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August 28th, 2011
The goal of Google’s panda update was to ferret out black hat SEO, however in the process it penalized some websites which were not perhaps intentionally duplicitous, but happened to be filled with plain bad SEO. Even if your legal website or blog was not one of the many who were slapped by the new update, it could be time to do another “once-over” to ensure your legal site does not employ any of the tactics which could garner you a penalty.
What is Black Hat SEO?
Sooner or later Google will catch most all black hat tricks, so it’s important that you know exactly what to look for. If you are not clear on what black hat SEO really consists of, it basically refers to search engine optimization “tricks” which are downright underhanded and unethical. Black hat SEO seeks to deceive the search engines, giving your legal site a ranking it may not deserve. The most common ploys used during black hat SEO consist of keyword stuffing, hidden or invisible text, cloaking, content farming or link farms. While these tactics will get your website noticed quickly by the search engines, they fail to provide your potential clients with anything of real value.
Keyword Stuffing, Content Farming and Link Farms
Keyword stuffing consists of filling your legal website with information which is almost unintelligible due to the overuse of keywords. Unethical SEO companies also write keywords in white text onto a white background—you or I are unable to see the keywords with our human eyes, yet search engine spiders can easily see them, bringing about an immediate bump up the search engine ladder, at least until the search engine discovers the ruse. Spinning software takes one article which might have started out as high quality copy, then spins it into hundreds of articles used by many companies as a means to link to their site. Again, most search engines will eventually figure it out if you are using content farming or article spinning techniques. A link farm consists of a website which is set up with no other purpose than increasing the link popularity of other sites by increasing incoming links to those sites. These links are generally totally unrelated, and will be picked up by the search engines.
What is White Hat SEO?
White hat SEO will enhance the quality of your legal website by giving value to your reader, and, although it will take longer than using black hat SEO, you will eventually earn a high website ranking. White hat SEO chooses a solid keyword phrase which accurately represents your legal page, then uses it in the Meta tags. White hat SEO contains content which accurately reflects your business and your website, and gives your reader value and worth. When your legal website garners other high-quality websites linking to a legal blog post or page within your legal website, you have a quality inbound link, further boosting your search engine rankings. This is in sharp contrast to black hat SEO which incorporates a less than stellar link list which is traded simply to boost search results. In short, any SEO tactic which conforms to the stated guidelines of search engines, making no attempt to deceive them, is considered white hat SEO.
What if Your Legal SEO is Just Plain Bad?
Even if you have avoided being penalized for obvious black hat SEO techniques on your site, you still need to be hyper-vigilant about checking your legal sites often to ensure the content is superior, the links are legitimate and of excellent quality, and, while your keywords are used judiciously they are also used in a way that makes sense and doesn’t alienate your reader. Using white hat, organic SEO will get your legal website noticed—in a good way!
Tags: experienced law firm seo, Law Firm Search Engine Optimization, Law firm search engine optimization guru, law firm seo, law firm seo expert, Law firm SEO guy, law firm seo pro, law firm seo professional
Posted in Bing SEO, Google SEO, Yahoo seo | Comments Off on The Debate Continues: Black Hat, White Hat or Just Plain Bad SEO?
August 18th, 2011
Power surge after storm…apocalypse averted?
Tags: attorney marketing tweets, law firm marketing tweets, lawyer marketing tweets
Posted in Strategic Marketing | Comments Off on Power surge after storm…apoc…
August 13th, 2011
Once you’ve grabbed your intended reader’s full attention with the title of your legal blog, you are left staring at the second most important part of the page—your opening paragraph. Think how disappointing it would be if you’d spent considerable time and effort crafting a killer headline for your blog posting then your potential client slipped quietly away with a click of their mouse due to an opening paragraph which simply faltered and died. If you want to ensure your legal blog posting really delivers on your headline’s promise, then consider the following:
Jump Right In With a Question
Open up your blog with a question, even if it happens to be a rhetorical one. The idea is to get your potential client thinking because thinking equals engagement with your writing, and engagement means they will continue to read. Remember, though, not to ask a question which could be answered with a “no” or “who cares?” answer. After you’ve asked your burning question, thrown in a quick anecdote which will either bring a smile to your reader’s face, or establish the main point of your posting.
