SEO and Internet Marketing slideshow for the Community Training Webinar. Hosted by LSNTAP and Pro Bono Net on 8/10/11

1. Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Moderator: Liz Keith, Pro Bono Net

2. Panelists Josh Anderson Owner, www.remembermyurl.com, New York, NY Leah Margulies LawHelp.org/NY Project Director, New York, NY Wilneida Negrón LawHelp.org/NY Program Associate, Woodstock, NY

4. Purposeful

5. Accidental

6. Connect searchers with the most relevant information

7. Social media is the new “word of mouth”

8. Build your program’s authority and credibility online

10. LawHelp.org/NY Serving Low-Income Communities via the Internet Leah Margulies

13. Extensive multilingual and language access resources.

14. LiveHelpin English and Spanish: 3,500+ served in first year of operation.

15. More than 50% of visitors find LawHelp/NY via search engines. Optimization Plan significantly increased usage.

16. 15 self-help interactive forms covering family law, housing, consumer, and tax concerns.

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

19. For example, with the help of law student interns, we translated the navigation and resource titles into Chinese

20. For some legal listings, we were able to add info in Spanish and Russian

21. and Chinese

22. 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

23. 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 LivePersonsoftware (ASP)

24. 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

25. Search Engine Optimization and Marketing 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

26. Advertising

27. Online Outreach: Facebookand Twitter

29. Seniors

30. Immigrants

31. Community-Based organizations

32. Libraries

33. Community Centers

34. Elected Officials

35. Non-profits

36. Churches and other houses of worship

37. Social Services

38. Block PartiesGeography: Outer Boroughs – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Staten Island Upstate & Rural Counties

39. Targeting Underserved Communities in NY TIG 2010 20

40. Tracking: Google Docs

41. 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.” “I had no idea that you offered anything of this sort.” “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.”

42. LawHelp/NY SEOM Project Wilneida Negrón www.LawHelp.org/NY www.AyudaLegalNY.org

43. LawHelp/NY SEOM Project www.LawHelp.org/NY www.AyudaLegalNY.org Wilneida Negrón LawHelp.org/NY

44. 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.comFreeAdvice.com

45. 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

46. Strategies Focused on organic, free and low-cost strategies appropriate for nonprofits: 1. Keyword Research 2. On-Page SEO (title and meta tags) 3. Link Building 4. Blogs and Social Media Optimization 5. Directory Submission 5. Website Banner Ads 6. Forum Participation

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

48. 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

49. 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.

50. 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

51. Website Banner Ads Step 1 Identify your maximum budget. Step 2Identify your target audience. Geo-targeting means ad will appear on the website when visitors from designated zip codes view it. Step 3Lay 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.

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

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

54. Measuring Results

55. Driving Traffic and Actions

56. Factors to Measure

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

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

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

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

61. 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.

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

64. Engaging Existing Constituents and Increasing Awareness and Information

65. 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

67. Social Media Tools Used Listening:Twitter Participating: Twitter Generating Buzz: Twitter, E-newsletters Sharing Content: YouTube, English and Spanish Blog, Flickr, E-newsletters Community-Building: Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn

75. Toolkit and Measurement Dashboards available for download at: www.LawHelp.org/NY/toolkit

76. Questions? Comments? Thoughts?

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

78. Thank you for attending today! Next up: August 17 Using Technology to Assist People with Limited English Proficiency More information at www.lsntap.org

79. Contact Information Allison McDermott (amcdermott@probono.net) Brian Rowe (brianr@nwjustice.org) Don’t forget to take our survey!