Fresno California lawyers - attorneys legal directory
Legal Websites & Google’s Latest Algorithm Change!
By Bob Schwartz, CRS, GRI ©2007 Promotions Unlimited all rights reserved.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorized use, copying or
mirroring is prohibited
Have you noticed your legal site placement for various key word phrases have
taken a drop? Actually, in some instances, sites on page one of Google are now
nowhere to be found within the first 10 pages of returned results. Wondering
what changed?
Recently, Google made another in continuing modifications to its ranking
algorithm. From my own observations (running 35 real estate and
legal websites),
it appears the main thrust of this change is to devalue reciprocal links.
Google’s algorithm judged the quality of a web site by the number of other sites
linking to it.
Links, especially quality links, have always been a heavily weighted factor in
Google's ranking formula. Unfortunately, in recent years, website owners and
designers, looking for instant gratification, have abused the concept to such an
extent that in many cases their practices are looked on as link spamming.
A number of legal websites are major participants in the link abuse phenomena.
Link farms, link rings, free-for-all-links, exchange portals, etc., are
basically offering hundreds or thousands of links for their members. Also,
individual sites offering to trade links have little or no regard for the
quality of the link, as it is the quantity of links they are going for. It is
quite common to see legal websites with link directories with 50 or more links
per page without regard for categorization or theme. Perhaps the worst of these
practices is the tiny text links listed on the bottom of home pages.
So, what should one do to regain or maintain your site’s standings on Google in
face of this new change? First understand that incoming links are still
advantageous and are considered in Google’s ranking algorithm, just not as much
as they originally were. Plus, what Google considers ‘link spamming’ will now
have a major impact on your law site’s standings. Below are a few suggestions
you may wish to consider:
A. If you have reciprocal links cluttered anywhere on
your site, either straighten them out for easy navigation by visitors or remove
them. There are a number of software programs that can automate this process for
you. If anyone would like some suggestions, just email me at: Bob@brokerforyou.com
B. If you have more than 20 links per link directory
page, add more pages to keep the maximum number of partner links to 20.
C. Any links that lead to irrelevant sites should be
removed at once! You’re running a legal site & all your links should be law
related.
D. Do not trade links with any sites that are not
already listed in Google. To take this a step further, if your legal website has
a Google page rank of 3 or higher, this should be a criteria for any potential
link partner’s home page
E. Make sure on your home page you have a hyper-link
to your link directory and each page of your link directory is hyper-linked to
other directory pages. An additional hint here is not to use the word ‘link’ in
your hyperlink to your directory. It would be much better to use a phrase like:
‘attorney partners’ for these links. Naturally, be sure any potential link
partner follows these guide-lines.
F. Check which sites link to your site and any
unwanted ones should receive a form email requesting that they please erase
their link to your site. To see some of the sites that link to yours through
Google (Google for some reason does not show all incoming links), go to Google
and in their search box type in:
link:www.yourwebsite.com
G. If you are a member of any sort of link trade site…
cancel your membership.
Of course, some of my suggestions above are tough and you many disagree with
them. After all, Google, or any search engine for that matter, never gives out
details of what their algorithm looks for, or exactly what each revision to it
entails. The search engine optimization professionals have to use their acquired
experience and judgment to advise their clients. Search engine optimization is
far from an exact science. These are my personal and professional opinions on
one factor of this latest Google change. If your site has dropped off the Google
radar, you can do nothing, or you can try to progress your standings and
possible new business, by playing by the rules. The choice is yours... choose
wisely!
Investing in improving your law firm’s search engines standings could become the
most cost effective career investment you make.
Copyright 2007 Promotions Unlimited. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Schwartz, is the founder of Promotions Unlimited (search engine
optimization) a Internet legal directory (CA, TX & Las Vegas) publisher and
search engine placement technology analyst. You can contact Bob via e-mail at
seo711@gmail.com or visit his
San Diego legal directory at:
www.sandiegolawyerforyou.com
Click the link below to return to:
Fresno California lawyers - attorneys legal directory
