Call 877-203-0751 to contact ApricotLaw. You can also fill out the form below to reach us. We offer a free website analysis for those who reach out.

Online marketing differs from offline marketing in many ways. Offline marketing strategies often involve reaching out to potential customers to grab their attention and pull them in. Commercials, direct mail pieces, and newspaper ads are all forms of offline, outbound marketing.

Online marketing can also involve reaching out for leads with outbound methods, such as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. But brands that use PPC ads likely put effort toward inbound marketing, as well. Inbound marketing involves strategically convincing your potential customers to come to you. That way, they feel they found you on their own

With search engine optimization (SEO), you can rank your website at the top of Google and generate leads organically. Although SEO takes work, it’s one of the best ways to see a long-term return on your investment. At ApricotLaw, we specialize in law firm SEO because we believe it’s one of the best law firm marketing strategies out there.

Link Building

Link building is the bread and butter of any strong SEO campaign. To rank high in Google for your desired keywords, you must have strong and relevant links pointing back to your website. Once Google notices that you have a strong backlink profile, your website authority will build. Links work similarly to reviews. Strong links give you a good reputation in the eyes of Google and boost your status.

Content Writing

Without quality content on your website, you’ll have difficulty ranking, getting traffic, and generating leads. Google uses your website content to identify what keywords you want to rank for. Your content should be optimized for your law firm’s practice areas and location. It’s also important to write your content for your target audience. Ranking well in Google means nothing if you can’t convert website visitors.

Social Media

Your social media platforms are where you can engage with past clients and build your brand. Although social media may seem pointless to some, platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have become a search engine to many internet users. Without a strong social media presence, you may lose leads. You should encourage past clients to post positive reviews on your social pages and humanize yourself by interacting on social.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

Although PPC ads are an outbound marketing strategy, they can be helpful in generating leads while you work on SEO for your law firm. Although SEO is valuable, it takes time. During this time, you may not be visible to your target audience in Google. PPC ads can bring your website to the top results and bring in some traffic while you work on ranking your website organically.

Reach Out to Our Law Firm Marketing Agency

At ApricotLaw, we offer a free website analysis to determine the health of your law firm’s website before developing a custom online marketing strategy. We know it can feel overwhelming to dive right into various online endeavors, which is why our team eases your burden by doing the grunt work.

If you’re ready to discuss your law firm’s marketing goals in greater detail, you can schedule a free consultation with us by calling 877-203-0751 or by filling out the contact form below.

The coronavirus pandemic is sweeping through the United States at full force. As citizens work to protect themselves and others from contracting the virus, life as we once knew it has changed. Stay-at-home orders have been initiated in most states for the foreseeable future, and many courts are closed. With no new cases getting filed in many places, your law firm is likely seeing a decrease in leads.

Naturally, with few leads coming in, you may be tempted to decrease your search engine optimization (SEO) budget. But it’s important to remember that COVID-19 won’t last forever. When life returns to normal, your law firm could benefit from the situation with several new cases. However, if you aren’t ranking on Google at that point because you’ve cut your digital marketing budget, how will potential clients find you?

At ApricotLaw, we understand that law firm SEO is a long-term investment. It takes months to reach the top of organic search results. Although your SEO budget may seem like the first expense to cut during this time, you should consider how important your rankings are to future business. There are benefits to holding strong as the coronavirus drags on.

The Internet Is Busier Than Ever

With so many people stuck in their homes, internet traffic has spiked considerably. The New York Times wrote in early March 2020 that Seattle saw a 30 percent increase in overall internet traffic in just one week, and internet use worldwide has skyrocketed as more people are working, learning, and spending time at home and online.
While these users may not all be searching for legal services, there’s likely some people looking for information about the law in your state.

When you cut your law firm SEO budget, your rankings are likely to drop and your online visibility can suffer. You stand to lose brand recognition, which means internet users may not know about you when or if they ever need your services.

Be Smarter Than Your Competition

Many law firms are likely to reduce their SEO efforts during the COVID-19 outbreak. If you’re smarter than your competitors and you maintain law firm SEO, you may be able to grab the top spots on Google for your most desired keywords while your competitors fall to the wayside. When the coronavirus pandemic ends, most law firms will resume their SEO. But at this point, you’ll be well ahead of the game.

SEO Is a Long-Term Game

SEO isn’t like pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, where you can turn it on and off without consequences. SEO takes months to deliver results. Once you stop putting in the effort to maintain those results, your site can drop in rankings. Money may seem tight now, but halting your digital marketing campaign could mean losing even more money later.

Speak with a Legal SEO Agency

Our team at ApricotLaw is prepared to remain in this fight with you. We work remotely and will work hard to keep your law firm website ranking through this pandemic. That way, you’ll be positioned to emerge on top when the courts reopen and cases flow in. If you want to discuss your lawyer SEO services, call us at 877-203-0751 or fill out the contact form below.