Quick thought (on a Sunday)… something for you to take a look at on your website: where’s your content lie, physically, within your code?

[tag]Search engines[/tag] are linear in the way they read HTML… that is, they go from top to bottom. Some spiders even have a per-page character limit they’ll gather. That means, if your content is buried deep within your page’s code, the spiders are having to do a lot of digging to get there. Not ideal. All too often, I run into sites exactly like this – where the content is good, but it’s buried 100+ lines deep in their code.

Ultimately, if you do find your content is buried within level upon level of table structure, etc. the best recourse is to talk to your design team about either changing your site’s layout or coding to reduce the amount HTML you use. Consider switching to a CSS based layout where you can basically position your body copy anywhere you want both on the page and within your site’s code.

For now, see if you can include a summary sentence right after your BODY tag. This is also a good chance to use a friendly tagline to immediately engage visitors!

[update] It’s been noted that this site’s content doesn’t start until line 180 something… good point! My desire to stick with WordPress instead of coding the site myself initially made me just pass on acting on my own advice. But… I’ve now put a sentence at the top of the right navigation element, placing a sentence of targeted copy on line 59 of my code.

[tags]seo for coders,content development,seo coding,SEO code[/tags]

I was driving to work the other day and the (perhaps cliche) phrase “[tag]SEO is Dead[/tag]” came to mind… why?

I was thinking about the basic tenets of search engine optimization set forth as I came up in the [tag]web development[/tag] world during the 90s and early 00s. In that model, a SEO’s job is to make sure that:

1. the website is structurally suited to receive search engine spider and real-world user traffic. In other words, just make sure the code and navigation isn’t mucked up.
2. manipulate [tag]on-page ranking factors[/tag] like your site’s domain name, META tags, the ratio of keywords to overall content (aka [tag]keyword density[/tag]) and ALT tags. (also see SEOChat.com’s new article “Are Meta Tags Extinct?“)
3. submit to the search engines
4. check rankings and repeat the whole process again

Within the past year or so, the rules have been significantly changing as the search engines’ [tag]ranking algorithms[/tag] adapt to the efforts of marketers to manipulate their listings. The days are mostly gone when sites full of filler text and carefully-calculated keyword densities rank well within the search engines – well, except for MSN, but that’s another story…

How have things changed? There are a few major points now focused upon by the search engines, particularly Google:

1. ongoing [tag]content development[/tag]
2. site “authority” on a topic
3. a linear, time-based view of [tag]site development[/tag]

Yes, it’s still important to make sure your code is clean and crawlable by the spiders. Yes, it’s still important that you actually talk about the keywords you want to be found for as the “old” [tag]SEO rules[/tag] would dictate. BUT… the sites gaining top spots in the search engine results pages ([tag]SERPs[/tag]) go one step farther in that they have reached out to the world at large with useful information or utilities and, in turn, the number of citations and incoming links to a site grow, conferring “authority” upon that site. (In other words, if you have good content, people will link to it. If people are linking to it, it must be good content… right?)

The best search engines are also applying a timeline-based view of a site’s development and using that to gauge the confidence they have in a website. Fly by night, one shot SEO schemes just don’t work anymore… detailed profiles of a website are now maintained, recording the domain registration period, the growth rate of the site, the link popularity of the site over time and even the other activities of the website’s owner. So, basically, Google and others are watching to see how quickly your site “takes off”. Did it gain [tag]incoming links[/tag] too quickly? If so, that’s a penalty. Is the site hosted in a “bad neighborhood” where adult or gaming sites are also hosted? Have there been lots of changes to the website ownership information in the past? All of these things come together to paint a picture that helps search engines not only map the site’s physical structure but it fills in the history of the site… its reputation. Notice the new language we’re using to describe SEO: authority, reputation and development.

Traditional SEO may be dead, but it has been replaced by more [tag]traditional marketing[/tag] ideas like i) offering visitors quality content they can use; ii) building of [tag]brand reputation[/tag] & authority; and iii) the importance of developing an ongoing relationship with site visitors.

Have a happy Memorial Day weekend… and take a moment to remember those who have served our country.

