It's hard to be in the online world for very long without hearing about page ranking.  Page Rank is a system developed at Google that assigns a number of 0-10 to every indexed web page on the internet.  The algorithms behind page ranking are shrouded in mystery, but there are a number of intelligent internet marketers who have figured out a great deal of what makes Google's system tick.  In this guide, we'll explore Page Rank, and show ways to use your new knowledge of page ranking to improve your website's performance and effectiveness.

A Brief History of Page Ranking

In many ways, Page Rank is the algorithm that built the multi-billion dollar Google empire.  At the time when Google debuted, it was the brainchild of two former grad students who had made a search engine they dubbed “Backrub” as a university project.  Their search engine was different from all other search engines at the time, in the mid-1990s, because unlike the other searches out there, theirs depended on a website's popularity, not just its keyword density.

As Google grew from a tiny two-person operation to the world's biggest search engine ever, with a 66 percent market share, the page ranking algorithm continued to grow and evolve.  Websites found new ways to try to manipulate Page Rank, and Google's engineers followed right behind with alterations to the algorithm to level the playing field again.

The Logarithmic Page Rank Scale: How it Works

When people first hear about the page ranking 0-10 scale, many assume that it is an arithmetic scale—that is, that the 10% most popular websites will get a 10, the next 10% will get a 9, and so on.  However, this is not the way that Google Page Rank works, or has ever worked.

Instead, page ranking on Google is done through what's called a logarithmic scale.  Without getting too deeply into the math, what this means is that there are far, far fewer pages at each successively higher Page Rank.  In fact, only about twenty websites are able to attain the elusive PageRank of 10 at any time.  This means that it's wildly unlikely that your website will ever be able to achieve a 9 or a 10 page ranking number, but that it can actually be relatively easy to move through the first several Page Ranks.

Why Page Rank Matters Today

Today, in one way or another, page ranking will determine the vast majority of how well your website performs in search rankings.  If you want people to see your website in the first page of search results, you need to be at least somewhat concerned with the Page Rank not only of your website, but also of the websites linking to you.

Today, inbound links account for the majority of your search engine rankings, and not all links have the same value.  If you're getting a link from a website with a high PageRank, you can expect a much bigger search results climb than if you got a link from a website with a low PageRank.  In fact, if you get too many links from sites with lower page ranking, you can actually be listed as over optimized by Google and penalized.

Factors That Affect Page Ranking in 2012

To say that Google bases Page Rank on a large number of variables is a bit of an understatement.  Currently, Google claims that Page Rank is based on over five hundred million variables, and so figuring out how to get the best page ranking is somewhat challenging.

However, we do know a lot about what affects PageRank, just because of seeing what works and what doesn't.  We know that popularity affects page ranking more than just about anything, and that Google also takes into account the total PageRank of a website (the PageRank of all individual pages on a website added together).

We also know that your Page Rank can be significantly affected by the linking patterns you're using.  If you're linking to a large number of low quality sites and low quality sites are the only ones linking to you, you can expect your page ranking to stay quite low.

Improving Your Page Rank: Tips and Strategies

One of the best ways that you can improve your page ranking is to make sure that you're part of social networking websites.  These sites have many pages with high Page Rank, and when you build inbound links from social networking sites you'll receive a bigger overall boost to your search rankings.

Many people try to automate their link building in order to enhance their page ranking without doing a lot of work.  This can seem like an excellent strategy in the short term, but it is likely to fail on a longer time scale.  Google has procedures in place to detect link automation, and you are very likely to be penalized by Google if you are seen to be over optimizing your site by automating link building.

Monitoring Your Page Rank

You should keep track of your own website's page ranking periodically, to make sure that it hasn't gone up or down unexpectedly.  If you see a negative change to your Page Rank, you may want to check on your links.  If a large number of links from your website are coming from low Page Rank websites, or you've recently had a number of links stop coming to your site, you may want to ask webmasters to remove or replace your links, respectively.

If your Page Rank has gone up unexpectedly, congratulations!  You should make sure that you know why your page ranking has increased, and you may want to continue growing your website's inbound link numbers using the same strategies that you've been using.  Often, PageRank can go up (especially in the lower levels) from just one or two pieces of widely circulated viral content, so it's absolutely achievable to boost your rankings quickly, especially when you're just starting out.
 

A hundred years ago, if you'd wanted to find a lawyer to resolve a legal dispute, you'd have asked your friends and relatives if they could recommend one to you.  Fifty years ago, and even twenty, not much had changed—word of mouth was still the most important factor in finding a new attorney.  Today, the legal landscape has been changed forever by the internet.  Attorney websites have become the single biggest marketing tool for most law firms, and online referral has become one of the biggest ways for people to find their lawyers today.  Keep reading to find out how you can maximize your online referrals and expand your reach through online marketing efforts.

What's So Special About Online Referrals?

When someone refers a client to you in person, that's great, but it's not as good as an online referral.  Why?  Because any time an in-person referral happens, it's over in an instant, and chances are that nobody heard about it except for the person the referral was intended for.  Online referrals, on the other hand, offer something very different: the chance to have a referral seen by a large number of people, including people that you wouldn't normally have a direct or indirect connection to.

Because online referrals extend your reach so much, it's worth cultivating a presence on online referral websites.  Without them, you'll be giving your competitors a great opening—and that's something you can't afford to do in today's hotly competitive legal business world.

