Legal Practice Pro» SEO For Lawyers

Why Your Law Firm Website’s Ranking Depends On Who You Know

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 06:00:11 +0000

You hire a search engine optimization company to get your law firm website to the top of Google. But is search engine optimization becoming more a matter of who you know?

The cornerstone of your law firm online marketing efforts is, as of this writing, Google. And if your law firm website isn’t at the top of the search engine results page you may as well take your ball and go home. Hit the top organic spot and you’ll grab about 56% of the clicks for the search term. From there, the potential client is yours to lose.

But here’s the thing: what you see when you search online is not what I see. In many cases it’s not even close.

If you don’t already know about it, you need to understand Personalized Search. Once you do, you’ll see the true value of using social media platforms and building your law firm website ranking the right way.

Your Browsing History

When you’re signed into your Google account, the search engine personalizes your search experience based on your Web History. When you’re not signed in, your search experience is personalized based on past search information linked to your browser, using a cookie.

If you do a search for “Raleigh divorce lawyer” and click on your law firm website, the next time you do the same search it will come up higher in the results.

If you hit the +1 button next to a specific site, that will factor in as well. You’re being given more of what it’s assumed you want to see.

Your Location

According to Google, about 20% of all searches have what is called “local intent.” That means 2 out of every 10 queries are somehow tied to a local event, product, service or item. Google knows whether you’re searching for something local. And when it comes to people looking for a law firm, that’s most likely local.

In fact, in August 2010 Google was issued a patent for “a system and method are disclosed for determining local intent. Local intent may reflect whether a search query should receive results and advertisements that are geographically specific. The local intent may be determined using probabilistic models that analyze historical searches to determine whether search terms tend to have local intent.” Yeah, they’ve got an algorithm for that.

I’m in New York City, so when I search for a pizza place I’m going to get restaurants that are closest to me. And when I touch down in Chicago, I’m going to get totally different results.

So, too, for lawyers. When my potential client looks for a bankruptcy law firm they’re going to get attorneys in New York.

Once again, the searcher is given more of what they want to see.

Your Social Circle

But there’s more to it. The search giant also uses input from your social media circles to serve up results. Your friends’ activity on Twitter, Flickr and Facebook (assuming their accounts aren’t set for privacy) has a huge impact on personalized search results. The thinking is that if you know someone and interact with them on Twitter, Facebook or a variety of other platforms then you will likely be more interested in seeing their stuff.

Now that Google Plus is on the scene, you can sure that your Circles will display prominently on your results. My law firm website is sure to show up for those in my Circles.

You know a lawyer in New York, you live in New York and search for a law firm to help out with a problem. You’re going to be more likely to want to see my website because you (theoretically) know, like and trust me. We travel in the same circles, after all.

Let’s say we’re connected on Twitter. You search for “search engine optimization for lawyers.” My book comes up pretty high in the search engine results page. Google knows we’re connected, so it gives you more from the people you know.

Yet again, the searcher is given more of what they want to see.

Proof That Your Google Is Not My Google

Let’s look at two screenshots. The first one was taken when I was logged into my Google account:

You immediately see a few things. First, I’m seeing one of my websites, ShaevLaw.com, at the top of the search engines. I’m also seeing a map of Manhattan, which is my local area. I’m seeing the other website for my law firm, NewYorkBankruptcyHelp.com, in the third position. And finally, I’m seeing Rich Feinsilver’s website in fourth place.

Looks as if my law firm websites are doing well, but Rich is coming up behind us. I like Rich, but not enough for him to overtake me.

So now let’s log out and clear my cookies. Run the same search and you get this:

Now we’re seeing a totally different story. ShaevLaw.com is still at the top of the search engines. But neither NewYorkBankruptcyHelp.com nor Rich Feinsilver’s site are “above the fold” for this particular search.

Why? Because Google served up my own site, which I share on my social networks, as well as Rich’s site because he and I are connected on Facebook and Twitter.

Consider The Impact

I’m connected with my colleagues, but also news reporters, public relations folks, local lawyers who practice in other fields, and people who live around me. When they search for something that I’ve written about, they see me more prominently than anyone else. And if their search has local intent, so much the better – I show up multiple times.

The more people you’re connect with on Facebook and Twitter (along with the rest), the more often your sites are going to show up in their search engine results. That translates into greater traffic and, ultimately, more clients for you.

