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Because you can measure law firm website and blog stats, does that make them important?

Web stats for law firm websites and blogsSeth Godin had a wonderful post last week on the dichotomy between Important and Measured.

Is something important because you measure it, or is it measured because it’s important?

Does our new ability to see things with web data make the previously overlooked now visible, or are we giving weight to things merely because we’ve measured them?

God knows lawyers and law firms love to measure stats when it comes to websites and blogs.

  • How are our web stats?
  • How do our web stats compare to other firm web sites and blogs like ours?
  • Are our web stats improving?
  • How many visitors do our web stats show us getting?
  • How are we performing on Google search for our areas of practice and locale?
  • How many links are pointing to our blog our website?

But ask yourself, are you measuring web stats because they are important? Or are you saying web stats are important because you can measure them?

Not one lawyer or law firm over the last 8 years came to LexBlog saying “We need stats, and we hear you can give us some.”

Lawyers come to us because they want to enhance their reputation as a trusted authority and grow their word of mouth reputation. Reputation and word of mouth are what’s important.

Even though some things are difficult to measure. They may be more important.

  • http://blog.simplejustice.us shg

    Or are you measuring web stats because you otherwise can’t tell if you’re in a room talking to yourself. Web stats aren’t a goal, but reflect a harsh reality: If nobody is reading, then you’re talking to no one. If nobody is reading, then nobody cares about what you’re saying. If nobody is reading, then blogging isn’t fulfilling any fucntion beyond the pure enjoyment of writing. If that’s not enough, then you need a way to find out what’s going on.
    Huge web stats may not reflect that you’re reaching the audience you want, or that you’re achieving whatever goals you have. Miniscule web stats, on the other hand, pretty much assure that you’re reaching no one, almost always not a goal.
    As to building reputation as a “trusted authority,” another horrible phrase by the way, it’s a lot more likely if people are reading what you write and coming back for more. If not, you’re pretty much assured that you’ve done nothing to enhance your reputation. When no one cares what you have to say, it’s as much of a message as when everyone does, even if neither precisely proves the point.
    And of course, if there are no quantitative measures of success, then you may just as easily be talking to no one as talking to potential clients, and you won’t have clue whether you’re a “thought leader” or the nutjob on the corner mumbling to himself. No one wants to be the nutjob on the corner.