Frequently Asked Questions About the Best Website Design and Marketing for Attorneys, Podiatrists, and Other Professionals

For years and years, English teachers at elementary and middle schools across the United States would have been astonished by that question. Mrs. Beedle, my fourth-grade teacher, would have turned from the blackboard to glare at any student who asked such an absurd thing. (Yeah, blackboards were still being used when I went to school.)

“Of course you may not begin a sentence with a conjunction,” she would have snapped. “Why, the very idea!”

We believed her. Back then, we trusted Mrs. Beedle. We loved how she could explain the rules of English so there were always definite answers, in crisp black and white, with no ambiguity whatsoever. Grammar was rational, comforting, and precise, while the real world was messy and complicated. And Mrs. Beedle was our guide to that land of certainty.

I’m sure some of my classmates went on to become English teachers themselves, and they taught their students the lessons Mrs. Beedle gave us, and their students’ students passed on the same message to later generations. Chief among those lessons was the prohibition against starting a sentence with a conjunction.

But Mrs. Beedle was wrong.

English Contains More Myths Than the Land of Oz Does

In plain fact, most of us have been taught from a very early age certain “rules” of English usage—syntax rules, as they are called by grammar experts—that aren’t legitimate rules at all. We’re talking about rules such as these:

• Never end a sentence with a preposition.
• Never split an infinitive.
• Sentences in the passive voice should always be revised to include active verbs.
• A conjunction may never begin a sentence.
• A paragraph must be at least three sentences long.

No widely respected modern guide to syntax endorses these principles. Even though most publishers and media outlets still discourage using the passive voice, nobody bars it completely from their publications. These rules-that-aren’t-really-rules linger on, however, because they are still passed down between generations in schools and in popular (mis)understanding of what constitutes fine writing and speaking.

Conjunction Misfunction

Let’s take a close look at what are called the seven coordinating conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet. These are the words that join or connect two or more items.

Thanks to the popularity of the Schoolhouse Rock animated educational videos, millions of Americans know that the purpose of conjunctions is “hooking up words and phrases and clauses.” That tune never mentions that the coordinating conjunctions can also link up independent sentences. Of course, we know that you can always take two sentences, change the final period of the first to a comma, add “and,” and attach the second sentence to form a compound sentence. But is it really, truly okay for two separate sentences to exist where the second one begins with a coordinating conjunction?

It sure is. People have been doing it since at least the tenth century. Classical and contemporary authors with impeccable credentials have begun sentences with and, but, and or, and nobody has complained. It’s not clear from the historical record when the notion arose that beginning sentences with a conjunction is not to be tolerated. The majority of top usage authorities for each generation has accepted conjunctions at the start of sentences.

There is another class of conjunctions, called subordinating conjunctions, which are clearly designed to show connections and relationships between clauses. Among the subordinating conjunctions are the words although, because, if, since, unless, until, when, whether, and while. Your own familiarity with English should make it easy for you to recognize that these words can be used at the start of sentences. Nobody objects to them there.

However, there is one special rule that applies whenever a conjunction (of either sort) starts a sentence: the conjunction shouldn’t be followed immediately by a comma. Consider these examples:

• A car accident can cause terrible injuries to your bones, joints, and soft tissues. And, unless you act quickly, you may end up paying for the hospital bill even if someone else was responsible for the wreck.
• Diabetic nerve pain is a difficult problem to manage. But, with the care and attention of our team at the Coeur d’Alene Clinic, you can be assured prompt attention to your changing medical condition.
• Are you content to save for your retirement by adding a dollar or two to your savings account whenever you think about it? Or, do you need a systematic investment plan to ensure a secure retirement income for your golden years?

In each case, that comma after the conjunction disrupts the connective function that and, but, and or so ably provide. This is one of those places where you need to take special care not to let extra commas creep into your writing. The exception, of course, is when the phrase right after the conjunction is not essential to the main meaning of the sentence. Consider the final sentence in our examples above, which would normally be correctly written without commas: “Or do you need a systematic investment plan to ensure a secure retirement income for your golden years?” Add an additional clause that isn’t vital to the main thought, though, and you will need commas to set it off: “Or, like so many other people your age, do you need a systematic investment plan to ensure a secure retirement income for your golden years?”

