Today, the world wide web contains about 9 billion pages—about one and a half for every man, woman, and child on the planet.  In that kind of crowd, standing out can be tough.  Building a link presence on the internet isn't easy, but it can bring incredible financial rewards to your firm.  Whether you are just beginning to ask “what is link building?” or you've decided to change your law firm's link building strategy, keep reading this guide to learn about today's best practices.

What is Link Building?

It's not easy for search engines to determine which website should be ranked #1 for a particular search.  The first, primitive web searches used information like keyword density to determine how early a page would appear in search results.  The problem with using keyword density metrics is that they're easy for spammers and other unethical web designers to game.

Now, keyword density is one part of where search engines put your results.  However, a more important factor is building a link presence online.  What is link building?  In the most general sense, it's simply the act of getting more inbound links to your website.  However, just asking what is link building won't get you to the real heart of the matter: building a link presence of real quality links.

Why does quality matter, and what is link building quality?  Quality has to matter, because if it didn't, all you'd need to do to get top-page results would be to have a service generate millions of links on bogus, barely-used web pages (some services still do this exact thing—more on that later).  When you start building a link presence online, today's best practices include making sure that your content is shared by as many quality websites as possible, not just as many websites as you can.

What is Link Building Good For?

Effectively building a link presence online will make it much more likely that your web pages will appear early in search results.  That's good news, because more than 95 percent of web searches never even result in the searcher looking at the second page of results.  Mobile searchers are even less likely to continue past the first page of results, so as mobile traffic gets more popular, it's important to learn what is link building and how to use it effectively.

If you're building a link presence in an organic way, you'll also be able to bring in people with your link building efforts who aren't coming from search engines.

Unethical Forms of Link Building

When they hear the question “what is link building?” some SEO firms today groan.  Why?  Because many early efforts of law firms to start building a link presence were based in paid article marketing services.  These link building services preyed on companies that didn't understand what is link building or what makes a quality link.

Building a link presence online with article marketing is cheating and spamming—it's making the web fundamentally worse.  As an attorney, you should never use an SEO firm that answers “what is linked building?” by directing you to an article marketing service.

Ethical Link Building: Social Media

Just because not all answers to the question “what is link building?” are ethical doesn't mean that there are no ethical options.  Most law firms today are already using social media websites in some way, but have you considered using your social media presence to help you with building a link reputation for search engines?

When you're trying to implement a link building strategy on your social media pages, you should include a number of links back to your website.  However, if you use too many links, you're no longer really link building, just spamming your Facebook friends and fans—and Google is likely to take notice.

What is link building looking like in the Facebook world?  Mostly like “shares.”  When people share your link, they're also posting it to their feed and will contribute to your number of inbound links, especially if a large number of people follow the link.

Ethical Link Building: Guest Blogging

What is link building with guest blogging?  Essentially, this is the nice guy's version of spamming your links in people's blog comment sections.  Instead of looking like spam (and being disregarded by people who might otherwise have been interested in your services), a guest blog post can help you with building a link presence.

One of the most common ways for attorneys to use this kind of link building is to trade guest blogging spots.  If you and another attorney have blogs about things that occasionally overlap or have an interesting intersection point, you may want to work on building a link to their website with a guest post in exchange for guest blogging on their site.

If you really want to get creative and collaborative, you might even begin a guest blogging series, in which you invite several different prominent attorneys to write on your blog.  This will also help to attract new readers to your blog who previously read these other bloggers.

Ethical Link Building: Getting Press Coverage

Now that most media has gone online, building a link presence doesn't have to be done with exclusively online sources.  Instead of just talking to other bloggers, try writing real press releases about interesting legal topics.

Your blog can also help you to do this kind of link building.  Often, when a reporter is trying to find an attorney to interview for a legal perspective on a news story, they'll come across law blogs.  If your blog seems articulate and intelligent, you might be tapped for a news story quote—and your firm may be linked from the story when it's published in the online version of the newspaper.