Especially in the legal world which can be known for its, um…dryness, a little personality can go a long way. Don’t be afraid to figuratively let down your hair from time to time, but keep it relatively tasteful. You could also use an amazing quote that fits into the theme of your legal blog post—anything that will continue to hold the reader’s attention and prevent them from a shrug and a click onto greener—and more interesting—pastures.
Give Them a Powerful Mental Image
Although the legal profession can seem narrow and technical to the layperson, your legal blog doesn’t have to have the same tone. You can relax the legalese in your blog, and use your most descriptive words to activate your reader’s imagination. In the same vein, using metaphors, similes and analogies (correctly, of course) can be a powerful tool for capturing your visitor’s attention and telling a story in a single sentence. Citing a statistic or fact that is particularly unique or startling is also a good tool to use in your first paragraph.
Share Something Personal with Your Readers
We all love to feel as though we have established a deeper connection than a standard business one with our business connections. While you should never make up something “personal” (it will come back to bite you) simply for the sake of grabbing your reader, it can be used very effectively in expressing your own unique personality. When you share something personal about yourself, you can literally guarantee that there will be readers shaking their heads in agreement, saying “me too!”
Withhold One Piece of Critical Information and Break it Up
Though it seems a bit sneaky, holding back a key piece to the puzzle of your legal blog’s overall theme until later in the posting is a great way to ensure your visitors keep reading to the very end. Yes, past the fold and all the way to the bottom. Remember that we read the web very differently than we read the printed page. It’s okay if you have lots to say, but make sure you break it up and have plenty of informative headlines which enable readers to quickly scan before they make the commitment to actually read. Use an assortment of lists, images, bold text, subtitles, and paragraphs in easily readable chunks. Get your reader totally intrigued with your headline and first paragraph, and before you know it you will have a dedicated reader, not to mention a potential client.
Tags: attorney blog copywriter, law firm blog copywriter, lawyer blog copywriter, legal blog copywriter
Posted in Law Firm Blogging | Comments Off on Opening Your Legal Blog with a Bang—the All-Important “Hook”
August 7th, 2011
Nearly everybody realizes that the need to build links on your legal website is a constant, even though other factors may change, and trends may come and go. Having a large number of high-quality links has consistently stood the test of time, serving as a solid indicator of your legal site’s relevance and standing in the search engines. Quality links are responsible for infusing new life into your attorney website, creating a successful site which brings a steady stream of fresh new visitors on a daily basis. The question, then, is how much is too much? Is it possible to incorporate too much of a good thing into your law firm website? Well, Google seems to think so, but before you panic, realize that Google is not judging your inbound referrals, but rather on-page links from one section of your legal website to the other, or to external pages.
What’s Google’s “Magic” Number?
Google’s “official” recommendation used to be that the links on each page be kept to a reasonable number—they set this “reasonable” number as somewhere below 100. However the creepy-crawly spiders of today are able to perform much more effectively, and will now read a considerably longer portion of the page before indexing it. In this case, having more than 100 links will likely set off the spam filter’s “alarm,” and result in a lower-perceived quality for your page. While it is unlikely that any legal website will have more than 100 links on a single page, if you do, be ruthless and cut. If you are unable to cut, split your page into two or more new pages. Dropping the number of links in this way can get you out of the spam radar, allowing your legal website pages to rank higher.
Why 100?
If you are wondering about Google’s seemingly arbitrary number of links they “allow,” then you need to think about each link on your legal website’s pages as a choice your potential clients have to make. When they run across a link, they either decide to follow the link in order to get to the information they are searching for, or they ignore the link and continue on with the page they are currently reading. If you have 100 links on a single page, you are asking your reader to essentially make 100 choices—a simply overwhelming prospect in this fast-paced day and age.
How Many Links Should I Use in My Legal Blog?
