Las Vegas lawyers - attorneys legal directory
The Latest Algorithm Change of Google's & Legal Websites!
By Bob Schwartz, CRS, GRI ©2007 Promotions Unlimited all rights reserved.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorized use, copying or
mirroring is prohibited
Noticed your legal site rankings for various key word phrases have taken a
drop? Actually, in some examples, sites on page one of Google are now
nowhere to be found within the first 10 pages of returned results. Wondering
what's up?
Recently, Google made another effort in continuing changes to its ranking
algorithm. From my own observations (running 35 real estate and legal
websites), it appears the main goal of this change is to devalue reciprocal
links. Google’s algorithm judged the quality of a web site by the number of
other sites linking to it.
Links, specifically quality links, have always been a main factor in
Google's ranking formula. Unfortunately, in recent years, website owners and
designers, looking for instant gratification, have abused the concept to
such an extent that in many cases their efforts are looked on as link
spamming.
A number of legal websites are major participants in the link abuse
phenomena. Link farms, link rings, free-for-all-links, exchange portals,
etc., are basically offering hundreds or thousands of links for their
members. Also, individual sites offering to trade links have little or no
regard for the quality of the link, as it is the quantity of links they are
going for. It is quite common to see legal websites with link directories
with 50 or more links per page without regard for categorization or theme.
Perhaps the worst of these practices is the tiny text links listed on the
bottom of home pages.
So, what should one do to regain or maintain your site’s standings on Google
in face of this new change? First understand that incoming links are still
advantageous and are considered in Google’s ranking algorithm, just not as
much as they originally were. Plus, what Google considers ‘link spamming’
will now have a major impact on your law site’s standings. Below are a few
suggestions you may wish to consider:
A.
If you have reciprocal links jumbled up anywhere on your site, either
straighten them out for easy navigation by visitors or remove them. There
are a number of software programs that can automate this process for you. If
anyone would like some suggestions, just email me at:
B.
If you have more than 20 links per link directory page, add more pages to
keep the maximum number of partner links to 20.
C.
Any links that are to unrelated sites should be removed at once! You’re
running a legal site & all your links should be law related.
D.
Do not trade links with any sites that are not already listed in Google. To
take this a step further, if your legal website has a Google page rank of 3
or higher, this should be a criteria for any potential link partner’s home
page
E.
Make sure on your home page you have a hyper-link to your link directory and
each page of your link directory is hyper-linked to other directory pages.
An additional hint here is not to use the word ‘link’ in your hyperlink to
your directory. It would be far better to use a phrase like: ‘attorney
partners’ for these links. Naturally, be sure any potential link partner
follows these guide-lines.
F.
Check which sites have links to your site and any unwanted ones should
receive a form email requesting that they please erase their link to your
site. To see some of the sites that link to yours through Google (Google for
some reason does not show all incoming links), go to Google and in their
search box type in: link:www.yourwebsite.com
G.
If you are a member of any type of link exchange site… cancel your
membership.
Of course, some of my suggestions above are tough and you many disagree with
them. After all, Google, or any search engine for that matter, never spells
out details of what their algorithm looks for, or exactly what each revision
to it encompasses. The search engine optimization professionals have to use
their acquired experience and judgment to aid their clients. Search engine
optimization is far from an exact science. These are my personal and
professional opinions on one factor of this latest Google change. If your
site has dropped off the Google radar, you can do nothing, or you can try to
progress your standings and possible new business, by playing by the rules.
The choice is yours... choose wisely!
Investing in improving your law firm’s search engines standings could become
the most cost effective career investment you make.
Copyright 2007 Promotions Unlimited. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHORBob Schwartz, is the founder of Promotions Unlimited (search
engine optimization) a Internet legal directory (CA, TX & Las Vegas)
publisher and search engine placement technology analyst. You can contact
Bob via e-mail at seo711@gmail.com or visit his San Diego legal directory
at: www.sandiegolawyerforyou.com
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