Building Profiles to Get Online Referrals

The first thing that you need to do if you want to increase your online referral traffic is to start building profiles on websites.  Building profiles is generally the first step to making it easier for people to find your law offices online and refer clients to you, so it's the best place to start.  Try building profiles on a large number of websites, including social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, review websites, and attorney directories.

In many states and metropolitan areas, the state or local bar association also offers online referral services through its website.  Usually, the way this works is basically identical to a phone based referral from a bar association: the potential client calls, details their problem, and someone is trained to refer them to an attorney who specializes in the appropriate area based on their concerns.  

By getting onto the list of attorneys who receive online referrals and phone based referrals, you can significantly increase the number of new clients you receive from referral based sources.  In some cases, you may have to pay additional money to your bar association in order to receive this service, while in others you will only need to agree to accept a free or reduced fee initial first consultation with each online referral you receive.

Online Referrals Through Social Networks

Social networking through LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter is some of the best value you can get for your search engine marketing time.  Using these sites helps your website in myriad ways, not the least of which is by giving you yet another origination point for an online referral.  People talk on these websites about everything interesting to them, and as long as you make sure you have a profile on the appropriate websites, you'll get online referrals through your existing clients who are on Facebook.

You can also boost your online referral numbers by sponsoring a post and telling your Facebook friends to give you reviews.  Sponsoring posts on Facebook is now easier than ever, after an update released on October 11, 2012 allowed any person (whether or not they were affiliated with a business marketing page on Facebook) to promote a story at relatively low cost.  Because sponsored stories are seen by a larger percentage of your total friends, sponsoring stories can be an effective and cheap way to build your online referral business.

Online Referrals Through Review Websites

Online reviews for attorneys from websites like yelp.com and avvo.com have become one of the biggest sources of consumer information for people looking for new lawyers.  If you're not already signed up on these websites, you probably aren't receiving the online referral traffic you could be.

What's more, having profiles on these websites can help you to actually solidify and improve your practice.  If you notice similar criticisms being levied at your firm by several different former clients, don't get defensive—get proactive about changing the climate at your office before you get another mediocre review or worse.  By monitoring review pages, you can also make sure that the reviews you're getting contain a genuine online referral and aren't just placed there by competitors to make you look bad.

Often, if you ask people on your social networks whether they'll post reviews for you on these sites, they'll say yes.  Their testaments to your ability can be the best source of online referral traffic for your site for months or even years, if the reviews are good enough.

Online Referrals Through Attorney Link Exchange

One of the other ways to build an online referral base is to start exchanging links with some of your fellow attorneys.  You don't do tax law, but one of your best friends from law school does, just across town.  You do criminal defense, and he doesn't.  This is a perfect situation for a link exchange.  Both of you can benefit from this, and you won't be taking any traffic from each other's websites that the other person could have successfully handled on his own.  Make sure to check with your state bar about ethics rules pertaining to these link exchanges before you do them—no need to get in trouble because you didn't ask about the rules for your specific area.

Tracking and Analyzing Online Referrals

Once you're getting some online referral traffic, you should think about doing some analysis of it.  Analyzing your online referrals can help you prioritize your time and decide which aspects of your referral generating strategy still need work.  Using Google Analytics on your website can help you learn where your web traffic is coming from and where it's going to, which in turn makes it much easier to decide which of your referral sources work and which ones are less than optimal.

Attorneys today are all looking for a way to get an edge on their competitors.  With over 85 percent of legal clients doing online research before even having an initial consultation with an attorney, online marketing techniques are becoming the single most vital part of lawyer marketing strategy.  One part of your online marketing that you should never neglect is website URL submission.  Free website URL submission is one of the easiest ways to get your website out there in front of people, and this guide will teach you how to do it.

Why Your Law Firm Site Needs Website URL Submission

When you make your website “live” by publishing it, you may be surprised to learn that you can't find it using Google, Bing, Yahoo, or any other search engine—at least, not right away.  These websites all use programs that “crawl” the web through existing links, trying to find new links through connections made by the old ones.  But maybe you don't want to wait for a web crawler to find your website—that's where website URL submission comes in.

Free website URL submission is slightly different on every website, but once you've submitted, your website will become part of a search engine's index.  This means that you'll actually be able to find yourself in search results—and, more importantly, after your website URL submission, other people will be able to find you.

Keep in mind that the process isn't instantaneous, and that it will take some time for your free website URL submission to start showing up in actual searches.  When you do your website URL submission to Google or Bing, for example, it can actually take four to six weeks to see your initial rise in rankings for your site's keywords.  While it's possible for this to happen more quickly—say, within two or three days—it's generally better to underpromise and overdeliver.

Finding Places for Free Website URL Submission

The best places to start your website URL submission spree are search engines.  If you want to, you can start to build a list of search engines so that you can get both obscure and common ones on your list of places to do a free website URL submission.  However, keep in mind that over 85 percent of search traffic comes from search algorithms made by just two websites: Bing (owned by Microsoft and responsible for about 20 percent of search traffic due to delivering results for both bing.com and yahoo.com) and Google.

By submitting to Bing and to Google, you'll be making sure that your free website URL submission reaches the most people possible.  If you only have minutes to do all of your website URL submission, those sites should be your first stops.  However, keep in mind that 15 percent of traffic is nothing to sneeze at—think of what a big deal it would be to see a 15 percent boost to your overall revenue numbers!  Doing free website URL submission to more obscure search engines, like Ask, can be very useful if you want to capitalize on the searches other people (like your competitors) aren't paying attention to.