Using keywords in your links is a great way to boost your legal SEO, bringing more traffic to your legal blog through search engine keyword searches. This is due to the fact that Google’s algorithm gives linked text heavier weight than non-linked text. But—too many links can be viewed as span, and Google will remove your law firm’s blog from search engine results entirely, which is exactly what you don’t want to happen. Experts in the field give the “accepted” link-to-text ratio as one link for every 125 words. Therefore, if your blog is 500 words, you are safe including four links in your post, and if those links are keyword-specific, all the better. Keep in mind that once a blog is flagged as spam and removed from search engine rankings, it can be sheer torture getting it readmitted. Where you legal blogs are concerned–stay within the acceptable limit.
As if you didn’t have enough things to worry about when considering your law firm’s SEO and website rankings, now you have to worry about having too many links. Well, it’s really not as bad as it sounds, and once you realize that a fewer number of higher quality links can garner you much more success than a larger number of so-so links, you are on your way to legal SEO success.
Tags: best attorney seo, Best Law Firm SEO, best lawyer SEO, guaranteed attorney seo, guaranteed law firm seo, guaranteed lawyer seo
Posted in Lawyer Website Design | Comments Off on Can You Have Too Many Links on Your Law Firm’s Website?
June 28th, 2011
Hostgator has our sites down again. Happening almost everyday now. Killing our business! Any others out there who you recommend?
Tags: attorney marketing tweets, law firm marketing tweets, lawyer marketing tweets
Posted in Strategic Marketing | Comments Off on Hostgator has our sites down a…
June 9th, 2011
If you happen to be a bit fuzzy on exactly what a landing page is, then think of it as a page on your legal website which allows you to “capture” a potential client’s information through a lead form. In other words, your legal landing page will be targeted to a specific client, and will have some sort of intriguing offer (a high-quality newsletter, article on a specific subject, etc.) which will hopefully allow you to convert more of your browsers into full-blown clients.
While many businesses tend to send their advertising, e-mail or social media traffic to their homepage, this can be a missed opportunity. Your goal for your legal landing page is to first figure out exactly what you want your visitors to do—then make it as simple as possible for them to do exactly that. So, whether you are improving your current landing page, or starting from scratch, take a look at the following tips for a legal landing page that will significantly boost your conversion rates.
Hook Them with Your Headline
Your legal landing page can literally live or die based on your headline’s overall quality and “catchiness.” You have a ridiculously short amount of time—2-3 seconds—to grab your reader, entice them to read further, and stop their hand from clicking on its way. If your headline is truly great, it can even smooth the rough edges from other potential mistakes on down the page.
Don’t Use Your “Regular” Design Theme for Your Landing Page
While your legal website and legal blog may have a design theme which works just fine for your visual presentation of information, when you get to the landing page, you are attempting to bring your client’s mind into sharp focus on one specific action. In this instance you don’t want sidebars and multiple columns, or any extraneous stuff that can confuse or distract—thereby reducing conversions. No clutter is the rule on your legal landing page–create a clean, concise page that says what it says with style and punch, adding nothing else.
Don’t Muddy the Waters by Asking for Multiple Things
While we all tend to believe that the more choices we have, the happier we are, in reality this has been proven false time and time again. Many of us, when given too many choices, end up overwhelmed and frustrated, and our decision is to make no decision at all. Your legal landing page should ask for one specific action and only one. Whatever your question is, ask it straight up, in an unambiguous manner.
Remember to Concentrate Your Offer above the Fold
Most web surfers spend at least 80% of their scanning time above the fold. This is not to say that people absolutely won’t scroll down the page, but don’t assume they will continue without clicking away. Grab your potential client’s attention and hold on for dear life, but make sure you can deliver on what you are offering. You don’t ever want to lose your credibility by making an offer you can’t back up 100%. Once you have hooked your reader, don’t distract them by offering multiple exits from your landing page. You want your visitor to be wholly focused on filling out your form for whatever you are offering.
