After reading it, there will be little doubt that I am enthusiastic.  And frankly, after several years of “ho-hum” evolution online, Google+ is a welcome addition.  I am particularly excited about its potential to build upon the concept of social networking, creating ties to the tangible business results that Google has delivered in the past.

I also realize that I can bluster all I want about lawyers and firms becoming ‘early adopters’.  Those that currently see new files coming through the door via their websites and web presence will be the quickest converts.  But after that, the questioning will begin…  Is there enough time to manage yet another social network? How does it compare against our other in-house social media projects?

As I said in the article, benchmark your firm website’s referral metrics.  Google+ may not have the adoption numbers (yet); but the parent company does likely hold the number one spot for sending people to the webpages that describe your firm and its services.   In my view, that’s a potential worth betting on.

• Website 101: Build and Rebuild was co-presented with Courtney Ward-Reichard and covers all the major aspects of law firm websites: selecting and managing a domain name, using content management systems (CMS), developing content, branding, and best practices. The slides give a good overview of the presentation, but to see what participants thought of the session, check out Simon Fodden’s takeaways and Beverly Michaelis’  live-tweets.
• Website 201: Optimize and Get Noticed was co-presented with Bob Ambrogi and focused on three important aspects of law firm websites: SEO tactics, content writing strategies, and calls to action. Allison Shields posted extensive notes on what she learned, Simon Fodden had another recap, and Joan Feldman called us a true pleasure to watch – thanks, Joan, the pleasure was ours!

The ABA has also posted PDF versions for many more of this year’s presentation on their website. Be sure to check them out.

It should be said that every website is susceptible to a hacking attack to some degree, and vulnerability often depends on the determination of the individual hacker.  The measures suggested here are much more about protecting your website against automated password testing, or scripted attacks.  Taking these precautions, along with adding the recommended modules, can help guard against these attacks — and conceivably save your firm a few headaches.

On the SEO side, the column recommends monitoring your website’s status in Google Webmaster Tools; and how Google can help confirm if a hacking attack has taken place. It also discusses the fallout of recovering from temporary search ranking penalties, which may be applied to your domain.

We’d much rather see firms market their websites than be forced to recover from a hacking attack.  Frankly, it’s a huge waste of everyone’s time…  So please, be cautious about using WordPress out-of-the-box, and pass along these tips  — they should take less than an hour to put into place.

Out of Google’s eight site links — those sub-links that are shown right underneath your homepage listing — only four of them are currently working.  Google is also still showing ABANet.org as the Association’s domain:

Now, Google will figure this all out on its own, eventually.  An organization the size of the ABA has enormous publishing power (and the associated PageRank) which gives it a natural boost in how fast Google crawls the website.  The web page re-directs will push the changeover process, as will any new in-bound links to the new domain from outside sources.  In addition, we would expect that the ABA also has a Google domain movement plan – a defined set of actions to preserve its current relationship with the search engine. A dedicated plan, you say? Absolutely. Any outside source that provides more than 80% of your website’s referral traffic (not type-in traffic) deserves special treatment.

Giving proper consideration to this relationship, here are the tasks that I think must be involved in a domain move:

• GW Tools: Step one in any domain move is to register and verify both domains within Google Webmaster Tools (GW Tools).
• 301 permanent redirects – This is also critically important.  Upload a text file named .htaccess into the root of your old domain (applicable to UNIX servers, there are other methods) mapping all URL variations with 301 permanent redirects from their old file location to their URL on the new domain. Every sub-page of your old website should be routed; and yes, even when you have thousands of URLs.
• Submit an updated sitemap in GW Tools: As soon as the servers have been flipped, register a current and exhaustive sitemap file for your new domain in GW Tools. The sooner the new URLs are in play, the faster the transition.
• Add/Update the robots.txt file in the root of your website: Adding a robots.txt file tells search engines which directories you want in their index, and which are denied.  When moving domains, don’t forget to update this file with the corresponding changes to the directory structures.  Your robots.txt file should also be confirmed in GWTools.
• Boost the temporary crawl rate in GW Tools for both domains: Don’t max out the crawl rate, but a moderate boost can ensure URLs are forwarded as fast as possible.
• Use the Change of Address tool: Don’t skip ahead to this step! You can’t use this tool until both domains are verified, regardless; but it works best when you have completed the above steps – especially having a comprehensive set of 301 redirects.
• Schedule time to clean up 404 errors: File not found (404) errors are never good. Users hate them, and it’s a poor quality signal to Google. Review crawling errors within GW Tools, and fix your lost traffic issues.

