Summer is usually a slow(er) time for the legal industry. But Stem’s clients continue to be busy with all sorts of great endeavours. Here’s our monthly peek into some of our Stem clients news:

• Adrian Lurrsen (if you’re on Twitter, he’s a gem to watch @JDTwitt ) has been blogging up a storm over at JD Scoop - the companion blog for free legal document sharing site JD Supra. Post topics included the top searches for July, JD Supra’s new email digests offering, and a practical example of driving profile with content. He even had time to join me today in the 5 blogs meme. JD Supra founder Aviva Cuyler also chimed in with her welcome of the latest contributors.
• West Palm Beach attorney Ron Chapman, who specializes in defending both Florida State and Federal Crimes, recently wrote a pair of helpful FAQ-style posts on sealing criminal records in Florida ( Part 1, Part 2). The FAQs deal with out-of-state criminal records, sealed vs. expunged criminal records, eligibility, and pardons, among other related topics.
• The Technology & IP group at Canadian law firm Clark Wilson LLP were among the first to publish considered and in-depth commentary on Bill C-61, the copyright reform bill introduced in June 2008. You can read all about that plus other IP news in the August edition of the group’s newsletter, Knowledge Bytes.  Clark Wilson is also excited to be a Silver Partner in sponsorship of the 2008 Women’s Leadership Forum in its inaugural Vancouver event, “Shine: Radiate your Leadership”.
• As we hinted at in our last roundup, the lawyers of McClanahan Myers Espey LLP are now blogging! The Contingent Fee Business Litgation blog features discussion on topics such as corporate-owned life insurance (dead peasant) policies, patents disputes, and contingent fee litigation. Intrigued? Check out Mike Myers’ recent post, “How ‘Dead Peasant’ Insurance Got Its Name”.
• Stem’s newest client, Houston-based product injury firm Hissey Kientz LLP, has published a news section on their website dedicated to tracking the Digitek recall and related lawsuits.
• Lawrence Koplow, a Phoenix DUI attorney with Koplow Patane PLLC, has been working on spreading the word about the DUI Lawyer Blog Watch. His efforts are paying off: we’ve added a couple new DUI/DWI blogs to the mix since its inception in late July 2008. Keep those blog submissions coming—the more the merrier!

Great work, everyone! We’re working at getting this kind of news roundup onto a monthly schedule. So with any luck, you can expect to hear more of our clients’ projects and achievements next month!

I’m making a note here for personal history, and because I’m not sure the next time I’ll get quoted on CNN Money & Dow Jones. The story relates to my recent post on the controversial Findlaw link sales program.

I would also add, this was probably one of the best experiences I’ve had with a Journalist. The writer, Nat Worden, seemed interested in a complete picture of the story from all sides. I think the final story reflects well on his unbiased approach. He also seemed to understand my limits, and didn’t push when I wasn’t willing to pass along client emails. In turn, I think he was quite happy when I relayed the google cache for pages before the link & PageRank alterations.

This was the type of information exchange I’ve always envisioned when thinking about bloggers and journalists (for some interesting related commentary see this post over at Slaw). Bloggers often know their niche market intimately and can gauge when to do a little more digging; and Journalists know how to flesh out a full & fair picture of what’s going on.

Modern news coverage sure seems to have more to offer when these two sides work together. An interesting glimpse into the future perhaps?

I have a new article on Slaw this morning for my Web Law Connected column. It’s titled SEO for Law Firms: Why Adwords is Not the Solution.

The article reflects some of my core critiques of Pay Per Click (PPC) marketing, and why I believe firms should question the value returned on this type of marketing investment.

Please drop by and have a look.  I actually think it’s one of my better efforts. :)

Just confirmed by Google’s Matt Cutts, you should be able to download the brand new Google browser Chrome as of tomorrow morning. (link will go live when Google launches the site)

Given that Stem is almost entirely run on web applications like Google Apps and Freshbooks, I probably owe it to myself to take this one for a run. That said, I’m also a big fan of Firefox so my loyalties are definitely going be tested.

