Search Engine Optimization For Lawyers
The internet is a cold, dark place, a vast tundra of strangers clicking endlessly into the night. It can be horribly intimidating for your average attorney trying to fight through the clutter and get his website a respectable standing in the search engines’ results.
The options are usually from bad to worse. You can bid upwards of $35 / click on Google AdWords so that mean-spirited competitors can repeatedly click their way through your advertising budget. You can hire a shady Optimization firm from just outside of New Delhi which will sell you access to vast link farms (and get you kicked off Google altogether). Or you can try and do it yourself.
I’ve been doing the latter. Although improving your website’s Google PageRank is difficult, it isn’t impossible and it’s a process that rewards the patient. Pagerank is an amorphous creature that Google uses to largely determine where a page comes up on its search results. For example, a search for “Miami Criminal Defense Attorney” will bring up thousands of attorneys all trying to attract a potential client. The reality is that the vast majority of web searchers barely make it past the front page, much less down to page 16 where your site likely resides. So how do you improve your Pagerank?
1. Get people to link to your site. This is one of the most difficult things to do online. People jealously guard their webspace and very few people are giving it away. If someone decides to bestow charity upon your site - great. Oftentimes, they want a little something for the effort, but it can prove to be far less expensive than Pay-per-Click searches. Just make sure that the text of the link matches the keyword you’re trying to reach; for example, “The Law Office of Richard A. Stern” is nowhere near as effective as “Miami DUI Lawyer” for the results you’re looking for.
2. Write. Annoying as it is, stacking your site with relevant content is important to Google. In the same way you’d want to hire an attorney who has handled many cases, Google wants to make sure they grant the highest ranks to sites that are established and clearly aren’t going anywhere. That’s where blogs and other writing-intensive projects for your website help you on Google.
3. Keyword Density. Simply put, make sure your Meta tags match up with the words on your page. If you use the phrase “Juvenile Defense Attorney” in your Meta tags, make sure you say that phrase on your homepage as well.
Improving Google Pagerank is a long and arduous process, but it can pay off in the end with diligent effort and a lot of typing. Good luck, and happy ranking.
