Because the end of the year often brings reflection, you can use that backward reflection to your advantage when planning your legal SEO and law firm website for 2011. The business of web and SEO changes so quickly as to literally make your head spin, and 2010 brought some developments which will affect the way we operate in the coming year. So, before we head into 2011, let’s check out some of the major happenings of 2010.

2010 Happenings

Page speed became a ranking factor with Google earlier in the year, although at present only the especially slow sites are likely to suffer a negative impact.  Google’s May Day update had many websites reporting significant losses in long tail traffic—the sites which seemed to be impacted the most had a lack of, or low number of, deep links, and high quality websites came out on top. Of course, that begs the question as to what constitutes a high quality website; Google’s algorithm tended to define high quality in terms of bounce rate and time on site. Google Caffeine followed closely after May Day, and although it had no direct impact on rankings, its purpose was to speed up the indexing system at Google. Using Caffeine, Google can make updates as they are discovered rather than indexing in batches. September brought Google Instant which now displays search results as you type into the search box. While some users were less than enthusiastic about this particular change, it is likely here to stay.

Hot on the heels of September’s Google Instant, Google Instant Previews made its arrival in November. Google Instant Previews consists of a small magnifying glass which sits to the right of the title of your search results. While it is expected that a really small percentage of us (5 percent or less) will actually use Google’s newest gadget, it is widely thought that the magnifying glass is more about data collection and ranking than helping users. If, for example, a user clicks the magnifying glass then chooses not to go to that page, it could be seen as a negative signal, and vice versa.  Finally, thanks to a Bing/Yahoo merger (of sorts) Bing results were integrated into Yahoo, and Yahoo’s independent search index in the U.S. was retired, causing a leap in Bing’s market share from just under ten percent to over 25 percent. So, while Google still dominates, Bing is now a competitor worthy of serious attention. October brought more news for Bing with the Facebook/Bing partnership. What this should tell you is to get yourself on Facebook now; Facebook has the potential of becoming the individual’s as well as the corporation’s go-to social network and search engine. The Facebook/Bing integration may well push Bing further up the ladder, close on Google’s heels.

What’s Ahead for 2011?

The drive for new search ranking signals will certainly continue in 2011, with more and more social signals being used by the search engines. Of course Google will continue its quest to increase performance, and Google and Bing are both expected to make some major shifts in the area of search in the coming year. Because Bing is striving to increase its market share and Google is holding hard to what they already have, both companies are likely to seek out significantly higher levels of search personalization.

Search engines are becoming more and more sophisticated even as we speak and will be turning up the heat for publishers to add as much unique value as possible to websites. This will be measured by watching how the web reacts to what your law firm does by using signals such as links, social media, user behavior and interaction with your site, and how your law firm website compares to others which cover the same topic matter.  This is definitely the time when you and your firm need to think like traditional marketers; engage with your community, offer items of value and consistently produce high quality content. As search engines continue to improve their algorithms, sites that are seen as valuable by users will be more readily recognized. If you have consistently take a holistic approach to your law office SEO and online marketing efforts, then the changes made by search engines are likely to favor you at the expense of competitors who have taken a short-term approach.

The biggest game-changer of 2011 may well be how social media will continue to affect legal website rankings and SEO; even though Google may have missed out on partnering with the world’s largest social network, don’t expect them to stay static in that area. Google Places has, in effect, changed the “rules” so now the attorney website with the most attractive or relevant preview will generate a higher number of clicks, making location-based keywords even more important to your firm’s site. Finally, for 2011, trust will be a key issue on all fronts. As people become ever-more worried about personal Internet security, having links and rank for your legal website will not be sufficient; all companies will be required to focus on building online trust. Your focus for the coming year should be first and foremost, to build your law office website’s trust by getting mentioned or referenced in trustworthy news outlets or by using social platforms to build high-quality, trust-driven links.

One thing we can absolutely expect in 2011 is changes in the way we currently managing law office websites and legal SEO. The Internet changes by the instant and Google seems to love changing their algorithms on a near-daily basis, meaning we can expect lots of changes in the coming year.

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