Every website inbound link that Google indexes contributes to where your website appears in search rankings.  If your law firm, like 2/3 of businesses in the United States, isn't already working to build website inbound links, you need to start thinking about the future.  Website inbound link numbers now account for more than half of your overall search ranking placement, and you don't want to lose out on the huge percentage of legal clients (pegged in some studies as over 80 percent!) who do research online before deciding on which attorney to hire.  Keep reading to find out some easy ways to build website inbound links that work without taking up all of your time.

Sources for Website Inbound Links: The Blogosphere

Many attorneys at small law firms are already using blogs.  Of those attorneys, over half report that they've gotten new client business as a direct result of their blog entries.  What they may not know is that they may have gotten even more new business as an indirect result of those same blog entries.

That's because blogs are great ways to get your website linked by other attorneys and professionals in your community and beyond.  Every website inbound link that you are able to build on another person's blog will help to make your search rankings better, and because most people who use searches don't search beyond the first page of results, those rankings are absolutely crucial to your firm's success.

Comments aren't the only way to get website inbound links in the blogosphere.  You can also get a very high quality website inbound link by talking to a blog owner and arranging a guest post.  To get a guest post, you'll usually have to be able to prove you know your stuff, either with your professional qualifications or a blog of your own.  Guest blogging may prove a more difficult strategy for website inbound link building for brand new attorneys who haven't yet been able to make a name for themselves.

Sources for Website Inbound Links: Local Websites

Today, it seems like search engines haven't just gotten more complex—they've gotten smarter.  That means that Google can actually tell whether your website inbound links are coming from websites that are local to you or ones that are from around the world.  It might surprise you to learn that a local website inbound link is actually considered more valuable than those that are from far away.  This is because Google assumes that local links are less likely to be purchased and more likely to be built through traditional networks of contacts.

If you're working to build website inbound links locally, talk to your local bar association and your local chamber of commerce.  Both of these organizations are fairly likely to have some online resources for you to include a new website inbound link on.  You can also talk to your local contacts, especially those with existing blogs or websites, to include you in their link directories.

Sources for Website Inbound Links: Directory Websites

If you're in need of a quick and easy way to build a website inbound link that won't require a lot of new content creation, consider posting your profile to a directory.  Not all directories are high quality, and you should generally only use directory pages that have a high PageRank.  If Google believes you are spamming directories, even low quality ones, with your website's address, they'll generally consider this a sign of over optimization and work to penalize your search rankings.

Sources for Website Inbound Links: Q&A Sites

Just by answering basic legal questions online, even without giving direct legal advice, you can build a number of high quality website inbound links.  Question and answer websites can be standalone sites, or can be incorporated into another website, like Yahoo Answers or the Answers feature on LinkedIn.

You should use caution when answering questions on these websites, because you don't want your answer to be misinterpreted as specific legal advice.  You don't want to find yourself in any legal trouble over your attempt to get a new website inbound link to help your search rankings.

Sources for Website Inbound Links: Media Coverage

As a law firm, any time you have a significant victory you should consider building a website inbound link through press coverage.  You don't need to settle for fake “press release” websites that don't really have any good media contacts.  Instead, build your own media contacts with daily newspapers, weekly community newspapers, community magazines, radio stations, and television stations.  Every time you do an interview or a profile piece for one of these media outlets, you're likely to be able to build a website inbound link.

Because website inbound links from media sources tend to have a fairly high value compared to those coming from low to mid traffic blogs, it's worth investing some real time in getting press coverage.  Besides, the benefits to your SEO aren't the only benefits you get from the press—you'll also be able to convert people directly from the website inbound link.

Sources for Website Inbound Links: Viral Buzz

One of the best ways to generate a fantastic website inbound link presence is to just get noticed by enough people that the links essentially build themselves.  By creating really unique, interesting content on your own website or in the form of an infographic or app, you can get the buzz going.

Of course, it can be harder to create viral buzz than to use some of the other strategies for website inbound link building.  However, viral buzz looks organic because it is organic.  The links that you get from a viral marketing campaign will be natural and high value.  The reason that viral buzz can work so well for attorneys is that not many other law firms are really trying viral content yet.  If you're able to get in on the ground floor and really design content people want to see, you'll be streets ahead of the competition.
 

You can increase inbound link traffic on your website in a huge variety of ways, but Google now has some detection algorithms that can throw off your plans.  Google doesn't particularly like when websites increase inbound links inorganically, and has in the last year penalized over 15 percent of web pages for appearing to be over optimized.  If you want to increase inbound link traffic today, you'll have to be very careful to make the increase appear natural and organic.  If you don't know how to do that yet—keep reading, and you'll find out before this guide is over.

What Are Inbound Links—And Why Do I Need Them?

Any time a website links to your website, it does so in the form of an inbound link.  When someone clicks on the anchor text of the link, they'll arrive at your website and be able to look at your content.  In the early web, it was relatively common for most websites to have few links, except the ones that went to the websites of personal friends or websites that pertained to an interest or related industry.

Today, inbound linking has become big business.  That's because when you increase inbound link numbers, your search engine rankings get better across the board.  Search engines make an assumption that when you increase inbound links, it means that your website has more authoritative and trustworthy content.

