Information Economics

Information economics or the economics of information is a branch of microeconomic theory that studies how information affects an economy and economic decisions. Information has special characteristics. It is easy to create but hard to trust. It is easy to spread but hard to control. It influences many decisions.

The internet has fundamentally changed how people find and consume information.  Information that was once difficult to attain is now only a quick search and click away.  As a result, there is a demand for information online.  

The online marketing "winners" will be the firms that are able to supply that demand for information.  You need to create an online presence where you position yourself as a trusted resource, a supplier of information for your niche.  This is not attained by simply setting up a website that talks about how great your firm is and running some ads to get people to the site.  Sure this might generate a few leads and prospects, but it is not a recipe for long-term success online.

Success online will come to the firms that are putting out information that makes the web better.  As the article states:

Will you:

• Answer someone’s question?
• Make someone laugh?
• Provide a reasoned disagreement?
• Help solve a problem?
• Make some data more easily understood?
• Fix technical errors?
• Provide a different perspective?
• Leave a thoughtful comment?
• Participate in a discussion?
• Share something new you’ve learned?
• Meet someone new?
• Introduce people to one another?
• Create something aesthetically amazing?
• Review a product or service?
• Recommend a colleague?

Not so different from traditional networking concepts, is it?  However, doing this requires creativity and effort.  You actually have to create good content that is helpful for people.  You need to add to the conversation in some way.  Regurgitating news stories and recent verdicts in the area doesn't really accomplish this.  Neither is stuffing a page full of keywords for search engines.  

Some might argue these methods work or one man's spam is another man's treasure.  However, my larger point is that in order to stand out as a supplier of valuable information in the long run, in order to become a resource people come to, you will need to think about how your marketing is making the web better, not just making more of the same noise that already exists.  Easier said than done.

Gorillas are the largest extant species of primates. Adult males, also called silverbacks, range in height 1.65–1.75 metres (5 ft 5 in–5 ft 9 in), and in weight 140–200 kg (310–440 lb). Occasionally, a silverback of over 1.8 metres (5 ft 11 in) and 230 kg (510 lb) has been recorded in the wild. Obese gorillas in captivity have reached a weight of 270 kg (600 lb).

In other words, they're big.

Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians (or "irregulars") use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and less-mobile traditional army, or strike a vulnerable target, and withdraw almost immediately.

In other words, it's lean and strategic.

They covered some of the basics of blog SEO and how search engines "rank" web pages.

They also provided some actionable tips, specifically applicable to lawyer-bloggers about both what "to do" and what not to do.

And while the specific blog SEO tips were really quite good, it was a point that Kevin made about how a law firm might think about approaching SEO, and internet marketing more generally, that resonated with me.

His point was that if you are a larger firm with a significant marketing budget, who has been aggressively marketing and advertising in the offline world, you will probably approach internet in a much different way than if you're a small firm or solo, with a very limited (or nonexistent) marketing budget.

In other words, how you approach internet marketing will depend, to a large extent, upon whether you're more a gorilla or a guerilla.

And while this might seem like an obvious distinction, failing to consider in advance whether you're more of a gorilla or a guerilla can have a significant impact on whether you meet the goals of your internet marketing campaigns.

Gorillas

Have you historically spent big advertising marketing dollars on yellow book, television, radio, and billboard advertising? Does your firm use direct mailers?

Does it sponsor industry trade shows, seminars, charity events, and scholarships? Does your firm have a recognized brand?

If so, you might be a web marketing gorilla.

Web marketing gorillas typically take an aggresive comprehensive approach to their web strategy. They usuallly commit large budgets to paid search marketing and have professional paid search managers optimizing their accounts.

They may also make significant investments in paid online legal directory advertising, content distribution platforms, and a variety of other internet advertising programs.

Gorillas also invest heavily in web design and development. They often purchase complex websites with custom designs, video integrations, live-chat features, and a host of other web bells and whistles.

Some gorillas will be able to leverage in-house resources like attorney-writers, subject-matter experts (like doctors, engineers, nurses, etc).

Typically, the gorillas we have worked with have benefitted from high-level agency strategy support, managing, maintenance, and consulting.

Whether they're looking for a quarterback for their existing efforts, or want more turn-key solutions, the common theme is that they want to cast a comprehensive online net and measure, track, and analyze how these different moving pieces are working to increase the firm's online footprint, and ultimately deliver new business.

They're usually not interested in getting mired down in all the specific details and prefer the 30,000 ft. view of how the internet is adding value to their practice.

Guerillas

Are you a solo or small firm lawyer? Do you typically stick to only the most proven and efficient forms marketing and advertising? Are you committed to doing most of the heavy-lifting yourself?

Would you rather invest your time than your money into building your practice? Do you find yourself analyzing where the competition is weak and positioning yourself against those weaknesses? Do you prefer the scalpal to the shotgun?

Then you're probably a web marketing guerilla.

Typically, guerillas put a higher priority on efficiency and effectiveness. They want maximum bang for their buck and aren't looking for a lot superfluity.

They put a higher priority on marketing strategies that are lean, versatile, and affordable.

