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Lawyer Website Search Engine Ideas to Attract More
Clients
By Bob Schwartz, CRS, GRI co-owner of websitetrafficbuilders.com
Copyright Promotions Unlimited
84.8% of web surfers use search engines to find sites like yours!
(Source: GVU Center, College of Computing- Georgia Institute of
Technology) Millions of people use Internet search engines daily! Simply
submitting your site to the Internet search engines is not enough! If
your site does get indexed (listed) by a major search engine, it will
just be one of millions. So, just being listed, has nothing to do with
making sure you get a good position. Positioning is what matters most!
The trick to obtaining this huge number of potential clients is a search
engine position on the first three pages of the returned keyword search
results. If your keywords rank below page three, your share of this
potential traffic will be nearly non-existent. There are many ways to
improve your site's ranking. The most effective of which would be hiring
a company that not only specializes in site positioning, but guarantees
their results.
With the intense demand to achieve a top search engine position, the
cost to achieve it is not exactly cheap. However, it is usually much
less than what you would end up spending on a bid-for-position search
engine. Achieving a high ranking on the search engines is the best
advertising "bargain" on the Web today. The reason is simple: Millions
of searches are done everyday. The thousands of Web sites that appear
near the top of those search results essentially get free advertising.
People must be able to find your site on one or more keywords when they
do a search!
This article focuses on what you can do (without knowledge of HTML
coding) to better your site's chance of getting its fair share of
Internet search engine traffic:
#1. Make sure each page of your site has the adequate Title, Meta
description & content tags. Often only the entry page of sites has
proper tags, leaving the other site pages with unfinished/incorrect
tags. Do not just copy your entry page tagsover to your other pages. To
be useful, the tags should be pertinant to the content on that page.
#2. Continuing on with tags, you should check any framed pages used on
your site. Here you will verify that you are using good NOFRAME tags.
Not all search engines correctly index framed pages. Without the correct
NOFRAME tags here, your framed pages may not be properly indexed.
#3. Lastly, sites that are graphic intensive should be employing the ALT
tag to properly describe each graphic. No search engine reads or indexes
graphics. Therefore, the ALT tag is extremely important.
#4. Do not use “Under Construction” text or images on any page. This is
almost a sure way to not be indexed on a lot of major search engines. If
your page is not finished, do not publish it!
#5. Try applying for web site awards. Some awards are more difficult to
attain than others, but all are always free. The award issuing sites
only require you place a link back to their site attatched to their
award graphic. Awards add creditability and also enhance the time spent
on investigating your site. An excellent graphic is the face of the
Legal Excellent Content Award.
#6. With the algorithms of most search engines factoring in link
popularity, your site should have a links page. To be effective, this
page should be linked to your site's front page. Use this page to trade
links with other sites in related (but non-competitive) industries. For
example, legal sites dealing with accidents could link to other legal
sites that do criminal or probate law for example. Real estate sites
could trade links with home improvement/maintenance sites, lenders,
lawyers, financial planners, etc. Keep in mind, the idea is not to just
link these sites, but to exchange links with them! Note of caution:
There are a few sites that will offer you free membership in a link
exchange service. You are required to host a number of pages on your
site that list the other participant’s links. Though the thought was
good, and somewhat effective in increasing your link popularity, the
search engines have caught on to this trick and as one of our
prospective clients recently discovered, will de-list your site for this
practice. Plus, the importance of links to achieving a better ranking
for your site is related to the standing of the site linking to you. So,
a link from a site highly ranked will be worth more in the search
engines eyes than a bunch of links from low/non-ranked sites. Do not
fall for the quick-fix instant promises of these services. Building
effective links takes time and perseverance.
#7. There have been recent changes in search engine submission policies.
Today to get your site indexed promptly, the most cost effective, and in
some cases, the only way to rank on certain search engines, is to pay
for a guaranteed site review. The two best places to apply are through
cost for the Yahoo review is $299, recurring annually. Additonally, you
are paying for a review only, with no guarantee of being listed. Also,
these services do NOT guarantee where your site will be rated, just that
if accepted, it will be indexed. Finally, keep in mind your fee of $299
is NOT returned if your site is not accepted. Here is part of an email
site rejection notice received by a local site from Yahoo: “Dear
Business Express Client, Yahoo! has reviewed the URL you submitted with
Business Express order #. We're sorry to report that we've decided not
to include your site in the Yahoo! directory at this time. We base our
evaluation of each site solely on the content it has on the site at the
time of evaluation. When we reviewed your site today, we found that it
did not have enough content to support a listing through the Business
Express program.” The Looksmart search engine has changed to a pay per
click basis.
#8. To mitigate the potential for your site submission being rejected,
and to insure your share of the Internet search engine traffic, you
could hire a company that specializes in positioning. The most
cost-effective things to consider with this approach (in order of
importance) are:
A. A guarantee that YOUR particular keywords will receive a position on
page one, two or three of the search engine results. B. A written
outline of the whole program.C. No charge should be made for any ranking
beneath page three.D. There should be a sliding fee charged that is
based on real results. E. There should be a maximum fee stated. F.
Before hiring any firm you should verify their actual prior results.
#9. With a minimal time and a modest investment you can achieve some
very reputable results yourself. There are a few programs available, but
the best one, which we utilize in our own business, is IBP.
They have a free, thirty-day demo program that is down-loadable. Plus,
only the extensive help section, alone, provides invaluable insights
into top search engine positioning. There will always be skeptics and
site owners who do not take the time or place the investment into their
sites to earn top rankings. No matter how completive the keyword phrase,
with the application of the proper techniques top search engine
positions can be obtained. In conclusion, websites can be very
productive in achieving huge search engine keyword directed traffic. For
more information about the Internet search engines, software programs
noted above and web site promotion, visit:
http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com/ Bob can be contacted at: seo711@gmail.com
Copyright 2007 Promotions Unlimited
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