If you're working hard to increase inbound link numbers for your website, though, you should know that Google has created some red flags.  If you increase inbound links in the wrong way, these red flags get tripped and your website's rankings go right back down to where they started from.  Knowledge is power—by knowing exactly what kind of inbound links will lead to trouble, you can avoid common pitfalls and keep your rankings rising.

Why You Should Increase Inbound Links Slowly

When a company starts trying to increase inbound link traffic using inorganic techniques, it shows.  One of the first ways that it shows is in a sudden increase in the sheer number of inbound links appearing for a particular website or specific web page.

When this sudden spike happens, search engines red flag your website.  Even if you're in a rush to increase inbound links, you can't do it too quickly or you'll be wasting your effort.  Increase inbound link numbers gradually, preferably in concert with any traffic that you've gained.  The more traffic that your website gets, the faster you can increase inbound links coming to you per day.

Where Your Links Come From Matters

A link coming from Joe Schmo's Discount Legal Blog isn't going to be worth as much as one that comes from Above the Law or The Volokh Conspiracy.  They're all blogs, so what's the difference?  The difference is in a number that Google calls PageRank.  

If you increase inbound link numbers at a good clip, but they're only coming from websites that are low visibility, Google may not take kindly to this.  While it's possible for an organic link building effort to yield these types of results, the more usual reason is that someone has tried “black hat” link building techniques—things that spam other websites and make the internet less usable for most users.

Because of this, Google weights rankings much more highly if you increase inbound link traffic from high PageRank websites.  By increasing inbound links in this way, you'll build better quality links—even if they're more difficult to obtain initially.

Increase Inbound Links With Your Blog

By using your blog in the right ways, you can increase inbound link numbers in a variety of ways.  One of the most obvious ways is in generating publicity for your firm organically.  As long as you're creating great content, even if you're not sharing it all that often, it's likely that your blog entries will be noticed and linked by at least a few other bloggers.

Of course, if you want to increase inbound link traffic even more, you can help the process along.  By talking to other blog owners, you can get put onto their blogrolls, which will give you new inbound links.  You could even get a guest posting gig, which is a great opportunity to increase inbound link traffic.

If you're not using blog comments for real discussions, you should start.  Some of the best ways to increase inbound links involve using blog comments.  As long as you're making relevant comments on other people's blogs, and as long as your link is at least somewhat relevant, a new inbound link usually won't be removed from a comment section.  Don't just spam post to blogs with no moderation.  Google can easily detect this method, and will know you are trying to increase inbound link traffic with black hat techniques.

Increase Inbound Links on Social Bookmarking Sites

Social bookmarking websites, including Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit are great ways to build new inbound links and get more attention to your website.  However, while these sites can increase inbound link numbers, it's actually somewhat uncommon for a lawyer to get much new business from them.  This is because you'll have tried to increase inbound links on a website that is being used by people worldwide, rather than just in your community.

This doesn't mean that it's worthless to increase inbound link numbers on social bookmarking websites.  On the contrary, these websites have high PageRank values and can make your rankings soar.  Just don't expect to get direct conversions—you'll see your results coming through in the changes to your SEO results.

Increase Inbound Links with Local Websites

The other strategy you can employ to increase inbound link numbers is to go local.  Instead of using only big, high PageRank, global websites, focusing on sites that matter to your community can be a great move.  First of all, there isn't as much competition for links at these websites.  Second, Google can identify when you're being linked by local sources, and will dramatically increase your rankings in geolocational searches for law firms.

The reputation of website owners often depends on the reputation of their website.  With tens of thousands of new attorneys graduating in 2012 and hundreds of thousands already working, you need to keep your website reputation great to stay competitive.  But how do you maintain a great reputation in website listings?  Keep reading this guide to find out 8 simple rules for protecting the website reputation you've worked so hard to build.

Rule #1: Think Like a Client

Your reputation for website quality depends largely on your ability to give clients what they need, when they need it, in an easy to understand format.  If you want a great website reputation, you can't spend a lot of time with jargon and posturing.  Instead, a reputation for website quality will come from having quality narrative and good information that helps potential clients come to a decision to talk to an attorney for the first time.

Thinking like a client also means that you should avoid risking your reputation of website quality just to get some extra links.  If clients find that your links are posted all over the web like spam, your website reputation will undoubtedly suffer and you may see your search rankings take a plunge.

Rule #2: Skip Out on Shortcuts

It's easy to automate the linking coming in to your website, but how will it impact your website reputation if you do?  The reputation of website quality you're trying to build isn't based on fooling people, it's based on being able to give real, quality information.  Forget trying to use automation to game the system.  Google will find out, and you'll end up wishing that you had tried to secure a reputation for website quality in some other way.

Rule #3: Accept Responsibility

At some time, every website and every business makes a mistake.  The thing that will determine whether your reputation of website quality remains the same or takes a nosedive is how you respond to that initial mistake once you learn about it.  The worst website reputation you can get is as a company that lies and fabricates new data.  Some people give up on any pretense of a reputation for website quality by using “astroturfed” comments and blogs to make it look like their position is stronger than it really is.

Instead of hiding from your mistakes, embrace them as learning opportunities.  If you show that you are sincerely sorry for the mistake, the reputation of website quality you've built will not just stay—it might even improve.  Website reputation tends to be quite high when companies take decisive responsibility for their actions and are honest about the factors that led them into making the initial error.

