Penguin is Google’s effort to kill this spam link practice and force site owners to go after high quality, relevant links. In the next few paragraphs I am going to outline some areas you need to focus on when thinking about a linking strategy for your law firm website.

Know what your Web vendor is doing

Web vendors who promise quick rankings may not be looking out for your best interests. High quality, relevant links are hard to obtain, and they are what Google wants in their quest to provide high quality results for searchers. A good indicator of quality is the number of relevant websites that link to a website (also called incoming links.) It’s possible to make any site rank in the top 10 for any keyword within two months. The problem with this approach, however, is that obtaining quick rankings would need to be achieved by gaming the system,  in part by buying a high number of low quality or spammy links or using an existing link network to add several hundred links with optimized link text to make you rank for your desired term or phrase. Following this method would make you happy with your rankings for several months. In the long run, however, the site would be penalized by Google and sink downward  in Google’s results.

We know that our law firm clients are concerned with rankings — as they should be if they wish to obtain cases. The problem with many SEO companies is that they are looking out for “their” best interests rather than those of their client. They want to get results quickly and get paid. If their client gets hit with a penalty, many of these vendors try to confuse the client by using industry vernacular, then charging the client to clean up the mess. They may also take the client’s money and run.

At Consultwebs.com, we take a slower approach to SEO but one that we know is a better fit for our clients. You will own your site for many years. Therefore, a few extra months to obtain rankings is not a lot to sacrifice in the short term if it means that your site steadily gains more relevance and authority for the search phrases for which you wish to rank.

What can you do to achieve solid rankings for your law firm website?

Links are the lifeblood of the Internet. High quality links from relevant sites let Google know that your site has relevant information and value. Below are the 3 crucial areas on which to focus your attention:

1. Write great content. If people like what they read they are more likely to share your link. Write content about topics that you are an authority on and not just around content for which you want to rank. People can determine honesty and authority in what they read. If you are involved in your local community, write positive, relevant information about your community. If your site has an active and interesting blog, you are well on your way to obtaining readers and links.
2. Give to get. Other website owners LOVE to receive incoming links. If you know people in your community that have related businesses (i.e., anyone you have ever referred a client to), contact them and let them know that you just referred someone and say, “by the way, I would love to add a link to you on our website; would you consider adding one back to us?” This approach works well for local visibility, especially if the other company included your business name, address, and phone number along with the link. Link to other legal related blogs as well. If you enjoy reading a particular blog because it provides good information for your business, consider adding a link to that blog from your blog and send the writer a quick e-mail saying that you enjoyed reading their blog so much that you decided to share it with your own visitors. Perhaps, they will reciprocate. If not, they are likely to remember you and may reference your blog for information to link to when they write future blogs.
3. Be social. Social platforms such as Google+, Facebook, and Twitter are great for getting your message out and gaining traffic to your site. If you do not have the time to do all three, pick the one you enjoy the most and start writing. Or, use a product such as hootsuite to automatically post from one platform to others.Build a following and be interesting and authoritative. Link back to your blog articles. Be genuine, be humorous if it comes naturally to you, and be passionate. People pick up on interesting, entertaining content and want to follow others who make them smile as well as keep them up to date on subjects that interest them. 

What approach does Consultwebs take?

We work to understand our clients’ needs and goals. We passionately want our clients to succeed and remain successful. To that end, we have much the same focus as you do. Below are our major focus areas for our clients’ sites.

1. Write great content. We have three seasoned lawyer / journalists on staff and several other lawyer contract writers and journalists who handle content writing for many of our clients. They understand how to write content that is focused and effective. This is the core of any strategy. Whether it is your site, blog or social media, we write authoritative and interesting content with your potential clients in mind. We focus on what is interesting to potential and existing clients, what is unique about your firm, and how your firm connects in the community. For attorneys who do not have the time to write content, we offer a valuable service for ensuring their site has effective, relevant, and fresh content.
2. Link Building. Our philosophy for link building is to obtain high quality links in a steady fashion rather than seeking quick links that will not hold lasting value. Google quickly picks up on SEO firms that “game the system” through low quality links or links from link farms. To obtain high quality links, we review relevant blogs and local law firms and businesses that are relevant to your law firms. We also review your competitors’ sites to see if we might have missed a potential link source. Our highly trained link-builders know how to evaluate the quality and relevance of potential links and then create a relationship with site owners to secure links. Although most of our clients are typically not aware of what we are doing, they can take comfort in knowing that we are working for them behind the scenes.
3. Be Social. Our Social Media team works closely with our content department and Account Managers to know your business and your customers. For our clients who do not have the time or the knowledge to use these sites effectively, this is a great option for keeping ongoing visibility on the major social networks.