You can also do website URL submission on directory sites.  You can use either general web directories, or more specific directory listings that only list attorney websites.  Both are good choices, and there's no reason not to diversify where you do your free website URL submission.

Avoid Placing Your Website URL Submission in These Places

Diversifying your free website URL submission locations doesn't mean that you should just insert yourself into every directory, though.  Some directories are completely without rules, and allow just about anyone to put their website in—even if it doesn't meet basic quality guidelines.  These directories generally aren't a good place to do website URL submission.  

Why?  Because Google actually keeps track of these unselective directories and devalues links coming from them.  This means that even though your link from a directory will still potentially give you some direct traffic, it's very unlikely that you will actually get any real authority, or link juice, that helps you move higher in search rankings.

Preparing to Make Your Free Website URL Submission

There are some things that you should do before you do any website URL submission at all. For example, you may want to work on your website's design and content first.  A website with poor web design may not meet Google's quality requirements for an acceptable free website URL submission.  You should make sure that it can display on several different browsers, including mobile browsers (or you can have an automatic redirect to a mobile site for mobile users).

You should also make sure that your hosting has relatively high speed.  Low speed can actually hamper your rankings, and when you do your website URL submission, Google will check out the speed your pages are delivered at.  You may want to run a test on your website before your free website URL submission to verify that page load times are low enough to avoid penalties from search engines.

Automating Website URL Submission with Software

If you don't want to do free website URL submission on just one website at a time, there is software that can help you to get it done more efficiently.  Website URL submission software makes it easy to, with a single click, send your website to many different search engines and directories.  You'll just need to fill your information in once, and then it will be saved and given in the proper format to as many different websites as you like.

Once you've gotten automated free website URL submission software, you should also make sure that your sites include a site index.  This will greatly increase the efficiency with which search engines will index your various web pages, and will make it much easier for people who are looking at your website to find the page they're looking for if they become lost or confused.

Over 90 percent of web search traffic comes from just half a dozen major search engine companies.  With so many people on the internet using the same tools to search, free website search engine submission has become very important for any lawyer looking to make sure that his or her website can be found easily online. 

If you've never done website search engine submission before, you might be intimidated, but don't worry—this is actually one of the easiest tasks you can do to start your search engine marketing.  We'll take it slowly in this guide and show you how to start with free website search engine submission, and what your next steps should be after it's done.

Indexing: Why Website Search Engine Submission Matters

So you've made your website, and you go to Google to search for it.  What comes up?  Not a thing!  Why?  Because of one word: indexing.  Google constantly maintains an index of all of the pages the search engine links to.  If you're not in the index, as far as Google—and the 2/3 of web searchers who use it—are concerned, you don't even really exist yet.

You can change all that in several different ways.  Google has programs designed to follow all available links and see where they go.  These programs, called “spiders” because they crawl on the web looking for links, can find you once you've accumulated some inbound links from other sites.  But what if you don't want to wait for these crawlers to find your website?  After all, doing that can take months, and you don't have that kind of time.

Instead of waiting to be indexed, you can do free website search engine submission.  Website search engine submission gives you the sure knowledge that a search engine has received your site and will index it as quickly as possible, as long as it meets content guidelines.

Website Search Engine Submission: Google and Bing

The two biggest search engines—where you should definitely do a free website search engine submission—are Google and Bing.  A few years ago, this article would have said “Google and Yahoo,” but today, Yahoo's search results are also served up by Microsoft's Bing search engine.  These two search engines will only take ten minutes to make a website search engine submission to—and those two submissions will put your website into the searches used by over 80% of web users.

To start by putting your first free website search engine submission URL into Google, go to www.google.com/submityourcontent.  When you go to this web page, you'll see a place for website search engine submission, and you should click there.  By following the step by step instructions on the web page, you'll be able to do a free website search engine submission within minutes.

Bing's procedure works in much the same way, and will also give you guidance in case you've never done a website search engine submission before.  Both of these websites also allow you to submit a site index in a specific format.  If you want to submit a site index (which is a very good idea in addition to doing your free website search engine submission), you should make sure first that it is in the correct format—an incorrectly formatted site index will be rejected and won't give you any better search rankings.

Don't Expect Instant Results

If you expect for your free website search engine submission to start giving you new clients right away, your expectations may need to be toned down.  Even after you do a website search engine submission, it still will take some time for your site to actually start appearing in the search results that normal web users are getting.

If you're not starting to see your website appear in searches after several weeks, you may want to inquire with a search engine to make sure that your submission was properly received and that it met all guidelines.  If there has been a mistake and your site wasn't indexed, the mistake will generally be corrected promptly.

You will usually see faster increases to your search rankings if you submitted your site index in addition to your traditional website search engine submission.  This is because site indices make it substantially easier for Google to look at all the different web pages on your site, not just your front page.

Beyond Website Search Engine Submission: Directory Links

Free website search engine submission is great, but without inbound links, it's likely that not many people will actually see the website that you've created.  That's because Google and other search engines base your search engine rankings in large part on the number and quality level of the inbound links you are able to build.

If you want to start building high quality inbound links to help make your website search engine submission successful, you can start by putting your website into directories.  Usually, the process for submitting your URL to a directory of websites is very similar to the process for free website search engine submission.

You should pay especially close attention to directories of other attorneys.  These are contextual directories and will be more valuable for your search engine results than more general directories that are not selective about what kinds of websites they accept through their submissions process.

