WebPresence, Esq. understands that our clients (lawyers and legal professionals) are interested in obtaining quality new business. We also understand that this means managing their web presence in a manner that increases their brand’s reputation (yes, law firms and lawyers are considered ‘brands’). Unfortunately, not all SEO companies that work with lawyers utilize this effective approach. Instead, they charge lawyers for services such as link stuffing, directory listings, and poor quality content writing. Not only does this hurt the law firm’s ability to obtain high search engine rankings for its website, but it’s unethical. And at WebPresence, Esq. we’re sticklers for social media ethics for lawyers.
If your law firm is currently working with an SEO team to increase SEO and search engine rankings, make sure they are not engaging in these bad SEO tactics for lawyers.
No Local SEO
Google recently updated is search engine’s algorithm to include more local listings. As such, law firms need to focus part of their web presence efforts on showing up for local queries. There are resources for building these local citations — use them!
Ignoring Ranking Signals
Thanks to recent algorithm updates (they’re happening with increased frequency), Google is rapidly targeting sites with low quality content and ‘shady’ practices such as keyword stuffing and link farms. And by targeting, we do mean kicking you website off top page search results. These days, ranking signals aren’t solely based on links and neither should your SEO campaign.
Link Buying Instead of Link Earning
It’s a post-Panda and Penguin (Google search engine algorithms) world, and that means your law firm’s SEO campaign should be focused on building relationships over links. Understanding your prospective client’s preferences, habits, intentions, and problems will help you create higher quality and targeted content, better social profiles, and will subsequently lead to naturally-occurring links over time. Another great way to earn high quality links is through legal PR, or publishing articles on well-respected sites (both legal and non-legal).
Not Getting Creative With Your Content
Content is not limited to just words. A well-rounded legal blogging campaign can include blog posts, infographics, video, audio, and more. Re-purposing content for use across multiple platforms is an effective way to make content stretch further. For example, with the use of a program like Adobe Aftereffects, you can re-purpose an interesting infographic and upload it to YouTube or directly to your website.
It’s now more crucial than ever that your law firm’s website is pushing out quality, unique, interesting content in creative ways that are also ethically sound. For more information on building your law firm’s web presence, contact the skilled attorneys slash social media marketers at WebPresence, Esq. today.
