In day 6 of Local Search in 7 Days we talked about the importance of local directories and reviews. Today, we’ll conclude this series, based on Danny Dover’s SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday on Local Search, by discussing common local search mistakes regarding Google Places pages.

As we discussed in Day 4, a Google Places page is a great way to reach potential clients for your law firm and increase your website’s search engine rankings. Many people try to manipulate the Google Places page to improve their local search rankings. These mistakes are a waste of time and could actually hinder your progress.

Here are four of the biggest local search mistakes to avoid:

Placing location keywords in your Places page categories – Google’s algorithm doesn’t count these keywords when determining your rankings. Adding them does nothing for your rankings and just crowds your page.

• Creating multiple Google Places pages for the same physical address – This is against Google policy. Google has the right to suspend access to your page if you violate policy. Create one page per physical address and be sure to include all the necessary information on it. If your firm has offices in several cities, create a page for the one with the largest local customer base.

• Torment your customers in order to receive negative reviews – This may seem like an obvious one to you. Who wants negative reviews? But until recently there was a loophole in Google’s algorithm that allowed negative reviews to improve search rankings. A company discovered this loophole and used it to their advantage. They purposely abused customers for years and their rankings soared. Google fixed the algorithm in late 2010. Now, negative reviews work against you.

• Providing different keyword rich business names to local sites – As we discussed in Day 4, the search engines like to see your information written the exact same way everywhere on the web. Changing your firm’s name for different sites by adding keywords to it will hinder your rankings, not improve them.

Be sure to avoid these local search mistakes with your Google Places page and other local pages to ensure optimal search rankings.

Following the Local Search in 7 Days series will give your law firm an advantage over your competition with the search engines. Remember, local search is constantly evolving. Keep checking in at CaseDetails.com for more information on what to do and what not to do for local search. You can also check out our SEO in 30 Days series for more details.

Information and data within this post gathered in association with Macomb personal injury attorneys at Boyer & Dawson, P.C.

In day 5 of Local Search in 7 Days, based on Danny Dover’s SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday on Local Search, we talked about the importance of link building. Today, we’ll be discussing local directories and local directory submissions.

Local directories are of growing importance to local search. Not only do they get your name out to potential clients, but they also link back to your website, giving you reputable inbound links.

In addition, most of the sites feature client ratings & reviews. A large percentage of local searchers consider ratings and reviews when making their decisions, so these reviews have become invaluable to local businesses. Google also uses good reviews as a way to increase your ranking.

One word of caution regarding local directory submissions: Don’t waste your money on gimmicks like “1,000’s of local directories for $12.99.” Instead, look for well-established data sources for local businesses.

Information and data contained in this post gathered in association with Philadelphia injury attorneys at Messa & Associates, P.C.

Here is a brief description of the 5 most commonly used local directories:

Yahoo Local – This is by far the most commonly used. In addition to your contact information, it features reviews & ratings, maps and driving directions. You can also add a firm summary, categories, products and services and languages spoken.

Yelp – Yelp focuses on reviews and ratings. They even reward consistent reviewers by making them members of the Yelp Elite Squad. Yelp lists your contact information and a map, but you don’t have the option to add more information.

Citysearch – Citysearch features the same information as Yahoo Local, including an owner message.

Insider Pages –Insider Pages features the same information as Citysearch, including a message. It also gives searchers two other law firm options at the center of your page.

Judy’s Book – Judy’s Book features the same information as Insider Pages, including giving other law firm options along the right margin of your page.

You may also be able to find niche data sources that specifically list legal services. The best way to find those would be to search for your competitors, go to their Google Places page and scroll down to “More about this place.” This will show you other sites where they are mentioned.

Take some time to work on these local directory submissions to improve your local search results.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at what not to do with your Google Places page.

Keep checking in at CaseDetails.com for more information on local directories and check out our SEO in 30 Days series.

In day 4 of Local Search in 7 Days we talked about the importance of Google Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local pages in the online promotion of your law firm locally. Today, we’ll continue our summary of Danny Dover’s SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday on Local Search with a discussion of link building for local search.

What is link building?
Link building is the process of putting links to your website on other sites. Read more about link building in our SEO in 30 Days series.

Why is link building important for local search?
Link building is important for two reasons. It brings traffic to your site (which could translate to leads for your law firm) and is a big factor in search engine rankings. The engines view inbound links as popularity votes from other sites. The more links you have, the more highly they’ll rank you.

Where should I try to put my links?
You should always look for relevant, reputable sites, that have meaning for your industry or potential clients. You want the right people to see the link.