Updating Your Website Search Engine Submission

As your website changes and expands, you may find that you need a site redesign to keep pace with changes to search algorithms or just changing tastes.  When you update your website, especially if you're updating the structure of the pages, you need to do a few things: you need to create redirects so that people coming to your old pages are directed to similar content on your newly designed website, and you need to do the free website search engine submission process again.

It may be effective to download a program online that helps you do free website search engine submission automatically.  These programs are not penalized by any search engines, and offer a convenient solution for busy marketing professionals who want to do website search engine submission as quickly as possible.

Having a strategy to increase backlinks to your website can improve your SERPs by leaps and bounds. However, only about a third of companies today are pursuing these strategies.  If you're not sure how to increase backlinks without spamming, or you're unsure what your backlink presence should look like, this guide is for you.  By the time you're finished reading this guide, you'll have learned how to increase backlinks in half a dozen ways—none of which require you to spend money or use spam content.

Warning: Trying to Increase Backlinks Can Backfire

Before you learn how to increase backlinks, you should know about the limits of backlink building.  If you increase backlinks too quickly or do so by using low quality links, you not only won't get an increase to your search engine results, you could actually see them decline.

That's because Google Penguin notices what appear to be unnatural link building efforts, and punishes websites that have clearly worked to increase backlinks by spamming other websites and using non-organic link building techniques.  Therefore, your emphasis should be on how to increase backlinks organically (or at least, in a way that seems organic to Google's algorithms).  You can do this by working to increase backlinks from high PageRank pages, and by building your backlink presence slowly.

The worst things you can do to increase backlinks include spamming blog comments and plastering the same articles everywhere.  These techniques may appear in some guides on how to increase backlinks, but they only worked before Google's algorithms became more complex and better at detecting over optimization.

How to Increase Backlinks With Your Blog

So with many ways to increase backlinks no longer working, how can you make sure you're getting the backlink presence your website wants and needs to be competitive in today's economy?  A great place to start is with your blog.  Attorneys have adoped blogging faster than nearly any other profession, perhaps because their jobs are already so focused on writing and explaining legal principles.

If you already maintain a blog, you also probably read other people's law blogs.  If there are any law bloggers that you admire, or even a few you just get along with really well, consider asking for a guest blogger arrangement.  This is a great way to increase backlinks with really high quality content—content that may drive web users to your website even without using a search engine.

Lawyers who don't have blogs yet can still learn how to increase backlinks using them.  Instead of guest posts, you will have to use the comments sections.  Make sure that any comments you make are direct responses to the things discussed in the blog post—otherwise, they will probably be moderated away and won't increase backlinks for you at all.

How to Increase Backlinks With Press Releases

Press releases can be a fantastic way to increase backlinks, as long as you've got something to talk about.  A press release that just looks like an advertisement for your firm, without a lot of meat or any angle for a reporter to really report on, is likely to be ignored.  It used to be that many companies would just increase backlinks with press releases by posting them to press release websites.  However, this kind of backlink strategy now fails most of the time, because these press release websites are viewed as very low quality link sources by Google's Panda algorithm.

Instead, work with your local media and see what kind of legal stories they usually run.  If you can fit your story into one of the kinds of pieces they often do, you'll be able to increase backlinks and get a lot of positive media attention focused on your firm.  When you learn how to increase backlinks with the media, you're doing double duty—not only will your search engine rankings improve, but you'll improve your reputation and prominence in your community.

How to Increase Backlinks With Reciprocal Linking

Now, before you start to increase backlinks in this way, a word of caution: it's okay to have some reciprocal backlinks.  However, if Google notices that all or almost all of your backlinks appear to be reciprocal instead of one way, it may view this as a sign of over optimization that draws a rankings penalty.

It's easy to increase backlinks through reciprocal linking.  All you need to do is approach another person running a website in a similar situation to yours.  By linking to them, and them linking to you, you'll both look more popular and have better search rankings.

How to Increase Backlinks With .Edu Websites

The hardest domains to increase backlinks from are .edu and .gov websites.  While it's very, very difficult for anyone—even attorneys—to get backlinks from a .gov website, it can actually be easier than you think to get backlinks from .edu domains.

Consider doing a profile or interview with a college newspaper or law school publication about what you do and how to become a lawyer of the same type you are.  These kinds of pieces often appear both in print publications at the school and online.  The online version can contain a backlink to your website that will be considered very valuable because it came from a .edu domain.

How to Increase Backlinks With Local Listings

Another way to improve your backlink presence is to think very, very local.  Don't dismiss local websites, even if they are relatively low in PageRank or seem like they were designed several years ago.  Google takes note of how many local websites you're receiving backlinks from when people do geolocational searches for lawyers.  With 20 percent of legal searches being local—and local searchers being more likely to convert right away—this means your local websites can be a great way to bump up your rankings and your conversions.

Some of the best local backlinks you can get are from local directories.  If you're in a relatively small city or town, they might have listings of local businesses on the local government website.  Other directories you'll want to become part of include chamber of commerce directories, your local Yellow Pages, and Google+ Local.

Backlink professionals have been pushing the idea of building .edu backlinks for a long time.  There are several reasons why this is the case, and as Google's search algorithms have evolved, these backlinks have only become more valuable.  But does your law firm really need .edu backlinks, and if so, how can it get the backlinks it needs?  Can you simply buy .edu backlinks, or is there a better way?  All these questions and more will be answered by the end of this guide.

What Are .Edu Backlinks?

