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Lawyer Website Search Engine Ideas to Generate More Clients
By Bob Schwartz, CRS, GRI co-owner of websitetrafficbuilders.com Copyright
Promotions Unlimited
84.8% of web surfers use search engines to find sites like yours! (Source:
GVU Center, College of Computing- Georgia Institute of Technology) Loads of
people use Internet search engines every day! Simply submitting your site to
the Internet search engines is not enough! If your site does get indexed
(listed) by a major search engine, it will just be one of millions. So, just
being listed, has nothing to do with making sure you get a good position.
Positioning is what matters most!
The trick to obtaining this huge number of potential clients is a search
engine position on the first three pages of the returned keyword search
results. If your keywords rank below page three, your share of this
potential traffic will be almost non-existent. There are many ways to better
your site's ranking. The most effective of which would be hiring a company
that not only specializes in site positioning, but guarantees their results.
With the intense demand to achieve a top search engine position, the cost to
achieve it is not inexpensive. However, it is usually much less than what
you would end up spending on a bid-for-position search engine. Attaining a
high ranking on the search engines is the best advertising "bargain" on the
Web today. The reason is simple: Millions of searches are performed
everyday. The thousands of Web sites that appear near the top of those
search results essentially get free advertising. People must be able to find
your site on one or more keywords when they do a search!
This article focuses on what you can do (without knowledge of HTML coding)
to improve your site's chance of getting its fair share of Internet search
engine traffic:
#1. Make sure each page of your site has the correct Title, Meta description
& content tags. A lot of sites only have the proper tags on their entry
page, leaving the other site pages with incomplete/improper tags. Do not
just copy your entry page tags over to your other
pages. To be useful, the tags should be pertinant to the content on that
page.
#2. To continue on with tags, you should check any framed pages used on your
site. Here you need to be sure that you are using good NOFRAME tags. Not all
search engines correctly index framed pages. Without the right NOFRAME tags
here, your framed pages may not be properly indexed.
#3. Finally, sites that are graphic intensive should be making use of the
ALT tag to properly describe each graphic. No search engine reads or indexes
graphics. Therefore, the ALT tag is extremely important.
#4. Avoid the urge to use “Under Construction” text or images on any page.
This is basically a sure way to not be indexed on some major search engines.
If your page is not complete, do not publish it!
#5. Try applying for web site awards. Some awards are more difficult to
achieve than others, but all are always free. The only requirement from the
award issuing sites is a link back to their site attached to their award
graphic. Awards add creditability and also enhance the time spent on
investigating your site. An excellent graphic comes with the Legal Excellent
Content Award.
#6. With the algorithms of most search engines monitoring link popularity,
your site should have a links page. To be worthwhile, this page should be
linked to your site's front page. Use this page to trade links with other
sites in related (but non-competitive) industries. For example, legal sites
dealing in accidents could link to other legal sites that do criminal or
family law for example. Real estate sites could trade links with home
improvement/maintenance sites, lawyers, financial planners, lenders, etc.
Keep in mind, the idea is not to just link these sites, but to exchange
links with them! Note of caution: There are a few sites that will offer you
free membership in a link exchange service. You are required to host a
number of pages on your site that list the other participant’s links. Though
well intentioned, and somewhat effective in increasing your link popularity,
the search engines have caught on to this scheme and as one of our
prospective clients recently realized, will de-list your site for this
practice. Plus, the importance of links to achieving a better ranking for
your site is correlated with the standing of the site linking to you. So, a
link from a site highly ranked will be worth more in the search engines eyes
than lots of links from low/non-ranked sites. Do not fall for the
pie-in-the-sky instant promises of these services. Building effective links
takes time and perseverance.
#7. Recently, there have been changes in search engine submission policies.
Today to get your site indexed quickly, the most cost effective, and in some
cases, the only way to add your site on certain search engines, is to pay
for a guaranteed site review. The two best places to apply are through the
Looksmart network, as well as the Yahoo directory. The In addition, you are
paying for a review only, with no guarantee of being listed. Also, these
services do NOT guarantee where your site will be rated, just that if
accepted, it will be indexed. On a final note, keep in mind your fee of $299
is NON-refundable if your site is not accepted. Here is part of an email
site rejection notice received by a local site from Yahoo: “Dear Business
Express Client, Yahoo! has reviewed the URL you submitted with Business
Express order #. We're sorry to report that we've decided not to include
your site in the Yahoo! directory at this time. We base our evaluation of
each site solely on the content it has on the site at the time of
evaluation. When we reviewed your site today, we found that it did not have
enough content to support a listing through the Business Express program.”
The Looksmart search engine has changed to a pay per click basis.
#8. To mitigate the potential for your site submission being rejected, and
to insure your share of the Internet search engine traffic, you may employ a
company that specializes in positioning. The most cost-effective things to
consider with this approach (in order of importance) are:
A. A guarantee that YOUR particular keywords will receive a position on page
one, two or three of the search engine results.
B. A written outline of the entire program.
C. No charge should be made for any placement beneath page three.
D. There should be a sliding fee charged that is based on actual results.
E. There should be a maximum fee stated.
F. Prior to hiring any firm you should verify their actual prior results.
#9. With a little time and a modest investment you can achieve some very decent
results yourself. There are a few programs available, but the best one, which we
utilize in our own business, is IBP.
They have a thirty-day free trial program you can download. Plus, just the
extensive help section, alone, provides invaluable insights into top search
engine positioning. There will always be skeptics and site owners who do not
devote the time or place the investment into their sites to earn top rankings.
No matter how completive the keyword phrase, with the application of the proper
techniques top search engine positions can be obtained. In conclusion, websites
can be very productive in achieving huge search engine keyword directed traffic.
For further info on the Internet search engines, software programs listed above
and web site promotion, visit:
http://www.websitetrafficbuilders.com/ Bob can be contacted at: seo711@gmail.com
Copyright 2007 Promotions Unlimited
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