Getting real press coverage of this kind is great, because press websites already have a good reputation.  For the very same reason, you shouldn't release your article on fake press release websites.  While these websites offer a very low barrier to entry, they're also regarded as spam havens with little redeeming value and very low overall quality.

When you've started the process of website link building, you'll need to know which link building strategies actually work and which ones you can leave behind.  Today, Google Penguin (the search engine's new ranking algorithm) determines your SERPs based not just on the number of your links, but also on their quality.  This guide will go over link building strategies, starting with the best strategies and working our way to one strategy that most law firms are probably better off avoiding.  Keep reading to find out whether your existing website link building strategy is a great idea or if you should consider other alternatives.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #1: Produce Great Content

The first and best of the link building strategies, and one that almost any SEO specialist will tell you, is to create content that people want to read.  If your content isn't good, it's unlikely that you'll be able to do the kind of organic website link building that leads to the best search engine page results.

Great content doesn't just mean one thing, and it doesn't have to just come in one form.  Your link building strategies may rely on, for instance, producing a blog.  If you're blogging, you can do a lot of website link building just by creating interesting and informative blog entries.  If you're creating blog entries that are using good search engine optimization, you can attract blog visitors relatively quickly and some of them may pass your entry along.  If you make Youtube videos, people can watch and comment on those videos, as well as share them.

Essentially, producing great content puts your best foot forward when you're doing website link building.  It shows that you're willing to go the extra mile in your link building strategies, and that you're not opposed to giving away real, informative content for free.  Don't think of your content as a giveaway—think of it as an investment in your website's future.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #2: Make Something Different

With the market so saturated with legal blogs, it can sometimes be difficult to get attention when you're trying to use blogs as part of your link building strategies.  Instead, consider doing website link building with some other type of medium.

Today's computer use studies show that a large number of users are currently spending more time using mobile apps than they are browsing the web.  You may want to make a mobile app of your own that could help your typical clients.

Even just changing the structure of what you're doing can make your website link building more successful.  For example, while many link building strategies call for using blog entries, why not make a blog that's about some different topic in the law—or even a blog for other attorneys that uses a lot of humor?  That kind of content is likely to be reposted, which is the biggest rule for link building strategies.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #3: Use Social Media

In 2012, social media is one of the biggest question marks in designing link building strategies.  Why?  Because most of the major search engines, including Google, are keeping quiet about how much weight they're assigning to links made from major social media websites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.

While some website link building professionals believe that social media links will help your SERPs dramatically, and can point to examples of firms with good search engine placement and good Facebook pages, this correlation doesn't confirm that the Facebook links caused the high SERPs.  Even so, link building strategies today would be incomplete without at least some social media presence.  Whether or not this is one of the best link building strategies today, you should learn it for future use.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #4: Media Coverage

It can sometimes be difficult to get bona fide media coverage for law firms, but incorporating press coverage into your link building strategies can be a great idea.  One of the biggest reasons for this is that typically, daily newspaper websites are considered a relatively trustworthy source with high quality content.  This means that when your website is covered by a local newspaper, you're more likely to rise in Google rankings.

The bigger the coverage you can get, the better your results will be.  If, for example, your intellectual property law firm was able to get name-dropped and linked by a blogger on Wired.com, you would very likely see your search engine results skyrocket.

Law Firm Website Link Building Strategy #5: Local Directories

Since over one fifth of searches today include a local geographic search term, you'll want to do some link building with local directories.  An example of a local directory that is easy to get access to is a chamber of commerce directory.  Once you've been linked by several local directories, Google will associate your website more with your local area, and your search engine results for people making those geographic searches will become higher.

It's also key to include a complete profile on Google+ Local to make this website link building strategy work.  It will be much easier for your website to appear early in local search results when you take steps to increase your local visibility.

