Technology in Marketing: The Top 10 Law Firm Web Site SEO Best Practices

Google or other analytics reports typically show that search engines are a major source of Internet traffic to law firm Web sites (as well as law firm blogs). Usually, the higher up a link to a site is displayed in the search engine results generated by a query (i.e., the higher the site 'ranks'), the more searchers will visit that site. Therefore, a law firm seeking to increase traffic to its Web site should follow 'best practices' when it comes to search engine optimization, or SEO.

According to Wikipedia, SEO is 'the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a Web site from search engines via 'natural' search results for targeted keywords.' SEO accomplishes this objective via design and coding techniques that maximize the accessibility of your site content to search engine spiders crawling your site for the purpose of accurately indexing it within the search engine's database.

Why do search engines want to accurately categorize your site? The popularity of search engines (and hence their advertising revenue) is dependent on displaying the most relevant search results to search engine users. If search engines know what your Web site is about then links to it can be displayed in response to appropriate search queries. By following SEO 'best practices,' you make it easier for search engines to do their job, and they will reward you with higher rankings in relevant search results.

This column reviews the top 10 law firm Web site SEO best practices. The 'best practices' are divided into two types ' 'pre-launch' best practices implemented while your Web site is being designed and coded, and 'post-launch' best practices to follow after your Web site has launched.

Pre-Launch Best Practices

One: Compose Unique, Accurate, and Catchy Title and Meta Description Tags

The title and meta description tags are pieces of descriptive text in a Web site's source code that describe each page of your Web site. While not visible on the Web site itself, they are accessible to search engine spiders to help them understand what a particular Web page is about.

The content in title and description tags influence search engines in terms of deciding how high up in search results to display a Web page in response to a particular query. Indeed, the title tag has been called 'one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings' by SEO expert Jill Whalen, while Google itself stresses the importance of descriptive and accurate title tags in its Webmaster guidelines. SEO experts also agree that search engines place weight on the content in meta description tags.

Accordingly, it is a best practice to compose unique title and meta description tags for each page on your Web site using targeted keywords that accurately reflect the content on the page. This helps maximize the likelihood that the page will be displayed as high as possible in search results in response to a relevant search query. Conversely, it is poor practice to use identical copy in all of the title and description tags for your Web site. The search engines see this as duplicate content and it may hurt rankings.

Good site management software (also known as content management software, or 'CMS') makes it easy for site administrators to customize title and description tag copy for individual site pages before publishing those pages to the Web site.

Aside from helping search engines accurately categorize and display your Web pages in search results, title and description tags also directly influence the percentage of searchers who click on the link to your Web site in a search result. That is because Google and other search engines display the title and description tag for Web pages in search results. The title tag generally serves as the text in the hyperlink back to a Web page displayed in a search result, while the description tag is generally displayed under the hyperlink to provide searchers with a better understanding of what the destination page is about.

Because they are displayed to searchers, well-written title and description tags can boost the percentage of searchers who click through to your Web site whenever it is displayed in search results. Conversely, poorly written (e.g., vague, incomprehensible) title and description tags discourage searchers from clicking through to your Web site.

Two: Use Targeted Keywords in Visible Page Text

Search engines evaluate the mix of all the words on a Web page to determine what a page is about. In other words, the keywords on a Web page help search engines determine the relevancy of a page to search engine queries, and thus whether a particular page should be displayed in the search results. As such, it is important to use targeted keywords as much as possible in the visible body copy on a page.

At the same time, indiscriminately stuffing a page with targeted keywords is not a good idea, and could even result in being penalized if detected by search engines. Poorly written copy will also turn off visitors. As such, the copy on a page should make sense to the average reader of the page.

Finally, the literal quantity of indexable content on a page can be a factor. Each page on your Web site doesn't need to have a lot of content, but it should have some. This is one reason why pages that are exclusively Flash don't generally rank well ' there is no text for spiders to index. Additionally, Flash causes problems for Google's spider, and thus makes a Web site less search-engine friendly.

