Video: The Next High-Impact
Marketing Tool for Attorneys
Date & Time:
Thursday, May 29, 2008
11:00-12:00pm CST
Thursday, May 29, 2008
3:00-4:00pm CST
Place:
Your desk (telephone and Web access required)
Cost:
Complimentary
Register for this webcast.
In the crowded online marketplace for legal services, where Web sites struggle to attract attention, video is a terrific tool for communicating your unique message in a format consumers enjoy. A well crafted online video can help you connect with more prospects, and promote your firm in a way that's both personal and highly professional.
Consumers research an average of 4.8 Web sites before choosing an attorney, but when video is added that number decreases to 1.8 because consumers feel more comfortable and are more apt to retain an attorney who they feel they know. The bottom line is- video generates Web site hits and telephone calls, and it's an engaging, customer-friendly format.
Register for our Web cast today to learn more about the following:
• Why Video? The next high-impact marketing tool for attorneys
• Attracting qualified leads Video search engine optimization & distribution
• Delivering Results Video that converts prospects and serves clients
• Getting your money's worth Evaluating return on investment
• Ethical Considerations
Register for this Web cast. We have two highly qualified speakers prepared to provide insight into why video is the next high-impact marketing tool for attorneys, as well as to answer any questions you may have:
Don Sowers
Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff LLP
www.formerdistrictattorneys.com
Don Sowers has been a FindLaw customer for over Eight years. He is the managing partner of Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff LLP, a Criminal Defense firm with offices throughout Southern California. Previously, he served as a Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney and as Chairman of the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Criminal Justice Section. Don was an early adopter on the Internet, posting the first of his seven sites on the web back in 1999. He has been a presenter on Internet marketing panels and he participated in the Beta version of FindLaw's Internet video production.
Laura Hamad
FindLaw Video Project Manager
www.LawyerMarketing.com
Laura Hamad graduated summa cum laude from Minnesota State University Moorhead with a degree in Mass Communications. She worked in communications at the state teacher's union before joining the Project Management team at FindLaw in August of 2006. Laura has been working with FindLaw video products since the first video beta began in August of 2007.
As a Video Project Manager, Laura helps her clients identify and create the story for each of their videos. She then directs the video shoot, ensuring that the client's vision gets captured during the day.
Friday, May 23, 2008
Testimonials for Findlaw
Re: FindLaw Video
Several months ago our firm determined to improve its Internet presence by adding FindLaw Video to its website. We wanted to make our website unique and more personal so that potential clients would have a better feeling about the lawyers that they would encounter. This alleviates the fear of contacting us and we believe it provides a better opportunity to turn prospects into real clients.
We hired FindLaw to produce the video and were very pleased with it prompt response. The shoot was scheduled and conducted promptly and professionally. The FindLaw personnel were very helpful and provided a comfortable setting in which to shoot the various video scenes. They allowed us a great deal of input into the content, but provided additional input into the process as well.
Our firm's clients have noticed the addition of videos and commented very favorably on them. I believe that it has increased the number of contacts made after reviewing our website and also increased the successful conversion of those contacts into business for us.
I believe that the FindLaw video is an excellent value and makes our Internet presence much less threatening to potential clients, allowing a great number of potential clients to be converted into actual clients. I would certainly recommend this to any law firm that is seeking to improve its website and the amount of business it receives from Internet marketing.
Sincerely,
Eric C. Redman
Redman Ludwig, P.C.
Attorneys at Law
Main Office 317-685-2426
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An email sent to one of our Video Project Managers from Don Sowers, a partner at Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff, LLP:
Hi Laura:
Wow!...Wow!...Wow!...Wow!...That's four Wows, for four great videos!
And you deserve the congratulations. You are a true professional. Thank you so much for the wonderful job that you and your team did in producing our videos. We are very pleased with the results. Your careful preparation, graceful and competent leadership and professional team produced the highest quality videos I have ever seen for a law firm on the Internet. I hope that should you and your team ever return to L. A., that you will be in touch, as we'd love to get together to celebrate in person.
And please thank the appropriate people at FindLaw who worked behind the scenes to produce our finished videos. The video shoot was a terrific experience, and now to see these terrific videos, is simply fantastic! Thank you again for sharing these valuable marketing tools.
It is always an honor to feel like part of the FindLaw family.
