That's nuts. I'm not sure Ben honestly believes that.

If there's lawyers and legal marketing professionals who honestly believe blogs are only for search engine rankings, I expect they're the ones who previously believed the only way a lawyer could get new clients was through large yellow page ads and other advertising. You know, the biggest and gaudiest ad with call the 1 800 lawyer thing.

They believe Google is replacing the yellow pages for people selecting a lawyer. God forbid you're not at the top of search engine results page of Google when someone searches your town and the type of lawyer you are. 'If I'm not at the top of Google, I'll never get any work. I'll go broke.'

The same thing that has allowed good lawyers, no matter their area of practice, to get good work over the years is why law blogs work so well. The ability to network with thought leaders in your field, influencers within your community, and prospective clients.

When I practiced in a small rural town in the Midwest a leading law firm ran only a very small in column ad in the yellow pages listing their 12 lawyers by name. That's it. Only advertising they did. And they got as much work as anyone in the area in everything - personal injury, divorce, real estate, corporate, estate planning, bankruptcy, probate and what have you.

How they'd do it?

• By striving to be good lawyers - staying up to speed on legal developments and news that effected their practice.
• By writing articles for legal publications and regional newspapers.
• By presenting at seminars and conferences for lawyers and relevant industries.
• By being well known by the press and being available when reporters need resources or a quote.
• By becoming leaders regionally and state-wide in bar and legal associations.
• By networking with good lawyers around the state.
• By networking with community leaders and influencers in various civic organizations.
• By being social and cordial with people who influence others in their selection of a lawyer - bailiffs, court clerks, judges, bankers, doctors, insurance agents, realtors, title company personnel, court reporters etc.

They further enhanced their reputation as good lawyers you could trust by networking. Word of mouth spread.

Blogging is a new way of networking with thought leaders, community leaders, the media, current clients, and prospective clients. It's how you further enhance your reputation as a lawyer who can do a heck of a job for people and companies needing legal services in your niche. It's how you generate a word of mouth reputation that's far wider reaching than offline.

Ask any lawyer who knows how to blog effectively. They'll tell you their blog is much more than search engine rankings. Don't get me wrong. Search engine rankings are important, but they'll come anyway through effective blogging.

Let's act like lawyers folks. We didn't go to law school so we could run the largest yellow page ad, billboard, or to rank at the top of something called Google - which in our wildest dreams we could not have dreamed of in law school 30 years ago. What's after Google? You'll be chasing that too with the latest gimmicks.

Rise above the pack. Be the lawyer you want to be in the area of law for which you have a passion. Become a lawyer's lawyer. Establish a reputation that's not fleeting. It can be done via online networking through effective blogging - not by just being at the top of Google.

Julie Batten at The ClickZ Network sheds some light on why blogs achieve higher rankings.

• A high number of inbound links (with keyword-rich anchor text).
• A lot of keyword-rich textual content, with typically a distinct lack of Flash and other non-textual content.
• An inherent structure that enables the spider to both find and understand site content (e.g., posts are descriptively titled, organized by topical areas, and linked to in a logical manner).
• A high propensity for being found through popular blog directories or search engines, such as Technorati.

Of course, as Batten notes, Internet users will still need to determine the credibility of websites or blogs at the top of Google's search results. But as a lawyer blogging on a niche topic for which you have first hand expertise, you're a pretty credible source. For Google looking to get get credible informative sites to the top of its search results, mission accomplished.

Though law blogs often rank higher on Google than websites, law blogs don't exist for SEO shenanigans. Law firm website developers and law firm 'SEO experts' who don't have a clue about blogs don't understand this.

Unfortnately, I'm seeing the same disturbing trend as Edelman Senior Vice President Steve Rubel.

Some respected experts are advocating launching social media marketing programs solely for the purpose of influencing search engines, rather than with the intent of fostering collaboration and genuine communication.

This represents a clear and present danger to the fabric of the community. If you care about the social web, then you should be alarmed.