They're willing to spend some of their own time learning and executing proven web marketing strategies.

They want a professional web profile, but not necessarily all the bells and whistiles. They usually handle the majority of content development, link acquisition, and campaign management themselves.

The guerillas that we've worked with have benefitted more from individualized education sessions where they can get answers to specific questions about a specific aspect to web marketing.

They're interested in understanding the role the web can plan in word of mouth referrals.

They usually appreciate someone watching over their shoulder to make sure that they're avoiding common mistakes.

They like having access to professionals to help point them in the right direciton, but prefer to execute the various strategies themselves.

Why It Matters

Determining whether you're a gorilla or a guerilla should be a huge factor in how you build your web marketing program.

For example, if you're a gorilla, you might be disappointed with campaigns that don't provide you maximum online exposure across several channels in a short period of time.

On the other hand, if you're a guerilla, and you elect a campaign that attempts to take gorillas head-on, you might find yourself exhausting your budgets before they are able to generate a return.

Understanding your identity in this respect will help you structure your marketing initiatives in a way that makes the most sense for your specific goals.

Nonetheless, whether you're a gorilla or guerilla, before you spend a lot of time or effort on a particular strategy or to hire a consultant, you should:

• Spend some time learning about how the web and search engines can actually serve to complement your existing marketing efforts.
• Think about your specific marketing message, budget, and short and long-term goals.
• Talk to similarly situation lawyers about their experiences with various strategies, consultants, and vendors.
• Before you hire anyone, ask a lot of questions about "how this stuff works" and what level of transparency, accountability, and reporting is available.

While implenting the "right" internet marketing plan can serve as an excellent piece of your firm's greater marketing campaign, getting stuck with the wrong plan can put a dent in your pocketbook, harm your professional reputation, or even get you into legal ethics hot water with your state bar.

There's just no substitute for learning about internet and search marketing before you dive in head first.

Let's assume your register a new domain, set up a new shared hosting account, and launch a website or blog for your law firm. As far as the search engines are considered, you're brand new to the web.

Assuming most of the technical aspects of your site are search-engine-friendly (SEF), you have an XML sitemap, and you register your site with Google Webmaster Tools, you should expect that your site will be indexed quite quickly. In fact, we have seen new sites that followed the above procedure get some pages indexed on the very same day that they were launched without any external links. Google is getting extremely efficient at indexing new websites.

So how long does it take to get Google rankings? Well, that greatly depends on the competitiveness of the search query in question. For example, let's say that you follow the above procedure and your home page is targeting your name. If your name is unique, like mine, it is not unrealistic to expect that you could rank very highly for a search of your name. On the other hand, if your name is John Smith, it is very unlikely that you will rank very highly without some serious Internet marketing efforts. In fact, if your name is John Smith you're probably out of luck since you will be competing for the top spot in Google with Wikipedia's entry for explorer John Smith.

But what if you want to target an unbranded keyword search? How does one ascertain how long it will take to get Google rankings for a particular keyword search?

First, let me say that no one, I mean no one, can guarantee a particular ranking for a particular search in a particular time. If they do, they're lying. That being said, there are ways to understand the competition within Google's index for a particular keyword search. One of the first ways is to understand how many web pages are competing for that keyword. This information is easily obtained from a Google search engine result page:

In this example, we can see that there are over 75,000,000 web pages in Google's index for the search "john smith." This indicates that this is a rather competitive search query. However, it's very important to understand that this is a very rough estimation of competition. The total number of pages indexed for a search term doesn't say anything about the quality of the sites that are indexed for the term. Allow me to explain.

Let's suppose we have another search query that also has around 75,000,000 pages indexed in Google. However, the term ranking number one for this search query is a very new website. Let's further assume that most of the other results are also not very authoritative websites or very loosely relevant to the search query. In this case, the number of pages indexed for the search phrase is a very misleading representation of the competition level of the search query. That is why you also need to take into consideration the relative authority of the pages that are ranking for a particular search query.

To get a better idea of how competitive a search query is (which in turn will help us get a better idea of long it will take to get Google rankings for that search), we need to understand the relative relevance and popularity of the sites that are indexed for the search query.

Relevance is usefulness of information to a user. Google uses many factors in determining relevance but some of the most important include:

• The Title of your web page.
• Headers on your web page.
• Text on your web page.
• Various other relevance signals.

More likely than not, search results for a particular search query are very likely to contain the search query in these key relevance areas. In our "john smith" example, you will notice that the phrase "john smith" appears in the title of the page, the URL of the page, and the meta description:

This makes this page highly relevant in Google's eyes for the "john smith" search. For most competitive searches, all of the top results will contain several of these relevance factors. Which is why Google relies more heavily on popularity.

According to Google, popularity is:

measure of the importance of a page based on the incoming links from other pages. In simple terms, each link to a page on your site from another site adds to your site's PageRank. Not all links are equal: Google works hard to improve the user experience by identifying spam links and other practices that negatively impact search results. The best types of links are those that are given based on the quality of your content.

So, in order to understand how competitive a keyword search is to rank for, we need to gain an understanding of the number and quality of links that point to the pages and domains in the search results.