Give Your Clients the Perfect Solution–Quickly
Most people who go to legal websites are looking for answers and your landing page should be the place they can find that answer in the most succinct manner possible. Identify the problem, and tell your potential client why you have the perfect solution. Keep your landing page short, sweet, and to the point, then deliver on your promises, and you will find your conversion rate moving steadily upward. And never forget—once you’ve succeeded in getting your visitor to fill out the form, make sure they are directed to a thank you message which can also briefly offer other solutions you may have.
Speak with a law firm marketing expert, not a sales person. Call (769) 218-6099 if you want to improve your lawyer website and make more money.
Tags: legal landing page, website conversion rates for legal sites
Posted in Lawyer Website Content | Comments Off on Is Your Legal Landing Page Crushing Your Website’s Conversion Rates?
June 2nd, 2011
Hostgator down again! I am not very happy!
Tags: attorney marketing tweets, law firm marketing tweets, lawyer marketing tweets
Posted in Strategic Marketing | Comments Off on Hostgator down again! I am not…
May 24th, 2011
Distracted driving is fast becoming one of the greatest risk factors for serious auto accidents in the Portland area and throughout Oregon. The rise in distracted driving accidents has accompanied the increase in the sue of handheld electronic devices like cell phones, iPads and MP3 players. These electronic devices are designed to respond to consumers who have shorter attention spans and a constant need for stimulation. While these devices can be a valuable communication tool as well as a way to stay connected with others, they also can be a deadly distraction to Oregon drivers who text, talk, surf the web, navigate with GPS, read breaking news reports and otherwise fail to concentrate on potential car accident risks on Oregon roadways.
Drivers who fail to focus their full attention on driving safely to avoid serious auto accidents are becoming one of the leading preventable causes of car accidents in Oregon and throughout the country. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that distracted driving accounts for 20 percent of all car accidents. Data from the Federal Accident Reporting System (FARS) indicates that distracted driving accounts for almost 5,500 auto accident fatalities per year and traffic accident related injuries to almost 450,000 additional drivers in the U.S per year. There are many types of distractions that can interfere with safe operation of a car, truck or SUV and result in a serious Oregon car accident including:
- Sending or receiving text messages
- Talking on a cell phone
- Reading the newspaper or a book
- Adjusting the controls on a radio or car stereo
- Putting on makeup
- Eating or drinking
- Engaging in a conversation with a passenger
- Adjusting or studying GPS
- Using a MP3 player to listen to music
- Watching multi-media or movies
- Checking Facebook status or other social network activities
- Reaching around to grab something in the vehicle
As this list shows, the number of distractions that can lead to a fatal car accident in Oregon is virtually endless. However, cell phones and other communication devices seem to pose the greatest risk. The NHTSA has estimated that almost one-fifth of all fatal distracted driving auto accidents are caused by the use of cell phones.
The danger associated with the increasing risk of cell phone use in vehicles is reflected by the fact that a recent study conducted by the University of Utah concluded that using a cell phone while driving delays a driver’s response times by as much or more than having a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent, which is the level at which a driver is considered legally intoxicated in Oregon. This recent research regarding the growth of cell phone use while driving along with evidence that it may impair driving ability and delay reactions even more than drunk driving have led some federal safety experts to designate such behavior “the new drunk driving”.
Not only can many triggering events cause distracted driving, but this activity may also take several forms. Generally, three separate types of driver distractions have been identified including visual distractions, manual distractions and cognitive distractions. A visual distraction is anything that diverts a driver’s eyes from the road, such as looking at a cell phone screen. Most visual distractions are also accompanied by a cognitive distraction, which includes anything that draws a driver’s mental concentration away from one’s driving.
For example, a driver who is reading a text message is both visually and cognitively distracted in viewing and interpreting the content of the text message. A physical distraction may also occur simultaneously with the other forms of driving distraction like adjusting a GPS device or car stereo, which may involve all three forms of driving distraction.
