Search Engine Optimization

In just a few weeks, we'll be hosting a free webinar for attorneys on search engine optimization (SEO). In this educational presentation, our SEO Director will explore recent changes in the search environment and share some core strategies that can help you improve your firm's visibility on the web. Space is limited so be sure to sign up online today.

Last week, several members of the Amicus Creative team attended Agency Day hosted by Google. This exclusive event invites a number of select Google Partners to join members of the search engine’s Account Strategy team for a day of education and networking.  Along the way we learned quite a few fun facts and helpful tidbits that we wanted to share with you:

Over the past few years, a number of web developers serving the legal industry have started to require that clients have an ongoing search marketing campaign or search engine optimization plan.  Essentially, if you don’t want to pay the price of these services, they don’t want your business. Some might argue that from a business perspective, this makes sense. After all, large SEM campaigns and SEO services can be incredibly lucrative.  At Amicus Creative, however, we refuse to take this approach; while SEO or SEM services are an option, they’re not a requirement. Here’s why:

Last week, webmasters around the globe received a notice from Google warning them of mobile usability issues. These warnings were emailed and posted in users’ Webmaster Tools accounts. The warnings included a full report of the non-mobile friendly pages on the site in question along with a list of the problematic components on the offending pages.  The reports highlighted issues like “small font size” and “touch elements too close”; while these site elements may not be problematic on the larger screen of a PC, they are not ideal for a visitor trying to access or navigate around a site on the smaller screen of a handheld device.

Each year, Google makes hundreds of algorithm updates, many of which go undetected and have a relatively minor impact on a very small number of sites. In the past few weeks, however, Google rolled out Penguin 3.0 which was both a data refresh and an algorithm update; this update is expected to have impacted a much larger number of sites across the globe. Much like the earlier versions of Penguin, this update looks to further penalize sites with spammy backlinks.

Many attorneys invest thousands of dollars in search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns in an attempt to improve their ranking in the search engine results and increase their firms’ visibility on the web. On several occasions, we’ve written about black hat techniques that are often employed by SEO consultants; while these strategies may produce quick results, once they are discovered by the search engines, the consequences can be devastating to a firm’s online presence resulting in the ultimate penalty – having your website deindexed.

For years, guest blogging was promoted as a way to get inbound links to your site, increasing visibility with the blog’s readers and also with the search engines. If you have a website, you’ve probably been contacted by a professional (in all likelihood, an SEO consultant acting on behalf of the professional) offering to share his or her expertise on your blog; they promise a high-quality, original post for absolutely nothing. What’s the catch you ask? 

Most law firms want their sites to rank better with the search engines. In discussing SEO, we consistently preach the power of a dynamic content strategy, recommending that attorneys add fresh content on a regular basis. One way to do this is by setting up a blog and posting to it frequently. On many occasions, we’ve had clients ask us what they can do to optimize their blog posts for the search engines. In truth, if you’re writing your blog posts for the search engines, you’re doing it all wrong. If you want a successful blog that helps to increase your visibility on the web, consider the following:

Happy New Year!  We hope that you had a wonderful celebration to ring in 2014.

To kick off the start of a New Year, and make sure you’re investing in the right providers and services which will yield positive results for your firm, we’ve prepared a list of questions to consider during the selection of an SEO consultant.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen countless attorneys fall victim to SEO scams. In hopes of achieving top spots in the search engines results pages, firms sink thousands of dollars each month into these campaigns which often can’t deliver on lofty promises of quick results and thousands of new visitors each month. Given the technical nature of SEO, many attorneys feel that they don’t know enough to make an educated decision and make sure they are getting the most bang for their buck. To help firms ask the right questions during the selection process, we’ve prepared a white paper addressing the various concerns and issues that attorneys should consider in their quest for knowledgeable SEO assistance. We encourage you to download the report and refer back to it, if you’re looking to hire an SEO consultant in 2014. 

Search engine optimization is complex. It requires some technical knowledge, a basic understanding of web development and whole lot of common sense. To make matters worse, it is constantly evolving so as soon as you think you’ve mastered it, something else changes. At Amicus Creative, we have a devoted SEO team because we realize that most of the attorneys we work with just don’t have the time to become SEO experts. But there are some that want to learn more about the subject matter so we’ve compiled a list of helpful resources for those lawyers who want to be informed about SEO practices.

If you've done a local search in the past few months, you've likely encountered a number of local listings which are denoted by a single red pinpoint which can then be found on a corresponding map to the right of the search engine result pages. Since most prospective clients looking for an attorney in your community will likely search on a local level by town, city or county, it’s absolutely critical that your firm establish a presence in local searches by creating a local listing and Google+ Page.