There are a variety of methods and tools for understanding a page's back link profile (or the number and quality of links pointing to the page). I prefer SEOmoz's SEO toolbar

As you can see, the toolbar shows the number of links pointing both to the specific page in the result and also the entire domain. For example, while the wikipedia page entry for John Smith doesn't contain many links, the wikipedia.org domain contains many. This tells us that this search query is highly competitive. Forcing wikipedia out of the top spot is likely to be somewhat difficult and take significant investments in both time and money.

So, now that we are armed with some tools for determining the competitiveness of a keyword, we can get a much better idea about how long it is likely to take to get Google rankings for that keyword.

Google Rankings Strategy

What I will typically recommend to clients is that they break their keyword goals into short, intermediate, and long-term. Lower competition keywords go into the short-term bucket. The most competitive keyword targets go into a long-term keyword bucket. This way, the client can see some results in terms of rankings, traffic, and leads in the short-term, but still plant the seeds for much more competitive keyword targets over the long haul.

Very generally speaking, most keywords of which we target fall into 6-12 month ranking time frames. We have found this time frame to be a good balance for targeting keywords that generate relevant visitor & inquiry traffic in a reasonable time period. Obviously, we have some clients that are targeting keywords that are in competition levels outside these time frames on both ends.

The time it will take to get Google rankings for any particular keyword will also depend on the effectiveness of the search strategies being executed. If you are able to generate viral Internet buzz that attracts great quantities of high quality links and social shares to your website, you will have a great deal of success in a very short period of time. On the other hand, if you are only building small numbers of low-quality links, you are likely to conclude that "search marketing doesn't work." This is why it is so important to focus on developing and effectively distributing your very best web content to your target audiences.

Always remember that organic search marketing simply is not advertising. If your mantra is that you need new potential client leads now, you will be much better served exploring Internet advertising opportunities than you will investing in organic search marketing.

In the end, while this question is worth asking, it really demonstrates a lack of understanding of how the Internet works to compliment other marketing and advertising initiatives. Instead of focusing on rankings, I recommend monitoring and measuring other key performance indicators like traffic and conversions. Are people finding your site? Are the people that are finding your site targeted visitors? Are your visitiors engaging and interacting with your website and your firm?

While rankings are undoubtedly a piece of the Internet business development equation, they simply shouldn't be your primary focus. To many legal professionals have terribly unrealistic expectations for their Internet marketing campaigns.

(Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joerg73/2981270905/)

Unlike in the offline, brick-and-mortar world, websites don't offer any visual cues about what exactly they are until you visit the site.  All domains have the exact same format (http://subdomain.rootdomain.tld for example http://www.attorneysync.com).  Because of this, it's important that you choose a name that helps identify you as a law firm and better yet, one that can help a client understand your practice.

All things being equal, it is my belief that you should use a keyword rich domain if you have the option.  For example, if you are a bankruptcy lawyer in Montana named John Doe, I would recommend securing Montanabankruptcylawyer.com over JohnDoe.com.  This helps not only with search visibility, but it also provides cues to the site visitor about what your site is about.  Montanabankruptcylawyer.com provides much more information than JohnDoe.com.  While there are reports about Google dialing down the effectiveness of a keyword rich domain in search results, there is still value for the user and I believe it will always play some role in the search algorithm even if that role is "dialed down."

Using our example above, a lawyer might choose to use their name John Doe instead.  In this instance, I believe you are better off adding "law" or some legal modifier to help identify your website as legally related.  In other words, JohnDoeLaw.com is more advisable than simply JohnDoe.com.

All The Best Domains Are Taken

I understand that the legal space online is brutally competitive and many of the best domain names have already been secured.  This means that in order to secure a keyword rich domain you will have to get more creative.  For instance, in our example above there is a good chance that MontanaBankruptcyLawyer.com or your local, geographic permutation for this name is already taken.  You can try adding a suffix such as "group", "blog", or "info" to your desired domain name and check it's availability.  You will simply need to get more creative than just checking on the availability of an exact match domain and calling it a day.

That being said, here are a few things to avoid when choosing your more creative domain:

Avoid uncommon top-level-domains - A top-level-domain is the extension that proceeds the domain name you choose (.com or .net are top-level-domains).  Avoid registering TLD's such as .info, .cc, .ws, and .name as they are indicators of spam.

Avoid domain names longer than 15 characters - Names that get too long appear spammy and are difficult to type into the address bar.  The following is a real website domain name for a law firm http://nursinghomenegligencemalpracticeaccidentsabusephiladelphiapa.com.  Needless to say it is too long and filled with too many keywords to be an effective domain.

Beware of permutations - In the book Search Engine Optimization Secrets the author gives a good example of this.  the owners of ExpertsExchange.com built a brand and large website before they realized that the name could be misinterpreted as ExpertSexChange.com.

Finally, when you are researching possible names to use, I recommend using a domain search engine such as domize to make your life easier.

