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Oct '20

Bail Bond SEO: The Exclusive + Premium Guide

Bond dealers often misunderstand Bail Bond SEO. When Google dismantled bail companies’ primary lead source by banning bail ads, the need for search engine optimization multiplied. Several bail companies scoffed at the notion that SEO could replace pay per click advertising. Many of them have bad experiences with SEO agencies and preferred the guaranteed visibility of paid ads. Unfortunately, both Google and Facebook have eliminated paid advertising options. SEO is the only way to generate bail bond leads online. But that doesn’t mean agents should voluntarily screw themselves with low-quality SEO “services.” Instead, follow this guide from Bail SEO Webmasters and learn how to maximize your bail bond SEO strategy in 2022.

Chapter 1: Assess Your Web Presence

Do bail dealers need SEO? It depends on several factors, including your existing website, business listings, and community standing. To put it simpler, every bail company can benefit from SEO, but some require it more than others. Established companies can 10x lead generation with SEO while struggling agents need it to stay afloat. It would help if you considered the following criteria when assessing your web presence:

Do I Have a Bail Bond Website?

If you have a website, you probably know about it. You’re probably paying for it. It would be best to list it on your business cards, business profiles, and social media accounts. Healthy websites have an exclusive domain name like mybailcompany.com. If your website address is something like mybailcompany.wix.com, you aren’t going to rank in search results. Here are some of the factors that determine a good website:

Strong Domain Name
Appealing Web Design
Straightforward Contact Methods (CTAs)

Bail Bond Website Screenshot — bail bond seo websites can increase lead generation by 10x

Do I Have a Google Business Profile?

Google banned advertising, but business listings are allowed. GBP listings are free, and every business should claim theirs. If you are unsure about your GBP listing, chances are you’ve neglected it. The best way to claim your business listing is to visit Google’s support document to add or claim your business listing. Free listings are a great way to establish immediate visibility. However, competitive cities will require further optimization to your listing. Consider using a tool like DataPins to enhance your local presence. Other factors include:

Listing Optimization
Reviews & Reputation
Proximity, Relevance, and Prominence

Bail Bond GMB Listing Screenshot — Google My Business listings enhance search visibility

Do I Have Business “NAP” Citations?

Citations are any listing on the internet. NAP stands for name, address, phone number (the three most essential fields). Google My Business listings are a citation, but there are many other ones around the web. The more sources you have, the more legitimate your business seems. Consistency is essential when claiming listings. Your GMB listing’s address should match those on Facebook, Yelp, and other directories. Focus on well-known platforms where people might research your bail company. To summarize, NAP citations are best with:

Accuracy
Consistency
Well-Known Platforms (Facebook, Yelp, etc.)

Bail Bond Yelp NAP Listing Screenshot — NAP consistency is key to local SEO rankings

Chapter 2: Strengthen Online Visibility

After evaluating your existing web presence, it is time to tie up loose ends and enhance visibility. You must complete any of the three primary channels you’ve neglected (website, GMB, NAP) before improving each of them. Bail agents who generate leads regularly probably have a web presence. In contrast, struggling bail dealers are unlikely to appear on search results in any capacity. Check out more below:

Bail Bonds Websites

Domain Names

Your website should have a proper domain name. Preferably a .com or .net extension preceded by either the name of your company or your business’s niche and location. Check out the examples below:

Example A: taylorbondsllc.com
Example B: bailbondshoustontx.com

Let’s assume both companies operate in Houston, Texas. One uses their company name in the domain, and the other uses their niche + location. Both titles are feasible and can work for search engine optimization.

Bail Domain Names Screenshot — domain names should target either your brand or location

WordPress Themes

Most successful bail websites use WordPress though there are cases of bail companies using Wix or Weebly. WordPress is the best option for bail bonds SEO because of its compatibility with plugins and ease of use. Bail companies must choose a WordPress theme or hire a professional web design team to create a custom theme. Google prefers custom themes because of its original codebase, and users generally favor them too. It’s essential to choose a theme with service pages, rather than tailored for an exclusive blog. You can learn more today about bail WordPress websites.

Calls To Action

A bail website’s purpose is to generate leads. SEO is pointless if customers don’t contact your company. Creating urgent calls to actions (CTA) throughout your website encourages relevant consumers to initiate contact. Examples of CTAs include clickable phone numbers, contact forms, and lead magnets. Mobile users can connect to your line through click-to-call functionality, while desktop users may prefer a form submission. Consider offering discounts and other value propositions in exchange for an email opt-in.

Bail Bonds CTA Screenshot — Urgent calls to action encourage sign-ups

Schema Markup

Schema markup is a technical term within the SEO industry but one with which successful bail companies should familiarize themselves. Google favors websites with schema markup for multiple reasons. First, schema communicates details about your company to search engines. Secondly, schema code encourages the publication of rich snippets — which are enhanced search results that typically garner more frequent clicks. In lamen’s terms, schema lets search engines know about your business location, services, and general industry.

URL Structure

Every good bail bond website has a logical URL hierarchy. Your homepage is known as the root domain, while top-level pages like bail services and about us are one folder deep. Specific services like DUI bail bonds are two folders deep and must appear within the proper URL context. Websites should avoid creating URLs deeper than two levels. Long URL strings discourage Google from crawling a website in its entirety. Every website should map out its URLs before publication.

Website Content

Title Tags

Every webpage needs a title tag or meta title. Google ranks pages primarily based on its meta-information and the title precisely. Bail dealers should title their homepage something like Bail Bonds Services in Houston, TX. Use keyword research tools like MOZ or SEMRush to identify the top bail keywords in your area. Existing websites can utilize Google Search Console to target queries that users frequently search for when seeing your website.

Bail Bond Title Tag — Title tags AKA meta titles display on Google search

Header Tags

Header tags should follow the theme of the title and separate content necessarily. Readers prefer text with logical dividers such as H1s, H2s, and H3s. Your H1 should utilize keyword research since Google often references it as a primary indicator. Implement H2s and H3s to organize the rest of your content and ensure users’ satisfactory reading experience.

Bail Bonds Header Tag — Heading tags (H1, H2, H3) organize content on websites

Meta Descriptions

Users often preview search results by reading meta descriptions. The block of text appears beneath your web page link on Google’s organic SERP. Compelling descriptions are around 920 pixels on a desktop and 680 pixels on mobile devices. Metas matching the page’s content perform best because they satisfy the user’s intent and create a good user experience.

Bail Meta Description — Meta descriptions preview search results for users

Brand Pages

Bail websites have three primary brand pages: home, about us, and contact us. Each of these pages serves a purpose, but the homepage is the most important. Users often search for a specific brand name, which is why your homepage is imperative. Google prefers to show your homepage #1 in search results for your particular brand. It is essential to optimize your homepage as a compass for your website and as a conversion page for interested consumers. About Us pages are less relevant for SEO but can contribute to conversion rates. Contact Us pages exist primarily as an additional contact forum.

Brand pages strengthen your bail company’s website

Service Pages

Service pages often make or break your SEO effectiveness. Optimized service pages will triple or quadruple visitors based on long-tail queries. Many users search variations of their needs, such as dui bondsmen near me or bail company for domestic violence. Writers familiar with the subject matter naturally write better pages that show up for more keywords. Inserting proper title tags and headers are crucial for service pages.

Bail Service Page — Service pages rank for long-tail keywords and increase traffic

Local Mapping

Local 3-Pack

Bail agents operate on the local level. Ranking in Google’s local 3-pack is imperative for lead generation. Bail bonds companies in Houston, TX must rank for terms like bail bonds houston, houston bail bonds, and similar variations. Ranking in the local-3-pack requires winning their algorithm. Proximity, relevance, and prominence are the primary ranking factors for Maps. While Google bases proximity entirely on your business address, you can directly influence relevance and prominence through local SEO.

Bail Bonds 3-Pack — Most local users click on businesses within the local 3-pack

Reputation Management

Reputable bail agents generate 100x the leads as less reputable competitors. Positive feedback helps bail companies in multiple ways. First, reviews help increase your listing’s relevance and prominence and therefore impact its ranking. Second, positive feedback encourages users to trust your business and make a phone call or email request. Simply put, reputation increases both visibility and conversion, which is the golden ticket for bail bonds businesses. Software like DataPins can help you improve reviews.

