Oct

11

Findlaw SEO:The “Hotel California” of the Web

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Welcome to Hotel California Findlaw.

…you can check in any time you’d like, but you can never leave…

I don’t usually take on my competition so directly, due to the fact that they are a multi-million dollar company who could potentially sue me just to keep me busy for a few years…also because its not so nice.  However I want to address a concern that I find myself explaining to attorneys who call me, disillusioned with SEO. I find it somewhat un-ethical for Findlaw to call their product “SEO”.

Findlaw already knows they can take advantage of their wide network of high PR, high traffic websites. However, they appear to be relying on their network of Findlaw-owned websites for optimizing their clients websites. To a degree, this would not be a major issue IF these links were from practice relevant pages and they stayed there after the client stops paying for SEO.

However, Findlaw is not limiting their linking to content related pages, they are removing links once the client stops paying, and they are using paying client’s websites to promote other customers. They have simply set up a network of links on each paying clients websites to link to other paying clients.

Not only does this create a tiny neighborhood of links, where one infected or bad site could infect many, but this is FAKE SEO. It’s temporary promotion. Once a client stops paying for SEO, the links are removed and your rankings, PR and traffic will drop.

Here’s an example of a paying client providing links to other Findlaw clients;

On Findlaw’s New Jersey Lawyer Marketing Website, they promote a number of firms as ‘representative clients’. It’s easy to tell which are current client and which are past clients; current clients have many findlaw websites linking to them, and past clients do not. Using URL trends and Link Diagnosis, it is clearly evident that attorneys do not benefit from Findlaw’s SEO efforts after services have been rendered – Something the client likely does not expect.

As a side note, FindLaw’s website should be updated. Of the 23 representative clients, at least 10 have clearly taken their business elsewhere.

Is this ethical SEO? Essentially, paying for the privilege of having high PR Findlaw links to your website (which findlaw owns anyway) and losing that investment when you unsubscribe to their services?

Oct

7

Free Legal Directory Listings

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Here’s an easy list of websites to submit your legal website or blog to – at no cost.
Divorce Lawyer Directory PR0
Profiles In Law PR2 – Attorneys Only
Womens Divorces PR3
Arbitration Attorney Directory PR0
WashLaw PR7 – Attorneys Only
MyHQ Legal Directory PR5
AVVO PR7 – Attorneys Only
Lawyers By Language PR2 – Bi or Multi Lingual Attorneys Only
e-lawyer PR3
LPIG.org PR6

Oct

3

Managing your PPC Campaign: Keyword Selection

Filed Under Advertising | Comments Off

The second step of a successful PPC campaign is selecting your keywords. In this article, we will tackle this topic.

Check back soon for the next article in the series.

Let’s look at our imaginary attorney’s PPC strategy – John Smith, a new york city divorce & family law attorney.
John Smith’s first inclination is to start out with some keywords that might describe his business;

New York City divorce lawyer
New York City family law attorney
New York City divorce law firm

This is the biggest problem I see made by most PPC D.I.Y.’ers. While broad terms like these will generate the most traffic, it also gives you the lowest ROI.

Consider if you were a client in NYC looking for a divorce lawyer. Getting from the Upper West Side to the far reaches of Queens could be 3 hours by train – you will most certainly rule out attorneys who are outside your neighborhood. A better keyword selection would be on that can find a balance between broad and narrow keywords. In our example, the broad location section of the keyword is “New York City“, where a more specific location would be “Upper East Side“, or somewhere in between with a keyword like “Brooklyn“.

Now also consider that a practice area like divorce has many specific components that fall within the “family law” and “divorce” lawyer’s practice area. Some attorneys will focus on fathers rights, some on high net worth divorces, and others on family court specifically. In the second part of our keyword – the practice area – a broad term would be ‘divorce‘ or ‘family law‘ while a more specific term like “separation agreement” or “Father’s custody rights” are much more descriptive.

Finding a balance of broad and descriptive keywords is generally a better approach to PPC success. Start out with a list of your most descriptive keywords. If you have a bigger budget, try expanding your keyword list to include a broad location + specific practice area, or vice versa.

In some cases, a specific location plus very specific practice are might not provide enough traffic; in one case, I had an attorney who practiced cruise injury litigation. Combining that VERY specific practice area with a small town would likely yield very few leads.

Check in with your PPC campaign weekly if possible; every month at the very least. See how your keywords are performing and make adjustments as necessary.