Three: Enclose Targeted Keywords in H1 and Other Tags

The H1 tag is a headline tag intended to summarize the topic of a particular page. As such, search engines often use this tag to determine relevancy.

One problem with the H1 tag is that in default mode, it displays as a large font size, and thus text enclosed within H1 tags look huge and unappealing. The solution is to use style sheets to control how text enclosed in H1 tags displays.

Nevertheless, because the H1 tag is a high-level thematic signal, it should only be used sparingly on any individual page. Overuse can be detrimental and may appear as 'spamming.'

Some SEO experts also recommend discretely enclosing keywords in other tags such as bold, italics and H2 and H3 header tags.

Four: Use Targeted Keywords in Image ALT Tags

The ALT tag is a tag associated with images that describes what the image is about when one hovers one's mouse over the image. Search engine spiders can't read the copy in an image, but they can read the ALT text associated with an image.

Additionally, when crawling a link from one Web page to another Web page (the 'destination page'), Google utilizes the text comprising the link (a.k.a. the 'anchor text') to determine what the destination page is about. When an image is used as a link, the ALT tag functions as its 'anchor text.'

Finally, ALT tags can occasionally drive traffic from image searches on Google and elsewhere.

Five: Update Web Site Pages Frequently

Search engines like to see frequent site updates since this means the content is fresh, and therefore probably more relevant.

For this reason it is helpful for the homepage of a Web site to feature dynamically generated internal links to new content recently posted elsewhere on the site (e.g., new announcements, resources, articles, etc.). These dynamically generated links also help with internal linking (see best practice Point Six below).

Good content management software makes it easy for even non-technical users to update a Web site frequently with new content.

Six: Engage in Internal Linking on the Web Site

Since Google and other search engines crawl the links on each page of your Web site (starting with the homepage) to find other pages on your Web site, linking to internal pages on your Web site from the homepage and secondary pages can be helpful to boost the search ranking of the destination pages. When doing so it is important to use descriptive 'anchor text' in the hyperlink so search engines get a better idea what the destination page is about.

For example, if a personal injury law firm handles different types of litigations, including construction accidents, a link to the 'construction accident' practice area page from the site's homepage should not use meaningless 'anchor text' such as 'click here.' Instead, a phrase such as 'construction accidents' (or even better 'New York construction accidents') should comprise the hyperlink.

Seven: Link to High Quality, Topically Related Pages on Third-Party Web Sites

Many law firms have a 'resources' section on their Web sites with links to third-party sites of possible interest to their client base. Such outbound links help define the community to which your site belongs. Linking to quality, topically related pages builds trust in your domain. Conversely, linking to 'spam' sites such as link farms is detrimental since your site becomes associated with them.

Post-Launch Best Practices

Eight: Monitor Site Traffic with Analytics Software

Continually monitoring traffic to your Web site after launch with an analytics tool like Google Analytics can provide helpful insights. First, you'll identify 'referral sources'; that is, other Web sites driving traffic to your site. This will help you determine the value of links from third-party Web sites to your site traffic. You'll also be able to measure the impact on site traffic of such online marketing initiatives as e-mail marketing campaigns.

Second, analytics software identifies the keywords plugged into search engines that are driving traffic to your site. This will help you determine what keywords interested parties are using to find your Web site, and tweak your site copy and title and description tags accordingly.

Ideally, it shouldn't just be your firm's name (or the names of its attorneys) that is driving traffic to your site. Instead, targeted keywords related to your geography and/or practice areas (e.g., 'Oregon medical malpractice lawyer') should be driving a significant portion of traffic. A good analytics tool can help you measure progress toward this goal.

Nine: Monitor Your Web Site With Google's Webmaster Tools

Because Google is such an influential search engine, periodically testing your Web site with Google's Webmaster diagnostic tools is important. These tools can:

• Confirm that Google has access to the site, and show when the Googlebot last visited.
• Display URLs on the site that Google had trouble crawling and why it couldn't crawl them.
• View all the links from other Web sites back to your own, and what 'anchor' text these sites are using to link back to your site.
• View the top search engine queries that are driving traffic to your site and where your site is included in the top search results for these queries.
• See how your site is indexed by Google and which of your pages are included in the index.