Bail Company Reputation and Reviews — Positive feedback establishes trust and encourages business

Location Pages

Map pack rankings are great, but locals can find bail companies through organic search too. Ranking on both maps and organic increases visibility and encourages conversion. Bail websites with location pages for each target city and county tend to outperform competitors with basic websites. The most important thing for successful city pages is variation and uniqueness. Software like DataPins can create pages for each location and populate unique check-ins and reviews every time you service a customer. The software consistently updates your pages for SEO freshness.

Bail Company Location Page — Location pages boost local SEO and increase geographically relevant clicks

Chapter 3: Brand Development

Though Google banned PPC for bail companies, paid advertising possessed limitations even when accessible. Quick leads fail to grow your brand over time and ultimately perform a disservice to business owners. SEO facilitates long-term growth, which is what every successful business owner attains. Search engine optimization helps companies both now and into the future by building their brand and consistently feeding back into company assets. Ranking on Google can change a business permanently.

Investing in Yourself

PPC ads helped Google make money. Though you may have received a temporary benefit, your brand suffered as a result. Think about it; Google owns the advertisement for which you rank. With SEO, you own the ranking digital property. Whether it’s your website, social media listing, or business listing, you can capitalize on your brand. You’ll find that SEO is the gift that keeps on giving, as long as you make smart investments.

Digital Word of Mouth

Word of mouth spreads like wildfire. Most bail companies grew from traditional word of mouth, on the streets, and billboards. Online platforms provide as much or more accessibility in the modern age. More people visit Google and Facebook than will ever see a billboard. As we noted, Reputation management is critical for precipitating digital word of mouth. Feedback spreads rapidly through internet platforms, especially those with high trust like Google My Business.

Long-Term Growth

SEO benefits bail companies both now and in the future. Reviews accumulate over time, and websites gain tenure, links, and traffic. As bail dealers become the preferred provider in their area, owners reap a sound long-term strategy rewards. Newcomers may attempt to poach clients with quick schemes, but a robust SEO strategy is impenetrable. Most consumers end up on your website, listing, or other assets, and you win their business most of the time.

May '20

Why Schema Markup is Important to Bail Websites

You may have put a lot of effort into your bail bond company website. But if you are not implementing schema markup, you are missing out on a ton of potential Google hits. In a sandbox test run by Search Engine Journal, it was shown that a client website had 43% more clicks on their website when they added schema markup after previously having none.

The numbers are staggering. Another case study published on the Ryan MacKellar website in which organic traffic was measured after schema markup resulting in rich snippet content was added, showed that the organic traffic increased by a whopping 138%.

But as a bail bondsmen, you may be scratching your head as to what “rich snippet content” and even schema markup even is. Don’t worry, you’re not alone. A lot of business owners across all industries are unfamiliar with this SEO practice. While schema markup isn’t exactly a new practice, it has only recently become so important to Google rankings. December of 2017 is about the time when schema markup started to become so crucial. That is when Google started to penalize websites on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) that didn’t have any schema markup.

So what is schema markup anyway? Today’s blog post will answer that question and will explain why it is so important to your bail bond business. But if you want answers on how to grow your business right now, you can always contact the team here at Bail Webmasters. But for now, let’s start with the basics.

What is Schema Markup?

Schema markup is a microdata language that labels certain aspects of your website and helps search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) better understand the context of your website, web pages, and other content.

Why Bail Bondsmen Should Care

When implementing Bail Bond SEO, the goal is to rank #1 for relevant keywords. Any signal that can help Google understand your site is working towards that goal. While schema markup is not considered a direct ranking factor, it is known to improve SERP presentation (how your website looks on search results) which can lead to a higher click-through-rate (CTR) and ultimately higher rankings. Not doing schema markup in 2020 is negligent.

What if I Still Don’t Want to Do It?

If you have a bail bond website but Google had no language with which to communicate with your website, it may think your website was for a painter based in Greenland. The language that is spoken between Google and the endless websites on the internet is how it knows what to pull up when they search for things like “bail bondsmen near me.”

And schema markup (sometimes called structured data) is one of the languages that Google uses to communicate with your website and find out what information is on it.

Schema markup is created by using code that Google can read. It creates what is called rich snippet content on your website which usually comes in the form of a numbered list, bulleted list, an image, a star rating, or some other kind of list (i.e. a list of services or list of answers to a certain question). Schema markup usually shows up right under the website listing, and it helps the website to rank high on Google searches. That’s because schema markup usually comes in the form of a helpful list or image that clearly and immediately answers a question that someone may type into Google.

For example, let’s say that someone searches “how does posting bail work?” If you have a properly formatted schema list on your website that explains as a numbered list of steps how posting bail works, your website and that particular list will likely show up near the top of that search page…which leads us to our next topic of discussion.

How Can Schema Markup Improve your Bail Bond Business?

One of the basic principles for all kinds of businesses is “the more people see your business, the more likely they will be to patronize it.” Schema markup goes hand in hand with SEO because it is all about helping your website rank higher on Google searches.

Google is constantly trying to improve its service and provide helpful, relevant, and useful information to the searcher as quickly as possible. That’s why lists generated by schema markup always ranks so high on searches. These lists are the fastest way that people can get answers to pertinent questions.

So what can schema markup do for your bail bond business? The following is a list of just a few of the ways that you can leverage schema markup to increase traffic to your site and convert more consumers:

It Makes your Business Stand Out

If you compare the SERP listings of websites that utilize some form of schema markup and those that don’t you will notice something immediately: the ones that use schema markup are significantly more noticeable. And that’s not just because they tend to rank higher. Rather, having schema markup makes your website stand out in a vast crowd. Images and lists make your webpage listing more noticeable and enticing.

It Provides Value

By answering a question that a consumer may be in desperate need of, you are inspiring trust in your brand and demonstrating its value. This trust means a lot as we can plainly see in this Marketing Charts article which explains that 8 in 10 consumers agree that their trust in a brand affects their purchasing decisions.

It Enhances Local Recognition

Schema markup can also be used to display where your business is located and the areas it services. In these cases area, address, and contact information are displayed prominently via schema code. People aren’t looking for a bail bondsman three counties over. They want one in their area. Schema markup can display your area information so that more locals will know that you aren’t too far away.

Using Schema Markup

Using schema markup is unquestionably important for marketing but learning how to implement it can be difficult. But there are many companies that are still not taking advantage of its benefits. If you implement schema markup for your website now, you will be getting ahead of the pack on a lot of your competitors. Let us here at Bail Webmasters help you navigate these tricky waters and leverage schema markup to grow your business.

May '20

How to Maintain Digital Marketing During COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 has shaken industries and entire economies. The novel coronavirus has had a deep impact on the strategies and operations of businesses all over the world. Even more thought-provoking is the realization that once this is all over, the way we do business is likely to be forever changed. As much as it is important to stay positive and look toward the light at the end of the tunnel; it is equally important to be proactive in the here and now.

All is not lost – even as we are in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now more important than ever to focus on your business’s digital marketing footprint. If you have little to no digital marketing footprint, we can help here at Bail SEO Webmasters. We specialize in devising specified digital marketing campaigns for bail bond services.

And even if you already have a digital marketing strategy in place, it wouldn’t hurt to fortify it. You can call on us at any time to bolster your marketing efforts with our professional services. You can also read on here as we provide you with some tips on how you can maintain strong digital marketing efforts in the midst of COVID-19.

Strike While the Iron is Hot

It may seem like an odd time to leverage customer service but with every major shift in business comes alternate opportunities. One of the things that became very apparent shortly after the outbreak of COVID-19 was that businesses were using the situation as an opportunity to focus on customer service. Huge multi-national conglomerates and domestic corporations like McDonald’s and Cottonelle quickly sprang into action and launched targeted ad campaigns that highlighted their efforts to keep their employees and their customers safe.

As a bail bondsmen, you probably don’t have the budget for a glossy, country-wide media ad campaign but you are nonetheless capable of taking this opportunity to remind your customers that you are there for them. Creating content hubs on your website in the form of blog posts, YouTube videos and social media posts is a great way to reach out to your customers and let them know what you are doing to service them and keep them from contracting COVID-19.

It is important to highlight your business as one that is safe, open and taking the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This will let people know that they can trust you and actually go to your facility if it is indeed open or at least, get in touch with you over the phone or online when they need your services.

Blog posts covering the importance of washing your hands or video tutorials on how to create your own mask are great ways to get people engaged in your content and aware of your business. Don’t forget to plug your name into any content you post so that your brand stays on the minds of your potential customers.