Law firms should take notice: moving a domain is no easy task, and one that I would try to avoid at all costs. Even with all the above steps, it’s very difficult to replicate the trust factors of an aged-domain; especially with respect to its performance in the search engines. Staying at one location has real benefits, and that domain (like fine wine) will improve with age.  Unless you have a name Partner that leaves on bad terms, I would preserve your domain investment.

And if you must move,  use the steps above to create an actionable plan. It’s worth the time.

An important piece of context here: Kevin’s most recent post refers specifically to larger firms’ blogs.  I’m also assuming that he’s referring to firms that develop multiple practice area blogs and position those blogs as subdirectories (or subdomains) under the firm’s principal website.

Does this make sense? Mostly, yes; and because Kevin is addressing the larger firm scenario, I’ll agree with him.  But before I give you the pros of putting a law firm blog on its own domain, let’s explore the counter-arguments, some of which are valid:

1. Blogs on the firm website help generate domain trust. This can help SEO on a site-wide basis, including producing better rankings for practice group pages, lawyer profiles and other genres of firm publishing.  Blogs also draw deep links, which can be another sign of domain authority, and help inspire a more thorough indexing of your website by the search engines.
2. If the subject of the blog and of the website are closely aligned, it might make sense to consolidate your efforts. Consider the case of boutique practices, or solos and small firms with limited practice areas. Our SEO goal is to help Google understand each domain; making clear the core set of keywords, phrases and topics that each website covers. Larger firms’ websites and blogs are rarely this closely aligned, but boutiques, solos and small firms can be. When firm services and blogs are targeting a similar core set of keywords, it might not make sense to split your SEO footprint.

While these are both good arguments, neither is enough to sway me with respect to larger law firms.  Domain trust for firms with more than 30 lawyers invariably isn’t much of an issue.  Moreover, law firm domain names rarely gain enough subject authority to compete in the search rankings with niche-subject blogs. In almost every circumstance, I recommend that firms place each of their blogs on its own unique domain.

Here are the arguments in favour of separate blog domains from the SEO side:

1. The absence of subject-aligned keywords embedded within the firm’s domain name hurts SEO. Like it or not, PetersononBrainInjury.com — all other factors being the same — will outperform PetersonLLP.com.
2. The firm website is about the firm, as it should be. With multiple areas of practice, a law firm website’s incoming link text and other on-page factors can become so scattered that Google has trouble giving weight to the firm domain on any particular subject. Keeping a tight focus is a critical part of competitive SEO.  That doesn’t mean that a practice page can’t compete in the rankings if we focus on the task; but for a law blog that wants to become a topical powerhouse, a single-subject and focused domain will outperform the firm website every time.
3. Law firms websites’ link networks tend to be unfocused. Having a strong set of links (both incoming and outgoing) to similar subject websites is another measure of subject authority and relevance.  Blog links have this attribute in spades, while firm websites rarely do.
4. Links from practice blogs actually support the firm’s website. Strategically linking from blogs back to the sponsoring firm’s practice pages can help your SEO.  But doing that from inside the firm website does not have the same impact.  Blogs on their own domain have their own status with Google, including PageRank, a different set of incoming links, different signals of subject relevance, and so on. It might be an investment to develop the online presence for another domain name, but this is a question of building assets. Long term thinking says having two (or 22) strong website assets is better than having one.