Ten: Aggressively Develop and Solicit Inbound Links

The number of inbound links from topically related sites is one of the most important criteria used by Google and other search engines to rank sites in search results. Accordingly, after its Web site launches, a law firm should aggressively seek to increase the number of inbound links from other topically related sites to the site's homepage and secondary pages. As noted, ideally, the 'anchor texts' in these links should be descriptive of the destination page (instead of using a phrase like 'click here').

There are a couple of strategies for increasing inbound links. First, identify any topically related online legal directories in which it may be appropriate to list the site. Importantly, a firm should AVOID link 'farms,' which are simply aggregations of links from numerous unrelated industries. Google has stated that they ignore links from such directories, and instead focus on inbound links from sites with related content.

Second, a firm should identify and reach out to topically related 'content' Web sites (including blogs) that may be willing to include links to articles and other content on its Web site. However, third-party Web sites only want to link to content that will be interesting and valuable to their own readers and visitors. Therefore, before this strategy can be pursued, a firm needs to develop a program for regularly composing articles covering new developments and trends in key practice areas and publishing those articles to the Web site.

Third, a firm can periodically issue newsworthy online press releases on a service such as PR Web that include links back to its Web site. Composing one or more white papers in key practice areas, and promoting these white papers via online press releases, can be particularly helpful.

In conclusion, follow these law firm Web site SEO best practices, and you'll likely see improving search engine rankings and traffic over time for the keywords that matter most to your firm.

Joshua Fruchter, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is president and co-founder of eLawMarketing, a provider of online marketing services to law firms and other professional service providers. He can be contacted at 866-833-6245 or at [email protected]. The firm's Web site is at www.elawmarketing.com and its blog is at http://www.lawyercasting.com.

Google or other analytics reports typically show that search engines are a major source of Internet traffic to law firm Web sites (as well as law firm blogs). Usually, the higher up a link to a site is displayed in the search engine results generated by a query (i.e., the higher the site 'ranks'), the more searchers will visit that site. Therefore, a law firm seeking to increase traffic to its Web site should follow 'best practices' when it comes to search engine optimization, or SEO.

According to Wikipedia, SEO is 'the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a Web site from search engines via 'natural' search results for targeted keywords.' SEO accomplishes this objective via design and coding techniques that maximize the accessibility of your site content to search engine spiders crawling your site for the purpose of accurately indexing it within the search engine's database.

Why do search engines want to accurately categorize your site? The popularity of search engines (and hence their advertising revenue) is dependent on displaying the most relevant search results to search engine users. If search engines know what your Web site is about then links to it can be displayed in response to appropriate search queries. By following SEO 'best practices,' you make it easier for search engines to do their job, and they will reward you with higher rankings in relevant search results.

This column reviews the top 10 law firm Web site SEO best practices. The 'best practices' are divided into two types ' 'pre-launch' best practices implemented while your Web site is being designed and coded, and 'post-launch' best practices to follow after your Web site has launched.

Pre-Launch Best Practices

One: Compose Unique, Accurate, and Catchy Title and Meta Description Tags

The title and meta description tags are pieces of descriptive text in a Web site's source code that describe each page of your Web site. While not visible on the Web site itself, they are accessible to search engine spiders to help them understand what a particular Web page is about.

The content in title and description tags influence search engines in terms of deciding how high up in search results to display a Web page in response to a particular query. Indeed, the title tag has been called 'one of the most important factors in achieving high search engine rankings' by SEO expert Jill Whalen, while Google itself stresses the importance of descriptive and accurate title tags in its Webmaster guidelines. SEO experts also agree that search engines place weight on the content in meta description tags.