However…

One last issue before we close. I notice some of you grumbling already that when sentences begin with “However,” the word is invariably followed by a comma. “How are you gonna explain that, Mr. Smarty-Pants?” you ask.

Here’s how: many people assume that however is a conjunction because it seems to be an exact synonym for but. But Mrs. Beedle, my fourth-grade teacher, taught that however is an adverb—specifically, a conjunctive adverb—and, like other sentence adverbs, it must be followed by a comma when it starts a sentence.

The byways of English can be awfully tricky, even for experienced writers. To hold the attention of visitors to your professional, legal, or medical website, you need to write informative and interesting text that is expressed clearly, grammatically… and sometimes, artfully.

Like it or not, content is king for Internet marketing, as we have told you time and again. Reach out to Foster Web Marketing if you need help generating excellent content or if you’re interested in our content writing service for business professionals. We can educate your team or provide work written to your specifications. Even Mrs. Beedle would approve.

Are You A Lawyer Or podiatrist Who Wants To Learn How Solid Content Can Earn You More Clients?

If you are seeking a trusted, authoritative partner to help you write content that not only attracts but actually converts into clients, Foster Web Marketing is here to help. Contact us online or call our office directly at 888.886.0939 to schedule your free consultation. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach but exceed your goals.

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You deserve congratulations if you’re writing the content for your own business or professional website. It can be a daunting task, and—at least at the outset—there is a lot of anxiety in working outside your usual field. But maintaining a regular schedule of publishing informative, useful material for potential customers remains one of the best ways to attract and convert new clients. Kudos to you!

By all means, make the time to re-read what you have written before it’s published online. You may find an inelegant phrase, or a place where adding a few words can add enormous clarity. But our experience suggests that you should not be the sole editor or proofreader for your own writing.

It’s important to bear in mind that proofreading is not a quest for perfection. There are many pathways a writer can take to get to a desired destination, and editing does not select the “best” route. Instead, the revision process is designed to catch errors in grammar, spelling, usage, and diction before the work is published for its intended audience.

And, since we’re on the topic, the quest for writing perfection is an impossible goal anyway. People make mistakes. Those mistakes range from simple typing errors to habitual misuse of certain words. Your proofreader is there to catch these mistakes and patch them up before your work goes live.

There’s One Thing You Always Write Wrong. This Is Mine.

Even people with extraordinary talent for writing prose may have a handful of problem areas. Perhaps you find it difficult to remember when to use a semicolon, or you may forget when to use a dash rather than a hyphen, or you may be stumped whenever you need to choose between “effect” and “affect.”

My big problem has always been dealing with the words lay, lie, laid, and lain. I’m clear on lie when it means to tell a falsehood, but when the discussion turns to setting objects on surfaces or reclining one’s body on a sofa, I throw my hands in the air. I flip between reference book pages for a good ten minutes before I write down the word I think is right, but I’m never really confident in my choice.

So that’s the first reason why I need an editor to review my work (and you do, too): Chances are, you too have a persistent mental block when it comes to using some words or punctuation. Your proofreader is your reassurance that a silly mistake won’t be released to the disdain of the general public. Because of that mental block, you can’t be trusted to proofread your own writing, any more than I can effectively proofread my own work.

Your Errors Are Invisible (But Only to You)

Another reason why an independent proofreader is vital is that you cannot be trusted to spot your own mistakes on the screen or the printed page. You know too well what you intended to write, and your eyes will just skip past that point where you typed it’s instead of its. A proofreader doesn’t bring any preconceptions to the document, so he can spot those errors readily.

Spell Check and Grammar Check? Don’t Make Me Laugh.

Software has become amazingly sophisticated in my lifetime. Nevertheless, computer software doesn’t compare to an intelligent mind in correcting spelling, grammar, and usage mistakes. Spell checking programs don’t really understand language, so they can’t catch many word substitutions—podcast instead of podiatrist, for instance—that might show up in your text. Grammar checking software doesn’t appreciate the meaning of the words it scans, so it ends up reporting trivial errors such as split infinitives rather than conceptual mistakes. At least for the current decade, proofreading demands the concentrated attention of another human being.

Getting the Editorial Help You Need

One of the great benefits of Foster Web Marketing’s content management system, Dynamic Self-Syndication, is that it gives you complete control over your professional website. You can extend your online presence at any time, to whatever breadth you desire. At the same time, you assume the risk that a particularly egregious error in grammar or usage will undercut your influence or perceived authority.