Relevant Resources

• Smart IT Consulting Article “SEO is Dead – Long Live SEO!“
• SEORoundtable Article “Is Textbook Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Really Dead?“
• ISEDB Article “SEO is Dead!“
• Cre8asite Forum “Is Textbook SEO Dead?“

[tags]SEO for law firms[/tags]

So what’s this “.mobi” top level domain name (TLD) I’m hearing about? The web works with a number of top level domains… like .com, .net, .org, etc. A new one was approved in July 2005 that establishes the .mobi TLD for websites coded to deliver content to [tag]mobile devices[/tag] like [tag]PDAs[/tag] and [tag]intelligent cell phones[/tag]. Sponsored by the Nokia Corporation, Vodafone Group Services Limited and Microsoft, this proposal certainly did have quite a few influential voices behind it… perhaps this is the reason why this TLD was approved while others have struggled for approval in the past. From what I’m reading, these are expected to be opened for public use “in the second half of 2006″.

Interestingly, I’ve also found an article from [tag]Tim Berners-Lee[/tag] of the W3C, the [tag]web standards[/tag] organization. In his article New Top Level Domains Considered Harmful, he states that, “There are specific ways in which the “.mobi” breaks the [tag]Web architecture[/tag] of links, and attacks the universality of the Web.” With this decision, his points are worth considering but essentially moot.

I’m a part-time [tag]domain name speculator[/tag] myself… having bought and sold hundreds of names in the past. I’m interested in seeing how this new TLD pushes the use of mobile devices forward, perhaps finally bringing them up to the ~world of tomorrow~ expectations given to us by the manufacturers. If .mobi catches on, the new “real estate” on the web will certainly be valuable. My name is on the list for a few choice [tag].mobi domain names[/tag]… we’ll see if I get them!

Relevant Resources

• Wikipedia article on .mobi
• ICAAN’s .MOBI TLD Agreement
• Tim Berners-Lee’s article against approving .mobi
• Latest Google News on .mobi
• Wall Street Journal article on .mobi

[tags].mobi,.mobi TLD,.mobi top level domain[/tags]

I thought I’d step into the real world today, take a few [tag]lawyer websites[/tag] and outline what they’re doing right and what they’re doing wrong in their [tag]online marketing campaign[/tag]s. As I do so, I hope readers will pick up some tips for use on their own sites.

The first case study is www.peekcobb.com (Peek, Cobb & Edwards, P.A.) – a Jacksonville FL personal injury, medical malpractice and nursing home neglect firm. What can we learn from their site? First, a screenshot:

One of the first things I notice is the firm’s location and primary areas of practice are immediately presented. Good. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run across sites that give absolutely NO information about the law firm other than “Welcome, we’re glad you’re here.” In terms of SEO, one of the more important features is that these areas of practices are cited within text linked to relevant pages deeper within the site. It’s good to have your keywords on the page, but it’s better to (sensibly) include those [tag]keywords within link text[/tag].

Looking at the [tag]site navigation[/tag] along the left hand side of the page… I have an immediate aversion from using images of text for the site’s main navigation. [tag]Search engine spiders[/tag] cannot “read” [tag]text rendered as images[/tag] and, quite often, images of text are usually very hard to read for human vistors as well. This is a negative one-two punch alienating both the search engine spiders and site visitors. If using images of text is unavoidable in your site navigation scheme, do as this firm has done – repeat those navigation links in real text somewhere on the page (most likely the site footer). This makes sure the links are spidered AND it ensures the spiders make note of the [tag]anchor text[/tag] associated with that link.

One more thing we can learn from the PeekCobb.com site: the worth and worthlessness of Flash on [tag]legal websites[/tag] is something I often see discussed. The downside: copy and [tag]links within Flash[/tag] aren’t spidered by most search engines. The upside: nearly limitless animation and design possibilities. This firm has made a fairly good compromise in that their site header, coded in Flash, takes advantage of the animation and font choices available but that’s it… no content is delivered within the Flash and navigation is definitely not rendered via Flash. All in all, we learn from this that Flash is not a categorical “no-no” in SEO circles but using it to deliver your site content or navigation is not a good choice.

A second site I’d like to look at today is www.robbrobb.com – Robb and Robb from Kansas City Missouri. Like others, this site does make the “mistake” of rendering their navigation structure as images. This is something they should either convert to real text or at least repeat those links somewhere on their pages. But I digress… I’ve called this site to attention because of a very simple feature: their address information in the footer.

I mentioned this in a previous post, but firms should make sure they list their physical address somewhere on every page of their website PLUS list their local telephone number. Robb & Robb have done a good job of doing this, better establishing themselves as legal authorities in the Kansas City MO area. Search engines take note of this (along with your content, of course) and index you accordingly.