With local search link building, you should focus on local websites such as:

• Local business directories
• Online publications
• Community websites
• Municipal sites
• Local help forums
• The Chamber of Commerce
• Affiliated businesses & clients

How do I get my link on a site?
This depends on the type of site.

• Online directory – You usually just have to submit your information.
• Online publications – Send a press release with your link at the bottom.
• Help forums – Post an article that links back to you.
• Affiliate businesses – If you have businesses you work with regularly, ask them to link to your site and offer to link to theirs in return.
• Clients – Many people have blogs and would be happy to link to your site on one of their posts. Think of it as old-fashioned word-of-mouth networking.

It’s important to keep up with your link building. Don’t just get links and leave them. Continue to look into new directories, post new articles and keep up with relevant sites.

Follow these simple steps for local search link building and you should see a marked increase in the search engine rankings and site traffic to your firm’s site.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at local directory submissions and their importance in your local search campaign.

Keep checking in at CaseDetails.com for more information on link building for local search and check out our SEO in 30 Days series.

Information and data within this post gathered in association with Pensacola personal injury attorneys at Baker & Baker PL.

Generate leads by answering visitors' questions

If you’ve already optimized the obvious—and easy—areas of your website to improve its visibility, your next step might be to try to boost your site with Q&As (Questions and Answers), either by answering questions on Q&A sites, or by creating a Q&A page on your own site. These Q&As are of particular value to law firms and those seeking legal advice, due to the number of questions the average person has about matters of law.

As reported by Pavel Israelsky in his SEOmoz post entitled “6 Reasons Why Q&A Sites Can Boost Your SEO in 2011 (Despite Google’s Farmer Update)“, Q&A sites’ popularity has been growing as people get more comfortable with using online social interaction to gather information. They also rank well in search results. Some less-authoritative sites were felled by Google’s Farmer update, but the stronger sites are still doing well.

You can use Q&As two ways:
• Answer questions on already established sites
• Start your own Q&A site or section of your current site

Answer questions
The simplest way to start is to find open questions related to your area of expertise as showcased on your website, and answer them. Most Q&A sites allow you to put links either within the text or in a sources section. Link back to appropriate pages on your website or blog to boost your inbound links. Two popular Q&A sites are Quora and Askville (operated by Amazon).

Start with questions related to your main keywords – the phrases you are targeting on your website (Read more about keyword selection here). Once you have a good link profile for these, move on to secondary keywords. Do this slowly to avoid Google becoming suspicious of a sudden influx of links.

Most Q&A sites’ links are nofollow and don’t help PageRank. But Google still sees them, and they still drive highly targeted traffic to your site.

Set up your own Q&A pages
Create a subdirectory on your website for your Q&A pages, and post some relevant questions for people to answer. To gain better authority and visibility, keep your Q&A pages tightly focused on your niche. If you want to branch out, create a new site.

Your Q&A section can boost your entire site’s credibility as more people visit to ask and answer questions.

Information and data contained in this post gathered in association with Chicago Brain Injury Lawyers at Phillips Law Offices.

In Day 3 of Local Search in 7 Days we talked about the importance of keyword research. Today, we’ll be discussing Google Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local pages.

What are these pages?

Each search engine offers free listings for businesses. The page contains basic information about your firm: address, phone, email address and website, along with a map and a link for driving directions. There’s also a place for client reviews.

Why are these pages important?

Think of it as a one-stop-shop. Potential clients can find your firm’s basic information, see a map, get directions and read reviews all on one page with no cost to you.

The pages also provide more inbound links to your website, which increase your credibility with the search engines.

How do I claim my page?

Visit the sites and look for “Add a Business” on Bing, “Add or Change Your Business Listing” on Yahoo! or “Google Places for Business” on Google. Check to see if your firm already has a page. If not, create one. If there’s an existing page, verify all the information.

What do I do next?

Enter your information – It’s not only important that all of the information is correct, but also that it’s consistent. Search engines like to see your information written the exact same way everywhere on the web. This includes all of your local pages, your website and any directories you’re registered with.

If the local pages have your address formatted differently from your website, and the address is correct, consider changing your website.

Add the area of law you practice, languages spoken and any other relevant information. You can also upload photos and video.

Make sure you’re listed in the right categories – Sometimes there are errors when the information is put into the system. This is your chance to ensure your listing is coming up for the right searches.

If you follow these steps, your Google Places, Bing Local and Yahoo Local pages will increase your firms’ visibility on the web and give you the ability to reach more potential clients.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss the basics of link building and why it’s such an important aspect of online marketing.

Keep checking in with CaseDetails.com for more information on local search engines and check out our series SEO in 30 Days.