But the more you write, the more you need the services of a proofreader. Where do you find one?

Potential proofreaders are everywhere. If you are sharing writing duties with someone else in your office, for instance, exchanging the work between you for editing is obvious. If no coworker is available, you may want to contact the modern languages or English literature departments of your nearby community college to see if instructors can recommend a talented student who might be interested in part-time proofreading work. Local employment centers and online job-search services can also be helpful in locating freelance editors and writers.

Are You A Lawyer Or podiatrist Who Wants To Learn How Solid Content Can Earn You More Clients?

If you are seeking a trusted, authoritative partner to help you write content that not only attracts but actually converts into clients, Foster Web Marketing is here to help. Contact us online or call our office directly at 888.886.0939 to schedule your free consultation. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach but exceed your goals.

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You recognize that, conventionally, it is not okay.

But you want a special exemption, because you’re trying to attract a young, hipster clientele. You think naughty talk will appeal to them. Well, guess what? It’s still not okay.

Changing Standards of Acceptable Discourse

Let’s start by acknowledging that, sure, what is acceptable language in a business environment has changed over the years, just as what counts as permissible in public conversation has liberalized. This is not a new observation. As long ago as the 1930s, Cole Porter could satirize popular dismay over changing language standards by writing, “Good authors too, who once new better words / Now only use four-letter words. / Writing prose, / Anything goes.”

A few decades earlier than that, it was scandalous to refer to the “legs” of your piano (or any other item of furniture), because that word might inflame lustful passions. Your piano had “limbs,” and they were decently covered with a dust ruffle or cozy to hide them from the gaze of any gentleman who stepped into your parlor.

Since then, the influence of mass media culture has helped desensitize us to language that once may have been called “salty,” profane, or obscene. That trend has even entered the workplace. Swearing has become acceptable in some workplaces in both spoken and written communications between colleagues. Likewise, some employers don’t object to swearing between employees and clients in private conversation.

It’s essential that you notice that workplace swearing is limited to private conversations, however: those between coworkers, and those between worker and committed customer. Work-related communications of a public nature still demand prim word choice. The greater the public exposure, the less likely the business owner or manager will permit unfettered cussing. You won’t find swear words used in advertisements in glossy print magazines, or in customer-service scripts at fast-food order windows—and you usually won’t find them on a business webpage.

The Benefits of Naughty Talk

You protest, “My case is different. I’m trying to attract customers who have no aversion to swearing. It’s their natural speech. If I can sling the lingo too, I’ll have a natural advantage over my competition.”

Balderdash. Of course, it’s always been true that what you have to say—rather than how you say it—is more important in converting readers into customers. The idea that adding profanity will enhance your message simply doesn’t seem reasonable. In fact, there are three key reasons why you’re unlikely to gain any lasting advantage from swear words on your website:

• You can’t do it convincingly. There’s no way to mimic authenticity. Any attempt to sprinkle expletives into your regular writing will seem stilted and phony. Your preferred clients are more likely to mock you rather than flock to your door.
• Swearing undermines your message. Each page of your website should be dense with informative content. But swear words carry little or no informational value. In fact, expletives tend to short-circuit learning by deliberately triggering emotional responses. Swearing deliberately tries to shock or offend, and that’s not helpful to your website’s goals.
• You’re pursuing a “cool factor” that just isn’t there. Nobody chooses a skilled professional based on how often he or she swears in public. Nobody.

And the Downside to Your Plan

If your ideal client is young and cutting-edge, then it’s almost assured that your bread and butter client is the opposite: older and more conservative. These may not be the clients or customers you most want, but they provide a steady income stream. And you can bet that they will definitely be offended when your website becomes laced with profanity—quite possibly outraged enough to stay away for good.

So, on the one hand you have a minimal likely reward from your ideal customers; on the other hand, a harsh penalty from existing customers. By any rational calculation, swearing on your website is too risky for both your current and future business health.

Foster Web Marketing is the premier marketing company for law firms, medical practices, and service and product sales organizations of every sort. We know how to help you attract your perfect customer or client—and to avoid alienating other potential clients along the way. Check out our testimonial pages to see some of the hundreds of satisfied business leaders we have helped.

