Lawyer SEO tips

SEO stands for search engine optimization.  This is the practice of creating strategies to show up higher in the search engine than your competitors.  Lawyer SEO needs to be approached differently than a restaurant or business.  To make things more difficult for attorneys they have to go up against some large Law Firm SEO companies that have directories specific to their clients (Findlaw Justia, Lawyers.com).  Here are some things you can do to help your site.

1. Less competitive keywords

Sorry to lead with that, but you need to start somewhere right? Instead of going for, "Bankruptcy lawyer Grand Rapids," shoot for something like, "Stop creditor harassment " or "Kent County Chapter 7 attorney." These keywords will drive less traffic into your website, but people searching for these things will be finding a closer result to their search queries.

2. Claim all local you can

It's hard to keep up with the changes in the search engines, but one thing that has been pretty consistent is local results can get more favor and are often better results for the user (makes sense right?). Most law firms serve their surrounding communities and when it's difficult to rank organically for keywords local results can be your best option.  There are a lot of places you can do this, but the more notable ones are:

Google, Bing, Yelp, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Yellowpages.com, Merchant Circle and Dex

3. Find Directories

Heading title should probably read NICHE directories because those are the ones you want.  There are both paid and free directories available.  The paid directories can range from a small one time fee to over $800/month.  It's impossible to say what ones will work for you because even the best directory overall might not be the best directory in your geography.  A good way to figure out what directories are worth it are to run searches and see what ones come up for the keywords/phrases you want to show up for.  If you see directories ranking well chances are those are the ones worth paying for.

4. Create Internal Page Links

If you do criminal defense your website should have pages for the different types of cases you want.  A page dedicated to OUI, Assault, Drug Possession...etc. For each of these pages you want to build internal links to those pages. You don't want every link pointing to your home page and nothing going to your internal pages. The links should be your a mixture of your url, keywords and law firm name. If you target only keywords it doesn't seem natural.

5. Spread Out Content

Become an active community member by releasing articles and press releases to different sites with good information.  If you do Family Law you know a lot about what people go through during a divorce that involves children. If you think you know something that could be valuable put it together in an article - claim ownership as the author and include a link to your website in the content before you distribute it.

If something happens worth sharing in your firm create a press release.  In a previous post I mentioned ways about how to write a press release you can view. It should have everything you need to get started there.

The five seo tips listed above will get you started building an online web presence.  These things require work and you need to actively do this stuff every month to start seeing results. Unfortunately a good SEO strategy doesn't happen over night.  If you don't have time or lack the desire to manage your site Mindshare Marketing Group can help.  

Did your website drop in search engines?

If you noticed since late April that your website has gone down in Google search results you are probably left with a lot of questions.  If you're currently paying a website company to manage, host and optimize your site you may even be frustrated dropping from page 1 to page 3.

The good news is the company you're working with is probably trying to actively restore the value of your website as you're reading this.  What happened back in April is Google changed their algorithm to what has been code named as the Penguin update.  This update was targeting websites that violated the Google Webmaster Guidelines.  Specifically these involved guidelines were keyword stuffing, cloaking, link scheme participants and duplicate content.  I will break these down briefly below:

• Keyword stuffing is exactly what it sounds like - an over use of terms you are trying to target.  "Drunk driving lawyer handling drunk driving cases for people charged with drunk driving in Michigan." You wouldn't describe yourself like this to someone so don't write about yourself (or let someone write on your behalf ) like this.  The example is extreme, but the reality is even if only 10% of your content on a page is your keyword it is probably too much.
• Cloaking is having the search engines spiders read something that is actually different than what the user sees in their browser.  Cloaking is often a spamdexing technique to get high ranks in search engines quickly by seeming more relevant to search requests than you really are.   All done in deceiving ways.  Do no evil.
• Link Schemes - links to manipulate page rank, links to web spammers (bad neighbors), excessive reciprocal links and buying/selling links that pass PageRank.  Don't over think this too much - if it seems like a grey area it is probably black hat.  Not all links are created equal and you would rather have a handful of strong relevant links than 1,000s of garbage ones.  When you get those emails that will give you 10,000 links for $35 do yourself a favor and delete it.
• Duplicate Content - You can't successfully trick search engines for long having the same content on multiple pages in your website without getting flagged for having duplicate content.  It is a terrible experience for the user so obviously Google wants to limit the visibility of these types of sites.  Sometimes duplicate content happens accidentally.  If you had someone build your website that didn't have a lot of experience you may have several URLs that all provide the same content, but on different pages.  Even though you see them as one page, the search engine spiders can read them all: 
• http://mysite.com/article/category/thunder 
• http://mysite.com/thunder
• http://mysite.com/thunder.index.htm

So how do you get your search engine rankings back?

What to do now?  Google provided two different forums.

One is to report webspam that Penguin may have missed.  You can find that here.

This link helps if you believe your site was negatively effected by the update and you don't believe it should be.

Things you can do on your own involve doing an analysis of your website and the links that your website has.  Google Webmaster tools can help provide this, but there are other services (paid and free) that can assist you.


If you are working with a company that is managing your website make call to them and ask what they are doing for you.  Maybe they are already well into this process or maybe your phone call will get them to start it. 


What other tips do you have to share?  

What SEO Stats Do You Track?

It's great when you have analytic data to judge the performance of your website, but have you noticed that the reports get longer and longer?  Some things may not have much weight on how or when you make decisions, but others are extremely valuable.

During the last couple weeks I have been going through a lot of these reports with clients.  I send these out monthly, but whenever I ask if they are getting looked at I hear a few common responses: "yes," "too busy", "I only look when business is slow" and "they don't really make sense to me."