Photo by Ivanpw (http://www.flickr.com/photos/28288673@N07/)

A recent Travelzoo study in the UK seems to indicate that 81% of vacation planners base choice of hotel on web reviews. However, it's been very well-known, for quite some time, that a significant number of online review sites contain fake reviews.

The truth is, the web provides an excellent platform for the unscrupulous.  At least for now. However, this trend is rapidly changing. And in the end, to the trusted, go the spoils.

So, what does this mean for legal professionals? First, in my humble opinion, publishing or paying for, fake online reviews and testimonials is a clear violation of ethics rules (false and misleading statements). Second, even if you escape your state bar unscathed, the moment that your scheme is revealed, you have lost all credibility with your audience, your colleagues, and Google.

Google?  While perhaps not nearly as important to many of us (despite the fact that an overwhelming number of lawyers sacrifice professional reputation to "get rankings") as our reputation to prospective clients, current clients, and peers, breaking trust online will eventually hurt your reputation with Google. Which means, you guessed it, lower rankings and less visibility.

Legal blog meister Kevin O'Keefe writes:

But as social media evolves -- as people learn to follow people they trust and more people share information via social media -- we're going to go with people we trust over search. Google knows this. As I blogged last month, social media is receiving higher priority in Google search results. LinkedIn knows this. That's why they're launching LinkedIn Today.

And so, for even those that "pray at the alter of Google", building trust remains of critical importance.  Don't believe me? Ask Google.

And trust is one of those things that takes a very long time to build and a very short time to destroy.

So, while the allure to engage in practices that break trust may be enticing, it's simply not worth it. It's not worth your credibility, it's not worth your reputation, and it's not worth your law license.

Online video is becoming a first stop for many customers. It is akin to what the Web page was a decade ago — something that can give early adopters an edge over competitors. It gives them a channel to talk directly to customers in ways previously accessible only to large companies that could afford TV advertisements.

As Google continues to increase the visibility of videos in its universal search results, the value of producing videos for your business will undoubtedly continue to rise. However, like other forms of web content, not all videos are created equal.

If you go to YouTube and perform a quick search for lawyer, it is likely that you will find an abundance of very poorly executed lawyer video advertisements. These are remnants from the TV and Yellow Pages advertising days. They are simply ineffective on the web. Here's why. People use the Internet for a variety of reasons. However, looking for advertisements simply isn't one of them. If you want to advertise online, buy advertising. It's that simple. Then compare the performance of your online advertisements to other web strategies (like blogging).I bet that you will find that there is really no comparison. That's not to say that online advertising is bad. It's just different.

Effective online videos do provide early adopters a competitive advantage. In other words, as of now, there's a lot less competition for video visibility than there is for organic search visibility. However, how will the consumer react when they do see your video? Will you have provided them with something helpful? Or will you have told them how awesome you are?

If you follow what's going on in the world of search engine marketing, you likely have heard something about Google's Recent Panda-Farmers-Content Update:

Many of the changes we make are so subtle that very few people notice them. But in the last day or so we launched a pretty big algorithmic improvement to our ranking—a change that noticeably impacts 11.8% of our queries—and we wanted to let people know what’s going on.

 

This update is designed to reduce rankings for low-quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high-quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on. We can’t make a major improvement without affecting rankings for many sites. It has to be that some sites will go up and some will go down. Google depends on the high-quality content created by wonderful websites around the world, and we do have a responsibility to encourage a healthy web ecosystem. Therefore, it is important for high-quality sites to be rewarded, and that’s exactly what this change does.

In the wake of this most recent update, we've received a lot questions from law firms wondering how this might impact their website traffic. And the answer, like most other online answers, is that it really depends.

If you write your own unique website content and blog posts. If you research your posts and provided your opinion, analysis, or even remotely articulate something resembling a point, you will likely not be greatly impacted by this most recent update.

On the other hand. If you copy (or scrape) content from other websites. If you buy content that has been copied or spun via software. If you pull news headlines off of news sites and follow them with the first 100 words of the news articles. If you're using a blog feed of disaster (as Kevin O'Keefe warns against), your website or blog's traffic and rankings may be at risk.

While some of these "strategies" may have worked to increase traffic to your site in the past, they are likely to do more harm than good. Both to your search engine visibility and to your professional reputation.

So here's my advice:

Naturally, I can hear the question from many of you ‘What do we do now?’ So here are a couple of statements that we can make without question.

• If you are scraping sites and mashing content together – Just stop what you're doing right now.
• Make sure that any content that is published to your website or blog is unique. Also, if you are publishing articles on your blog and then syndicating them on other sites without altering them – You should stop doing that too.
• If you're going to syndicate content that you have published to your own site or blog, only put unique content on your site; and wait before syndicating a modified version of your content elsewhere.
• If you publish external content (i.e. guest blog posts, etc) make sure that it is unique.
• If you comments turned off on your blog, turn them on. Moderate them. Respond to them. This tells Google, and more importantly, your visitors that you are listening and actually care that they visit your site. 

I recognize that online publishing may not be a high priority on your list of daily tasks. I also realize that not all lawyers are great writers. While I don't think that outsourcing content for websites and blogs is bad per se, you must have an editorial review process in place for any content published to your website or blog. You should also establish specific guidelines for anyone that contributes content to your site or blog. The truth is, more often than not, you will be the best at writing for your own law firm website and/or legal blog.

