Archive for the ‘Attorney Directories’ Category

Free Advertisement Sites for Lawyer | Free Advertising Websites for Lawyers

Monday, April 12th, 2010

Lawyer Success, Inc. has and continues to compile a list of paid and free advertisement sites for lawyer clients. The sites are typically found in prominent positions on the search engines organic search results pages and provide an excellent opportunity to generate leads for your law firm.

Below are a few selected from our database of free advertising websites for lawyers. Lawyer Success, Inc for a nominal monthly fee will place you in numerous free and paid legal websites, attorney directories and other results oriented legal lead generation websites. Call (769) 218-6099 to get started. The fee starts at only $49.95 per month.

1. LawFirmArticles.com – Ranked #2 out of 44,000,000 web pages, LawFirmArticles.com enables your firm to submit articles by geography and practice area. The articles are picked up by search engines and rank extremely well on the search engine results pages bolstering your web presence. You may also link to your website to gain link popularity from a credible and well indexed legal site. The articles stay on the web as long as you wish and the service free.

Visit http://www.lawfirmarticles.com and sign up today.

2. Dmoz.org – DMOZ.org is a very important directory that feeds many search engines and websites directories. Google actually owns the directory and placement is absolutely free. This is perhaps one of the most important directories for your law firm’s website and it is free.

Visit http://www.dmoz.org for more information

3. Avvo is revolutionizing lawyer marketing with free solutions that will get you more business. Your basic profile is already here, all you have to do is “claim” it. Then use all of our free marketing tools to further distinguish yourself from competitors in the eyes of prospective clients.

Visit http://www.avvo.com/free-lawyer-advertising

Again, Lawyer Success, Inc. has an extensive list of paid and free advertisement sites for lawyer clients. These sites have been tested and tried to ensure their effectiveness. We are helping law firms generate tremendous online legal lead generation results for pennies on the dollar.

Lawyer Success, Inc for a nominal monthly fee will place you in numerous free and paid legal websites, attorney directories and other results oriented legal lead generation websites. Call (769) 218-6099 to get started. The fee starts at only $49.95 per month.

Google Cracks Down on Findlaw and Possibly Their Lawyer Customers

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

If you haven’t heard already, Findlaw received the proverbial smack down from Google recently. The issue it seems involves Findlaw selling links which is a direct (and serious) violation of Google’s Webmaster Rules.


Basically they were cheating.  Apparently Google dropped Findlaw’s Pagerank from a 7 to a 5 along with other Findlaw Web properties. Not sure how badly this will affect their customer websites at this point.

The issue is complicated and very serious for Findlaw and their customers.

The bottom line is…there are no short cuts to link popularity and search engine optimization. If you work with a lawyer seo firm who plays by the rules, the results are real and lasting.

For more information about the Findlaw debacle visit one of the following links:
Findlaw Scaming Google and Possibly Lawyer Customers
Shame Shame Shame Findlaw

There is a ton of news out there breaking about this issue.

James – A Lawyer SEO/Web Design expert has over 8 years of expertise, has worked with 4 of the 5 most trafficked legal websites and has consulted over 3,200 law firms.

How Important Are Attorney Profiles on Lawyer Directories?

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

One item I have been addressing a lot lately is the importance of filling out the attorney bio pages on attorney directories.  I say VERY important. There are a lot of lawyers out there more worried about their Facebook profile then the attorney profile in which they pay thousands of dollars to be listed.


Simply filling out your attorney bio on website directories such as AttorneyPages.com and other important directories does a lot to improve your results.

Here are a few things to consider:

  1. A well written attorney bio on important attorney directories will attract more visits to your profile through the search engines.
  2. Better conversion. Most attorneys don’t bother writing out their bio page. Doing so will position you better against the other competing firms listed within the directory.
  3. Content will increase traffic to your listings through the search engines.
  4. Drives more traffic to your website.

The bottom line is: Your paying for a listing on an attorney directory so get the most out of it by filling out your bio pages.