Sincerely,
Don Sowers
Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff LLP
Main Office 310-312-8055
Several months ago our firm determined to improve its Internet presence by adding FindLaw Video to its website. We wanted to make our website unique and more personal so that potential clients would have a better feeling about the lawyers that they would encounter. This alleviates the fear of contacting us and we believe it provides a better opportunity to turn prospects into real clients.
We hired FindLaw to produce the video and were very pleased with it prompt response. The shoot was scheduled and conducted promptly and professionally. The FindLaw personnel were very helpful and provided a comfortable setting in which to shoot the various video scenes. They allowed us a great deal of input into the content, but provided additional input into the process as well.
Our firm's clients have noticed the addition of videos and commented very favorably on them. I believe that it has increased the number of contacts made after reviewing our website and also increased the successful conversion of those contacts into business for us.
I believe that the FindLaw video is an excellent value and makes our Internet presence much less threatening to potential clients, allowing a great number of potential clients to be converted into actual clients. I would certainly recommend this to any law firm that is seeking to improve its website and the amount of business it receives from Internet marketing.
Sincerely,
Eric C. Redman
Redman Ludwig, P.C.
Attorneys at Law
Main Office 317-685-2426
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An email sent to one of our Video Project Managers from Don Sowers, a partner at Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff, LLP:
Hi Laura:
Wow!...Wow!...Wow!...Wow!...That's four Wows, for four great videos!
And you deserve the congratulations. You are a true professional. Thank you so much for the wonderful job that you and your team did in producing our videos. We are very pleased with the results. Your careful preparation, graceful and competent leadership and professional team produced the highest quality videos I have ever seen for a law firm on the Internet. I hope that should you and your team ever return to L. A., that you will be in touch, as we'd love to get together to celebrate in person.
And please thank the appropriate people at FindLaw who worked behind the scenes to produce our finished videos. The video shoot was a terrific experience, and now to see these terrific videos, is simply fantastic! Thank you again for sharing these valuable marketing tools.
It is always an honor to feel like part of the FindLaw family.
Sincerely,
Don Sowers
Takakjian, Sowers & Sitkoff LLP
Main Office 310-312-8055
Web Solutions
Hear what attorneys think of FindLaw
Enhance your Internet strategy with Web solutions for law firms
Activity Tracker
Keeping track of how many contacts your law firm receives, including if they originated via phone or e-mail, was a time consuming task until now. With Activity Tracker, you'll have 24/7 access to reports that make tracking client acquisition from your FindLaw products a simple task. Activity Tracker enables you to see how and when potential clients are contacting you through unique trackable phone numbers and contact forms on your FindLaw products.
Read more about activity tracker.
Attorney Web Sites
To achieve online marketing and client-development objectives, and maximize your law firm’s return on its Internet investment, it is critical to launch and maintain a well-balanced Web presence. A FirmSite® is the difference between simply having a Web site and having a Web site that gets results. A FirmSite delivers a unique combination of dynamic design, compelling content and targeted traffic from prospective clients.
Read more about attorney Web sites.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing is one of the most powerful online client-acquisition strategies available to law firms. When searching for legal information online, potential clients look for a lawyer who can solve their problem, is located near them and has a unique market differentiator. Our attorney SEM products leverage your Web site to attract the potential clients your law firm wants.
Read more about search engine marketing for law firms.
Web Site Design
You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of a visitor to your Web site — and the proper site design ensures you do more than just look good. Effective site design components will give your online visitors a positive first impression of your law firm. Each attorney Web site we design is carefully constructed and engineered, leveraging our years of industry experience.
Read more about effective Web site design.
Web Site Content
Content can increase your law firm’s search engine ranking, educate and qualify prospects, and enhance your firm’s credibility. Once potential clients arrive at your Web site, the content must win them over and move them to call. Powerful content gives your firm a commanding Web presence, showcasing your talent, your successes, and your legal expertise to new and existing clients.
Read more about the benefits of quality legal content.
Web Site Services
It is essential for law firms to communicate effectively and efficiently with potential and existing clients. Time-saving Web and e-mail communications tools will give your firm a long-term competitive advantage, helping you to build and maintain client loyalty.
Read more about providing legal services online.
Hear what attorneys think of FindLaw
Enhance your Internet strategy with Web solutions for law firms
Activity Tracker
Keeping track of how many contacts your law firm receives, including if they originated via phone or e-mail, was a time consuming task until now. With Activity Tracker, you'll have 24/7 access to reports that make tracking client acquisition from your FindLaw products a simple task. Activity Tracker enables you to see how and when potential clients are contacting you through unique trackable phone numbers and contact forms on your FindLaw products.