A Website Link Building Strategy To Avoid: Article Marketing Services

A few years ago, many law firms started using article marketing services, or article “spinners,” as part of their link building strategy.  These services took one piece of content and either copied it completely or copied large pieces of it to reuse on hundreds of unrelated websites all over the internet.

Needless to say, these sites weren't really producing quality content, and Google has recently made several algorithm changes to crack down on this form of search engine optimization spam.  If you use an article spinning service today, at best, you'll be wasting your money.  At worst, Google will think that your website is spam and lower its page rankings accordingly.

More than three in four Americans have used the internet at some point in 2012, and even the most technophobic lawyers are getting on board with search engine optimization strategies.  Link building, or the practice of getting new links going to your website, can help to improve your search engine results.  Legitimate link building is harder than ever today, but there are still many link building tools that can help you to get your links online fast.  Here are ten that lawyers can use today.

Link Building Tool #1: Blogs

If you're a lawyer without a blog, what are you thinking?  Almost any attorney can start a blog—it's free, and it's fairly fast to set up, especially if you're not focused on making your blog's visual appearance completely unique.  Blogging is one of the best link building tools that you can use, and what's more, it brings in new clients all on its own.

The topics of your blog are limited only by your practice areas and your imagination.  You can comment about publicized cases happening right now in the court system, or about the likely effects of a new or proposed law.  You may also want to talk about the process of hiring an attorney, or the costs of attorneys, if you often seek cost-conscious customers.  This makes blogging one of the most versatile link building tools, as well as one of the most effective.

Link Building Tool #2: Press Releases

Press releases are link building tools that can help you garner media attention and new website viewers.  However, not all press releases are equally effective.  To make good use of press releases as a link building tool, they need to be from a legitimate public relations source and announce something genuinely interesting.

Many “press release websites” aren't actually public relations companies.  They're just places where anyone can post an article online.  While these link building tools may seem easy to use, they're also not particularly effective.  They contain a high amount of spam and other low quality content, and aren't really read by web users.

Link Building Tool #3: Facebook

Facebook—the one thing that unites your great aunt, your co-workers, and your third best friend from high school in addiction—can be more than just a time sink.  Because it's so easy to share links on Facebook, this social media website has become one of the best link building tools of 2012.

To use Facebook as a link building tool, you'll want to have more than just generic status updates.  Try doing something creative, or linking to a blog entry.

Link Building Tool #4: LinkDiagnosis

If you want to see how your linking stacks up to the competition, one of the best online link building tools you can use is LinkDiagnosis.  This tool lets you run reports to analyze the biggest inbound links that are affecting the traffic of your website and the websites of your competitors.

LinkDiagnosis is a great way to see how the other law firms in your area are handling link building, and whether they're using any link building tools that you haven't started using yet.

Link Building Tool #5: Ratings Websites

Whenever you have a client talk to someone else positively about your legal services, you're getting a good recommendation.  But what if you could make sure that your clients' reviews were seen not just by their friends and family, but also by anyone looking for information about your firm or your website?

Ratings websites are great link building tools because they not only give you a new inbound link, they give you new ways to show potential clients what you're capable of.

Link Building Tool #6: Local Directories

Don't neglect local chambers of commerce and city government websites when you're looking for link building tools.  These websites often have local directories of businesses, and if your law firm is included among them your website can bring in more traffic.  These link building tools may be of limited effectiveness in some areas, but particularly in smaller towns and cities they are one of your best link building tool options.

Link Building Tool #7: Youtube

Videos can be fantastic link building tools that also work hard to drive conversions.  Youtube is one of the easiest video platforms to use as a link building tool.  Youtube makes link building easy by helping you to get your video hosted and providing an easy to use form so you can enter a search engine optimized description and title for your video.

Link Building Tool #8: Social Bookmarking Sites

Using “bookmarking” sites doesn't just mean adding a website to a personal list of favorites.  Rather, it refers to the process of posting a link for viewing and user comments.  On many social bookmarking websites, like reddit and digg, users determine which links are most prominent and which ones will be seen only by a few people.

