How to clean up your local citations (and why it matters for law firms)

How to clean up your local citations (and why it matters for law firms)

Local citations tend to proliferate regardless of whether you are paying attention. Even if you have done very little active citation building, your firm's local information is likely listed tens if not hundreds of places across the web. If you are working actively on local SEO, you will likely find thousands of sites on which a you can build a listing for your firm.

Ensuring the accuracy of your local citations is critical to your firm's SEO efforts. Search engines...

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In Search of the Missing Links: How 30,000 links were lost then found.

In Search of the Missing Links: How 30,000 links were lost then found.

When a client with a robust link portfolio and growing rankings informed me that their links had disappeared, I almost dismissed it as another Google Search Console error.

The law firm's link portfolio has more than 30,000 links from about 400 domain names. Google Search Console generally reports about 350 of those linking domains.

They can also expect about 1,000 clicks each month to be reported in Search Console. You can understand why they were concerned when they logged...

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How firms with multiple locations can improve local rankings

How firms with multiple locations can improve local rankings

Law firms with multiple locations may find it more difficult to rank well in local search results than those with only a single location. Size, which can be advantageous when building authority, does not necessarily translate into better local visibility. Each office has unique business data associated with it, and citations corresponding to each location can easily proliferate to unhealthy levels without consistent oversight.

Law firms of all sizes benefit from good local search visibility. Most legal issues are handled...

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Call Only Ads are a Must Have for Law Firms

google_call_onlyGoogle Adwords offers a mobile ad option that instigates a call when someone selects your ad (rather than a click taking the user to a designated web address). This option is called “Call-Only”. In an industry where people are more likely to dial than fill out a form, your campaign is incomplete without a call-only ad.

Google Adwords allows advertisers to create ad groups that are targeted to different platforms....

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How to increase traffic by producing goal-oriented content

How to increase traffic by producing goal-oriented content

Google provides a substantial number of resources on its Webmaster Central Blog about what its algorithm is and is not looking for when returning search results. While Google's overall goal — providing results users find most helpful — has not changed, the process for finding these results is constantly being tweaked.

Your firm could try to keep up with every algorithm change in an ongoing struggle to be most relevant. But the effort is likely futile and...

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Click-to-Call Can Easily Boost Your Mobile Conversions

mobile search for lawyersMost people who need a lawyer want to speak with them as soon as possible. They don’t want to spend time filling out a form; today, people want things as instantly as possible. That culture accounts for the high number of smartphones now in use. To add convenience to your site, allow potential clients to tap a phone number and call your firm right away.

User behavior has...

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Google+ Custom URLs Make It Easier to Find Your Firm’s Profile

Google Plus URLStrings of numbers have long plagued Google+ Pages. Recently, Google+ introduced custom URLs to make advertising your Google+ Page a little easier.

Since offering Pages, Google+ has issued a long string of numbers for the URL. This practice was certainly acceptable for linking to your profile from your website and email footer, but it caused limitations when promoting your Google+ Page offline.

While you could place your...

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Facebook Graph to Help Law Firms Connect with Clients

graph search iconFacebook's announcement about their search engine, Facebook Graph, has left many with questions about how to make sure their firm is well-positioned when the new feature leaves beta and hits the mainstream.

While the company works to distinguish itself from Google, the process in which a Facebook page ranks well when users search in Facebook Graph shows a close resemblance to the classic rules of search engine optimization.

Facebook Studio posted...

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A New Website Will Not Harm Your Firm’s Ranking

Online marketing consists of many things beyond just search engine placement – things such as your website. All of your online marketing efforts will eventually lead a potential client back to your law firm's website. When that happens, is your website ready for conversion?

Some law firms have been building out their...

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