A third site I’d like to look at for slightly different reasons: www.thekahnlawfirm.com. The Kahn Law Firm are attorneys serving the greater Houston area in personal injury, wrongful death and auto accident litigation. Their site does make the cardinal mistake of rendering far too much text as images, but let’s look at what was done right…

The thing that I’d like readers to notice about this site is the extensive use of “[tag]conversion mechanisms[/tag]“… friendly ways of drawing the site visitor in and engaging them in what you hope will be an ongoing discussion of their case. This site effectively captures visitors’ attention with the red light at the top right, urging “Don’t sign anything, Don’t say anything.” As a reader, I’m definitely listening. As the reader’s eye moves down the page, they’re continually engaged with advice and statements of the firm’s philosophy. Familiar faces like that of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are presented, with appeals to common human emotions with statements like “Don’t pay for someone else’s mistake”. This firm is really reaching out to the reader, consoling them but, at the same time, urging them to act under their expert guidance.

Summary Ideas:

• make sure your firm’s location and area(s) of practice are clearly stated on the homepage
• if your navigation is composed of images, Flash or Javascript, make sure you put text link versions of those in your site footer
• feature your primary office location’s address in real text somewhere on the homepage or, better yet, on every page
• include “conversion mechanisms” within your site and, particularly, on your homepage. These include i) calls to action like “Call Now!”, ii) attention-getting visual metaphors, iii) appealing philosophy statement(s) and iv) taglines focused on common hopes and fears.

Take care of these basics and you’ll be in a better position to benefit from blogging, [tag]content development[/tag] and link building.
[tags]seo for law firms,seo case studies,lawyer seo,attorney seo[/tags]

I’ve mentioned in the past that [tag]capitalizing on local search[/tag] is of the utmost importance to law firms that want to get a foothold in the [tag]search engine results pages[/tag] (SERPs). Yes, rising to #1 in the natural results among the thousands of web pages competing for your locality’s top search phrase is still one of the ultimate goals of [tag]law firm SEO[/tag], but wouldn’t it be great to “cut in line” and get to the top of the listings via supplemental, [tag]local listings[/tag] most [tag]search engines[/tag] now include?

So what are some of the ways to prepare your website to take advantage of [tag]local search[/tag]? We’ve already discussed the importance of submitting your firm name and address to the top local search databases, but there are also a few checklist items you should take care of.

1. List your primary office location’s physical address in real text somewhere on every page – usually in the site footer. I can’t tell you how many times I see websites with absolutely no physical address listed or where the physical address is in an image (unreadable to search engine spiders). Even though you’ve (hopefully) submitted your address to the top local database publishers, firms still should make sure their address is available for potential clients and search engine spiders to index.
2. List your primary office’s [tag]local phone number[/tag] in real text somewhere on every page – usually in the site footer. Yes, it’s great if you have a toll free number, but there are services that crawl the web gathering local phone numbers and using that information to geo-target results accordingly. (Consider putting your toll free telephone number “[tag]above the fold[/tag]” for easy reference and placing your local phone number in the footer with your address line.)
3. Make sure that you mention your target geography in your site’s copy… and include variations. In other words, if you’re a lawyer located in Tampa, make sure you talk about cases in the Tampa area you’ve handled. Talk about how your practice serves the Tampa community. Make sure you mention Tampa Florida and include “FL” in addition to “Florida” in your copy. Consider adding a note to the bottom of your copy that says, “…also serving the communities of City A, Town B, City C and the entire state of Florida.”

I’m sure that I’ll add more to this list in the future but these simple items are often forgotten in a site’s design. Make sure your site complies with these basics and you’ll be well on your way to getting your firm in front of interested [tag]local clients[/tag].

