understanding search engine optimization and analytics for law firms

understanding analytics

legal tech san francisco, ca october 15, 2013

your speaker today was a former…

a.  opera singer? b.  taiji instructor? c.  ballerina?

Steve Hennigs, Siteimprove

Jeanette Nuzum, Orrick

Burkey Belser, Greenfield/Belser

the audience today

  what’s your level of familiarity with SEO?   what challenges have you found in your firm?   do I distinguish SEO from social media?   what do you hope to learn?   what do you want to take back to your leadership?

understanding analytics

you will learn   what search engine optimization is and why you

should care   the basics of SEO on and off your site   how to evaluate SEO providers   understanding Google and navigating Analytics   advanced analytics tactics   the ideal report to management

what is search engine optimization (and why should I care?)

search engine optimization (SEO) defined: SEO is any activity an organization undertakes to improve their website’s visibility and ranking for organic search what does this include, really?

why should I care? the future of the law firm website

growth of search

why does Google care?

70-90% of clicks

73% never go to p.2

why should I care? the future of the law firm website

  what do I want to achieve?   what do my partners say they want?

the basics of SEO on and off your site

onsite SEO

deals with making sure Google can find your web pages in order to show them in their search results appropriately. This is accomplished through relevant, detailed and helpful content.

offsite SEO deals with trying to get other websites to tell Google what your website is about and (2) that’s in an authority in the industry, a website they can trust. This is done through linkbuilding.

onsite v. offsite challenges

onsite challenges

  area of focus   keyword research   basic issues   website content   website design   internal links

what is the main purpose of the website? divide and conquer identify low hanging fruit

area of focus

onsite challenges

  area of focus   keyword research   basic issues   website content   website design   internal links

three steps to keyword research

1.  get a base list a.  talk to “strangers” b.  read your users minds

2.  expand your base list with tools 3.  choose high volume/low cost keywords

for optimizing!

firm employees ideas of keywords: legalese, legalese, legalese, legalese, legalese potential clients (strangers) ideas of keywords: layman terms, layman terms, layman terms, layman terms

you need to optimize for the terms your potential clients are using!

if you can’t find any corporate counsel or CEOs to talk to, ask your mom how she would look for a lawyer. She does not speak legalese

talk to “strangers”

internal site search reading your users minds!

searches used on www.sitemiprove.com. gives us clues about what users are looking for.

stranger data + user data =

base list of keywords

expand your base list with tools both of these tools are free!

choose your keywords best keywords will have a high number of monthly searches and a low estimated cost per click you are doing a cost/benefit analysis for your keywords to get the most bang for your buck (ok time not buck but you get the idea)

onsite challenges

  keyword research   basic issues   website content   website design   internal links

basic issues

Use good document structure and avoid errors   page titles   meta descriptions   H1 tags   avoid duplicates in your

titles, meta descriptions and H1 tags

  avoid misspellings

what is good for search robots…. is also good for website visitors!

basic issues

basic issues

“Titles are critical to giving users a quick insight into the content of a result and why it’s relevant to their query. It's often the primary piece of information used to decide which result to click on, so it's important to use high-quality titles on your web pages.”

– Google Supporthttp://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35624

basic issues

basic issues

siteimprove.com 1-855-SITEIMPROVE [email protected]

basic issues

search for “sequestration government construction contract”

basic issues

“The description attribute within the <meta> tag is a good way to provide a concise, human-readable summary of each page’s content. Google will sometimes use the meta description of a page in search results snippets, if we think it gives users a more accurate description than would be possible purely from the on-page content. Accurate meta descriptions can help improve your clickthrough.”

– Google Support, http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35624

benefits of good document structure

•  first place on google? not guaranteed, but certainly helps

•  makes pages more readable to both

people and search engines

•  highlights keywords in a way that search

engines understand

basic issues

am law 100

first 1,000 pages of AM Law 100 websites average

  342 pages with duplicate page titles   625 pages missing meta descriptions   186 pages missing H1 tags   524 pages with duplicate H1 tags   11 misspellings (also not good for SEO)

basic issues

onsite challenges


website content

 make it relevant  make it readable, little legalese  make it timely  give it a x-factor: funny,

provocative, thoughtful, etc.

website content semantic markup – www.schema.org Use micro data like Authorship to help search engines identify key areas of your content Why do this? •  Attorney visibility •  Easy links to other articles

of the same author •  Does not impact SEO yet

but Moz recommends using it in their 2013 ranking factors report

onsite challenges


website design: relevance

website design: call to action

website design: forms

onsite challenges


internal links

•  link in context

•  make links relevant and necessary (use common sense)

