seo: now what does google want?!
TRANSCRIPT
SEO Today: Now What Does Google Want?!
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About MyCase
•Modern and professional design built for your firm•Social media and blog integration•Complete integration with MyCase practice management software
MyCase Websites
About Our Presenter
• Attorney, Educator and Online
Marketing Consultant
• www.jlellis.net
• Jennifer works at Lowenthal &
Abrams
• www.lowenthalabrams.com
• In January 2014, she
published the book “Word
Press in One Hour for
Lawyers”
• Perfect 10 on Avvo
Jennifer Ellis
Today’s Webinar
• What is SEO?
• Google/Search Engines – Main Focus
• Social Media
• Advertising
• Hiring an SEO Firm?
Poll: Do You SEO?
1. Yes
2. No
3. Kind of
4. What’s SEO?
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization
How easily can people find you on the web?
Google ranking is crucial
• Where do you show up for key phrases?
Provide many ways for people to find you
• Go where your potential clients are
oFacebook
oLinkedIn
oOther sites
Ads
• Relevant sites
How Has SEO Changed?
Used to be Easy
• Poorly written content
• Keyword stuffing
• Repeated use of the same keywords in the content
• Poor quality links, easily obtained
• Unrelated directories
• Links from poor quality blogs and other sites
• Frequently purchased (violated Google’s terms of service)
How Has SEO Changed
Google changed its algorithm
• Wants high quality, relevant results
• Penalizes bad links
• Punishes sites that engaged in black hat techniques
• Penalizes keyword stuffing
Nothing is more important than quality content with relevant phrases
Terms you might hear
• Penguin - Links
• Panda - Content
• Hummingbird – Phrases instead of simple keywords (Content)
A Word about Web Design
Well designed for Google
• Proper coding
• Proper organization
• Submit sitemap(s) in Webmaster tools
• Easytoread
• Easy to navigate
• Searchable by users
• Fast loading
• Mobile friendly
• Use call(s) to action
• Have contact form/chat box
• Recommend WordPress for easy updating and SEO
Why Google Matters
• 11.944 billion searches per month
• 1.17 billion unique users per month
• 67.5% of the US search market
• April, 2014 Digital Marketing Ramblings
• http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/by-the-
numbers-a-gigantic-list-of-google-stats-and-
facts/#.U4ScwCggF40
Year Annual Searches Daily Searches
2013 2,161,530,000,000 5,922,000,000
2012 1,873,910,000,000 5,134,000,000
2011 1,722,071,000,000 4,717,000,000
2010 1,324,670,000,000 3,627,000,000
2009 953,700,000,000 2,610,000,000
2008 637,200,000,000 1,745,000,000
2007 438,000,000,000 60,000,000
• January, 2014 Statistic Brain
• http://www.statisticbrain.com/google-searches/
Where Do You Rank?
How high up do you show for relevant phrases on
• Yelp
• Bing
Term you might hear
• SERP (search engine results page)
Results Will Vary
Rank will be different depending on physical location
• Search in San Diego, will receive one set of results
• Search in San Francisco, will receive a different set of
results
Rank will be different based on how the person searches
• Order of words
• Local search (use of city name)
• Use of quotation marks
Search
Resul
ts
A
ds
A
ds
In
Philadelphi
a
Identifying Key Words/Phrases
Think – How will people find you
• What phrases do people use
• Research what people are searching
• Free tool in Google AdWords
• http://ads.google.com
Level of
competition
Where to Look for Help From Google
Google’s Suggestions
• http://static.googleusercontent.com/media/www.google.com/en/u
s/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
• https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769#1
Matt Cutts
• In charge of web spam at Google
• Frequently releases videos/blog posts
• http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
Back Links
Links from other websites to your site
• Quality more important than quantity
• Challenging to obtain good links
• Google shut the door on many old techniques
oTrading links
oGuest posts (starting to be an issue)
oArticles
» Ezine
» Patch (AOL)
Getting Back Links
• High quality, unique content
• Sharing content throughout the web to get attention
• Interesting infographics
• Look where high ranking sites are obtaining links
• Writing for newspapers
• Using relevant high quality directories
• Ask people for links
• Harder now since trading links can be a problem
Tools for Checking Links
Ahrefs
• https://ahrefs.com/
Moz
• www.Moz.com
Link Detox
• http://www.linkdetox.com/plans-pricing/
Follow v. No Follow
• Follow links are links that impact your rank with Google
• No Follow links do not impact your rank
• However, no follow links can impact your traffic
oDon’t dismiss them out of hand
Dealing with Bad Links
• Ask sites to remove bad links
• Disavow with Google
Instructions - http://www.jlellis.net/blog/disvow-links-seo/
Poll: Where do you get Ideas for Content?