And speaking of Firefox, it will be interesting to see where Google stands on its support for the Mozilla Project (see comment #1 on Matt’s post) after the announcement. All I can say is, browser standards & interoperability had better adhered to. Web design could take a serious step backwards otherwise; especially when adding what could soon prove to be a major player in the browser market.

On the plus side, Google is billing it as an open-source product. So fingers crossed.

(Update) One bold prediction: If Google gets any kind traction, Chrome will be the jumping off point for a future Google Operating System. The first requirement needed to compete with the likes Microsoft & Windows in the OS market is a user base willing to install application software. Other than the Google Toolbar, this might be their best opportunity yet.

Stem Legal is pleased to welcome another new client this morning, product injury firm Hissey Kientz LLP, who are based in Austin, Texas.

The firm is led by Michael Hissey and Robert Kientz, both experienced medical mass tort practitioners, whose areas range from the recent Digitek Recall, to Asbestos exposure injury claims and mesothelioma law.

In the coming months, the firm is looking to overhaul the look and feel of their website, increase content publishing, and continue the production of content portals related to their product claims experience.  Examples of these firm mini-sites range from the Ortho Evra patch, the Kugel mesh hernia patch recall, to their onging work as mesothelioma lawyers.

The other exciting part of this project is working with Justinian Lane, who readers might recognize from his writings at Tordeform.com or his personal blog Corp Rerform. Justinian is currently a summer clerk at Hissey Kientz LLP; and is soon to be an up and coming consumer rights attorney. We often talk about fit when it comes to law students and law firms. And at least from outside optics, this looks to be a good one.

So a big welcome to Hissey Kientz. I’m really looking forward to working with you!

Erik Mazzone over at Law Practice Matters has an excellent post on developing & quantifying a lawyer’s referral network needs.

The entire post is worth reading, but check out Erik’s rough methodology for calculating those needs:

Here’s the math for Hypothetical Larry the Lawyer:

1) Larry’s average case (divorce lawyer) is worth $5,000.

2) Larry’s best referral source refers 2 cases per year to Larry.

3) A good referral source for Larry is worth $10,000 (per year).

4) Larry’s annual revenue goal is $150,000. $150,000 revenues/$10,000 referral source = Larry needs 15 very good referral sources to a completely referral based practice.

Simple, but not by any means easy. If you don’t have enough data to complete the calculation, just start tracking it now.

Tracking, of course, is the basic foundation. Everything from the yellow page ads, to web marketing, to industry association memberships & speaking engagements should be evaluated. ROI isn’t the only part of the equation when it comes to evaluating marketing efforts, but it better be in there somewhere.

As I commented on Erik’s post, the preferred placement for this kind of tracking is within your accounting software. Even some rough standardized categories for referral sources, combined with the knowledge of client & matter billing history, can provide enormous value to tracking your marketing investments.

Either that, or you can consider Erik’s rationale for the answer being “10″. It’s pretty compelling… :)

Tom Mighell and Dennis Kennedy have launched a new companion blog and wiki to go with their book - The Lawyer’s Guide to Collaboration Tools & Technologies.

Both bloggers have been long time favourites of mine, and if they can rekindle some of the Between Lawyers magic with a collaboration tool slant, I’ll certainly be all ears on this one.

Congrats on the new book, blog and wiki gentlemen! Subscribed.

Most in-house law firm Marketers were aware of the Findlaw PageRank sales scam long before it hit the blogosphere. Mostly because they were the target of a huge email blast from Findlaw a few weeks back. Which is how I found out about the offering, when clients then forwarded the program details to me for review.

[If you're looking for some background, please see the preceding link from Todd Friesen who originally broke the story, and the follow up critique from Kevin O'Keefe.]

