Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing

Moderator: Liz Keith, Pro Bono Net

PanelistsJosh AndersonOwner, www.remembermyurl.com, New York, NY

Leah MarguliesLawHelp.org/NY Project Director, New York, NY

Wilneida NegrónLawHelp.org/NY Program Associate, Woodstock, NY

Why SEO and Internet Marketing?

• Create pathways for users to find you

• Purposeful

• Accidental

• Connect searchers with the most relevant information

• Social media is the new “word of mouth”

• Build your program’s authority and credibility online

• Your competitors are already there

SEO 101: The Dynamics of Search

Josh Anderson

LawHelp.org/NY Serving Low-Income Communities

via the InternetLeah Margulies

We purchased a Spanish URL for Spanish mirror site: www.AyudaLegalNY.org

Home page displays: How-to Video, LiveHelp, Interactive Forms

www.LawHelp.org/NY

LawHelp.org/NY

Current stats:• 2010 Usage: 461,000+ visitors viewing 3.5 million pages of legal

information.• Extensive multilingual and language access resources.• LiveHelp in English and Spanish: 3,500+ served in first year of

operation.• More than 50% of visitors find LawHelp/NY via search engines.

Optimization Plan significantly increased usage.• 15 self-help interactive forms covering family law, housing,

consumer, and tax concerns. • Community outreach program. In 2010, more than 100 events;

launched summer intern program.

This is the opening page of the how-to-use LawHelp/NY video in Spanish

There are Know Your Rights resources in 34 languages in addition to English and Spanish. This is the list:

For example, with the help of law student interns,

we translated the navigation and resource titles

into Chinese

For some legal listings, we were able to add infoin Spanish and Russian

and Chinese

Using pro bono lawyers, we rewrote the new NYC language access rights rules into plain language and had them translated into the five official NYC languages other than English

Providing LiveHelp• Provides virtual, live

assistance for website visitors

• Helps visitors find information, forms and referrals

• Staffed by EJW AmeriCorps Legal Fellow, law students volunteers, pro bono attorneys and non-attorney advocates

• Uses LivePerson software (ASP)

Background

• With LSC-TIG grant, launched in February 2010: 3,520 chats in first year

• Intended to address challenges specific to LawHelp/NY:

– Large number of free legal service programs and self-help resources

– Large population with limited English proficiency (3 million Spanish speakers in NY)

– More than 2 million pro se litigants in NYS

• With a TIG grant that began January 2010, we developed search engine optimization and marketing strategies for English & Spanish sites.

• We combined natural search strategies (e.g. key word, tagging, linking, etc.) with paid marketing

• We used the paid marketing for Spanish search engines for: www.ayudalegalny.org

• We developed a toolkit for replication and lessons learned for statewide website community

• Toolkit available for download at: http://www.lawhelp.org/ny/toolkit

Search Engine Optimization and Marketing

Advertising

Online Outreach: Facebook and Twitter

Targeting Underserved Communities in NY

Demographics:

• Low Income

• Seniors

• Immigrants

Geography:

Outer Boroughs – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island

Upstate & Rural Counties

• Community-Based organizations

• Libraries• Community Centers• Elected Officials• Non-profits• Churches and other houses

of worship• Social Services• Block Parties

TIG 2010 20

Targeting Underserved Communities in NY

Tracking: Google Docs

Results 96% of the 70 training participants surveyed this year said that LawHelp/NY will help them better serve low-income clients. Only 5 had used the site before.

“The housing section explaining the rights of

clients with eviction issues is very good.”

“What a great resource!”

“I think the interactive interviews to create

court forms is a great idea and I was unaware of it until this training.”

“I had no idea that you offered

anything of this sort.”

LawHelp/NY SEOM Project

www.LawHelp.org/NYwww.AyudaLegalNY.org

Wilneida Negrón

LawHelp/NY SEOM Project

www.LawHelp.org/NYwww.AyudaLegalNY.org

Wilneida NegrónLawHelp.org/NY

Why is it important? - Orgs see in fundraising (up to 40%), brand and social awareness, visits to

websites, etc. (Blackbaud 2011 Report, “Boost Event Fundraising with Social Media.”)

- More cost-effective than traditional forms of marketing; can fit into the budgets of most non-profits. (2009 International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising).

- Getting great search engine rankings is an extraordinarily competitive. There can only be one number one and a lot of people are working hard at achieving prime status.

FindLaw.com FreeAdvice.com

1. Increase visibility of LawHelp.org/ NY and AyudaLegalNY.org in search engines

2. Initiate a Spanish-language search engine optimization (SEO) and social marketing (SM) campaign to reach New York's large Spanish-speaking user base

3. Develop a model “dashboard” and toolkit so efforts can be replicated

StrategiesFocused on organic, free and low-cost strategies appropriate

for nonprofits:1. Keyword Research2. On-Page SEO (title and meta tags)3. Link Building4. Blogs and Social Media Optimization5. Directory Submission5. Website Banner Ads6. Forum Participation

Before you get started……Identify end users Used our English and Spanish User Survey to find:

Demographics• 31-54 yrs old• Female• Spanish users

identified as South American

• Internet-savvy, found website via major search engines

Socio-economic Status• Self-Identified

as low-income

Legal Situation • Looking for help as a

result of the economic downturn

• Top Topics:• Family and Juvenile:

divorce, child neglect and abuse, child support, custody and visitation.

