Is SEO Killing Your Law Firm Blog?
November 11, 2008
Remember Humans? They Use Search Engines, You Know…
SEO (search engine optimization) is important to any website or blog, of course. But more important is not losing sight of the people using those search engines.
Example: I’m currently in the top spot for “law firm blogger” in google, but if you clicked through and didn’t find any useful information here about law firm blogging, that wouldn’t do you (or me) any good.
Not all SEO is created equal.
You don’t have to rank at the top for every search term. In fact, you shouldn’t bother trying to. If you’re an E. coli lawyer, that’s probably a key phrase you want to come through so folks searching for you can find you. Do you need to be at the top for every search phrase containing the word “E. coli”? Probably not. Trying to do so will waste your time and drive your readers crazy.
Don’t stuff your pages.
One of my big pet peeves with many self-proclaimed SEO gurus is that they want every page of every law firm website and blog to be crammed full of as many related keywords as possible. Doing that harms you in several ways:
1. Your content becomes hard to read. Key phrases should come naturally if you’re talking about what you do. Forcing in as many keywords as possible, and repeating them unnecessarily, loses your flow (and your readers).
2. Your personality gets lost in the sea of keywords. Folks can’t find you anymore. And if they can’t find you at your blog, they’ll move on.
3. Folks see through it. They catch what you’re trying to do straight off, and they move on to read someone who is talking to them rather than to a robot.
4. Your tricks are disappointing. You waste the time of anyone who clicks through landing on your key phrase after it turns out you’re not really writing about that topic at all.
5. People will remember you as a cheater. (Let’s face it… that’s bad for lawyers.) Your first impression is ruined, so even if you do something really cool in the future, they’ll see your link and think bad thoughts.
Online, there are rarely second chances. And you only get one first impression .
Rather than spend your time talking for robots, wouldn’t you rather spend your time talking to people?
How does your firm use SEO on its websites/blogs? Are you happy with the results?
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12 Responses to “Is SEO Killing Your Law Firm Blog?”
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[...] See the original post here: Is SEO Killing Your Law Firm Blog? [...]
Almost all of the traffic to my blog comes from search engines. The result of my SEO result on my website has exceeded all of my expectations, since most, if not all of my clients have found me online through search engines. My blog turns up as one of the first five links on every search term that is relevant to my practice. It also helps that very few attorneys in my area have blogs or webpages.
Whenever I post, I try to be as informative as possible without taking into account the possible SEO of my text. I always write to my clients or potential clients, and seldom take into account how a specific post will affect my ranking. I have the second highest ranked legal webpage for my area, and I did that in 10 months, whereas the highest ranked website has been online for 10 years. I do, however, include the words “Puerto Rico” to my post’s titles, since I do want to direct regional traffic to my site.
I’ve read a few blog posts that SEO is dead, and all hail the new social site king, but I doubt that the whole net revolution of social sites will take over in three years. Search engines will be there for a bit longer, since finding a site in the proverbial haystack is still a daunting task with the ever expanding web content. Social content will help to individualize content delivery, and identify the voice behind the text, but SEO will definitely be essential to websites in the long run.
Christian M. Frank Fass last blog post..Divorce Preparation in Puerto Rico: Step 1 - Find a good lawyer
Hi Christian,
Thanks for stopping by and for leaving such a thoughtful response!
I’ve read your blog, and I see your blog as an amazing example of using SEO in the best possible way.
I don’t think SEO is dead, by any means. I do think that the sneaky SEO tactics are slowly killing some blogs and sites, because those folks are using SEO in an unnatural way; what they’re doing is catching up to them.
I absolutely agree with you that “Social content will help to individualize content delivery, and identify the voice behind the text, but SEO will definitely be essential to websites in the long run.” 100% how I feel too.
I wish I could understand this SEO stuff better. I’m at a loss to figure out how a search for “fresno criminal lawyer,” for example, puts a bunch of DUI attorneys on page one, but my own site doesn’t show up until somewhere around page 4 or 5.
Although I agree that posts should be written without an eye towards satisfying the robots, the bottom line is that I won’t stay in business long if the robots don’t list me high enough in the search engines.
What would be nice is if Google actually rotated law firm websites, so that those of us who are currently on page 3-5 would occasionally get more business, also. As it is now, the Google rankings freeze out most of us who can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on some other firm (e.g., Findlaw) to “SEO optimize” our websites.
