SEO Myths of Law Firm Marketing
When a law firm embarks on a journey to discover how to get new cases on the Internet, the road is often met with confusion and contradiction. One “expert” will talk about links, another about using directories, another may say that content is all that matters.
Here are a few frequently propagated myths:
One Link Theory
The one link theory suggests that your website only needs one very high quality website linking to it, to get credibility in Google Search and other search engines. Online law firm marketing takes slightly more work. This theory goes against the very core of the PageRank algorithm which uses multiple links from third party websites to determine quality and relevance.
The one link theory is often pushed by legal marketing companies that only have a directory linking to their clients’ sites and do not offer monthly services like writing, distribution, link building from third party sites, social networking and blogging.
Domain Name Is King
While a healthy domain name is helpful, it does not make or break search engine optimization success. Some believe if your domain name contains all of your keyphrases, then it will naturally rank high on the first page. In reality, you still need valuable content and multiple quality inbound links. We have firsthand experience that proves that a domain name can spell out anything and still achieve a high page one ranking.
Keypages or Doorway Pages
If you hear an SEO company talk about keypages, you should quickly run away, as Google openly prohibits this practice in their Webmaster Guidelines. Basically, you build a bunch of low quality keyword rich sites in hopes of appearing most relevant to the term. It may get your website banned, thus this is not an ethical SEO practice. Here is what Google has to say about Doorway pages:
“Doorway pages are typically large sets of poor-quality pages where each page is optimized for a specific keyword or phrase. In many cases, doorway pages are written to rank for a particular phrase and then funnel users to a single destination.
Whether deployed across many domains or established within one domain, doorway pages tend to frustrate users, and are in violation of our webmaster guidelines.”
You can’t really argue with that. So when searching for an online law firm marketing company, seek out a firm that offers an all inclusive method of SEO that consists of link building by custom unique content, quality website development practices, social networking and blogging.
If a proposed service is centered around one magic bullet, it’s probably not going to be successful.
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
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