Be Budget Flexible

As a bail bond provider, you may still have a decent amount of your marketing budget devoted to traditional marketing methods such as print ads, billboards, and event marketing. But now is the time to allocate more of those funds to digital marketing. Even if it is just for however long it takes for things to get back to normal, or relatively normal, you can’t afford to miss out on potential leads. People are staying at home and going online to read the news and get updated on COVID-19. They are buying groceries online and getting products delivered to their door.

There are more eyes on the digital world now than normal so digital marketing strategies should make up the majority, if not all, of your marketing budget. Now may be a good time to invest in a PPC (Pay Per Click) service as it will help you capitalize on this possibly short-term trend and keep you aloft in an uncertain time. Use Google Ad services to find out which keywords are trending right now and invest some time into creating content that incorporates these keywords.

Hiring an SEO specialist or content creator familiar with the bail bond business would also be a good investment as such services will surely help you rank higher on Google searches. As things start to get better, it would probably be advisable to keep a healthy resource flow going into your digital marketing efforts. Google processes 75,000 unique searches every second and their search volume has increased 10-15 percent every year they have been live. That is very promising for now and the future.

But your business is unique and if you see that when things start settling down that your traditional marketing methods are once again your most effective, you can adapt your budget. But for now, it will certainly pay to be budget flexible.

Leverage Social Media

Social media is on fire right now. With shelter in place orders being enforced in almost every state, people are staying at home most hours of the day. And what have they been doing to fill that time? It should come as no surprise to you that the answer is social media. And if it is, it’s time for you to boost your social media presence. Social media is blowing up right now as people are looking for a way to connect with their friends, family and the outside world and Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are all providing ways for them to do so.

As we mentioned in a previous section, social media affords a great way to let your customers know what you are doing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. But there are so many other ways you can engage people and promote your business during this time. For instance, you can finally get around to replying to some of the comments and reviews made on your business’s Facebook page. Thank them for their patronage, ask them how their situation turned out and encourage them to stay safe and healthy during the pandemic.

Instagram has also recently rolled out a new sticker for users to include in their stories. It is being called the “Stay Home” sticker and every time someone includes it in their story, they get put into a larger group story which is trending very well right now. Try creating an Instagram story using this stick to get more eyes on your business. It is a great way to leverage a topic that is extremely relevant right now and can help give your business a fresher look.

Social media reviews are also very useful tools right now. Since Google Reviews is currently not posting any new submissions due to COVID-19 business closures, businesses need to look to alternative review sources. Facebook has the Facebook Recommendations feature which allows people to share their experience with your business so that their friends and family can see. This is a great opportunity to engage your customers and leverage their reviews to keep drawing in new customers. Yelp is another great forum that you should be asking your customers to use to leave a review of your business on.

Be SEO Friendly

Last but not least, take this time as an opportunity to focus on Search Engine Optimization. FAQ’s are hot right now as people are asking similar questions about local businesses – Are they open? What are their new hours? What services are they still offering? Etc. So adding FAQ schema with answers to those kinds of questions on your website would be an easy and effective way to rank higher on Google searches.

You can also optimize your Google My Business page by adding photos and verifying your location. Taking small steps like these to flesh out your GMB page will help people who are in your area find your business. And as a bail bondsman, local business is your bread and butter. That’s why longtail keywords are also important. Make sure that your website’s content utilizes longtail keywords that include the names of the cities and areas that you operate in. This will help Google pull up your site when people conduct searches like “bail bondsmen near me.”

Of course, if ever you are in doubt, it helps to hire professionals. Things have changed and though the changes aren’t necessarily for the better, they are presenting business owners with some unique marketing opportunities. Perhaps the best way to not only maintain but to grow your digital marketing presence in this time of pandemic is to hire professionals. A customized and specified SEO marketing strategy is well worth the investment in any economic climate. Here at Bail Webmasters, we offer industry insight and digital marketing services that are designed for the bail bond business.

If you aren’t sure what you should be doing to make your target demographic aware of your business, professional services like ours will be able to help. We hope you stay safe and that your business thrives in these unstable times.

Apr '20

6 Common Technical SEO Issues That Could Hurt Your Bail Website

Technical SEO Issues on Bail Website

Bail websites need SEO just as much as any other industry, and perhaps even more. Because Google banned bail bonds ads in 2018, SEO has become the only viable method for acquiring inbound leads online. But SEO is more complex than simply editing meta titles and keywords.

There is a more tech-savvy aspect of search engine optimization, something known as technical SEO. This refers to the updates to a website or server that you have immediate control over. Not only that, but these changes also have a direct impact on your web page’s indexation, crawlability, and impacts the search rankings.

Technical SEO is the first step towards creating a better overall search experience. Fixing those technical SEO issues is a way to refine your website and make it cleaner and more easily found by search engines crawling your website.

Here are six of the most common technical SEO issues out there that you should be aware of when it comes to your website.

1) No HTTPS

Now more than ever, site security is of the utmost importance. People are sharing their information with plenty of websites out there and it is important to know that those websites are taking the proper measures towards keeping their information safe.

The fact is that there are far too many websites still not employing the HTTPS protocol. When your website isn’t secure, it might scare off users from visiting your website. This could cost you valuable traffic that could eventually be converted into sales.

The fix is relatively quick, though you have to purchase and install an SSL certificate from a Certificate Authority. Still, consider this an investment in your website as it can go a long way towards making your visitors feel secure.

2) Improper Indexing

Take a quick second to search for your brand name in Google. If it doesn’t show up, there could be an issue with your indexing. And as far as Google is concerned, if your pages aren’t index they don’t exist, and they will not be found in search engines.

All you have to do is type “site:yoursitename.com” in Google’s search bar and count the number of indexed pages that come up. If you are seeing more or less pages indexed than you originally anticipated, perform a site audit and then check Google’s Webmaster Guidelines to ensure that your website is compliant.

Making certain your website is indexed is very important for drawing in that organic search engine traffic and should not be ignored.

3) Slow Page Speeds

Here’s the thing: if your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, you are way behind the eight ball. Users will not wait that long for a page to load before going elsewhere. Your site speed is one of the more important factors when it comes to user experience and to Google’s search rankings.

This is one of those technical SEO issues that absolutely has to be fixed because of the impact that it has across your website and with user experience. You can perform speed tests through Google PageSpeed Insights or have seoClarity scan your website to check for speed.

The thing is that issues with your site speed can range from fairly quick to completely difficult. If you are using a web developer, talk with them to solve this very common technical SEO issue. If you are the web master, it can mean compression of images, browser caching, or improvement to your servers.

4) Multiple Versions of Your Homepage

Another of the most common technical SEO issues is that there are multiple versions of your homepage. Even if they direct to the same place, this multiple URL indexes can dilute your site’s visibility in the searches.

The best way to combat this common technical SEO issue is to check to see if different versions of your URL flow to one standard URL. This can include the HTTP and HTTPS versions as well as things like “yourwebsite.com/home.html.” You’ll want to check each combination.

Another way to do this is to check which pages are indexed and if they do stem from multiple URL versions. If you do discover that there are multiple indexes, you need to set up 301 redirects or have your developer set them up for you.

5) Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is one of those common technical SEO issues that plagues websites and they don’t even realize it. This is especially true with more and more brands using content management systems, dynamically created websites, and global SEO practices.

When there is duplicate content, it can confuse search engine crawlers and prevent the correct form of content from being served up to your target audience. Duplicate content can happen for a few different reasons. Things like your e-commerce site store items appearing on multiple versions of the same URL or printer-only web pages repeating content on their main page.

Removing this duplicate content is one of those common technical SEO issues that can keep the search engines finding the relevant content it needs to put forth to your end-user.

6) Broken Links

If you’re even moderately familiar with SEO, you know that links are essential for the success of your website. Both good internal and external links will show both the crawlers and users that you have high quality content.

Broken links lead to aggravating overall user experience and can cost you valuable traffic. Broken links also tend to reflect lower quality content which is a factor that can have a major impact on page ranking in the long run.

If you are redoing a site that has a ton of broken links, a site audit is the best bet here. It allows for covering all the pages and finding each broken link. Going forward, you should be checking these pages as you update them to ensure that all links are there. It puts an end to one of those common technical SEO issues that can cause a real problem.