Link Building Tool #9: Forums and Question Sites

By entering internet forums or question websites and answering questions for other people, you'll be able to build inbound links while providing a valuable service.  For example, you may want to try using Yahoo Answers as a link building tool.  Try answering a few questions that are very closely related to your expertise.

When you answer questions, make sure that you're including a link back to your website.  This is what makes question sites effective link building tools—without a link, you'll be wasting your time and effort.

Link Building Tool #10: LinkedIn

To round out this list, we have to talk about the link building tools available on LinkedIn.  Not only can you have links to your website in your profile, but you can also use LinkedIn Answers to answer the questions of other real professionals and build networking connections locally, regionally, and globally.  Using LinkedIn as a link building tool is particularly powerful for law firms that primarily have a B2B focus.  If you're B2C focused, Facebook and Yahoo Answers may provide you with better leads and link building.

SEO has become a huge industry in recent years, and today, most law firms report that they are using some type of search engine optimization strategy.  If you've been having difficulty implementing these strategies and are on a budget, you may be thinking of hiring a cheap SEO service to help you figure out what else you can do to enhance your web traffic.  While not all cheap SEO services are worth the money, hiring the right service can greatly enhance your ability to drive new clicks to your website.  Keep reading to find out how to tell the difference between a cheap SEO service that works and one that doesn't.

Does “Cheap SEO Service” Mean Poor Quality?

It doesn't necessarily have to, but the truth is, you should be very careful about the quality of cheap SEO services.  Remember, those cost savings have to come from somewhere.  Because of this, you should always be skeptical about any cheap SEO service that is offering a much lower price than you've seen advertised anywhere else.

Of course, you may think, if you can get such cheap SEO services, it may be worth the risk—after all, isn't the worst that could happen that your traffic stays the same?  The sad truth is that this isn't even close to the worst that could happen.  If your cheap SEO service decides to use practices that violate Google's terms of service or their quality guidelines, you could actually see steep declines in your traffic.

Where Can a Cheap SEO Service Save Money?

There are places where cheap SEO services can reasonably be expected to conserve some money without having it affect their quality of service too much.  For example, your cheap SEO service probably should avoid paying for any links.  In addition to costing additional money, paid links are usually considered to be low quality links by search engines.

You may also be able to save money by writing a lot of your own content instead of having cheap SEO services draw your content up from scratch.  Even if your cheap SEO service has to edit and rephrase some of the content you've written, this will usually take less time and money—and your words will have what is unmistakably your voice.

Don't Skimp on These Parts of Your SEO Strategy

No matter what, though, there are some parts of search engine optimization that are much tougher for a cheap SEO service to manage.  For example, if you do want original content created for your law firm's website, cheap SEO services may be a really bad idea.

Why?  Because in order to get such inexpensive content, a cheap SEO service is very likely to be using non-native speakers of English who are writing your content from halfway around the world.  Cheap SEO services can't usually afford the rates of professional writers who can make polished, error-free content.  While some types of websites might be able to get away with internationally outsourced content, attorneys are expected to present a very professional image at all times.

Mobile is an increasingly big part of SEO strategy.  If your cheap SEO service hasn't learned much about mobile and isn't planning to help you implement mobile search engine optimization, you should consider looking for a better service.  Great SEO services today are focused on the mobile traffic revolution, which will be responsible for over fifty percent of total web traffic in less than 18 months.

Signs A Cheap SEO Service Isn't Worth It

Cheap SEO services can be very different from one another, but there are some signs that should tell you that your working relationship wouldn't be very productive.  One of these signs should be whether they're aware of new changes to Google and other search engines, and how those changes will affect search engine optimization strategies for 2012 and 2013.

