Free social bookmarking has created a new landscape for web marketers hoping to increase the number of inbound links coming to their websites.  With so many spammers trying to post links on free social bookmarking sites, though, it can be difficult to market good links effectively without being seen as just part of the spam problem.  In this guide, you'll learn how to do free social bookmarking in a way that enhances your firm's reputation, rather than diminishing it.

#1: Be a Lurker First

One of the easiest mistakes to make when using free social bookmarking sites is finding out about a new site, signing up for an account, and then posting your first link right away.  Before you do this, stop!  Think about what you're doing.  This would be a lot like coming to a party where you didn't know anybody at all, and then immediately trying to make yourself the center of attention.  It's a lot more likely that you'll get kicked out than that you'll find yourself making friends.

Instead, do what the free social bookmarking community calls “lurking.”  Read some free social bookmarking sites that strike you as interesting and potentially useful, so that you can see how people interact there. You may want to write notes down about each of the free social bookmarking sites you're interested in so that you can more easily keep track of them in your head.

#2: Know Your Audience

Audiences for different types of free social bookmarking content can be very different from one another.  For example, it's fairly rare for attorneys to post on free social bookmarking sites like Pinterest, not because these websites are bad or have too small an audience, but rather because their audience is simply interested in different things.

Free social bookmarking will come much more easily if you take stock honestly of the audience you have, not the audience that you want to have.  On many free social bookmarking websites, you can actually post to a much smaller sub-audience by putting posts into particular categories.  In the same way that you lurked on free social bookmarking sites to begin with, you need to lurk in these sub-groups to find out their individual etiquette and what could lead to a ban.

#3: Don't Just Post—Comment!

If your free social bookmarking account just posts links that are related directly to your law firm, it won't be long before you're caught out as a spammer.  Depending on which free social bookmarking websites you're using, the penalty for spamming could be as mild as deletion of your posts, or as severe as an IP ban (which will prevent you from registering or posting under any new account names).

In order to show that you really understand the concept of free social bookmarking and aren't just a spammer, you need to contribute to conversations.  Making comments about other people's posts is an absolute necessity on most free social bookmarking sites if you don't want to be seen as a spam linker.  What's more, your comments need to actually contribute and show an understanding of the discussion going on.  If you just make generic comments, this is an immediate red flag to other free social bookmarking users and you could find yourself banned.

#4: Build Connections and Track Friends

If you've followed the first three rules in this article about joining free social bookmarking websites, you should at some point start to connect with other users.  Perhaps someone often comments on your posts, or responds to your comments.  These people can be some of your biggest allies when it comes time for linking new posts to free social bookmarking sites.

You can get free social bookmarking tools that will help you to find out who your friends are and who is following you on any particular free social bookmarking websites.  Once you find these people, try sending them a private message (called a PM for short) that introduces yourself and attempts to make a more personal connection.  If you're successful in building these connections using free social bookmarking websites, you'll have even more sources to post your new inbound links.

#5: Handle Criticism Professionally

Not every link you put up on free social bookmarking sites will be a winner.  In fact, it's quite likely that at least once or twice you'll receive harsh critical comments.  Some of these comments may come from “trolls” who intentionally try to make people upset.  However, some are likely to be genuine criticism.  You need to be able to separate the two and understand that criticisms aren't meant personally.  Don't attack your critics, even if they are trolls—remember the old saying: don't wrestle with a pig, you both get dirty and the pig likes it.

#6: Don't Astroturf

Some companies that start using free social bookmarking tools try to artificially inflate their presence on free social bookmarking websites using a technique known as “astroturfing.”  Usually, this involves getting several different free accounts, using one to post, and using more to comment (usually with effusive praise).

The problem with astroturfing is that it is all too obvious to longtime users of free social bookmarking websites.  Astroturfers leave behind several telltale clues, like when the poster and commenters all signed up for their accounts within a week of each other.  If you're found to be astroturfing on free social bookmarking sites, expect a ban—and possible public humiliation as the story comes to light.