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Reposting (copying and pasting) reviews from popular websites such as Google Local, Yelp, and Avvo may seem like a good idea. After all, someone went out of his way to review your goods or services, and he posted to a reputable site, so why not use their words to your advantage?

Here are four good reasons that our team does not recommend reposting online reviews:

1. Poor user experience. When a potential client, patient, or customer reads the same review on multiple sites (your website, on Google, and your Facebook page), it provides them with a bad reader experience. The more places the reader finds the review, the less likely she is to view it as authentic.
2. Permission repercussions. You should never repost a reviewer’s comment from another site to your own website without asking the reviewer’s permission first. Ever. This violates the writer’s rights and is just plain shady.
3. Review removal. If you repost a review, even with permission from the reviewer, the original review could be taken down. Why? Because review sites have stringent and ever-changing terms-of-use-policies and guidelines. This makes reposting reviews a bit too risky for our liking.
4. Duplicate content issues. Google and all other search engines frown upon duplicate content. When you repost a review, you must rewrite it verbatim, which is, of course, duplicate content. In some instances, it has been found that a reposted review gets the original review page—from Yelp or Google—taken out of search results. And this is the last thing you want to happen.

Instead of Reposting Reviews, Utilize Unique Testimonials

If you’d like to harness the power of reviews on your website without reposting reviews from elsewhere, we recommend using a form of reviews on your own website: testimonials. These testimonials lend credibility to your business and can be a powerful converter. Also, asking for testimonials is a fantastic way to start a conversation with a satisfied customer or client about reviewing your business on an independent review site.

Is Your Law Firm Or Medical Practice Website Getting Enough Exposure? Foster Web Marketing Can Help With Our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services  

Are you concerned that your website isn't pulling in enough traffic to keep you swimming in leads? Do you need help with SEO for your legal or medical website? If so, Foster Web Marketing can help! Please contact us online or call our office directly at 866.497.6199 to schedule your free consultation with our experienced marketing team. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach, but exceed your goals.

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This Video Explains Precisely What Online Reviews Are and Why You Need Them Not sure which review sites to focus on?

It’s one possible approach, certainly.

Whether you manage a law firm, a medical practice, or some other business, it’s likely that you have a large, specialized technical vocabulary. And that’s absolutely appropriate: when working within your profession, you need a level of precision that’s only available from a special set of words and phrases.

You can’t assume that the general public is familiar with this vocabulary. In fact, you can take it as given that most of your potential clients or customers don’t know these specialized terms. If you cover your website with this technical jargon, you risk scaring off readers who can’t understand your writing and who feel you’re browbeating them with your specialized knowledge.

How to respond to this situation? Many professionals have followed the same course that you suggest here: they have purged all technical vocabulary from their business websites. That’s one way to go, but it may not be the best.

A Word of Explanation

Don’t forget that one of the key elements to convert web visitors into leads (and ultimately into clients and customers) is the informative value of your website. Using your website to explain the technical terms of your profession is an amazingly effective way to add value to your site. Rather than using jargon to distance yourself from your readers, a blog post or FAQ column that explains a fundamental term builds inclusiveness. It reinforces your website’s educational mission, and helps establish you as a local expert in your field who shares knowledge unstintingly.

Above all, this approach can get you better clients—those who most resemble your ideal client. Consider these:

• A personal injury law firm webpage that explains the meaning of “liability.”
• A podiatry website that explains the difference between bacterial, fungal, and viral skin infections and why they require fundamentally different approaches.
• A product sales website that explains the environmental risks that competitors ignore in the manufacturing process—and gives a detailed scientific explanation of how its corporate managers respect and protect nature.

By educating potential customers and clients, you make sure the people who contact you later are actively engaged in trying to understand and satisfy their needs. They will be primed to view you as a trustworthy and intelligent partner whose advice ought to be followed. Providing information predisposes your best customers to seek you out.

Every Page Is a Gateway

There is only one downside to this approach. Remember that every page on your website is a potential entryway for new readers, and a portal to everything you have ever posted.

That’s normally a good thing. Over time, you have dozens (and eventually hundreds) of doorways leading potential clients and customers to engage with your site. However, if you represent a law firm that has devoted one page to explaining the concept of liability, you cannot guarantee that any new reader will find that page early on. For any other page that talks about the concept, you will want to have a brief summary of the idea and a link to the page where the concept is explained in depth. Remembering to put in all those required bits can be tedious.

