How the times have changed. As content management systems like Wordpress and Drupal evolved, the open source programming community took over and now content management systems are actually more SEO friendly than static HTML. I’m sure many in the SEO community are still shaking their heads, so next week we will cover how not using a content management system may hinder your attorney search engine optimization.

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

Due to hectic schedules, most lawyers do not have the time to fully handle their online marketing efforts, but we have a few tips and tools that can easily be squeezed into a heavy schedule.

Social Networking

Social networks are quickly becoming the backbone of search engine optimization. It’s theorized that search engines are looking at links being posted through social networks to gage popularity. But aside from that, social networks have an audience. If you post content on a blog on your website (which should be done) you will be reaching out to the audience of people who find it on Google blog search or are already visiting your page.

However, running a blog on a social network immediately gives you an audience. Currently, the SEOLawFirm.com Law Firm Network is being tested by a few firms and we invite you to sign up and try it out. The blog will be set up for you at sign-up. Like other social networks, we have our blog feeds syndicated to different blog directories and search engines so that members of our community get immediate traffic to their Law Firm Network blog.

This attorney centered network is also helpful for firms that market themselves to other firms; those that practice in similar areas of law but in states in which you are unable to work. Connecting with these attorneys can open up a referral network for your firm.

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

In our Tampa office, we have a constant arm wrestling tournament between the designers and the search engine optimization and writing team. The designers want clean designs, a few crisp images, and “Apple like” simplicity. The search engine optimization group is also a big fan of simplicity, but not so much with images; they want text.

The result is always a clean design with adequate room for plain text to be optimized, though text placement is something done by the designers with an almost querulous tone. Ultimately both sides are pleased and the client is always happy with the end product.

Does it have to be a battle between the designers and word warriors? Not really because people and search engines both want to see the same thing. When you are searching for something, you want easy-to-read text on a white background. You want a navigation menu that is direct and to the point. You also don’t want to interpret clever slogans.

Clever slogans? That’s our next stop on the simplicity highway.

We were talking to a semi-competitor that specializes in imagination. They’re a consulting group that helps companies come up with completely out-of-the-box methods of getting the word out regarding their products and services. They could not figure out why they were getting so much traffic, yet very few contact requests.

When a visitor would land on their well-designed website, they would see a lot of information, examples, and everything was pretty much in line with web layout and design standards. However, rather than having an intuitive button that said, “Get a Quote” or “Contact Us,” they had a button that read “Imagine!”

Clearly, people going to their website were not in the mood to learn somebody’s corporate culture lingo, so visitors interested in getting a quote were even less interested in using their imagination.

The moral of this week’s article is that simplicity can work for everybody. Branding can play nicely with design. Designers and search engine optimization specialists can work together to present SEO friendly text in the center of a crisp website, and the end user can clearly navigate the website to discover the exact information for which they are looking.

That translates into a professional image for your law firm and, most importantly, new cases on your desk.

To learn more about legal marketing, law firm marketing, and law firm web design, visit SEOLawFirm.com or call 1.800.728.5306.

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

But the most important value of a website is its ability to work as the center of your online law firm marketing strategy.

Two things have to happen to make an attorney website successful. Number one, when someone types in your region and practice area, your law firm’s website needs to be on the first page of the search results. This is achieved with article publishing, inbound links, social networking, and blogging. With a little time investment, hard work from your SEO company, and a consistent number of new inbound links pointing to your firm’s website from other websites, your website should be easy to find by prospective clients.

So now that the website is found on the search engine, it’s time to convert that visitor into a contact. Websites that are old, aesthetically unattractive, and not formatted to be user-friendly will experience a much lower conversion rate regardless of where they are ranked on the first page of search engine results.

It generally takes less than 10 minutes for an individual to decide to contact an attorney from searching for the practice area, to reading the information on the site, making the decision that the law firm is capable of handling their issue, and filling out the contact form; it all takes between 5 to 10 minutes.

Within that time, you have to show that your firm is strong, stable, and capable of providing the best possible representation in your area of practice. This is done through design and information.

But of course it all starts with being found in the search engines.

*Publishing client testimonials and awarded values on websites may be against your state Bar Association’s marketing guidelines. Please verify that it is allowed in your state with your governing Bar Association before including such information on your website.

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