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.