A small percentage of our Consultwebs client’s sites were affected by the recent Google Algorithm changes. This is primarily due to our ethical approach and our insistence on high quality, relevant links and content.

If you have been affected by a recent search engine update or have recently had an SEO company promise quick results, please feel free to give us a call. We will listen to your needs and formulate a strategy that will deliver long lasting return on your investment. Additionally, we are also currently providing free Web audits that include a review of your SEO, design, content and social media by our Consultwebs professionals.

For assistance or questions about your law firm’s online marketing strategy, please contact us at marketing@consultwebs.com or 800-872-6590.

The Google Penguin Update and Your Law Firm’s Website | Law Firm Web Marketing

What does all this mean? It means your law firm needs to be on Google+ if you want to take advantage of the boost that this up and coming Social Media service can provide to your website’s rankings. We’d like to offer five reasons for signing on. Before we dive in, let’s get a little terminology out of the way:

• Google+ Profile. A Google+ Profile is an online Google+ page for an individual person. Each profile allows an individual to share photos, movies, biographical information, as well as items of interest in their life or from the web. You can read more about the individual elements of a profile from one of our Law Web Marketing posts, “Google Social Media, Your Law Firm Web Marketing Is About To Change.”
• Google+ (Brand) Page. A Google+ Page is very similar to a Google+ Profile with the exception that it is intended to be used by businesses or brands. There are some subtle differences like the fact that a Page needs to be added to one of another user’s circles before the Page can add that person to their circle. Otherwise many brands would just endeaver to add everyone on Google+.
• Google+ Direct Connect. Google+ Direct Connect is a mechanism created by Google to allow web surfers to directly connect with brands by typing the brand’s name preceded by the “+” sign into Google’s search page. For instance, “+Pepsi”. This will take you directly to Pepsi’s Google+ Brand Page.

Ok, onward to our main points. Following are the reasons we believe Google+ should be an integral part of your law firm marketing in 2012.

1. Sheer number of users. Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, predicts the number of Google+ users will skyrocket from 62 million in December 2011 to 400 million by the end of the year. Google recently announced its Social Media platform had over 90 million users, with 60% of those members using the service daily and 80% using it weekly (Edit: It has been pointed out that this metric is describing usage of all google services by users with Google+ accounts). With the increased number of users and the new possibilities for interaction (circles, hangouts, video), Google+ is an important online outlet you won’t want to overlook.
2. A Direct Connection to Your Law Firm. Fire up Google in your browser and type in “+Pepsi”.  If you are logged into Google, This takes you to the Pepsi Brand Page on Google+. What you’re seeing is the Direct Connect mechanism at work. That feature also gives you the option to automatically add pages you have searched for to your circles in the future. This is huge. If users opt in to this, then it means that anytime someone enters “+Your Firm’s Name Here” into the Google search bar, you are automatically added to their circle of people they follow if you have the Direct Connect functionality active. And that means that your posts will show up in their stream. Now, imagine your firm’s name is “Smith Law Firm” and another firm across the country is also named “Smith Law Firm” and they already have a popular Google Brand Page that users can find by simply typing in “+Smith Law Firm”. Because they beat you to the punch, visitors looking for your site will be taken across country to the other firm’s site. Admittedly, Direct Connect is not a widely used convention yet, but the fact remains that a firm’s name is one of the top keywords used to find a firm’s website. It won’t take most users long to figure out that they can just stick a “+” in front of the name they are searching for to save themselves a few clicks.
3. The Power of Referrals. In the book Grouped: How Small Groups of Friends are the Key to Influence on the Social Web, author Paul Adams states: “In independent studies … people were three to four times more likely to trust a friend or acquaintance than a blogger or expert for product purchase advice.” Google already connects people to brands via their search results and adwords products. Imagine you search for a plumber and find that your friend Bob, who hired a company a few months ago, had such outstanding service that he recommended (+1’d) their page and commented favorable on Google+. That referral or recommendation will skyrocket to the top of your Google results and you will see that Bob recommended this company. This is the power of the social Web, and this will mean great success for companies that truly care about their client’s and show it by the service they provide. If you provide great service to your law firm clients, don’t be shy about asking them to click the (+1) button for your page.
4. Cutting down on the Noise. Google+ is designed for the multi-faceted life. One of the biggest hindrances for companies using Facebook is the marketing “noise” – those items you don’t care about that enter your news stream. The problem with Facebook for most companies, including law firms, is that it is not very easy to compartmentalize the feeds you get. Everything is in one stream. With a Google+ page, law firms have some unique opportunities. They can break up their communications into separate group – for example, past clients, possible referral candidates, media contacts, employees, etc. That makes it possible to communicate with each in unique ways and as ethics rules allow, cutting down on that noise factor.
5. You are the Authority. The biggest reason to create a Google+ page: the ability to create authoritative content. If you have a personal Google+ profile tied to your blog posts, Google knows that information is from you and can weed out content scrapers and knock-off sites. Google can also get a metric for how popular you are through the number of people that have you in their circles, which is an indication that you have something relevant to say to them. In the end, that could boost your overall rankings. Similarly, having a Google+ business page linked to your website lets Google know that that is your page. The more circles you are in is another metric that Google can use to determine the popularity of your firm. Unlike Facebook, Google+ is tied to search. There is a possibility that Google could use this information in their page-ranking algorithm at some point. Early adopters to Google+ pages will have a lot easier time gaining followers than those late to the game since new users signing up will be looking for people or companies to fill their circles with. How quickly did your friend list grow on Facebook in the first few months, compared with the last few years?

