On April 21st, Mobilegeddon finally happened. Google’s much anticipated algorithm update swept through the mobile search results, prioritizing websites that have been designated “mobile friendly.”
In the wake of the recent change, Vizibility published an article stating that “53 percent of the top law firms still do not have a mobile-friendly website.“ With the same article reporting that mobile devices generated one-third of a site’s traffic (according to FindLaw customers), the fact that over half of all major law firms are woefully behind the curve when it comes to mobile optimization is good news for anyone who heeded Google’s ample warning and made sure their site was indeed mobile-friendly.
Building on the Vizibility article, Real Lawyers Have Blogs took it a step further, asking, will Google’s ‘Mobilegeddon’ crush law firm content marketing? The answer of course is no. While the update has had a negative impact on sites that failed to prepare for a mobile-friendly future (and there are a lot of them), the future of law firm content marketing is as bright as ever…provided it’s optimized for mobile.
Need more evidence that news of content marketing’s death was premature? Check out Search Engine Watch’s recently published article on 6 content tips for adapting to the post-mobilegeddon world.
Finally, moving on from tales of the Mobilegeddon aftermath, let’s take a look at some of the other marketing topics that were being discussed during the month of April. Here are some of the top SEO, social media, and online marketing posts from the past few weeks:
Not sure where to begin with your content strategy? Marketing Land posted some tips for how to generate content ideas that result in links, leads, and shares. You’ve heard the saying “write what you know”? Well, this article gives plenty of support for why that’s a pretty good bit of advice.
Also on the content side of things, Moz published tips on how to create boring-industry content that gets shared. Fortunately, there’s absolutely nothing boring about the legal industry…but…you might want to take a quick read anyway and see if any of the suggestions can be applied to your firm’s blog.
When was the last time you looked at your link profile? If the answer is “not recently” or “what’s a link profile?” you should probably take a look at Search Engine Land’s post about link risk management and why it’s a critical SEO tactic. Because the only thing worse than being penalized for something you did do is being penalized for something you didn’t.
On the PPC front (Pay Per Click), Search Engine Watch took a stab at defining success for PPC efforts. Yes, it might be different from business to business, but determining how you’ll define a successful campaign will go a long way toward making it a reality.
Lastly, if you feel like marketing is outside your wheelhouse, Quicksprout has a fantastic blog post about how to be a successful marketer if you’re not super smart. In short, even if you’re not comfortable with online marketing, a bit of hard work and some creativity can put you way ahead of the competition.
That’s it for this month’s roundup. However, if you’re going to be in Las Vegas for Avvo’s Legal Marketing and Business Conference, hit me up via email (jason @ gjel . com) and we can meet up for drinks while you’re there. And, as always, feel free to let me know if I missed anything by leaving your comments below.
About the Author: Jason Arango is the Director of Marketing for GJEL Accident Attorneys. He’s been involved in online marketing since 2007, and has worked with companies such as Village Voice Media and Clear Channel Communications.