You can spend a bunch of money on a search engine optimization firm, but they’re not going to get you very far if you’re competing against people who are well-connected on social media platforms. Your on-page optimization may be excellent, your site structure pristine, your coding cirsp and clear. You may have thousands of relevant backlinks from well-regarded sites. But without social connections it’s not going to add up to much.

So tell me, is social media still a waste of your time?

Image credit: jasonpcasey/Flickr

A Simple Way To Get Your Law Firm Website To Rank Better

Jay Fleischman — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 06:00:54 +0000

We’ve talked a bit about some ways to make your law firm website better. One thing we haven’t gone over is handing your preferred ranking term to Google on a silver platter. So I thought I’d share a quick and easy tip for doing just that.

When Google’s spider comes to your website, it looks at all of the links on the site to get a sense of things. Each link on your site – whether those links go to other pages or to outside sources – get a certain level of authority, called PageRank in the Googleverse.

But there’s a catch. Not all links are created equal.

First Link Priority And Your Law Firm Website Or Legal Blog

Much as in the breadlines of days past rewarded the first person in line with the greatest chance of getting a hunk of bread, so does Google reward the very first link on your site with the greatest search engine optimization push. It reminds me of the old real property saying, “first in time, first in right.”

In SEO terms, this is called “first link priority.” In fact, Noble Samurai puts it eloquently by stating:

The First Link Priority rule states that when a page links more than once to the same target page, Google will completely ignore all links after the first, often with negative SEO consequences.

It’s a big deal because the anchor text for that first link (you know, the underlined phrase you click on) is search engine optimization gold for your law firm website or legal blog. Put the wrong link at the top of the page and you’re killing off a major SEO source for yourself.

How Your Site Works Affects The First Link Priority

Let’s say you decide you want a navigation bar at the top of the page. The first link is usually going to be titled “Home.” So the majority of your law firm website or legal blog search engine optimization goodness is going to the term “Home.”

Good luck with that.

If, however, your law firm website or legal blog has a clickable header image on top then your home page would be the first link. You could set the title of the link as your primary search term, which would help somewhat.

Sidebar And Footer Links Mean Nothing

Now that you understand the First Link Priority Rule you can easily see why those sidebar links you’re accumulating don’t mean much. And why all the work that SEO company is doing on your behalf – you know, the stuff you’re spending thousands of dollars a month on – could be made so much more effective by simply tweaking your own site a bit.

This is not to say that backlinks, social signals and the like don’t help your law firm website. Indeed, they do – and ignoring them is a bad, bad, bad thing indeed. I’m just saying that there’s something so small you can do to make things better for your blog without spending much time or money.

An Easy Fix To The First Link Priority Rule Problem

Michael Martine of Remarkablogger put together an excellent video for those of you who are using the incredible Headway Theme for your law firm website or blog. I encourage you to take a look, make a quick fix, and see how things work for you.

If you’re not using Headway, consider reorganizing your page structure so that the most important link is first. If you’ve got a sidebar on your law firm website or blog with links then you may want to move it to the right side of the page, which is the last place the search engine bots look when crawling your site.

Nifty way to get a little SEO bump, huh?

Image credit: hockadilly/Flickr

Online Legal Marketing Begins With The Right Word

Jay Fleischman — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:11:48 +0000

You’re about to launch your online legal marketing efforts – whether it’s a blog, a static website, or social media marketing strategy (ideally, it’s a combination of all three – but that’s another post for another day). Where do you begin? A domain name? A hosting account? Installing WordPress? Hiring a web developer or a graphic designer to make your online home look all swanky?

Nope. You begin with a word. The right word. Actually, the right words.

And I’m not talking about your pearls of wisdom, either. I’m talking about your keyword terms, those words and terms that you want to rank for on the search engines. Pick the right words and you’re well on your way to online legal marketing success. Choose the wrong ones and you’re dead in the water, floating on page 48 of the search engine results page.

Bear in mind that you need not – indeed, should not – pick only one word to work with. Pick 10, 20 even 50 words and phrases at the start; once you conquer them, you can move onto others.

If you’re marketing a bankruptcy law practice and are located in Cleveland, you may want to focus on “Cleveland bankruptcy lawyer,” or “Cleveland bankruptcy attorney.” Depending on the traffic those terms get, and the competition on the search engines, these may be good or bad ideas as a place to begin.

Choosing Keywords For Your Online Legal Marketing Efforts

First, you want to play word association with yourself, doing everything you can to brainstorm. Think about the words people use when they talk to you. Ask clients if they searched online for a lawyer and, if so, what they plugged into the search engine.