Search engine optimization (SEO) professionals of late seem poised to take over blogs, digg, StumbleUpon and other sites with a range of tactics, some legit, others more questionable with the intent of building Google Juice and nothing more.

Steve goes on to explain that if you're using blogs appropriately, high rankings will follow anyway.

To be clear, I do not object to the way that blogs, digg links and Wikipedia rank highly in search results. What does get me hot and bothered is when consultants and bloggers propose launching such an initiatives solely for influencing search. SEO, like word of mouth, should be a byproduct outcome, not a primary objective. Any brand that plays in this space should be aiming to create value. Do that and the other stuff will follow.

The vast majority of LexBlog's 300 plus blogs rank near the top of Google for their area of law. That's happening as a result of good blogging and proper blog site architecture, not because of SEO shenanigans.

Lawyers are repeatedly seduced and marketers are constantly aggravated to take space in law firm directories.' Which one to choose? How much to pay? Should you pay?' I can make the decision easy for you. There is only one directory you need to worry about: Google......Clients use Google to look up phone numbers and addresses, so law firms can cancel their yellow pages ads. When clients want to check out your firm, they are not going to call up to get your printed brochure, they will look you up online.

I have heard Larry speak and he's speaking of the importance of Google for all sized law firms, from solos to the very largest.

Other search engines aren't all that important for lawyers either. New research from Compete.com, indicates Google's share of Web searches in September 2007 was 67%, up from 54% in 2006. Yahoo is at 19%, down from 29% in 2006, with MSN at 9%.

I agree with Larry. Though it may still be worth my while, I never look at Yahoo or MSN when examining the search engine performance of my sites or LexBlog client blog sites.

As for directories such as FindLaw, Martindale-Hubbell, Super Lawyers, Avvo, and the like, the most important function they can play is getting the biographical information of your firm and its lawyers indexed at Google. The days of a lawyer directory portal site where Internet users go to look up lawyers are coming to an end.

'From a copywriting standpoint,' Brian says 'it's a no brainer—it's been proven time and time again that if you want someone to do something, you'll get better results if you tell them exactly what to do.'

But because of people like me advising people to use a link such as 'law firm SEO tips,' as opposed to 'click here' for law firm SEO tips, Brian thought sharing the results of a Marketing Sherpa experiment would be helpful.

The study found the right two or three link words can improve click-through rates by more than 8%.

• 'Click to continue': 8.53%
• 'Continue to article': 3.3%
• 'Read more': (-)1.8%

Per Brian, click here to read the original Marketing Sherpa article in its entirety.

If you want to expose your firm's content, it is not enough to simply build webpages and hope for the best. You must employ a strategy to get your chosen content in front of its target audience. In-house newsletters, email marketing, content syndication, etc. are all wonderful pieces to your marketing puzzle, but are more effective at marketing to existing clients......If firms wish to stretch out their online branding efforts - for whatever reasoning they choose - they must expose their content to new audiences. And to that end, the search engines continue to be a the number one tool available to drive new readership.

Steve had 7 quick reasons why a law firm would employ an SEO strategy.

• The firm is looking to increase exposure for a new office in a regional market.
• Lawyer profile pages aren't ranking for their areas of practice expertise.
• The firm is a market leader and sees a top search ranking as a 'must have.'
• The firm wishes to increase market share for lucrative or high-margin area of practice.
• A competitive regional practice, where service pages are buried beyond the second page of search results.
• The firm has a new or innovative service offering, and seeks the first strike advantage.
• The firm is a boutique practice without geographic boundaries, and simply needs a top-10 listing to turn volume.

The impact of good law firm SEO, per Steve:

Reports have shown the top search position to receive as many as 42% of the available clicks. On the bottom side of that comparison, rankings between position #11 and #100 will share as few as 11% of the clicks available.

I talk to 3 to 5 lawyers/law firms a day. 95% of their websites and blogs are not optimized to be found on Google and the other search engines. More than anything else in marketing, those firms should focus on SEO.