Bottom line: we highly recommend Google+ Pages for all firms. In our opinion, it is crucial to your marketing efforts, and now is the time to get started. Contact Our Law Firm Marketing Experts Today Contact Consultwebs.com today for help setting up your Google+ page. If you would like to talk further with an experienced legal Internet marketing strategist, reach out to Consultwebs.com, Inc., today. Call us at (800) 872-6590 or e-mail us at marketing@consultwebs.com.

Top 5 Reasons Your Law Firm Should Be Using Google+ | Law Firm Web Marketing

Many law firms and attorneys have invested considerable time and resources in building Facebook pages, LinkedIn accounts, blogs, etc. Yet another social service for connecting to our clients seems a bit exhausting at first take. However, there are many reasons that Google+ will be worth the investment. Here at Consultwebs.com, we are bullish on the service.

What is Google+ (Google Plus)?

Google+ is Google’s latest attempt at owning the social infrastructure of the Web. Judging by the fact that they have tied employee incentives to success in the social arena, I would say they are very serious about it. Google+ allows users who have a Google / Google+ account to interact and share with each other in very useful ways. You’ll encounter several new terms, such as Circles, Hangouts and Sparks, once you sign up. Here’s what those terms mean:

Circles

Circles are collections of “friends” (to use Facebook terminology) that have a similar theme for you. You might have a Circle of coworkers, a Circle of business colleagues, a Circle of fans for your favorite sports teams, etc.

When you create a post, you can “selectively” choose who can see the information. If you are a member of a civic organization and have a Circle with the members from it, you can share a news article with everyone in that organization — without bothering the members of your snorkeling Circle. It is also very easy to select a certain group and receive the information that members of that group are sharing.

Hangouts

Facebook recently announced a new Skype video feature that allows Facebook users to communicate one-on-one. Google+’s Hangout has already antiquated this new video feature from Facebook.

Hangouts is a video-calling feature that provides an impromptu way for multiple people to get together and have online face-to-face video meetings. It is limited (for now) to 10 slots, and you have to be invited to join a conversation unless the creator of the Hangout has made it public. Google has put much thought into this feature, and you’ll find it both useful and easy to use. Within minutes, four of us from Consultwebs were chatting on Hangouts’ video on our first try (see the screen print above.) Our entire company can now collaborate using Google+. When you are in a meeting, the focus of the video automatically switches to the person who is currently speaking. There is also built-in chat functionality and the ability to share movie clips via YouTube.

Law firm online marketing expert Dale Tincher, the CEO of Consultwebs, a law firm Web marketing and Social Networking company, stated: “Hangouts is an amazing feature that has more features than many video systems for which businesses previously paid considerable money. It allows law firms to organize and improve their Social Media communications by setting up Circles such as Clients, Acquaintances, Following, Family, Department Groups (e.g., Workers’ Compensation, Personal Injury or Firm), Friends, Clients, etc.”

