Archive for the ‘SEO’ Category
On-page SEO Best Practices
Too many people jump into SEO without truly understanding the very basic principles behind a sound website as it relates to search engine spiders/bots. While off page optimization and link building campaigns are certainly an indispensable asset to your overall SEO campaign, on-page optimization needs to be at the forefront of more minds.
What do I mean by on-page optimization? No I am not merely referring to meta keywords and keyword density (these being whole separate articles in their own right), rather I am referring to site architecture, clean source code, and proper internal linking.
Site architecture is often overlooked due to a website owner’s desire to have all pages reside in the root directory of his/her site (www.domain.com/pagename.html). A more appropriate, and search engine friendly, site architecture should contain multiple levels of paths (www.domain.com/category/pagename.html). Think of it as an outline of information and how that information needs to flow in order to make sense.
Clean source code must be one of my biggest pet peeves. While there are overabundances of source code disasters, here are some best practices to adhere to:
- External file use of CSS and javascript code.
- Properly structured title, description and header tags.
- Include target keywords contextually where it makes sense to do so.
- Internal link pages to allow spiders to better crawl and enhance the flow of link equity.
- Use strong, emphasize, and bulleted/ordered list tags (a great example is found on this Alabama social security disability attorney website).
- Cardinal rule: cater first to your visitors, and search engines second (proper on-page SEO yield these as one in the same).
While there are many elements to take into consideration when optimizing your website, the points listed above are the tip of the iceberg. I might also add that one must be sure their site is not utilizing the noindex tag by accident! Learn more about the noindex tag.
Multiple Attorney Websites
Often times attorneys will have multiple websites representing unique areas of practices that may or may not otherwise compliment each other if placed on one single website. This of course is the primary and somewhat understandable reason for a law firm to take this route, however some cases can be a bit more devious.
Let’s assume the primary goal of the multiple sites is honest and intended to promote good will. We’ll also assume we are talking about a mesothelioma lawyer who wants to market the intellectual property side of their practice by means of a secondary website. Mesothelioma law and intellectual property law certainly would not compliment each other if placed within one website on one domain. But if we were to create a sub domain of our primary domain (ie. Iplaw.mesotheliomalawyer.com), we can reap a few benefits.
First, we get to piggyback off our existing, primary domain that has accumulated age, trust, and authority in the eyes of the search engines. It also should have accrued some degree of link equity since its creation that can be very beneficial for your new sub domain. The engines will also most likely crawl and index this new content much faster than if it resided on a separate domain.
The second benefit we need to consider is the idea of user experience in terms of site/firm identity that will ultimately affect trust levels. This is more of a traditional marketing idea to form a united approach in your marketing efforts.
Of course there is some debate over whether one should use sub domains over additional sub directories (domain.com/Iplaw/), though it should be quite easy to determine which method to utilize. Ask yourself, “Are these two sets of content/material (mesothelioma and intellectual property) so different from each other that they should not be on the same website?” If so, sub domains are your answer. If however we are talking about personal injury and car accidents on the same website, then we take the sub directory route as these are complimentary practice areas.
Monitor your firm and attorney names
In today’s age of continuous innovation and new technologies on the web, monitoring and managing your online reputation must be a critical part of your overall marketing strategy. Web 2.0 makes it easier than ever before to create customer-driven content, particularly in the form of blogging. Whether the content is praise, badgering, or even false, Google will find it and index.
When a potential client is searching for an attorney in their area, chances are that one single website will not influence their choice, rather the collective research from various websites will aid in their final decision. Human nature dictates an element of curiosity when searching for products or services on the web. If someone is searching for a Miami personal injury lawyer, being #1 in Google no longer ensures that person’s business. They will naturally reference several entries on that first SERP in Google, searching for news, reviews, opinions, and case studies for your firm. One bad piece of press could easily provoke the potential client to take their business elsewhere.
So how do we actively monitor our firm and attorneys names on the web? Google alerts! With Google alerts, you can specify any number of keywords to ‘monitor’, and when Google crawls and indexes a new instance of that keyword, they will notify you via email or RSS. You also have the option to choose real-time notifications or bundled notifications on a daily or weekly basis. For more information and to set up Google alerts for your law firm, visit their site here.
When the Internet can jeopardize your Job from Non-Compliance
When the Internet can jeopardize your Job
The Compliant One
I created my first website in 2005 and was considered a maverick realtor among my co-workers. My internet savvy quickly grew, and I was fortunate enough to listen to the right people that were involved in early search engine optimization.
In less than a year I dominated my market, rising to the number one organic position in Google and Yahoo. This dominance gave me more leads than I could handle, and my online persona grew with local profiling and press releases. Pretty soon my name was everywhere on the internet and in 2007 my revenue more than doubled what it was in 2005. My online customers went from 90 to over 1,900 in just three short years.