Optimize Your Website to Inform

A website that packages information and delivers it generously to visitors is the best way to elicit a favorable sales response. It’s also the vision behind everything we do at Foster Web Marketing. Informative websites engage contacts and convert them into passionate customers. Keep that concept in mind when you write material for your site—or, if you can’t spare the time, contact us at 888-886-0939 to learn how we can provide fresh material written to your specifications.

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We will start with a basic definition of a backlink:

backlink: an incoming hyperlink from one page to another website.

Basically, a backlink is any link on another website that points to your website. Here is an example of a backlink for Best of the Web found on our website:

 

The words "Best of the Web" are highlighted in blue, and when the cursor hovers over them, they become underlined. This embedded link is known as a hyperlink. Hyperlinks can be internal—taking you to another page on the same site—or external—taking you to a page on another website. In the case of backlinks, the link is external, and the backlink on our site takes you to botw.org.

I am sure you have clicked on a link like this before; a link that took you to a website that explained a term or expanded upon an idea in the article. The link you clicked on to go to the explanation page was a backlink. These links often provide useful information and—as we will discuss in this article—can help improve your search engine ranking when done right.

Now that we’ve covered the backlink basics, we are going to dig a little deeper into this often-misunderstood topic. My goal is to arm you with the tools you need to not only get backlinks but to get the best possible backlinks; those that help build your brand and increase your reach.

All Backlinks Are Not Created Equal

Backlinks are powerful. They can be used for good—helping your website achieve page one status—or they can be used for evil—as part of link-buying schemes that do nothing but cause harm. Next, we are going to explain both high and low-quality backlinks and show you exactly how to get the type of backlinks that will improve the search engine ranking of your website.

What Constitutes a High-Quality Backlink?

The previous backlink example was intended to show you exactly how backlinks work. However, I’d also like to use it to illustrate the benefits of high-quality, ethically garnered backlinks. By linking to an external site, we have consented to give Best of the Web a bit of link juice. The more people that link to the Best of the Web site, the better it is for the site’s search engine ranking.

Since Foster Web Marketing is a reputable business that often writes about Web-related topics, and since our website isn't crammed full of other external links—a sure sign of a link farm—Google will view this backlink to Best of the Web as high-quality and, hopefully, reward the site for the backlink. This is exactly what you want for your site.

You want high-quality sites that contain a link that points back to your website. What this does is show Google that you are respected on the web and that people often link to you as an authority. But as you may have gathered, not all backlinks are equally beneficial. So to begin with, we need to discuss exactly what constitutes a high-quality backlink.

• A high-quality backlink is one that:
• Is relevant to your niche.
• Is from a trusted website.
• Sends in referring traffic.
• Is embedded in the content of the site, not listed in a sidebar.
• Is not paid or reciprocal.
• Is located near other high-quality links.
• Is from a variety of sources—not 100 backlinks from one referring domain.
• Helps your page rank.
• Is hard to get. 

That last one, "be hard to get," is the most important. Why? Because Google knows when you try to cheat the system—when you buy or trade backlinks. You may not get caught in a week, you may not even get caught in many months, but you will get caught. So, even though getting high-quality backlinks is a chore, it's one worth doing. Next, I’ll show you exactly how to get the kind of backlinks that you need to fully realize your SEO potential.

How to Get More High-Quality Backlinks

It's important that you understand that backlinks are something to be earned, not bought. To get the kind of backlinks that will stand the test of time—Panda and Penguin be damned—you need a link-building strategy based on one concept: hard work. You don't simply "get" them by buying or trading for them, you earn them. Here's how.

The Wrong Way to Get Backlinks: Backlinks have long been an important part of a successful SEO strategy. They are so important that many website owners and shady SEO companies began buying into link-sharing and link-buying services. But, like any cheat, Google caught on and has been steadily de-indexing these services and blog networks.

And if you cheat, once Google catches onto your cheating ways, your website is going to be in a world of hurt. All of the good, honest, organic work you've done on your site will be lost. Your SEO ranking will plummet. Forget page one, you won't even be on page 21! That's how powerful backlinks are. They have such great potential to elevate your SEO game but, in the wrong hands, can decimate your SEO efforts.