Rule #4: Know Your Marketing Contractors

Your reputation for website quality can be tanked faster by a bad web marketing contractor than just about anybody.  If even one of the companies you're outsourcing marketing services to decides to use a spammy marketing tactic, you could find that your website is suddenly being penalized and you're in a lot of trouble.

Make sure that any contractor you're using for marketing is reputable and comes with several firm recommendations from other professional organizations.  Law firms simply can't afford to risk their website reputation on an unproven contractor.  To maintain a reputation for website quality, you'll need to get people on your account who are understanding about your need for consistently high quality content and inbound links.

Rule #5: Go With the Flow

If you're trying to maintain your website reputation with a website that is basically doing things in the same way you did them ten years ago, you're barking up the wrong tree.  The web is changing from year to year, and a reputation for website quality is much easier to build when you change along with it.

For example, in 2012 and 2013, the mobile web is really coming into its own.  If you're not watching your website reputation for mobile customers as well as desktop ones, you may be missing out on a big target market that is ready for conversions.  If you're not going with the flow, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.

Rule #6: Have Good Hosting

One of the fastest ways to lose a reputation for website authority is to have your website start failing to load.  If your hosting provider is inconsistent or has been having too many technical difficulties, it may be time to migrate to a new hosting provider who can give you the service you need.

Google actually bases some of its rankings and quality ratings on the speed at which your website is served to viewers.  Because of this, it's absolutely critical for you to make your speed fast if you want to be on the first page of search results.

Rule #7: Update Your Links

Periodically, in order to make sure your website reputation stays good, you should check the outbound links that lead away from your website and the inbound links that bring people to it.  If any of these links aren't working, you can update them with redirect pages or by changing the URL your outbound link is directing to.

Having outdated or missing links looks very amateur hour to seasoned web users, so be aware that poor linking practices can be one of the easiest ways to give yourself a poor website reputation.

Rule #8: Keep Content Fresh

You won't maintain a great reputation for website quality if your site maintains the same content year after year with no meaningful changes.  A constant flow of fresh content that uses links and sources from across the web will make it much easier for you to build a website reputation with authority.

Consider adding new content to your website at least on a weekly basis—two or three times a week may be an even better target if you're wanting the very best for your website reputation.

Before social media and other types of Web 2.0 sites became the norm on the internet, it wasn't really necessary to check your website reputation.  Today, however, a website reputation check has become a critical tool in the web marketing arsenal of many law firms.  If you haven't tried to check your website reputation yet, this guide will teach you why you need to and what you might find out.  Keep reading to learn why a website reputation check can be very valuable for search engine optimization, and how to check your website reputation in several different ways.

How a Web Reputation Check Can Prevent Problems

It's important to know what people are saying about you before a few isolated comments become the dominant narrative.  Understanding your online reputation gives you an advantage in talking to critics and fans.  By performing a website reputation check, you ensure that you're able to anticipate when, for example, a negative review might be impacting your site negatively.

When you check your website reputation, you're likely to find out that some areas of your reputation are already doing quite well while others could use more help.  A website reputation check can make it much easier to prioritize your expenditures of both time and money.  What's more, you may be able to identify defamatory information and make sure that it is taken down before it has a significant negative impact on your web traffic and conversions.

If your website is currently being blocked by antivirus software because the software has detected a problem, you need to know right away.  Only by choosing to check your website reputation can you actually find out what is causing the problem.  A website reputation check can help you improve the safety and security of your website so that it can be trusted by your clients.

Can I Check Website Reputation For Free?

Yes!  One of the best parts about doing a web reputation check in 2012 is that many of the resources to help you are completely free of charge.  Some of the best tools to check your website reputation actually come from the same companies that produce anti-virus software.  These companies, like AVG and PC Tools, can help you run a web reputation check completely free of charge.

However, if you want to check your website reputation beyond just whether your site is trusted to be free from viruses or security threats, you'll need to dig deeper.  Some programs that help you understand exactly what your website's reputation is can cost money.  You'll need to decide for yourself whether the features they offer are worthwhile for your firm.  Many of these tools are more important for retailers and others dealing with high volume sales transactions.

Doing a Website Reputation Check For the First Time

The first time that you check your website reputation, you can find out several key pieces of information.  Let's say that you start with Trustedsource.org, a website created by McAfee virus protection to help people do a website reputation check.  When you check your website reputation with this website, you'll find out not only whether the site considers your website to be the possible victim of fraud or malware, but also what kind of patterns your links are showing.

If you are seeing a pattern of fraudulent links or links that appear artificially created, you may want to use new strategies.  Your web reputation check may also reveal many older links that no longer work to take people to a valid URL on your website.  Knowing this can help you revise your site in a way that will make it more user friendly to future users.

Why One Website Reputation Check Isn't Enough

Just because you check your website reputation and it comes up clear doesn't mean that you're out of the woods.  You should make sure that you run a website reputation check at least once a month.  This will alert you very quickly if any virus or malware should ever take over your website, or if some program began to use your website as a place to create automatic links.

Doing a consistent check of website reputation statistics can also make sure that you're tracking trends in your website.  If you're not keeping track of how your website's traffic and trust levels are changing, you're missing out on valuable data that could help you shape your website for months or even years in the future.

Help!  My Reputation Is in the Gutter!