You can also tell that a cheap SEO service isn't worth your time if the people working for the service are unwilling to provide you with case studies showing how their search engine optimization strategies have benefited other law firms like yours.  SEO for law firms is substantially different than SEO in other industries, and it's critical that the cheap SEO services you're looking at know how to get legal clients clicking.

Finally, a cheap SEO service should probably get crossed off your list if they focus their work on creating reciprocal linking.  This “you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours” philosophy helped a lot of cheap SEO services create links that got search engine attention, but new algorithm changes have limited how helpful reciprocal linking can be.

Monitoring the Progress of Your Cheap SEO Service

When you hire cheap SEO services to handle your search engine optimization account, you should have a regular schedule for updates.  Your cheap SEO service can help you understand the data that has been gathered by your website for the purpose of analysis, and what the trends in those data are saying now.

If you're not happy with how much progress cheap SEO services are making after several months have passed, you may want an analytics professional to take a look at your website's data.  The analytics pro can tell you whether what's failing you is your content itself or your search engine optimization strategies.

Is Doing It Yourself Better?

With some cheap SEO services having definite negatives, you may be wondering if you should just buckle down and study on your own.  While this may seem like a good idea initially, even a cheap SEO service is putting a great deal of time into research into techniques.  Keep in mind that any time you're spending (or having an employee spend) looking into SEO is time that isn't being spent attending to other firm business.

Doing it yourself should usually only be attempted if you haven't been able to find a cheap SEO service that meets your needs.  You should also have a strong background in computers or statistical analysis (and preferably both) before you start handling all of your search engine optimization needs.

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.

So you think you want to start advertising on Facebook.  Good for you—only about half of firms have any Facebook presence at all.  Before you begin to advertise on Facebook, you probably want to know whether Facebook advertising really works, and why it's better than other forms of direct advertising.  Keep reading this guide to find out.  You'll learn why some firms have better luck advertising on Facebook than others, and how to advertise on Facebook for different types of potential clients.

Is Facebook Advertising a Good Fit For My Firm?

There are some Facebook marketing gurus who think that advertising on Facebook is the best marketing solution for nearly any company.  When it comes to these gurus, remember that Facebook advertising is their specialty—and that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

The truth is that not all law firms will benefit from advertising on Facebook.  If you try to advertise on Facebook as a firm that works primarily on a B2B basis, you may be sorely disappointed in your results.  That's because while advertising on Facebook reaches a huge audience of consumers, it just isn't the venue where most professionals seek out new goods and services.  For these types of firms, LinkedIn may be a much better revenue source than Facebook advertising.

The firms that can advertise on Facebook and do well are usually consumer-focused firms.  Personal injury attorneys of just about any variety can use advertising on Facebook effectively, as can criminal defense attorneys across the United States.

What Should the Goal of My Facebook Advertising Be?

How you decide to advertise on Facebook will influence the kind of advertisements you should buy.  For example, let's say that your primary goal is to gain new clients directly.  If this is the case, you'll probably want to take advantage of the advanced targeting features Facebook offers to identify likely clients, and show them display ads that have direct calls to action for people in the situation that most often brings them to your law offices.

Sometimes, though, you want to advertise on Facebook not for direct client conversions, but to increase brand awareness and develop a referral network.  If this is the case, you may not want to put as many direct ads up.  The direct ads you do have should direct to your Facebook content, rather than offsite.  This kind of social media audience building can be incredibly useful when you want to distribute new content through Facebook and other social media channels.

Facebook Advertising On a Budget

Not all of your advertising on Facebook needs to be flashy sponsored content.  The brand awareness you build when you advertise on Facebook can also be built with basic social media strategies.  You should, at a very minimum, augment any Facebook advertising with additional social media work to encourage more interaction with your social media pages.

For example, instead of just looking at advertising polls, you may want to start using polls that are part of your news feed.  These polls will be seen by your friends and fans, and if they like the poll and answer it, it will show up in their friends' news feeds as well.

