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| Legal web site search engine tipsAttorney Productive Website Do’s and Don’ts By Bob Schwartz, CRS, GRI ©2003 Promotions Unlimited all rights reserved. This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorized use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.
Is your legal firm's website not living up to your expectations for generating new clients? This article will offer some ‘inside’ advice to assist you in improving your legal website. But, if you are looking for the ‘quick fix’ that will put your site on page one of the search engines... it’s time to get real.
Got a website? Well then, you surely have received lots of spam emails and phone solicitations promising a quick fix to get your website on page one of the search engines. Advice: Disregard and stay far, far away. The professional search engine optimization companies do not engage in spam.
Dubious companies promising quick fixes often rely on verbal promises and/or vaguely worded contracts that if carefully reviewed, would be rejected. Also, by employing dated, and in some cases, dubious techniques specifically barred by the major search engines, your site could not only skyrocket in rankings but just as fast vanish. Naturally, the fees paid will never be recoverable. The major search engines have no compassion for sites that are caught ‘spamming’ them. The remedy: removal of the offending web address.
With the average major search engine returning about ten organic (non-sponsored or paid) listings per page on any keyword search, what are the chances your site will be in this elite thirty for any amount of time? The answer is for completive keywords ... very unlikely. But there are some things you can do to get your rankings and traffic up. The following can be done by your webmaster/designer or better yet, by you. Yes, if you wanted to work on your own site you need to study. But, the basics are very easy to understand. Personally, I would suggest a program like Microsoft’s FrontPage. This is a very popular website creation program where one does not have to know anything about programming or HTML (the main programming language of the Internet) plus, there are many books available that in a few hours will have you capable of maintaining your own site. Now for the advice:
#1. Be sure you have a top level domain. In other words your site’s address (URL) should be registered to you and should look like www.mysite.com. If your site looks like www.whoseyourdaddy.com/mysite.html, you have a sub-domain. To check on what top level domains are available, and various reliable and inexpensive registration/hosting plans, visit: www.websitetrafficbuilders.com
#2. If you have an existing site that when viewing the entry page looks like the midway at the Del Mar fair with lots of animation, spinning and flashing objects, get rid of them! It’s very important to have a clean and fast loading page that looks professional.
#3. Content is king for websites! Does your website provide useful information for the general public or is it more “I’m great, hire me.” Sites with useful information always rank well on the search engines. Be careful here, and use original or public domain content. Pirating content from others is a real no-no and can lead to costly litigation.
#4. At a minimum, your site should have your contact information on your home page as well as on a separate contact page.
#5. Most website owners get their site published and then forget about it until they have to pay their annual hosting fee. Does this ring true for you? Successful websites are always a work in progress and updated on a regular basis.
#6. Look at your website through different browsers. Microsoft Explorer is not the only browser out there. Be sure your site works correctly and looks good on various other browsers.
#7. Look at some of your direct competitor’s sites. Does your site have a similar ‘canned’ look? If so, it is time for a design makeover. Your site should stand out from the crowd and not become a part of it.
#8. Be sure your URL is on ALL your advertising material, from business cards to letterhead, ads and even recorded phone messages.
#9. Once per quarter, submit your site to any search engines where you are not yet listed. There are lots of software programs for this; one you should look at is Site Submitter. Or, hire a professional search engine optimization firm to handle submission for your site.
#10. Build up your sites credibility by applying for website awards. Two to start with are the Genie Excellent Content Award and San Diego Excellent Website Award
Good Luck. Copyright 2005 Promotions Unlimited. City specific legal directories. All rights reserved. We have a FREE program for reciprocal legal links where your firm can be linked to 15 high traffic legal sites in just a few easy steps....just CLICK HERE! Also, new for 2005 - Get noticed on the Internet and get powerful links back to your firm's website, totally FREE! We are accepting informative legal articles on helpful information the general public should know about your legal practice area. Your by-line will be hyper-linked to your firm's website from all of our high-placement legal sites. Legal articles must be general in nature and not publicity for you firm or your individual accomplishments. Naturally, we reserve the right to accept or reject any legal article. Please attach your legal articles as an MSWord file and email to: bob@websitetrafficbuilders.com
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