Backlinks are just the links that go to your website from the websites of other people.  When these backlinks come from a .edu website, they're called .edu backlinks.  Unlike most other top level domain names, there are very few websites—less than 8,000 in total—that use .edu.  This is because you can't just use a .edu domain name for any website.  Instead, websites that want to use .edu must meet stringent requirements.

Since 2001, the .edu top level domain has only been able to be used by accredited institutions of postsecondary education located in or affiliated with the United States.  There are, however, still hundreds of websites from before 2001 that used the .edu domain and have been grandfathered in.  These websites include those for museums like San Francisco's Exploratorium and high schools like the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

Much like other backlinks, these are weighted by Google according to the authority level of the website that the backlink comes from.  However, there are some key differences, and it's these differences that make people want to buy .edu backlinks.

Why Would I Want .Edu Backlinks?

There are several different reasons that you might want to intentionally cultivate .edu backlinks, or that you might even think it would be a good idea to buy .edu backlinks directly.  First of all, these backlinks, more than those from any other domain (with the possible exception of the .gov domain, which is exclusively used by government agencies), are quite difficult to get and tend to carry a great deal of cachet.  Your competition is not very likely to be using .edu backlinks, at least not many, so it can give you a great competitive edge.

Additionally, Google considers .edu websites to universally be more authoritative than a website with a similar PageRank but a different domain name.  This means that if you can get free .edu backlinks or buy .edu backlinks for your website, you can actually increase your search ranking results dramatically, even with a relatively small number of added and indexed links.

Can I Just Buy .Edu Backlinks?

The short answer to this question is “yes,” but the long answer is “Yes, but why would you want to?”  In general, anywhere you buy .edu backlinks from is going to be getting the links themselves for free.  The only thing they're doing is spotting opportunities for posting on .edu domains, which is something that you can do for yourself.

Moreover, if you try to buy .edu backlinks, the service you use is unlikely to post quality content.  Most of the places that you can post .edu backlinks are moderated, which means that when bad quality content is posted, it will be deleted quickly.  Because it can take Google several days, weeks, or even months to index your new backlinks, just because you buy .edu backlinks from a service doesn't mean they won't be moderated out of existence before they ever get indexed.

Google is also employing increasingly advanced detection algorithms to help spot anyone who is clearly purchasing backlinks.  If you buy .edu backlinks and the service you hire leaves too clear a trail of breadcrumbs, Google might penalize your website or even de-list it completely.  As a lawyer, that's a fate you absolutely cannot afford to meet.  Use extreme caution if you decide to buy .edu backlinks, and the better idea is to develop your own .edu backlinks using organic marketing techniques.

How Many .Edu Backlinks Should I Have?

The number of .edu backlinks that you get isn't as important as the quality of each of the links.  If you're able to post very high quality and high relevance backlinks, especially if they're in keeping with the context of the rest of the .edu website, you may be able to do quite well.  Keep in mind that your amount of link juice is much higher for the same PageRank .edu website than it would be with a similarly ranked .org or .com website.

You should make sure that you don't try to build your .edu backlinks too quickly.  If you do, Google will take this as a sign that you may have tried to buy .edu backlinks and you will be penalized.  Especially when you're just beginning your link building efforts, try to confine yourself to creating just one or two of these backlinks every day.  As long as you're consistent, you'll still be able to build up a large number of links in a few months.

Finding the Best Sources for .Edu Backlinks

Lawyers have a huge advantage over other types of business professionals when it comes to building .edu links, because lawyers—unlike almost any other type of business pro—can get great backlinks from the websites of law schools.  Check with law schools near you to see if you might be able to give a talk in the evening sometime.  Often, these talks will be publicized on a page on the law school's website—a page which may link to your law firm's site or your biography on that site.

Another way to get these backlinks without having to buy .edu backlinks is to make relevant posts on forums that are hosted on .edu websites.  This will probably work better if you're talking about legal issues that are relevant to students at the postsecondary level of the forum posters.  Criminal defense attorneys, for example, may have good luck using .edu backlinks by talking about what to do if you're pulled over by a cop for underage drinking and driving.

Backlinking can account for up to 70 percent of your website's total search engine rankings.  When you're assembling backlinks to bring “link juice” to your website, you need to know how to get free one way backlinks.  One way anchor text backlinks are some of the best possible backlinks you can get to your website, and there's no reason to pay for them.  In fact, paid for one way backlinks may be a very bad idea.  Keep reading to find out why—and to learn how to get the best free one way backlinks possible for your law firm site.

One Way vs. Reciprocal Backlinks: Not Treated Equally

Why does it matter if a backlink is reciprocal (there are backlinks on two different websites to each other) or one way?  That has to do with web history.  Reciprocal backlinking was, for some time, the primary way that most webmasters and search engine marketers build their backlink presence.  However, this could easily be abused: imagine if 1000 different people, each with very low quality, spam websites, decided to put reciprocal backlinks to each other on their websites.  Would you want them to show up high in the search rankings just because of these links, even without quality content?

When search engines noticed this problem, they worked to fix it by weighting one way backlinks more than reciprocal backlinks.  This means that if you have a one way anchor text backlink, you'll get significantly more link juice from this link than you would from a reciprocal anchor text link.

Why You Should Only Have Free One Way Backlinks

Some businesses, looking to build their one way anchor text backlinks quickly, try to purchase one way backlinks instead of generating them organically.  However, these non-organic one way backlinks are likely to be penalized by Google.  Google has become much better at detecting paid one way anchor text backlinks, and you're unlikely to be successful with this strategy for long.  Since you have a professional business and aren't just a cheap online retailer, you can't afford to stake your reputation on one way backlinks that could backfire.

