One of the most interesting aspects of the original PageRank algorithm is how PageRank flows through a website depending upon where a page is located in the site’s hierarchy. Moreover, if a link was very high up in the hierarchy it had more authority attributed to it and it would display higher in the search engine ranking pages (SERP). A side effect of this is that as content got older and was pushed lover into a site’s link hierarchy, it would lose authority and not rank as highly. While this is an assumption, it is likely supported by Google’s emphasis on fresh content.

But what about old content, that is very far down in a site’s hierarchy, and doesn’t have many external links pointing to it, how does that manage to rank well relative to new authoritative content? I believe that Google’s current algorithm records the prominence that a page once had and attributes authority to it that is independent of changes in flow of PageRank. For example, if a link to a page was once displayed very prominently on the homepage and on many other pages throughout a site, it will likely continue to rank very well long after it is removed from such a prominent position.

So what does this in mean in terms of practical application, when you publish new content on a site allow it to “marinate” so that Google’s spider can see how prominent it is and so that it will attribute lasting authority to the page.

Lawyers who commit to writing and regular publishing get rewarded.
Firms, practice groups and lawyers need a body of work they can stand behind.

When it comes down to it, website will likely provide very little utility if law firms and/or lawyers do not put in the time to create and distribute useful content on their websites. Although some people do use the internet like the yellow pages, e.g. search for “Arizona will lawyer,” most use to the internet to find answers, or at the very least educate themselves.

Organic SEO

When people speak of SEO they most often mean organic SEO, i.e. manipulating search engine results to cause a website to display higher on a search engine results page (SERP). Unlike PPC advertising, e.g. Google AdWords, organic SEO does not require site owners to pay every time someone clicks on a link to their site(s). Many people contend, and we somewhat agree, that web users have become so savvy as to unconsciously devalue PPC listings and skip right to the organic listings, even though the PPC listings actually display above the organic listings. Further, we have often observed that conversion rates are generally higher for users that visit a site via organic listings as opposed to PPC listings. However, because search engines don’t disclose how their algorithms work in detail, organic SEO cannot provide very targeted advertising as easily as pay per click advertising. As such, PPC still occupies a very valuable place within most law firm marketing plans.

Search Engine Ranking Factors

In order to effectuate organic SEO, a through understanding of the factors that search engines use to determine the order in which results should be displayed in their SERPs is necessary. Although search engines, e.g. Google, are very cryptic about those factors they use, Google claims to use more than 200, an examination of their patents along with their public statements can be very useful.

Though we won’t discuss each of the factors that we think Google uses, we will discuss two very important factors, in our experience: PageRank & link position.

1) PageRank (Link Juice)

Prior to Google, site on the internet were manually organized by humans into directories. However, this method was neither objective nor efficient. As such, Larry Page and Sergey Brin proposed a new method; rather, than having a small group of people determining the value and relevance of a site,  why not let everyone with a website help make those determinations?

PageRank did just that (Google: please pardon me for oversimplifying)  it counted the total number of links on the internet and interpreted them as votes, the more links a site had to it the more likely it was to be a quality site and they higher it would display in Google’s SERPs.

And while PageRank by itself worked to provide high quality and relevant SERPs for a period of time, people soon learned how to game the system. As such, Google added more factors into its algorithm.

2) Link Position

The first published iteration of PageRank did not allocate value to a particular link based upon the link’s location on a page, e.g. top or bottom or left or right, but subsequent versions of Google’s algorithm have done so. In general, Google allocates more weight to links that appear at the top of a page than it does to those that are at the bottom. Moreover, Google also allocates more weight to those think s that occur in the main content of a page as opposed to those on the side.

If you are interested in hiring us to help with your law firm marketing and SEO, please contact us vis the form on this page of call us at (480) 359-4059.

Rankings, Err, Google Rankings

Many SEO firms measure their effectiveness in terms of how well a highly a site ranks in Google’s results; however, this is an outdated and outmoded metric given how much Google’s search engine results pages, or SERPs, ave changed over the years.

For example, if Google’s algorithm determines that a user might be intending to limit his/her results in terms of geography, e.g. the user is searching for a lawyer in his/her state or city, Google will either display integrated local listings, called Google Places listings, or it may localize the search, or both.

As such, it is very,very difficult to accurately measure how a particular, locally-focused site is ranking.

A Better Metric

Because of the aforementioned complexities with measuring search engine rank, as of 2011 there is meaningful metric: conversions.

Although some of our competitors do try to optimize their clients’ pages for conversions, few do it well. However, because we started off as a web design company we integrate conversion optimization into all aspects if what we do, it’s not just am afterthought.

Results

So what have we done for our clients? Although not guaranteed, one of our clients gets about 10 conversions per week, i.e. contacts driven from it’s website.

Although there are a myriad of ways to do this, one of the most effective is using the internet to: 1) establish expertise, 2) stay connected, and 3) reach a larger audience.

1) Establish Expertise

With the proliferation of the internet in most facets of our lives, there is a greater opportunity for law firms and lawyers to establish their legal expertise by posting high-quality, meaningful content on the internet. Although some argue that giving away high-quality content will not lead to more business, it is our experience that great websites, which provide quality content bring clients in the door, either by establishing the expertise of a law firm or attorney among peers and/or potential clients.

2) Stay Connected

Although somewhat similar to newsletters once published by firms in days gone by, social media and permission-based email marketing provide a much more intimate and meaningful interaction between lawyers and clients. Moreover, fostering better and more meaningful relationships with client helps to increase client retention and increase client-based referrals.

3) Reach A Larger Audience

Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the internet, at least for lawyers, is the way it allows lawyers to promote their services to a much larger group of people who are looking for those particular legal services that they provide. Via the ethical use of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM), attorneys and law firms can efficiently target those people that are in need of their services in a way that phone books never could.

What Makes Us Different?

Although I am a first year associate at a small law firm, and I don’t have the legal expertise and experience of most attorneys, I do have much more legal experience and expertise than the vast majority of our competitors. I take the ethical obligations associated with the practice of law very seriously and will neither mislead the firms we call clients or tarnish their hard-earned reputations. Accordingly, I am not going to claim that internet marketing is a panacea for all the problems that a particular law firm or lawyer may have, but I can honestly say that ethical SEO or SEM can drive substantial amounts of prospective clients to a firm or attorney’s website, and hopefully into their office(s).

If you are interested in hiring us to create a high-quality web site and/or internet presence for you or your firm, please contact us via the form to the right or at (480) 359-4059.

Although Google, as of the date of this post, doesn’t vary the citations that it shows associated with a Places page, it does emphasize the keywords in the text of the citations shown. Now this emphasis may simply be a vestige of a former version of the algorithm or a side effect of Google’s software, however, Google likely does place at least some worth in the citation text when determining the display order of the Places listings in the SERP because of how important relevance is and how much Google has valued anchor text in the past.

But why is that a problem? Google will often substitute your new, more relevant, page for your old page in the SERP and often cause a decrease in your SERP position.

Thus, dropping native H.264 playback from Chrome while still allowing H.264 playback via Flash Player isn’t going to drive adoption of WebM. It just means that Chrome users will get H.264 via Flash.

Although I hope he is right, he neglects to address the possibility of Google having a more sinister/arrogant/invidious, but less plausible, motive: screwing Apple 1) directly for Android’s sake and 2) indirectly to limit Apple’s future viability.

Because Flash can play WebM video, Google can directly target iOS users by converting all of YouTube’s video to WebM. The question is whether Google feels that this may help dissuade people users from buying iOS devices in the long-term at the expense of fewer YouTube users in the short-term.