My response to clients (admittedly in hindsight) was the right one… “decline it”. Google’s hit bigger sites than Findlaw in the past including the Economist, the Times of London, and the Wall Street Journal (link cite).

I don’t want to re-hash the details of the situation in this post. And really, it’s well covered in the above links… but, I was asked recently on Twitter how I see things, and if I would be commenting. I do have some thoughts, so let me share.

• First, Findlaw selling link-based advertising isn’t the issue here. To be clear, the issue is that Findlaw used the Google measure of PageRank as the basis for selling those links. And that has long been off-side when it comes to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
• Second, Google’s response of a PageRank reduction penalty isn’t new. It’s similar treatment to what a group of prominent bloggers received just a few months ago. The penalty is likely temporary and probably will last until Findlaw kills the program.
• Third, the reduction (PR7 to PR5) is for the visible PageRank displayed in the Google Toolbar. Does it effect the actual rankings? As of today, in Canada, when you search for ‘find lawyer‘, I’m getting Findlaw as the No. 1 result. I repeated the search over the phone with a US client, and Findlaw was No. 2. If Google had hit Findlaw with a true penalty, those results wouldn’t be happening.
• And related, the reduction of visible PageRank was the objective here. Lowered PageRank removes Findlaw’s ability to sell its pages as a commodity using the Google PageRank measure. Google have been consistent and clear: they want PageRank to be a measure of authority, and not the basis of a link marketplace.

Finally, I’d just like to add one personal opinion. Findlaw’s biggest crime here may just be how blatantly overt they were. It’s almost as if they were tempting Google to hit them? or naive? dumb perhaps? Take your pick.

Here’s why I think so. Google themselves say: “Buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web when done for advertising purposes, and not for manipulation of search results.” Findlaw easily falls into the class of a legitimate advertising opportunity.

Was it their choice to provide raw links? Not likely, or at least not by itself. There are lots of websites with raw links; and if that alone were the factor, paid sites with low editorial standards like the Yahoo directory (sorry, that’s how I feel) would have been hit long ago.

So what tipped Google off? It was the whole package. Those spammy marketing materials, unsolicited emails, selling links based on PageRank, training lawyers how to show ‘link love’ and apply link text, and just generally having the feel of a total Machiavellian manipulation of the system. Frankly, it was arrogant.

Now, let me tell you why those firms are wasting their money. Unless you are in a completely uncompetitive search market, 3 links and a few articles from one website won’t make a dent in your ranking equation. You need links from lots of websites; in some cases, thousands. Those links need to be from a wide range of authorities (think: government, education, professional associations, libraries, conferences, magazines, journals); and increasingly, those links should be from websites on the same finite subject including blogs and social networking groups. Subject specificity is making great strides lately. What’s the topic of the page linking in? what about the pages linking to that person? All parts of the puzzle that must be considered.

Do I think this will all blow over? Sure, and Findlaw will likely get some or all of its PageRank back… after they terminate the program. Or perhaps they won’t terminate it and the Lawyers will get involved? Either way, it should prove interesting to watch Thomson Reuters and Google - old publishing economy vs new publishing economy - stand off. Get the popcorn! :)

Law.com has a new article up that addresses the business value of SEO for law firms; including some good tips on how to get an in-house program up and going.

But what really caught my eye here, was the great personal story about Araceli Parra, a legal assistant about to lose her job who learns some SEO skills, and ends up helping her firm dive a ton of new business off the web! Check out the opening paragraphs:

Araceli Parra was about to lose her job.

The legal secretary’s Oakland, Calif., firm — a DUI specialty practice — was struggling to land clients, and she saw the writing on the wall. But instead of resigning herself to the inevitable, she decided to improve the firm’s marketing efforts to keep herself employed.

Her strategy? Create a killer Web site and make it the most popular site on Google.

“I didn’t know much (about the Web) at the time, so I started going to the library and studying online and went to a seminar called Webmaster World,” she says. “I learned a lot.”

