March 2008 Newsletter
Newsletter for Legal Employers
from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
1. Search Engine Optimization - whats it all about?
2. Making sure your web presence draws in business
3. Chancery Lane Legal Recruitment
4. The Worst Interview Answer...
5. Recession - what recession?
Welcome to the March Newsletter from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. We have included a mix of articles that perhaps diversify away from our main business area (legal jobs), but also give your company the opportunity to get a link free of charge from a well ranked links page on our main site - www.ten-percent.co.uk
1. Search Engine Optimization - what's it all about
You will see lots of references to SEO services, particularly in service station toilets on the M6 at present, and larger companies are starting to sell pay per click services and page ranking tools. This is basically the art of promoting your site to the masses of potential customers out there on the internet. There are lots of conflicting views out there as to what constitutes a good site in terms of SEO but basically you need to do the following:
Ensure you know what your keywords are – what do you want people to look at on your site when they are searching? Are you a firm wanting to pick up family law work? If so, your keywords would probably include “family law” and “expert family solicitor”. Contact us and we will send you a link to a free online tool that will analyse your site for you..
Make sure your keywords are on your website lots of times.
Make sure each page on your website has “meta tags” – these are bits of text that search engines use to categorise your site. The meta tags can usually be seen if you click ‘view’ and then ‘source’ in Internet Explorer.
Submit your site to lots of search engines - we use a company called names.co.uk and pay about £100 ish a year for the service. The same company also review your site and statistics continually to check whether all is OK.
Get your site linked on other sites with good rankings.
The scope for business on the internet is fantastic - there is so much potential there and you don't need to spend a lot to get noticed.. If you have any questions about SEO please let us know. As we have no links to SEO companies, no commercial interest in it, and come from a legal as opposed to IT background, we can offer impartial advice.
2. Making sure your website draws in business
Most law firms have one these days, but there are quite a large number where the firms simply have not looked at why they have a website, and what they are using it for. If someone requires legal services, for example a business in Godalming wanting to litigate over an unpaid bill, chances are they will go to Google, click ‘litigation solicitors in Godalming’, and see what comes up. If you are a litigation solicitor based in the town, this is the search result you need to be shown for…
In our experience, there are a few different types of website a firm can opt for. The first is the Passive variety, ie; the site basically confirms who the firm are. The second is an active website, ie; it actually does something, a process described in IT language as “interactivity”. In a law firm context this means something like an online quotation form, pages of advice for individuals or organisations, or detailed news about the cases the firm has been involved in. Others have set up internet operations with websites straight to the point such as “flogmyhouse.com” or “trynottodiebutwriteyourwillanyway.co.uk”.
Both sorts of website are good in their own way and serve a purpose. If you would like an independent assessment of your site, we would be happy to assist you. Simply email us the web page, and confirmation that you are happy for us to review it on our site (impartially), and we will assess it for you from a users perspective searching for specific services on the web.
Email us - jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk
3. Chancery Lane Legal Recruitment
www.chancerylane.co.uk is a new legal job board with over 1,500 vacancies already live on it. For a limited time you can post 2 vacancies for 3 months onto the job board for £95 and view up to 10 CVs online. Pay online and gain instant access to post jobs. Single job listings are £50 for 30 days.
4. Worst Interview Answer given
The January competition was won by David Barker from Burnett Barker Solicitors in Bury St Edmunds, (www.burnettbarker.co.uk) who had the following gem to contribute:
"And now, are there any questions that you would like to ask either about the firm or about the position?"
"Yeah. D'you get a fag break?"
David receives a £10 Amazon voucher for his contribution - we ran the same competition with solicitors looking for work, and two of the worst questions asked were:
"Is that your natural hair colour?"
"what would be your fantasy perfect day in the office"?
Many thanks to those who entered.
5. Recession, what recession?
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment has seen a changes in fortune for the better this month. At the start of the year, there was a great feeling of foreboding amongst solicitors I think that everything was about to change, and the market drop. However, our statistics equal last year for our placements on the permanent side, and as permanent recruitment is usually the first to drop off, we think that the legal job market is buoyant.
We are good on all permanent fronts, not so good on temporary fronts, although this is fairly normal for us. Will pick up on the latter in a few weeks I suspect as moves start to take place.
Conveyancing is just about holding still, although starting to see a trickle of redundancies. London has not had much action this year yet, but I seem to recall this being the same for the last few years. One interesting change this year was a recent vacancy we picked up for central London, which attracted over 30 applications from solicitors. In usual recruitment circles, this is probably quite a low pick up rate, but for legal recruitment it is extremely good. A good few of these were applying as a result of impending redundancy at their existing firm, so this is a marker that the residential property market has probably slowed down a bit, and things are changing.
It remains the same as always at NQ level - just not getting the vacancies into us in the same quantity - there are firms out there interviewing at present, and there seem to be increases across the board in the amount of work available. Commercial property remains busy, and there is a real lack of any good candidates in that field at times.
www.ten-percent.co.uk has been recruiting lawyers since April 2000, and has over 2,000 legal jobs and 4,000 solicitors registered for permanent and temporary work.