Besides, there are plenty of places to find free one way backlinks.  For example, you can get your own one way anchor text backlinks by making real, insightful comments on blogs, or by creating links on Youtube, social networking sites, or even directories of businesses that are maintained by your municipality or local chamber of commerce.  These opportunities for free one way backlinks mean that it's usually a waste of time and energy to pay for them.

Varying Your One Way Anchor Text Backlinks

Your free one way backlinks need to have some variance in their anchor text today if they're to help you get better search rankings.  When Google sees one way anchor text backlinks that all have the exact same anchor text, it assumes that you're using some sort of automated backlink creation method.  When those one way backlinks are detected, you're very likely to be penalized instead of seeing your rankings climb.

Because of this, it's very important to change up exactly what link text brings visitors to your website from free one way backlinks.  One way anchor text backlinks should have many different variations, including not just your brand keywords or exact keyword matches, but also a natural looking mix of other phrases and words.  Keep in mind that you can have some identical one way anchor text backlinks, just not too many as an overall proportion of your total backlinks.

The Best Ways to Get Free One Way Backlinks

Since you can't just offer to do a backlink exchange with another website when you need one way anchor text backlinks, you'll have to get creative.  A great way to get free one way backlinks is to include yourself on directory websites.  For example, if your local bar association or chamber of commerce has directories that include URLs, this is a great way to get one way backlinks—sometimes, though not always, for free (or included with the price of your membership).

You can also get free one way backlinks by posting to blogs in the comments section, or in web forums.  In order for your one way anchor text backlinks to stay up as blog comments or forum posts, you'll need to make sure that they're actually relevant to the content of the web page that you're linking from.  If you're posting irrelevant spam, you'll see your free one way backlinks disappear before Google can ever index them.

One way to get a huge influx of one way backlinks is to create an infographic.  While the initial infographic creation may cost money, you won't have to pay for your one way anchor text backlinks.  Infographics are a great way to increase interest in your website and improve your own PageRank fast.

Use Caution With One Way Backlinks Services

You may have seen services advertising their ability to build hundreds of one way anchor text backlinks in a few days or weeks.  While these services have been quite profitable for their proprietors, it's not usually a good idea to get your one way backlinks in this way.  Why?  Because usually, these services are creating low quality content that will only serve to hurt the reputation of your law firm.

What's more, most services of this type are using the exact same free one way backlinks resources that we've already discussed in this guide.  You can do the same thing that they're doing, while creating content that your law firm will be proud of instead of content that is likely to be disregarded by viewers or even that will lead to you being perceived as a spammer.  There's no need to pay for your one way anchor text backlinks when free one way backlinks resources abound all over the web.  Make the most of your social network and the blogosphere, rather than hiring a service to take a one way backlinks shortcut for you.

Once you've got good backlinks to your website, you may think that your backlink building work is done.  Not so—it can take weeks or even months for Google and other search engines to index your backlinks.  During that time, your search engine rankings will be the same as they've ever been, rather than reflecting the progress you've made on link building.  To get that link juice flowing to your website faster, you might be thinking about using a piece of software like Backlink Energizer or Backlink Booster.  In this guide, we'll take a look at these pieces of software and help you understand their pros and cons so that you can make an informed decision about using them for your backlinks.

What Is Backlink Energizer?

One of the ways that you can get your backlinks indexed faster by Google is to have backlinks made to your backlinks.  Backlink Energizer is a backlink indexing tool that is hosted on a WordPress blog.  Rather than hosting this plugin on your already existing website or WordPress installation, you set up “drone” accounts that are only designed to post backlinks to your backlinks.

According to the creator of Backlink Energizer, in initial tests, websites that weren't using any backlink indexer typically see 20% or so of their backlinks indexed within 90 days.  Websites that use Backlink Energizer, on the other hand, tend to see about 75-85% of their links indexed in the same time span.  Currently, Backlink Energizer costs about $50.

Keep in mind that you should only use this piece of software if you already have spent time building good backlinks.  If you don't already have a large number of backlinks to your website, you need to work on that before purchasing any kind of backlink indexing software like Backlink Energizer.

What Is Backlink Booster?

Another service designed to encourage Google to index your backlinks, Backlink Booster works in a similar way to Backlink Energizer.  In much the same way as with Backlink Energizer, you should probably not use Backlink Booster unless you already have a significant backlink presence on the web.

Instead of working from a WordPress install, Backlink Booster is a standalone service.  It is sold on a subscription basis, and can incorporate not only your blog backlinks but also any social media services that you use in order to better help with indexing your backlinks.

If you want to try Backlink Booster but aren't sure that you want to commit to paying the monthly subscription price (anywhere from $19 for a “Lite” account with limited functionality to $599 for the Enterprise package), you can do a five day risk free trial.  This allows you to “test drive” the backlink indexing tools offered by Backlink Booster and see if they're right for your website.  In some cases, you may find that you actually want to create more backlinks first before even starting to use this kind of indexing tool.

Are Backlink Booster and Backlink Energizer Effective?

Hundreds of people all over the web have reviewed Booster and Energizer.  Unfortunately, their results have been quite mixed.  While some people praise both pieces of software, it's more common for people to have a less than satisfactory result.