It's all well and good if you check your website reputation and it comes up green.  But what if there are alerts all over the place?  How do you clean up the mess that has been left behind by viruses or malware?  It's true that in some cases you may need to contact a professional to do this cleanup after running a website reputation check, but you may also be able to do it yourself.

Some website reputation check programs, especially those that require some payment up front, will actually help you to remove any problematic pages from your website.  These programs to check your website reputation can work automatically so that you don't have to worry about the details of how to remove each piece of offending software.

Reputation Management and Services

Sometimes, running a website reputation check can be a good reminder of just how hard it can be to keep your reputation online looking as good as it can.  If you're having trouble, consider showing the results of your website reputation check to a reputation management service.  These services can check your website reputation so you don't have to, and can make sure that any problems are taken care of immediately.  Because these services specialize in reputation management, you can rest assured that your reputation is being monitored more frequently and more closely than it would have been if you had handled it personally.

Your website reputation should be one of your most prized business possessions when you work in a law firm.  Having a great reputation can get you new clients on a consistent basis—but if you lose that reputation, the clients will dry up.  It's no longer enough to sit back and take a passive approach.  Website reputation management services work with you to make sure your website is working and looking great for everyone who uses it.  Here are seven reasons that website reputation management services can be great for lawyers and legal marketing professionals.

#1: Keep Bad Reviews From Killing Your Business

One of the ways that a website reputation management service can help you is by keeping an eye on review websites.  Client reviews are a big way for people to find attorneys today, and you'll do well to make sure that you're listed on several different review websites.  Studies have shown, however, that consumers tend to pay significantly more attention to negative reviews than positive reviews—perhaps due to the perception that a complaint is generally honest while a compliment could be from a biased source.

Website reputation management services know that bad reviews aren't always a sign that you're doing poorly.  In some cases, they may be planted by your competition to drive more clients toward their offices.  Depending on what state you live in, this may or may not violate ethical rules for attorneys.  If you do find that a review has been posted fraudulently, your website reputation management company can help by requesting that it be taken down.  Most websites with client reviews are sensitive to these issues and can make sure that negative reviews are removed promptly.

#2: Manage Your Social Media Presence

Another way that a website reputation management company can make your life easier is by taking the reins on your social media strategy.  Many reputation management companies specialize in making social content for businesses.  Your website reputation managers can help you design a strategy for your social media websites that takes into account your unique brand image and your performance goals.

Many attorneys don't want to spend a lot of their day posting to Facebook, making connections on LinkedIn, and putting up links on social bookmarking websites and Twitter.  Why not let a website reputation management firm take care of it for you?  You'll get most of the same benefits as if you had done it yourself—without all of the hassles.

#3: Correct Missing or Incorrect Directory Information

Speaking of hassles, is there any bigger one than looking through dozens of directory websites for potential errors?  This is one of those chores that is perhaps better when it's just done by someone else.  If you want your directory entries checked, updated, and corrected, you need to talk to a website reputation management agency.

By using reputation managers, you ensure that your directory information will be changed any time your web address, company name, phone number, or physical address changes.  Having these changes made by your website reputation management company is much less tedious than doing it yourself every time the phone extension list changes.

#4: Keeping Search Results You Want On Top

Maybe there are some reviews of your law firm that are so glowing, you want them to be the first thing that people searching for your firm see.  A website reputation management firm can help you get your favorite results into Google's top pages when people search for your brand name.

In addition, you can actually generate good content that can drive out bad content.  For example, if someone has started a website that says your law firm is terrible and unprofessional, you can create new websites and web pages to simply outperform the offending page.  Since most web searchers don't look past the first page, it's unlikely that many people will see the negative result after it has been driven to page two or three.

#5: Finding Out What People Are Saying

If you've recently had a public relations issue, hiring a website reputation management company is a great idea.  Your reputation manager can investigate what the “buzz” is about your company and whether you seem to be improving or declining.

In some situations, your website reputation management agency will also try to actually influence that buzz.  If negative things are currently being said about your firm, your agency can help you find a way to spin them positively.

#6: Submit Takedown Requests for Defamatory Content

Of course, if someone insists on defaming you online, you have legal recourse.  Your website reputation management company can help you to distribute cease and desist letters to anybody promoting content that is defamatory or libelous.  As a lawyer, it is much more likely for you than most other people marketing online that your takedown request letters will be followed, so you will usually see results with just a letter.

If you've tried unsuccessfully to have defamatory content removed, you may have to sue for defamation in civil court.  This can get even trickier—or impossible—if the website defaming you is in another country.  If this happens, the best thing that your website reputation management company can do for you is to help you post more positive content to drown out the defamatory accusations.

#7: Create a Better You

By giving you a better understanding what people already think of your reputation, your website reputation management agency can help you to better establish your brand.  Your reputation can give you a very good idea of what distinguishes you from your most similar competitors.

Once you have a very strong brand awareness and identity, you can create marketing campaigns that take advantage of that confidence.  Being the best you that you can be is much better than trying to do everything that your competition is doing.  What's more, by having continuous monitoring of your reputation, you ensure that you hear what's being said about your newest marketing moves as soon as they take effect.

When you outsource search engine optimization, you want the best SEO service you can afford.  But how can you tell if a particular SEO service is great—or whether they're just pretending to be?  Here, we'll take a look at some different indicators that you might see when you look into the best SEO services.  You'll find out whether these indicators add up to say that the service you're using is the best SEO service available, or whether you should consider looking for different services.

