Therefore, it should come as no surprise that your website being up and without returning “not found” errors is an important aspect of getting and achieving a high ranking.

As Google visits your attorney website to index your new content, they look for “not found” errors caused by dead links. If your website’s server is timing out, this can cause an error and make an existing page seem non-existent. If Google gets a lot of these errors, their bot may in fact lose patience with your website which will affect your ranking.

Check on your website periodically, and make sure your law firm hosting company is working with a reliable data center that has 24/7 performance monitoring. Some downtime will always occur with hosting for server reboots, upgrade installs, etc., but frequent downtime can only be explained by poor server management.

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

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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

But we know that what keeps our clients renewing year after year is partially their high ranking but primarily conversion. How many new cases and contacts are coming from their website… that is what truly matters.

A great factor in conversion is the design of the website. The key to conversion is simplicity and fewer steps. The goal of the design is to instill confidence in a user then make it as easy as possible to contact the law firm.

Keeping It Simple

The best way to increase conversion is to add a simple contact form on every page of the website. The form should request only the necessary information like name, email and phone number. It should be clearly visible and accessible on the home page and every sub page within the website.

Secondly, you should encourage the reader of your website and blog to contact your firm and link to the contact page. It is helpful to place contact links within the content of your site.

Implementing a couple simple techniques may improve leads and your return on investment with your online marketing dollars.

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

Flash Working with SEO

You can use Flash on your website without hurting your legal marketing and search engine optimization effort if you use it correctly. The only problem with Flash is that none of its content can be read by the search engine. So when you add Flash to your website, you are immediately taking away from your website’s textual real estate with something that offers no content value; however, that is OK in small doses. If you have a header that slides a few pictures across and has your slogan on display, it will NOT affect your search engine optimization.

Flash Working Against SEO

The problem with Flash is when it starts being used in place of textual content. For example, if your entire website is built in Flash, it will not make it to the first page of Google because your entire website’s content is hidden within the Flash movie, thus inaccessible by the search engine bots.

Recapping the Basics:

1. Flash can be used to make presentations and minor moving elements to enhance the look of your website.

2. Your Flash movie should be treated as a graphic and nothing more.

3. You should not include valuable textual content within a Flash movie as that will certainly affect your search engine marketing in a negative way.

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