Mar '20

How Bail Bondsmen Can Build White-Hat Links (Step by Step)

Link Building

The world of bail bonds SEO can be quite confusing to those who have no experience. And one of the most confusing terms that you may have heard out there is white-hat links. With their black hat counterparts, you might be feeling a bit confused. White-hat links are links that are built through SEO strategies that focus on the human audience as opposed to search engines. Not only that, it completely follows the rules that have been outlined for search engines and their policies.

Black hat links, meanwhile, are tactics that are used to drive traffic to a website through the exploitation of website loopholes. This means getting a higher search ranking than it should through more “organic” means.

Let’s take a step back first before we worry about white-hat links. First, we should have a firm understanding of just what link building is.

Table of Contents

What is Link Building?

Link building the practice of building one-way hyperlinks to a website with the effort of improving search engine visibility. The most common strategies for this include building useful tools, content marketing, email outreach, public relations, and broken link building.

These links are important and have always been for SEO practices. These links help to build the authority behind that webpage through links from other websites. Google also focuses on link quality as opposed to quantity, meaning that it focuses on how good the links are more than how many there are.

What makes for (Good) White-hat Links?

Understanding what goes into a quality linking strategy will be the foundation for what you need to create quality white-hat links that really bolster your website. More importantly, white-hat links will build the overall authority of your page, giving you the recognition that every online entity wants.

It should go without saying that getting links from authoritative pages out there will also help your own website build that same authority. And those white-hat links are what will propel you even higher into the search rankings than ever before.

This can easily be achieved by checking with a proxy indicator of PageRank. When you put your URL in there, it gives it an overall URL Rating. Not only that, but a link’s quality is also determined by a domain’s overall site-wide authority.

Think of it like this: getting a link from a site like the New York Times will have a much larger impact than getting a link from an unknown blogger. This helps to build the overall authority of your website and strengthen its presence in Google’s SERPs.

Editorial Links vs Non-Editorial Links

Part of the key to creating white-hat links is also in getting more editorial links attributed to you. The difference here is that, with an editorial link, someone wrote about how awesome they think your website is and places the link accordingly.

With a non-editorial link, this is generally from creating a profile on a random site and dropping your link there. And it should go without saying that Google places far more weight in those editorially-placed links.

From the source:

“…creating links that weren’t editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s owner on a page, otherwise known as unnatural links, can be considered a violation of our guidelines.”

Part of this is achieved through what is known as anchor text. Quality white-hat links will come from anchor text used throughout the writing. Not only that, Google actually uses anchor text as a ranking signal.

How to Create White-Hat Links Through These Methods

Thankfully, there are plenty of sites out there that can help you to develop those white-hat links that can really boost your overall SERP rankings and improve the visibility and ranking strength of your website as a whole.

These are just general methods that have been successful, but it is important to note that this is by no means a scientific method of achieving this kind of success.

Create List Posts

This is essentially a list or a tips section that presents a specific number of items to the reader. Best of all, numbered lists can be about literally any topic you can think of, making it perfect for white-hat links.

It works because it provides a lot of value into smaller chunks that won’t scare off users who don’t particularly want to read a wall of text. Best of all, these lists generate more backlinks than any other content format out there.

For bail bondsmen, this could be an “8 things you need to know about bail bonds” kind of post. It provides helpful information but does so in a way that not only makes it easier for the reader to digest but with a lot of authoritative information behind it.

Make Use of Your Visual Assets

One of the best ways to create white-hat links for your website is to make certain that you are implementing images, videos, infographics, charts, diagrams, and any other kind of visually-oriented piece of content.

As mentioned in the list post section, the idea is to make the content as easily-digestible for the reader as possible. Even better, visuals are very easy to link to. If you publish a chart on your website, you will get a link anytime someone shares that chart.

The linking of images and infographics is the quickest and best way to get long-lasting links to your website and engages your audience in a completely different way, creating white-hat links for your website.

Create ‘Ultimate Guides’

Again, the key here is to be authoritative and to present as much useful information to the user as humanly possible. There is no better way to provide a ton of helpful information to the user than in a guide that is jam-packed with information.

These ultimate guides are meant to be just that: a definitive source of information that covers all areas of the subject at hand. This is so that it becomes a go-to source for the audience to reference whenever they have questions regarding the topic at hand.

The more informative and helpful these guides are, the more it will be linked and shared. This helps to build the authority of the page itself as well as the website. And having a link-worthy piece also means that you can build links the old-fashioned way: through email outreach.

Email Outreach

There is no more reliable or dependable way to create strong backlinks than to reach out to the audience that you appeal to. This can be done by reverse-engineering a bit of information. That means searching for your target word, doing some link analysis of similar URLs for the same keyword, and finding websites that are more likely to link to your posts.

Once you’ve done this, there are resources out there that will help you get the email addresses associated with these sites. And once you have those all-important emails, you can begin with your email.

The key here is to send them a personalized script. Don’t make it sound like something you’ve sent to a million people. Keep it unique enough that they won’t just dismiss it as a spam email and disregard it entirely.

Resource Pages

This is a great example of implementing white-hat links the easy way. These resource pages are there to link out to exceptional content on a specific topic. This can be done by using string searches in Google that center around your keyword plus things like “helpful resources”, “useful resources”, or “useful links”.

From here, you can find which websites will have the most authoritative impact on developing those white-hat links. And keep in mind that if your content is great, it won’t matter if it isn’t a good fit for that resource page.

Broken Link Building

This is a great way to develop white-hat links because it isn’t the same as begging someone for a quality link. Instead, you can add value to someone’s website. Find websites with lots of outbound links and check for the broken ones.

When you’ve done this, email the website owner about those broken links and use it as an opportunity to pitch content from your site to replace that broken link or links. Again, it is important to not sound too scripted or they will write you off immediately.

Being able to supplement their existing content with some of your own is a great way to develop those backlinks. They can really bolster your Google SERPs and help to develop your website’s overall authority on the web.

As you can see, there are a ton of ways of developing relevant and valuable backlinks. Best of all, they won’t land you in black hat territory. With white-hat links, your website will get the authority that it needs to stand out. And you won’t be taking shortcuts or employing the tactics that black hat linkers implement.

The key is to be consistent. Develop relevant information, and work diligently to create those inroads that can lead to valuable backlinking. When you have begun to establish your website as an authority, you will notice an uptick in backlinks. That should only strengthen over time.

Feb '20

8 Bail Bond Blog Topics That Can Increase Conversions in 2022

Regardless of the industry, every website out there should have a blog. This is because, regardless of the service or product being offered, a blog is a great way to generate organic traffic that comes to your website.

This is especially true for bail bonds websites since they can no longer advertise on Google Ads or Facebook Ads. That makes organic SEO that much more important and content marketing through blog posts is a big part of search optimization.

When covering bail bond blog topics, it is important to cover a comprehensive range of topics, but it is even more important to be knowledgeable and authoritative. Having that authoritative voice is the key to bringing in readers that may not have bothered with your website previously.

Here are bail bond blog topics that can help get you going, leading to the organic traffic that your website has been after.

Bail Bond Blog Topics Graphic

1) Assessing Jails in The Area

When it comes to creating bail bond blog topics, there are times where touching on the unfortunate realities associated with the situation can be vital. After all, there is a reason that these people are coming to your website – they need a bail bond service.

Giving the reader a better understanding of the jails in the area is one of the more common bail bond blog topics, allowing for a better sense of understanding as to how those area jails work. This is one of those bail bond blog topics that can provide peace of mind to the reader in times of uncertainty.

2) How to Choose The Best Attorney

The bail bond process is just one portion of the process. One of the great bail bond blog topics is explaining to the reader how to choose the proper attorney. Lawyers are rarely a one-size-fits-all kind of solution and having the specific type of defender can be highly beneficial to the reader.

This is one of those bail bond blog topics that can speak to the real situations out there, providing a sense of understanding that some readers will need as they search for a dependable bond service. Keep the topics relatable to make for the best and most relevant reads.

3) Choosing Between a Public Defender and Private Lawyer

Compared to previous bail bond blog topics, this one is a bit more on the specific side of things. Again, not every legal situation is the same and there are different requirements and needs for each specific case.

Great bail bond blog topics will cover a variety of scenarios in a general sense yet maintain the level of detail that applies to the person reading. Most people don’t know the difference between a public defender and a private lawyer aside from the price.

This is one of those bail bond blog topics where you can get comprehensive and detailed, covering many situations and scenarios that relate to the target audience.