Several online reviews have noticed very similar results: after their search engine rankings initially climb substantially while using these tools, they later taper off or even start dropping.  Others noticed very little difference from what they might have expected without using any special backlink indexing software at all: for example, one review noted that after 6 months, only 23 percent of backlinks that were “boosted” by Backlink Booster had actually been indexed by any search engine.

These mixed reports may reflect differences in the nature of the original backlinks—for example, it wouldn't be surprising if these programs had more success in boosting or energizing high quality backlinks than low quality ones.  However, until more testing can be done to understand what makes the difference, it's unclear why the effectiveness varies so significantly from website to website.

Backlink Energizer, Backlink Booster, and Google Penguin

One thing that has had a significant effect on all backlinks and backlink indexing tools is an algorithm update called Google Penguin.  Google Penguin works by penalizing websites that are perceived as being artificially search engine optimized instead of relying on quality content and organic backlinks.

Because of this algorithm change, Backlink Energizer and Backlink Booster have gotten updates.  Each now claims to be Penguin-proof, using secret networks of high PageRank websites that Google has yet to detect are being used for artificial backlinking purposes.

Even with these changes, some webmasters have reported seeing their search engine rankings drop due to Penguin after using these tools.  What's more, it's very unlikely that Penguin will be the last update done to try to foil artificial search engine optimization.  What seems like a “safe” website to have backlinks on today may not be once new updates roll out.

Conclusion: Should You Use Backlink Energizer/Backlink Booster?

The mixed reports about the efficacy of Backlink Energizer and Backlink Booster should make you think twice about using either of these pieces of software.  If you're considering using any type of backlink indexing program, you should at a minimum ask for a trial period and try the software out for yourself first.  If you're not seeing significant increases in your backlink indexing within the trial period, you probably don't want to subscribe on a long term basis.

It may well be that the time of generating easy automated backlinks has just about come to an end, as Google increases its ability to detect and penalize any website that uses these techniques.  You may be better off focusing your attention on generating organic backlinks using high quality content and social networking.  This kind of backlinking is unlikely to ever result in penalties from search engines, so you can count on it as a long term strategy instead of just using it for now.

If you've been learning how to build backlinks, you might feel overwhelmed by the information.  Changes to how Google sees backlink building have affected a total of about 15 percent of all web searches.  In the midst of all this change, you may be wondering if you should use some kind of automated backlink builder software to help you create your backlinks.  In this guide, you'll learn tips and tricks about how to build backlinks, and why backlink builder tools are no longer as useful as they once were.

The Rise of the Machines: Automated Backlink Building

A decade ago, search engine optimization (SEO) was more about creating the right keyword density and using the right keywords than learning how to build backlinks.  However, as search engines became increasingly sophisticated, they started looking for measures of “authority” on websites—in other words, how many other websites trusted them.

One quick way to find out how much authority a website has is to look at its overall number of backlinks.  As this became more weighted, learning how to build backlinks became increasingly important for search engine optimization professionals.  Backlink building became a science, and as people learned how to create backlinks fast, backlink builder software began to emerge.

Usually, backlink building software worked by generating automatic comments on blogs and content on affiliate marketing websites or press release sites.  When marketers began to learn how to build backlinks with a backlink builder, it seemed like a dream come true: it no longer took a great deal of work to make a website appear early in search results.

The Problems With Automated Backlink Building

It wasn't long before there was trouble in paradise.  It turned out that all that backlink builder software was working—too well.  Instead of finding what they wanted at or near the top of their web searches, web searchers found results that looked much more like spam.  An automated backlink builder could make links, but it couldn't make quality content.

As a result of so many people learning how to build backlinks with automated tools, Google began tweaking its search engine algorithms.  In 2012, they rolled out their solution to the backlink builder problem.

Google's Solution: Penguin

To combat the rise of automated backlink building, Google's algorithm update, code named “Penguin” or simply called the “over optimization” update, was devised.  This update allowed Google to focus more on the quality of backlinks, and discouraged using any kind of automatic backlink builder software.

Penguin has forced many search engine marketing pros to learn how to build backlinks the old fashioned way, because now, if the algorithm detects unnatural optimization, it decreases your search rankings.  Websites that had been on top with old backlink building strategies now saw little or no traffic.

Penguin works in part by assessing the quality of your backlink building by looking at the PageRank (Google's perceived authority measure) of the websites doing the backlinking.  If you've only been backlinked by very low quality websites, Penguin may affect your website and you may have to learn how to build backlinks all over again.

How to Build Backlinks Post-Penguin

Because Penguin has made it so much more difficult to do automated backlink building, you may need some quick tips about building backlinks from scratch.  If your website has been affected by Penguin already, you may first need to ask webmasters to remove the links that were made by your automated backlink builder.

Once you've had the offending links removed, you can work on how to build backlinks for your new, post-Penguin website.  The key is quality: you want to do backlink building with as many high PageRank websites as possible.

Another thing you'll need to learn before becoming your law firm's post Penguin backlink builder is how to vary your anchor text.  That's the text of the link itself, and if it's always the same, Google Penguin recognizes that as a sign of potential automated backlink building.

Finding Backlink Building Resources

If you're not going to use an automated backlink builder any more, you need to find new places to put your backlinks.  You should start by reading, rather than doing immediate backlink building.  Do all of the research you can into how to build backlinks in your niche.  There are several other articles on lawfirms.laws.com about building effective backlinks after Google Penguin.

You should also start to form some connections via social networking websites and blogs.  Reading Facebook and Twitter feeds, as well as law blogs, can give you some great ideas for creating new quality content to attract new backlinks.  Keep in mind that you'll want to focus on relevant, contextual blogs, so that you can build the best quality links possible rather than being caught by Penguin or any future Google algorithm updates.