Soon Google will be including functionality from their other services, including Google Docs (Spreadsheets, Powerpoint) as well as the ability to do whiteboards, hearing impaired accommodation, screencasts, and calendar integration. From a business user’s perspective, this is a very big deal. Not only will you be able to easily meet with members of your team or prospective clients, you will have the ability to seamlessly share information with them. Technology no longer stands in your way. To show how serious Google is about accessibility, members of the Hangout team have invited hearing-disabled persons to be part of structured tests to make sure they are able to use the service as effectively as the rest of us.

Sparks

The Sparks service is still in its infancy, and it seems apparent that Google has been more focused on other areas. The idea behind Sparks is extremely interesting, though. What is one of the many things that Google does really well? Their mission is to organize the world’s data, and Google has invested tons of resources to fine-tune their search engine with the goal of producing high-quality content and penalizing websites that aggregate content or try to trick the system. A byproduct of Google’s sophisticated search algorithm, in tandem with its new Social Network, is the ability of the search engine giant to do a better job of delivering relevant content. Enter Sparks, which allows you to create a stream of content around a central theme (e.g., Medical Malpractice). Google will deliver search results to your Sparks screen that it believes is relevant to you.  You can easily share it throughout your Circles with just a click.  No need to copy and paste urls into your feed like on Facebook.

It is important to note that Google+ is still in a limited testing phase and that only the creation of personal profiles are allowed at the moment. Google will be rolling out the ability for businesses and other entities to have profiles in the near future. They will soon be testing this ability with a limited number of businesses. Consultwebs.com was one of the first to sign up as a potential tester, and we will reserve judgment on the efficacy of this until we have seen how it will be implemented.

Google+ (Google Plus) — A Facebook Killer?

Now that we have gotten some terminology out of the way, let’s look at some burning questions being discussed by early testers of the service. Facebook currently has the lion’s share of the market for social connectivity, with hundreds of millions of individuals and businesses currently signed up for the service. Those Facebook numbers are great from the standpoint of having millions of users potentially available to read your messages. However, Facebook has some glaring limitations, and those are made more obvious by Google+.

On Facebook, All of your friend’s posts comes through in one stream unless you are one of the few that has committed the time to set up Groups of Contacts. This adds a lot of clutter to a user’s page that is potentially useless. How many posts have you seen about someone’s dog or cat?

Also Facebook is not the best medium for discovery of new people to follow. Yes, it recommends people based on your current friends list, but unless you know that person you are probably not going to add them. Every time you “Like” a website, service or blog post, it goes into your social stream. This adds a lot of chatter to the stream and really does nothing to let the user know why you like the service.

Google+, on the other hand, allows you to easily and intuitively place persons (and soon businesses/groups) into Circles. This has some really cool and powerful ramifications. This approach lets you control the information you are receiving. If I want to see what my friends are up to, I click on my Friends Circle. If I want to see what my online marketing peers are talking about, I can click on my Online Marketing Circle. If someone is adding a lot of useless information on one of my Circles, I can easily mute them (remove their updates from my stream) or remove them from that Circle.

Discovery is probably one of the best features of Google+. If Person A, who I am following in my Online Marketing Circle, reposts an excellent article written by Person B, I can easily add Person B to that same Circle to benefit from their knowledge in future posts.

Every time you “+1” a website, service or blog post, the +1 does not go to your feed. Instead, it is added to a section of your Google profile for pages that you are recommending. If I am interested in a particular person, I can review their profile and see their professional background and also see what kind of pages / content they are interested in.

The bottom line: In the first days of Google+ (Google Plus), there is already more relevant interaction between users than there ever has been in Facebook.  We are in no way saying that Facebook is not useful in your marketing strategy.  Google+ and Facebook will continue to be important sources for social interaction into the foreseeable future.   Google+ is still young and there is a lot of buzz about it at the moment.  We are sure that the increased competition will push both services to create more engaging / useful experiences.  So as far as Google+ is concerned, we’re keeping our eye on it and will utilize it to the best of its potential and if or when it overtakes Facebook, we will already have your law firm a strong presence.

Who will win the Social Media Battle?

Google and Facebook have a common goal but with distinct strategies for reaching that goal. Facebook started as a Social Network and is trying to build services on top of that structure. Google started by offering services (Web search, Gmail, calendar, etc.) and is building a Social Network to connect users to all of their services. In our opinion, Google could soon have the upper hand in the Social Media competition if they can get a critical mass of persons using the service.