4) Explaining an Arrest to a Child

The case with the most quality bail bond blog topics is to strike a note with the audience. Bring up scenarios and situations that they can relate to other than the fact that they’re looking for a bail bond service.

Bringing up the tough situation of explaining an arrest to a child is one of those bail bond blog topics that really hit a personal note if the person reading it has been in a situation like this or know someone who has.

Knowing what to say can be difficult and being provided with a bit of a guiding hand to the target audience can be enough to have them referring your business to others.

5) Bail Bond Payment Options

What better bail bond blog topics than covering the ways that payment can be made? After all, your bail bond business is looking to generate revenue and the customer needs a way to get bail bonds in short order.

Make it as easy as possible on the user. Help them find the appropriate payment options so that they have a clear understanding of how to pay and when taking the guesswork out of at least one portion of the process. This can help provide a bit of peace of mind in an otherwise uncertain situation.

6) Common Terms in the Criminal Justice System

Let’s face facts: there are a ton of terms out there in the criminal justice system that leaves us staring blankly. One of the best bail bond blog topics out there is covering the variety of language and lingo that can be found in the justice system.

This can help better prepare someone when dealing with the criminal justice system on their own or helping someone they know. Again, provide that helpful, authoritative voice and they will come to you whenever they have a problem or need to know something you can show them.

7) Understanding Your Right to Remain Silent

Far too many people do not understand their most basic of rights. A great way to cover a litany of bail bond blog topics is to explain what the rights of the defendant are. The right to remain silent is one of those laws that most do not get when it comes to the impact it has on them.

Break down the legal aspect of situations such as these in a way that any audience can understand. That will provide your audience with peace of mind and a more comfortable understanding of both the process and the rights that they have.

8) Why Bail Bonds are The Most Affordable Option

Despite all the bail bond blog topics out there, the most relatable is finding yourself in a situation where an arrest occurred, and the next step seems so uncertain. Being able to provide experiences, testimonies, and examples surrounding the bail bond process is a great idea.

Make the situation relatable, letting the reader know that they are not alone in situations such as these. That realistic approach is what will bring in readers and provide them with a level of trust in your voice and service.

Jan '20

How To Generate Bail Bond Leads in 2021

Buy Bail Bond Leads

You are probably wondering how to promote a bail bonds company after Google banned PPC bail ads. You may be out of advertising ideas and even maybe questioning whether investing in bail bonds can continue to be a profitable business. Luckily, there is a bail bonds network that still exists online, as long as you can optimize your brand through SEO. By investing in SEO services, you can essentially buy leads for your bail bond business.

What Bail Bondsmen Need To Know

Generating bail bond leads is the lifeblood of your business. Leads become customers, and without a consistent stream of new customers, your business ceases to exist.

Generating bail bond leads is similar to many other small businesses out there. Many bail agents are fighting for the same market share in that limited geographical region can present a challenge.

So, how can you generate bail bond leads for your business, keeping it growing at a consistent rate? There are a few useful methods that you should be following. Before long, you will begin to see steady growth that will keep your business going strong.

Conversion-Focused Websites

Your website’s idea is a simplistic one: you want to draw traffic to it so that potential customers can decide on using your business. When creating bail bond leads, it is vital to have a website focused on converting those leads.

Your website is often the first impression that potential customers get when it comes to your business. It is crucial to have a design focused on converting visitors when they are on the fence about making a decision.

Clarity is the key. Please ensure that you are clear about what you do, your location, and how customers can contact you. People who require bail bonds don’t want to waste time trying to understand your branding or navigate a website that confuses them.

A clean, modern design keeps things simple and instills trust between you and your target audience. That clarity and ease of use are what you need to earn those leads that will keep your bail bond business going strong.

Should you need to explain a more complicated process, use infographics to help generate bail bond leads. Those consumers who are faster moving online tend to get more out of infographics than they do any other type of content.

Visual appeal is the best way to convey the information necessary without it seeming like a wall of text. It is visually appealing enough to grab your target audience’s attention while still providing essential information.

Conversion-Friendly Bail Website for Leads

Maximize Video Content

One of the fastest-growing methods of developing content to generate bail bonds leads is to create video content. Studies had shown an increase in conversion rates for bail bond websites when they used video marketing.

A video is an excellent tool because it communicates your message without that potential wall of text that can be off-putting to your target audience. Not everyone wants to read anything. Having a video makes it far more appealing.

Best of all, you can get creative with the commercials that you make. Generating bail leads can become a bit easier when implementing that strategic video content to your website.

What is great about video is that it is far more comfortable than ever before to create. With the improvement of smartphones and tablets, anyone can create a high-quality video with ease and upload it in that same high quality. Creating commercials has never been easier, allowing bail bond companies to create the perfect commercial in a flash.

Reputation Management

Reputation is one of the most important aspects of a business. If you have a low reputation, you will find it far more difficult to not only get conversions but to generate those bail bond leads that will keep your business booked for the near future.

It should come as no surprise that consumers are checking into the businesses that they plan to use. And why wouldn’t they? A cursory Google search allows us to fit into a business’s reputation in just a few short minutes. Even someone in immediate trouble or trying to secure a bond for a family member will likely check out the reviews for a given bail bondsman.

Star ratings can dictate which direction a customer will move in, and if your business is on the lower end of the spectrum, you could be losing out on customers over the long run.

It should go without saying that positive reviews are a must, and you need quite a bit of them. The more, the better, especially given that Google and other search engines put heavy emphasis on those positive reviews for their bail SEO rankings.

When you have a lot of positive reviews, customers feel a sense of trust in your business. Those reviews come from actual customers who have used that service before. When the reviews rave about the business’s quality, that increases the trust that the potential customer feels towards that business.

But here’s the thing: negative reviews are okay in small quantities. Having 100% positive reviews makes a business seem unrealistic, less human. Those few negative reviews give a business warts necessary to feel like a real company.

It is how you handle those negative reviews that matter the most. There are far too many businesses that do not respond professionally to negative reviews, instead choosing to take that time to get into fights with those reviewers.

When you can handle a negative review with professionalism, it shows potential customers that you are willing to go above and beyond to provide satisfaction—customer service in any industry should go above and beyond in the customer’s eyes.

Mobile-Friendly User Experience

Now more than ever, mobile is the chosen platform for users everywhere. Smartphones and tablets have become such commonplace that nearly everyone (or so it seems) has one of those two devices.

More and more searches are beginning on the mobile platform. So if your website doesn’t work on mobile, it is missing out on a severe portion of the crowd. Those initiating mobile searches will likely pass over those websites without a second thought.

Being mobile-friendly is especially important when generating bail bond leads. Time is generally of the essence when it comes to bail bonds. There generally isn’t a lot of waiting around when procuring a bail bond for a family member. Searching mobile will allow the user to find what they are looking for in short order.

The key to mobile optimization is to make sure that the layout is clean. With smaller screens, a more cluttered website will look clunky on mobile. Keep things simple, and you will make it easier for the user to find what they are looking for within your website.

Content Creation & Marketing

In the eyes of Google and other search engines, having informative and authoritative content can go a long way towards shooting your website up the SEO rankings. Google wants to ensure that they provide the most relative and informative results to those using their search engine.

With content, this is the best way to build that authoritative voice. A blog is a great way to achieve this. You can write about relevant questions that users are asking about the industry and answering them definitively.

First, it makes your website friendlier in the search engines’ eyes, which can help push you to the top of the rankings in your geographical area, giving you a leg up on the competition.

The second is that it makes your website appointment clicking. Even if someone is on the fence about using your service, your website may present the answers to their questions. Satisfying user intent drives that organic traffic to your website, creating bail bond leads you can eventually convert into real dollars towards your bottom line.

Don’t overlook the value of content creation for your website. Especially in a service-based industry like the bail bond industry, it can set you apart in the best ways. Content marketing will draw more eyes to your website and, therefore, your service.

The best way to achieve this is to Google questions that those in your industry may be asking. Take the time to address them thoroughly, hitting the right keywords along the way. Answering relevant questions will make your website the authority that all others will refer to as a reference both in the industry and outside.

This method also creates ever-valuable backlinks. Other reputable websites within your industry will then link back to your website because they believe you to be an authority. Backlinks can have tremendous impacts not only on your traffic but on your SEO rankings as well. Indeed, content is king in situations like this.

