Legal Search Marketing Blog

Quality Links Over a Quanity of Links

Good article from Eric Ward of the Search Engine Guide about the value of links from niche directories and how its not about the number of overall links but the quality of the links.

Some comments from the article:

Most people will tell you that links from Yahoo and DMOZ to your site are vital, and to a certain extent I agree. Who wouldn't want to be listed with two of the most widely used directories in the world? It's what marketers do after they get the Yahoo and DMOZ links that can make or break them.

Niche and topical search engines and directories can bring your site highly targeted traffic. Maybe not a stampede of it, but a steady trickle of perfectly qualified users. And while some marketers are quick to claim nobody uses niche search engines because they've never heard of them, I can tell you from ten years of experience they're wrong.

I would agree here and its very key for legal web sites to get links from other legal related sites and especially ones that would related to the practice areas of the firm.  For example, a Chicago Construction law firm would benefit from getting a link from a construction law category at a legal directory. This would not only drive focused traffic to your site, but would be a more valuable link then many links from non legal sites.

Its key to get links to your site and the more you have, usually the better BUT I can show you many sites that are very well ranked at Google and don't have more then 25 links but they do have good links from Yahoo, the Open Directory and other key legal sites. 

Intelliseek Announces BlogPulse 2.0

Intelliseek, a marketing intelligence firm specializing in real-time analysis of online buzz and consumer-generated media, today announced a major upgrade to its popular BlogPulse.com portal (http://www.blogpulse.com), including a boost in coverage to 9.3 million blogs.

BlogPulse 2.0 provides faster data retrieval, a six-month index of blog posts and data, a  daily count of blog activity and analysis, and the ability to create customized graphs that track themes and issues appearing in the Blogosphere.

Example of a Law Firms Search Marketing Success

I'm always amazed at how many lawyers and law firms just don't take advantage of Internet search engine marketing.   I don't know if they just don't understand it or don't think its necessary. 

Some lawyers do get it though and understand how important the Internet can be to attracting new potential clients.  One law firm that does get it, is Horowitz and Weinstein. We have been helping them with Internet Marketing and search engine optimization for the past 4 years and they have had great success and have gotten many new clients from the Internet.

They are well ranked at Google and all the other search engines for a variety of keywords related to their legal practice.   At Google they are #2 for Chicago Lawyers and #3 for Chicago Attorneys, as well as top 10 for other geo specific key phrases, such as Chicago Bankruptcy Lawyers or Chicago Elder Planning.

This is important, as is doing a focused Pay Per Click campaign, getting key links from other sites and being in key search and legal directories.    Having a search engine friendly site that has good content also will help and its a combination of all of these things that will result in focused and qualified traffic coming to your legal web site.

We have helped many attorneys succeed on the Internet and we can help your firm as well. Visit our web site to see how we can help your law firm succeed and get new clients.

Yahoo! Unveils Yahoo! Creative Commons Search Beta

Yahoo! unveiled its new Creative Commons Search Beta where you can find content you can "use for commercial purposes" or content that you can "modify, adapt, or build upon".

Why is this search different?

This Yahoo! Search service finds content across the Web that has a Creative Commons license. While most stuff you find on the web has a full copyright, this search helps you find content published by authors that want you to share or reuse it, under certain conditions. Learn more...

Why Quality Content is Key For Search Engines

Article from Search engine watch about how important content is to getting higher search engine rankings. This is VERY true and sites that have no content, really have no chance of getting good listings. 

One of the most obvious, yet surprisingly overlooked, components of a search strategy is the creation of quality content.

In our search engine marketing practice, the number of companies we encounter that expect high rankings in search engines for Web pages containing pictures, but no text, amazes us.

Attaining a top ranking in search on a particular keyword requires that the targeted keyword appear somewhere in the text of the page, and often it requires that the page contain some amount of text (read: content) far in excess of what the design folks think looks pretty.

Make no mistake, this law of search engine marketing is clear: less content, lower rankings. Read full story.

Yahoo Fires Back At Google

CBS News online has a story about the ongoing battle between Google and Yahoo.

Yahoo Inc. is quadrupling the amount of storage provided with its free e-mail accounts and upgrading its desktop search software in its ongoing duel with rivals Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

Yahoo said late Tuesday that it will provide 1 gigabyte of storage for each free e-mail account. The current limit is 250 megabytes.  As part of its e-mail changes, Yahoo also is providing software from Symantec Corp. to clean viruses detected in attachments.

Barry Diller on Ask Jeeves

Barry Diller's talks about what they plan to do with Ask Jeeves, after buying the search engine.

Diller addressed the search-engine sector: “It’s the very beginning of its growth. … This is going to be a world, just like the media world, where there will be many players, many people providing service.”

Diller plans to grow Ask Jeeves by placing a search bar on Web pages of IAC’s other sites such as the online travel agency Expedia, Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, CitySearch, and Match.com. Diller said IAC sites attract 44 million unique visitors, and expects many of them to use the Ask Jeeves search bar instead of going to another site to conduct a search, such as Google.

Not many people use Ask Jeeves but I think its a pretty solid search engine and will be a player for years to come.

New Book Makes Credible Legal Information On The Internet Easy To Find & Use

The Internet research manual "How to Use the Internet For Legal & Investigative Research: A Guide for Legal Professionals" has been completely updated and expanded, it was announced today by the book's co-authors Carole Levitt, J.D., M.L.S and Mark Rosch.

The guide features extensive reviews of the best legal and investigative research resources available for free on the Internet.  Read Full Story at PR Web.

InterActiveCorp buys Ask Jeeves for $1.85 billion

Report today from ZDNet news that Ask Jeeves was bought for $1.85 billion. This shows how much the Internet advertising market has grown of late.

InterActiveCorp announced Monday that it has agreed to a $1.85 billion buyout of Ask Jeeves, a search engine that has long been overshadowed by Google and Yahoo. 

The New York-based Internet conglomerate, headed by Barry Diller, said that it is hoping to move aggressively into the Web search market through the deal, and pointed to growth in the online advertising market as another major incentive in making the acquisition. Founded in 1996, Ask Jeeves claims to process approximately 42 million unique queries generated by American Web surfers each month.

Search Engine Listings that Disappear

Do you ever notice that sometimes your web site appears in the organic search engine results and then the following day the site is just gone?

This seems to just happen at Google and usually with sites that haven't been around for that long.   

Sometimes it can be a result of a penalty imposed by Google for breaking any of their search engine guidelines. Sometimes its hard to tell because I have sites that were well ranked, then all of a sudden drop out for a week, then come back but not as strong, until later.

As an example, I have a legal directory at www.lawfirm-directory.com and it was always well ranked at Google for a number of terms including "lawfirm directory", then it dropped out for a few weeks, but came back and slowly worked back to the previous listings. NOW its better positioned and we are #3 for lawfirm directory and #10 for law firm directory at Google. #1 at MSN and Yahoo.

I don't see much ranking fluctuation at MSN or Yahoo and once your site is in at MSN or Yahoo, it usually stays there. Unless of course your talking about the Yahoo directory, which you have to pay $299 annually to be included in. 

So be patient if you see your rankings fluctuate, I know it cant be frustrating but if you have a good solid web site, usually things get back to normal pretty quickly.