Read more about activity tracker.
Attorney Web Sites
To achieve online marketing and client-development objectives, and maximize your law firm’s return on its Internet investment, it is critical to launch and maintain a well-balanced Web presence. A FirmSite® is the difference between simply having a Web site and having a Web site that gets results. A FirmSite delivers a unique combination of dynamic design, compelling content and targeted traffic from prospective clients.
Read more about attorney Web sites.
Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search Engine Marketing is one of the most powerful online client-acquisition strategies available to law firms. When searching for legal information online, potential clients look for a lawyer who can solve their problem, is located near them and has a unique market differentiator. Our attorney SEM products leverage your Web site to attract the potential clients your law firm wants.
Read more about search engine marketing for law firms.
Web Site Design
You only have a few seconds to capture the attention of a visitor to your Web site — and the proper site design ensures you do more than just look good. Effective site design components will give your online visitors a positive first impression of your law firm. Each attorney Web site we design is carefully constructed and engineered, leveraging our years of industry experience.
Read more about effective Web site design.
Web Site Content
Content can increase your law firm’s search engine ranking, educate and qualify prospects, and enhance your firm’s credibility. Once potential clients arrive at your Web site, the content must win them over and move them to call. Powerful content gives your firm a commanding Web presence, showcasing your talent, your successes, and your legal expertise to new and existing clients.
Read more about the benefits of quality legal content.
Web Site Services
It is essential for law firms to communicate effectively and efficiently with potential and existing clients. Time-saving Web and e-mail communications tools will give your firm a long-term competitive advantage, helping you to build and maintain client loyalty.
Read more about providing legal services online.
Online Advertising
ONLINE ADVERTISING
Hear what attorneys think of FindLawGenerate exposure and connect with legal prospects on the Internet
FindLaw is the most-trafficked legal Web site on the planet, providing consumers, businesses and legal professionals with a single point of access to a broad and expanding array of legal information and services.
Directory Exposure
FindLaw Profiles
If you want to be seen by the most prospects at the very moment they’re searching for legal help, post your attorney Profile on the FindLaw Lawyer Directory. A Profile gives your law firm something you won’t get anywhere else: An enhanced presence on the world’s busiest legal portal. Learn more about FindLaw Profiles.
FindLaw Sponsorships
Sponsorships are premium placements that help set your law firm apart from other attorneys and attract prospects with dramatic, eye-catching graphics. Directory Sponsorships enable your firm to deliver key marketing messages and link directly to FindLaw Lawyer Directory Profiles, your FirmSite or other online information.
FindLaw TopSpots
TopSpots put your law firm name in the top five placements that potential clients see while they are researching legal issues on the Internet in your practice area and geography. These priority placements attract prospects by moving your online listing to the top of directory search results.
FindLaw Spotlights
Spotlights appear just below Directory TopSpots within directory searches on FindLaw. Spotlights are available by practice and geographic area, and they can be linked to a legal Web site or FindLaw Lawyer Directory Profile.
FINDLAW PUBLIC AND BUSINESS CENTER EXPOSURE
FindLaw ContentTopSpots
Based on your law firm’s target audience, Content TopSpots can be strategically placed within a selected metro area and next to relevant articles within either the Business Center or Public Center on FindLaw. Your presence is highlighted where users are heavily engaged in researching the legal issues that matter to them.
FindLaw KnowledgeBase
KnowledgeBase positions your law firm as a qualified legal authority in your practice areas by publishing law firm articles in the Business Center or Public Center on FindLaw. These articles reach business and individual users searching for legal information and assistance. Articles are strategically placed in relevance to geographic or practice-area based content. KnowledgeBase articles include links back to your attorney Directory Profile to provide more information.
FindLaw Attorney Sponsored Links
Attorney Sponsored Links provide geographically specific exposure within the Public Center on FindLaw. Sponsored Links are identified as “attorneys in your area,” so viewers have easy access to local lawyers who can assist them with the legal issue they are researching. This marketing opportunity enables you to target specific metro areas and practice areas.
Hear what attorneys think of FindLawGenerate exposure and connect with legal prospects on the Internet
FindLaw is the most-trafficked legal Web site on the planet, providing consumers, businesses and legal professionals with a single point of access to a broad and expanding array of legal information and services.
Directory Exposure
FindLaw Profiles
If you want to be seen by the most prospects at the very moment they’re searching for legal help, post your attorney Profile on the FindLaw Lawyer Directory. A Profile gives your law firm something you won’t get anywhere else: An enhanced presence on the world’s busiest legal portal. Learn more about FindLaw Profiles.