James

Attorney Directories – An Objective Review

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

Let me start by saying there are way too many lawyer directories online to mention. For over 8 years, I have worked for the top 3 legal directories on the Web and I have been paid very well to do comprehensive competitive reviews of nearly 100 of the most trafficked attorney directories. 


The bottom line is – they are replacing the phone book market quickly. There will be a day when a $500 attorney directory listing will cost as much as a yellow page display ad. I promise.

Factors in determining which attorney directories are the best bet.
1. Which directories consistently show up in the search results? Run searches for your city, state, county and practice areas along with lawyer or attorney. For example: Dallas Texas Divorce Attorney

2. How many other law firms are listed? Don’t fret if there are only one or two firms listed. If the attorney directory is ranking well in several key word phrases for your area this may be a great opportunity. Many law firms wait until there are too many competing law firms in a directory before they make the leap of faith.

3. Ask for references or call firms listed within the directory. This is a common practice and many firms will be happy to share their experiences unles you are a competitor.

4. Find out if the lawyer directory offers a top position. Buy it if #s 1-3 are positive.

5. Do they track results? Is there a way to measure the results of your listings? If so, another great positive indication that the attorney directory you are evaluating is a real opportunity.

6. How long have they been in business? I prefer directories with search engine history. Look for directories with 5 or more years online.

Contact us for any specific questions you have about attorney directories.

"There's Major Power In Submitting Your Website To Web Directories!"

Saturday, June 14th, 2008

Websites »

September 06, 2006

“There’s Major Power In Submitting Your Website To Web Directories!”

Webmasters like you and me are always on the lookout to enhance the link popularity of their sites. One method of doing so is to seek out authority sites in your niche – sites that are widely known on the Internet (through the sheer number of back links) and have been around for some time (think more in terms of several years). Unfortunately, such websites are often at a Page Rank of 6+ and as such, link exchange or text link ad placement is very, very expensive

Webmasters like you and me are always on the lookout to enhance the link popularity of their sites. One method of doing so is to seek out authority sites in your niche – sites that are widely known on the Internet (through the sheer number of back links) and have been around for some time (think more in terms of several years). Unfortunately, such websites are often at a Page Rank of 6+ and as such, link exchange or text link ad placement is very, very expensive .

Luckily, there is a cheaper alternative. You can use web directories to not only enhance your search engine visibility (through increased link popularity), but by targeting niche categories and using sponsored listings where necessary, you can get a big jump in your traffic as well.

So, let’s get started.

What is a web directory?

A web directory is a collection of links broken down into relevant categories. Think Yahoo! and their directory, the Open Directory Project or even the Google Directory (which, incidentally, is pulled from the ODP). At its most basic level, a web directory is a collection of bookmarks made available to the public. In other cases, like Yahoo, it is a professional resource for people actively looking for information.

To get listed in such a directory, you can either get listed for free (which might take a while), or in many cases, pay a one-time fee to have your website reviewed and entered in the directory. One major exception is Yahoo, which charges a recurring fee for its commercial listings, and we’ll look at that later.

The benefits of being listed in a web directory

In theory, there are two main benefits of being listed in a web directory:

  • Increased link-popularity due to a one-way link from a highly-respected resource.
  • Increased traffic due to being listed in a directory that is searched by many people every day.

In reality though, these benefits are directly related to how popular the directory is itself, and how much money you have paid for your listing. Of course, if the link is for free, there is nothing to worry about.

But if you are paying for submission, you need to know some very important facts.

Link Popularity

As far as link-popularity is concerned, you need to factor in several variables:

  • The Page Rank of the directory
  • The Page Rank of the category page on which you are listed
  • Where you are listed on the page
  • The number of competing websites on that page
  • If there are other websites in your niche that can offer you the same conditions for the same price or less (very, very important).

The last point is very important from the cost/benefit angle. A web directory, while being a hub itself, is NOT a niche website or an authority site. Even within categories and sub-categories, the lack of valuable content means that web directories are, at the end of the day, link pages and nothing more.

Where directories win out is the fact that they require one-time fees. In contrast, authority sites (or most websites with a Page Rank greater than 5 or 6) tend to use text links as a source fo revenue, and thus charge monthly fees. A directory listing then becomes a much better option (but only for link popularity).