Consultwebs.com CEO Dale Tincher stated, “Google is the leader in search and mobile (cell phone) operating systems and is making huge gains in browsers (Chrome) and numerous other areas. The Google +1 Button is already on more home pages than the Tweet button. After using the product for a week, I feel that Google has the experience, network and expertise to outpace Facebook in Social Media by late 2012, despite the fact that Facebook has more than 750,000,000 users. I am very excited about Google+ (Google Plus) for our law firm clients’ Web marketing efforts.”

“Having the ability to easily share a page while you are searching the Web and fine-tune who you share it with is very powerful,” Tincher said. “If I am searching the Web and see an excellent article on a service that benefits my firm, I can easily share it with everyone in the Circle I have created for my firm. Likewise, if I am using Gmail (or the Google Apps for Business version) , Google Calendar, or Google Docs, this leaves some pretty interesting options open for using the social infrastructure Google is building.”

Down the road, we see these obvious uses for Google+ (Google Plus):

• Scheduling meetings with members of a legal association Circle using Google Calendar.
• Sharing a Google Docs spreadsheet / presentation with the same Circle.
• Sending an e-mail to members of a certain Circle (e-blasts).

In a recent interview at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, Idaho Google CEO Eric Schmidt stated “There is a nice set of product improvements in core search, core youtube, maps and soforth and so on that should drive adoption.”  He also added, “”There’s a alot coming”.

Where Does Your Law Firm Go From Here?

Does this portend the end of your Facebook account and business blog? Currently we think the resounding answer is . . . No!

Google is, at its core, a search engine company. That is their bread and butter. They are building a social layer on top of their already established core functionality. To have relevant content to share on their service, there must be relevant content; otherwise Google+ would be just a glorified chat system. Over the next few years, you may need great content and a social interaction strategy to prevail with your Web marketing campaign. Following are some thoughts about how Google+ will affect your law firm’s Web campaign.

It has been easy in the past for companies to put up a website and then spend money for Adwords / organic Search Engine Optimization to make the website rise to the top of the search results. While this is currently still a working model for many law firms, the better practice may be to balance organic search engine optimization with a smart balance of Adwords, content/design, and Social Media.

As companies like Google and Facebook get better and better at abstracting social interactions on the Web, you’ll need to find marketing consultants that can invest sufficient time and money in making sure your voice is heard above the rest. Google is currently using social indicators (mentions) in how they rank a certain website. If I currently do a Google search for my name the first result is my Google Profile page. This is new since the launch of Google+ and tells me that Google is putting a higher premium on social content.

With Google’s renewed insistence on quality content, more and more firms will need to look to Web marketing companies to help provide top-quality content and well-designed websites that leverage the new social tools to create a compelling and engaging experience for their potential clients. Having content that is shared on Google+ and Facebook will do more for your total visibility than ever.

One other large change dealing with content will be that the author is more important than the website. Tying authors to Google profiles and establishing a link to that authoritative source is at the core of the new model being established by Google.  Google CEO Schmidt stated, “The issue with the internet is not a lack of Facebook, the issue with the internet is a lack of identity.”  He went on to note, “We are trying to use the identity infascructure (Google+) to make the Google products really interesting.”  If you can consistently create new, engaging content, then you are more likely to be shared, placed in Circles, or friended on Facebook. With Google+, as noted earlier, a friend of yours can share an article with you via Circles, and it is relatively simple to place the author of that article in a Circle as an authoritative reference. You have control now like never before.

How To Join Google+ (Google Plus)

If you are interested in joining Google+ you will first need a Google account.  If you already have one head over to plus.google.com and put yourself on the waiting list or ask one of your friends or a web marketing professional who is already using the service to send you an invite.

More Google+ (Google Plus) Questions? Contact Consultwebs.com Today

Google+ is still a very new service, and Google is working hard to make this one stick. Google is leveraging its current infrastructure and adding on a social layer to bind these services more effectively to our everyday communication. Social will be the new SEO going forward.

If law firms can effectively create compelling content that speaks to the needs of their potential clients, and create profiles that are authoritative and helpful, then they are much more likely to be shared / referenced. As Google continues to add the critical mass of users needed to make the service more relevant, your need to stand out from the competition will be more important than ever. The need for great content and well-designed/executed websites will be crucial, because, after all, once someone has found you through the new emerging social channels, you still have to convert them.

If you would like to learn more about Google+ (Google Plus) or need help with your law firm’s social networking or other online marketing efforts, contact us today at 800-872-6590 or marketing@consultwebs.com.

Google+ Social Media – Your Law Firm Web Marketing Is About To Change | Law Firm Web Marketing