The research paid off. Parra took the firm’s “really bad site” and tore it apart, improving the design and completely reworking the navigation. Most importantly, she created a huge amount of content and fine-tuned the site using guidelines and techniques approved by the major search engines.

The end result? Jackpot. “When I finally launched the fully optimized site, it only took seven days to hit the top of Google,” she says. And the clients began to pour back in. That was two years ago; today, Number1DUIoffice.com is still the first result returned in Google for the keywords “Oakland DUI lawyer.” And all the firm’s eggs are firmly in the online basket, says Parra: “We’re entirely Web-based, and we don’t do any other advertising.”

That’s a great success story, and a testament for anyone looking to take the initiative on a project outside their area of expertise. Not everyone always thinks this way, but they should. Good things happen when you create your own opportunities.

Many people would be surprised to find out how many SEOs first learn their skills on the job, and that includes the legal industry. Over the past year, I’ve had a number of LAs, Paralegals, and Librarians email me and tell similar stories; that they’re doing SEO in-house, or have been tasked with trying to better their firm’s Google rankings. And while I think Araceli Parra’s story isn’t as unique as one might first assume, I do think it was a story that needed to be told.

So bravo to Law.com and freelance writer C.C. Holland for digging a bit deeper. Nicely done!

I’ve been in the process of writing an article for Slaw that critiques the ROI of paid search advertising, and ended up conducting a bit of a research project.

My task? I wanted to know exactly what the average cost-per-click was with Google’s Adwords for search phrases that contained the word ‘lawyer’.

Using the Google keyword research tool, an item I blogged about back in July, I was able to turn synonyms off and then export those terms into a CSV file. That file was then imported into a spreadsheet. I tallied up the sum, and divided by the total number of terms, and…

The average price paid per click over the past year for all searches containing the word ‘lawyer’ was: $9.49 per click!

That’s close to $10,000 per 1000 monthly visitors received. And since it’s my research, let me be the first to say it - Wow!

This also comes on the heels of April’s Tamar 2008 Search Attitudes Report out of the UK, that said “91 per cent prefer using natural search results when looking to buy a product or service“.

I’ll have much more to say when my Slaw article comes out, but the short story is… give me strategic SEO and content marketing any day over those numbers.

Kevin O’Keefe wrote an interesting post over the weekend about how some lawyers are using blog comments to market themselves. The problem with the post, and with Scott Greenfield’s original assessment, is that blog comments have absolutely nothing to do with Google rankings.

Let me explain…

Back at the beginning of 2005, Google introduced the ‘no-follow’ attribute for links. This was done so Google’s indexing spiders would ignore ALL links coming from within blog comments; and more importantly, according to Google, “those links won’t get any credit when we rank websites in our search results“.

That announcement was then followed by the insertion of of the ‘no-follow’ attribute on almost every blogging software out there: wordpress, typepad, blogger, livejournal, drupal… In fact, I can’t think of a blog software that doesn’t use no-follow’s for comment links.

So, ethics and optics aside, which should be good enough reasons not to drop comment spam, let me say this. No SEO worth his or her monthly fee employs these types of tactics. If your firm is employing an SEO company recommending these tactics, that person or company is a shill, a shyster, a fly-by-night’er (I’ve got more, those are just the nice ones…), who will do more damage than good.

Not only do spam comments make your practice & ethics look disreputable, but this is a tactic that’s been completely ineffective for almost three years!

I don’t have a problem with Lawyers publishing blog comments on the posts of others. I recommend it as good way to introduce yourself and your blogging presence. But doing so in a contrived way, lacking authenticity, or forbid, hiring others to do it for you? Those are some of the quickest ways to deep-six your professional profile online.

What did your mother say about your inability to say something nice? That’s right. Step back from the keyboard, and go take a walk before hitting that submit button.

And please, don’t blame this shady tactic on SEOs. Most SEO companies know better.