And here are a couple more arguments from a simple common sense perspective:

1. You must let your blogs and your bloggers shine. Let’s face it: burying five or ten blogs within the firm website often means just repackaging the firm’s newsletter content. Simply calling such repackaged content a “blog” doesn’t make it one. There must be a change in how lawyers approach their writing; the lack of personal opinion on a blog can kill its chance of success.  Putting blogs under the firm website risks stifling the personality of the website and of the lawyers who are blogging.
2. Mixing commercial and non-commercial commentary runs several risks.  Blogs on a firm website will always appear tied into the commercial entity of the firm. This becomes not just an issue of optics, raising the question of whether bloggers are restricted from offering value-added opinion. It also runs an ethical risk: changing the nature of the firm’s content and tone with an internal blog may draw unwanted attention of some state ethics panels.
3. A separate blog domain will have a better chance of building readership. Developing a blog’s readership is difficult at the best of times and will be more difficult within the confines of a firm website. A unique and memorable domain is a big marketing plus for any website, no less so for law firm blogs. Blogs on law firm websites don’t have that feature. Law firm website developers also tend to embed these blogs into their larger CMS product, frequently omitting the RSS feed and email alerts in the process. All of which is to say, blogging technology rarely gets utilized in a way that lets these blogs fully interact within the blogging community.

Are there circumstances when a law firm blog can exist within the structure of a law firm’s website? Sure, but invariably, that scenario is not for firms with hundreds of lawyers and multiple practice groups. For reasons of SEO effectiveness, but even more importantly, for the sake of the blog itself, firms should park it on the driveway and not in the garage.

• Search volumes are going way up. Google says 5-7 fold from the former method of searching.  To me, this says that keyword research is going to be a more fruitful process – i.e. the “long tail” search phrases will become more abundant – more target phrases, and more volume of searches for those phrases.  Click through ratios, on the other hand, are going to drop. This is the new environment, but not all that much has changed fundamentally.  The number of people searching shouldn’t change substantially,  just how the numbers come back to us.
• The “Three-off the key” rule is now in effect. Google is now saying that users cause a “search impression” any time you stop typing for more than three seconds.  The fact you can do that mid-word is going to cause some problems — both for keyword research and website analytics. Some will see this as an opportunity to optimize for partial words; others will see it as slow keyboarding and muddying the waters. [more discussion below].
• Contrary to some reports, you don’t need to be signed into Google. Google Instant shows up on Google.com for everyone, and is moving to the following countries within the week: UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Russia. Google.ca isn’t on the immediate release list, but it likely won’t be long.
• Google Instant is on by default. Yes, you can opt-out, but don’t expect that to happen in any number. If web history tells us anything, when default settings are established by major players, they become the norm (See: Microsoft & Internet Explorer).  The majority of users going forward will use Google Instant.
• Predictive Search is different than Google Instant. Predictive searching, a.k.a. autocomplete,  has been going on for a while now.  Instant search, and the per-keystroke impact on the visible webpage in front of users, is the change that must be measured.
• Google is creating more bid-worthy widgets for PPC. People won’t stop at 2-3 word phrases anymore. Giving the 4-5 term search market an increased presence is good for both paid search and organic.
• Getting page-one results is more important (yet again). Ten percent of users have traditionally gone past page-one in the search results.  I can’t imagine that number doing anything but plummet. Why scroll pages when the search results change with every keystroke?
• Partial word searches may (or may not) have an impact. There’s a fair bit of speculation online that optimizing web pages for partial words and phrases may evolve (e.g. “new jersey crim” for New Jersey criminal law phrases).  So far, I’m not seeing this.  Similar to optimizing for typos and spelling mistakes, I suspect this will have a minor impact.  I fully admit it is possible, but after viewing the metrics for a number of high traffic websites today, partial keyword searches over the past 48 hours were almost non-existent. Impact? perhaps, but not a game changer.
• Will users change their search mid-stream based on results shown? Again, this would be noticeable by partial word searches in your website analytics.  My suspicion is that users will  finish typing the words they are thinking of, and ignore the page results until they’ve completed their thought; especially compared to the alternative, stopping mid-search and clicking.
• Partial brand names in the search results may become an issue. I’ll leave this one to the trademark lawyers, but I’d have my eyes open for new websites that include part of a recognizable brand name. How close can you get to a trademark without causing confusion? I don’t know, but Google may have added a new check point with GI.
• Google’s suggested phrases are important. Every volume search phrase will have tier-two associated phrases that you must know for marketing purposes. Watch the suggested terms in predictive searching, along with the phrases embedded at the bottom of most Google search results pages. This was a noticeable trend with predictive searching, and should get stronger with Google Instant.