#7: Keep Up With Internet Memes and Trends

In order to have the best chance of succeeding with your account on free social bookmarking websites, you'll need to keep up with the things that are being talked about there.  “Memes,” which happen when a piece of content spreads virally and becomes used as a catchphrase or inside joke, can be a great way to connect with your free social bookmarking site audiences.  By knowing their inside jokes, you'll be showing that you're one of them, not just a business person who is only interested in using their website and vanishing.

The majority of lawyers don't use Twitter yet.  Many lawyers wonder, what is a hashtag on Twitter or a 140 word post going to do that blog posts or Facebook posts don't do?  However, hashtags on Twitter are actually a very sophisticated and interesting system that can be used in a huge variety of ways.  If you haven't yet tried to make your own hashtag on Twitter, or if you're brand new and don't even know the answers to the basics, like “what is a hashtag on Twitter?”, you've come to the right place.  This guide starts with the basics of what a hashtag on Twitter does, and then works to teach legal marketing professionals how to create great hashtags on Twitter for law firm marketing purposes.

What is a Hashtag on Twitter?

There can be a huge number of new terms you've never heard of when you start using a website like Twitter.  What is a hashtag on Twitter?  It's basically the way that people do searches by topic, and how you can “tag” what a post is about so that other people can find it.  For example, if someone wanted a post about a policy at Wal-Mart to get the attention of other people, they would use a hashtag on Twitter like #walmart (if they were being neutral) or #walmartfail (if they were being negative).

Hashtags on Twitter don't always mean exactly what you think they do.  Sometimes, a hashtag on Twitter will be used ironically or sarcastically.  In fact, when companies with bad public relations problems have tried to create their own hashtags on Twitter, they often find them co-opted by people who will subvert them.

What is a hashtag on Twitter that went wrong?  When Newsweek created a story called “Muslim Rage” for one of their recent 2012 editions, they didn't anticipate that Muslims all over the USA and around the world would co-opt their article title as a hashtag on Twitter.  Far from being used to show “raging” Muslims, the hashtag on Twitter instead was used playfully and ironically, with people using it and other associated hashtags on Twitter to link to images of Muslims playing on playgrounds, petting cats, and dancing in the streets.

Because of this potential for people to use hashtags on Twitter in any way they choose, it's important to have a good grasp of what is a hashtag on Twitter before you ever start to use them.

What is a Hashtag on Twitter Used For?

Hashtags on Twitter can be used for a very wide range of purposes.  In some cases, people use a hashtag on Twitter not really so that they'll be found, but so that they can express the overall feeling or topic of their post.

At other times, hashtags on Twitter can be used as a form of instant communication and conversation.  What is a hashtag on Twitter that did that?  During Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011, people involved in the protest used hashtags on Twitter to communicate movements of police and protesters to each other, even among protesters who didn't know each other personally.

How Can Hashtags on Twitter Work for Law Firms?

Even if you understand now the answer to the question “what is a hashtag on Twitter?”, how does that translate into the real world of law firms?  Well, law firms can actually use hashtags on Twitter in many of the same ways that other businesses and groups do.  If you want to connect with other lawyers, you can start using a hashtag on Twitter that would primarily be used by other attorneys—usually something that's “inside baseball” to your field of law.

If you're looking to get clients from your Twitter presence, you can start making tweets that are about legal issues in the news.  Try finding which hashtags are already being used for a particular event.  How do you find out what is a hashtag on Twitter that is being used already for a topic?  Try searching on Tagalus, which will suggest things based on what you type in.

You can also use hashtags on Twitter to help you communicate brand messages.  Just be sure that your hashtag on Twitter isn't exclusively used for advertising, or it will quickly become known as a spam hashtag and won't get much further attention.

Do We Need Our Own Hashtags on Twitter?