Cheap, fly-by-night SEO companies will try to tell you that they can dramatically increase the number of links that point to your site, and they can. But they cheat. They pay for your site to be part of a shady linking scheme, like a private blog network. This may work for a time, and you may see your page rank improve greatly. But with Google, Bing, and Yahoo getting better at spotting cheaters, you are going to get caught.

And the SEO company you gave your money to and put your faith in? Will they help you out when your site tanks? No way. You've given them your money, and they are on to a new scheme—a new, get-links-quick trick that will work just long enough for them to get paid.

If it seems too good to be true, it is. Never forget that.

The Right Way to Get Backlinks: There is most definitely a right and a wrong way to get backlinks. The wrong way is easy to figure out: don't cheat. The right way is a little trickier, and like all natural, white-hat SEO strategies, it takes time and effort to get quality backlinks.

Here are five ways to get quality backlinks:

• Enlist the help of reputable directories. Put your name and information on high-quality, human-edited directories such as Best of the Web, Yahoo, and lawyers.com. Having your link on these reputable sites will give you a few powerful backlinks. Before you pay to be listed on any site, ensure that it is a trustworthy site, is free from spam, and contains high-quality content. I want to stress that there are precious few directories that are worth your money, so choose with caution.
• Produce effective link bait. If you write and publish interesting, well-written, and timely content, you increase your chances of getting natural backlinks. This is because good content gets shared and linked to. Tip: To create tasty link bait, think hard about what clients and those in your field want to read about. Be sure your content is free of mistakes, easy to understand, and furthers your image as an expert in your field.
• Be a guest blogger. Guest blogging is a fantastic way to get quality backlinks. Just be sure that you never pay for a guest blogging opportunity. This is a big no-no. Tip: To become a guest blogger, be sure that you are involved with the targeted blog. Share interesting posts and comment when appropriate. You should basically "get to know" the blogger. And, as always, make every piece you write interesting, informative. and well-written. Matt Cutts wrote about how guest blogging is dead, but if you are doing it the right way this is still an acceptable practice.
• Get involved. Another way to earn high-quality backlinks is to get involved in your community. Often, when you give money or time to a charity, they will reward you with a thank you on their website. Sometimes there will be a link that points back to your site with the thank you; powerful!  Also, ensure that you're listed with local organizations like the Chamber of Commerce. There is almost always a link on these sites. Tip: Our SEO team came up with a brilliant way to use community involvement to earn top-notch, sustainable backlinks. Elsewhere on our site, we discuss how we created this natural, sustainable link-building strategy using the charitable work our client has done.
• Link out. When you link out to other reputable websites within your field, you give their website a little boost, a little Google juice. And sometimes, they may give you some back. In this “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” situation, many people who have been linked to will return the favor and link back to your site. Tip: This reciprocal linking can be a good thing, as long as it’s done in moderation. What you don’t want to do is link out to hundreds of sites just for the sake of linking. If you do this you are not only giving away too much of your linking power, if many of the sites link back to you, Google could get suspicious and deindex your website—a death blow in many cases.

We've Got Your Back(Links)

Want to know if Google is punishing your site for bad backlinks? Then get your free site audit today. After we comb through your site, we will give you a full report, free of charge. What you choose to do from there and how you decide to go about fixing your site is up to you. We can help make the changes needed, or you can use the information we provide to make the changes yourself.

Is Your Law Firm Or Medical Practice Website Getting Enough Exposure? Foster Web Marketing Can Help With Our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services  

Are you concerned that your website isn't pulling in enough traffic to keep you swimming in leads? Do you need help with SEO for your legal or medical website? If so, Foster Web Marketing can help! Please contact us online or call our office directly at 866.497.6199 to schedule your free consultation with our experienced marketing team. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach, but exceed your goals.

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Many people think that bounce rate and pogo-sticking are the same thing, but they aren't. I like to think of pogo-sticking as bounce rate's devious cousin; they are related, but bounce rate is the one that will get you in the hottest water with the Internet's version of your mom: Google.

Definitions of Bounce Rate and Pogo Sticking

To understand pogo-sticking, we need to understand the differences between bounce rate and pogo-sticking:

Bounce rate:

Bounce rate is defined as "the percentage of visitors who visit a single page on a website." A high bounce rate isn't always bad, as it can mean that while the visitor didn't travel deeper into a site, he did spend some time on the page and get an answer to his question. He may have bookmarked the page or shared it on Facebook, but since he didn't read more, it constitutes a bounce.