General thoughts on approach: It’s still very early in this process to see all the fallout issues. And it’s possible that website metrics may paint a different picture in a few weeks time.  That said, the biggest change I’m seeing with Google Instant is in the user’s experience. The organic search results haven’t re-ordered in any critical way. For search marketers, that means reacquainting themselves with the new numbers, and then responding. I don’t see a major overhaul in tactics.

I’m now going to use Bob’s post to go off on a tangent, and talk about something that appears deceptively mundane: the use of middle initials by lawyers, and the fallout it causes online.

Part of the professional status associated with being a lawyer includes maintaining a sense of formality. When it comes to the use of initials on websites, and in particular for lawyer profiles, this formality seems to have carried forward. Think about, for example, the three-letter monikers lawyers use in most law firms.

In every firm I’ve ever worked for, I could tell you the name of each lawyer by their first, middle, and last initial. Even scarier, to me at least, is that I can still tell you the “lawyer initial conflicts” between those firms. Think about how many firms you’ve known where email addresses were assigned by that three-letter abbreviation, rather than by first and last name? I’ll bet you know a few.

All of which is to say, lawyer love their initials. Now, when it comes to law firm websites, or any online profile page for that matter, this formality ends up causing some problems.  A lawyer’s profile should back up his or her other marketing efforts, both online and offline.  If you give a presentation, or write a paper, or impress people in any sort of way, they are going to conduct an online search to find you. Now for the big question: which names are they going to search by?

Unless you’ve spent a career branding yourself around your initials — e.g.,  F. Lee Bailey, E.F. Hutton — no one is going to be searching for you that way. Very few people can brand themselves with the use of an initial — and I would suggest that if F. Lee Bailey was starting his career in 2010, he couldn’t either.

Lawyers might still treasure their formalities, but the informality of the web is trickling down through all our online behaviour and interactions, including how we search.  We also know that with the search engines, things have to match. You can’t go by “Ernie Johnston” to the world at large, then write your lawyer profile name as “Ernest P. E. Jonhston, Esq. “  People won’t find you. And they especially won’t find you if there are 35 other Ernie Johnstons in Google.

Now, let’s turn this post back to the practical. I’d like to offer a few tips.

Our goal is to have the maximum number of lawyers in your firm rank #1 in Google for the most common version of their “firstname lastname”. So:

• put that ‘Firstname Lastname’ combination at the very beginning of each page’s title tag.  If the law firm’s name must be in there, relegate it to the very end of the page’s title tag.
• use the alternate versions of names (short form, nicknames) in brackets in your title tags:  e.g. Lawrence (Larry) Smith;
• drop middle initials wherever possible, in the alternative, you can get away with leaving the formal name on-page, if you alter both:
  • the URL string: example: http://www.stemlegal.com/steve-matthews/ and not /steven-a-matthews/’, and,
  • the Title Tag: although matching all the page attributes is preferable, varying the webpage’s title tag to the less formal version is a reasonable fall-back position.
• Support the common form name using internal link text within the website.  Any time you mention an online publication within your firm’s web network, be sure the author citation uses the less formal ‘firstname lastname’ as the words over which you place the link.

For the generations of lawyers who’ve spent the better portion of their lives absorbing marketing and advertising, especially via unidirectional channels such as television, there’s a real need to disconnect from that experience.  Those who grasp the concept of “paying it forward” early (think altruism, educating, and connecting) will most often develop a large and mature network of web-based relationships. Those that don’t…  are destined to invest hours into the tools, and gain little traction.

Point being? If you’re not obtaining new relationships with your web marketing efforts, it may be time to work a little harder on ‘outreach’; and ease off on the frequency (and intensity) of your marketing message.  Relationships are the number one objective for your marketing success online; which brings me to the second central message of the column, SEO without spam.

Great SEO is dependent on these relationships, especially relationships with other online publishers. Let me spell it out in SEO terms:

• a large social network translates into reciprocal linking (linking to and from others in your online social circle) ;
• that network of links will grow in size boosting your link popularity (Google PageRank, and the like);
• link networks are not only valuable when in sizable number, but also in terms of domain diversity (not the same people always linking in – new relationships help shape this diversity);
• websites that link in based on similar topic coverage are better aligned and authentic (also valued by the search engines);
• similar subject websites also generate links within the body of the page’s text (valued more by the search engines, compared to blogroll links or footer links).