I gladly shared what I knew with my competitors and spoke in other regions of the country about how to increase your presence on the internet. I found a compatriot who shared my enthusiasm for online marketing. Looking back, our purchase of local real estate domains was just a precursor to what we then learned to do with keywords. Although she and I shared many techniques, I wanted to dominate Google traffic while she wanted to dominate Yahoo. And we did dominate.
I was asked to help people who didn’t understand how far reaching the internet was, and who didn’t care to understand compliance. Rules in my industry are just as stringent as attorneys, and I have always prided myself on being ethical and conforming to the regulations of the Real Estate Commission, the local real estate boards, and associations we must belong to.
The Non-Compliant One
SomeoneI know and worked closely with asked for my help getting his name in cyberspace. Although his company’s website was a cookie cutter one, I was able to put some related content on my website so he could share my marketing success. I created a few press releases, submitted his profile into local directories that dealt with finance and real estate, and created a few videos reflecting our services as a team in a few NJ towns.
I seemed to have a knack for staying one step ahead of my competition. One day I decided to create a blog which dealt with police and firefighters. This Google blog became a powerful website which garnished the entire first page in organic search results. His leads kept rolling in. The business he gained from the blog, and not his cookie cutter website, awarded him a Leadership Club ranking at his company, similar to the AV rating of Martindale-Hubbell.
I had to burst his bubble once in a while and say, “No” when he requested something that smelled non-compliant to me. He did push the envelope too far, however. He wanted to achieve internet success yet didn’t take the time to look into advertising rules of his company with regard to the internet. Compliance in his industry had tightened up, and what I have found was that some large companies do not want employees getting direct internet leads from other sources so as to maintain control of internet customers. He wasn’t allowed to have a blog or any marketing material that was not approved by his company. I dismantled the blog so as to be compliant yet he still wanted it to garnish him business.
I thought he learned his lesson about six months ago when his company had him pull off all his links from websites other than his company’s website. They took my website and created a page which I had to use instead of the fresh content I had posted. They were adamant he was not to do anything in the future or the fine would be termination or a $10,000 fine.
Recently, he is in hot water again because of comments he made on websites or blogs. They were insightful comments with full disclosure of his name and title. He also his assistant started putting his profile in websites heavily trafficked, but without being compliant. However, comments are included on the “do not post” list. He is finding his profile on sites that were never in existence back in 2007. He has been told to delete a long list of pages that he has no access to other than writing to the webmaster asking to have the item removed.
He has been threatened with termination yet again. Also, there was recently an internal audit and he is under intense scrutiny by his compliance, marketing, and advertising departments.
The Moral of the Story
All stories have a moral and this one teaches you how innocent comments, postings, and links to other websites to gain exposure on the internet can come back to haunt you in later years. Compliance in certain industries is very critical and it could mean losing your job. Trust the experts in your industry and company and don’t do anything that could jeopardize your job.
Writing Good Content for your Legal Website
Good Content
A website is only as good as its content. You may hire an SEO expert to write page titles, keywords, and meta tag descriptions which target your location and area of practice, but without valuable content all the SEO work you do will be for nothing. The benefit of good content incorporated with SEO guidelines will improve your rankings in search engines.
What do I write about?
Of course you can’t jam your whole entire law practice into one website. However, you can map out the important areas and what you want your readers to know about you. You can start with about ten pages, and then add articles and newsletters at a later time.
Types of Content Pages
Most lawyer websites have standard pages, which are:
Home Page
About our Law Firm or Mission Statement
Attorney Profiles
Areas of Practice
Contact Us
Directions
Areas of Practice Pages
If your law office handles multiple areas of practice such as real estate, wills and probate, and business, separate pages should be written for these topics. Then, these areas of practice can be further broken down into additional pages such as residential real estate, commercial real estate, wills, probate a will, forming a business, and bankruptcy. In this scenario, nine pages of content were added. They are:
• Real Estate
o Residential Real Estate
o Commercial Real Estate
• Wills and Probate
o Wills
o Probate a Will
• Business
o Forming a Business
o Bankruptcy
Elements of Good Content
Content should be unique and not duplicated from another internet site or another page on the website. The writer needs to be aware of writing for search engine optimization and use headings which include target location and area of practice. There are tools provided by Google which would show the value of certain keywords for a certain area of practice. Valuable links can be incorporated into the content from reputable government or educational websites, which would give your content more value to a search engine. Pages should be at least 300 words and include a paragraph with the law firm’s contact information.
After the content is written, a good practice would be to check it for spelling, grammar errors, and plagiarism. You certainly wouldn’t want to seem unprofessional if a reader read a slew of typographical errors, and you wouldn’t want to be sued for duplicating another website’s content.
It is easier to outsource the content writing unless you have a professional writer on staff that can use the SEO practices to create good content.
Remember, gaining in rankings will not take overnight.