Another way to advertise on Facebook for little or no money is to make some videos.  While the initial camera setup may cost you some money, afterward you can make regular video updates that can help your friends and fans know what your firm is up to.  This type of Facebook advertising draws a lot of “likes” and can help increase brand awareness in your local community and beyond.

Targeting Your Facebook Advertising

When you run actual display advertising on Facebook, you'll have to pay money for every click made on your ads.  This means that it's really important to target your Facebook advertising well, so that the clicks are likely to lead to an actual new lawyer-client relationship.  If you advertise on Facebook with poor targeting, you'll be wasting money by paying for impressions and clicks that never really give you any additional value.

For many small firms, the best targeting options available on Facebook are geographic and demographic.  Try advertising to people one zip code at a time—this kind of hyperlocal advertising on Facebook will target only the people who are closest to your office and most able to visit for a consultation.

Demographics are sometimes underutilized by law firms that advertise on Facebook, especially the gender demographic.  There's no reason not to segment your advertising on Facebook for men and for women, especially if you're in an area like family law where gender differences lead to differing legal concerns.

Facebook Advertising for Mobile Users

One of the easiest ways to check up on what your friends, family, and colleagues are doing on Facebook is to use the mobile app.  Mobile web usage is soaring, and advertising on Facebook is one of the best ways to take advantage of app advertising without needing to join any new ad networks.

Recent studies have shown that people now spend more time using their smartphone apps than they do browsing the internet through a traditional mobile browser.  This means that when you advertise on Facebook mobile, you're reaching a crowd that uses traditional search methods less and less.  Because of this, it's often a great idea to do advertising on Facebook if you're already doing some search ads for desktop searches—you'll be reaching crowds that don't always overlap.

The Most Important Facebook Advertising Rule: Change

When you start to advertise on Facebook, it's probably a good idea not to get too comfortable with things the way they are.  Facebook's a new enough website, and its stock has had enough problems, that it's likely we'll continue to see changes to advertising on Facebook for the next several years.

One of the most crucial things you can keep in mind when you advertise on Facebook is that users and advertisers alike have been unable to stop unpopular changes.  You're much better off just learning about new features and advances as they're made, and rolling with the changes instead of clinging to the old way of doing your advertisements.
 

Potential Disadvantages and Dangers of Affiliate Internet Marketing

Weighing the Advantages and Disadvantages of Affiliate Internet Marketing

There are multiple advantages to internet affiliate marketing such as increased levels of revenue, a continuing and satisfied reader base, and the ability to increase the popularity of your website within search engines.  However, there are many potential dangers with internet affiliate marketing in the legal field, including the following and more:

·         vulnerability of brand

·         stacking and overload of advertisements

·         lack of contracts and permanency

·         fraud

·         harmful software

·         lack of control over ads

Potential Disadvantages of Internet Affiliate Marketing

1. Vulnerability of Brand in Internet Affiliate Marketing

The biggest potential disadvantage associated with internet affiliate marketing and a firm is the public recognizing your brand as unprofessional.  This is the reason you don’t see a large amount of advertisements on legal blogs and websites for attorneys.  If a firm is not careful with the types of advertisements they’re posting, the public may assume that the firm is mainly concerned with filtering in clients and readers for profit instead of educational purposes. 

There are steps to protect your brand while engaging in affiliate internet marketing though.  For example, if you’re an affiliate for Amazon, you should only advertise products that can supplement your services such as legal books and pamphlets for the areas of law you cover. 

2. Stacking of Advertisements in Internet Affiliate Marketing

The trick to internet affiliate marketing is using the least amount of advertisements as possible in order to generate the most revenue possible.  The key to such success includes choosing respectable merchants that offer reasonable amounts of commission for the legal publisher.  This can be hard though, especially for newer websites or blogs. 

An inexperienced legal publisher may try to overload their sidebars with a large amount of affiliate internet marketing advertisements in order to try and get their readers to click on at least one of the advertisements.  Not only can this technique in internet affiliate marketing damage the reputation of your brand, it can cause readers to visit your website once, notice the large amount of advertisements, and leave the website and never come back. 