FindLaw Sponsorships
Sponsorships are premium placements that help set your law firm apart from other attorneys and attract prospects with dramatic, eye-catching graphics. Directory Sponsorships enable your firm to deliver key marketing messages and link directly to FindLaw Lawyer Directory Profiles, your FirmSite or other online information.
FindLaw TopSpots
TopSpots put your law firm name in the top five placements that potential clients see while they are researching legal issues on the Internet in your practice area and geography. These priority placements attract prospects by moving your online listing to the top of directory search results.
FindLaw Spotlights
Spotlights appear just below Directory TopSpots within directory searches on FindLaw. Spotlights are available by practice and geographic area, and they can be linked to a legal Web site or FindLaw Lawyer Directory Profile.
FINDLAW PUBLIC AND BUSINESS CENTER EXPOSURE
FindLaw ContentTopSpots
Based on your law firm’s target audience, Content TopSpots can be strategically placed within a selected metro area and next to relevant articles within either the Business Center or Public Center on FindLaw. Your presence is highlighted where users are heavily engaged in researching the legal issues that matter to them.
FindLaw KnowledgeBase
KnowledgeBase positions your law firm as a qualified legal authority in your practice areas by publishing law firm articles in the Business Center or Public Center on FindLaw. These articles reach business and individual users searching for legal information and assistance. Articles are strategically placed in relevance to geographic or practice-area based content. KnowledgeBase articles include links back to your attorney Directory Profile to provide more information.
FindLaw Attorney Sponsored Links
Attorney Sponsored Links provide geographically specific exposure within the Public Center on FindLaw. Sponsored Links are identified as “attorneys in your area,” so viewers have easy access to local lawyers who can assist them with the legal issue they are researching. This marketing opportunity enables you to target specific metro areas and practice areas.
Search Engine Optimization.
SEARCH ENGINE MARKETING (SEM)
There are two ways new clients will find you on the Internet. Via online directories such as Findlaw.com, or via Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and others.
Consider how you typically browse the Internet for information in other aspects of your life or job. Likewise, search engines provide your potential clients with a results list of potential counsel. Shouldn’t you be on the list?
Our FirmSite Search Engine Marketing products make your site search engine friendly. When searching for legal information on the web, potential clients look for someone who can solve their problem, who is located near them, and who has a unique market differentiator. Our optimization practices help increase your odds of appearing high on the search engine results list
A variety of effective techniques are used to draw qualified traffic from search engines to your FirmSite. Search Engine Marketing provides optimization of your site content, submissions to select search engines, and our years of experience - focused completely on the legal profession.
Findlaw offers four levels of SEM solutions so you can find the exact fit for your firm. All four deliver features such as
Domain name purchase when this is your first site
Search engine submissions
Keyword optimized pages Standard SEM audits to review performance
Keyword Research
By using a proprietary tool to identify which keyword phrases to target and our professional Web writers to integrate those phrases into carefully crafted content, FindLaw effectively draws potential clients to your firm’s Web site and motivates them to contact you.
Performance Monitoring
Search engines continually adjust their search algorithms, resulting in search engine volatility. HitBox Web Analytics – a real-time, hosted Web analytics solution – compiles and analyzes visitor activity data to determine the sources of your most profitable Web site traffic. Collecting data directly from visitors’ browsers, HitBox Web Analytics shows you the true effectiveness of your online marketing efforts. As an added benefit to your subscription, we periodically review the optimization of your Web pages in order to maintain and increase your search engine ranking.
Download the SEM White Paper here
There are two ways new clients will find you on the Internet. Via online directories such as Findlaw.com, or via Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and others.
Consider how you typically browse the Internet for information in other aspects of your life or job. Likewise, search engines provide your potential clients with a results list of potential counsel. Shouldn’t you be on the list?
Our FirmSite Search Engine Marketing products make your site search engine friendly. When searching for legal information on the web, potential clients look for someone who can solve their problem, who is located near them, and who has a unique market differentiator. Our optimization practices help increase your odds of appearing high on the search engine results list
A variety of effective techniques are used to draw qualified traffic from search engines to your FirmSite. Search Engine Marketing provides optimization of your site content, submissions to select search engines, and our years of experience - focused completely on the legal profession.
