If you're an attorney using WordPress for your website or blog, which by the way, I recommend, you will need to consider which plugins make sense for you. At the time of posting, the WordPress Plugin directory holds 15,481 PLUGINS which, while providing extensive additional functionality to wordpress, can also be very overwhelming. Here are just a handful of plugins for wordpress that I usually recommend to attorneys.
If you use wordpress, Joost de Valk is a name with which you should quickly become familiar. Joost, or Yoast, provides awesome information and a variety of plugins for tweaking wordpress. Further, if there's plugin functionality that you want and can't find, Yoast might be your man for custom wordpress plugin development. I personally recommend trying:
Translating your offline professional reputation on the web is really what Internet for attorneys is all about. As the web evolves to embrace HTML 5 and rich web content, online author-lawyers will have additional opportunities for competitive advantages. One of these is implementing authorship markup on sites for which you contribute content.
By default, the current version of wordpress (Version 3.2.1) strips HTML elements from the user profile. Weasel's HTML Bios plugin:
simply stops wordpress from stripping HTML from the User Bio field. This is handy for anybody that actually uses those User Bios.
Which allows authors to user their wordpress user profile for authorship markup.
Sharebar
Whether your blog has success online will ultimately come down to the quality of the content you publish and how/if it is consumed, linked to, and shared. Social sharing plugins like sharebar provide you with a quick and easy way to implement sharing tools on your posts.
Sharebar preset with the major sharing networks and also allows you to add additional networks and custom buttons. What I like about sharebar the most is that it travels down the side of your posts as your visitors scroll down. This works as a friendly reminder to readers as they read your content.
WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin
The WP Greet Box WordPress Plugin:
This plugin lets you show a different greeting message to your new visitors depending on their referrer url.
This is another plugin that will help connect and engage your blog visitors with your social communities.
Generally speaking, you don't want to go plugin install crazy. Some plugins can do things to your website that slow it down or negatively impact user experience in a variety of ways. Also, always be sure to back up your database before testing any new plugin. Some unstable plugins or version incompatibility issues can crash your database rendering it unreadable. In fact, whether you're installing a new plugin or not, you should schedule regular backups of your wordpress database and site files. And you guessed it, there are a variety of plugins for backups too.
Ok, so what plugins have I missed?
Conrad and I recently joined Zack at Lawyerist to record a conversation about AI and marketing. You might think that we spend the whole time on how lawyers can use AI to publish content. You'd be wrong. While AI can certainly support publishing, there are many more interesting ways to use it in legal marketing. […]
As more legal services consumers turn to ChatGPT for local law firm recommendations, a fascinating intersection between AI, search, and maps unfolds. While Google remains the undisputed leader in local business data, ChatGPT is increasingly becoming an entry point for searchers seeking legal representation. But here’s the kicker: instead of keeping users within its ecosystem, […]
When law firms contact us, they usually want to talk: • PPC Ads • SEO Rankings • Lead Generation Very few want to talk: • Brand • Trust & Recognition • Emotional Connection Admittedly, much of this concerns that AttorneySync is known for lead generation across those common digital channels. But even when we start […]
According to an October 2024 study by SE Ranking: "The legal niche triggers the highest percentage of AIOs (77.67%). The average number of links matched between the AI Overview resources and the top 20 search results was 6.49 for legal topics. AI Overviews for legal topics most frequently link to NYCourts.gov (114 links), YouTube.com (48 […]
I'm grateful for my friend, Charley Mann of Law firm Alchemy. If you're a lawyer, subscribe to his Free Email List. In a recent email, Charley calls out bad guru advice on hiring: "Trying to execute a major SEO improvement? You need to find people who will help you, instead of trying to DIY it […]
If you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn, you’ve likely seen posts from law firm SEO experts showing off charts with an “up and to the right” trajectory. These screenshots, often pulled from tools like Semrush or Ahrefs, are meant to signal SEO success. And it’s not just the agencies celebrating—𝗹𝗮𝘄 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 […]
Meh, links! All things being equal, links still tend to move the dial more than any other factor in legal SERPs. Maybe links are having a diminishing impact internet-wide. But in my experience, quality links, especially relevant links (both topically and geographically), tend to improve law firm visibility in search more than most everything else. […]
When you think of "marketing," what's the first thing that comes to mind? Ads? SEO? Social Media? What about: Helping others?Taking the lead? Rallying around your community? Need an example? Learn from Bart Siniard at Siniard Law Injury Attorneys efforts to help rebuild Mary's Pit BBQ. These efforts aren't about marketing. They're about supporting a […]
The Beauty of Small Law Firms: Why "Small Is Beautiful" in Legal Practice As you may (or may not) have seen on LinkedIn, 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗻 𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀. 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗹𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱. I recently received an email from a real practicing lawyer requesting the following: "Somebody on Linkedin […]
We developed a plugin. Its not free, but it is essentially a client login area that stores all of the clients information. ' Client Intake Plugin. ' Robust, easy to use and install.
A directory is always a popular one for attorneys. We build at least 2 a month customized for attorneys in thier local areas. This builds not only SEO, but a lot of traffic.
We tend to use DirectoryPress a lot. ( http://directorypress.net )
http://Mailchimp.com , for email marketing, you can't beat them, you get 2000 members for free
Gravity Forms, integrates in all kinds of ways, including submitting custom post types.