Websites that are really great performers in the search engines – call it ‘link juice’, call it what you will,  have this kind of link network behind them. On-page SEO tactics aside, the real “silver bullet” to SEO rankings is relationships.  Kill those, and you kill your SEO potential.

Unsolicited (or unexpected) commercial messages (a.k.a. spam) kills marketing – good SEO & credibility are just the first casualties. Fortunately the answer is very simple: hang out your shingle and do your business on your website. If your web travels take you elsewhere…  be yourself, be professional, and leave the salesman at home.

One situation where it can cause problems, however, is responding to a website that has been hacked.  Ignoring the fact that security measures should be in place prior (complex passwords, login lockdown protection, etc.), the speed at which you respond to a website that’s been hacked is absolutely critical. Especially when it comes to protecting that website’s search rankings.

Let me explain a bit more… One of the biggest hacking problems out there currently is a completely stealth operation; that is, once control of the website CMS is taken over by the hacker, hidden pieces of code are injected (or files uploaded that run outside the target site’s navigation structure). The intruder’s spam insertion is also completely invisible to site viewers without inspecting the webpage code.  The hacker’s motive? To strip off some of the target website’s trust & link value, and route it to another money making venture.

Now unfortunately, the way most Firms (& Webmasters) find out about this type of attack is that their pages almost entirely drop out of search engines.  Here’s a frequent scenario:

• someone complains that they can’t be found in Google;
• webmaster inspects & the hacked code snippets are found;
• panic;
• passwords are changed globally; and finally,
• better security measures are put in place.

The bigger problem now? Google & the other search engines believe you run a spam website!  Suffice to say, you don’t want the headache of cleaning your site code, manually removing spam URLs from Google, and ultimately submitting a re-inclusion request explaining to BigG your remedies & new security.  So now – with context – finding out about any hack ASAP & responding before the search engines can index that spam code is … critical.

One helpful solution we came across recently, almost accidentally, is using WatchThatPage.  WTP is a tool we normally use to alert us about client news items & events (sans-RSS…). This time though, WTP identified that the client’s webpage had changed and alerted us within an hour of the attack. Rather than on-page text changes, the hacked-code insertion was detected.  The client was alerted, and their local developer had the site fixes in place a few hours later.

The end result?  Not one page dropped out of the search engines!

So two lessons I’d like to pass along:

1. Website security needs be taken seriously: At the very least, do these two things: 1) add longer complex passwords (10 characters plus, no dictionary words); and 2) lockdown your CMS login – if you use WordPress, we highly recommend the plugin linked above.
2. Get an alert service to email you when your webpage code has changed:  WatchThatPage proved to be a big help; and it’s likely we’ll expand it’s use to more client websites in the future.

The report itself offers a nice overview of the benefits of social media investment. That’s important, but the part I appreciated most was the focus on relationship building. Great relationships are a key driver of success for any law firm (or lawyer’s) search strategy. The reason? Relationships not only improve our network of contacts, which alone is a worthy goal, but they form the basis of the link network behind most firm websites.

Links, remember, are ultimately a form of online currency and a driver of what many people refer to as ‘google juice’ – a measure of trust, and better search rankings.

At one point in the paper, I’m also quoted saying that firms ‘not skip steps‘. Let me explain that further. Broken down, I often consider these three components:

• content – eg. blogs, papers, newsletters;
• distribution channels – eg. twitter, email, RSS, JD Supra; and
• relationships - either mirroring & codifying one’s existing relationships with links, or driving new relationships with social media;

Most firms (not all) have content at least partially covered. They may be sending out paper or email newsletters (distribution) and connecting with existing clients. In the past, that’s what firms had to work with. Could they now have more forms of content? or distribute via more channels? Absolutely, but it’s hard to argue that having those basic pieces functioning (think: 80:20 rule, existing clients…) didn’t create some success.

But this 2/3 element scenario, also created a huge gap in search marketing. Without relationships driving links, firms weren’t creating any kind of an ‘after effect‘; where their published content continues to rank well in the search engines, and continues to drive new readers creating exposure. But with Social Media participation (I include blogger-to-blogger relationships here), and creating new relationships with the associated links, firms are often able to make their publishing work harder & longer. In the cases of extremely popular content, years after the date of publication.