Now that you know not just what is a hashtag on Twitter but also how hashtags on Twitter can work for you, you should probably consider creating a tag or two of your own.  Often, the easiest way to make your own hashtag on Twitter (one that nobody has ever used but you) is to include some reference to your brand in your hashtag.  For instance, any abbreviation of your firm's name can become part of the tag that you use.

If you're still not comfortable with using a hashtag on Twitter (or you are still having trouble understanding exactly what is a hashtag on Twitter), you don't really need to make any new ones.  Instead, you can pick other people's hashtags that appeal to you and are relevant to your post.

Should We Use Other People's Hashtags on Twitter?

Whether or not you decide to create a hashtag on Twitter (or more than one) just for your firm, keep in mind that the best way to have a discussion over Twitter is to make use of other people's established hashtags.  You can keep track of which hashtags are popular by looking at Hashtags.org or any other website devoted to analyzing trending topics.

Each hashtag on Twitter that you use should be one that you are comfortable with using, understand the definition of, and won't misuse.  If you're not quite sure what a particular hashtag on Twitter means, don't be afraid to look it up using Urban Dictionary or TagDef, which are both resources that can help you understand any unintended meanings before you start using a particular tag.

The most popular Twitter hashtags can see traffic in truly insane amounts—sometimes hundreds or even thousands of posts per minute.  Getting a handle on the most popular hashtags is a good idea if you're planning to use Twitter as a law firm marketing tool.  In this guide, we'll show you how to find popular hashtags (including popular Twitter hashtags from your local area and those that are related to the legal field).  You'll also learn about the downsides of using the most popular hashtags possible, so that you're fully informed before you start using popular hashtags on your own.

How Do Popular Twitter Hashtags Happen?

The most interesting aspect of popular hashtags is that they tend to begin and develop organically.  While marketing efforts account for some of the most popular hashtags, it's more common for them to start with just one or a few users, then spread virally throughout the Twitter network (and sometimes beyond).

What this means is that popular Twitter hashtags can come literally from anywhere and anybody.  Even if you're a solo practitioner in a small town, if you say something that makes people talk, your hashtag could become one of the most popular hashtags in your area or all over the world.  As long as you have followers who are likely to re-post your popular Twitter hashtags, you'll be able to circulate your ideas to people near and far.

Should We Try to Create Popular Hashtags?

There's no reason not to try your hand at making popular Twitter hashtags.  Odds are that few, if any will become overnight viral sensations, but many of the most popular hashtags just start with a few users talking about them.

In order to start your own popular hashtags, first make sure that your tag isn't already being used by large numbers of other people.  If it's been used only a few times, mostly quite a while ago, you may be able to use a tag that's already been used by others—but if it's currently being used already, it won't really be your idea that is circulating.

If you find a really great concept and think that you'll be able to create popular Twitter hashtags from it, you may have to try several variations to get the one that sticks in people's heads best.  Don't be afraid to retry a very close variation of an idea you've already used.  Sometimes it's surprising how small a variation needs to be in order to change a hashtag from one with medium popularity to one of the most popular hashtags for a day.

Should We Use Other People's Popular Hashtags?

Just because your own tags could become popular Twitter hashtags someday doesn't mean that the process is necessarily quick or easy.  In the meantime, make sure that you're keeping track of some popular hashtags in order to understand which tags are most likely to help you get new followers and find people you want to follow.

Make sure that if you are using the most popular hashtags you can find, you're not just re-posting or talking about content that isn't really relevant to the rest of your Twitter feed.  As a law firm, you should mostly be looking for popular Twitter hashtags having to do with the law and legal issues.  If you find that you're often trying to repurpose popular hashtags to fit them into your mission, you may want to reconsider: after all, if people see your post when they intended to read about something quite different, they're more likely to regard you as a spammer than as a good person to follow.

When using other popular Twitter hashtags, make sure that you're not overusing them by putting several popular hashtags into a single tweet.  This kind of spamming happens with the most popular hashtags and can be a serious impediment for people trying to get information instead of seeing yet another piece of reposted spam.

