Simon Bussell, European marketing manager at UK firm Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP, reveals the steps to search engine optimisation success.

In a world full of social-networking sites, blogs, RSS [really simple syndication] feeds and webcasts, having a website just is not good enough. Gone are the days where law firms can put their brochures and partner profiles online, sit back and say 'job done'. With the increasing importance of return on investment (ROI) and lead generation, a website must be able to perform and demonstrate that it can bring in new business and add value to existing clients.
With sophisticated tracking tools and increasing integration with client-relationship management (CRM) and billing systems, and other marketing channels, a website makes for a powerful tool. With such potential at your fingertips online activities should be a core part of a law firm's overall business strategy.
That is all well and good but you need to make sure that users can find your site in the first place. One of the key-performance indicators of a law firm's website should be driving traffic to its site and turning those visitors into clients. The latter is beyond the scope of this article but for the former, I would like to cover search engine optimisation (SEO).

Effective use of SEO
There are many definitions of SEO but essentially it is to ensure consumers can find your brand online.
That may make it sound very simple but there is a lot more to SEO than you think. It is a complex and time-consuming process, which includes designing, writing, coding and maintaining your website so that there is a good chance that it will appear at the top of the search results for your chosen keywords and phrases.
So, you've got your website. Now you just need to wait for all of those potential clients to find your site, right? Wrong.
SEO needs to be an integral part of any website, whether you are about to develop one or have already got one. Of course, it does have its good and bad points. Some of these are outlined below:

Pros

• Search can be used to mop up any leads that may have missed other channels;
• Provides a 'closed loop' to enhance other marketing communications;
• Highly targetable medium providing good ROI.

Cons

• Another channel to ponder at planning stage;
• Can be quite complex and may involve an additional agency relationship;
• Requires constant updating.

Even when taking any negative factors into account you should still optimise your site. Here are a few things you need to consider when you do:

1. Measure/benchmark
Ensure you record your statistics before optimising your site or beginning a pay-per-click (PPC) campaign. Two types of analysis you need to consider are situation analysis and competitor analysis.

Situation analysis.
Some of the reports you will need to run are:

• Search engine inclusion '“ how many pages of your site are included on each major search engine index;
• Link popularity check '“ how many incoming links you have to your site;
• Search engine rankings '“ where you are currently ranked on the search engines;
• Unique visitor analysis '“ how many visitors are coming to your site? You will need a web-tracking tool for this;
• Conversion analysis '“ for ROI purposes you need to track how many of those unique visitors turn into clients;
• Key page analysis '“ this will tell you which of the pages on your site are critical to your SEO campaign;
• On-page factors '“ how well optimised your pages are, for example, content and keywords; and,
• Off-page factors '“ this includes the technical details and whether your site is using any spam techniques, knowingly or unknowingly.

Competitor analysis
If you research well-ranked competitor sites, this will help you understand the SEO strategies of successfully ranked sites. You can use successful competitors as benchmarks for your campaign.

2. Understand your audience
Think about whether they are potential employees, future trainees or potential clients. You could even go as far as defining whether they are tech-savvy or technophobes. This can determine which search engine your audience use.
It is also crucial to understand what they are searching for in order to choose the correct keywords and phrases.

3. Organic versus PPC
Both of these are effective ways of generating traffic to your site. PPC is extremely targetable and measurable and, with immediate results, can be an instant win for the firm. But it is limited and if I had to choose between organic and PPC, then organic is the clear winner.
Although organic SEO is a marathon rather than a sprint process, with longer lead times than a PPC campaign, the results are not only preferred by Google users but it builds trust with the search engines.

Organic SEO

• Longer lead times;
• 75 per cent Google users prefer organic;
• Builds search engine trust.

PPC SEO

• Quick results;
• Can be run alongside SEO for maximum impact;
• Potentially expensive;
• You stop paying and the traffic stops.

I would always recommend that you carry out organic SEO but for maximum impact, running a PPC campaign alongside organic SEO can produce stunning results.

4. Agency versus in-house
Deciding whether you go it alone or call in the experts will depend on many factors. Some pointers that could help you decide the most effective way to proceed include:

In-house

• Requires specific skills;
• Resource heavy;
• Requires special software '“ for example, keyword trackers or web analytics.

Agency

• Choosing the right agency '“ the pitch process is time consuming;
• What happens if you pick the wrong agency? You will need to ensure that it is ethical;
• Potentially expensive.

If you don't have the skills in-house then the solution may be to hire an agency with the premise that its staff will ensure that they transfer their skills to your in-house team.

5. Site build
If you're building a new site or are updating your current one, then you need to think carefully about the following elements.

Content-management system (CMS)
Not only is a CMS essential for editing your site but it can aid you significantly in SEO. Ideally, you will need one that can handle metatags, alt tags and breadcrumb trails.

Navigation
Keep it simple. On the Field Fisher Waterhouse site we have, in a way, returned to the navigation systems of the mid-1990s, with an expanding menu on the left hand side. Not only is this easy for search engine spiders to navigate but it also works well for users.

Javascript and cascading style-sheets
Both of these should be put into separate files so the search engine spiders don't get lost in the coding.