3. Lack of Contracts and Permanency in Internet Affiliate Marketing

Just as a legal publisher can choose what affiliate internet marketing to post on their website, a merchant can decide what advertising to offer to whom.  In some cases, a merchant can choose to offer a website certain types of affiliate internet marketing, but some networks are allowed  to post such advertisements whenever they want and even take the advertisements off the website whenever they choose.  This is a major concern to many legal website and blog publishers. 

For example, let’s say a legal website just landed a great advertisement and they’ve been writing reviews about certain products and received success.  Then, the merchant and the network decide that they want to shift their internet affiliate marketing strategy somewhere else.  The website is left without future revenue and they have material that is now irrelevant. 

4. Fraud in Affiliate Internet Marketing in Internet Affiliate Marketing

There are two main types of fraud associated with internet affiliate marketing: CPC fraud and CPA fraud.  Cost per Click fraud can occur when competitors intentionally click on advertisements in abundance so the legal publisher is left to cover the cost without little return in revenue.  There is a large amount of protective software out there now to protect against CPC fraud, but some scammers can still slip through the system. 

CPA fraud, or cost per action fraud, is more of a concern for merchants than publishers, but the fraud has brought serious concerns within affiliate internet marketing.  This type of fraud may allow a publisher to earn large amounts of unearned commissions by a process called “cookie stuffing.”  This allows the publisher to gain revenue even though there was no real referral to a merchant’s website.  Such practices in internet affiliate marketing can land a firm in a huge amount of trouble. 

5. Harmful and Disadvantageous Software in Internet Affiliate Marketing

Although harmful software like spyware has been targeted and seriously reduced in the last couple of years, there is still a large amount of harmful software in affiliate internet marketing than can take away business from a firm.  For example, there is some software that will monitor other websites, see what techniques they’re using to bring in readers, and then target those very same readers in order to take away business. 

There is also software that can allow a person to receive promotional offers from a publisher without actually clicking on an advertisement.  The software places cookies within a client’s browser and then tracks the person’s navigation to a site offering good deals.  This type of software is still a serious problem in internet affiliate marketing. 

6. Lack of Control over Ads in Internet Affiliate Marketing

This potential disadvantage within affiliate internet marketing can be avoided by using a respected and highly rated network.  Networks that are less known and less respected can actually place ads within your sidebars and other areas of your website that may have nothing to do with your content.  This action within internet affiliate marketing goes back to the first and second points, which may cause damage to the image of your brand.

In order to find ratings and reviews for the best networks for affiliate internet marketing, refer to the recommended articles on this website. 

Conclusion: Internet Affiliate Marketing

You shouldn’t be scared off from internet affiliate marketing because of the potential hazards associated with the type of advertising.  Instead, let the potential disadvantages serves as a guide to let you set up the best affiliate internet marketing.  The disadvantages are avoidable if your take the right initiatives.  If you’ve taken the wrong initiatives, it’s never too late to revise your affiliate internet marketing campaign. 

A recent study showed that behavioral targeting outperforms contextual ad targeting by 22 percent.  If your law firm has been looking for a new strategy to target only the people most likely to become conversions, behavioral ad targeting may be just what you need.  Keep reading to find out more about the data behind the transition to behavioral systems, and why behavioral ad targeting isn't just a fad.

Demographics vs. Behavioral Data: Which Works Best?

Today, many attorneys have been able to capitalize on two types of advertising.  The first, contextual ads, involve a user seeing ads that are based on the context of the website they're using.  Contextual ads have been used by many law firms for targeting clients who are likely to need legal assistance.

Lawyers have also relied on demographic data to decide who to show their message to.  Some services, like the direct ad services from both LinkedIn and Facebook, make advertising based on a desired client's demographic criteria easy and fast.