As the years pass, and a firm’s volume of substantive publishing increases, so too does this ‘after effect‘.  And the driver in all this is pretty consistent. Having a solid network of ‘web friends’, who are also web publishers, is one tough combination.

There are lots of other benefits to social media usage, which are covered in the report. But that’s my take on the why SM participation reflects positively on search marketing.

Actually, it’s quite common for blog posts not to receive comments. In the legal industry, and especially with lawyer blogs, we see it all the time.  The truth is the majority of online readers are lurkers. It’s called the 90-9-1 Rule, where 90% of your readers won’t respond in any way, 9% will contribute and participate once in a while, and 1% will do the vast majority of digital interaction.

This can be a difficult phenomenon to explain, but it hardly means that you haven’t connected with your intended audience.  Remember: the more focused the subject, the smaller the target audience. Apply the  90-9-1 rule to most lawyer blog audiences, and it’s a recipe for a comment-free wasteland.  I also think it’s quite unfair to compare a lawyer’s blog comment numbers to the more news-y blogs out there. You can’t compare a lawyer’s substantive commentary to ATL or ABA Journal.

Two important points:

1. Some blog posts just don’t warrant a comment — case in point, see my last post on the sudden abundance of twitter experts our there. It’s received zero comments, but 41 retweets and 1500+ visitors. The post was a fun lark, but clearly not worth commenting on.  That doesn’t mean it didn’t strike a chord or find an audience.
2. There’s always a chance for commentary to connect with readers in the future — Another example: back in 2006 I wrote the Top 10 Uses of RSS in Law Firms.   Three weeks passed and it might have had 30 readers. It subsequently got picked up by Dave Winer, and took on a life of its own.  To this day, that post drives more visitors to my personal blog than anything I’ve written there since. … Side comment: This story is also one of the reasons I still believe in search marketing and the power of positioning content in front of audiences. Blog commentary & search exposure combined continue to have a long-term impact on my own content marketing.

Bottom line: Are comments nice?  Of course they are, but you have to see the big picture.  As most experienced bloggers will tell you, comments are only one form of feedback. Don’t forget to also watch:  site traffic (both post specific, and general trends),  social media mentions, email feedback, mentions on other blogs, and general increases in your profile (eg. offers for speaking engagements) & your personal network (eg. more industry-based friends & contacts).  You need to consider all the available metrics as a group.  Micro-measuring comment counts (or even counting interactions post-by-post…) isn’t going to cut it in face of the 90-9-1 rule.

If we’re compiling a list of unacceptable online behaviours for lawyers, this would be in my top-10. Maybe top-3.  We expect comment spam from viagra and casino vendors, not lawyers.

Now, here’s the rub, and something I’ve blogged about before: almost every blog software out there has a ‘no-follow’ attribute on comment links – as recommended by Google. That means, don’t index the outbound link AND don’t give the link any weight in the search rankings.  And when was this ‘cutting edge SEO’ technique outlawed?  If your SEO doesn’t know, you might want to inform them it was over 4 years ago!

SEOs or marketers that recommend comment spam are incompetent & unethical. Lawyers who use this tactic are acting in an unprofessional manner. If they knowingly endorse it, they should also be considered unethical.

There are lines no professional should cross. This is one of them.

Now to spin this back to my own topic, I’d like to describe the lesson that Jeff is teaching us about building a profile online. And that is, blogs don’t have to be about substantive law to have an impact! Jeff has a class actions and liability practise, not an iPhone-tech law practise. So where’s the value? He’s just wasting his time right? Nope. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Despite the fact that Jeff has disclaimed any connection to his firm, that little link back to his working life is set to become a major asset for the firm. And they likely don’t even know it. … Mark my words here. Over the next year, Jeff’s blog will attract many links, and will probably surpass his firm’s website PageRank of 4 within six months.

From that point forward, Jeff’s blog will drive every lawyer profile and practice page for his firm website up in the search engine rankings. All because of the link juice that link will pass back to the firm.

Think about that for a minute. His firm which has 10 offices and looks to have hundreds of lawyers, will be surpassed by the indirect efforts of just one single lawyer. All because Jeff took the time to blog about a topic he’s passionate about.