Pogo sticking:

Pogo sticking occurs when a user performs a search, clicks on a result, very quickly clicks back to the search result page, and clicks on a different result. This type of behavior is a direct result of immediate dissatisfaction in the search result, and—unlike bounce rate—pogo-sticking is always a bad thing.

The Dangers of Pogo Sticking

Google hates pogo sticking more than high bounce rates, as pogo-sticking happens within the first five seconds of viewing the page. This indicates that your website isn't doing a good enough job of answering the questions people are asking or that the page was so bad they didn't even bother reading its content. If you have a lot of people pogo-sticking on and off your site, Google will notice, and they will penalize you.

Common Causes of Pogo Sticking

Pogo sticking is caused by immediate dissatisfaction with some aspect of your website. But there are lots of things that could go wrong in those precious five seconds, so determining exactly what's wrong with any given page can be a challenge. To help you get to the bottom of the problem, here's a list of the most common causes of pogo-sticking:

Content related causes:

• The content doesn't match the title or meta description. (Title promises: "The Scary Truth About Parking Lot Accidents and Children," but the article is about rollover accidents.)
• The content is spammy. (Title promises: "Five Tips to Winning Your Car Accident Case," but the article is one paragraph and has a keyword-stuffed call to action.)
• The content doesn't match the site's focus. (An article about gluten-free baking on an attorney's website.)
• The content is loaded with grammar and spelling mistakes.

Non-content related causes:

• Slow page loading time.
• Videos that auto-play.
• Too many pop-up windows.
• A confusing or outdated design.
• Lack of usability.

If you're concerned about your website's performance, we can help you determine exactly what's affecting its success.

Are You A Lawyer Or podiatrist Who Wants To Learn How Solid Content Can Earn You More Clients?

If you are seeking a trusted, authoritative partner to help you write content that not only attracts but actually converts into clients, Foster Web Marketing is here to help. Contact us online or call our office directly at 888.886.0939 to schedule your free consultation. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach but exceed your goals.

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This Webinar Will Forever Change the Way You Look at Your Content Are You Making One of the Five Biggest Mistakes in Attorney Marketing?

Deleting old content is an excellent way to improve your site, boost your rankings and provide a better user experience—but only when done the right way.

Identifying Unwanted Content

Before you begin the deletion process you'll need to determine which pages need to go. This process can be daunting, but it's necessary for the success of your website clean-up efforts. Your first step is to identify all the pages on your site that haven't been viewed in a year or longer. Once you have your list of neglected content in hand, you'll have to decide if the content on the pages is worth saving or not.

In general, if a page hasn't been viewed in a year, if ever, it's a safe bet that nobody is ever going to need the information in the content. However, before you delete unviewed content, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the information in the article relevant and timely?
• Is the content unique?
• Is it stuffed with keywords and little to no real information?
• Has it been modified before and still isn't performing well?
• Are page views extremely low? 

If the answer to any or all of these questions is no, then it's probably a good idea to delete the page. But before you begin deleting left and right, know that there is a right and a wrong way to delete bad content. If you do it right, Google will reward you. If you do it wrong, your SEO rankings could take a serious hit.

The Proper Disposal of Unwanted Content

The most important thing to remember when deleting content is this: Never ever delete without implementing a 301 redirect. It doesn't matter if you don't think anyone will ever find the page, you must redirect traffic. Period! If you fail to do so, anyone who happens upon the deleted content will be shown a 404 error page. Now, 404 error pages don't just undermine confidence in your abilities; Google hates them. If you have too many 404 error pages your site will underperform.

If you're using DSS, implementing a 301 redirect is simple. We have built an automatic redirect into the page deletion process. This way you're reminded to pick a relevant page to redirect to each and every time you delete a page. If you're not an FWM client, then you'll need to get with your webmaster and ensure that each deleted page is properly redirected.

When redirecting, choose carefully. Proper redirection means linking the deleted page to the most relevant topic possible:

• First choice: Redirect to a relevant related page.
• Second choice: Redirect to a relevant practice area page.
• Third choice: Redirect to an associated overview page.

Under no circumstances should you link to your home page. Google doesn't like this and neither will website visitors. What they're looking for is information that answers their search query. So if they search for "Why my bunions hurt when it rains?" they should, at the very least, find information about painful bunions.

