7 Online Marketing Buzzwords Every Lawyer Should Know
In case you weren't aware, today is National Dictionary Day. We've been talking a lot about legal marketing and how solos and small practices can do it more effectively. But sometimes, there's a tendency to get loaded down in jargon, which can put people off.
You've undoubtedly heard of things like a "click-thru" and "SEO," but you may not have known what the heck is going on. So what do all of these marketing words mean?
Here are seven that every lawyer should probably know:
1. SEO.
Sounds like: Something Executive Officer?
What it is: An acronym for "search engine optimization." By spreading certain key words throughout a Web page, the page's ranking gets boosted when people search for those words in a search engine.
2. Impression.
Sounds like: That feeling Counselor Troi gets on "Star Trek." ("Captain, I sense something vague ...")
What it is: When an ad gets seen by a user. It's usually measured by the number of times an ad is loaded on a Web page that's requested by a user. So if an ad gets 1,000 "impressions," that means it's been loaded 1,000 times (though not necessarily seen by 1,000 different people).
3. Page View.
Sounds like: That annoying view in Microsoft Word that shows two pages at once.
What it is: When a Web page gets loaded by a user. A unique page view is a count of how many different people see a page in a single visit to your website (for example, one person can click "reload" 10 times; that counts as 10 page views but only one unique page view).
4. Click-Thrus.
Sounds like: What I do when I see the movie "Click" on TV. (Sorry, Adam Sandler, but your "Happy Gilmore" days are over.)
What it is: A click-thru rate is the ratio of user clicks on an ad compared with the ad's impressions. Say you've got an ad on your website that says "click here." The ad has 1,000 impressions (see above) and the ad has been clicked on 100 times. Thus your click through rate is 0.1, or 10 percent (which is really good, by the way).
5. Conversion.
Sounds like: Isn't replevin important here?
What it is: Every advertisement on a Web page has a goal, whether it's just clicking on a link, retweeting something, or buying a product. A conversion happens whenever a user does that thing you want. As a ratio, it's the number of total visitors divided by the number of visitors who do that thing. (So if 100 visitors out of 1,000 retweet your story, that's a 10 percent conversion rate.)
6. PPC.
Sounds like: Some new legal corporate form.
What it is: An advertising business model where the advertiser -- usually a search engine selling advertising space on a search results page -- gets paid whenever someone clicks on your link.
7. Local Mobile.
Sounds like: An ice cream truck.
What it is: Potential clients spend a surprising amount of time searching for lawyers on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. "Local mobile" is a kind of ad strategy that makes your website friendly to mobile devices and targets people in the area (not just anyone anywhere on the Internet). For example, search results can include a map to your office, Yelp reviews, and a button to call your phone number. As we've written about before, the more mobile-friendly stuff like this your website has, the higher you'll appear in page rankings on mobile searches.
Are there other online marketing terms you're wondering about? (This sentence, by the way, is an example of a "call to action.") Or want to learn more about making these buzzwords work for you? Your local FindLaw consultant can share his/her expertise and help you get the most out of online lawyer marketing.
Related Resources:
- Marketing 101: The Importance of Conversion (Mashable)
- Your Business Needs To Get Social, Local And Mobile -- Fast (Forbes)
- 7 Legal Marketing Trends Every Lawyer Should Know (FindLaw's Strategist)
- 25 Things You Shouldn't Have on Your Law Firm Website (FindLaw's Strategist)