[tags]seo for law firms,lawyer seo,attorney seo[/tags]

I’ve heard it said that, ultimately, almost all of a given law firm’s business is local… barring rare exceptions for specialty practices, it’s seldom that someone will come across the country to hire the Law Offices of Smith, Brown and Jones to handle their personal injury case. This would seem to put most [tag]online marketing[/tag] “out of touch” with an [tag]attorney[/tag]‘s target market. Should [tag]lawyers[/tag] just stick with local tv and newspapers? Of course, we don’t think so…

Most of the major [tag]search engines[/tag]‘ results pages are not only composed of the standard, algorhythmic results, but they’re supplemented with [tag]local business listings[/tag] gleaned from various online databases. Moreover, Google, Yahoo and MSN’s Local search portals are gaining in importance in and of themselves. This, together with the fact that search engines are getting better at “[tag]geo-targeting[/tag]” users locations, allows relevant results local to the end user to be returned even when generic searches (like “injury lawyer”) are performed. This opens a great opportunity for [tag]brick-and-mortar law firms[/tag] to promote themselves within these services. What’s great is that most of these [tag]local online listings[/tag] are FREE! It’s just a matter of making sure your firm’s information is complete & up to date.

Here’s a quick and easy listing of the [tag]top local search databases[/tag] we recommend you check and update… it will make a difference!

Yahoo! Local
Google Local
Localeze
InfoUSA
Acxiom
SuperPages
Switchboard
WorldPages

There’s much more to discuss when it comes to [tag]search engine marketing[/tag] for local audiences, but this is a good first step to take in [tag]marketing your practice online[/tag]. Once you’ve entered your information and waited a few months, these listings should be picked up by various publishers and used in their search results. Over time, this can increase both your web traffic and, more often, phone calls to your firm. Unless you have a phone number dedicated to [tag]online marketing[/tag] campaigns, it’s difficult to correlate these phone calls to your online campaign, so make sure your receptionist asks where the potential client heard about your firm!

[tags]seo for law firms,local search marketing,increase your web traffic[/tags]

One of the first things I wanted to learn in WordPress is how to let people know that this site exists and update those sources with information about the articles here. What’s great is that WordPress provides one way to automatically do this whenever you blog: within the administration control panel, go to Options, then “Writing”. Down at the bottom, you’ll see an input box where you can enter “[tag]Update Services[/tag]“. These are sites that are automatically notified (or “[tag]pinged[/tag]“) when you write an article.

In a new blog installation, there’s usually one entry already there: http://rpc.pingomatic.com/. I’ve gathered a few more. They are:

http://api.feedster.com/ping

http://api.moreover.com/ping

http://api.my.yahoo.com/rss/ping

http://bulkfeeds.net/rpc

http://ping.feedburner.com

http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php

http://rpc.newsgator.com/

http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping

http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2

http://rpc.wpkeys.com/

http://signup.alerts.msn.com/alerts-PREP/submitPingExtended.doz

http://www.blogdigger.com/RPC2

http://www.blogstreet.com/xrbin/xmlrpc.cgi

http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud

http://www.weblogues.com/RPC/

http://xping.pubsub.com/ping/

We’ll see how this feature adds to the promotional efforts behind this [tag]legal SEO blog[/tag]. More soon!

[tags]blogging basics, legal blog, letting people know about your blog, WordPress Update Services, pinging [/tags]

I mentioned in a previous post that we’d explore a few “[tag]Web 2.0[/tag]” SEO development ideas… (Web 2.0 as defined in the Wikipedia) Along those lines, I’d like to mention the usefulness of sites like Del.icio.us, Shadows.com and Furl.net not only for storing and [tag]sharing your favorite sites[/tag], but as a great place to put your own site (or sites). Now don’t get me wrong, it’s a very bad idea to spam Web 2.0 resources (you don’t want a bunch of angry power users ticked off enough to bad-mouth your site online) I highly recommend at least opening an account at one of these [tag]social bookmarking[/tag] sites and bookmark your own site! Going one step further, ask your friends to [tag]bookmark your site[/tag]… it’s as simple as that. The search engine spiders constantly crawl these sites and do notice when your URL is added. Links like this, over time, add up!

(Ok, so why is it called “social bookmarking”? You can find a great definition in the Wikipedia but, in general, social bookmarking is a system where end-users just like you and me mark sites as favorites but, more importantly, define and associate [tag]tags[/tag] (like [tag]keywords[/tag]) with those sites. So, when bookmarking a legal site, tags used would be lawyer, attorney, law firm, litigation and other area-of-practice specific terms. Multiply that single user’s favorites and groups of tags times a larger contributing base and [tag]social bookmarks[/tag] become a good way to determine relevant search results.

Relevant search results based upon real peoples’ opinions? Sounds like something that might eventually compete with [tag]Google[/tag]. I wonder if they hear the proverbial knocking at the door???)

[tags]social bookmark, search results[/tags]