One thing is clear, potential clients are using Google to search for lawyers. Maintaining a strong online presence that follows Google’s best practices is the only agreed upon way to at least have a chance at ranking organically in the search engine results page, or SERP.
How well someone’s website shows up in Google depends on how well they follow Google’s search algorithm. This algorithm is always changing. Google has consistently unveiled updates every couple months. Two extremely important updates that all lawyers should be familiar with are the Panda and Penguin updates.
What Is Panda?
The Panda update, first released in 2011, deals with the content on one’s website. Any duplicate or thin content is penalized. Google recognized that sites lacking rich, original content are ‘low-quality’ and do not deserve high organic rankings.
What is Penguin?
The Penguin update deals with another set of issues; links. A website may be penalized if they have a backlink profile with numerous links from low-quality sights. Google sees that as an example a of black-hat SEO and may issue a penalty.
Penguin also deals with keywords. Incorporating targeted keywords into one’s online content is perfectly acceptable. However, it must be natural. For example, if you include Basking Ridge Divorce Lawyer every time you write ‘lawyer’, Google may penalize your practice’s website.
Google constantly makes changes to its search algorithm. There are minor updates every few months. In order to combat this new reality, there is one maxim to live by; only publish thought provoking, original content. These are the signs of high-quality sites, according to Google.
Producing original content can take time and effort. Writing a blog and then posting it all over the web can sometimes hurt your law practice’s website. When publishing your content, it’s important to broadcast it across channels that can provide you with additional reach. At blog.lawyer.com, we provide our Lawyers with the opportunity to become contributors. These blogs are distributed across our social media channels and include valuable outbound links.
If you are interested on blogging or learning more about Google’s algorithm updates, feel free to contact Lawyer.com at support@corp.lawyer.com
Law firms use a number of different techniques to differentiate themselves from others. Some attorneys boast case victories or superior law school credentials, while others use testimonials or awards as external validation. Understanding attorney competition is rather complex – firms compete across many different geographies, demographics, and practice areas.