Nov '19

How To Promote a Bail Bonds Company in 2022

If you’re wondering how to promote a bail bonds company in 2021, you’re not alone. With the shifting climate and legislation surrounding the bail industry, many companies wonder which advertising mediums are still worth their investment. Some even feel shaken by the loss of Google Ads and Facebook Advertising, which heavily stunted online ad channels for thousands of bail bonds companies.

Thankfully, there are several prime channels (physical and digital) that offer impressive lead-generating potential. We’ve identified a handful of these to investigate for your bail bonds team. Keep in mind; availability will vary according to your city and business environment. But you can generally find opportunities in these throughout the US.

Physical Asset Promotion

While we’re all about the digital marketing life here at Bail Webmasters, it’s clear that traditional mediums still have some value left to share. Few advertising mediums permanently disappear. Instead, they experience lulls and resurgences in popularity. Any channel with a positive ROI is worth investigating. As long as your company message gets in front of receptive people (for the right price), go for it.

Just make sure that to do your research on ROI and exposure; don’t let the advertising company do it for you. Independent analysis protects you from over-enthusiastic, sometimes shady marketing companies that promise great results but don’t always deliver. Be sure to examine post-client reviews from local businesses, especially if you don’t have former firm experience.

Sponsorships

Team, organization, and event sponsorships still provide great exposure. Finding the right opportunities means identifying organizations that naturally fit with your target market. Choosing a broader audience means more people get exposed to your brand. However, it also ensures a costlier sponsorship.

On the other hand, smaller organizations and events can connect you with smaller but highly qualified audiences. You save money, and it’s easier to develop long-term relationships with your sponsored group. While it may require additional effort to research the perfect opportunities for your business, companies like ZipSprout make it easier.

Image From ZipSprout

Billboard Exposure

While small-time sponsorships act like a sharpened scalpel in advertising, billboards are more of a blunt instrument. They work incredibly well for broad-level exposure, especially in premium highway settings. Despite its reach, there’s a minimal way to control who sees your ad.

They can be very expensive too, with high-end placements running in the high thousands. Again, we’re all for advertising channels that continually provide a high ROI. Consider this powerful medium for your company and talk with a local vendor about pricing. You may find a great deal and great exposure.

Image / Stats from Times OOH Media

Digital Marketing Promotion

More than many industries, bail companies depend on a steady stream of leads pouring in from digital channels. Digital marketing provides infinite opportunities to share your brand (and services) with the community. It’s not for the faint of heart, however, because digital standards continually evolve. If you want to thrive in the online marketplace, you’ll need to keep up to date on search engine optimization and advertising channels.

Here are some fantastic ways to generate leads for your business for those researching how to promote a bail bonds company online.

Local News (Link and Quote)

One of the most important aspects of growing your digital brand is establishing your company as an industry authority. Backlinks, links on other sites directing people to your website, go a long way to do just that. Links from reputable sources, such as news providers, offer your brand the most outstanding value because Google sees them as authoritative entities. Getting quoted and linked to by an online news brand provides digital brand value.

Try finding some local news providers and asking them for opportunities to provide quotes and get linked. You might talk about the bail industry reform or the justice system. Even mentions provide some value towards your ongoing website performance, so it’s worth the effort.

Retargeting Ads

While advertising giants like Google Ads and Facebook worked hard to push bail companies out of digital marketing, there are still plenty of options left on the table. Bail companies can easily track and advertise to their target segments with the use of ad retargeting. This process uses digital cookies to identify website visitors and create banner ads for them on other websites.

Retargeting provides a high conversion rate because it specifically addresses people who have already visited your website or a competitor’s.

While more costly (in the long-term) than SEO for bail, retargeting offers plenty of opportunities to increase your brand exposure. The familiarity it creates with potential clients could be a deciding factor in who they call first during a bail emergency.

Image From ReTargeter

Local SEO for Bail

Even before Google Ads ditched the bail industry, most consumers only relied on organic search results. Research from 2018 showed that up to 80% of search engine users skipped straight to organic results anyway. We’ve certainly grown accustomed to bypassing ads for convenience. While the search giant may not have a vested interest in advertising for the industry, it still has plenty of reasons to support search consumers with quality SEO for bail companies.

Your company also has thousands of reasons to pursue a strong performance in local search. With so many leads circulating across the front page of search results, it’s more important than ever before to optimize your website and get ranked. If you’re wondering how to promote a bail bonds company in local search, there are a few key elements to focus on:

Your website (obviously)
Your Google My Business account
Your local listings (BBB, Yelp, etc.)
Review collection

Web Optimization

Website SEO for Bail

We could spend hours talking about hundreds of itty-bitty optimization details that elevate a bail bonds company above the rest, and we already have. For now, let’s cover the basics again.

A lead-generating website focuses on streamlined navigation, diversified keyword usage, and conversational writing style. Start with a handful of top-level, general category pages. Then create keyword-rich pages for each specific service, and arrange them under the appropriate categories. This strategy allows your bail bonds business to generate more listings in local search, and it creates a healthy boost to your overall Google marketing strategy.

If you’ve been wondering how to promote a bail bonds company on a tighter budget, a quality website the easiest way to generate cheaper (but still high-quality) leads.

GMB

Setting Up Your GMB Account

Ironically, one of your most important digital assets should be free. Google My Business provides free listings for local companies, making it significantly easier to show up in local maps searches. While these listings are free, they do require a small amount of effort to claim and verify. If you haven’t already, sign up for your GMB account and get it verified ASAP.

Optimizing your account is crucial, both for generating leads and increasing conversions. Make sure you continue to fill out and update your listing information as much as possible. Be sure to sign up for customer direct messaging too. DMs make it more convenient for frantic family members and friends of would-be clients to contact your business. Finish off your GMB optimization by uploading pictures of your staff.

Listings & Reviews

Citation Listings & Client Reviews

The most qualified people to promote your bail business are happy clients. That’s why reviews are so essential for growing your online brand. If you’re wondering how to promote a bail bonds company through voices, you can’t control, that’s easy. Provide outstanding service and provide multiple platforms for your fans to publish testimonials. Google encourages businesses to draw in feedback from numerous review sources.

For one, this creates multiple links back to your business. Backlinking is a metric used to establish a website’s brand authority and trustworthiness. If you have dozens of reviews pouring in from multiple sites (BBB, Yelp, Facebook, Google Reviews, etc.), that’s visible proof of your company’s ongoing activity. The more proof, the more incentive Google has to rank your company over other firms in local search.

Bringing it All Together

Don’t think of these promotional venues as separate tools. In reality, they all work together to drive potential bail leads to your company. Billboards drive calls to your office, but they also encourage people to Google your business. Sponsorships create new opportunities to help the community, but they also improve people’s perceptions of your brand (online and offline).

No matter what channels you ultimately decide to promote through, make sure your company is ready to receive online leads with a fully optimized website. At Bail Webmasters, we support industry professionals from around the nation. Our custom designed and coded sites produce more substantial rankings in local search and higher-quality leads for businesses just like yours.

Nov '19

5 Appealing Bail Bond Websites To Consider in 2022

It’s easy to get bogged down in the process of designing a capable, productive website. However, for a fast action industry like bail bonding, there’s even more pressure to capture visitor attention. Navigation, writing style, and even color scheme play a crucial role in how well your target audience will respond when they land on your homepage.

Thankfully, there are plenty of seasoned bail veterans who’ve already nailed website design. Their example serves as an inspiration to new or struggling companies who’ve yet to master the science. Today, we’ll take a look at five fantastic bail bond websites that reveal what it takes to succeed in local search marketing. Along the way, we’ll identify the key elements that make these sites so alluring.

#1: Cut Loose Bail Bonds

Simplicity often makes for more assertive communication. In the picture above, we can see that Cut Loose Bail Bonds’ marketing company opted for a text-light space above the fold. As a result, visitors quickly identify the company’s service area, phone number, and navigational menu without having to scroll. The downtown image also establishes locality, putting Sacramento natives just a bit more at ease.

Of course, the Cut Loose Bail Bonds website does more than look pretty. It also takes pinpoints the critical motivation that drives people to bail services in the first place: getting back to everyday life.

Many bail agents focus so much on layouts and color scheming; they forget about messaging. Cut Loose’s marketing firm understood the powerful personal connection. They connect with their target market’s desire to preserve their jobs and get home to their families. Of course, they still take the opportunity to present a call to action that’s both convincing and easy-to-see.