• Housing: eviction, Section 8, SRO Housing, and Jiggets/FEPS rent.

Keyword Research

• Plug keywords in Title and Meta tags. • Website Navigation• Alt attributes of images• Content on the page• Blogs• Also use keyword research to find “hot topics” we can blog

about• Anchor text for link letters

Link Building = Relationship Building

• Use interchangeable anchor text

NO: “Hey Sarah, check out this website page with information on public benefit in New York, the link is http://www.publicbenefitsinfo.com/.

YES: “Hey Sarah, check out this website page with information on public benefits in New York.

• Prioritize your link requests. Keep in mind websites with .Gov or .Edu are SEO Gold! They have a strong impact in helping your website rank for targeted keywords.

• Be personable• Be patient-this should be an on-going part of your marketing

outreach.

Directory Submission

• Best: DMOZ and Yahoo• Look into community directories:• 1. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: Google

Places,• 2. City and state governmental websites• 3. Chamber of Commerce links • 4. Niche associations directories • 5. The Better Business Bureau • 6. Local library's Web site

Website Banner Ads

Step 1 Identify your maximum budget.

Step 2 Identify your target audience. Geo-targeting means ad will appear on the website when visitors from designated zip codes view it.

Step 3 Lay out your goals. Are you looking for high impressions or high click-through

rates?

Step 4 Design the ad. If you don’t have Photoshop, download an excellent free alternative to Photoshop called GIMP. You can download GIMP here: http://www.gimp.org/ .

Step 5 Identify your approach. Cheap but time-consuming or $$ but fast and extensive? For our Spanish web banner ads we used, Hispanic Digital Network.

Geo-targeted ad in over 140 Latino news websites nation-wide

FaceBook Banner Ad: 10,508,399 impressions and 1,627 clicks

Measuring Results

Driving Traffic and Actions

Factors to MeasureSEO factors in bringing people to your site

Conversion

Referral traffic Page Views

Keyword Variation Completed Surveys

Visits Newsletter sign-up

Unique Visitors Length of Visit

Increase in visits (22%) and page views (59.7%) for www.LawHelp.org/NY.

Page views: 2,232,138 in 2009 to 3,565,942 in 2010.

Increased page views for www.AyudaLegalNY.org: For the past 3 years page views never exceeded 25,000. Now 47.6%.

Increase in conversions, measured by completed surveys and number of English and Spanish resources downloaded:

2008 2009 20100

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

3,473

4,031

5,735

Completed Surveys

Completed SurveysLinear (Completed Surveys)

Both sites now ranking (i.e. showing up in the first pages of search results) for more keywords phrases variation than before: Prior to SEO, LawHelp/NY was only ranking or showing up in the first or second page of search engine results for a small group of generic keywords which varied based on our name, for example NY Law Help, LawHelp NY, New York Law Help, etc.

Emails increased from 1,200 in 2009 to 3,218.

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asistencia legal nueva york

servicios legal de nueva york

ayuda legal en nueva york

servicios legal en nueva york

servicios legales para nueva york

Spanish Keywords Phrases with Highest Growth Across All Search Engines for AyudaLegalNY.org

Engaging Existing Constituents and Increasing Awareness and Information

Social Media Metrics

Blog Metrics• # of Blog comments and responses• # Links back to blog• # of times blog or social media posts were picked up by reputable thought leaders in your niche. Also, keep a

track of the topics which were picked up. • # of times media picked up any of your blog content Facebook Metrics• # of Facebook “likes” (previously fans)• Money raised through Facebook Causes • # of people who RSVPed to any events you posted on Facebook• # of Facebook “likes” on specific posts Twitter Metrics• # of times your organization is mentioned• # of Twitter retweets• # of Twitter followers over time• # of times your tweets were picked up by influencers• Money raised through Twitter-sourced donations

Social Media Tools UsedListening: TwitterParticipating: TwitterGenerating Buzz: Twitter, E-newslettersSharing Content: YouTube, English and Spanish Blog, Flickr, E-newslettersCommunity-Building: Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn

Toolkit and Measurement Dashboards available for download at:

www.LawHelp.org/NY/toolkit

Questions?

Comments?

Thoughts?

Want to learn more? • Josh Anderson – charlesajosh@gmail.com • Leah Margulies – lmargulies@nycbar.org • Wilneida Negrón – wnegron@nylawhelp.org • Liz Keith – lkeith@probono.net

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING TODAY! Next up:

August 17Using Technology to Assist People with

Limited English Proficiency

More information at www.lsntap.org

Contact Information

Allison McDermott (amcdermott@probono.net)Brian Rowe (brianr@nwjustice.org)

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