Like other small businesses, law firms can benefit greatly from both client, as well as, professional reviews online. In fact, as you can see from this short youtube search story, review sites are gaining much greater visibility in search engine results pages:

However, there are several considerations regarding online client reviews that are unique to legal professionals. Here are some things to think about your online client reviews.

Before we get into the specific how's and what's of online client reviews, it's worth saying a quick word about getting client reviews in a more general sense. And that discussion must begin with providing excellent client service and developing a strong professional relationship. If you can't provide great service to your clients, you may not want them reviewing you at all.

So, let's assume that you have provided excellent service and you believe that you have a satisfied client that might be willing to provide you with a positive testimonial. The next question is what do your state bar's ethics rules say about client testimonials?

Client Reviews & Ethics

The ABA's Model Rules of Professional Conduct - Information About Legal Services Rule 7.1 Communications Concerning A Lawyer's Services states:

A lawyer shall not make a false or misleading communication about the lawyer or the lawyer's services. A communication is false or misleading if it contains a material misrepresentation of fact or law, or omits a fact necessary to make the statement considered as a whole not materially misleading.

It goes without saying that testimonials that make false or misleading communications about a lawyer's services should not be used nor encouraged. In fact, some may make the argument that a lawyer has an obligation to use reasonable means remove false or misleading testimonials or reviews of which they become aware (while a noble principle, it seems unfair to require lawyers to scour the web for false testimonials).

Additionally, client testimonials may, in some instances, fall under the purview of Rule 7.2 Advertising, which states:

(a) Subject to the requirements of Rules 7.1 and 7.3, a lawyer may advertise services through written, recorded or electronic communication, including public media.

(b) A lawyer shall not give anything of value to a person for recommending the lawyer's services except that a lawyer may

(1) pay the reasonable costs of advertisements or communications permitted by this Rule;

(2) pay the usual charges of a legal service plan or a not-for-profit or qualified lawyer referral service. A qualified lawyer referral service is a lawyer referral service that has been approved by an appropriate regulatory authority;

(3) pay for a law practice in accordance with Rule 1.17; and

(4) refer clients to another lawyer or a nonlawyer professional pursuant to an agreement not otherwise prohibited under these Rules that provides for the other person to refer clients or customers to the lawyer, if

(i) the reciprocal referral agreement is not exclusive, and

(ii) the client is informed of the existence and nature of the agreement.

(c) Any communication made pursuant to this rule shall include the name and office address of at least one lawyer or law firm responsible for its content.

While there are many client testimonial instances in which Rule 7.2 is not triggered, it's important for legal professionals to be aware of how the rules of their state may regulate their use.

Collecting Client Reviews

Once the ethics issues have been addressed, the next step is to develop a system by which to collect the review. I have seen many different methods of client review collection, some good, others largely ineffective.

I was once told that, "you don't get anything in this world unless you ask". While I'm not sure that this is always true, it certainly seems applicable to obtaining client reviews.

Sure, there are those clients that are extremely eager to sing your praises. However, more times than not, you will probably need to initiate the discussion of whether or not the client is willing to provide a positive testimonial.

Now that you have a client that is ready and willing to provide a testimonial, you have to decide how best to collect it. In my opinion, one of the best ways to collect a client testimonial is through an exit interview.

Effective exit interviews or surveys should feel less like testimonial collection and more like an experience survey. You may want to consider scanning various online review sites for questions and rating systems that you can incorporate into your exit interview process.

If you have a client who is willing to provide a testimonial and is fairly savvy with computers and the Internet, in addition to documenting the review for the file, you may also consider providing access to online review sites right at your office. You may be surprised how many clients will leave reviews right there on the spot. Then again, you may not.

Many clients won't feel comfortable with you standing over your shoulder while they write something about you online. That is why assigning exit interviews to a secretary or paralegal might make the most sense. Alternatively, you could have the client simply fill-out an exit interview form, take a form with them, or provide a testimonial over the phone.

Getting Your Client Reviews Online

Now that you have collected the interview, it's time to decide how and where to use it. If it complies with your state's ethics rules, you might want to consider syndicating the review online. Obviously, you will want to make sure you have permission first. Next, the question becomes, where do you want your clients to provide online reviews?

The first place you will want to consider are local search data providers. These sites are beneficial due to their own online visibility, as well as, their impact on local search visibility. In addition to the more general local search data providers, you should also consider legal specific review websites and data providers.

Here are just a couple to consider:

Martindale-Hubbell Client Review:

Avvo:

While there are several other lawyer review sites to consider, these two are especially important in terms of increasing your firm's Google Places visibility:

As you can see, Google is currently pulling data into Google Places listings from Avvo and Lawyers.com. This data plays a role in your firm's local prominence.

When it comes to increasing your reputation and visibility online, there is no question that the importance of online client reviews will greatly increase in 2011. As social signals continue to merge with seo factors, don't be surprised to see tweets, likes, and status updates playing a larger role in your visibility too.