In Day 2 of Local Search in 7 Days, we talked about the importance of optimizing your website. Today, we’ll be discussing the value of good local keyword research.

Why is keyword research so important?

Keyword phrases are the words your potential clients will type into the search box. Predicting what those clients will type is a major component of successfully drawing people to your site.

How does local keyword research differ from general keyword research?

With local search, you’re only focusing on keyword phrases that involve your location. You’re looking at “Georgia accident accident” or even “New York car accident lawyer” instead of “accident attorney.”

How do you create your local keyword list?

Creating a local list is easy. Just take your existing list and add locations where it works. For example, trust attorney becomes NJ trust attorney or Newark trust attorney.

Then, the steps are the same as for general keyword research. First, check out some competitors’ sites to see what they’re targeting. Then, use a keyword research tool to determine the search volume and competition for your phrases. Choose your final list based on those results.

Mobile Search

One area of local search whose popularity is increasing at a rapid rate is mobile search. People now have access to the internet anytime, anywhere. They can search on the train to work, in line at the coffee shop or walking down the street. According to Google, 33% of these smartphone searches are local.

How does this apply to law firms?

Potential clients aren’t just searching from their desks. More and more of them are searching from their phones. The woman who wants to plan her will, might be researching estate planning attorneys on the train to work. A man whose wife was hurt in an accident might be searching for a personal injury lawyer from the hospital. The search landscape is changing and mobile user demand will continue to grow. This is a good time to start working on a mobile search plan.

Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local and how they can help your firm attract new clients.

Keep checking in with CaseDetails.com for more information on keyword research and check out our series SEO in 30 Days.

The most important aspect of local search marketing is optimization. If you don’t spend time optimizing your website, Google Places page and other pages, your firm could lose out on valuable rankings.

The key steps to a successful local search marketing campaign, according to Danny Dover in his Whiteboard Friday on Local Search, are:

• Develop an online marketing plan – The plan should define your online objectives, analyze competitors and provide traffic & cost estimation.
• Do extensive keyword and competitive research – Decide which keywords you want to target. Is it the name of your law firm, the area of law you practice, cases you’ve tried? It’s a good idea to search for the keywords you’re thinking of using. See what competitors come up and look at their sites for ideas. Read our series on keyword research for more in-depth advice.
• Take the time to optimize your site for your selected keywords – Don’t make the mistake of just throwing keywords onto your site. Make sure the content is keyword-rich, but also relevant to your firm.
• Make sure your firm name, full address and phone number are consistent throughout your pages – The search engines want all your information to match up everywhere your business is mentioned. This means not only your website, but also your Google Places page, Yahoo Local page and any other directories.
• Include your firm’s name and geographic keywords in your title tags – For local search marketing, this is especially important to do on your contact or location page. It ensures that Google assigns your website as an “authority document” for location prominence.
• Build links – Google sees inbound links as votes of popularity for your site. The more authoritarian sites that link to you, the higher you’ll rank. One way to get inbound links is to post outbound links. Try linking to local organizations that would be of use to law firm website visitors or other firms’ sites that would compliment your firm without competing. Read our posts on link building basics for more info.

If you follow these steps, you’ll be on your way to a successful local search marketing campaign.

Next, we’ll take a more in-depth look at local keyword research and its importance in targeting your local customer base.

Keep checking in at CaseDetails.com for more information on local search marketing and optimization and check out our SEO in 30 Days series.

Get the basics of successful local business and law firm online marketing

Local search is growing and changing at a rapid pace. This seven-day series will discuss the basics of local search with Google, Yahoo and Bing, its growing importance and how your law firm or locally-based business can benefit from it.

What is local search?

A local search occurs when someone searches for businesses or products in their area. This search can take place through a local search engine like Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local or through the general engines.

Why should you optimize specifically for local searches?

Google estimates that over 20% of searches now include a reference to locality and that number is growing. People don’t want to wade through pages of results that aren’t in their area. They want relevant, local results. If you optimize your site effectively, you can get more benefit from these local searches.

In November 2010, Danny Dover posted a Whiteboard on the basics of local search on SEOmoz. He outlined five steps that can help you improve your local search. They are:

• Setting the stage with relevant content and a well-optimized site
• Doing extensive local keyword research and targeting
• Creating a local page with Google Places, Yahoo Local and Bing Local
• Link building
• Submitting to local directories

This series will focus on those five steps as well as what not to do with your Google Places page.

Next, we’ll take a look at setting the stage with a well-optimized site. We’ll discuss link building, as well as accessibility and content.

Keep checking in at CaseDetails.com for more information on the basics of local search and more.