While we regularly point out the issues, problems and limitations of rank tracking, lawyers love to spot-check their search engine rankings. By now, you probably know that search engine rankings fluctuate a lot. Here's an example for rankings for a popular legal directory's rankings for the keyword 'attorney' between 10/31 and 11/2: You also probably […]
Back in May, Google announced that they had upgraded their system to render web pages with CSS and JavaScript turned on. They recently updated their technical webmaster guidelines to reflect this change. Interestingly, they also noted: For optimal rendering and indexing, our new guideline specifies that you should allow Googlebot access to the JavaScript, CSS, […]
With Moz's release of the 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors, I thought I'd take a moment to share some of my observations about the local search landscape as it relates to lawyers. Disclaimer: I had the privilege of participating in the Moz survey. The image at the top of this post was generated on 10/22/2014. […]
The above image shows some recent data I pulled from Google Webmaster Tools (GWT). We don't rely on GWT data for reporting, but regularly refer to it internally to analyze trends. But I'm becoming skeptical about the reliability of the data even for that very limited purpose. You see, I know that there are clicks […]
The image below is a screenshot of a Google search engine result page for the query, "personal injury lawyer in philadelphia." It was performed in an incognito Chrome browser with location set to Philadelphia, PA on September 29, 2014. We have highlighted the organic results from the SERP below: We also labeled the listings based […]
By now, you've probably heard something about Google's recent Pigeon update. In short, Pigeon has rocked local search results. In many instances, it's rocked them for the worse. SEL has a great Pigeon expert round-up. Here are some of the Pigeon-impacts that the legal SEO community has witnessed. Here's a side-by-side comparison of pre and […]
Over at Inside AdWords, Google's Chief Economist, Hal Varian has posted some additional insights about Quality Score and the AdWords Auction. Google users want ads they see to be relevant. They don't want to be bothered by ads that aren't closely related to what they are searching for. - Hal Varian (Chief Economist, Google) Traditional […]
Here are just a few quick SEO bullets that attorneys should work through to improve their visibility in organic search results. Your Audience Do you understand who your target audience is (i.e. demographic and pyschographic information)? Do you understand how your target users search engines and the internet to find information relevant to your practice? […]
The process for rehabilitating your website from spammy SEO practices can be a long and arduous journey. In many instances, attorneys are better served to simply start over. In case you missed it, search engines are evolving. And while black hat and spam "still work" in many cases, there is no question that a lot […]
Still wondering how to optimize your pages? There's a ton of information out there about optimizing web pages. Fortunately, most of what you need to know can be found at Moz, especially here and here. While this is likely to confuse Google about what this page is about, I thought I'd mark up Rand's perfectly […]