Accordingly, it is a best practice to compose unique title and meta description tags for each page on your Web site using targeted keywords that accurately reflect the content on the page. This helps maximize the likelihood that the page will be displayed as high as possible in search results in response to a relevant search query. Conversely, it is poor practice to use identical copy in all of the title and description tags for your Web site. The search engines see this as duplicate content and it may hurt rankings.

Good site management software (also known as content management software, or 'CMS') makes it easy for site administrators to customize title and description tag copy for individual site pages before publishing those pages to the Web site.

Aside from helping search engines accurately categorize and display your Web pages in search results, title and description tags also directly influence the percentage of searchers who click on the link to your Web site in a search result. That is because Google and other search engines display the title and description tag for Web pages in search results. The title tag generally serves as the text in the hyperlink back to a Web page displayed in a search result, while the description tag is generally displayed under the hyperlink to provide searchers with a better understanding of what the destination page is about.

Because they are displayed to searchers, well-written title and description tags can boost the percentage of searchers who click through to your Web site whenever it is displayed in search results. Conversely, poorly written (e.g., vague, incomprehensible) title and description tags discourage searchers from clicking through to your Web site.

Two: Use Targeted Keywords in Visible Page Text

Search engines evaluate the mix of all the words on a Web page to determine what a page is about. In other words, the keywords on a Web page help search engines determine the relevancy of a page to search engine queries, and thus whether a particular page should be displayed in the search results. As such, it is important to use targeted keywords as much as possible in the visible body copy on a page.

At the same time, indiscriminately stuffing a page with targeted keywords is not a good idea, and could even result in being penalized if detected by search engines. Poorly written copy will also turn off visitors. As such, the copy on a page should make sense to the average reader of the page.

Finally, the literal quantity of indexable content on a page can be a factor. Each page on your Web site doesn't need to have a lot of content, but it should have some. This is one reason why pages that are exclusively Flash don't generally rank well ' there is no text for spiders to index. Additionally, Flash causes problems for Google's spider, and thus makes a Web site less search-engine friendly.

Three: Enclose Targeted Keywords in H1 and Other Tags

The H1 tag is a headline tag intended to summarize the topic of a particular page. As such, search engines often use this tag to determine relevancy.

One problem with the H1 tag is that in default mode, it displays as a large font size, and thus text enclosed within H1 tags look huge and unappealing. The solution is to use style sheets to control how text enclosed in H1 tags displays.

Nevertheless, because the H1 tag is a high-level thematic signal, it should only be used sparingly on any individual page. Overuse can be detrimental and may appear as 'spamming.'

Some SEO experts also recommend discretely enclosing keywords in other tags such as bold, italics and H2 and H3 header tags.

Four: Use Targeted Keywords in Image ALT Tags

The ALT tag is a tag associated with images that describes what the image is about when one hovers one's mouse over the image. Search engine spiders can't read the copy in an image, but they can read the ALT text associated with an image.

Additionally, when crawling a link from one Web page to another Web page (the 'destination page'), Google utilizes the text comprising the link (a.k.a. the 'anchor text') to determine what the destination page is about. When an image is used as a link, the ALT tag functions as its 'anchor text.'

Finally, ALT tags can occasionally drive traffic from image searches on Google and elsewhere.

Five: Update Web Site Pages Frequently

Search engines like to see frequent site updates since this means the content is fresh, and therefore probably more relevant.

For this reason it is helpful for the homepage of a Web site to feature dynamically generated internal links to new content recently posted elsewhere on the site (e.g., new announcements, resources, articles, etc.). These dynamically generated links also help with internal linking (see best practice Point Six below).

Good content management software makes it easy for even non-technical users to update a Web site frequently with new content.

Six: Engage in Internal Linking on the Web Site

Since Google and other search engines crawl the links on each page of your Web site (starting with the homepage) to find other pages on your Web site, linking to internal pages on your Web site from the homepage and secondary pages can be helpful to boost the search ranking of the destination pages. When doing so it is important to use descriptive 'anchor text' in the hyperlink so search engines get a better idea what the destination page is about.