However, when compared to both of these methods for targeting clients, behavioral ad targeting outperforms them handily.  Studies have shown that behavioral advertising can actually be up to twice as effective as advertising based on demographics or context alone.  What's more, studies have shown that very few websites are actually taking advantage of behavioral targeting so far.  This means that you have an opportunity to use behavioral ad targeting before much of your competition.

Using Behavioral Ad Targeting for Segmentation

Today, great advertising campaigns rely on extensive segmentation.  You can't just use the same advertisement for everybody, because their idea of an appealing ad will be different.  What behavioral ad targeting allows you to do is segment how your ads act depending on how someone has behaved in the past.

Ideally, once a website uses sufficient behavioral targeting, two different potential clients will see very different things when they land on the home page.  For instance, someone who has been recently reviewing a lot of websites pertaining to divorce may be shown a deep link to part of your webpage where divorces are discussed thoroughly.

Now, not every website will be able to create totally different user experiences using behavioral ad targeting.  However, you should be thinking about ways in which you can differentiate experience with behavioral targeting to make your potential clients more likely to call.  Depending on a client's behavior, your “call to action” on a landing page may differ.  

You can be as creative as you want to with behavioral targeting: odds are, someone makes the software to help you make your targeting dreams a reality.

Not All Who Wander Are Lost: Behavioral Targeting and Remarketing

When someone looks at your website, more often than not they'll leave it rather than making a call right away.  One of the best ways to turn those hits into clients is to “remarket,” that is, to show them another ad for your law firm after they've already closed your website.

Remarketing is a form of behavioral ad targeting that Google now makes easy.  Using Google's tools, you can now ensure that potential clients see an ad for your firm whenever they search after visiting your website—even if their searches aren't necessarily related to their legal issue.

Science has proven why this method works: the short and long term memory.  Long term memory is best stimulated by repetition, so behavioral ad targeting relies on putting your images and information in front of people more than once.

Avoiding Privacy Invasion Issues

While studies show that behavioral targeting is effective, other studies indicate that Americans are wary about it.  Consumers tend to believe they aren't affected by behavioral targeting, with only 15 percent saying that they would be most likely to purchase a product or service because of behavioral ad targeting.

Because behavioral targeting typically relies upon “cookies” that track a person's internet behavior, there are some ethics concerns.  You should always make sure that people are informed about any cookies being used on your website.

You should also use only the most reputable behavioral targeting services.  If behavioral data leaks through any kind of invasion of privacy, you don't want your client base to be compromised.  The amount of behavioral data that is collected by behavioral targeting services could be a hacker's wildest dream.

It's also very important to avoid scaring off your clients with behavioral ad targeting on your website.  Differentiating user experiences is great, but if your website visitors feel like the amount of information you know is “creepy” or “spooky,” they're likely to leave and never come back, fearing a major invasion of privacy.

Could Behavioral Ad Targeting Land You In Hot Water?

Another cautionary tale comes in the form of a complaint against an attorney who used what he thought were clever behavioral targeting techniques.  He actually tried to capitalize on people who were searching for the services of his biggest competitor, underselling a larger law firm and meeting with some success.

The complaint alleges that this was unethical behavior that should be prohibited by the state bar association.  Because behavioral targeting is relatively new, this is a very rapidly developing field from a legal perspective and you should always check with your state or local bar before beginning a new behavioral ad campaign.

Final Thoughts: The Future of Behavioral Ad Targeting

As behavioral targeting matures, it's likely that the amount of data marketers will obtain will be even greater.  The range of behaviors that you will be able to target in the future will likely be much wider than it is today.

However, as an attorney, you'll have to decide what kind of targeting to use based not only on your bar association's recommendations.  Your own personal sense of ethics and fair play, as well as that of your clients, will be of paramount importance when you're trying to decide how far to go with tracking behavior.  If you're committed to finding a great behavioral targeting solution, you'll be able to find something that works without feeling like an invasion.