Since I run a number of hotel-related websites, I often receive catalogs and direct mail pieces targeted at hotel owners. One brochure I recently received had a legal angle that made me laugh, so I thought I’d post it here:
It’s for a sidewalk leveling/construction company, arguing that uneven sidewalks are a slip and fall accident lawsuit waiting to happen. I love how professional the drawing is (sarcasm). Anyway, I thought this was worth a quick laugh, particularly since I work with law firms like the Boston slip fall lawyers of Feinberg & Alban + the Fort Lauderdale injury lawyers of Fazio Disalvo during my “9-5″ job. They represent slip fall victims… the ones dreaming of “the big payoff”.
Written by jclayc on June 7th, 2009 with no comments.
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One of the major changes in Google over the past few months is the increased implementation of customized search results. Publicized in July 2008 on the Official Google Blog, customized or personalized search results deliver website listings according to the searcher’s location, past & recent history. As Google states in some of their search results’ fine print,
When possible, Google will customize your search results based on location and/or recent search activity. Additionally, when you’re signed in to your Google Account, you may see even more relevant, useful results based on your web history.
This means that, if you search for securities lawyers, it will likely return lawyers within what Google determines to be your location. Another example would be that if you have searched for Philadelphia car accident lawyer in the past, visited a site and quickly returned to Google, it’s likely your quick abandonment of that site in the past will result in its demotion within your Google results in the future.
“Ok,” you say, “but everyone pretty well already knows that Google is customizing search results.” You’re right. There’s been a lot of chatter (1, 2, 3) about the issue for some time now. The extent to which they harvest & connect information is still to be determined but one thing is for sure: the idea of a “universal” set of search results is quickly becoming antiquated. SEO professionals have been talking about the use and uselessness of ranking reports for some time now, but the increased customization of search engine ranking pages now forces clients (like lawyers) to recognize that rankings vary, so website traffic and conversion of that traffic into a phone call or contact form submission is a much better, more quantifiable marker of success. As Mark Jackson with Search Engine Watch says,
“The best thing you can do now is to start focusing on a different measurement of success. Don’t focus on search engine rankings. Focus on ROI, conversions, and overall traffic.”
Since a lot my day centers around what attorney is found for what keyword, this issue is extremely important to me and SEO agencies like the one I work in. Most law firms are still absolutely focused on rankings and what they show up for. The SEO Ranking Report is a standard, expected part of legal and almost any other type of SEO services. Most agencies are prepared to deliver the traffic and conversion metrics, but the client conversations to re-set ranking display expectations will be very difficult. Imagine trying to explain to a client that they’re not showing up when they search Google because they (themselves) have searched it too much without clicking on their own listing?
Anyone with any thoughts? Oh, and what am I, as a user of the Bruce Clay SEOToolSet, supposed to think about their dedication to the quality of their ranking report product when Bruce Clay himself is reporting the imminent demise of the ranking report?
Written by jclayc on May 25th, 2009 with 1 comment.
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Wow, it’s been a while since I last posted here. It’s a familiar song, I’m sure, but work and other misc projects have kept me (over)loaded for the past few months. Hang in there; new, helpful posts are on the way.
Written by jclayc on April 1st, 2009 with 1 comment.
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It’s no secret that, during the day, I work for LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell as the Director of Web Services. That means that I have the daily opportunity to meet and speak with lawyers about their Internet marketing goals. As much as I learn about the business of law from the firms themselves, I like to give back and offer free online SEM/SEO advice to law firms. That’s where webinars and online video excel – easy delivery of information to a wide audience. So what online SEM advice have I made available to lawyers?
Now I’m the last person to want to be an Internet star and, yes, shooting a video can be a difficult process but the folks at LexNex were excited to give the “new” mediums of online video and self-guided webinars a try. These productions are very basic – so if you’re an SEO wizard already, these probably won’t benefit you very much. But, for the typical lawyer, these provide an easy to understand entry into the world of SEM.
Written by jclayc on October 11th, 2008 with 8 comments.
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Before Google(GOOG) cracked down on Adsense abuse, mesothelioma-related pay-per-click (PPC) keywords were undoubtedly the most expensive and lucrative. Rumor has it that at its peak, these words cost as much as $200 per click. Wow! So, now that things have normalized (whatever normal is), is mesothelioma still king? While doing research for BRBS & HBN (mesothelioma lawyers in Philadelphia), I discovered that mesothelioma is still one of the most expensive PPC keywords. For example, “mesothelioma attorneys san diego” goes for $51.03 per click. (more…)
Written by marc on September 17th, 2008 with 25 comments.
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A question that I sometimes encounter: “Is my site optimized for the ______ (Firefox, Opera, etc.) web browser? ” Now, with Google’s Chrome browser entering the fray, it’s bound to spawn a whole new round of the same question. This kind of browser optimization should always be checked but, before you invest hours into re-coding your site to work correctly in Firefox or Chrome, you should know the market share to balance your consideration.
StatCounter.com is a wonderful, free web analytics program that is highly recommended. Who knew they had a blog? Well they do and, in it, they’ve revealed the latest stats on Global Browser Market Share, as it has been claimed by Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari and “Other” top browsers (Flock, Opera, etc.):
IE FireFox Safari Chrome Other
Aug 28, 2008 68.17% 24.66% 2.83% N/A 4.33%
Aug 29, 2008 67.81% 24.78% 2.84% N/A 4.57%
Aug 30, 2008 65.41% 26.38% 3.04% N/A 5.17%
Aug 31, 2008 64.49% 26.91% 3.06% N/A 5.56%
Sep 01, 2008 66.92% 25.26% 2.99% N/A 4.84%
Sep 02, 2008 67.58% 24.36% 2.91% N/A 5.06%
Sep 03, 2008 67.81% 23.54% 2.70% 1.11% 4.87%
Sep 04, 2008 70.87% 21.26% 2.48% 1.15% 4.25%
Very interesting that it’s Firefox and “other” users who presumably compose the 1.15% now claimed by Google Chrome. To me, it indicates first adopters are the only ones using Chrome so far. The numbers for Firefox (at 21.26% on September 4, 2008) are more intriguing… there may be some “techie” skew in the sample set but not much. Chrome’s numbers show us that. At approximately 20% of market share, Firefox has nearly doubled its user base since my recollection of one year ago.
Chrome and Firefox share the same Mozilla browser core, so there shouldn’t be any major difference in the way they render your pages. The message is clear, though, if you have an error in Firefox, you should invest the time and labor to fix it for the sake of 20% of market. If a Chrome-specific error arises, explore what browser optimization would be necessary to fix the issue, but take a wait and see approach for the next few weeks.
Ultimately, if you’re not able to correct a browser-specific issue, a USER-AGENT browser redirect will be necessary with different landing pages for different browser versions.
[Full Global Browser Market Share stats]
Written by jclayc on September 7th, 2008 with 2 comments.
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