Build your site for users and not search engines
This does not just include the technicalities but the content as well.

6. Search engines
Choosing which search engines to focus on is important and can vary depending on who you are targeting. On the whole you'll be fairly safe if you stick to the top five: Google; Yahoo!; MSN; AOL; and, Ask. Understanding how the engines rank the pages is useful to know. Each has its own rules for listing sites and the FAQ pages on each engine are a useful starting point.

7. Identify keywords/phrases
This stage is hugely important as it forms the backbone of future stages '“ for example, copywriting and link building.

Don't guess
Do not guess, and do not necessarily choose keywords that generate the most results. Take into account the competitiveness of each keyword. Trying to achieve rankings on search phrases that have five million competing sites will be difficult, if not impossible.

Be specific
By being specific you can be much more targeted. Users are generally searching using three or four words. They are becoming more sophisticated in their searches as they know that by doing so they are more likely to get to the site or the information that they are after.

Tools and software
There are lots of tools out there to help you decide the best keywords or phrases to allocate. Of course, an agency will also have sophisticated software that to help you in this area.

8. Implementation
Content optimisation. This stage should involve:

• Production of new, focused content for integration on website;
• Optimisation of current content;
• Once you have identified your keywords/phrases then, essentially, you need to repeat those keywords and phrases as often as possible. Ideally, 10 per cent of the copy should be keywords;
• Copy should be written with those keywords/phrases as close to the beginning as possible, since some engines place more importance on keywords near the top of the page than those near the bottom;
• Keywords work best when placed in groups of two, three and sometimes four. An optimised website is far more likely to achieve good listings for a key phrase than a mere keyword;
• You should aim for 250-300 words per page; and,
• Metatags '“ ensure you include description text, title tags, keywords and alternative tags.

Being ethical
It is unrealistic to expect brands to really understand what is ethical and unethical, particularly as it is such a grey area. It is so hazy that even SEO experts around the world argue over it. Even so, Google has some guidelines that will help you:

• Make pages for users not search engines;
• Do not deceive your users or present them with different content than you display to search engines, a practice called 'cloaking';
• Avoid tricks intended to improve search-engine rankings. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself 'Does this help my users and would I do this if search engines didn't exist?';
• Do not participate in link schemes that are designed to increase your website's ranking or PageRank;
• In particular, avoid links to web spammers online as the connection may adversely affect your own ranking;
• Do not use unauthorised computer programmes to submit pages or check rankings and so forth. These consume computing resources and violate Google's terms of service.

Spiderability
What I mean by 'spiderability' is the ability for spiders to crawl your site. An easy way of helping them to do this is by using a site map and by way of contextual links. With contextual links, make sure that when you mention other pages on your site you link to them. This will help the spiders navigate your site. When you're writing your intellectual property text and you mention 'patents' then, assuming you have one, ensure you link to your patents page.

Steer clear of the dreaded 'click here'
Always use words in your destination page as the link rather than 'click here'. For example, 'You can read more in our Corporate Social Responsibility section'.

9. Measure and report
You will need to run some of the same reports as when you began your SEO.Those reports which you should be running regularly are:

• Unique visitor analysis;
• Search phrase positions '“ constantly monitor search phrases and the traffic they are generating;
• Conversion rates; and,
• Link popularity check.

10. Continuous improvement
SEO is not simply a 'launch and leave' medium. It needs constant updating and monitoring. The search engine algorithms are constantly changing so what could be in today's number-one spot could be tomorrow's number 15. Continuous improvement measures include:

• Link building;
• Creating new content;
• Monitoring ranking algorithms;
• Reporting;
• Search phrase analysis; and,
• Search engine submission.

Link building
Link building is one of the most crucial factors in successful SEO. It is the acquisition and development of incoming links to your website. A successful linking strategy includes:

Reciprocal linking
If you are going to enter into reciprocal linking then ensure that the site which is linking back to you is relevant and has a good Google PageRank.

Proliferation of news items to online public relations sites
Public relations (PR) web distribution services will publish your content with links back to your site. Quite often, if the content is newsworthy or topical, other sites will publish it and, therefore, provide more links back to your site.

Utilising non-legal news items
This is a great way to increase the number of optimised pages on your site. Don't just stick to what your firm is up to. Pick up on topical news. This not only acts as a 'hook' for clients but it gives them a reason to return. It keeps your content current, which is good for users and search engines. If the content is topical and timely then you may find that other sites pick up on it '“ and they will link back to you. Large successes can be found by being the first to publish optimised content for a popular new subject on the web. Pages which appear online first have a head start in earning search engine trust and have the longest time to collect inbound links. It is often possible to have a page which reaches 'authority' status on a subject simply by having it online before anyone else.
However, optimised content is resource and time heavy. Ideally you should have processes in place to make it work smoothly. Optimising search remains as much an art as a science, but it is an area marketers cannot afford to ignore. With so much information and so many competitors on the web, a prime spot in the search rankings is vital if a brand is to compete.

Simon Bussell is European marketing manager at Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP. He can be contacted at simon.bussell@ffw.com

A version of this article first appeared in Ark Group's  Strategic Marketing in the Legal  Profession (Second Edition) report.

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