How Do I Find the Most Popular Hashtags?

One of the best ways to learn about popular Twitter hashtags is to use the website Hashtags.org.  This site is completely devoted to hashtagging trends.  You can also find out more about trends on WhatTheTrend.com, which also provides a helpful list of the most popular hashtags both in realtime and tracked over a day.

If you aren't finding the exact popular hashtags you want when looking at lists on WhatTheTrend, you can also do searches for the exact terms you want.  Both Hashtags.org and WhatTheTrend offer graphing capabilities to look at the trends in popularity for a particular hashtag.

Caution: Popular Hashtags Can Backfire

In more than one way, it's possible for lawyers using one of the most popular hashtags on Twitter to see their plans fail.  Often, if you're using extremely popular hashtags, your tweet will go completely unnoticed, even by people searching for that tag.  Why?  Because the popularity can actually start to work against you—when hundreds of other people are using the most popular hashtags, you'll only appear in search results on the top page for a few seconds, if that.

Another way that popular hashtags can backfire is when you use them without being completely clear on their meanings.  Keep in mind that sometimes hashtags are used ironically or with some type of double meaning.  You should always check the definitions of popular hashtags at TagDef before you decide to use them in your tweets.

Anticipating Popular Twitter Hashtags

By searching for words relating to events that have just begun to be on the radar of news sources (for instance, after blogs like Huffington Post have just released a new piece of information on a legal case), you can often start to see what will become the most popular hashtags.

Getting a feel for this can be tricky, so you may want to just search for these kinds of posts for a while until you feel comfortable identifying the trends.  You can then search for what may be a trending keyword on a website like Hashtags.org, which will let you know if the trend you're observing is real or just confirmation bias at work.

If (like most law firms using Twitter) you've just gotten started in the last 18 months with your Twitter account, you may not have paid much attention to hashtag trends.  However, trending hashtags represent a significant marketing resource for your law firm if you know how to use them correctly.  In this guide, you'll learn how hashtag trends get started and go viral, and how to leverage those viral hashtags for your own marketing purposes.

How Do Hashtag Trends Get Started?

Most advertising and marketing trends get started when an agency creates a tagline or slogan.  However, Twitter is a bit different.  On Twitter, anyone can create a hashtag just by putting a pound sign (#) in front of a word or other string of characters.  The only way for trending hashtags to start is for people to start using a hashtag.

Keep in mind that because of the nature of viral media, like Twitter, even the smallest account with just a few followers can be the creator of new hashtag trends.  However, because it's more likely for trending hashtags to “infect” more people when the person who starts using it has more followers, viral tags do tend to start on accounts with high numbers of followers.

Just because your numbers are high doesn't mean that you'll be able to create trending hashtags.  If the content you're making isn't interesting or memorable, it'll never develop into hashtag trends that matter.  You also need not just a high quantity of followers, but high quality followers that are likely to re-tweet what you say to an influential, large audience.

When Should We Use Hashtag Trends?

Generally, you shouldn't try to use trending hashtags right away when you start using Twitter.  That's because you may not be able to use them correctly, and it's quite possible for you to actually hurt your company's reputation (see “Misuse of Trending Hashtags” below for more information).

Instead, get a feel for Twitter—and at least a few dozen followers—before you try to hop onboard any hashtag trends.  This will make it much more likely that when you use trending hashtags, your use of them will be noticed and help get you even more followers.

How Do I Find Trending Hashtags?

One of the biggest websites for hashtag trends is WhatTheTrend.com.  Just like the website name implies, this site can help you find what trending hashtags are most popular today.  Because hashtag trends can change literally from day to day or even hour to hour, the site gives the option to look at trending hashtags on a range of time scales.