And one more thing: you'll need to repeat the 301 redirect process each time you delete a page. There is no quick fix here, no way to delete and redirect 10 pages at a time.

Is it Tedious to do a Content Audit? Yes. Worth the Effort? YES!

Don't let the process of identifying bad content and deleting it intimidate you. Deleting irrelevant, unviewed content may be painstaking, but it's pretty much guaranteed to boost your search engine rankings and improve user experience.

Just like all white hat, ethical SEO techniques, there is no silver bullet to ridding your site of old content. So dig in and get it done; the sooner the better! Once you have removed the bad content you should be left with only great content that attracts more business.

Is Your Law Firm Or Medical Practice Website Getting Enough Exposure? Foster Web Marketing Can Help With Our Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Services  

Are you concerned that your website isn't pulling in enough traffic to keep you swimming in leads? Do you need help with SEO for your legal or medical website? If so, Foster Web Marketing can help! Please contact us online or call our office directly at 866.497.6199 to schedule your free consultation with our experienced marketing team. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach, but exceed your goals.

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Top Secret Advice for Highly Effective Content Creation, Revealed! Exactly How Posting Better Content Will Get You Better Clients

You can choose not to pay attention to grammar. You can also choose not to have clients or customers. It turns out that, very often, those choices go hand in hand.

Of course you don’t want to appear stiff, stuffy, or overly formal on your website. But a “casual Friday” approach to writing means taking off your metaphorical necktie, not showing up dressed for a college frat party. You can (and should) adopt a friendly tone when addressing your readers. At the same time, you must always bear in mind that keeping a professional face on things means maintaining a layer of reserve. Close attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation, and usage is an important step in that direction.

Choose a Tone that Will Resonate With Your Ideal Clients

We don’t like to talk about social class in the United States. Nevertheless, it’s important to recognize that members of different socioeconomic classes will react to your website message in distinct ways. Properly shaping your message will allow you to attract the clients and customers you want the most.

For many highly skilled service providers, the ideal client is a member of the upper middle class or above. This population is accustomed to and comfortable with seeking advice from professionals—and they can usually be trusted to act on the advice they receive. They tend to be better educated, wealthier, and more cosmopolitan. They are often active learners who can partner effectively with you as a patient, law firm client, or service customer.

People with lower socioeconomic status may also have critical service needs that you can address; indeed, they tend to have more desperate needs for your services than your optimal customers. At the risk of over-generalizing, these prospects are often less appealing as clients, if only because they demand so much more of your time. They are more likely to be suspicious of experts and authority, and this means they might resist your advice at critical points. They are often insular and less educated, and so may not have the background to evaluate their situations or your instructions.

And yet they are sensitive to being patronized. Your attempts to dumb down your professional website won’t earn you favorable attention. Instead, your potential lower-class customers will feel that you’re mocking them. Your “good ol’ boy” pose will strike them as false—a poorly masked form of snobbery.

In the meantime, your upper-class prospects will be unimpressed by your ungrammatical writing style. Some will think you’re just lazy, or that you farmed out the writing to someone who may not be a native English speaker. Some will think you’re simply incompetent. None will be encouraged to stick around.

Informal Writing for Professional Websites: How Far Is Too Far?

So, as a rule, stick to following the formal rules of grammar and allow your warm, familiar tone to engage readers.

But you can also earn the right to throw away the most rigid rules, now and then. Once you have proved—by producing lots of great content—that you have mastered grammar, you can occasionally bypass the rules. Use “who” instead of “whom.” Split an infinitive, if rewording the sentence would sound awkward. Oh, and sentence fragments! Sentence fragments can really add punch to a paragraph, when they’re used as a rare and exotic spice.

Some things should remain out of bounds for any professional website, of course. No swearing. No instant messaging abbreviations. No emoticons. If you’re at all uncertain, then favor the conservative, classic approach. But if you want the option to be less formal at times, then earn the right to do so by first demonstrating to your readers that you understand the rules and that you’re deliberately choosing to flout them.

Are You A Lawyer Or podiatrist Who Wants To Learn How Solid Content Can Earn You More Clients?

If you are seeking a trusted, authoritative partner to help you write content that not only attracts but actually converts into clients, Foster Web Marketing is here to help. Contact us online or call our office directly at 888.886.0939 to schedule your free consultation. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 and are confident we can help you not only reach but exceed your goals.