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.

A big congratulations to one of the senior Partners at my old law firm (and current Stem client); Lyall Knott Q.C. has been appointed honorary Captain of the Canadian Navy!

From the story:

In a special appointment ceremony July 1 in the captain’s cabin of HMCS Winnipeg, HCapt(N) Knott was bestowed the honorary captaincy of Canadian Fleet Pacific (CANFLTPAC), in the presence of Commander Craig Baines, Winnipeg’s Commanding Officer, and Rear-Admiral Tyrone Pile, Commander MARPAC, and their support staff.

And not to take away from the moment, but this kind of acknowledgement doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Lyall Knott is a very involved kind of guy, in business, in politics, and for his community. I’ve seen few individuals that work as tirelessly as he does. Seven days a week kind of tirelessly. All of which is pretty obvious from his list of public acknowledgements :

• Chair, Rick Hansen Foundation;
• Board of Directors, C.H.I.L.D.;
• Director, S.U.C.C.E.S.S.;
• Honorary Legal Advisor to the SBC;
• UBC Blythe Eagles Award;
• Honourary Consul, The Republic of Tunisia.

A very hardy congratulations thar’ Captain! Well deserved. :)

Many law firms don’t have someone in-house doing SEO, but for those that do, I have a new tool to pass along.

A couple days ago, Google altered a very important feature in their public Keyword Research Tool. They began showing keyword search volumes! Which to some, might not sound all that impressive. But for those of us in the trade, it’s huge!

Why, you might ask? Well, most people know Google is the search king with more than 70% of the monthly search share. And you might also know about keyword tools, like wordtracker, or Aaron Wall’s SEO Book keyword tool. Both of which estimate the number of times a search is conducted; and have been considered the best gauge of search phrase order & quantity received on a monthly bassis. The best, that is, until a few days ago; when Google removed the ‘green bars’ that represented a 1-10 volume scale (percentiles), and replaced those bars with hard numbers!

Google have traditionally guarded this window into search behaviour very closely. And really, it hasn’t been since Overture’s tool that we’ve had this kind of sampling to get to know a search market like this. Guys like me have been forced to extrapolate or estimate where the search frequency was.

As an example of how this feature has changed things, the graphic below shows the estimated frequency for the term ‘lawyer’ (including synonyms):

Broad phrasing like this might not seem all that useful, at least at first blush… But when you’re mining the long tail, and looking for regional phrases or niche service based phrasing to target, applying a number to that brainstorming process is a very welcome addition.