SEO Service Good Sign #1: Quality Links Over Quantity

The best SEO services today know that great links are more important than just having an abundance of links all over the internet.  Quality links are much more likely to help your website rise in its search engine rankings.

What's more, a single quality link can organically generate several other links when people see your website and re-link it.  The best SEO services today will never just generate inbound links to your website by posting them on spam pages full of other links (also known as “link farms”).  The best SEO service also won't just join link networks so that you can have a larger quantity of links.

Instead, the best SEO service will help you to create relationships with other bloggers, local directories, and even local news media so that you can use quality link building techniques.  The best SEO services will always build your links organically—that is, they won't pay for the results they're getting, but rather will get them from having good content.

SEO Service Red Flag #1: Lazy Link Building

It's an old saying that what's right isn't always easy, and that what's easy isn't always right.  This is very true when it comes to the best SEO services.  You know that you're not dealing with the best SEO service when you hear that they can get you onto thousands of websites within just a few days.  Think about what that would actually entail, if those links were actually high quality—and now think how low quality those links would have to be to generate them so fast.

Search algorithm updates mean that the Google of today focuses on links that took hard work.  There's no longer an easy way to simply get links without having to provide real content.  The best SEO services work hard for you, rather than taking the easy way out.

SEO Service Good Sign #2: New Techniques

In the SEO industry, which seems to change almost from day to day—and certainly, sometimes, from week to week—it's important for the best SEO services to keep up to date in their use of search engine optimization techniques.  For example, you may have recently heard of a new technique called latent semantic indexing, or LSI.  If you haven't heard of it, don't worry: the best SEO service you can find already knows exactly what it is.

Under the principles of latent semantic indexing, the best SEO services will use many different variations of a keyword rather than just one or two keyword phrases over and over.  Why does this work?  Because Google now includes similar words to the ones you searched for when you perform a search.  For example, if you look up “houston tx dui attorney,” you'll also get results that include the word “lawyer”—which will be highlighted just as if you had searched for that term.  The best SEO service knows this, and takes advantage of it to produce natural-sounding copy that also reads better to search engine indexers.

Understanding how to use new methodology is one of the things that sets the best SEO services apart from the merely good ones.  The best SEO service should be able to tell you about several new techniques that they are currently evaluating, and several techniques that have already been proven to work.

SEO Service Red Flag #2: Old Solutions

If the agency handling your SEO sounds like they walked out of a search engine optimization guide from 2006, it's time to send them back and get the best SEO service you can.  Keyword stuffing is a long-dead strategy, and none of the best SEO services use it any more.  If your service's keyword density seems really high, it may be time to look for a new one.

Another solution that worked in times past (even for the best SEO services) but no longer is “article marketing.” This, in its most spammy form, meant spamming hundreds or even thousands of websites with identical or near-identical content packed full of keywords, along with links back to your website.  The abuse of article marketing services led to Google changing the way it ranks search results, so the best SEO services don't use anything like article marketing today.

SEO Service Good Sign #3: Slow and Steady

It's crucial for everyone involved with SEO at your law firm to understand that results can sometimes be slow to come.  Even the best SEO service won't be able to get you onto the first page of results in a few days if you're currently on page thirty.  Good search engine optimization takes time, and the best SEO services know it.

What you should see, if you're using the best SEO service you can find, is slow but steady and trackable progress.  If you don't seem to be making progress after some months have elapsed, or if you're backsliding, it's possible that you're using a subpar SEO service.

SEO Service Red Flag #3: Promises Instant Results

It's just about a guarantee: if a service promises to give you a guaranteed amount of traffic or instantly boost your website's search rankings, it's probably lying.  The best SEO service won't promise anything instantly.

These kinds of promises are often signifiers of an agency that is great at self-promotion, but not much else.  You'll want to get the best SEO service for law firms, and that means making sure that whatever service you hire understands the likely pace of the results you'll get.

As more Americans use the internet as part of their daily lives (282 million at the last count), more of them have started learning how to effectively use search engines.  Part of effectively using search engines to effectively search for products and services is using local search terms.  Attorneys, due to the local nature of most law firms, can benefit tremendously from understanding how to use local search SEO.  In this guide, you'll learn seven easy to use local SEO tips.  Each can help your law firm get on the path to local search SEO that actually works to make your SERPs better.

Local SEO Tips #1: Picking Your Keywords

It's a mistake to think that just because your law firm is located in a city, you can't also market to people in the suburbs.  In the same way, if you're located in a rural area or a cluster of smaller towns/cities, you may feel that geographic searches and local search SEO actually hurt, instead of help, your business.

You can fix that feeling by choosing keywords that represent more than just the area where your office is.  You can include the names of several other cities in your webpages, and most local SEO tips will suggest including suburbs or neighborhoods as long as those Google searches are being made.

Local SEO Tips #2: Claim Your Profile

On many local search SEO directory websites, your law firm may already have a listing.  For example, it's very likely that as long as you're listed in the phone book, you'll have already been listed by Yelp and Google+ Local.  However, the automated systems that input these entries are limited.  They will usually only be able to identify the name of your law firm, its location, and its telephone number.

That's where these local SEO tips come in.  By starting an account at these websites, you can claim your profile and begin to work on providing more information through this profile.  This enhances your local search SEO by showing that you are located in the area, and that you are active locally.