•  have the link text match the destination

internal links

am law 100 sites average 19 internal broken links and 39 external broken links on their first 1,000 indexed pages

avoid broken links both to your own pages, known as internal links and to external resources, known as external links. google (and more importantly people) can’t follow broken links!

onsite v. offsite challenges

offsite challenges

  Link building

link building

link building is defined as creating content that people will link to and then encouraging people to do so

link building when someone links to you (on their website, through social media, etc.) they are indicating two things: 1.  they trust you and are showing that they have

some sort of relationship with you 2.  they find your content valuable

search engines recognize this trust as credibility for your site. if enough relevant and authoritative people (and websites) link to you, your rank will go up!

link building

but my content is boring….. – be inspiring – be provoking – be fun – do the unexpected – bring zombies

link building

what not to do •  do not pay for links •  do not participate in too many link

directories •  avoid having irrelevant websites linking to

you

A couple notes on algorithm changes

337 SEO changes by Google every year

panda could be great for law firms

quick panda rundown

  algorithm update between February and April in 2011

  focused on getting rid of low quality content   added human review as part of ranking

methodology   added engagement metrics as part of ranking

methodology —pogosticking is bad

what can you do? •  start measuring engagement (time on site, number of

returning visitors vs. new visitors, bounce rate)

•  review and improve what is being indexed for your site –  do a google search for site:www.myfirm.com –  remove unnecessary pages from the index with robots.txt file or

by using canonical urls

•  increase social media shares

•  produce quality content

penguin

quick penguin rundown announced on April 24, 2012 with a refresh on May 25

•  link spammers •  keyword stuffing •  cloaking •  participants in link

schemes •  deliberate creators

of duplicate content •  over optimizers

aimed at the cheaters

what can you do? periodically read the google webmaster guidelines (with a grain of salt)

and if that wasn’t enough, hummingbird

how to evaluate SEO providers

•  Is keyword research part of their strategy? How do they determine the benefit of ranking for a particular keyword vs. the cost of pursuing that ranking?

•  Will they share an overview of their tactics with you? If not, move on.

•  How have they adjusted their strategies to accommodate the Panda and Penguin algorithm updates?

•  What is their approach to link building? How do they feel about buying links?

•  What are their thoughts on using Content Marketing as a SEO strategy?

a provider checklist

•  How does Social Media figure into their plans for your firm’s SEO?

•  Will they ensure that everyone agrees on expectations for the SEO project before signing a contract?

•  Does the company make an effort to understand your firm? Do they provide a site audit?

•  What data will the company provide to you in order to keep you updated on the progress of the project and the ROI?

•  How will the company ensure each of your offices performs well in local search?

•  Do they have references that you can call?

a provider checklist

traditional SEO keyword research on-page SEO link building

modern SEO social media content marketing detailed ROI local and mobile

where you

want to be!

the balance you want

a trustworthy company will…

  share their tactics   agree on expectations up front   be empathetic to your needs   provide references   new art on home page

let’s take a tour

details of the dashboard overview can be found in standard reports

on other browsers, this is still “traffic sources”

Where to start? What’s the overall view of my website’s traffic?

OK, I see how many visitors I have, but I want to know where the traffic is coming from (“sources” is now “channels”)

A good percentage of my website’s traffic is from search engines – what kinds of keywords are users searching for that bring them here?

I know search engines are a source, but how can I tell which visitors are coming through paid search (AdWords) as opposed to organic SEO?

I’m curious if the locations of my website’s visitors are the same as where our firm offers services?

Now that I know where the traffic is coming from, I want to know the pages they’re going to once they get to my site.

Top 10 are color coded and the rest are lumped together

Ok, I see what the most popular landing pages are, but what are the behavioral patterns of visitors once they’re in my website?

are we still alive?

advanced web analytics tactics

1.  investigate your data 2.  identify your Key Performance Indicators and

Micro Conversions 3.  segment your audience

investigating your data

what information is missing in the standard deployment of web analytics tools?

missing the following data: ●  Clicks to documents; PDF and all Microsoft Office documents - $ ●  Clicks to Vcards - $

missing the following data: ●  Visible clicks of visitors who arrived to your website via email ●  Clicks to items that do not load new pages (videos, sharing icons, mailto

links, many tab based pages) - $

missing the following data: ●  Clicks to cached pages (up to ⅓ of all page views!)

Can be fixed $ - Costs money and/or time Can’t be fixed


what are events and how are they tracked?

tracking events

an event in web analytics is a user interaction on a website that does not load a new page.

Clicks to play video/audio

Clicks to tabs that do no load new pages Clicks to sharing icons

why is it important? 1.  organizations are adding more video and audio (like

podcasts) to their websites 2.  sharing functionality is now standard on most

websites 3.  utilizing tabs and expandable menus is becoming

commonplace because it enhances the user experience

4.  other functionality will continue to be introduced that will not load pages

how do you know what is working if you cannot measure it!!!

