Moving blogs onto law firm website is misguided approach for large firm SEO

LexBlog is getting inquires from large law firms asking if it would be worthwhile to move their blogs from being independent sites onto their law firm website. The question appears to be driven by the desire for search engine performance.

The firm or someone advising the firm believes by moving independent blogs onto the firm’s website, the search engine performance of the website would be improved. Based on how well large law firm blogs are performing on Google that sure seems terribly misguided.

Look at the search engine performance of a few large law firm blogs.

Chicago Attorney, Dave Donaghue, a partner with Holland & Knight, blogs on Northern District of Illinois IP Cases on his Chicago IP Litigation Blog. The blog holds two out of the first five results on Google for a search on – Chicago IP.

And the second result on a Google search for – Chicago IP lawyer – even beating lawyer directories such as lawyers.com and Avvo, which work hard to perform high for such a search.

Sheppard Mullin blogs on legal issues facing the fashion, apparel, and beauty industry on its Fashion and Apparel Law Blog. The blog ranks number two for a Google search on – fashion law.

Maryland Attorney, Brian Higgins, an associate with Blank Rome, blogs on IP issues at the Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog. The blog holds the first three search results for a Google search for – Maryland IP.

And the top five search results on Google search for – Maryland IP Lawyer.

Philadelphia Attorney Sean Wajert, a partner with Dechert, blogs on legal issues relating to mass tort and large scale product liability cases on his blog, Mass Tort Defense. The blog holds the top four results for a Google search on – mass tort defense.

As well as the top four results on a search for – mass defense lawyer.

It would be difficult or impossible for the respect law firm websites to achieve such Google rankings if you moved these blogs onto the firms’ websites.

It’s very possible that putting the blogs on the law firm websites would increase traffic on the law firms’ websites. That’s by very nature of having more content that could be retrieved on search.

But moving blogs onto law firm websites for better search results on Google seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.