To read the full report please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/weeklyreport.htm or the main website www.ten-percent.co.uk
For our candidate database and online legal recruitment services including sole supplier agreements at a discount, visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/er.html
For more information visit our website:
www.ten-percent.co.uk
Jonathan Fagan, Managing Director, Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
Email: jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk
Tel: 0207 127 4343
Newsletter for Legal Employers
from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment
1. Search Engine Optimization - whats it all about?
2. Making sure your web presence draws in business
3. Chancery Lane Legal Recruitment
4. The Worst Interview Answer...
5. Recession - what recession?
Welcome to the March Newsletter from Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment. We have included a mix of articles that perhaps diversify away from our main business area (legal jobs), but also give your company the opportunity to get a link free of charge from a well ranked links page on our main site - www.ten-percent.co.uk
1. Search Engine Optimization - what's it all about
You will see lots of references to SEO services, particularly in service station toilets on the M6 at present, and larger companies are starting to sell pay per click services and page ranking tools. This is basically the art of promoting your site to the masses of potential customers out there on the internet. There are lots of conflicting views out there as to what constitutes a good site in terms of SEO but basically you need to do the following:
Ensure you know what your keywords are – what do you want people to look at on your site when they are searching? Are you a firm wanting to pick up family law work? If so, your keywords would probably include “family law” and “expert family solicitor”. Contact us and we will send you a link to a free online tool that will analyse your site for you..
Make sure your keywords are on your website lots of times.
Make sure each page on your website has “meta tags” – these are bits of text that search engines use to categorise your site. The meta tags can usually be seen if you click ‘view’ and then ‘source’ in Internet Explorer.
Submit your site to lots of search engines - we use a company called names.co.uk and pay about £100 ish a year for the service. The same company also review your site and statistics continually to check whether all is OK.
Get your site linked on other sites with good rankings.
The scope for business on the internet is fantastic - there is so much potential there and you don't need to spend a lot to get noticed.. If you have any questions about SEO please let us know. As we have no links to SEO companies, no commercial interest in it, and come from a legal as opposed to IT background, we can offer impartial advice.
2. Making sure your website draws in business
Most law firms have one these days, but there are quite a large number where the firms simply have not looked at why they have a website, and what they are using it for. If someone requires legal services, for example a business in Godalming wanting to litigate over an unpaid bill, chances are they will go to Google, click ‘litigation solicitors in Godalming’, and see what comes up. If you are a litigation solicitor based in the town, this is the search result you need to be shown for…
In our experience, there are a few different types of website a firm can opt for. The first is the Passive variety, ie; the site basically confirms who the firm are. The second is an active website, ie; it actually does something, a process described in IT language as “interactivity”. In a law firm context this means something like an online quotation form, pages of advice for individuals or organisations, or detailed news about the cases the firm has been involved in. Others have set up internet operations with websites straight to the point such as “flogmyhouse.com” or “trynottodiebutwriteyourwillanyway.co.uk”.
Both sorts of website are good in their own way and serve a purpose. If you would like an independent assessment of your site, we would be happy to assist you. Simply email us the web page, and confirmation that you are happy for us to review it on our site (impartially), and we will assess it for you from a users perspective searching for specific services on the web.
Email us - jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk
3. Chancery Lane Legal Recruitment
www.chancerylane.co.uk is a new legal job board with over 1,500 vacancies already live on it. For a limited time you can post 2 vacancies for 3 months onto the job board for £95 and view up to 10 CVs online. Pay online and gain instant access to post jobs. Single job listings are £50 for 30 days.
4. Worst Interview Answer given
The January competition was won by David Barker from Burnett Barker Solicitors in Bury St Edmunds, (www.burnettbarker.co.uk) who had the following gem to contribute:
"And now, are there any questions that you would like to ask either about the firm or about the position?"
"Yeah. D'you get a fag break?"
David receives a £10 Amazon voucher for his contribution - we ran the same competition with solicitors looking for work, and two of the worst questions asked were:
"Is that your natural hair colour?"
"what would be your fantasy perfect day in the office"?
Many thanks to those who entered.
5. Recession, what recession?
Ten-Percent Legal Recruitment has seen a changes in fortune for the better this month. At the start of the year, there was a great feeling of foreboding amongst solicitors I think that everything was about to change, and the market drop. However, our statistics equal last year for our placements on the permanent side, and as permanent recruitment is usually the first to drop off, we think that the legal job market is buoyant.
We are good on all permanent fronts, not so good on temporary fronts, although this is fairly normal for us. Will pick up on the latter in a few weeks I suspect as moves start to take place.
Conveyancing is just about holding still, although starting to see a trickle of redundancies. London has not had much action this year yet, but I seem to recall this being the same for the last few years. One interesting change this year was a recent vacancy we picked up for central London, which attracted over 30 applications from solicitors. In usual recruitment circles, this is probably quite a low pick up rate, but for legal recruitment it is extremely good. A good few of these were applying as a result of impending redundancy at their existing firm, so this is a marker that the residential property market has probably slowed down a bit, and things are changing.
It remains the same as always at NQ level - just not getting the vacancies into us in the same quantity - there are firms out there interviewing at present, and there seem to be increases across the board in the amount of work available. Commercial property remains busy, and there is a real lack of any good candidates in that field at times.
www.ten-percent.co.uk has been recruiting lawyers since April 2000, and has over 2,000 legal jobs and 4,000 solicitors registered for permanent and temporary work.
To read the full report please visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/weeklyreport.htm or the main website www.ten-percent.co.uk
For our candidate database and online legal recruitment services including sole supplier agreements at a discount, visit www.ten-percent.co.uk/er.html
For more information visit our website:
www.ten-percent.co.uk
Jonathan Fagan, Managing Director, Ten-Percent.co.uk Limited
Email: jbfagan@ten-percent.co.uk
Tel: 0207 127 4343
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