Smart SEO for Lawyers
Everything You Need to Know in 60 Minutes
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Outline
• The Search Stool
– Content
– Authority
• Links
• The New Authority
– Technology
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•
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Local Search
Avoid
Free Tools
New New New Stuff
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
11 10 Things you can do in 10 minutes
Introduction
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Content and Competition
• Understand how
competitive your space is
– Name
– Practice area
– Geography
• In competitive markets,
verbal nuance is
important
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–
–
–
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Lawyer vs. Attorney
Name and Attorney
Name nuance
Geography nuance
Practice area nuance
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
The Search Stool
Content
Technology
Authority (Links & more)
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Leg 1: Content
What is a webpage about?
Key Factors
• Keyword density
• Important Indicators
Title
Tag
– Title Tag
– URL
– H1 Tag
– Meta description
• Uniqueness and freshness of content
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Content: Anatomy of a Webpage
Title
Tag
URL
H1
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common Mistake #1:
A page about nothing
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common Mistake #2:
A page about everything
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common Mistake #3:
Copying content
Inlinks: 121
Inlinks: 68
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common Mistake #4:
Firm name as the title tag on every page
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Leg 2: Links
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Leg 2: Links
How important is a website?
Key Factors
• Anchor Text
– Click here
– Avvo
– Rate your Lawyer
•
•
•
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Number of links
Quality of links (Authority and Relevance of linking site)
Homepage links
Internal links
Attracting Links
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common mistake #5:
Not optimizing anchor text
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common mistake #6:
Static Sites aren’t Linkworthy
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common mistake #7:
Hosting your blog on a different domain
Inlinks: 5,072
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Inlinks:
151,158
Counting Your Links
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www.blekko.com
Open Site Explorer
Majestic SEO
Google Webmaster Tools
• Links that Don’t Count:
– No Follow Links
• Monitor w/(Quirk SearchStatus download)
– Firewalled Links
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
The New Authority: Social
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
The New Authority:
Social Graph
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
The New Authority:
Personalized Search
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Leg 3: Technology
Can the search engines find and read the webpage?
Key Factors
• Simple URL’s in plain English
• 1 Page : 1 URL
• Standard links
–
Avoid:
•
•
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•
Flash
Java
Images
According to Google, these are different pages:
http://avvo.com
http://www.avvo.com
http://www.avvo.com?pageid=458
http://www.avvo.com&reference=msn
How to surf like a spider
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Turn off images
Turn off javascript
Turn off flash
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Counting your Indexed pages
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common Mistake #8:
Google can’t navigate a site
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common Mistake #9:
using a Page ID in the URL
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Common Mistake #10:
http://website.com vs. http://www.website.com
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
LOCAL SEARCH
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Local Search
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Google Local
• Consistency of
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• 5 descriptors
Phone
Address
Website
Business Name
– Car Accident Lawyer
NOT Car Accident
• Tracking Phone
Number Issues
• Across
– Your Website
– Major Directories
– Vertical Directories
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
How Does Google Assemble a
Business Listing
v
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Source: Mike Blumenthal www.blumenthals.com
How Does Google Places
Assemble a Business Listing
Place Dat Data2 Data2
s
a1
Dash.
Feed
1
Feed
2
Name
Y
X
X
X
X
Address
X
X
X
X
Y
Phone
Y
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Web
Category
X
X
Reviews
Web1 Web2
X
User
Edits
X
Y
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
GeoInfo
X
X
X
Citations
X
X
X
Additional
Details
X
X
X
X
X
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Source: Mike Blumenthal www.blumenthals.com
Claim Online Presence
Primary Data Source
Claim listings from the principal
secondary data suppliers/sites:
• SuperPages
• Yahoo, Bing
• Yelp, Facebook
• Avvo.com & Other
Industry Directories
• HotFrog, YellowBot,
Kudzu
• Note: You claim it. You
own it.
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Source: Mike Blumenthal www.blumenthals.com
Local Ranking
• Social & GeoReferences
• Citations & In-bound Links
• Reviews
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Source: Mike Blumenthal www.blumenthals.com
What is a Citation?