Findlaw offers four levels of SEM solutions so you can find the exact fit for your firm. All four deliver features such as
Domain name purchase when this is your first site
Search engine submissions
Keyword optimized pages Standard SEM audits to review performance
Keyword Research
By using a proprietary tool to identify which keyword phrases to target and our professional Web writers to integrate those phrases into carefully crafted content, FindLaw effectively draws potential clients to your firm’s Web site and motivates them to contact you.
Performance Monitoring
Search engines continually adjust their search algorithms, resulting in search engine volatility. HitBox Web Analytics – a real-time, hosted Web analytics solution – compiles and analyzes visitor activity data to determine the sources of your most profitable Web site traffic. Collecting data directly from visitors’ browsers, HitBox Web Analytics shows you the true effectiveness of your online marketing efforts. As an added benefit to your subscription, we periodically review the optimization of your Web pages in order to maintain and increase your search engine ranking.
Download the SEM White Paper here
Make your law firm show up in Google 1st Page
Imagine your disappointment if you were to spend big bucks to throw a fancy party to entertain prospective clients with such things as expensive champagne and beluga caviar, only to have no one show up when the big day arrives. In the same manner, imagine your disappointment if you spend a lot of money to design a great web site with all kinds of bells and whistles, but no one looks at it.
Many of my clients have in fact invested in a web site, only to be disappointed because little or nothing was realized from it. The design and content of a web site are certainly important, but the foremost reason so many law firm web sites are unproductive is that they are not optimized for the search engines.
The Holy Grail for any law firm web site is a high search engine ranking in the firm’s practice area and geographic location. The vast majority of people making a search never go further than the first page, or the top ten or twenty sites listed. Therefore, like the tree that fell in the forest, the reality is that if your web site doesn’t have a high search engine ranking, it basically doesn’t exist. As someone recently wrote, it will simply “join the thousands of law firm sites that collect electronic dust on the internet.”
Search engines such as Google use arcane methods such as algorhythms to assure that the sites that are most on target rank higher on their search lists. The way to get a high ranking for a web site is to have it optimized for the search engines. Achieving a top rank is not a simple matter, however, and there are many secrets of the trade. It’s technical stuff that needs to be handled by someone who knows what he/she is doing.
The keys to search engine optimization include such things as designing a site that provides descriptive, keyword-heavy “metatags” as well as segregating topics and placing them on different pages, along with links from other legal sites and directories like Yahoo.
Even if a web site initially achieves a high ranking, however, you can’t stop there. The process of optimizing a site also requires someone to constantly monitor its progress to keep it at the top, including such things as resubmitting certain pages after tweaking the optimized code, and developing links to the site from other high ranking legal sites. Search engine rankings are always in a state of flux, and competing web sites will constantly move up and ahead of sites that are not optimized.
The operators of the search engines are as enigmatic about their ranking algorhythms as companies like Coca Cola and the Colonel are about their exclusive recipes. Therefore, as I have said, just as people need lawyers who know what they’re doing to handle their legal matters, lawyers need people who know the ins and outs of the internet to optimize their web sites if they expect to get results.
Many of my clients have in fact invested in a web site, only to be disappointed because little or nothing was realized from it. The design and content of a web site are certainly important, but the foremost reason so many law firm web sites are unproductive is that they are not optimized for the search engines.
The Holy Grail for any law firm web site is a high search engine ranking in the firm’s practice area and geographic location. The vast majority of people making a search never go further than the first page, or the top ten or twenty sites listed. Therefore, like the tree that fell in the forest, the reality is that if your web site doesn’t have a high search engine ranking, it basically doesn’t exist. As someone recently wrote, it will simply “join the thousands of law firm sites that collect electronic dust on the internet.”
Search engines such as Google use arcane methods such as algorhythms to assure that the sites that are most on target rank higher on their search lists. The way to get a high ranking for a web site is to have it optimized for the search engines. Achieving a top rank is not a simple matter, however, and there are many secrets of the trade. It’s technical stuff that needs to be handled by someone who knows what he/she is doing.
The keys to search engine optimization include such things as designing a site that provides descriptive, keyword-heavy “metatags” as well as segregating topics and placing them on different pages, along with links from other legal sites and directories like Yahoo.
Even if a web site initially achieves a high ranking, however, you can’t stop there. The process of optimizing a site also requires someone to constantly monitor its progress to keep it at the top, including such things as resubmitting certain pages after tweaking the optimized code, and developing links to the site from other high ranking legal sites. Search engine rankings are always in a state of flux, and competing web sites will constantly move up and ahead of sites that are not optimized.