Keep in mind that if you use the biggest, trendiest hash tags of the moment, it's very likely that your post will be seen by a few eyes—but that's all, because before you know it, it will have disappeared from the top page of the feed.  When hundreds of posts per minute are being made on a topic, you'll have no way to keep your tweet visible.  

Because of this, it's often a good idea to look for trending hashtags that are slightly lower ranked.  With luck, you can get into the “sweet spot” in which many people are searching for a tag, but few enough people are posting with it that you can get several new followers from each tweet.

Misuse of Trending Hashtags

There are several ways that hashtag trends can lead to a diminished reputation and a great deal of corporate embarrassment.  For example, several companies have made the mistake of identifying trending hashtags, then trying to use them without fully understanding their meaning.  When bakery Entennman's saw that the hashtag #notguilty was trending, they assumed it was about food and made a tweet: “Who's #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?”

The problem was, #notguilty wasn't trending because of people who loved delicious baked goods.  It was coming from people outraged by the verdict in the Casey Anthony criminal trial.  Entenmann's got a lot of negative publicity for what members of the public perceived as callousness toward a murder case.

The Entenmann's debacle can teach lawyers (who could have easily gotten away with the #notguilty tag) a thing or two.  First of all, know what you're actually talking about before you just try to use hashtag trends to your advantage.  Not everything is obvious, and your own biases might be leading you to an incorrect conclusion.  Second, make sure that you're always using contextual trending hashtags.  Using hashtag trends won't really help you if they're so wildly out of context that they just don't make sense.

Using Trending Hashtags Effectively

Okay, so you've found the perfect hashtag trends to follow—they're at a great spot for getting followers and are absolutely contextual for what your law firm does.  Now what do you do?

Don't try to use the same tweet over and over throughout the day.  While some marketers suggest this, especially when using trending hashtags, it's a much better idea to vary up the content of your tweets even if they're using the same tag.  This prevents your Twitter followers from seeing the same tweet pop up over and over in their feed and seeing you as a spammer.

It's usually a good idea to use trending hashtags several times in a day, just not several times in an hour.  You might think you're catching more eyeballs by capitalizing on hashtag trends with repeated posts, but you're more likely to be alienating your followers.

Tracking Hashtag Trends

If you want to see which hashtags are trending right now, you have a lot of options.  But what if you want to see how a hashtag has performed over time?  Hashtags.org can help you to see whether a tag is becoming more or less popular, and whether it seems to go in cycles (for example, the hashtag #tgif is much more likely to be used on a Friday).  This can help you time your posts for optimum marketing potential.

With 400 million tweets being sent every day in 2012, Twitter and its “hashtag” system are becoming more important to law firm marketers all the time.  Among the tools in your Twitter marketing arsenal should be at least one good Twitter hashtag directory.  Learning to use a hashtag directory can be a little tricky at first, especially if you haven't used many hashtags yet, but with a little guidance you'll get the hang of it quickly.  This guide starts with the very basics of how a Twitter hashtag directory works, then looks at how law firm marketing professionals can make use of several online hashtag directory resources.

How a Twitter Hashtag Directory Works

On Twitter, anyone with an account can create whatever hashtag they want.  This amounts to millions of different hashtags being used in any given day, and can make it very hard to identify what hashtags you want to use.  Using a Twitter hashtag directory can help you to narrow down your choices for hashtags so that you're only using tags that will be effective and relatively popular.

Most of the time, a hashtag directory won't be compiled by one person.  Considering the number of new hashtags developed every day, it would be impossible for one person to create all the new entries in a Twitter hashtag directory.  Instead, a hashtag directory will usually depend on submissions from users.

Types of Twitter Hashtag Directory

Because there are different things that you might want to know about your hashtag, different hashtag directory systems have been developed on different websites.  One of the most basic of these websites is Hashtags.org, which is a Twitter hashtag directory providing users with basic information on the popularity of any hashtags of their choice.

