Avvo Webinar: SEO Best Practices for Lawyers

Avvo, Inc. Confidential - ©2012

SEO Best Practices for Lawyers

August 16, 2012


Started SEO back in 1999

Freelance web design firm from 2001-2007

In 2008, small business SEO and Wordpress

design

In the recent past, SEO consultant for:

Intro

Jake MartinSEO Nerd

Extraordinaire@jmwebdev

http://avvo.com/jmwebdev

http://avvo.com/jmwebdev


4.7+ billion searches are done everyday on

Google by more than 500 million unique users

in over

130 countries.


PaidOrganicG+ Local Map

Searching for “Seattle DUI” will give results similar to this:


Measuring Website Usage

Free tools to monitor your internet marketing results


Analytic Tools Provide Details on Website Usage

Useful stats include:

• Unique and total visitors• Most visited pages• Where the person came from

(referrer)• How long they spent on-site• How likely would they leave the

page?


Knowing Where Your Users Are At

Search Engines and Social Networks


Searches Per Month

150mm900mm 500mm 130mm

20mm25mm35mm 14mm20mm

50mm

2.5b10b 2.8b

Users


SEO is ensuring that your website shows up in the organic search results and drives visitors back to your website.


Most common free traffic sources that SEOs utilize

It’s complex and ever changing.


Basic Principles of Search & SEO


How Search Engines Work

3) Results are served

to user

2) Index is

built based

on hundreds of

factors

1) Search Engines Collect Web

Pages


How Search Engines Work

3) Results are served

to user

2) Index is

built based

on hundreds of

factors

1) Search Engines Collect Web

Pages

How SEO Effects

Search Engines’ ResultsIncrease crawl

allotment and index rate/response

Backlinks: Authority and anchor text

Content and on-site factors

Google Search Plus Your World / Bing Facebook Likes

Rich snippet results / Rel authorship


The Benefit of SEO


1. IndexationSearch robots crawl and build indexes based on collected

and provided data. The faster your content is indexed,

the quicker it can begin to rank and generate traffic.

2. RankIndex is served to users who search the search engine.

3. VisitorsVisitors view website but are not guaranteed to take action.

4. ConversionsTrust, quality, convenience and emotional website

elements convert visitors into clients.

Four Main Benefits of SEO


SEO Flow Chart

Rank

Google index

Bing/Yahoo! index

YouTube/Vimeo

Facebook/Twitter/Google+

Visitors

Conversion

1) Indexation

2) Rank

3)Visitors

4)Conversion


The first page of a search engine receives 90%+ of the overall

clicks.

Rank


Visitors Conversion

The key performance indicator that directly

correlates to return on marketing investment; sales

and new business.

- New inbound

phone calls

- New clients


How does SEO get me more visitors?

The basics of a long-term SEO strategy


Basic Keyword ResearchDetermining What People Are Searching For

• How many times per month the keyword in searched for in a given

location

• Data varies by search engine usage

• Google: https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer

• Bing: http://www.bing.com/toolbox/keywords

https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer

https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer

http://www.bing.com/toolbox/keywords


Intermediate Keyword Research

Hint: Use related terms in conjunction with the auto-suggest to recursively generate high-value keywords.

Enter your keyword on Google, but don’t press enter!

Go to the bottom of the Google search results page:


On-Site Optimization

Applying the keyword research:

• One keyword concept per web page

• Keyword and semantically related keywords used in Title, meta

description, content, image alt text, primary headings

Other factors to evaluate:

• Canonicalization (http://www.example.com vs. http://example.com)

• Sitemap and RSS feeds

• Robot-friendly navigation (including breadcrumbs and pagination)

http://www.example.com/

http://example.com/


• How many backlinks does each of your webpages have?

• How trustworthy is the website that links back to your webpage?

• What is the anchor text of each backlink? What are the ratios?

• At what rate does the page acquire backlinks? (known as link

velocity)

Backlink campaigns are often deployed to build specific and quality

backlinks to improve a website’s external search engine optimization

metrics.