More Traffic

Directory listings are also used as traffic building opportunities. How this works is that many directories are searchable for their visitors, so that users can look for information. In theory this is great – you can get lifetime traffic for just a nominal payment, but you should not expect a sudden deluge of traffic from just one directory listing. Here’s why:

  • Most directories, apart from the top twenty or so, are usually used for link-building and not pure searching. This means that while people may use GoGuides or Yahoo for regular searches, you should expect that the smaller directories are mainly for link-popularity, and plan your investment as such.
  • Many directories offer listings based on an alphabetical ordering, or a first-come, first-serve ordering. In both cases, your website has quite a big chance of being lost out in the noise.
  • Directory-search algorithms differ greatly. Some directories, like JoeAnt, base their search on keyword relevancy (which makes it more of an exercise of stuffing your directory listing with keywords rather than making a good website), while others take a more “editorial” approach by factoring in editor ratings. And still, many directories display sponsored listings first, reinforcing the adage that even on the Internet, it’s your advertising budget that talks, and not necessarily the quality of your website.

After you factor in the above points, you realize that there are only a handful of web directories where it is a definite benefit to “pay” to be listed. And even then, you cannot just rely on just being listed – sponsor listings get much more exposure. But before we discuss these dozen or so web directories, I’d like to tell you how you can make sure your website is accepted.

How to get listed – Overview

Getting listed in a web directory is a function of three things:

Time

It takes a certain amount of time before an editor can review your website and approve (or reject) your request. This is usually anywhere between a week to almost never (in huge web directories like Yahoo and Dmoz). You can reduce this to within a week by using the paid listing option.

Money

Apart from Dmoz, the big directories usually require a nominal payment for your website to be listed. While you can calculate the benefit of such a listing from reading the previous section, know that usually there are several listing options, which the better services (that give your website more directory visibility) obviously costing more.

Quality

In some cases (very rarely nowadays), directory inclusions can be rejected due to the poor quality of a website. Maybe the editor considered that your website was not ‘useful’ enough (meaning it had little or no useful / original / any content), or sometimes, there may be moral issues (although editors are urged to abide by directory guidelines and not personal beliefs). If rejected, you will almost always receive feedback (you might have to ask for it) on how to improve your website.

In earlier days, quality was a big issue. Today, it is still a major concern for top directories like Yahoo, but this is more to separate the truly atrocious from the rest rather than to separate the best from the rest.

Each web directory has their personalized criteria, but there are two crucial elements to getting listed:

  • Paid Inclusions – Apart from Dmoz, and some directories where you can sign-up to be an editor, the top directories require payment – anywhere from $15 to $299.
  • Website Quality – By this I don’t mean design; I’m talking about having truly useful information – even if your website is a commercial website, simply putting up a bunch of affiliate links will not count as a quality website .
The big guns

Yahoo and Dmoz are the two biggest directories on the Internet, and it’s only fair that I talk about how to get listed on them individually.

Yahoo

A listing in Yahoo’s directory has direct benefits:

  • Google – and perhaps other search engines as well – give your website an added importance if your website is listed in the Yahoo directory.
  • Yahoo is the portal of choice for millions of users. This makes your potential target market at least in the hundreds of thousands, even for obscure niches.

To get listed in the Yahoo directory, you have to access Yahoo Directory Submit and work from there. You will be required to open a Yahoo account, if you don’t have one already. The review process will cost $299, and is no guarantee that your website will be listed.

However, if you have a useful website, and follow the guidelines detailed by Yahoo, there is no reason for your website to be rejected.

The Open Directory Project

Dmoz, or the open directory project, is a directory that rivals the reach of Yahoo. Why? Because directories like the Google Directory and many others are powered by the results from Dmoz. This gives a listing in the ODP a very high premium.

However, because a listing in Dmoz is essentially free, there is very little you can do about the time factor. Many websites that are submitted are never indexed, and that happens mainly due to a lack of time.

On the other hand, quality websites that are added into their relevant categories are almost always accepted, so make sure you follow their guidelines.