Social Media Signals Merge with traditional SEO factors: Google undertook some radical changes in 2010, including Google Instant and the merging of Google Places listings within the organic search results. Both changes were incredibly significant in my view, and only a sampling of what Google has prepared for us in 2011. Danny Sullivan’s recap on the increased weight being given to social media endorsements is the starting point for my 2011 SEO prediction. As Sullivan notes, neither Google or Bing are using “ReTweets” or “Likes” as a major factor in their organic search rankings, yet. By the end of 2011, I expect one of the two major search engines (my guess: Bing) will turn SEO on its head significantly by increasing the ranking impact of social media endorsements within their ranking algorithm.

What does this mean? First, if you haven't done so already, I recommended adding the Big Steve Feed, to your reader app. Next, you need to begin thinking about your law firm web marketing in terms of both social, as well as, local signals.

While traditional seo shall still remain an important component to successful law firm Internet marketing, it's essential that legal professionals don't omit social and local strategy from their web presence strategy.

Back in October, when Google made its Place Search update, everyone started to freak out. Lawyers that hadn't considered local signals in their seo campaigns found themselves losing out to firms that may have had weaker traditional seo profiles, but had focused on local seo.

I think it is likely that we see a similar (albeit less severe) trend with social signals. Ignore them at your own peril. However, keep in mind that trying to "tweet" or "like" yourself to the top of google results pages is an effort in futility and may even do harm to your professional reputation and relationships.

Instead of chasing followers and friends, focus on building credibility within small social networks and social circles. "Socialize" with those that share similar interests or that you know personally offline. Don't hyper-focus on the time you spend, number of tweets you post, or articles that you like. While being mindful of your social media metrics is good advice, you're better-off engaging in real participation and just seeing where it takes you. You just might be surprised to learn that social media isn't just for the kids.

From Bagel Tuesday: The Best Law Firm Holiday Card of 2010 - The Wall Street Journal's Law Blog calls the holiday eCard we created for Manatt the "the best law firm holiday card of 2010."

From Raising The Bar: Raising the Bar in Your Law Practice: Ten Ways to Change Your Results Right Now. - Free ebook.

From Discover Canadian Lawyers: Do it Yourself SEO - Evaluating Incoming Link Quality (Part 1) - It is no surprise that inbound links to your website is an important factor in determining your website's search engine positioning. But it is critical to note that "the more the merrier" is not the approach to take. Not all links are created equal. Some links can dramatically boost rankings, while others can actually get you a penalty and drag your rankings down.

From Zen & The Art Of Legal Networking: It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - There have been a lot of "end of the year" posts lately, and I've been debating whether to throw my hat into the ring.

These posts are just a couple examples of why Lexblog legal blogs continue to be amongst the leaders and go-to source for legal information online.

How do you gather client testimonials? Ideally, you can simply accept a testimonial offered by one of your firm’s satisfied clients. What could be more convincing than a testimonial from a client who felt so good about their experience that they volunteered to endorse your firm?

 

However, bear in mind that many people do not feel they are good writers. Additionally, they may be very busy. This could lead to delays in preparing the testimonial. Take the initiative by writing their comments and asking them to edit what you have written. Most will tell you that your comments are accurate and will give you permission to use the testimonial.

You can also make collecting testimonials a routine part of your client relations. For instance, at the end of the representation, you can ask the client to complete a survey that asks questions such as, “Was our firm responsive to your questions and concerns? Were our attorneys and staff friendly and courteous?” You can also directly ask the client in the survey if he or she would be interested in providing a testimonial and if they approve of your firm’s use of the comments in a testimonial.

You will find that most clients will be fine with your use of it. Another method is to visit the client and write the testimonial with them or, even better, take a pocket video camera or videographer with you and get a video testimonial on the spot.

Making testimonials a part of your routine client relations process is essential. I also recommend getting a written version of the testimonial that includes a short testimonial statement, as well as, a star-rating. Many online rating sites will ask users to include a star-rating. Getting these star ratings from clients makes those testimonials effective online. The next step is to actually use the testimonial on one of the higher visibility rating sites.

It's important to keep in mind that posting of client and peer testimonials may be subject to regulation by your state bar. It's essential that you check with your state bar to make sure you are in compliance with your state's rules of professional conduct.

Be sure to avoid posting testimonials that are false, misleading, or artificial. Many seo companies may try to implement artificial ratings, reviews, or testimonials on your behalf. These spam reviews are not only a negative reflection of your professional reputation online, they may subject you to a disciplinary proceeding with your state bar.

As of yesterday, both Bing and Google have confirmed (via an excellent interview by Danny Sullivan) that links shared through Twitter and Facebook have a direct impact on rankings (in addition to the positive second-order effects they may have on the link graph). This has long been suspected by SEOs (in fact, many of us posited it was happening as of November of last year following Google + Bing's announcements of partnerships with Twitter), but getting this official confirmation is a substantive step forward.

Does this mean that you can "tweet" and "Like" your way to the top of Google's organic results? Unequivocally, no. However, this is yet one more reason that business owners, like legal professionals, shouldn't ignore social media and networking or dismiss it as kids' stuff.