I understand how traffic reports could look confusing if you don't live in the internet world so this post will serve as a basic guide of things I look at when reviewing web traffic reports.  It isn't everything, but it is a start.  If you feel like I've missed anything important please add it to the comments below.

Traffic:

• total visitors broken out by search engines (funny to see some people can't let go of old favorites)
• visits per page
• total page views per visit (I like to see a 3:1 ratio at minimum)
• branded traffic vs non branded (think law firm name vs. divorce lawyer)
• bounce rate
• average time on site
• impressions vs clicks

Links

• linking root domain
• sites sending referral traffic (referring domains)
• domain authority / page authority for key landing pages
• referring from blog/social media sites

Content

• unique page views by type
• most requested pages
• top keywords used in search engines to find website

Rankings

• rank position for short tail/long tail search
• competitive keyword search terms

Google Phone Service Whispers Ads Into Users Ear - the Onion

What if your conversations on cell phones listened for keywords that prompted ads to whisper in your ear?  Leave it to The Onion to come up with something like this.  The funny thing is it makes you wonder how far out we might be from actually having something like this hit the market...outside of a joke.  Enjoy.

New Google Phone Service Whispers Targeted Ads Directly Into Users' Ears

Lawyer Mobile Websites - Is Your Firm Mobile Ready?

According to StatCounter about 9% of the web is viewed through a mobile device.  This number is up from 2011's 7.2% and is expected to continue to climb as smart phones and tablets make their way into more users hands.

This is important to understand because mobile search results should be a factor when you plan your internet marketing strategy.  You can't afford to just have a website for your law firm anymore - you need to have a mobile version of your website as well.

A mobile website is not just a version of your website that loads on a smart phone or tablet.  It is a specific version of your website built for mobile devices.  Your mobile site should have fewer graphics and content, but deliver your message effectively and be very easy to navigate.  Studies are suggesting that by the end of the year 1 in 4 searches will be done via mobile device.  Are you ready for that?  Don't feel bad if you are not because currently 91% of websites aren't either.  This is an area that you can capitalize on and be one of the leaders.

For help developing a mobile version of your website give me a call at 616-920-0029.
 

The Best Injury Law Firm Website

I'm pleased to announce the new website design for The Best Injury Law Firm.  It is now live on the internet so if you would like to see a live version click here.  The design includes showcasing several accomplishments and associations that the law firm is a part of.  We used a navigational layout that works when websites have a lot of content and worked it into the design up top and along the side of the web page for ease of use.

Here is a little bit about the client:
 
Kalamazoo Personal Injury Law Firm:

One of the most important decisions any accident victim can make is to choose the right attorney. A lawyer who is professional, aggressive and attentive to his clients' needs can make an important difference in the degree of justice, and the amount of compensation, an accident victim achieves.

The Best Injury Law Firm, with offices in Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and Paw Paw, is a dedicated personal injury law firm that fights for the rights of injured clients in west Michigan and beyond. Our lawyers uphold the highest ethical and professional standards in personal injury lawsuit cases, and our goal is to help clients get the compensation they need to make their lives whole again.

Lawyer Content Writing

Content on a website has always been one of the most important drivers of where websites are ranked in search results.  Although a lot of factors go into the algorithm and things change suddenly, content will continue to be heavily weighted.  Simply because this is where you provide information to people.  Without strong content relevant to a search query how could possibly be seen as a good resource for the end user?

Know Your Audience
You have to understand that when you are writing content for your website there are two audiences.  People and search engines.  The most important one is the person because they are the ones that can turn into a customer.  The search engine is what will position you for the person to actually find your content and give you a seat at the table to get that business.  Balance the importance of the two because in my opinion they are almost equal.  Your content should speak to the reader and not be manipulated with over used keywords to influence the search engines.  If you go this route you may find your rankings are good for a short period of time, but you don't get much conversion and you don't stick around in the rankings very long.

Yes You Are Smart - Can Your Clients Keep Up?
I remind attorneys that you are not writing content to impress your buddy at the law office down the street.  You are writing your content for the dad who just got a phone call that his kid is in jail, the spouse who decided it's time to file for divorce and the family who is looking to secure a strong future for their children with proper estate planning.  If your website reads like a legal brief there is something wrong.

Avoid Flash
Search engines are built around crawling content and indexing words and phrases.  Because they can only index what they read it is a bad idea to pack your site full of flash.  Flash looks cool and makes you look pretty high tech, but it really doesn't do you any good if it is used outside a picture window on the first page simply because the spiders that crawl your site for content can't read it.  If someone is a huge flash designer and they want to design your website in flash they are only considering the "cool factor" and don't have search results or optimization in mind.

Choosing Keywords
Keywords are critical to the type of experience you will have on the internet.  If you choose the right ones and show up well you will wonder why anyone markets themselves outside of the internet because it costs less and is more available than any other form to potential clients.  The easiest way to choose keywords comes from your own experience.  Think about the type of cases that you want and think about what your clients sit down and ask for you to help them with.  This is a great why to develop your keyword list.  People often don't sit across from you and say, "I want to file a chapter 7" but rather "If I file bankruptcy will I get credit again? or do I loose my home?"

Update Your Content
If you have a blog or news feed and it is several months old you can create doubt to the visitor whether you're too busy, out of business or lazy.  None of those things are ideal projections of your practice so make sure to keep things updated.  Search engines place more emphasis on fresh content than ever before so don't be afraid to give your website a nice update from time to time.