The website’s mobile version renders very cleanly, with appropriate text size for reading on smaller devices. We could go into search engine optimization, contact forms, calls to action (CTAs), and other aspects that the team nailed in the design process, but we’ll save those elements for our other entries.

Cut Loose Bail Bonds’ Website Rating

Visual Design: 5/5
Writing: 4.5/5
Navigation: 5/5
CTAs & Contact Info: 5/5

Excellent imagery and clean spacing make for an enjoyable visitor experience. We even love the logo, and that’s rare.

#2: You Call Bail Bond Agency

Imagery communicates much faster than words. We are huge fans of text-light designs with powerful image hooks. Upon landing on the You Call Bail Bonds Agency’s homepage, you can immediately feel the tension this picture produces. Visitor attention isn’t challenged by extra text or calls to action, either. It’s just the logo, number, dropdown menu button, and a powerful header.

As you look through the rest of the page, the blue/grey/white color scheme remains remarkably consistent.

These clickable blocks fall just below the main header, making for faster navigation. While most companies focus on immediately listing out their service offerings, You Call takes a different approach with their category blocks. They direct visitors to more appropriate resources, such as a guide on the bonding process or a list of frequently asked customer questions.

That’s a smart move. It creates a sense of compassion and customer service that many bail company sites lack.

While the page’s text may seem smaller than usual, it does draw attention back to the key headers. That is a risky move because it forces people to concentrate more to read (especially on mobile devices). Despite this, the site still looks fantastic.

You Call Bail Bond Agency’s Website Rating

Visual Design: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Navigation: 5/5
CTAs & Contact Info: 4/5

While small text makes the site a little tricky to read, it features a beautiful design and a clear focus on customer service in the content.

#3: Ammediate Bail Bonds

A high percentage of bail clients discover their agents through mobile search, making a responsive design essential. Frankly, most websites have already incorporated the mobile-friendly design into their website. Any businesses that haven’t are already way behind the curve. We love the clean design of Ammediate Bail Bonds’ mobile site.

In the picture above, notice how the phone number takes center position. A strategically placed number is perfect for individuals who need to locate the number quickly. Instead of having to scroll down and hunt for the number, it’s immediately visible. The number also features click to call functionality, so mobile users can directly connect via phone line.

Ammediate’s desktop site looks just as attractive. The purple color scheme looks very regal, despite the intense nature of the business. They even manage to create some strong symbolism. The traditional gavel and handcuffs lie in the background, while a happy family photo takes the main focus in front.

Service Page Optimization

Finally, we take a moment to leave the homepage and spend some time analyzing Ammediate Bail Bonds’ services. An unfortunate number of bail companies put all their design effort into the homepage alone. While it’s the most heavily visited area of the website, the service pages tend to look scant in comparison.

Ammediate spends just enough time sprucing up the service pages to make them presentable, without overdoing things on presentation. The neatly spaced text stands out, and we can see an apparent effort towards keyword-optimization. That’s a critical factor when it comes to local search marketing.

Ammediate Bail Bonds’ Website Rating

Visual Design: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Navigation: 5/5
CTAs & Contact Info: 4/5

Ammediate’s website depends on clean spacing and easy reading to support potential customers, and it looks fantastic in mobile viewing.

#4: Owens Bonding Co.

Our next entry comes from the Owens Bonding Co., a statewide bail organization in the heart of Kansas. Owens’ website features many of the same amenities we’ve reviewed in our other entries, but it’s also incorporated some tools that are worth examining. Overall, it’s an incredibly balanced combination of aesthetics and practicality.

You can tell from the get-go that this design focuses on functionality. Navigation, contact forms, and a hyperlinked number are all available above the fold. As we scroll down, category blocks appear for each of the major service branches: misdemeanor bail, felony bail, drug charges, and DUI bail. Whether a visitor needs quick access to the business or additional time to research, all the tools are laid out clearly for them.

One layout element that we love is the collection of tabbies. Tabbies create multiple, short windows of text in an overlapping space. When you click on a tab at the top, it reveals the corresponding information. In the picture below, Owens Bonding Co. (or their marketing company) uses tabbies to share more detailed info regarding the company’s services, plus frequently asked questions.

These practical design tools save so much space, keeping Owen’s website concise but equally informative. They also translate well in mobile viewing, acting as dropdown boxes that open and collapse as needed. It makes for very convenient reading.

Owens Bonding Co. Website Rating

Visual Design: 5/5
Writing: 5/5
Navigation: 5/5
CTAs & Contact Info: 5/5

While the site may not be particularly “fancy,” Owens Bonding Co. presents a convenient and informative website that ticks off all the boxes we’re monitoring. It’s clean, it looks great on mobile, and the pages have keywords optimized for local search. Full marks.

#5: ATX Bail Bonds

This last entry may be a bit of a surprise for some. Many companies only see flashy graphic design as the critical metric for website success, but that’s rarely the case. Sometimes the most straightforward methods have the most significant impact, as is the case with ATX Bail Bonds.

Again, we’ve picked a site that relies on open spacing rather than stuffing in as much information as possible. White space makes it easy to locate desired services and contact information quickly. It also allows the site to render well on mobile devices. However, it’s not the visual design that draws us to ATX’s website; it’s the visitor tools.

The website includes tools to help people search for jailed loved ones, investigate potential warrants, and even check upcoming court dates. ATX goes out of its way to aid current and prospective clients alike, creating a higher standard for customer service-centered web design. Some bail bond websites incorporate similar tools, but it’s still rare to see.

ATX Bail Bonds Website Rating

Visual Design: 3.5/5
Writing: 3.5/5
Navigation: 5/5
CTAs & Contact Info: 5/5

It’s not as flashy as other bail bond websites, but this company shows more customer-focused effort than most. That impresses us enough to make this list.

Final Thoughts

Thousands of bail bond websites cover the web, but few portray the capable design, writing, and functionality necessary to win local search success. If your bail company has struggled to assemble a dynamic website like the ones we’ve discussed, let them serve as guiding examples. In the meantime, our team at Bail Webmasters is happy to support your business with custom web design, SEO, and reputation management services.

Oct '19

How Bail Reform Impacts Marketing for Bail Bonds

As bail reform rises on the tide of media articles and legislative movement, it’s clear that big industry changes are just over the horizon. States like California and New York play huge roles in the legislative shifts, though it’s too early to tell what effect their movements will have on the rest of the country. While we may only feel a light change in the wind now, the entire country may experience a serious industry storm in the near future!

Today, we’ll take a deeper look at three focal points of these reforms. These include:

The heavy push to eliminate cash bail through legislation.
The rise of bail alternative programs.
The non-legislative bail culture shift among judges and prosecutors.

We’ll also outline some bail reform marketing strategies for keeping your business ahead of the industry changes, such as shifting towards felony crime bonding. Be sure to pay close attention to the research data as we progress! Let’s get started.

Cash Bail Could Be on it’s Way Out the Door for Many States. It’s Time to Plan Ahead With Bail Reform Marketing.

Industry Trend #1: The No Bail Shift

Last year, California lawmakers signed a bill that made the state the very first to eliminate cash bail. The legislation removed the process of bail setting, instead placing a jail-or-no-jail decision squarely within the hands of local judges. While some state natives hailed the bill as a symbol of much-needed bail reform, detractors quickly rose up in both civil liberty and bail advocates. The ACLU claimed that last-minute adjustments to the bill actually made it more likely that judges would simply hold defendants without bail.

On the other side of the issue, bail advocates argued that the measures risk increasing crime rates of suspects with solid arrest histories who are released awaiting trial.

While the bill was set to activate this month, a widespread petition among bail industry professionals and supporters called for a referendum on the legislation. The bill’s fate is now set to be decided in the coming 2021. Regardless of whether the bill survives or crumbles under referendum, it still represents a significant shift pretrial release without bail, particularly in liberal states.

PSA Scores Now Heavily Influence Judicial Decisions to Jail or Release Suspects on Recognizance.

Pretrial Public Safety Assessment

One of the most peculiar, yet powerful forces behind the no-bail shift are the algorithm assessment programs. Many California cities and counties, such as San Francisco, have adopted these risk assessment tools as a way to prevent gender and racial bias from seeping into pretrial determinations. It’s no mystery that minority groups, especially those in poverty, have long experienced higher rates in pretrial incarceration. Since these groups are least likely to afford bail, they have experienced significant incarceration times prior to their actual hearings.

