I was watching a video from Matt Cutts. Who’s Matt Cutts? He is a software engineer at Google. I think of him as the “wink wink” guy. He tells us (who want to listen) what should and should not be done to achieve rankings on Google. The video I was watching was addressed SEO on a small budget. He addressed several things I thought applies to law firms.
1. Create something unique about your website the helps visitors remember it and want to link to it.
The best example of this is a divorce law firm in Raleigh NC that had an alimony calculator years before most. Other divorce attorneys would actual refer their client to it for that calculator! The bests example of how a law firms aren’t doing this would be buying a customizable template website. There are tons of those out there. Pay the money to create something unique that you own. Templates are usually owned by the provider.
2. Target a small niche first, not the broad searches.
Top ranking are only as challenging as those competing for the same search. If you do real estate law, target searches like residential closing attorney before targeting closing attorney. Building your rankings and authority on these searches will lead to performance on the more competitive searches. You have to walk before you run, right?
Some might question if a “salesman” should be directing his clients to such a resource. I could no more tell an attorney enough do do it his or her self than a bankruptcy lawyer could tell me how to successfully execute a bankruptcy restructuring of a international corporation. I do try to tell my clients as much as I can so they have information with which to make a great decision as to whom they can trust when hiring some one to do this for them. I have hear far too many stories of website and SEO companies over promising and under delivering. Beside, most attorneys I know would rather practice law than optimize websites anyhow.