How to Build Backlinks Organically

Building organic backlinks that will pass muster with any future Google updates doesn't have to be terribly difficult—it's just a bit slower than using automated backlink builder software.  That slowness may actually be a blessing, though: Penguin appears to also penalize websites that are seen as building links too quickly for their web traffic levels.

In order to do organic backlink building, you'll need to begin posting to your blog and commenting on other people's blogs.  You can also create organic backlinks by entering information pertaining to your law firm on directory websites like Google+ Local, or even local or regional chamber of commerce directories.

You may want to check what your competition is doing.  There are a wide variety of tools that allow you to detect backlinks to a website of your choosing.  By analyzing where your competitors are putting their backlinks, you can ensure that you are able to have backlinking opportunities in the same or similar places.

In some cases, you may want to outsource your backlink building.  If this is the case, make sure that your backlink builder service knows how to build backlinks post-Penguin and has a good track record.  You don't want to get hit by the next algorithm update, so make sure that they're posting real, quality content—not just spam.

Learning how to create backlinks is a must do for anyone who wants to bring their website up in Google and other search engine rankings.  If you're ready to start creating backlinks today, you probably want to know some places to start and some principles to keep in mind.  When you create backlinks on today's world wide web, you'll need to make quality a priority.  Keep reading this guide to find ideas on how to create backlinks that are high in quality and that will keep viewers coming to your site.

Tip #1: Create Backlinks on Local Websites

Sure, the internet is global—but it's also very, very local and getting more so every day.  With so many locally based websites, odds are that you can find a few local sites that allow people to create backlinks after creating an account.  For example, many local news websites have comment sections—perfect for creating backlinks with relevant content.

You may also want to look for local and state level attorney directories when learning how to create backlinks.  Many of these directories make creating backlinks easy by allowing you to make a profile for your law firm or for each of the attorneys at your firm.  These directory listings help you in several ways—you can not only create backlinks to make your Google search rankings better, you'll also have a place for people to find your website when they're searching for a lawyer in the directories.

Tip #2: Create Backlinks on High PR Sites

It's not enough to know how to create backlinks.  Because of the way that Google ranks websites, you also have to be able to create backlinks that are on high PageRank websites.  These are the web's most high traffic centers, and they're usually (but not always) tough to get links on.

The easiest way to start creating backlinks on high PR sites is to find a list of websites that are accepting links and posts from anyone with an account.  These websites can vary from month to month, especially because PageRanks can change somewhat quickly.  Make sure that any list of high PageRank websites you're using to create backlinks is from May of 2012 or later, because changes to the way Google searches work changed many websites' PageRank number at that time.

Tip #3: Creating Backlinks on .Edu Websites

When you create backlinks from either of two websites with the same PageRank, they'll have the same effect on your search rankings.  However, there is a place where this is not true, and where creating backlinks can have an effect that's substantially better than it would normally be.  Any time you create backlinks on .edu websites, they count for more than a similar backlink on a different domain.

Because there are only about 7000 total .edu websites, it can be tough to learn how to create backlinks on them.  Lawyers can get creative by creating backlinks through law school websites.  As an attorney, you can give talks at law schools or talk to students on school forums.  These give you great opportunities to create backlinks.  Remember—part of how to create backlinks is always making sure you're providing quality content.  Don't spam, or your posts will be deleted, your account will be banned, and you'll lose a great resource for creating backlinks with a very high value.

Tip #4: Create Backlinks that Get Noticed

It's all well and good to try to optimize your website by creating backlinks with exact keyword anchor text.  However, this kind of anchor text often appears when people create backlinks that have been mass produced.

Instead, learn how to create backlinks with “link bait” text—text that makes people want to click.  This could be text that involves a question being asked of your readers, or some interesting aspect of a blog post you're linking to.  This is a much better formula for creating engaging, noticeable backlinks—and those are the links that will get your website the most overall traffic and conversions.

Tip #5: Shake It Up When Creating Backlinks

Don't use the same anchor text over and over again when you're learning how to create backlinks.  Google often sees this as a sign of artificial link building, and could give your website a rankings penalty.  Even if your link text pertains to your firm brand rather than an exact keyword to be searched, Google might penalize the site.

This means that you should think of how to create backlinks with variations in anchor text, even if those variations are subtle.  You should also make sure that at least some of your backlinks have anchor text that is not an exact keyword match with anything in the page linked to—after all, this is often how naturally created backlinks look online.

Tip #6: Create Backlinks to Interesting Content

Even if you know how to create backlinks that get clicks, remember that the point of a backlink shouldn't just be to game the rankings.  It should also be to bring people in to your website from other places online.  Make sure that any time you're creating backlinks, they are going to content that is original and engaging.  Learning how to create backlinks won't help if your website can't convert any actual new clients.

Tip #7: Check Your Competition's Backlinking Strategy

If you have a competitor who clearly knows how to create backlinks that get their website noticed, remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  By running a backlink checker program on their URL, you can find out where they are creating backlinks online.

Once you've seen where your competition's backlinks are hosted, you can start to learn how to create backlinks on those websites.  Odds are that you won't be able to duplicate all of them—after all, they may have built some by using personal connections or social networking—but you can make big inroads on making your backlink profile look similar.  Learning from people who already know what works is a big part of backlinking strategy for the smart and efficient law firm marketing professional.