Judges through California now use algorithmically-generated public safety assessment scores to determine a suspect’s risk to the public and their likelihood of returning for trial. This analytical method, made famous by Texas company Arnold Ventures, assesses criminal history and other key factors with the goal of eliminating gender and racial biases.

Unfortunately, these streamlined tools aren’t foolproof, as they still heavily depend on accurate data-entry and wise interpretation by the judges. This painful truth came into focus in 2017, when a San Francisco native was murdered by a former convict who was mistakenly released on pretrial assertive case management, despite having multiple parole violations and a weapons charge days before the attack. The event was made possible by a faulty PSA store, generated by human error when the suspect’s criminal and incarceration history were improperly entered into the system.

As these PSA programs grow increasingly influential in large metropolitan communities like Chicago, San Francisco, Phoenix, and even Houston, there’s growing concern among bail industry professionals. These systems seem to progress the movement of no-bail pretrial releases, which in turn increase the number of felony suspects back on the streets.

According to Pew Research, Public Perception Conflicts With Downward Crime Trends.

Industry Trend #2: Bail Alternative Programs

Despite having one of the highest population densities in the country, New York City has seen a massive decrease in the number of incarcerated pretrial suspects. In fact, the “City that Never Sleeps” has now earned a new reputation as “the least incarcerated major city in the United States” (The Marshall Project), with a mere 7,800 people reported in jail this year. Part of the city’s shift away from bail has been stimulated by the rising tide of alternative solutions.

One of the most prominent programs comes directly from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice. In a quest to reduce the number of individuals held in jail due to inability to pay bail, the 2016 Supervised Release program utilizes a pretrial risk assessment tool to analyze each suspect’s potential threat to the community. Low-risk offenders (especially those who couldn’t afford bail) are often provided the option of release under supervision of a case worker. Enrollee court appearances are carefully managed by their case worker, who often connects the suspect with voluntary counseling, career training, and similar social services.

A Woman Receives Counseling Thanks to Bail Reform

Individuals Released on Pretrial Supervised Release May Opt to Receive Counseling.

Higher-risk felony suspects are often denied release and held in jail. According to the Marshall Project, a news organization dedicated to criminal justice reform, the violent felony charges have actually increased partly as a result of the rise in pretrial release.

“The rate at which defendants are charged bail for violent felonies, as opposed to lower-level crimes, has actually increased from 53 percent to 62 percent in recent decades.”

While it’s unclear exactly how successful this program has been in affecting return for trial rates, the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice claimed that Supervised Release had a success rate similar to people released on their own recognizance. The program has already hit a landmark number of 10,000 enrollees, showing just how enthusiastic judges have been to utilize the program. With the popularity of Supervised Release climbing, the Mayor’s Office launched a youth-track in October last year. In the meantime however, there are a growing number of justice system professionals who aren’t happy with the way New York bail policies have shifted.

Prosecutors Bypassing No-Bail Legislation

While many professionals in the criminal justice industry support the Supervised Release program (and the related campaign to retire the Rikers Island prison), detractors have risen in protest of recent bail reform legislation. Tagged onto the 2019 State Budget, these criminal justice changes eliminate bail for the majority of misdemeanor and non-violent felony charges. They also reduce the pretrial waiting period for suspects (three months for misdemeanors, and six months for felony charges).

The reforms were designed to limit the population of incarcerated individuals awaiting trial, and prevent criminal tendencies created by disruptions to livelihood.

Pretrial Detention Causes Many to Lose Their Jobs, Perpetuating the Crime Cycle.

Law enforcement and criminal justice professionals like Jed Painter however, think the reforms could encourage people to skip trial and commit additional crimes. That’s why he’s giving pointers to legal experts on how to target problematic, pretrial-released individuals with more bail worthy offenses. These offenses could include bail jumping and willfully missing mandated check-ins.

While the bail industry’s influence certainly seems to be shrinking in New York, it’s clear there’s still room for servicing more serious felony charges. We’ll discuss this more in our bail reform marketing strategies.

Industry Trend #3: Non-Legislative Movements

Perhaps more interesting (or alarming for some) is the non-legislative shift away from demanding bail. We’ve already mentioned bail alternative programs like Supervised Release that have seen so many release on recognizance. However, it seems that the general ideals of judges and prosecutors alike has shifted away from bail.

In NYC, the return-to-court rate has actually soared despite fewer bail-based releases.

While the national court return rate rests at the 75th percentile, New York City’s rate has claimed to 86 percent. Even in cases involving bail release, prosecutors now seem to be pricing their bail requests lower. It’s possible that the entire state’s cash bail could disappear altogether by 2021.

The Effectiveness of NY Legislation May Determine Industry Reform in Other States.

Stability of Bail Legislation

Even before legislation eliminated many bail services earlier this year, there was already a clear shift away from pretrial lockup. New York City enjoys a remarkably low-crime rate (28% lower than the national average, and falling). Considering the metropolitan area’s dense population, it serves as a poignant example for other large cities in the nation.

In other words, if NYC’s current trend of lower crime and higher pretrial releases continues, it’s very likely that others will try to follow the city’s lead.

All eyes will be on the state as it moves further and further towards casting aside bail setting altogether. Depending on the state’s success, we might start seeing those grassroot movements escalate into law in other states across the country, even traditionally bail-friendly ones (such as Texas). It’s very likely that this gradual adoption of bail reforms could see more sustainable results, compared to those in California generated by more aggressive legislation.

Bail Reform Marketing Ramifications

While these cultural changes may seemingly spell doom and gloom for bail professionals, there’s still a little time to modify your business structure ahead of the coming shifts. With careful planning and shrewd bail reform marketing strategy, your company can continue to faithfully serve your community and grow! Here are some recommended tactics for protecting your business.

Location Choice

#1: Carefully Plan Your Expansion

When it comes to adopting new legislation, liberal states seem to be the ones most aggressively pursuing legislation to drop bail. With that being said, your laws may still very city by city in your state. If lawmakers in your service area push a new bill, you may have to rely on nearby areas for more of your business.

While growing your business has rarely been about hedging your bets, entering new cities could be a great move for your bail company. As you look to optimize your website and other bail reform marketing assets, make sure that the cities you’re investigating have amenable laws. The same goes for your online advertising tools. If other digital tech companies follow the example of Facebook and Google, you could be left with fewer advertising tools. So try experimenting with other platforms, just in case!

Repositioning

#2: Shift Towards Felony Bail Market

While some stats look to eliminate bail altogether, others simply want to limit instances of long-term incarceration for misdemeanor offenses. That means fewer bail clients in the lesser offense categories, and much stronger emphasis on felony crimes. It might be time to push stronger advertising for these categories.

If you want to rank for felony bail keywords online, make sure your business has the appropriate service pages in place. In your bail reform marketing strategy, you may also want to incorporate more content on both state and federal felonies. By starting now, you can ensure that your company has stronger keyword rankings when the misdemeanors finally drop off the service menu.

Budgeting

#3: Prepare for a Shrinking Market

While public perception may suggest otherwise, the FBI and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BUS) continue to show downward trends for crime across the country. Last year, violent crimes averaged a mere 23 incidents per 1,000 people aged 12 and up. Property crimes dropped down to 108 incidents per 1,000 people (Pew Research).

Combine fewer clients with anti-bail legislation, and it paints a picture of a shrinking market.

Even if you’re currently content with your lead volume, it’s more important than ever to pursue better traffic for your company website. If you haven’t taken the time to optimize your site for local search, now is the time! Here are a few pointers for getting started on your bail reform marketing…

Diversify your keyword strategy with more secondary (mid-to-low volume) phrases.
Create pages for each of your major services, not just the categories.
Make sure your images are optimized too, including alt text and captions.
Try incorporating reviews into your site. Collect them from a variety of sources.
If you can, try infusing your pages with applicable schema code.

Bail Reform Marketing: Final Thoughts

Since bail reform laws and trends will vary state to state (even city to city), make sure to consult your local representatives on what the future holds. With the industry continually changing, research and preparation can make all the difference for your business. We hope your team continues to grow!

In the meantime, our crew at Bail Webmasters is here to help you with all your online marketing needs! Our custom web design and SEO services have enabled countless professionals to grow their businesses when other companies were still struggling with the loss of Google Ads and Facebook Advertising. We’d love to partner with your business too!