For example, if a personal injury law firm handles different types of litigations, including construction accidents, a link to the 'construction accident' practice area page from the site's homepage should not use meaningless 'anchor text' such as 'click here.' Instead, a phrase such as 'construction accidents' (or even better 'New York construction accidents') should comprise the hyperlink.

Seven: Link to High Quality, Topically Related Pages on Third-Party Web Sites

Many law firms have a 'resources' section on their Web sites with links to third-party sites of possible interest to their client base. Such outbound links help define the community to which your site belongs. Linking to quality, topically related pages builds trust in your domain. Conversely, linking to 'spam' sites such as link farms is detrimental since your site becomes associated with them.

Post-Launch Best Practices

Eight: Monitor Site Traffic with Analytics Software

Continually monitoring traffic to your Web site after launch with an analytics tool like Google Analytics can provide helpful insights. First, you'll identify 'referral sources'; that is, other Web sites driving traffic to your site. This will help you determine the value of links from third-party Web sites to your site traffic. You'll also be able to measure the impact on site traffic of such online marketing initiatives as e-mail marketing campaigns.

Second, analytics software identifies the keywords plugged into search engines that are driving traffic to your site. This will help you determine what keywords interested parties are using to find your Web site, and tweak your site copy and title and description tags accordingly.

Ideally, it shouldn't just be your firm's name (or the names of its attorneys) that is driving traffic to your site. Instead, targeted keywords related to your geography and/or practice areas (e.g., 'Oregon medical malpractice lawyer') should be driving a significant portion of traffic. A good analytics tool can help you measure progress toward this goal.

Nine: Monitor Your Web Site With Google's Webmaster Tools

Because Google is such an influential search engine, periodically testing your Web site with Google's Webmaster diagnostic tools is important. These tools can:

• Confirm that Google has access to the site, and show when the Googlebot last visited.
• Display URLs on the site that Google had trouble crawling and why it couldn't crawl them.
• View all the links from other Web sites back to your own, and what 'anchor' text these sites are using to link back to your site.
• View the top search engine queries that are driving traffic to your site and where your site is included in the top search results for these queries.
• See how your site is indexed by Google and which of your pages are included in the index.

Ten: Aggressively Develop and Solicit Inbound Links

The number of inbound links from topically related sites is one of the most important criteria used by Google and other search engines to rank sites in search results. Accordingly, after its Web site launches, a law firm should aggressively seek to increase the number of inbound links from other topically related sites to the site's homepage and secondary pages. As noted, ideally, the 'anchor texts' in these links should be descriptive of the destination page (instead of using a phrase like 'click here').

There are a couple of strategies for increasing inbound links. First, identify any topically related online legal directories in which it may be appropriate to list the site. Importantly, a firm should AVOID link 'farms,' which are simply aggregations of links from numerous unrelated industries. Google has stated that they ignore links from such directories, and instead focus on inbound links from sites with related content.

Second, a firm should identify and reach out to topically related 'content' Web sites (including blogs) that may be willing to include links to articles and other content on its Web site. However, third-party Web sites only want to link to content that will be interesting and valuable to their own readers and visitors. Therefore, before this strategy can be pursued, a firm needs to develop a program for regularly composing articles covering new developments and trends in key practice areas and publishing those articles to the Web site.

Third, a firm can periodically issue newsworthy online press releases on a service such as PR Web that include links back to its Web site. Composing one or more white papers in key practice areas, and promoting these white papers via online press releases, can be particularly helpful.

In conclusion, follow these law firm Web site SEO best practices, and you'll likely see improving search engine rankings and traffic over time for the keywords that matter most to your firm.

Joshua Fruchter, a member of this newsletter's Board of Editors, is president and co-founder of eLawMarketing, a provider of online marketing services to law firms and other professional service providers. He can be contacted at 866-833-6245 or at [email protected]. The firm's Web site is at www.elawmarketing.com and its blog is at http://www.lawyercasting.com.