I’m pleased to announce a new website for Stem, the DUI Lawyer Blog Watch!

Located at duiblogwatch.com, this site offers a one-page aggregation of the 50 most recent postings by attorneys blogging on the subject of DUI law. As of launch today, the number of blogs included was 54.

With some similarity to the Florida Lawyers Blog Watch site we launched in January, I would like to highlight how this site’s approach is slightly different, and perhaps improved. Rather than focusing on a particular region, the goal this time was to focus on an area of practice, that of DUI Law. In addition to including those blogs exclusively focused on DUI law, we’ve also included lawyers blogging on the broader subject of Criminal Law. These Criminal Law posts are then filtered to include only those posts that contain the terms ‘DUI’ or ‘DWI’, either in the subject or title of their post. … It’s an extra layer of filtering, but something we felt would keep the subject stream a bit more on topic.

Also once again, we’re sharing the spotlight with one of our clients. Stem client Lawrence Koplow, himself a Phoenix DUI lawyer who blogs at the Arizona DUI Defense Blog, will be helping me out as a co-contact point for the site. Very similar to the way West Palm Beach Lawyer Ron Chapman watches out for new Florida blogs to add, Lawrence will be doing the same for DUI bloggers.

Finally, the opportunity to be included in this website is once again free. Lawrence and I both welcome contact from those we might have missed in our original set of DUI blogs. All we need is the homepage of your blog, and the URL of your blog’s RSS feed!

In cased you missed it, the latest google killer arrived on the market in recent days, a site called Cuil. So does Google have much to worry about? You’ve probably guess the answer… no.

The results from my own initial tests weren’t impressive, to say the least. A couple examples:

• First, a simple search for our Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The #1 result is a wikipedia article on a fictional character of the same name. Really… if a search engine can’t filter out a government website (namely our pm.gc.ca) from the other items, that’s a big fail on known website authority factor.
• A second example, I tried a search of my own name Steve Matthews. While some of the results are for pages that contain information about me (my linkedin profile, a couple blog posts by Kevin O’Keefe, etc), the interesting part was that Cuil took the liberty of inserting photos OVER the search results. Of which, none were from the pages in question, and NONE of which were actually me! The two people licking each other, well, I won’t dignify…

Like most people, Google is my daily search engine. They have a huge lead in the search market, and given my business, I need to be in-tune with those results on a daily basis. Fair enough, and Cuil wasn’t likely converting me any time soon.

But hypothetically… what if I had to choose another? What would my next choice be for a daily search engine? This may surprise some, but the best results in my opinion, and my preference after Google, is actually Yahoo! There are many times when I could argue that Yahoo results are more relevant than Google’s; and but for the limited search-share issue, I would genuinely be quite tempted to switch.

As for Cuil? Unfortunately, I can’t see any reason to go back. If search companies are going to innovate, I need something different, or better yet - smaller! Google’s one-size-fits-all is a true weakness in my opinion. And even Google has figured this out more than its competitors have. See Google co-op or Google Scholar as examples. Cut out more of the unrelated pages from the core DB itself; or create a new genre of web page trust & authority — an authorized ownership registration system, community based authority, and so on. Get creative and I’ll be the first person to praise a new search option!

The biggest issue in quality search is the concept of trust; and Cuil gets a big strike against my trust for making such a bad first impression.

Lots going on at Stem these days, and we’re due for a client roundup. The list below has, and will, expand as more clients get their projects online.