An auto accident attorney in Oregon from the firm of Dwyer, Williams, Potter Attorneys, LLP has physical offices conveniently located throughout the State of Oregon. We have offices located in Bend, Eugene, Grants Pass, Medford, Portland, and Roseburg and serve the following cities in the State of Oregon: Albany, Ashland, Bend, Brownsville, Central Point, Corvallis, Creswell, Eugene, Grants Pass, Klamath Falls, Medford, Myrtle Creek, Portland, Redmond, Roseburg, Salem and Springfield.
If you or a loved one has been involved in a car accident in Oregon due to a negligent or distracted driver, we urge you to call an Oregon auto accident attorney from Dwyer, Williams, Potter Attorneys, LLP toll free at (800) 285-8678, or submit an online questionnaire. If we agree to handle your case, we will work on contingency fee basis. NO RECOVERY NO FEE!
Tags: auto accident attorney in Oregon, Dwyer Williams Potter Attorneys LLP, Oregon auto accident attorney
Posted in Car Accident Articles | Comments Off on Oregon Auto Accident Attorney Reports Distracted Driving Continues to Claim Lives in Oregon
May 24th, 2011
As most everybody with a website now knows, SEO is one of the hottest topics around—as well as one of the most vague. If you type in “SEO” on Google you will garner nearly 600 million results, which should give you an idea of the far-reaching effects of online marketing and your legal website. When Google makes the decision to alter their search ranking algorithms—which they do on a more and more frequent basis—you may find your legal website or blog has been relegated to the virtual trash heap and is now considered nothing more than collateral damage.
A Panda that’s Less than Cute and Cuddly
Google’s latest update is known as the Panda, and experts estimate that it affected some 12% of the total websites currently listed in Google. Most of the affected websites were those which had previously ranked in the top few pages. Somewhat alarmingly, Google states that Panda is only the beginning, and there will be 500 or more “tweaks” to their algorithms during the coming year. Panda was ostensibly targeting content farms and spam sites as well as short articles which read like ads, or articles which were poorly written or scammed from other sites. Unfortunately, there were some high-quality sites which were accidentally lumped in with the content farms, and now are left angry and frustrated, trying to get their site back where it belongs.
What Panda Looks At
According to Google officials, Panda is seeking out high percentages of duplicate content, low amounts of original content on an individual page or an entire site, high numbers of inappropriate advertisements, unnatural overuse of a word on a page (keyword stuffing), a high bounce rage, low visit times, low percentage of returning users, no links to the website from social media, low or no quality inbound links, and a high percentage of the same content of each page in the site. While it may be difficult in some cases to determine exactly what set the Panda off, most of the time it will be fairly obvious. If your legal sites or legal SEO techniques were penalized unfairly, contact Google immediately.
Panda Takes Aim at Backlinks
If you have a good understanding of SEO in general, then you probably are aware that building backlinks is one of the primary ways to get your legal website noticed and give it the stamp of approval by search engines as a quality site. On-site linking occurs when you interlink your legal website pages and blog pages, while offsite linking occurs when other websites link to your legal website.
Over 50% of Panda’s algorithm focuses on offsite linking, while another good portion of it takes aim at sites which are both low-quality and overflowing with ads. If you were slapped by Panda over offsite linking, what’s a law firm to do? First, track down those who linked to your site, and ask any low-quality sites to remove the link. Like your mother always said, you are judged by those you associate with, and a negative association is just not work the backlink. Once the low-quality links are gone from your legal website or blog, cultivate high-quality backlinks from other reputable law firms.
Content and Social Media
Continue to post high-quality content regularly on your legal website and blog—if you don’t yet have a legal blog attached to your website, get one. Blogs are one of the very best—not to mention easiest–ways to keep your legal website fresh and updated. If you have yet to jump on the social media bandwagon, now’s the time. Your potential clients are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites, so use them to your advantage.