These local SEO tips won't just help you to appear sooner when people search for terms relating to your law firm.  They'll also get you new customers, just like an advertisement.  An increasing number of consumers are turning to ratings websites and directories for attorney recommendations.  Local search SEO is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the reasons for making one of these profiles.

Local SEO Tips #3: Check Your Website

What if you've followed all the local SEO tips you can find and nothing seems to be happening in terms of your bottom line?  Have you made sure that you're actually seeing an increase in traffic due to your local search SEO efforts?  If traffic is up but conversions are down, you may need to alter your content accordingly.  Conversion-ready content will include direct calls to action for the consumer, as well as clear and engaging copy that isn't littered with legalese or jargon.

You should also make sure that your website is running fast.  Google now includes this metric to determine, in part, where your pages will be displayed in search results.  If your website is running too slowly, you may be sacrificing search engine results pages just because of some poorly optimized code or a bad hosting provider.

Local SEO Tips #4: Use Google Instant

Have you noticed how when you start to type a search term into Google's search field, Google actually tries to guess what you're searching for?  This is called Google Instant, and it's designed to get better at anticipating web needs based on extensive user data.

By playing with Google Instant, you can find your own local search SEO tips.  How?  Just type in your location and a search term people might use to find your law office, then see what else comes up.  You may also want to include these terms in your local search SEO to get more clients, because apparently people are already searching for those exact terms.

Local SEO Tips #5: Use Local Directories

Asking for a listing from the Chamber of Commerce may sound like an antiquated marketing strategy.  You may be surprised to learn that many local SEO tips suggest taking this exact course of action.  Why?  Because local search SEO depends on being linked not only by other websites, but by other local websites.

When a listing for your website appears on a large number of local directories, you'll show up as a better match for people who are looking for a law firm in your area.  While many directory listing services are no longer worth it, local search SEO still requires local directory use to be truly effective.

Local SEO Tips #6: Update Your Profiles

If your law firm changes names, locations, or focus areas, you need to make sure that your local search SEO has been updated accordingly.  An outdated profile can lead to major SEO trouble.  Make sure that somebody at your law firm has been assigned the responsibility of updating these profiles routinely.  You may also want to consider adding new information along with your updates, like photos of your firm or links to videos.

Local SEO Tips #7: Get Reviews

One of the biggest ways clients today use local searches to find lawyers is by using Avvo.com, Yelp.com, Google+ Local, and other rating and review websites.  It's easy to see why: these websites make it easy to compare past client reviews quickly.  When looking for a lawyer, the vast majority of clients will choose the lawyer with reviews instead of the lawyer without them.

This means that in order to make your presence known with local search SEO, you should be encouraging your clients to leave reviews for you.  Even issuing a call for reviews from clients who are LinkedIn connections or Facebook friends can help you to get the extra edge you need.

Small firms can often feel invisible, especially in markets with thousands of other attorneys competing for clients' business.  The internet can be a great way to level the playing field—if you know how to use it right.  SEO for small business can vault your firm into the top page of search results for searches that bring in real, paying clients.  Using SEO in small business is one of the biggest trends for internet marketing today.  What's more, there are now affordable small business SEO options that can help even lawyers who are just starting out.  This guide will cover all this and more about SEO for small business, so keep reading—you need this information today.

Why Search Still Matters

Not everyone believes that creating SEO for small business strategies is still a useful way to spend time for marketers.  These detractors point to a decline in using SEO in small business marketing plans, and an uptick in the number of clients finding attorneys in ways that don't involve using search engines.

However, those detractors are largely focused on retail industries.  Businesses which emphasize services, like law firms, are still often searched for by consumers and find SEO for small business profitable.  It's still three times more likely that you'll get a new client from a web search than any other way of generating leads.  This means that investing in affordable small business SEO is still a great idea for small firms.

What's more, there are more ways than ever to help propel yourself to the top of the SEO for small business heap.  With so many ways to use SEO in small business strategies, there's almost always at least one way that will appeal to your way of doing things.

How Searches Are Changing

Even though search is still important, to be successful with your SEO for small business, you'll need to know about current trends in web searches.  Searches today are increasingly mobile, and increasingly global.  Not all affordable small business SEO packages take this into account, so you should always make sure that your provider of SEO for small business is aware of these changes.

When searches are more mobile, SEO in small business strategies becomes even more important.  Why?  Because mobile searchers are more impatient and less willing to click through multiple pages of web results.  This means that your SERPS (and therefore, the role of SEO in small business) will be much more important for mobile customers.

It also means that your web pages now need to be optimized for viewing by mobile browsers.  Even if your affordable small business SEO works well and puts you in the top page of search results, it will only help if your website draws them in.  Don't waste time and money on SEO in small business marketing strategy if you're not going to make your website capable of generating conversions from clicks.

Local searches are also becoming more common, especially for people who hire attorneys.  Any affordable small business SEO package you purchase will need to optimize your business's web pages for local search as well as more general search terms.  

Direct Ads vs. SEO In Small Business Techniques

Many law firms currently do most or all of their online marketing through direct pay per click advertising services, like Google AdWords, instead of using SEO for small business.  If that's what you and your competition are doing, this means that there's more room for SEO in small business marketing in your area.