By using Hashtags.org, you can check up on a graph of a hashtag's long and short term popularity.  But what if popularity isn't what you're looking for?  You may know that you've seen a particular hashtag a lot lately—let's say you've seen five different people you follow use #yolo—but you don't know what it means.  Before deciding to use it on your own Twitter feed, you should definitely check up with another Twitter hashtag directory, TagDef.  

Tagdef is a hashtag directory that keeps a listing of as many hashtags as have been submitted by users, and the definitions of those hashtags.  By using this Twitter hashtag directory, you look up the hashtag #yolo and find out that it means “you only live once”—not necessarily the sentiment you want your law firm to be expressing in an official tweet.  Using a hashtag directory for definitions can prevent unneeded embarrassment.

A third kind of Twitter hashtag directory involves geolocational cross referencing of Twitter hashtags.  If you want to see what a hashtag directory shows as being the most popular tags in your area, head over to TrendsMap.  This Twitter hashtag directory can display popular tags on a map, so that you can zoom in as much as you want and find out what's trending locally.

Finding the Right Twitter Hashtag Directory

If you're not happy with the results you're getting from a hashtag directory, keep in mind that there are dozens of competing websites out there.  As trends on Twitter change, it's very possible that some Twitter hashtag directory tools will fall out of favor or become less useful.  When you stop getting the kinds of results from a hashtag directory that you need, check some other directories out, and monitor blogs about Twitter marketing to find out what new directories have recently come on the scene.  Often, the newest tools offer the most sophisticated and up to date functionality.

Using a Hashtag Directory Correctly

If you're using a Twitter hashtag directory, make sure that you're using the right one for the right purpose.  You'll have much better luck getting geographic information from a hashtag directory that specializes in this information, for example.

It's also important not to use a Twitter hashtag directory of popular hashtags as a list of tags for your own Twitter feed to use.  Often, these extremely popular hashtags are so popular that your post will quickly “disappear” from being visible to people watching the hashtag for new posts.  If you're going to use a popular hashtag, try to do so at a time when you'll actually be seen by large numbers of people—you can often use a Twitter hashtag directory to find out when those times will be.

Beyond the Hashtag Directory: Making Your Own Tags

After you've watched Twitter hashtag directory listings for a while, you might want to try your hand at making a unique hashtag that no one else has used.  If you're doing this, you should check a hashtag directory or two first just to make sure that your tag hasn't been used before.  You may have to try several tag variants before finding one that will be exclusively yours.

If you're using a tag that is exclusively yours, you can then use some tracking tools to see where it spreads to and how its popularity changes.  Hashtags.org is a great tracking tool to see whether your hashtag ever catches on beyond your immediate circle of followers and friends.

Submitting Your Hashtags to a Twitter Hashtag Directory

Of course, once you make your own hashtags, you should also try to submit them to any hashtag directory that you think might be useful.  Some hashtag directories actually allow you to categorize hashtags so that you can put them into a useful category (for instance, law and legal issues).  If you're not submitting your hashtags to a Twitter hashtag directory, it will be harder for other people to find out the definition of your hashtag and how it has been used.

Some hashtag directories do keep track of hashtags automatically.  You won't need to submit a hashtag to these.  However, places like TagDef only list hashtags that have been submitted by users, so you'll need to write out a tag definition and post it there if you want the definition to be easily accessible by others.

About a third of companies today are using some form of link building to help them get noticed on the front page of search engine results.  If you want to get to Page 1, you'll have to do some link building of your own.  There are two different types of link building that are available to web marketers: one way link building and reciprocal link building.  Keep reading this guide to find out what the differences are and which of these types of links you should be focusing on as you seek better search rankings.

The Difference Between One Way and Reciprocal Link Building

Let's say there are two websites—a  law blog and your law firm site.  If you planned to engage in one way link building for your law firm website, you could try to have the law blog give you a link—perhaps based on a recent victory in a case, or some other aspect of your practice.