Trust is (Still) Key
Although Panda’s algorithm seems complex, take a look at the content on your legal website or blog and ask yourself if you would trust the information presented. Does the article appear shallow, or do you get the sense it was written by an expert–or at the very least someone who knows the subject well? Does your site have duplicate or overlapping articles, or do you notice spelling, grammar or factual errors of any type? Does each and every article on your legal blog contain a complete description of the stated topic, and is the material insightful and interesting? The ultimate test may be—would you actually bookmark your site or your blog article or share it with a friend? If you can answer all these questions in a positive manner when you give your legal site a totally unbiased look, then you are probably safe from the Panda—for now at least.
Call (769) 218-6099 for free law firm SEO advice from experts not sales people. Call today to get all the answers you need.
Tags: Google panda effects law firm SEO, law firm seo, Websites for lawyers
Posted in Google SEO | Comments Off on How Google’s Panda Update May Affect Your Legal Website
May 15th, 2011
Many people have heard that the age of their website, as well as their links, can affect the way Google “credits” the website. To most SEO consultants, it makes perfect sense why the domain name is now used as a legal SEO consideration—think about it, older domains have obviously been around longer, garnering them at least the perception of being more successful and reliable. Since most spammers only ply their tricks for a limited time, with Google giving high points for domain age, the spammers are no longer able to pull in high rankings using black hat tricks. Of course the age of your domain name and links are far from the only part of the equation in your law firm SEO ranking, meaning the effect may not be the only deciding factor—good news for those of you who are just jumping into the marketing waters via your legal website.
Establishing Your Law Firm’s Reputation
In fact, many solid legal firms can establish a good SEO ranking within a year of the domain name’s registration. Keep in mind, however, that it’s not only the registration date, but also the number of back links and the period over which those particular back links were created. That’s why, when a reputable legal firm decides to go with a new domain name, they thankfully don’t lose their ranking as the back links from their old site are simply redirected to the new website. As far as Google is concerned, your firm is creating a “library” of sorts over time which consists of unique, quality content with back links, giving you a decided advantage in the SEO wars. Like it or not, however, the newest legal websites truly will take a good year before they have a high—and more importantly, steady—ranking.
The “Other” Side
Just as there are those who believe age of site and links is vitally important, there are others who think it matters not at all. It’s been noted that it could be more related to correlation rather than causation if you are backing up your age theory by the fact you will quite often pull up websites which may be dated two, three, four, even more years back. Perhaps those people who registered early simply got great domain names, exact match domain names, or short domain names. They’ve had a longer time to build their brand, let more people know about them, reference them, link to them. They’ve likely been in the media or press, and are included in directories and lists which are linked to by the important people. Because of all these factors, it may look as if these earlier sites perform better simply due to their age. Those who don’t believe in the age factor will tell you that if you produced a site today, and accomplished all the things a ten-year old site has, you would likely outrank them because you’ve earned those links, reputation and brand much faster. Personally, I’m still leaning toward the side that says age of your law firml website actually does matter.
Update Frequently
Many SEO professionals believe that a website’s age and constantly updated content will, in the end, get them much higher up in the rankings than going strictly on backlinks and keywords. Not to imply that the backlinks and keywords aren’t critically important, but if you are thinking about the long-haul rather than the immediate results, you just can’t forget to update your content frequently and be patient as your domain name ages. Bottom line is that Google, as well as other search engines reward older websites in the belief the content will remain solid for people to read—again, as long as it is updated regularly in order to keep your readers coming back for more. I realize I’ve mentioned it more than once, but you just can’t neglect the last part of that sentence—update regularly. Even a once-powerfully performing page can gradually work its way down the list if it hasn’t been updated since initial publication.
Just as having children requires a great deal of patience and fortitude as they struggle through their awkward or difficult periods, so will your legal website require some of this same patience and fortitude. Be steady, add content often, make sure your keywords and backlinks are stellar quality, then wait patiently as your attorney website grows up, matures, and becomes what you knew it could all along!
Call (769) 218-6099 for free advice from experts in the Law Firm SEO and link building industry.
Tags: law firm seo, Relevant Legal Links
Posted in Law Firm SEO | Comments Off on How the Age of Your Site Plus Relevant Legal Links Can Affect Your Law Firm SEO
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