The Akron Legal News

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Clients going mobile

RICHARD WEINER
Technology for Lawyers

Published: October 24, 2014

“I’m goin’ mobile…. Keep me moving….” The Who.

According to recent data, nearly one-third of all people—31 percent––who are searching for a lawyer are going to do so from their mobile devices.

That means that, if your e-biz model, or your business model altogether, isn’t optimized for mobile searching, you’re blind to a third of the people who might be looking for you.

The first thing to understand is how people searching from mobile devices differ from people searching from a desktop—in much the same way that you have to understand how people searching through Google or whatever differ from people who are using print media or word-of-mouth.

Mobile means mobile—these people want information delivered to them fast and easily digestible. On the desktop, there is one way to contact a law firm—web pages. In the mobile world, there are three—the website, the business listing and local search results. Use all three.

First, make sure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. Nothing is more frustrating that having to move a web page all over the place to get to the important text, or to run into video that doesn’t work right on a mobile device. Do that right now.

Next, and this is true of all websites, update/tweak the ways in which search engines find you. Google has changed the way that its search engine optimization (SEO) works twice in the last few months. If your key words or online behavior mirror their old SEO approach, even from 10 months ago, you will not get the results that you want.

You need to improve your local search rankings, and you do this in a variety of ways. A couple of tips: claim a Google Places for Business page, and then verify it with Google and associate it with others in the same category. Keep all contact information the same on every page, web or social media. Be consistent. And—Do Not Use An 800 Number! Get and use local numbers.

Next, and this is old advice, make sure that your Google reviews are up to date and as positive as possible. This is more of a big deal than people think.


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