Search Engine Optimization Blog

One of the first (and easiest) things you should do in
managing your online reputation is, well, finding out
if you have something to manage. If you are advertising yourself, chances are,
others are Googling you.

Unfortunately, you may be falling victim to accidental
reputation mishaps. Something as minute as a speeding ticket from a state
trooper could appear on the first page of Google as “State of Texas
vs. John Smith” from online court records.

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We have been focusing on making your law firm’s web site convert visitors to cases recently [in Law Firm Marketing Weekly]. This of course, is the reason you got a web site to begin with. To date, we have talked about design, contact form placement, and using an on site blog. All of those topics, I’m sure we will discuss in more detail in future issues.

But here is something we have not talked about yet it seems to increase conversion for many of our clients. Are you ready?

Bragging. Yes, that’s right, bragging about your successful case record has been proven to increase conversion. This can be done subtly with an attractive scrolling element listing brief case details and the ruling.

You don’t have to give details, just something along the lines of “Securities Fraud Trial – Not Guilty”, “Possession With Intent to Sell – Dismissed”. No need to say anything more. Of course, be sure that they represent actual cases.

Showing off your impressive legal record on a front page scrolling element or client testimonials page will help your web site’s visitors gain confidence in your abilities and feel more comfortable calling your firm.

To learn more about Law Firm Marketing or guaranteed search engine optimization, visit Adviatech.com or call 1.800.728.5306 ext 1.

Nope. It doesn’t look like it. While Google has openlytalked against active link exchange solicitation, some SEO firms are notlistening. There was a day in yesteryear that you would install a linkexchange partner page on your site as an SEO tool as necessary as a sitemap.You would solicit links to your web site and then, in return, link to somebodyelse. 

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When repairing your online reputation, it is often helpful to well, do good things. For example, if a minor infraction in your community has left you with questionable news articles online, you could counter this news by sponsoring local charities or events.

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Why do “innovators” insist on fixing things that are not broken by launching inferior products? How Cuil, Accoona, and others mock themselves.

It was a big deal, a group of Google expats raise thirty million dollars to stick a group of servers together and suddenly call themselves a search engine.

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It often feels like there are two different types of online
companies, designers and marketers. But they should work as one since web
design is search engine optimization’s close cousins.

The Creatives verses SEO war has been going on for years.
One side says “make it pretty”, the other side says “make it wordy”. Funny
enough, both sides are right. When marketing your web site online, you could
possibly make something so ugly that you get a lot of traffic from a favorable
Google ranking, but no clients or conversion.

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In recent issues of Law Firm Marketing Weekly, we have been focusing on design. We feel that this is a part of search engine optimization that is often ignored. So how important is design?

Google, in their webmaster guidelines says “If you’re thinking about hiring an SEO, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you’re considering a site redesign, or planning to launch a new site. That way, you and your SEO can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up.”

With that said, doesn’t it make even more sense to work with a search engine optimization company with an on staff designer? But again, why is design so important?

Search engines bots that crawl the web and index web sites do not have eyes. They simply read code and text. Generally, a web site that is not attractive, old, or is not made by a design professional, will have messy code, navigation problems, and in general, not provide a clean user experience. If users can easily navigate a web site, chances are, Google will also be able to easily navigate a web site. Thus, increasing the overall quality of your law firm’s web presence.

A professional designer can make sure that your web site will convert visitors into new cases while at the same time, keeping your code clean, and Google friendly.

Contact guaranteed search engine optimization company, Adviatech Corp., for more information at 1.800.728.5306 ext 1.

Why do “innovators” insist on fixing things that are not broken by launching inferior products? How Cuil, Accoona, and others mock themselves.

It was a big deal, a group of Google expats raise thirty million dollars to stick a group of servers together and suddenly call themselves a search engine. In earlier news releases, Cuil even talked about how their results were less dependant on links than that of Google. So, we ran a little test to see if this was true.

Does anybody remember the “miserable failure” Google bomb? A group of anti-Bush bloggers and webmasters linked the keyphrase “miserable failure” to U.S. President George Bush’s official Whitehouse.gov web site. Regardless of the fact that the site doesn’t use the phrase “miserable failure”, the site ranked number one in Google. Google fixed the problem and resulting searches for “miserable failure” became content based.

When Cuil launched, I noticed a spike in traffic to the article resources on my company’s web site generated from Cuil. People immediately searched for “miserable failure”. Guess what is number four, Whitehouse.gov. Look one row below that and you will see my article titled “Google Repairs Miserable Failure”. Next to it, ‘The Onion’ logo.

I was just thinking several months ago while doing a Google search how nice it would be if my search results were accompanied by completely random non-relevant images and icons. Thank you Cuil for making this a reality.

