Web Site Traffic Reporting, Part 3

by Elizabeth Mencke, FindLaw Account Manager

This is the third in a series of articles about FindLaw Traffic Reports. This series introduces you to the nomenclature and interpretation of traffic data, so that your law firm’s Web site can make the greatest possible contribution to the marketing of your law practice.

In my last article I talked about the Top Paths & Most Requested Pages reports. Today I will talk to you about Referring URLs, Search Engines and Search Keywords.

To log in to your traffic reports, go to http://reports.findlaw.com. You will be prompted to enter your account number, username and password.* Once you have logged in, you will notice several navigation buttons on the left-hand side. Each one of these navigation buttons allows you to view several different reports. Referring URLs, Search Engines and Search Keywords are all located under the “Referrers” navigation button.

Referring URLs — measures the top URLs that have referred visitors to your Web site.

Search Engines — lists the top search engines that have referred visitors to your Web site.

Search Keywords — lists the most popular keywords and keyword phrases used by visitors to find your Web site.

When analyzing the effectiveness of your online marketing activity, there are at least two questions you need to ask yourself.

1. How are your visitors getting to your site?

The Referring URLs statistic tells you which sites are consistently delivering visitors to your site. For example, a referral from http://pview.findlaw.comwould be a visitor from your firm or attorney profiles on Findlaw.com. Similar to the Referring URL's metric, the Search Engines report shows us the number of visits coming from specific search engines, such as Google, Yahoo or MSN.

2. Are your visitors using the search phrases you expect?

The Search Keywords statistic shows you what terms and phrases your visitors are typing into the search engines to find your site. Analyzing this report can be very helpful in further defining a search engine strategy. For example, if an area of practice isn’t attracting the visitors that you would like, you might need to use different keywords or keyword phrases in the content to make it easier for people to find your site.

Let us say that your practice specializes in serious injuries from motor vehicle accidents. But experience has shown you that visitors to your site are just as likely to be victims of slip-and-fall accidents or construction or workplace accidents.

A look at your Search Keywords traffic report indicates that the words “injury” and “accident” draw the majority of visitors.  Upon examination of the content on your site, you see that various forms of these two words appear frequently, as does the phrase “motor vehicle.” Yet commonly used terms such as “car accident,” “car crash,” “truck accident,” etc., are few and far between on your site. This suggests that you may want to refresh your content to add more of the keywords and keyword phrases that will attract the specific accident victims that you seek.

I hope this series of articles has helped you better understand our traffic reporting software and how you can achieve a more effective web presence. If you have any questions, please contact your FindLaw Account Manager for more information.

*Please contact your FindLaw Account Manager if you need your account number, username or password.