13 Mistakes Common in PERSONAL INJURY WEBSITES

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1 13 Mistakes Common in PERSONAL INJURY WEBSITES by Jim Pawell direct

2 The number of people searching for personal injury information on the web has exploded. Here are monthly Google search volumes for a small number of the keyword phrases that injury web searchers are using: 20,400,000 accident 13,600,000 injury 2,740,000 car accident 1,500,000 personal injury 673,000 medical malpractice 550,000 injury lawyer 550,000 negligence 450,000 injury attorney 450,000 motorcycle accident 368,000 road accident 301,000 wrongful death 301,000 product liability 246,000 personal injury attorney 201,000 accident lawyers 165,000 elder abuse 135,000 back injury 110,000 slip and fall 110,000 bike accident Strengthening competition As the number of prospective injury clients searching the web has grown, so has the amount of time and money that personal injury lawyers are putting into their web marketing efforts. More injury websites are: Focused solely on personal injury Longer and better-written than a few soft pages Kept fresh with regularly-added content Brought to life with video Optimized for the search engines In addition to battling local web competitors, personal injury lawyers are up against the national web marketers. Dozens of sites that are heavily advertised nationwide are trolling for personal injury clients. A few examples are:

3 How to obtain more high-quality clients from your website A good website or blog will pull in better-quality clients than TV or Yellow Pages, and can do so at a lower cost per client. The keys to success are: 1. Good page position on the search engines 2. Strong and unique content that appeals to sophisticated searchers 3. Effective conversion techniques The process sounds simple, but executing well is not. Personal injury lawyers make many mistakes with their web marketing. Most injury-website weaknesses fall into the following 13 categories. My larger-impact suggestions are highlighted and underlined. 1. Writing without performing keyword research. Before writing for your site, you must check search volume on phrases likely to be used by prospects seeking personal injury information or representation. Each page on your website should be written to draw traffic for a different set of keywords commonly used by prospective injury clients. These keywords should be localized for your region. 2. Failing to analyze the competitive disability sites. Conduct several Google searches using your target localized keywords (e.g., Miami injury lawyer, Milwaukee car accident, Chicago accident attorney). Which websites come up on pages one and two? Those are the injury websites you need to leapfrog on Google s organic search rankings. Those are the sites that prospective clients will compare to yours before selecting who to retain. Those sites determine how much work you need to do on your firm s website. 3

4 STICKINESS 3. Focusing on yourself and your practice. Teaching is the most effective way to keep visitors reading, and has the added benefit of simultaneously demonstrating your expertise. Instead of writing about yourself, answer the questions you most commonly hear from prospective clients:? What are my odds of success? What are insurers and juries offering for claims like mine? How much do you charge? What work will you do? What work will you need me to do? What should I know upfront about the claims process? 4. Providing a general overview. When they provide any explanations at all of the insurance claims process, most injury sites offer a few non-specific paragraphs. Prospective clients who have been searching the web for information have already seen those same unhelpful descriptions several times. Distinguish yourself by detailing the good and bad aspects of the insurance settlement game: Insurers differ in how they respond to claims Insurers can ask for a lot of unimportant information Insurers frequently lowball or stonewall claimants 5. Aiming your content too low. Most sites underestimate the sophistication and knowledge base of personal injury researchers. Assume your site visitors have already read several other injury websites, talked to other personal injury plaintiffs, and maybe even skimmed an insurance claims self-help book or two. Your site needs to offer information not found in those other locations. 6. Not writing enough pages page websites are common. To be an effective marketing tool, your site needs to be bigger. More pages will help your organic search engine ranking, keep visitors on your site longer, showcase your expertise, build credibility and familiarity, and encourage a higher percentage of your visitors to contact your office. 4

5 STANDING OUT 7. Not differentiating your site and your practice. What makes your services different from those of the other injury lawyers listed on pages one and two of Google? This can be a tough question to address, for personal injury lawyers and their websites appear similar to lay people. Injury lawyers make the same promises, offer the same descriptions of the process, and charge the same contingency fee. How do your services vary? Make sure those differences are readily apparent on your website. 8. Omitting video. An easy way to highlight some of these differences is to offer video. Nothing highlights the unique you faster and more visibly than a video. However, you should balance the talking-head time with images that support the message. And your video messages should primarily be educational, just like your text, if you want to keep the attention of your site visitors. Florida personal injury attorneys Trumpeting multiple practice areas. Gone are the days when a lawyer can promise on his or her website to be an expert in multiple subjects. Too many sites are dedicated solely to injury law for you to promise on one site that you have expertise in personal injury, workers compensation, long-term disability, and Social Security disability. You need one site for each legal specialty if you want to compete with the focused sites. 5

6 STAYING FRESH 10. Not building your site using a content management system. If each new page you want to add to your site requires new coding, your site is going to be a lot harder to maintain. Content management systems like WordPress and Joomla make it almost as easy to add or change paragraphs and pages on your website as creating or modifying a document in Word or WordPerfect. 11. Letting your site stagnate. Forgetting about your site after launch is a sure way to slide down the organic search rankings, reduce the time visitors spend on your site, and reduce your conversion rate. Fresher sites will be rewarded with better page position and rank by Google, and will draw more visitors. You should regularly update your personal injury information, add new pages, and seek new inbound links. CONVERTING VISITORS TO CLIENTS 12. Not using lead-generation devices. The most effective marketing websites offer a variety of ways for visitors to obtain more information. E-books, ed lessons, PDF downloads, and free caseevaluation are the most common methods. How much contact data you request from site visitors should be scaled to the value of the additional information you offer. Give your offers prominent placement and keep them simple. 13. Failing to follow up leads. Timely response to inquiries is the key to high conversions, and the best way to ensure prompt follow up is to automate as much of the follow-up process as possible. Auto-responders are the most efficient method for following up requests for e-books and lessons. Well-trained staff or attorney attention is needed for case submission forms. Think in terms of telephoning a prospect in minutes rather than hours when a good lead arrives, for the prospect may complete a competitor s case submission form if you do not respond quickly. 6

7 I am happy to offer free personalized suggestions for improving your personal injury website. Telephone or anytime, or visit me at the James Publishing table at the major injury conferences. Best wishes for marketing success. Jim Pawell direct Copyright 2010 James Publishing 7