Direct ads do have some advantages over using affordable small business SEO.  For one thing, while SEO for small business can take several months to really become effective at generating new business, ads work right away.

However, for every click made on direct ads, you'll have to pay a (sometimes quite exorbitant) price.  When you use SEO in small business, you'll keep reaping the benefits for months or even years.  SEO for small business costs a little more money upfront but does tend to have larger payoffs over the long term.

Is Affordable Small Business SEO Possible?

When attorneys start trying to use SEO in small business, they're often flummoxed by the countless rules (many contradictory) that are given by different self-appointed SEO “gurus.”  Because of this, they turn to outsourcing their SEO in small business needs.    But affordable small business SEO can seem hard to come by.  Why?  Because good SEO for small business takes time.

You should be wary about affordable small business SEO if you see a price that seems substantially lower than anyone else's for similar services.  Is it because the person who's doing the SEO for small business isn't a native speaker of American English?  Is it because your affordable SEO service is employing a slew of overseas workers?  

It's not worth it to sacrifice quality for affordability when it comes to SEO in small business.  Affordable small business SEO may generate some short term gains, but if any of it is regarded as spam by search engines, you could lose even the SERPs you had before you started.

Prioritizing Your SEO for Small Business Goals

One way to make it easier to find affordable small business SEO is to make sure that you have clear priorities.  This allows you to pay your service for some elements of your search engine optimization, without needing to pay for a complete package that includes many things you don't need.

For example, maybe you're already quite familiar with making your blog search engine optimized, but you have no idea how to bring mobile traffic to your website.  Affordable small business SEO could focus on your mobile-friendly redesign, while letting you handle your blog content completely on your own.

Decide what parts of the search engine optimization process you're comfortable doing, and then do those parts.  This will not only save you a great deal of money with your affordable small business SEO service, but will also make you more comfortable with gradually doing more search engine optimization in-house.

What is SEO marketing going to look like in a few years?  You don't need a crystal ball to look into the future and know that SEO search engine marketing will keep changing.  While a few years ago, many search engine optimized pages looked clunky, over 50 percent of today's online businesses are using seamless organic SEO marketing.  Keep reading this guide to find out how SEO search engine marketing changes have created new techniques you can use every day.

What is SEO Marketing, and What Makes it Organic?

In the early days of the internet, SEO search engine marketing was extremely primitive.  In 2000, organic SEO marketing was basically unheard of, and most business marketing professionals would have asked you “what is SEO marketing?” if you even mentioned the concept.

When people started to get used to the idea of SEO search engine marketing, they were dealing with relatively simple search algorithms.  These simple search algorithms looked, in large part, for keyword density to tell whose results should be on top.

You've probably seen some of the web pages that this kind of SEO search engine marketing was used on.  Far from being organic SEO marketing, they're clunky, with keywords jammed in every which way.

Now that most people in marketing have advanced beyond asking “what is SEO marketing?”, changes are still afoot.  Organic SEO marketing means that your copy looks natural, rather than having ungrammatical keywords crammed so closely together that it becomes barely readable.

Do I Need Paid Ads When I Use Organic SEO Marketing?

Some of the confusion over what is SEO marketing and what it's useful for comes about because there are many different types of advertising and marketing on the web.  While organic SEO marketing is certainly a great technique, it's also a technique that takes finesse.  Some attorneys prefer to skip SEO search engine marketing and rely entirely on direct advertising, usually on search engines.

What is SEO marketing going to do to your paid ads?  Eventually, it can probably replace them.  Because about 80 percent of internet users simply do not click on sidebar search advertisements, you're reaching a much wider audience with organic SEO marketing.  SEO search engine marketing will take a little while to get off the ground, so you may want to continue running ads while you wait for it to work.

What is SEO Marketing Doing For Law Firms Today?

Whether you're a solo practitioner or part of a larger firm, you're probably wondering: what is SEO marketing going to do to impact my bottom line?  The best thing about organic SEO marketing is that it doesn't have to make your website copy look very different to your existing clients.  This type of SEO search engine marketing, because it looks natural, won't risk scaring new potential clients away or hurt your reputation for having good information online.

Of course, just altering copy isn't the only answer to the question “what is SEO marketing.”  Today, because Google now ranks link quality and weights that in deciding where to put your results on the search page, many things fall under the SEO search engine marketing umbrella.  For example, your social networking websites, as well as Youtube and other video sites, can contain examples of organic SEO marketing that will help to bring in new clients from all over the web.

How Do I Segment Audiences With Organic SEO Marketing?

Segmentation is one of the best ways to make sure that your SEO search engine marketing campaign succeeds.  Instead of trying to talk to everyone with the same organic SEO marketing copy, you can adapt your copy and keywords for each type of client that you're trying to target.
 
You can also segment audiences by actually making different websites for each of the areas of expertise at your firm.  While this may initially sound like a lot of work, what is SEO marketing without work?  If it didn't take any effort, every other firm would already be optimized as much as possible.

How Do I Analyze My Organic SEO Marketing?

Even people who have a very good understanding of what is SEO marketing can be stymied by attempts to interpret the results of their marketing campaigns.  Often, the data you get can seem confusing, or there may just be too much of it for you to guess at what it means.  When this happens, it may be a good idea to have a professional consultation with an analytics consultant.

