Navigating the Rough Seas of Search Engine Optimization: 5 Ways Legal Marketers Can Leverage Search Jeffrey Henderson Director of Business Development (310)

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Why Search? Actively Seeking Services – Search is often the first place a potential client goes when they begin looking for legal services Avoids Restrictions on Advertising – As Attorneys you face many restrictions in how you can promote your firm unlike any other professional service Long Term ROI Benefits – Achieving high natural rankings in search engines provides long term ROI even after discontinuing services Instant Traffic – Utilizing paid search can bring instant traffic to your site allowing you have much more control of your advertising

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA How Many People Really Search For Lawyers? Luckily for us Google just added search volume to it's keyword research tools:

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA How Many People Really Search For Attorneys? Search volume statistics for “attorneys”

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA How Many People Really Search For Law Firms? Search volume statistics for “law firms”

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Leveraging Search #1 ~ Organic SEO Pros: – Natural search results receive 5-10 times the traffic as sponsored results – Users associate high rankings in Google with trustworthiness – No cost per click – Long term ROI Cons: – Large initial investment – Longer time frame to achieve results – Lawyers will be mad due to largely increased workload – Higher accounting fees due to count increased revenues

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Implementing Organic SEO On Site – Site,, and tags – Keyword targeted URLs – Image optimization - text and tags – Cross referencing internal content – think Wikipedia – Well written content – Keyword 'Siloing' – XML Sitemap Off Site SEO – Inbound Links – Article Syndication – Directory Submissions

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Titles, Header Tags, and URLs

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Image Optimization HTML Code for an Image: – Optimized Image HTML –

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Cross Referencing Relevant Content

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA IT WORKS!

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Inbound Links Ranking in Google is largely a popularity contest.

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Article Syndication Build links and authority through article syndication – Top ten article submission sites: Download list of 420 article syndication

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Directory Submission Capture traffic and build links with web directories – Top ten web directories: Download list of 1370 web

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Leveraging Search #2 ~ Pay Per Click Pros: – Instant results – Guaranteed traffic – Strict budget control – GEO targeting capabilities Cons – High cost per click – No long term ROI – Complicated platform

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Pay Per Click Search Engines Google – Yahoo – MSN/Live – Ask.com – LookSmart.com –

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Online Reputation Management Control the online image of your firm and top partners – (From the Florida Bar News) Attorneys should consider "Google lawyering" to research clients, parties, witnesses, experts, lawyers (4) as well as items and locations relevant to your case. A quick Westlaw search for "google" revealed over 30 published opinions where experts and/or the court relied on information retrieved from Google.com. – 53% of adult internet users said they had looked for information connected to at least one of these groups: 1) family and friends, 2) romantic interests, and 3) business colleagues

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Reputation Management Resources Business – PRNewsWire.com – Monster.com – CareerBuilder.com – FastPitch.com – Spoke.com – ZoomInfo.com – Plaxo.com – Facebook.com – PR.com – Flickr.com – ClaimID.com – HotFrog.com Personal – Naymz.com – Ziggs.com – MySpace.com – Facebook.com – LinkedIn.com – Ryze.com – ClaimID.com – Digg.com – Reddit.com – Twitter.com – Flickr.com

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Blogging for traffic and links Blogging – Cases with lots of media coverage – Controversial/relevant Supreme Court/Appeals Court rulings – Strange, odd, unique news – think Reuter's Oddly Enough Tips – Catchy post titles – Link to other blogs/news sites that are covering the story – Always allow comments!! And PARTICIPATE!!

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Micro Site Strategies Leveraging Google's Navigational Search Alogrithm – Buy domain names that exactly match search phrases i.e. – Build simple sites highlighting different services offered by firm – Submit to directories – Allows you to obtain highly targeted traffic for niche services within a firm

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Resources Keyword Research: – DONE! SEO KW Research Tool - tool.php – AdWords Keyword Tool - – Wordze KW Reseach Tool - – Keyword Discovery - Blog Resources: – Wordpress Blog Software - – Best Wordpress Plugins for SEO and Usability -

Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 2370 El Segundo, CA Resources (cont) ‏ Additional resources can be found at All questions or inquiries can be sent to or