• Clients
• Reading
• Day-to-day life
• What content?
Nothing is More Important than Well Written Content
What is Well Written?
• On point
• Appropriate use of key words/phrases
• 300-600 words
• 1-3 external links
• Appropriate internal links
• Proper grammar and spelling
• Engaging
Terms
• Short tail – Philadelphia Divorce Lawyer
• Long tail – How do I find a good Philadelphia divorce lawyer
Writing Tips
• Write clearly and simply
• Proofread
• Edit
• Use pictures
• Identify your target market
• Normally 8th grade level
• Mix up phrases
• Divorce lawyer in Philadelphia
• Philadelphia divorce lawyer
• Keep each page/post to one concept
Writing Tips
Use key word/phrase in
• Title
• Link
• Meta description
• H1 (First line, large size)
• First paragraph
Writing Tips
Use proper design and HTML
• H2 & H/3 headings break up content
• Lists with numbers or bullet points
• Alt tags for pictures
•Use key word/phrase
Alt Tag
Writing Tips
Do Not
• Write like a lawyer
• Write a legal brief
• Get lost in the details
• Be too complex
• Provide too many cites
• Repeat key word/phrase too many times
•Balance the number against the length of the content
Judging Content
Useful tools
• Plugins for WordPress
•Yoast
•Scribe (keyword analysis)
• External sites
•Moz
oProvides on page grade and recommendations
Poll: How often do you Write Content?
• Once a day
• Once a week
• Once a month
• Once in a blue moon
Google Values Fresh Content
• The more you write content, the better your site will do
• Try to write at least several times per week
• At a minimum, write at least once a week
• Update your old content
• Research how various key words/phrases are performing
• Adjust accordingly
• Don’t be afraid to test
Researching Success
Google Webmaster Tools
http://webmaster.google.com
Google Analytics
http://analytics.google.com
Free tools you must “claim” to work with your site
Webmaster Tools
• Provides details about
• Crawl errors
• Warnings/notices from Google
• Manual penalties
• Provides ability to add sitemap
• Instructs Google how to crawl your site
Analytics
Detailed information about how your site is performing
• Bounce rate
oHow long people stay on your site
oHow many pages people read on your site
• Sources of traffic
oOrganic search
oSocial media
oPaid results
oDirect links
Results from specific searches
Note Google is hiding a lot of searches due to “privacy” concerns
Learn Analytics
Google training
• http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/index.html?gclid=CL
P91LW-zL4CFSJqOgodBSIAiA
Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics
• Brian Clifton
Web Analytics –An Hour a Day
• Avinash Kaushik
Make sure resource is up-to-date
• Google has made many changes recently
Poll: Do You Use Social Media?
• Yes, and I engage with both clients and family
• Yes, but only with close friends and family
• No, but I’d like to.
• No, it’s a waste of time. I don’t care what you ate for lunch
1.23
billion
1 billion
4 billion
Views per day
300
million
150 million
16 billion photos
70 million243 million
152
million
277
million
45 million
1.3 million businesses
People Use Social Media
Use Social Media to
• Expand the reach of your content
• Network with potential referral sources
• Educate clients
• Think of social media as if it is a cup of coffee with a potential client
• Don’t think of it as marketing in the traditional sense
• Share whatever makes you feel comfortable
• Do not try to have a separate social media presence for private and
public
Blogs
Blog
• Articles
• Updates on the law
• Interesting information
• Encourage comments
Be timely
• Example, same sex marriage in Pennsylvania
• Wait a few days? No one will care.