• Attribution is important. Linking to popular bloggers and other sources is a way of getting their attention. Its like saying hey I just talked about you, come see what I said. Many will ignore you, but it only takes a couple good ones liking you for your blog to spread like a weed.
• Make sure your content is formatted such that it is easy to read. Use headings and sub-headers, bulleted lists, spread things out, etc. Ultimately you need people to read and trust your work for search engines to want to trust it. Search engines follow what people do.
• Make sure your page titles are unique on a per post level with the unique part of the title element at the far left of the page title. This helps improve rankings and makes people more likely to click on your listing when you do rank. Descriptive enticing headlines will pull more clicks than boring and bland ones.
• Don't ignore internal navigation. Where possible, allow some of your categories to drive your keyword strategy. Some of your categories should be well aligned with some of your keywords. Create a top hits or featured posts section that makes it easy to find your best content. Also link back to your older posts in some of your newer posts to alert new readers to the best related posts in your archives and help search engines understand which pages are most important.
• If many people are writing about the same thing you are, try to write about something else or try to write about it from a different perspective such that people want to keep paying attention to you. Don't be afraid of being yourself. Often times our flaws are more interesting than what we are allegedly good at.

With all the bum SEO advive given to law firms, I like Aaron's sound and straight forward advice. For those of you looking to learn more about SEO, Aaron's SEO book looks like a good one. Testimonials from a prod at Wharton and Seth Godin don't come liightly.

...[T]his question is a real core issue for any business in the 21st century. In a nutshell, more and more people are moving online to find just about every product and service imaginable. They do that primarily through search engines like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) and Microsoft Live (Nasdaq: MSFT).

What these three search engines have in common is that they analyze every page they find on the Web to automatically figure out both what the page is talking about and what some people call a 'quality score', a quantitative measure of whether the content is unique, where the inbound links are coming from (a link from the NY Times is far more valuable than a link from some spam site, for example), the ratio of content to advertising, and so on.

If you have a site online and you aren't clear about how those sites work and what they're looking for, you are doubtless finding that you can't be found when people are searching for your own product or service. And if they can't find you, they can't hire you or buy your products.

Until now, law firms have looked at websites has a necessity, akin to a listing in Martindale-Hubbell. The focus was design and little attention was paid to making sure the website could be found when people were looking for a lawyer on the net. The result - law firm websites that couldn't be found on the net anywhere near the first page or two of the search engine results pages, the only place net users look.

This is why firms are looking at other alternatives, one of which is blogs. More than one of LexBlog's large law firm clients has turned to a practice area blog to make certain that the firm's content and lawyers could be found by an exec, in-house counsel, or reporter doing an Internet search on the relevant topic.

Google antitrust law firm and you'll find Sheppard Mullin's Antitrust Law Blog in the number one position. Try telecom lawyer at Google. You'll find Davis Wright Tremaine's Telecom Law Blog in the number two position following the Wall Street Journal.

Small firms with one prominent practice area have turned to well designed blogs alone, without a website, to make sure they can be found.

Google Austin criminal defense lawyer. You'll find Jamie Spencer who, without a website is number one at Google. When prospective clients find Jamie on the net, they are more impressed with Jamie's informative criminal defense blog than a law firm web site going on ad finitum about how wonderful the lawyer is.

Google where your law firm is located and what you do. If you can't be found, your law firm is in serious trouble.

Technorati Tags: seo

My latest SEO tips come from Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, and publisher of Top Ranking Blog, one of the blogs you ought to add to your feeds. And these tips apply equally to blogs as well as websites. If you haven't learned from me by now, blogs are just websites, except a heck of a lot more effective when marketing.

Lee posts 5 Myths about SEO. I'm giving you only the highlights and a few personal comments so read the whole post.