Next, you’ll need to do some legwork to determine the relative volume of searches done for each search tool. There are a number of free keyword search tools online. In no particular order, some of them are:

Wordtracker: Free Keyword Suggestion Tool
SEO Book: Keyword Suggestion Tool
Keyword Discovery: Free Search Term Suggestion Tool
Google Search-based Keyword Tool
Google AdWords Keyword Tool
Google Insights for Search
Google Trends

Third, you’ll want to hand-pick some of the keyword search terms on which to focus your efforts. If you’ve got a relatively new site or are redeveloping an existing site from the ground up (i.e., a gut renovation) then you probably want to start off with the long tail keywords. These are keywords that don’t get a ton of traffic individually but get a good amount in the aggregate. By focusing on the long tail, you can pick up some traffic without as much competition.

Once you’ve chosen a bucket of keywords and search terms, you’ll be able to begin your online legal marketing efforts with gusto. Of course, this is just the first step to climbing the search engine results page. But without this critical first step, you’ll never get the success you seek.

Photo courtesy of Feuillu.

Google Doesn’t Care About Your Keyword Metatags

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:16:48 +0000

One of the things I teach my lawyer students is search engine optimization, and how to increase their position in the search engines. After all, where you show up in Google is a critical element of your online legal marketing efforts. Optimize your website properly and you’re way ahead of the game – focus on the wrong stuff and you’re spinning your wheels.

One of the wrong things that most lawyers focus on is the concept of “keyword metatags.” Those are the words that you stick in the top of the website’s code to (theoretically) let Google and the other players know what the site is all about. Lawyers obsess over the keyword metatags in their law firm websites and blogs, they hire expensive search engine optimization “experts” (and I use the term lightly) for thousands of dollars a month to help in their efforts.

They spin their wheels.

Meanwhile, my websites and blogs contain the most generic keywords. Why? Because I’ve long maintained that Google does not use the “keywords” meta tag in its web search ranking. Red herring, says I.

Now, Google comes out with the truth. And I’m pretty happy to report that I was correct all along. On the Google Webmaster Central Blog, the definitive statement (there’s a video to go with it) is as follows:

Our web search (the well-known search at Google.com that hundreds of millions of people use each day) disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don’t have any effect in our search ranking at present.

…

About a decade ago, search engines judged pages only on the content of web pages, not any so-called “off-page” factors such as the links pointing to a web page. In those days, keyword meta tags quickly became an area where someone could stuff often-irrelevant keywords without typical visitors ever seeing those keywords. Because the keywords meta tag was so often abused, many years ago Google began disregarding the keywords meta tag.

So next time some fancy-pants legal search engine optimization “expert” corners you at a convention or bombards you by phone, remember – it ain’t the metatags that do the trick. It’s the content.

Photo courtesy of Danard Vincente.

The Dangers Of Exchanging Links For SEO Benefits

Jay Fleischman — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:00:34 +0000

Every lawyer wants to improve their search engine optimization, and it seems as if there are plenty of companies doing SEO for lawyers. They promise the moon and stars, and lawyers – being gullible marks – fall for it left and right.

Most of us have no idea about SEO. All we know is we want to rank well on the search engines. There’s a sales rep who swears he’ll get me to #1 on Google for $500 a month, I’m busy and he sounds convincing.

I’m in. Chances are good that you are, too.

Come on, think about it. If someone could get you to #1 for $500 a month, don’t you think everyone would be doing it? And if they did, which one would be #1?

One of the things that SEO companies do (or tell you to do on your own) is to do link exchanges with other site. You put a link on your site to me, and I put one on my site to you. Google sees those links and boosts us in the rankings overnight. Kismet, joy and happiness abound!

Horse hockey (as Colonel Sherman T. Potter would say).

Any SEO pro knows that inbound links from other highly-regarded sites are what bring up your own search engine standing. Assuming it’s a pure link it will pass along authority and relevance to your site, making your site rise in the SERP.

But here’s the thing: a link to your site on someone else’s sidebar or in their footer means very little to Google because it is out of context.

See, not all links are created equal. In fact, this video shows that links that are in context (in other words, in the text of the site rather than in the sidebar or footer) pass along more authority and relevance than those out of context.

So the next time someone tries to sell you SEO services, casually ask how they feel about link swaps for your sidebars. If they think it’s a good idea, run the other way.

Watch this video to learn more.

Image Credit: justmakeit