It doesn’t mean we’re not relevant. It just means we’re not rich. And Google makes sure we won’t ever be.
Hi Rick,
Thanks for stopping by (and for following me on Twitter)!
I just took a look at your site and blog. One thing I would recommend is putting “fresno criminal lawyer” in your blog’s title tag, where it now just says Probable Cause. You can do this relatively easily, and also better optimize your posts individually, by downloading the SEO wordpress plugin at:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/
It’s a quick fix, and it’s free. If you need some help with it, feel free to email me: amy@lawfirmblogger.com
Rick,
Money has NOTHING to do with SEO. I learned SEO the hard way: just out of law school, dead broke, and with lotsa time on my hands by trial and error.
SEOing your blog is a lot like law school. Everyone has a slight idea of what it is, and how it works, but once you’re in it, you find out it’s completely different than what you thought it would be.
I had a slight idea of what it did, but I didn’t know how to work on it ’til I read, and read, and read. If you post on a blog, and can send an attachment through email, then you have the right set of skills to optimize your blog.
I started paying for Google Adwords on a $20 a month budget. I then increased that to $30. I got a lot of visits from way-out countries with absolutely no possibility of hiring my services. Then I learned to profile my Adwords to target countries and areas. The clicks led to phone calls, the phone calls led to clients.
Then, I read up on Headers, and tags, and of hating flash websites, and of tweaking your content to non-commonly used wording that’ll hike up your site’s ranking. Then I learned to multi-task your SEO efforts (listing on directories, content, paid ads, cross-linking, commenting, guest posts, etc.). No one SEO technique works, they all work in unison. Like a great big blogging whole.
Since then, I’ve spent NOTHING on SEO, and stopped paying for Google Adwords from time to time (I still do, but mostly for the embedded content on other competing webpages.)
Drop me a line, and I’d be glad to point you in the right direction.
Christian M. Frank Fass last blog post..Divorce Preparation in Puerto Rico: Step 1 - Find a good lawyer
Hi Christian,
I learned SEO the hard way too, so I know what you mean. I sincerely think those of us who learn on our own are probably better off than many who pay for “expert” advice… much of which terrifies me. :-)
Amy,
My best friend used to write blog posts for like 10 blogs, and his employer laid him off. He was basically pulling what little hair he had left, when I told him “Hey, how come you don’t do this for a living?” and he asked “Do people pay for this?”
He had NO idea that SEO “experts” get paid truckloads of cash to optimize sites, which is what he did anyway. If SEO is cumbersome in English, it’s almost impossible and unheard of in Spanish, so that’s what he did…started his own full service (hosting, SEO, ghost writing, etc.) firm. I know he’ll do well, ‘cuz he hiked four sites from 0 Google Page Rank to 6 in about 2 years, and once they fired him, they dropped to GPR 1.
Dead broke (like me when I started), I paid for his domain and hosting, and set him on his way. I’ll keep you posted if he makes it.
Christian M. Frank Fass last blog post..Divorce Preparation in Puerto Rico: Step 1 - Find a good lawyer
Christian,
That’s awesome! I do hope he makes it. Email me a link to his site; I’d love to see it. My Spanish is rusty, but I do ok…
I’m by no means an expert on SEO. I’ve learned, like your friend, from writing on the web. I’ve been writing on the web and blogging for lawyers, on an independent consultant/freelance basis for four years. This blog is new, so I’m not rank-worthy yet, but I’ve helped a whole lot of lawyers with their SEO just from writing for them.
Part of why I have such a problem with certain SEO experts who use/recommend bad tactics (like ones I ranted about above) is that these experts were often the ones who dictated my writing for the firms I blogged for. Sad when someone (like me) hired on as a freelance writer knows more than the SEO expert hired to do the job… but it’s been true many times.
[...] just discovered this interesting post at Law Firm Blogger. It’s about the tendency — strongly advocated by some – to [...]
[...] last post (Is SEO Killing Your Law Firm Blog?) has gotten me a few emails from folks asking where I draw the line between good SEO and bad. [...]
Just stumbled on this site and must say it is quite informative. SEO is an “ongoing” process, any let up at all can influence your PR / Alexa rather quickly. Nice tips! :)
- Jack