However, reciprocal links building is a bit different.  In reciprocal link building, the blog would link to your website, but you'd also have a link somewhere on your website that linked back to the same blog.  This is a good example of two way link building.  Three or even four way reciprocal links building is also done fairly commonly online.

Reciprocal Link Building: How to Get Started

The basics of reciprocal links building are so simple that just about anyone can get some reciprocal links.  You can start by talking to people that you know who also have websites relating to legal topics.  Context is important whether you're doing one way or reciprocal link building.  If you're doing reciprocal links building with websites that have little or nothing to do with the law or your practice area, Google is likely to take notice and penalize your site.

By asking to set up an exchange of links with friends, colleagues, or former classmates, you can build your link presence quickly and without needing to rely on automated link exchanges.  Reciprocal links building should be done at a steady and slow pace initially, so that your linking strategy doesn't seem like it is artificial.  Ideally, you want for your reciprocal link building to be viewed as entirely natural and contextual by Google and other search engines.  This gives you the best rankings rise.

One Way Link Building: How to Get Started

One way link building, like reciprocal links building, needs to be contextually based in order to give you the best results.  If you want to get started on building one way links, you can start by filling out information for profiles on websites like Google+ Local and any attorney directories hosted by local or state bar associations in your area.

If you've already made all these profiles and want to do more one way link building instead of using reciprocal link building, start using social networking to your advantage.  Not only are social networks one of the best places to build buzz for your legal services, they're also a great resource for getting the one way links you need.

Forms of Reciprocal Link Building to Avoid

No matter what, you should always avoid any kind of reciprocal links building that is completely automated.  Why?  Because if it's automated, that means it didn't have the level of quality control that you probably want representing your law firm.  Keep in mind that when you do reciprocal link building, you want linking partners that you can be proud of—or at least that you can justify on the basis of their website's content.

You should also avoid all reciprocal links building that revolves around non contextual websites, or that  goes to websites that sell goods or services that might be considered problematic for your customer base.  Keep in mind that because this is reciprocal link building, you'll need to provide a link to their website too, and your clients might see this as an endorsement of a scam product or service.

Huge reciprocal links building projects are also to be avoided.  If you create too many links through reciprocal link building, this sends up a red flag to Google that you're just trading links—which they perceive as only a little better than buying them outright.

Forms of One Way Link Building to Avoid

Just like reciprocal links building, one way link building can be of high or low quality.  If you're just building one way links anywhere you can, without any regard for the content of the websites you're getting links from, you may face penalties for over optimization.

Other types of one way link building that can lead to the same kind of over optimization penalty include trying to build too many links all at once, or trying to use too many links that come from the same IP address.

The general rule of thumb for both reciprocal links building and one way links building is that if your techniques could be interpreted as spam, you probably shouldn't use them.  Google is working every day to make it more difficult to game the system, so instead of trying to just get big numbers of high ranking links, you may want to focus on quality.

Which Should I Do More: One Way or Reciprocal Link Building?

While using bad techniques can get your website penalized by Google whether you're doing one way or reciprocal links building, it's important to realize that having too high a percentage of one way links is, on its own, a red flag.  Because of this, while you could implement a 100% one way link building strategy, any 100% reciprocal link building strategy is doomed to fail.

Usually, the websites with the best search engine optimization results are the ones using quality, “white hat” techniques to generate both one way and reciprocal links.  There's nothing wrong with doing some reciprocal links building—just keep in mind that you need to balance it out with a greater amount of one way link building afterward.

Is science really a part of doing marketing for a law firm?  Absolutely.  SEO analysis, which is the single best way to tell you whether your search engine optimization efforts have met their goals, works using reliable methods of scientific and statistical analysis.  That part scares some marketing professionals, but search is still the most popular way to find attorneys.  With some guidance you can apply these principles to do free SEO analysis even if you don't have a scientific background.

SEO Analysis: What Is It?

