Understanding the Algorithm
In Friday’s post, Jennifer Horowitz, Director of Marketing for www.EcomBuffet.com, opened a discussion of Understanding SEO and how it can help your legal practice. Today’s post concludes her thoughts on this topic.
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Understanding the Algorithm
The search engines use a complex formula called an algorithm to determine what sites should rank on top of the search engines for any given phrase.
To simplify this let’s go back to our school days as children. Think of the engines like teachers handing out gold stars for everything that you do well.
Google currently has about 200 factors in their algorithms that determine how your site will rank. Imagine your teacher with a clipboard and checklist with 200 items on it and she assigns you gold stars for each of the things you do well.
Remember, some of the items on the list are more important and you may get multiple gold stars. No one knows for sure how the algorithm works, but we test and monitor the industry to come up with a technique that works well for getting sites ranked.
The number of gold stars you achieve will determine how well your site will rank. There are no shortcuts and there are no tricks (none that are safe to use and won’t result in trouble down the road).
So the goal is to make sure you earn more gold stars than your competitors to keep you coming up on top.
The kicker is that the algorithm is constantly being updated and things fluctuate – which means staying on top of the algorithm and your site’s optimization is crucial.
What does all this mean to you, an attorney with a website?
If gaining new clients is important to your business, then making sure your site is optimized is vitally important. If your site doesn’t come up on top when people are searching for keywords related to your services you are missing out on getting new clients – and your competitors are likely picking them up.
In addition, here is some important information that explains why SEO is important to attorneys.
Validation: Potential clients may have already decided that they are likely to hire your firm or possibly a specific lawyer at your firm due to your existing reputation or based on a referral. However statistics and internet studies show that now, more than ever, people are searching online to help establish trust and comfort before engaging someone’s services. They want to see pictures, read credentials and they also try to get a glimpse of your vibe and style from your website. They may search by an attorney’s name or the firm name, but they are also likely to search by keyword phrases like “family law attorney in Los Angeles”.
Searching is a habit: It has been noted that a lot of people (probably more than you think) use Google instead of typing in a URL. They often have Google set as their home page and find it easier to just search for a keyword phrase or your name or firm name, rather than type in a URL. Even though it is usually pretty easy to get ranked on your name or firm name, that isn’t always the case and they may not find you unless you have good search engine presence.
Hitting the net before the pavement: Before going to physical office locations, internet users are using search engines to find service providers and doing research before calling or going for a consultation.
Local Search and Geo-targeting: An increasingly popular vertical of the search industry is local search. Especially with the advent of smart phones and mobile internet access. People are more often than ever searching for regional specific products and services. We see more and more searches like “Los Angeles criminal attorney” and with geo-targeting people no longer even need to type in the regional parameter. The engines can pinpoint your location to within 7 miles of where you are from your IP address (the exception to that is AOL, where it appears that everyone is in Virginia). So a search for “criminal attorney” by someone in Los Angeles would turn up different results than the same search done by someone in San Francisco. Making sure you are optimized is important so your site comes up on top – especially if someone is searching on their Blackberry and looking specifically for a local office.
Phone books are big, heavy and not as convenient as Google: Many, many people now use Google instead of the phone book if they want to find a service provider.
The Future And You
There is so much more to SEO than I could ever cover in one article. You may have heard buzz words like Universal or Blended Search, Personalized Search and Suggested Search Queries, as well as The Golden Triangle of Search and so much more. It’s an exciting time for people in the search industry and for people looking to take advantage of search engines to get new clients.
The one thing that all of these new additions to the search landscape tell us is that it is more important than ever to make sure your site comes up on top when people are looking to hire an attorney.
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