With a title like this, we really wanted to wait until Halloween but unfortunately, scary lawyer search engine optimization tactics are marketed year round.
Many lawyers that come to us in search of a quality law firm marketing partner often serenade us with stories and legends from their quest. By this point, I would like to believe we have heard it all, but the sad reality is that there is plenty more to come.
The object of search engine optimization is to reach local clientele who are in need of legal counsel in your practice area. It’s a pretty simple concept but getting ranked on the first page in many metro areas requires a lot of work. Google basically is looking for a short list of items.
1) Quality website – An attorney website that is easy to navigate by both human users and the Googlebot.
2) Quality content – A useful website contributes something to the world in the form of valuable content. The more useful the content, the higher quantity of content, the more favor you will be granted with your ranking.
3) Inbound links – The Google democracy states that the more websites which link to a website, the higher quality the content must be. This should be achieved with content, social networks, directories and news releases.
So that is the basic recipe for a well-optimized attorney website. However, sometimes we hear some pretty crazy things.
These two items have made it to our top list of hocus pocus SEO claims.
Just Buy a Domain – False
The Internet created several millionaires who simply registered a good domain name before anybody else. Such popular sales like Office.com and Furniture.com raised millions for their owners. However, buying a domain name for your law firm is not going to help your search engine rankings.
When you purchase a domain name from an individual (rather than a registrar like Enom, GoDaddy, Network Solutions, etc.) you have to change the registrar information. This is the data that identifies the owner of the domain, which would be you after the purchase. When the owner registrar data changes, Google sets the domain’s pagerank to zero thus making your newly purchased pre-existing domain name the same value as a name you purchase brand new for $12.
The Magical Google Machine – False
This one is probably our favorite. Everybody knows that Google’s algorithm is constantly improving for the better (or worse depending on who you ask). These changes are generally minor and affect a small percentage of the websites in Google’s index.
We have heard that some companies claim to have inside information that allows them to receive algorithm changes then magically implement them into all of their client websites with the click of a mouse.
The problem with this claim is that it contrasts with how the algorithms really work. The things that Google changes often have to do with the way they analyze links to your website from other sites on the Web. It’s not a matter of “we used to have the secret word ‘cheese’ in the meta tag and now we prefer ‘penguin,’” it’s more along the lines of “social network links now contain a separate powerful value than links from individual websites.” Or items like the XML sitemap where Google requests that you generate this script that pre-crawls your website to simplify their indexing process.
Neither of those real changes can be implemented with the preverbal flip of a switch; it takes a little effort.
Effort is probably the best way to achieve a page one ranking. When selecting an online legal marketing company, make sure you are paying for measurable services, and that the company you select will put forth a strong effort in getting your website highly ranked for your law firm’s relevant terms.
To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, and attorney websites visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.
Other Resources: Find a Lawyer | Law Firm Social Network