The “engineers” at new search engines like the now forgotten Accoona like to come up with new looks and logos while completely ignoring what makes Google so popular. Unlike the Ask.com post Interactive Media buyout commercials saying “Don’t just use something out of habit [Google]”, people use Google because its clean and gives relevant results.

Users are not demanding results be displayed in some mid-90’s frame based design style. They want something fast, clean, and relevant. You want to do something useful with your undeserved $30 million of venture capital? How about you make something as fast, clean, and relevant as Google only with page rankings not changing ever 20 seconds.

I speak from experience. Several years ago I too developed a search engine which is now a huge online resource. We started a search engine then we quickly saw that only 2% of our users were actually doing web searches on it. So we spent a tiny amount of money integrating into Yahoo’s API for the search results then built a network of individual interest channels. Because new content on the web is far more valuable than a new way to find it. Especially if that new way displays irrelevant picture eye-candy in a framed search result screen.

Yahoo actually figured it out a long time ago. According to Alexa, Yahoo gets the most traffic of any other web site in the world. Yet, Google is delivering more than 70% of online search queries. See, Yahoo figured out that Google’s search was superior to theirs so they began investing heavily in their “channels of interest” sections.

When your product is inferior, know what you can be good at, excel in that, and don’t reinvent a wheel that is not broken. Oh, and free up some venture capital funding for real technological innovations.

Jason Bland is with guaranteed search engine optimization company, Adviatech Corp. Adviatech is one of the leading SEO firms offering results based online marketing solutions. To learn more about guaranteed SEO services, visit Adviatech.com

It often feels like there are two different types of online companies, designers and marketers. But they should work as one since web design is search engine optimization’s close cousin.

The Creatives verses SEO war has been going on for years. One side says “make it pretty”, the other side says “make it wordy”. Funny enough, both sides are right. When marketing your web site online, you could possibly make something so ugly that you get a lot of traffic from a favorable Google ranking, but no clients or conversion.

Why is that? Because Cleanliness is next to Googleness. If you would like, take a few moments to search some highly competitive keyphrases in Google. The web sites that are ranked on the first page are normally, professional, well designed web sites. This is not a coincidence. Clean sites rank higher and convert better.

So why does the average search engine optimization company pay such little regard to professional design? Because search engine optimization specialists are analytics gurus and designers are artist. In short, it takes two to make it work.

When working with a designer, you should ask them what their strategy is for maximizing your search engine exposure. While designers do not have to speak fluent SEO, they do of course need to know what not to do to your web site so that an SEO can come in after them and help increase your search engine ranking.

When considering SEO friendly design, think clean. Web sites that have a direct point (call to action) at the top of the page will convert visitors to customers much better than the competition. If you searched for health insurance quotes on Google, you would see a list of natural results. Most of those allow you to start the health insurance quoting process right at the top of the home page.

If you work with a guaranteed search engine optimization company, (one that guarantees first page ranking) they may require you to update your design to decrease their risk. Yes, design makes that much of a difference. Search engine’s like what people like. Easy to navigate web sites, text that is clear and to the point, and simple vertical layouts.

So if high search engine rankings are at the top of your concerns, make sure your designer plays nice with search engine optimization specialists or even better, use a search engine optimization company with a talented on staff designer. This will greatly increase the success of your online presence.

Learn more at Adviatech.com.

When designing your law firm’s web site, you should think creatively. Having a web site that looks like every other law firm’s web site is simply going to tuck your firm away in a see of many other search results. It is important to pay attention to detail.

With it being rumored that Google ranks web sites higher that convert better (based on information sent to them through Google Analytics), it is safe to assume that a professionally designed web site that converts better will also prove to be a valuable tool in getting your web site ranked higher in Google search.

Not all cliché lawyer marketing elements are bad. Here is a brief list of dos and don’ts.

1) Your Picture – Many people like seeing professional pictures of their lawyer. Seeing a professional looking individual will help instill confidence into your web site’s visitors. You should have a professional photographer take a picture to use for professional purposes.

2) Avoid the Common – Yes, posing with open books, using scales of justice clip art, and posing in front of the gavel on your desk is probably going to make your firm look like “just another lawyer. However, creatively using the scales of justice in a logo or gavel can be done in a way that makes your firm stand out. It just takes some creative thinking.

3) Don’t Forget SEO - While your web site may look professional, you still need rich search engine optimized content on your site. The combination of optimized text, a professional design, and strong conversion ratios (visitors that fill out a contact form) will give your site the elements needed to push your firm to the top of search engine results.

Learn more about Law Firm Marketing and Law Firm Web Design at SEOLawFirm.com.