As a modern company, it is imperative that you utilize all of your digital marketing resources and diversify your marketing strategy. Most businesses have joined the modern age and have begun to take advantage of the benefits that social media platforms have to offer. Some have decided to take on this marketing endeavor themselves while others turn to professionals for help. At OVC, INC., we specialize in digital marketing services, including social media marketing, and our professionals work individually with each client to ensure that their social media presence reflects their law firm’s values and message. With over a decade of digital marketing experience, we have compiled a list of social media marketing myths that have emerged and can lead law firms to create an ineffective marketing strategy.

My Firm Should Be Present on Every Platform

Social media platforms come and go, both in popularity and relevance. Although the overall goal of social media is to share content with others and stay connected with your followers, each platform has its own reputation and purpose. Businesses may incorrectly believe that they must be present on all platforms and should post the same content across the board. Depending on the type of business that you are managing, not all social media platforms may be applicable. For instance, law firms should steer clear of more light-hearted platforms, such as Tik-Tok and Snapchat, and lean more toward professional platforms, such as Linkedin and Facebook. Consider your target audience and overall reputation before creating a social media account.

Most law firms understand that they should have a high-quality website that provides information about their services, their attorneys, and the benefits they can provide to clients. However, building and launching a website is only one part of a comprehensive digital marketing strategy. A law firm can increase their website traffic and improve search rankings by regularly publishing blogs that provide value for potential clients. Some of the benefits of blogging include:

Build Trust and Credibility

With a regularly updated blog, you can discuss the legal issues that you address every day when working with your clients. By answering the questions that you are regularly asked and explaining how the law applies in the situations you commonly encounter, you can demonstrate that you have the knowledge and understanding that your clients need. Publishing blogs on a regular basis will allow you to continually expand the helpful information on your site and provide people with knowledge of the legal issues that may affect them while showing that you can help them solve their problems. 

Improve SEO

The purpose of your website is to attract potential clients and encourage them to contact you when they need legal representation. These clients will not be able to find your site unless it shows up in search results pages on Google or other search engines. While building a website with quality content is the first step that will help you show up in search results, publishing blogs on your website is a great way to increase your search rankings and make sure more people can find you.

The vast majority of people use Google search to find the information they are looking for online, and Google is constantly looking to improve its algorithms to make sure its users get the best possible search results. Because showing up in Google search results is so important, any website owner will want to stay up to date on the latest trends in search engine optimization (SEO). One of the latest developments that may affect a firm’s marketing strategy is the implementation of natural language processing (NLP) in Google’s algorithms. 

Google’s BERT Algorithm

Google recently announced that it has updated its search algorithms to use a technique called BERT, which stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. This update to the algorithm uses artificial intelligence and neural networks for natural language processing. That may sound like a lot of jargon, but basically, it means that Google wants to be able to understand how people use language when performing searches and how the context of different words affects what they are looking for.

Notably, the term “bidirectional” means that Google will not necessarily read words in a search query from left to right, but it will look at a phrase as a whole to determine what a person means. This can be especially helpful as more and more people use voice search, type in questions, or use longer queries that take a conversational form. Google has also noted that it now uses “neural matching” in local search results, which allows it to return results based on how the words in a business’s name or description are related to the terms people are searching for.

Google is one of the companies that shape how people experience the internet, and every move that the company makes is closely scrutinized by everyone from major brands to owners of small websites. Keeping abreast of changes made by Google is essential for ensuring that your business can be found in online searches. One recent announcement by Google that will affect many websites is the announcement that mobile-first indexing will be used for new sites, and this may affect the search engine optimization (SEO) strategies used by a wide variety of businesses.

What Is Mobile-First Indexing?

When people perform a Google search, what is actually being searched is an “index” of all websites on the internet created on Google’s systems. This index includes a variety of information about a site and its relevance to people performing searches, including ranking factors that affect where it will show up in search results. Since so many people now use mobile devices to perform searches and view websites, Google now uses the mobile version of a website’s content in its index in many cases.

While Google still uses the desktop version of many websites in its index, its goal is to use the mobile version of sites as much as possible. Recently, Google announced that starting July 1, 2019, all new sites indexed by Google will use mobile-first indexing.

Today, nearly every business has an online presence of some sort. This can range from a Google My Business listing that contains basic information about a company to a digital strategy that includes a website, social media, and pay-per-click advertising. Regardless of the extent of your firm’s digital footprint, you will want to make sure that you make a positive impression on those who find you online. This is why reputation management is crucial.

What Is Reputation Management?

Online searches are the primary way most people find information, whether they are looking for answers on a computer at home or at work or are searching for a local business on their smartphone. When a firm shows up in search results, their listing is often accompanied by reviews and star ratings that people have submitted. These ratings often play a key role in a potential customer’s decision to click through to a company’s website or contact them via phone or email.

In addition to influencing people’s decisions about who they choose to do business with, online reviews can also have a significant impact on SEO. A business with a large number of positive reviews is more likely to be displayed in search results, and negative reviews or low average ratings can result in SEO penalties that will reduce a company’s chances of being found in online searches.