Analytics professionals can help you learn how to interpret your own data and start taking your SEO search engine marketing into your own hands with split tests and constant analysis.  If you don't intend to do this analysis in-house, many of these professionals will do the analytics work for you.  They'll find out what is SEO marketing doing for your firm and reporting the results to you.

Finding More Organic SEO Marketing Resources

One of the best resources to learn more about SEO search engine marketing best practices is actually Google's website.  This a completely free resource, accessible to everyone on the internet.  Because Google is the biggest search engine in the world and decides how to index results, it's by far the most reliable place to start learning how to do SEO to attract new clients.

You can also keep track of websites like this one, as well as blogs about SEO search engine marketing.  When you follow blogs, it's important not to follow out of date information, as this can affect whether or not you will be successful with your SEO.  

If you have any questions, asking them on these blogs can be very helpful—after all, most SEO professionals are more than willing to share their thoughts and keep online discussions going!  SEO professionals with blogs are also likely to help you by pointing you in the right direction toward the specific SEO resource you need to complete your current search engine marketing project.
 

If you're looking for cheap SEO packages, you're in good company: eighty percent of law firms eventually outsource some or all of their search engine optimization work.  In the tough economic climate today, it's always important to save money, and many people look for the most affordable SEO package they can find.  However, just because affordable SEO packages are cheap doesn't mean they'll be worth your time.  How can you know what differentiates cheap SEO packages that work and the ones that don't?  Keep reading to find out.

Why “Pure” Cheap SEO Packages Are No Longer Enough

When law firms used search engine optimization in years past, they often focused exclusively or almost exclusively on the content of their websites.  Optimizing this content to maximize the likelihood that a page would be ranked well was called “pure SEO.”  Some affordable SEO packages today may still use pure SEO, but it would be a mistake to use these cheap SEO packages.

That's because pure SEO doesn't take into account the things that matter just as much or more to Google and other search engine indexers.  For example, if your affordable SEO package doesn't include anything that helps you optimize your website for mobile traffic, what will your law firm do to attract the 20 percent of web users who are now searching mostly on their smartphones?

Affordable SEO Packages: Link Building

A huge aspect of search engine optimization today is link building.  Any affordable SEO packages that don't include at least some work on link building are not worth your time or money.  Link building refers to the process of having other websites link to your site.

You should seek out an affordable SEO package that not only includes link building but also tells you upfront how those links will be built.  Backlinks that come from paid linking programs, reciprocal linking, or spammy, low quality websites will generally be regarded as neutral to negative for your search engine results.  Some cheap SEO packages that say they include link building services use these types of methods, so caveat emptor.

Some of the ways that high quality, affordable SEO packages might help you to link build include finding guest blogging opportunities for you to take advantage of, or building profiles in high quality directories on the web.  This kind of link building will take longer and may lead to having fewer links than if you had used other methods.  However, when your affordable SEO package uses ethical methods, you never have to worry that your SERPs will be negatively impacted by the next search algorithm update.

Affordable SEO Packages: Targeting and Landing Pages

Another way that an affordable SEO package can improve your search engine results is by helping you to direct your keyword-based pay per click advertisements.  These ads can help augment cheap SEO packages by giving you immediate results.  What's more, as part of your affordable SEO package, you can ask to actually see testing done to compare which keywords and copy pay off best.  You can then use that knowledge to refine your search engine optimization copy on all of your web pages.

Landing pages are pages that are specific to one ad and that address a client's keywords very specifically before they enter your main site.  This means that you'll be able to be able to target tiny niche audiences based on their exact interests.  An affordable SEO package can help you make these landing pages.  Most very affordable SEO packages will limit the number of landing pages you can have to a fairly small number—you may have to upgrade to less cheap SEO packages when you want to have more landing pages for more niches.

Affordable SEO Packages: Video

Not all cheap SEO packages include video recordings.  However, if you can find an affordable SEO package that does include video, it's a wise investment in your marketing future.  Some affordable SEO packages actually include many videos, all recorded in the same day or week, which you can then slowly share over the course of several months to a year.

Just because you're buying cheap SEO packages doesn't mean your video should look cheap.  If you see an affordable SEO package but the video looks bad, keep moving.  That's not the kind of impression you want cheap SEO packages to leave on your visitors, is it?  A well-produced video can still be made in the context of an affordable SEO package, and you'll get tremendous conversion rates compared to an amateur video.

Affordable SEO Packages: Content Management

If you already have a great deal of content for your website, cheap SEO packages can help you put it in front of the right eyes.  By search engine optimizing your videos, social networking posts, and blog posts, then putting it online, your affordable SEO package can save you from many hours of work every week.

Content management frees you from many of the administrative responsibilities of running a law firm website and optimizing it.  Even very cheap SEO packages will typically include this service.  If your administrative responsibilities are giving you headaches, an affordable SEO package may be exactly what you need.

Warning: Don't Get Blog Content From Affordable SEO Packages

One thing you should never accept as part of an affordable SEO package is blog writing.  Think about it: attorneys go to school for years to learn the law.  How can cheap SEO packages possibly provide you with real subject matter experts when they blog?  Subject matter experts cost money, and you won't get them with an affordable SEO package.

Instead, work on your blog content yourself, and learn some principles of keyword density, semantic indexing, and so on before you write your entries.  A well-written entry that is only partially keyword optimized will still look much better to potential clients than any entries that are so full of keywords your clients or colleagues can barely read them.