1. Search Engine Optimization is a collection of tricks to fool search engines. If you’re ‘fooling’ the search engines, then you’re probably fooling users too.
2. People in our market don’t use search engines. Right, when in fact nearly 70% of execs and in-house counsel turn to the net, during the law firm selection process. And they are not just searching firm/lawyer names or going to Martindale.com
3. SEO is a single event. Fact is creative link building, creation and promotion of new content, integration with other online/offline marketing, and social media are key.
4. SEO is a function of IT. In fact, SEO initiatives should be managed strategically by the business like any other major marketing initiative.
5. Our site doesn’t get a lot of visitors, so SEO wouldn’t work for us. Like Lee, I do hear that from what appear to be educated people. Comments like this are just insecurity about SEO as a discipline and its effectiveness for a particular business.

Read the whole post. Lee even gives you 6 bonus myths, one better than another.

Tim, the co-founder and former CTO of FindLaw, sits in the heart of Silicon Valley. In addition to being a lawyer, he's got at least one computer science degree. Not only is the guy brilliant, you will not find a person more dedicated to helping others.

Look at Justia's free search engine optimized law firm Web sites, the Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center, the Recall Warnings site containing over 50,000 recalls, the SEO center. Those are all Justia public service and pro bono projects.

The dualopoly of LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell and Thomson/West/FindLaw have taken hundreds of millions of dollars of law firms marketing dollars each year. However, they deliver nothing close to the free resources being offered by innovative upstarts, like this from Stanley and Justia.

Scary part is that even if the legal marketing dualopoly cared enough to offer helpful resources for law firms, I don't believe they have anyone who knows enough to offer a resource like this.

Two things you must keep in mind because of this. One, lawyer Web sites and blogs must be optimized for your locale. This can be by area cities, the metro area and/or your state. This will get your site, when optimized otherwise to appear higher in the organic search results.

Second, search engines are experimenting with local search results that are displayed near the top of the search results page. This means lawyer Web sites and blogs must be optimized by address. It's this second point, I am covering in this post.

It is hard to know how things are going to shake out over time. What we know now is that if you type in - Topeka lawyer - on Google, you will get a listing on the top of the page for three local Topeka lawyers who did not pay anything to show up at the top of the page. Heck, they do not even know they are appearing like this. If one does a search for - Topeka bankruptcy lawyer - the local search results do not show up.

When you click on one of the lawyer's names listed in the above three, you receive a local map to their office. When you click on the heading 'Local results for lawyers near Topeka, KS' above the three law firms' names, you get a list of Topeka lawyers. This list is accompanied by a link to the lawyer's Web site or blog, if they have one.

I expect we are going to see local search expanded - both to include practice areas and by allowing lawyers to buy sponsored links at the top of the local searches. Expect to see it at Google and at Yahoo, through its subsidiary, Overture.

In addition, I do not see the value to users being just a list of lawyer names coming from a yellow page directory as it appears now or another directory like Martindale-Hubbell. The value will be the accompanying links next to the law firm's name taking users to a lawyer Web site or blog that includes helpful information on the legal issue facing the user.

Search engine optimization for local searches

To serve local search results, the search engines crawl lawyer Web sites and blogs to collect and analyze data on the physical location of the lawyer and then matches that data to specified queries and their designated addresses.

Similarly, Web users can search by street address or ZIP code to find very limited local results for a category like lawyer. Google says their goal is "[T]o connect users to the information they need, whether it's half way around the world or just around the corner."

To get your lawyer Web site or blog included in local and regional searches you need to design your site with local searches in mind. The easiest way to do this is to use the local keywords in the header or footer of your lawyer Web site or blog.

On lawyer blogs this is a piece of cake. Footer and header templates are easy to set up and include in the lawyer blog design. They then appear at the top and bottom of the main page, the category pages and each of the individual entry pages.

For example include Smith and Jones Bankruptcy Lawyers, 83 Jackson Street, Seattle, Washington, 98114. Telephone: 206 865 4367. If you are in a smaller community outside Seattle, include the name of the city in the address and add - located near Seattle, WA.

Do these things and you'll improve your chance of getting a first page listing on a localized search. As local searches increase in importance, this is going to be a big deal.