Yahoo drops Google > impact on lawyer Internet marketing

Those following the Internet marketing news over the last few weeks heard about Yahoo’s impending move from the Google search engine. It was presumed by most that Yahoo would begin to use Inktomi’s search engine. A few days ago Yahoo did make the switch. Yahoo is saying that the search engine is their own but from what I have been reading the search engine is a hybrid of the Inktomi search engine.

Read on to see what this means to a lawyer marketing on the Internet.

For the search engine companies, it means the battle is on. Insiders have told me that based on the volume of traffic that Yahoo generates, Google’s value may have dropped about 20% with Yahoo dropping the Google engine. Understand that Google makes a lot of money by people by buying ads. Those ads are on a pay for performance contract. With Google losing the traffic from Yahoo across Google’s search engine, Google’s revenue declines. With Yahoo and Google battling things out today, the door may be open a little wider for Bill Gate’s Microsoft/MSN search engine Bill says he is coming.

What does this mean for lawyers marketing on the Internet?

First, content is still king. Being in the lawyer blog business, I follow traffic to lawyer sites & lawyer blogs. Good lawyer blogs, on which lawyers are spending little time, if any time, doing search engine optimization, remain near the top of search engine results when doing relevant key word searches. So if you will publish content regularly, you will go to the top of search engines & prospective clients will find you.

I’ll probably go to my grave saying it, but please as good lawyers take time to publish content helpful to your target audience. If you do not have an easy way to do it now, consider a blog – it is as easy to post to a blog as it is to write an email. If you do not have someone on staff able to write content, go get some content (I have excellent content covering all areas of the law, others do as well). If you do not have someone to update a blog regularly, learn how to do it yourself or have someone else do it and then add content yourself when time permits. We’re doing that for lawyers now.

Second, when doing search optimization, you must now spend time testing your key words on Yahoo’s search. The results can vary dramatically between Google & Yahoo and you will need to play with what works.

Third, when making search engine sponsored link and adword buys, you must now look at Yahoo in addition to Google. Yahoo displays ‘Sponsor Results’ at the top of its displayed results on a search. Focus on your niche and your locale and you can get some good buys. Click on the link ‘What’s this‘ below the sponsored links section on the search results page to learn how to set those up and determine the prices.

Also Yahoo has ‘Sponsored Links’ that like Google’s adwords, are displayed on the right side of the search results page. Yahoo bought Overture last year so that it could compete with Google and other companies in selling sponsored links. Click on the link ‘See your message here…‘ that is displayed below the sponsored links to set up a buy. Like Google’s adwords these are very inexpensive.