• Koplow & Patane, P.L.L.C. managing partner Lawrence Koplow, a Phoenix DUI lawyer, has been busy writing some in-depth analysis on his Arizona DUI Blog. One post discusses the pitfalls of using the “imaginary line” during field sobriety tests; another answers a series of FAQs on DUI charges in Arizona; and yet another on the use of video taping by police officers during a DUI arrest.
• Our Florida client Ron Chapman, a West Palm Beach lawyer, has been actively posting on his blog too; including a great post on the threshold to, and how to avoid sex offender registration in Florida. Ron also recently launched a series of pages on the counties he serves; including Palm Beach County, Broward County, Martin County, and St. Lucie County.
• Back up in Canada, law firm Clark Wilson has much to be proud of lately. The firm has launched a new BC Class Actions group; which included a series of new publications on the firm’s JD Supra profile. And related, see group chair Elaine J. Adair’s recent and very thorough paper on products liability class actions. Senior partner Lyall Knott’s appointment as Honorary Captain of the Canadian Navy also being noteworthy.
• Over at JD Scoop, the blog for legal documents sharing service JD Supra, Adrian Lurssen has a great post up on the power of situation, which describes how the more you publish your expertise beyond your firm’s website, the more value it has. I totally agree, and a bit of an add on here, did you know that websites max out at two entries on the first page of the search results? Even if you have the top 2 slots sewn up, the rest of the top-10 are up for grabs! Other websites can deliver valuable depth to your online profile.
• And finally one of our ‘under wraps’ clients, McClanahan Myers Espey LLP out of Houston, Texas, a law firm specializing in contingency fee litigation, have a new URL ready and waiting for their new website design. It hasn’t launched yet, so don’t bother clicking, but when it does I’ll certainly be saying a lot more about them. Expect some very interesting and innovative thought on delivering value to corporate litigation services. And yes, they’ll be blogging too!

Congrats to everyone. Stem has some great client projects going right now! And thanks to Stem’s new (and first!) employee Emma Wood for doing the legwork for this post!

According to a new study by eMarketer, 57.7% of reporters use blogs to measure public sentiment; 38% of reporters use blogs to drive new story ideas; and 29.5% use blogs to find industry experts. (hat tip to Joshua Fruchter at eLawmarketing)

Those are good numbers for blogging lawyers; and fit well with the frequent observation that bloggers have a substantially increased profile with the media.

Here’s are some reasons I think blogs deliver such a web-punch!

• Reporters need to authoritative sources for quotes - Lawyers fit the bill before blogs existed; and with little more 3000 legal blogs world wide, having a personal blog is still a fantastic way to stand out from the crowd.
• Blogs Push Content via Syndication Technologies (ie. RSS) - When a lawyer hits the publish button, he or she doesn’t just build a web page. Blog software issues what’s called a ping to various indexing sources and Search Engines. Content gets pushed out, and tells these sources that new material is available.
• Blogs Drive the Freshest Google Content - Related to the above point, Google mixes blog content into its search results shortly after being published. Anecdotally, I can tell you that I have hit the publish button and observed my posts searchable in Google in under an hour! These ‘fresh’ posts also get a boost in the rankings that can last for a few days.
• Bloggers Get Better Google Rankings -Blog to blog links create the ‘link juice’ to make Google believe your website is authoritative. Publish frequently, and that link juice will drive traffic to your blog, and make it easier for people to find you - both potential clients and reporters.
• Blog Content is Filterable - Savvy reporters that regularly cover a topic, will set up targeted searches for certain keywords. Those search results are then automatically fed into their RSS reader; and will monitor for any blog posts that hit their topical space. Guess what happens when the same lawyer keeps writing intelligent commentary on their topic? Ring ring. :)
• The Spin-off Effect - Profile drives profile. Having a blog is still the centerpiece of a lawyer’s online marketing strategy. Bloggers offer their work, which leads to:
  • incoming links from other bloggers;
  • offers of speaking engagements;
  • republication opportunities for your posts;
  • written material that can be crafted into magazine articles;
  • and a recognized name, which makes it easier for a report to decide to quote you.

Good blogging, to which I offer an older post on building an authentic voice, should never be underestimated. It’s the first recommendation I make when clients ask how to drive profile (and business leads) online.

Done with tact and professionalism, nothing pays greater dividends.