Externala.k.a Backlinks


On-Site vs. External SEO

On-SiteTitle

Meta DescriptionH1-H3

Body ContentImage ALT

Page Load SpeedRich-snippet mark-

up

ExternalNumber of backlinksQuality of backlinks

Diversity of backlinks

Anchor text variety

Keyword Research


Rich Snippet Results

• Add author photos and video thumbnails to search results

• Provide users with better expectations of content

• Show more content from the author

• Increase click-through on search results pages

Author

Video


A few examples of what to expect from SEO services


Basic Audit Process (One-Time Consulting; Price: $300-$1,500)

KeywordResearch

•Attorney’s specialties + Locations (cities, district, state)•Long-tail keywords (“Who is a good lawyer in Seattle?”)

CompetitionResearch

•Perceived and based on keyword data•How established is the competition? mozTrust, # of backlinks, backlink diversity•Number of video, map, and authority results in search engines results page

WebsiteAudit

•On-site: keyword, title, meta, content, site architecture, redirects, sitemaps, robots.txt•External: Determine strengths and weaknesses of attorney’s website and backlink profile•Make recommendations on how to fix issues (may not include usability suggestions)•May or may not offer a backlink service or campaign


Basic Monthly SEO Services(Monthly service; Price: $300-$2,500+/mo)

Implement SEOFixes

• Fix on-site issues identified in Website Audit

• If the website architecture is unreasonably bad, may suggest site redesign

Perform BacklinkCampaigns

• Build backlinks through articles, videos, press releases, forums, and profiles

Monitor SERP Rank

• On a weekly or monthly basis, check Google, Bing, and Yahoo search engine rankings and deliver report

KeywordResearch

CompetitionResearch

WebsiteAudit


Actionable Tips

Five things you can do today

and ten things to avoid


• Easy way to generate traffic

- Map Results

- Google+ Results

- Mobile Results

• Free to use and setup

• Important for reviews

Claim Your Google+ Local Business

Pro-tip: The new changes to Google+ Business pages have been great for SEOs. Be sure to build quality links to your G+ business page to gain more exposure through Google Maps results!

http://bit.ly/nPubrA



http://www.google.com/local/add/promo?utm_campaign=gbl&utm_medium=et&utm_source=et-gbl-places_bizownr&utm_content=et-gbl-places_bizownr&continue=http://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=lbc&hl=en&passive=true&continue=http://www.google.com/local/add%3Fhl%3Den%26utm_campaign%3Dgbl%26utm_medium%3Det%26utm_source%3Det-gbl-places_bizownr%3Dutm_source%3Det-gbl-places_bizownr


• Provides visual enhancement of search results

• Results in higher click-thru regardless of SERP

rank

• Takes 5 minutes to setup

• Watch the step-by-step video

Setup Rel Authorship

Which result do you think gets more clicks?

http://lawyernomics.avvo.com/social-media/how-to-setup-google-rel-authorship-for-your-avvo-profile/


Submit Yourself to Review Sites

Here’s 15 top sites you absolutely must be on if you

want to rank highly in Google+ Local / Maps!

Download the list here.

Yelp, Yellow Pages,

Superpages, Citysearch,

Angie's List, Judy's Book,

Manta, Merchant Circle,

Service Magic, YouTube,

Facebook, BBB, and more!

http://lawyernomics.avvo.com/seo/15-must-have-local-search-citations/


• No one wants to read yet another DUI article that states the obvious

• Pictures and videos will help with SEO ranks and diversifying traffic

channels

• Use authority site’s such as Avvo to reference / promote your epic

content

• Learn how to be a great legal blogger here.

Create epic content

If you don’t currently have a blog, I would highly

recommend setting up one using the free content

management system, Wordpress. Click here to

learn more.

http://lawyernomics.avvo.com/avvo-legal-marketing-webinars/webinar-replay-how-to-be-a-great-legal-blogger/


Convert More

Phone # prominent

Call to action (Gutenberg rule)

Navigation

Video

Multi-lingual

All elements are above the fold


Copy content

Keyword Stuff

Cloak or mask content

Buy Links

Free-For-All Links

Link Exchanges

Comment Spam

Article Spam / Spun Articles

Forum or QA Spam

… or Hire SEO firms who do the above!

Don’t Do These Things, Ever:

Rated Professionals. Expert Advice.

www.Avvo.com

Questions? Comments?

[email protected] @lawyer_seo

http://twitter.com/lawyer_seo

http://twitter.com/lawyer_seo


• The Gutenberg rule

• Optical studies have shown that Western cultures’ eye tracking progresses

from the top left (high impact) to bottom right (high impact).

Appendix


Recommended Anchor Text Distribution

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