The operators of the search engines are as enigmatic about their ranking algorhythms as companies like Coca Cola and the Colonel are about their exclusive recipes. Therefore, as I have said, just as people need lawyers who know what they’re doing to handle their legal matters, lawyers need people who know the ins and outs of the internet to optimize their web sites if they expect to get results.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Alert!: Geography Spam resulting in FirmSite Penalties
To compete in the online legal marketplace, geographic targeting is critical. There are two potential approaches to choosing geographic terms for a FirmSite:
Shotgun: Use every geographic term applicable for a region in hopes of hitting the mark.
Rifle: Choose selected geographic terms to precisely target high-volume or population areas, or areas with specific desirable characteristics.
In the past, many individuals have advocated for the shotgun approach, providing a comprehensive listing of every term in a region. In 2008, this approach is not only invalid, but is an approach that can actually harm the performance of the site.
The FindLaw SEM team is following a best practice that dictates a rifle-shot approach, in which we generate geographic targeting that is representative of an attorney’s practice, and not all-inclusive. We need to do this, as over-use of geography is resulting in active search engine penalties from Google and Yahoo.
As a team, we ask that everyone within FindLaw support this approach with clients. General guidelines we wish to apply to all FirmSites include:
Geography is representative of practice, not all-inclusive. Google and Yahoo Maps are capable of giving driving directions between locations; this should indicate that they are able to determine what towns are within a geographic radius created by representative, sample towns. The SEM team are choosing these core terms based on both population, court house location, and search volumes.
Geography blocks should be proportional to total content on the page. The geography block contains more than just geographic terms, but also other terms (like the firm name, sometimes firm practice area, etc.). Geography blocks should not exceed 75 total WORDS for a standard FindLaw custom content page. Note that each word of a geographic term counts against this 75, so ‘Oklahoma City’ is two words, ‘Indian River Shores’ is three words!
Clients should be discouraged from adding terms to a block that contradict or exceed these guidelines. Clients who insist on exceeding guidelines should be advised of the penalty risk of such behavior.
Moving large lists of geography to an ‘Areas Served’ page is also considered spam, and should not be done. If a firm legitimately has offices in 30 locations, an ‘Offices’ page is acceptable, as they will be able to set up Google Local/Yahoo Local listings for each office address to validate that this is not spam.
We have seen penalties for geographic keyword stuffing via the geography block on both new sites and on sites that have been out for a while (2004/2005), so having an older domain with inlinks is by no means insurance against penalty, and should not be presented as such.
Shotgun: Use every geographic term applicable for a region in hopes of hitting the mark.
Rifle: Choose selected geographic terms to precisely target high-volume or population areas, or areas with specific desirable characteristics.
In the past, many individuals have advocated for the shotgun approach, providing a comprehensive listing of every term in a region. In 2008, this approach is not only invalid, but is an approach that can actually harm the performance of the site.
The FindLaw SEM team is following a best practice that dictates a rifle-shot approach, in which we generate geographic targeting that is representative of an attorney’s practice, and not all-inclusive. We need to do this, as over-use of geography is resulting in active search engine penalties from Google and Yahoo.
As a team, we ask that everyone within FindLaw support this approach with clients. General guidelines we wish to apply to all FirmSites include:
Geography is representative of practice, not all-inclusive. Google and Yahoo Maps are capable of giving driving directions between locations; this should indicate that they are able to determine what towns are within a geographic radius created by representative, sample towns. The SEM team are choosing these core terms based on both population, court house location, and search volumes.
Geography blocks should be proportional to total content on the page. The geography block contains more than just geographic terms, but also other terms (like the firm name, sometimes firm practice area, etc.). Geography blocks should not exceed 75 total WORDS for a standard FindLaw custom content page. Note that each word of a geographic term counts against this 75, so ‘Oklahoma City’ is two words, ‘Indian River Shores’ is three words!
Clients should be discouraged from adding terms to a block that contradict or exceed these guidelines. Clients who insist on exceeding guidelines should be advised of the penalty risk of such behavior.
Moving large lists of geography to an ‘Areas Served’ page is also considered spam, and should not be done. If a firm legitimately has offices in 30 locations, an ‘Offices’ page is acceptable, as they will be able to set up Google Local/Yahoo Local listings for each office address to validate that this is not spam.
We have seen penalties for geographic keyword stuffing via the geography block on both new sites and on sites that have been out for a while (2004/2005), so having an older domain with inlinks is by no means insurance against penalty, and should not be presented as such.
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