Unfortunately, this revelation will probably mean an increase in phone calls, emails, and other forms of solicitation from "social seo experts" claiming to be able to get clients for attorneys by blasting out huge amounts of tweets and Likes. Fortunately (or at least hopefully), Google is much more sophisticated than that (although in light of recent Googbarrassment, one begins to wonder).

It also probably means that we are likely to see an influx of "spam tweets" and "spam Likes" flooding our social circles. 

Nevertheless, the real takeaway from this validation is that participation in the social web is playing an increasing role in search engine visibility. While some legal marketing professionals believe that Twitter is a complete waste of time for lawyers, others believe, "you'd have to be flat out nuts these days not to be monitoring real time conversation on Twitter mentioning your firm, clients, competition, and keywords & phrases related to the niche in which you practice."

Like everything else in life, finding the right balance for effective participation will present a challenge that each individual legal professional will have to address for themselves. Like it or not, the social and local web are here, probably to stay.

Even those that have been skeptical about the effectiveness of social media and social networking for their law practice are now forced to face the simple fact that social signals will impact their precious Google rankings.

Kristi provides 7 suggest tools that can help you identify additional keywords for your law firm web strategy that both have volume and are relevant, at least in the eyes of the search engines.

When using the suggest tools, you should try many combinations of relevant keywords. Don't stick with your primary head terms. Think like your potential clients. What are they looking for online? For example, if you're an injury attorney, use the suggest tools to suggest keywords related to specific injuries that are commonly faced by your clients. If you're a criminal defense attorney, use terms related to specific charges or phases of the case. Think about what issues your potential clients would be researching online and incorporate those terms into your keyword strategy.

Always keep in mind that as many as 25% of the searches performed each day have never been performed before. User search behavior varies wildly from user to the next. Don't miss out on great opportunities for potential clients by solely focusing on head terms or only the terms that you would use to search for a lawyer.

photo © 2008 smlp.co.uk | more info (via: Wylio)

I was speaking with an attorney last week that had called to inquire about SEO services for his firm.  His firm concentrated mostly on bankruptcy and debt issues.  He was tired of the bankruptcy work and wanted to move into a much more specialized, "new" niche that "no other lawyers were doing".  He explained that he had done extensive research online and found no competition for it.  Seeing as he would "own the market" once he launched this new practice online, he was interested in having us help with his search marketing strategy to make sure he received maximum exposure.

After an extensive discussion, I presented a few reasons why I thought his strategy was flawed.

If others aren't in the market, it's probably a bad sign - People flock to where the money and opportunity is.  Very few of us are Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg.  Creating new markets requires a true visionary with timing on his or her side.  You're better off not trying to reinvent the wheel.  As my colleague, Gyi Tsakalakis, wrote in a recent post:  

Your practice idea isn’t new. Pick a niche practice; at least 50 other lawyers have thought of it. Get over your creative pride and realize that client service and effective representation matter more.

Focus on points of differentiation and being the best at something - I suggest a better route to go is to find valuable points of differentiation between your firm and the competition as opposed to creating new markets.  In a recent post on SEObook they discuss how Zappos became who they are today:

Zappos was a small company, that eventually became a big company, not by competing on price, but by competing on service. They aimed to be the best at service. Had they competed on price, they wouldn't have got anywhere. The big shoe and clothing chains would have crushed them.

Your firm is better off specializing in a niche that currently has demand and finding a better way to service that niche than trying to invent something new.

Here are some basic questions that can make a big difference:

• Can you provide examples of your work and share the results? - There is no substitute for experience. Hold your web strategy partner accountable for delivering tangible results.
• What is your position on Google's Webmaster Guidelines? - The Webmaster Guidelines certainly leave some room for interpretation. However, how your prospective consultant interprets these guidelines will have a significant impact on their success and the risks to your professional reputation.
• What results should I expect? - From the beginning of your web strategy partnership, you should set tangible goals and expectations. If your goals and expectations don't match those of your web strategist, you are likely to be disappointed.
• How long will it take to obtain those results? - Timing and patience are critical to successful web strategy. While you shouldn't expect results overnight, you shouldn't have to wait years to see significant results. Depending on the strategies in place, we generally like to see significant improvements within 6-8 months.
• How do you measure results? - This is one of the most critical questions. Too many consultants track the wrong metrics. Ultimately, you should measure any marketing on how well it increases business to your firm. You should also measure search engine positions, traffic to your site, and potential client inquiries from the web.
• What's your experience in the legal industry? - Just because a web consultant has had success in other industries, doesn't mean they will have success with your law firm. Web marketing for law firms is highly competitive and presents unique challenges that don't exist in marketing other businesses.
• What's your experience in my location? - Understanding the competition in your specific geographic region is also very helpful. Web marketing in New York City isn't the same as marketing in suburban Arizona.
• What strategies do you plan on implementing? - It is absolutely essential that you understand what your strategy professional plans to do for you and why. That is why it's so important for you to learn law firm seo basics.
• Will you communicate website changes, information on your recommendations, and the reasoning behind them? - Successful web strategy requires communication. There are very few "secrets". Mostly, online marketing success comes down to knowledge, skill, experience, and leg work. Don't get duped into buying "secrets", "special relationships", or other magic seo.