Orrick can now understand over time what videos are being played on their Careers page. This can help determine the content for future videos as well as helping them understand which videos to keep on the page and which to remove.

can’t we just pick these things up with our standard web analytics javascript?

no!

javascripts for web analytics tools require a page to load in order for the javascript to execute and then collect data. events do not require a page to load no page load = no data additional coding is needed in all analytics tools to pick up events. talk with your analytics provider to determine setup.


why campaign tracking is critical to law firm web analytics

tracking campaigns

clicks from email, paid advertisements and offline cannot be tracked without campaign tracking

here is the problem…

This is better

how do you get there?

•  determine what marketing channels you use – email, social media, etc.

•  add tracking parameters to your urls that you send out in those channels

•  analyze your new campaign data!

current url: http://www.orrick.com/Events-and-Publications/Pages/Class-Action-Settlements-Rule-68-Offers-of-Judgment.aspx

http://goo.gl/67bzw

Event Tracking URL: http://www.orrick.com/Events-and-Publications/Pages/Class-Action-Settlements-Rule-68-Offers-of-Judgment.aspx?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=class+action+event&utm_campaign=october2013

Orrick could now see what links within their enewsletters are driving traffic. This can help them understand what to do in future mailings. Email marketing tools provide great data on “open rate” and “click through rate” but not enough information about what people do once on your website. Campaign tracking helps complete the picture.

guidelines for campaign tracking

●  be consistent with how you name them ○  all newsletters have the source “newsletter”

●  be aware of case sensitivity ○  “Email” and “email” will show up differently in your

report ●  request a free white paper on tracking campaigns at the

siteimprove booth

when to use campaign tracking

• email blasts • client alerts • linkedin posting • twitter campaigns • online advertising (sponsoring events,

ads in publications, etc.)

2. Identify key performance indicators and micro conversions

what is a key performance indicator (kpi)?

wikipedia: key performance indicators are financial and non-financial metrics used to help an organization progress towards organizational goals identify

siteimprove: numbers you can use to measure whether or not your website is performing in line with your objectives

identifying your kpis 1.  talk with leaders in the firm to determine

how the website contributes to overall business objectives

2.  identify what you are currently doing and plan on doing in the future on the website to achieve those goals

3.  select metrics in your analytics tool that help you measure that progress (these metrics are now your kpis!)

what makes a great kpi?

●  simple ●  relevant ●  timely ●  instantly useful

good rule: have no more than 4 kpis per business objective

getting beyond KPIs

micro conversions

●  signing up for a client alert ●  subscribing to a newsletter ●  vcard downloads

definition: micro conversions are metrics that indicate the website is performing to its desired intent but are not strong enough to be kpis on your website.

potential examples of micro conversions

setting targets is key

targets - numerical values you have predetermined as indicators of success or failure. must have yearly targets, better to have quarterly or monthly.

3. segment our audience

there is too much data out there!!!

what makes a good segment? ●  it makes a metric or kpi more relevant ●  it gives you the clarity necessary to

recommend action

three buckets: acquisition, behavior, outcomes

what is a segment in web analytics?

looking at sections of data rather than all the data at once.

why do this stuff?

•  events and campaign tracking – completes the data picture

•  kpis and micro conversions – ensures you are measuring what is important

•  segmentation – allows you to focus your efforts

all of this leads to the generation of a great report with recommendations you can present to management and then improve the website!

why do this stuff?

reporting to management

or: get busy executives to listen today… so they will fund your efforts tomorrow

define your goals, do your homework

define the purpose of your site

  firm brand awareness   recognition   client information source   a way to validate Orrick’s expertise (via legal news,

articles/blogs/webinars, bios, legal experience, service descriptions)

  find attorneys (who are understandably focused on their own practice)

as a client information source, tabulate

  visitors that visit at least four pages related to the IP practice (news items, attorney biographies, practice pages, etc.)

  total email subscriptions for IP news, etc.   total subscriptions to Trade Secrets Watch blog   visit duration over four minutes on Trade Secrets

Watch blog (knowing that the average person takes one minute to read 300 words)

brand awareness/recognition

  review Orrick’s overall traffic against three competing firms (Jones Day, Mofo, Covington) to understand its relative market position

  tabulate total organic searches for IP attorneys by name plus searches containing “Orrick” with some form of “IP” in the keyword. Measure month over month to evaluate Orrick’s growth as IP brand.

  tabulate number of visits to Orrick website from award-granting organizations’ websites

share your takeaways; questions?