Business Name Or Number
Phone Number
Address
Link
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Source: Mike Blumenthal www.blumenthals.com
Ranking Report Rant:
Local and other Stuff
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Ranking Report Rant:
Query Variations
Seattle DUI Lawyer
DUI Attorney in Seattle
DUI Lawyer, Seattle WA
Drunk driving lawyer in King County
Under the influence driving Seattle attorney
Seattle DUI Attorney
DUI Laywer Seattle
DUI Lawyers in Seattle
Top Seattle lawyer for DUI
Drunk driving attorney
Best drunk driving lawyers in Seattle
Seattle Lawyers overturn dui verdict
Seattle OUI Lawyers
Lawyer to expunge DUI from record in Seattle
North Seattle DUI Lawyer
Avoiding DUI in Seattle
Seattle lawyers to beat drunk driving
Multiple offense DUI lawyer
Driving under the influence lawyer
DUI Lawyer
Best seattle DUI attorneys
Pro bono Seattle DUI lawyer
Need a DUI attorney in seattle
Best seattle DUI lawyers
DUI law firms in WA
Attorney in Seattle for DUI
Seattle’s best DUI attorney
Seattle Drunk Driving Lawyers
Need attorney in Seattle to get me off DUI arrest
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Ranking Report Rant:
The Long Tail
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Ranking Report:
The Long Tail
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
“Tattoo Story” SEO Keywords
tattoo
tattoo picture
tattoo pictures
тату
tatoo
game of life
unity tattoo
speaker tattoo
tattoo photos
courage tattoo
courage tattoos
game of life tattoo
tattoos
game tattoo
gambar tattoo
tattoo images
craig tattoo
the tattoo
tatto
tattoo pics
tattoos photos
pics of tattoos
pictures of tattoos
question mark tattoo
video game tattoos
chinese character tattoo
tattoo#i=51
action tattoo
life sentence tattoo
loudspeaker tattoo
picture tattoo
speaker tattoos
storyline tattoos
tatoos
tattoo choose life
tattoo photo
tattoo pic
tattox
unity tattoos
anchor tattoo
courage tatto
game tattos
life game
lifer tattoo
name tattos
native tattoo
native tattoos
question mark tattoos
strength courage tattoo
strength tattoos
strength tattos
tatto speker
chinese characters tattoo
chinese symbols tattoo
courage and strength
tattoos
strength and courage
tattoos
lawyer tattoo
tattoos pictures
craig's tattoo
craigs tattoo
divorce tattoo
hardcore tattoo
horor tatto
horror story
horror tattoo
horror tattoos
image tattoo
images of tattoos
lawyers with tattoo
life tattoos
native indian tattoos
photos of tattoo
pic of tattoos
pic tattoo
pictures of tattoo
pictures tattoo
pictures tattoos
pix of tattoos
sentence tattoo
streangth tattoos
strength
strength and courage
tattoo
strength courage tattoos
strength tattoo
strenth tatoos
tato horror
tatoo horor
tatooo
tattoo about life
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
tattoo action
tattoo chinese symbols
tattoo designs
tattoo for life
tattoo fotos
tattoo horror stories
tattoo image
tattoo of life
tattoos for strength and
courage
tattto
tatttoo
the game tatoos
the game tattoos
unity tattoo designs
tattoo libel
tattoo#i=2
tattoos pics
video game tattoo
‫ﺻور وﺷم‬
‫وﺷم‬
3-tattoo
^tattoo
NEW NEW NEW STUFF
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
EMD Update
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Map Spam
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
11 Things you can do
in 10 Minutes
Competition
1.
Benchmark where you rank on Google for:
•
•
2.
Your name
Your geo/specialty
Understand your website’s authority
•
•
PageRank
# of inlinks
Content
3.
Ensure your geo/specialty is the focus of your homepage.
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•
4.
Optimize your bio page for your name.
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5.
6.
URL
H1 Tag
Title Tag
Content
URL (www.website.com/bill-smith)
H1 Tag
Title Tag
Content
Remove your firm name from every title tag and rewrite them to focus on the
specific page’s content.
Add you phone number and
address to local directories like Avvo
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
11 Things you can do
in 10 Minutes
Linkbuilding
7. Add your website to Avvo.
8. Make sure the links on your website are descriptive.
Technology
9. Are all of your pages indexed?
10. Type in yourwebsite.com into the browser toolbar.
Does it automatically redirect to
http://www.yourwebsite.com?
11. Review all of your URLs for a ?, #, =, %. If you find
any, they can probably be optimized.
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Avoid
• Duplicate content
• Any guarantees from anyone
• Cheating on linkbuilding
– Buying links
– Link exchanges
– Linkfarms
• SEO’s paid by performance
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Beginner’s Toolkit (free)
• Page Rank
• Google Analytics
• Counting Links: Google Webmaster Tools (your own
site only) www.blekko.com; www.majesticseo.com;
www.opensiteexplorer.com;
• Google to check indexed page count
(site:www.website.com)
• Google Adwords Keyword Tool for keyword research
• Right click any webpage, view source, search for “meta”
or “H1”
• Webmaster Tools
– Google
– Bing
– Yahoo
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
SEO Consultants
I Personally Endorse
•
Steve Matthews – Stem Legal – great Canadian focused on legal.
•
Ian Lurie - Well regarded, do a paid, high quality audit.
http://www.portentinteractive.com/landers/get-10-things-to-improveyour.htm [email protected]
•
Will Scott, Search Influence (Drop my name for this guy).
[email protected]
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Will Critchlow – Distilled Media (Will knows me. UK based, but I
think they have a seattle office now.)
http://www.distilled.co.uk/company/media.html
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Local: David Mihm and Mike Blumenthal
http://www.thelegalconnection.com
Smart SEO for Lawyers
Everything You Need to Know in 60 Minutes
http://www.thelegalconnection.com