How Can I Get My Website/Blog Recognized by the Search Engines?

I am in the processs of creating/redoing my website/blog.  How do we move up the list on search engines? What keywords should we be using?

In order to answer this question properly, you’ve got to know your clients and potential clients. After all, getting zillions of hits on your website doesn’t do you any good if you aren’t converting those hits into leads or clients. You don’t necessarily want everyone getting to your site – you want the prospects that really need the kinds of services you provide.

Here are a few hints for increasing the odds that your site will get the visitors you want to attract (in no particular order). This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it's a start:

Keywords - By definition, keywords are the words that people are using when searching for your kind of service or the information that would be on your website. Think about keywords on your website like the keywords you use to do legal research. But remember to think like your potential client/website visitor – what words do THEY use when they’re talking about their problem or the legal service you provide?

For example, if your practice area is matrimonial law, you probably want to use keywords on your site like ‘divorce.’ If you use only ‘matrimonial law,’ chances are that you won’t get as many hits, because most clients talk about ‘divorce.’ If your site just says ‘commercial transactions,’ potential clients may not find you if they describe their deals differently.

On a blog, getting keywords into your posts is usually easier than it is on a website because traditionally there’s usually a lot more content on a blog. And if you write the blog with your clients and their questions in mind, the keywords will generally show up in your posts anyway. And that brings us to--

Content – The more content you have on your website or blog, the higher your rankings will go. There will naturally be more keywords that appear on your site. Providing good content not only helps you with keywords and website traffic, but helps establish your online reputation and builds your credibility. After all, most people who have a legal problem want someone they know has the expertise to handle it. And they’re looking for someone they know, like and trust.

When looking at the websites of two lawyers in the same practice area, which one are clients going to be inclined to contact – the lawyer with lots of information about the area of the law, articles about trends that affect their clients, descriptions of their clients’ problems and how they help them, or the lawyer that has merely an online brochure that talks about the lawyers in the firm and gives a brief description of practice areas?

Watch your website statistics - As you start posting on your blog or putting content on your website,  look at the stats and see what words people are using to search. If they are words that are relevant to what you do and the services you provide, add more content to your site using those words. This is sort of ‘reverse engineering’ of keywords. It lets you know what is of interest to those searching the web for information in your practice area. But be careful that you aren’t blindly using search terms that don’t fit in with your service or your practice area - just because someone found your site using a particular search term doesn't mean that it's always something you want to emphasize on your site.

Know your service and your clients - The best way to identify keywords is to listen to your clients and how they talk about what they’re looking for. What questions do they ask? What are they concerned about? How does your particular practice solve their problems or address their concerns? What is different about the way you practice law, your experience, or the clients that you service that would be attractive to your website visitors? Those are the things that you should address on your website/blog, and those are the keywords you should use to attract visitors.

Update frequently – Updating your site often will increase your rankings. Search engines don’t like static websites. Your website is NOT just an online brochure. It’s a source of ongoing information for your website visitors. If there’s something new in the law or at your firm that would be of benefit to your clients, make sure that the information is on your website.

Use your blogging software to its full advantage – If you’ve got a blog, there are many ways to maximize the blogging software’s capabilities that will increase traffic to your site. Allowing comments on the blog permits a conversation between you and your website visitors, and makes your site an interactive experience. (There are also ways that you can make a website interactive by having comment forms and places for your web visitors to ask questions).

If your blog post comments on another blogger’s post, don’t just link to that post – use a trackback if it’s available. When you use a trackback, a link to your post will appear at the end of the original blogger’s post, and the original blogger will usually be notified that you’ve sent a trackback. That way, the original blogger becomes aware of you and your blog and that blogger’s readers become aware of your post. If you trackback to a blog with a large readership, your hits will almost certainly increase.

Links – Links to and from your site will increase your search engine rankings. But make sure that the links you’re providing are working links, and that they are relevant to your website readers. Whether you've got a website or a blog, linking to others and leaving comments on their sites/blogs with your url will get you noticed and likely begin to get others to link to you.

Capture contact information from your web visitors – Although capturing information about those that visit your website won’t increase your web statistics, it will allow you to begin to build relationships with your website visitors who may become referral sources or clients. Provide web visitors with valuable information (such as a subscription to your blog or newsletter, a white paper on a subject that’s important to them, etc.) in exchange for contact information. Make sure you get their permission to keep in touch with them - don't be a spammer! The more times you’re in contact with someone, the higher the chances that they will become a client.

Make it easy for your visitors to get information from your site – Allow visitors to subscribe to updates, a newsletter, or an RSS feed, etc. When the information comes directly to them, rather than requiring them to search for it over and over again on the web, they’re that much more likely to keep coming back.

Be smart about title tags- Wherever possible, the ‘title’ of your site, blog, and/or each page of your site should contain some keywords or search terms relevant to your practice. This will help your SEO.

Comments

[Michael Sippey]

Great post!

[Allison Shields]

Michael-

Very true - which is why I caution that blindly following the statistics for what people search on isn't the best strategy - you've got to know what the people that actually 'buy' (in whatever form that takes) from you search on to get to you.

Sounds like it might be a topic for a future post.

Allison

[michael webster]

I think that you will find that when reviewing your statistics that a) certain keywords will rank high in traffic, but b) those keywords may not convert equally high. Presenting you with a dilemma about what to write about.