Asking these basic questions will help you avoid many of the most common web consultant traps. Are you considering hiring a consultant? What questions / concerns are you facing? Have you interviewed web strategy consultants? What challenges have you faced? Do you have a healthy partnership with your web strategists? What have you found makes your partnership work?

Free Guide: Hiring A Law Firm SEO Consultant Learn How To Go About Hiring An SEO Consultant For Your Law Firm Including: Hiring a Professional vs Do It Yourself Finding The Right SEO Consultant Pitfalls To Avoid Google’s Recommendations Questions To Ask An SEO Before You Hire Them

Google Algorithm - What are the 200 Variables?

Let’s Try to Find All 200 Parameters in Google Algorithm

SMX London: Ranking Factors in 2010

SearchEngineLand LinkedIn Discussion On Google Factors

Now before you head out and obsess over integrating all the possible factors, you need to know that some factors are more important than others.

Here are 5 that on which I suggest you spend the majority of your time:

1. Optimized anchor text back links from authoritative sites topically similar to yours.
2. Optimized and non-duplicated page titles.
3. Optimized on-page copy
4. Optimized on-page headings
5. Quality of content on pages which in turn influences user behavior.

And if you forced me to distill web marketing into 2 sentences:

1. Write great search-mindful content on a quality content management system.
2. Get your great content in front of people who are ready, willing, and able to link to it.

Getting Your Law Firm Found On Google Learn About Getting Your Law Firm Found In Google Including: Common myths held by lawyers about their websites Keyword Research & Competition On-Page Optimization Off-Page Optimization & Link Building Hiring A Professional

The words that you might use to describe your practice, are likely very different from the words that potential clients would use. And the words potential clients use to describe your practice are oftentimes the same types of words and phrases they will use to search for your services online.

This is why understanding your clientcabulary and potential clientcabulary is so important. Be observant to the words that your clients use to describe their legal problems and issues. Also, pay close attention to the words that your clients use to describe you, your firm, and your services.

Paying close attention to how your clients describe their problems and your services will go a long-way in terms of identifying keywords that are likely to generate potential client inquiries through your legal website and/or blog.

Be sure to write your blog and website content with these terms in mind. Don't assume that your potential clients use the same words as you do to describe your areas of practice, they don't.

Look, spending some time thinking about your meta keywords and descriptions can't hurt. However, don't expect that by simply adding some meta data to your websites that you're going to start getting visibility within Google. It's just not true.

Some other common recommendations that also won't help that much:

1. Submitting to the search engines.

2. XML sitemaps (yes, some value, but not much)

3. Keyword stuffing.

If you want to help your website or blog's visibility within Google your best bets are to focus on creating useful content for your visitors and publicizing that content to increase expsoure.

Most quality content management systems (like moveable type) will handle the technical side of things for you. That way, you don't need to waste time focusing on hard-coding meta data on your pages.

Beware of anyone who wants to charge you to perform the above services.

Hiring A Law Firm SEO Consultant Learn How To Go About Hiring An SEO Consultant For Your Law Firm Including: Hiring a Professional vs Do It Yourself Finding The Right SEO Consultant Pitfalls To Avoid Google’s Recommendations Questions To Ask An SEO Before You Hire Them

It's no secret that Google Places, or the Google 7-Pack, is integrated into many search results with local intent.  A search for a key phrase such as "Chicago bankruptcy lawyer" is going to display the Google Places results, prominently at the top of the page.  Google is also trying to better understand your geographic location even when a search is performed for a generic keyword such as "lawyer".   I came across a method Google was testing the other day to deliver localized search results for "lawyer".

Subsequently, I entered my zip code into the box and I now got a list of Google Places results for my area.  In addition, the organic search results underneath the Google Places listings had changed.  Localized results for the city of Chicago had replaced many of the previous results.  Here is another screen shot of the results after submitting my zip code:

What Is This Telling Us?

I always like to think about search marketing from the standpoint of what Google wants.  Rather than trying to "game" the system, consider what Google's intentions are and align your strategy accordingly.  Google wants to deliver the best, most accurate results to its users.  In the case of someone looking for an attorney, Google wants to provide results that are localized and accurate to the searchers query.  

The biggest takeaway from this is the tremendous opportunity available for firms to build an established web presence in their local community.  Optimizing your site for your local area will result in targeted traffic and it appears as if Google is trying to siphon traffic from some of the most searched for, generic terms, such as "lawyer", to local businesses too. 

Generally speaking, you should identify high-quality domains that are relevant to your practice and location. In other words, focus on legal domains that relate to your practice and/or state.

More specifically, you should look at:

- State Bar Websites

- Legal Blogs

- Law School Websites

- Charities Related To Your Practice (i.e. Innocence Projects and Social Justice organizations).

Usually, these sites will be established and authoritative domains that will significantly enhance your law firm seo success.