A hobby? Sure. But his clients and potential clients also get to see his personality, his level-headed nature, and a love for the topic. That kind of insight does come into play when hiring a lawyer, and yes, personality counts.

Most lawyers love their work. After years in this industry, I’ve come to believe those that have any kind of longevity also have a passion for legal practise. Blogging, on the other hand, is about constant reflection and writing about something you care deeply about. If you’re going to last at it, just like practising law, you’d better love the topic.

The lesson I spoke of earlier, is that a popular blog will drive your law firm’s web marketing efforts, whether it’s a topic directly related to your practise, or like Jeff’s blog, is only tangentially related.

If you’re going to start blogging, my suggestion would be to get this part early. Make sure your blogging topic satisfies something within you. Make sure it’s a topic that’s both fun and drives you to write! As I’ve said before, blogs aren’t law firm newsletters. Yes you need to think about things strategically, but always write for yourself first. Your readers will thank you for it.

Now, where’s my feed reader? … I need to go subscribe to Jeff’s blog.

Update: Completely forgot to tip my blogging hat to Dave Bilinsky for sharing with me. Thanks Dave!

To those looking for a top secret advantage or holy grail to a top ranking website… well, you might have to wait a little longer. This guide offers little more than an acknowledgement of what most would consider industry best practises. But for those looking for a brief introduction to the topic, especially when it comes to on-page optimization basics — this guide is good enough that I may make it my first stop for recommended reading.

And for those simply looking to avoid reading a 22-pg PDF report, I offer my own bullet point readers digest consolidation as follows:

• Make your title tags unique on every page of your site;
• Be sure to add a meta-description tag to each of your pages;
• Incorporate logical site architecture / information architecture principles;
  • ie. broad topic > specific category > finite subject
  • use breadcrumb trails, text based navigation structures
• Make content fresh, organized, unique, and relevant to the site’s subject;
• Keywords embedded in the url structure of pages are valuable additions;
• Write your content for the user, not the search engines;
• Optimize using ALT tags on in-line page images;
• Link with shorter descriptive anchor text – both internally and externally;
• Use header tags to differentiate headlines or scannable content;
• Make use of robots.txt files, sitemap files, webmaster central tools, and so on.

These types of on-page optimization factors are pretty much standard fare these days, especially within more competitive search markets. However, the fact that Google has put their name to, and indirectly endorsed, what most consider to be both ethical and standard industry practises — makes the SEO world a little easier to navigate, for everyone.

And that is an olive branch worth commending. Well done Google!

As many of you may know, Matt is a long-term member of the legal blogging community, and prides himself on inspiring innovative thinking. His current push over at lexthink is to inject that method into his speaking, conferences and law firm retreats.  I genuinely hope he finds that success, mostly because I do find him inspiring.

While I encourage you to visit & read the post in its entirety, there were a couple items on this list that really stood out for me. And they were:

9.  Your future clients have been living their entire lives online and will expect the same from you.  If you’re invisible on the web, you won’t exist to them.

Such an essential point, and especially for younger Lawyers. If you’re in your 30s or 40s, you need to think long term. Marketing your practice the same way as a practitioner in their 60s makes little sense. Learn from an older peer’s success? Absolutely. But don’t mimic marketing tactics. The mix for a younger lawyer should be very different.

7.  Having the scales of justice on your business card says you’re a lawyer — an old, stodgy, unimaginative, do-what-everyone-else-has-done-for-fifty-years lawyer.  Same is true for your yellow pages ad.

The same holds true for law firm websites. Stock images = stock lawyer. Invest in a good photographer and a graphic designer. Find imagery that works for your practice, and stand behind it for a few years.

2.  Google tells me there are 337,000 “Full Service Law Firms” out there.  Which one was yours again?

This is one of the ‘big ones’ in my world.  Neither corporate or commodity legal consumers use generic terms when searching. Couple that fact with a lawyer that’s unwilling to ‘hang their hat’ on an area of practise, or narrow their target geographic region of service…  and the whole sales proposition becomes infinitely more difficult.  Similar to off-line brand tactics, its much easier to explain & share a simplified concept – a lawyer who knows exactly what they do, and who they do it for.

I hope you’ll go read Matt’s post … and kickstart your Monday morning. :)