Many law firms, especially smaller firms and those located outside of large cities, just have a local web designer create a website that looks good and works for anyone who visits.  That's a good start, but how can you be sure that your content and design are actually as good as they can be?  How do you know you're getting the best possible results in all search engines?

SEO analysis seeks to answer these questions.  By using an SEO analyzer, you'll be able to see whether a particular version of a web page (whether it's your home page or a landing page for a specific search keyword) is actually stacking up.

There are other applications of free SEO analysis as well.  Some SEO analyzer tools actually seek out other keywords that are similar to the ones you're already using, so that you can identify new words to optimize your website for.  You can also use free SEO analysis to determine which keywords are generating more conversions.

Do I Really Need SEO Analysis?

While it's true that you can have a website that isn't using any SEO analyzer tools, it's not really advisable any more.  A few years ago, you could have gotten away with just some basic knowledge of how to make a pretty website, but now the competition is getting fierce.  Free SEO analysis is one of the best things you can do for your law firm without spending extra money on website services.

It's much easier to start building an optimized web presence now than it will be in just a few years, when there's even more competition and more law firms have figured out how to analyze their content for its SEO value.  Even very basic SEO analysis will put you ahead of the competition in some geographic areas, while other areas will require more advanced uses of free SEO analysis tools.

Setting Up SEO Analysis Split Tests

The canonical test that you'll use for your free SEO analysis tools is called a split, or A/B, test.  Split testing has been part of the scientific method for centuries, and many SEO analyzer tools rely on these tests to determine which page or keyword choices are working better for your law firm.

When you're split testing to do SEO analysis, you should only change a single variable at a time.  Multivariable SEO analyzer tools are much more complicated, and can be easier to misinterpret.  If you change more than one aspect of your website at a time (for instance, changing both who you're targeting with advertisements and the copy on your landing page), you won't know which change actually caused the results you're seeing.

  What Are the Best Free SEO Analysis Tools?

In order to do SEO analysis, you're going to need an SEO analyzer program that can help you understand your data.  There's simply too much data to be able to do your own free SEO analysis without using any software help at all.

One of the most commonly used SEO analyzer programs is Google Analytics.  This program, which Google actually bought several years ago from its original creators, has been continuously updated to reflect current best practice standards.  For free SEO analysis, it doesn't get much more legitimate and robust than Google.

Bing also now offers a suite of SEO analyzer programs.  One of the free SEO analysis tools offered by Bing is a speed tester, which detects how long it takes people to access your website.  Since Google now bases page rank in part on your website's speed, this is a very relevant metric.

You can also find a number of free SEO analysis toolbars and other free web tools that can give you great results with the data you've already gathered.  There's often no need to buy an SEO analyzer, because the tools for SEO analysis that work best are offered for free by multiple companies.

The Biggest SEO Problem You Can Start Fixing Today

Let's say that you've had an issue with some pages on your website getting significantly less traffic than you'd like.  You've designed several different split tests and all of them have shown the exact same thing: that no changes to the copy are helping.

When this happens, it's easy to give up and just decide that certain keywords or niches just aren't popular in your area.  But what if your SEO analyzer says that the keywords are still just as popular as ever?  Now you've got something interesting on your hands.  When this happens, apply your skills with free SEO analysis to changing something other than the copy.

What else can you change?  Try changing who you're targeting.  By buying some direct advertisements, you can do some SEO analysis with your SEO analyzer tools. Some split tests for targeting can reveal who your ideal audience for this particular page will be.  

The Future of SEO Analysis

As the web becomes increasingly integrated across multiple platforms, it's likely that the amount of data we're collecting will just get larger.  With more data, free SEO analysis will get even easier.  The SEO analyzer of the future may be much better at predicting behavior and pinpointing the exact reason that some pages are generating conversions while others aren't.

It's also likely that SEO analysis will become easier for regular people.  With more and more companies producing SEO analyzer programs that even beginners can use, and often releasing them for free, SEO is about to become something that literally any company, even the smallest, can use successfully.