Posts Tagged ‘lawyer’

What Does Google Look For When Positioning Lawyer Websites?

Saturday, September 6th, 2008

The original plan of the Google PageRank algorithm was to determine the important and relevance of Web pages in order to position them within the search engine results pages to best serve the Google user.


One of the most important determing factors in the rating for Pagerank was the number of Web links referencing a Web, the relevancy of those links to the site the link to and the Pagerank of those Web pages the links were placed.

Because lawyers know that top placement on search engine like Google can generate lots of new clients and leads to their law practice, many companies began the unscrupulous practice of retailing links to attorneys. This practice is considered to be a “Black Hat” technique for generating inbound links to a Web site. “Black Hat” technique is a term used by search engine optimization gurus meaning, you are cheating and if you get caught your Website is likely to suffer.

In recent weeks it came to my surprise that one of the largest lawyer website development and Internet marketing companies was engaging in the “Black Hat” technique of selling links or Pagerank to their customers. As a result, Findlaw and their Web properties lost 2 points off of their PageRank score which was a huge blow to their prominence and credibility with the search engines and legal marketplace.

As a result the links purchased by Findlaw customers are pretty much worthless. In my opinion, I would imagine that any link supplied by Findlaw to any other Website will probably have no effect on search engine optimization.

Our company has been performing lawyer website search engine optimizationsince 2001. Our clients reach the top of the search engines because we develop sites that are topic specific, geographically targeted and provide a wealth of highly relevant content. Call us at (769) 218-6099 for a free review of your lawyer website seo.

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.