• Write within a day or two. A lot of traffic.
Remember a call to action
• Call us
• Write us
• Use contact form
• Etc.
• Share blog posts
• Talk about your life (whatever is comfortable)
• I talk about my dog
• People respond
Set up a Facebook Page
• Accounts are for individuals
• Pages are for firms
• Use the correct one
• Make your page detailed with a lot of information
• Share blog and website content
• Retweet other people’s content
• When you share for other people, they share for you
• Talk about whatever makes you comfortable
• Only 140 characters
• 100% of Fortune 500 Companies Represented
• Excellent place to seek referrals
• High end clients
• Business clients
• Set up a business page as well as a personal account
Google+
• Not particularly successful for social media
• Google integrates the search results
• Google Pages are crucial for local search
• Local search is crucial for being found
• Complete a Google+ Page for each location
• Seek reviews from clients
• 80% female
• Harder to use picture sites
• Can link blog posts with pictures to Pinterest
• Share activities by firm
• Charity work
• Pictures in court house
• Share personal interests are comfortable and appropriate
• Recipes
• Garden
• Follow others and share posts
YouTube
• Videos are an excellent way to attract attention
• Allows potential clients to get to know you in a more personal way
• Provide
• Bios
• Short pieces about the law
• Embed
• Website/blog posts
• Other social media sites
Share Content Everywhere
• Use the language of the site
• Get to know Twitter’s unique language
•@jle_jd
• #SEO
•RT
• Use tools such as HootSuite to make life easier
• Share content in many places at once
• Remember to engage
• Adjust content for medium
Reviews
• People judge lawyers (and all businesses) based on reviews
• Ask your clients to write reviews for you
• Be certain you do not offer anything in exchange
• Some review technology providers will tell you this is ok
» It is not
• Google+
• Avvo
• Yelp
Ads
Pay per click
Yahoo!
Other sites
Banners
Numerous options
Google AdWords
Pay per click
Based on keywords
Follow Google’s best practiceshttp://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/adwords-best-practices-2014.html
Use keyword research to identify best options
Properly written and targeted ads are cheaper
• Match keywords with landing page
Adjust ads frequently
• Success goes down as time passes
Test different ads
• Lawyer
• Attorney
• Advocate
Pay per click
• Demographics
•Age
•Gender
• Interest
Sponsored posts
• Demographics
• Choose a specific post
• Identify how much to spend
•How long to run the ad
•Where it goes
Behavioral Marketing
Follows people around the web based on what they searched
• Details stored in cookies
Searched for SEO on Google
• Facebook shows ads for SEO
Remarketing
• People see ads for your site over and over
Hiring an SEO
• Many SEO individuals and companies
• Watch for promises
• “We can get you to page one”
• Watch for keywords
• Are they really useful?
• Do a cost/benefit analysis
oDifficulty of keyword
oChance of success
Hiring an SEO
• Exactly what will the firm do for you?
• How much will it cost
• Many companies charge between $1,000 and $5,000 per month
• Difficulty of the market impacts charge
• Amount of work impacts charge
• How long do they think it will take
• Are they focused only on traffic?
• What about actual leads?
• What about actual clients?
• Ask for references
• Research the company online
• Review the contract closely
Ask to See Content
• Watch for bad spelling/grammar
• Keyword stuffing
• Automated content
• Ask who writes the content
• Ask about ethics knowledge
• Check links
Watch for Black Hat
• Purchasing links
• Link farms
• Pages that exist just for linking to or from
• Requiring a link from you to SEO’s website
• Violating Google’s terms of service
• Harming your competitors with bad links
A Note about Ethics
Don’t forget about the ethical rules
• Rules vary from state-to-state
• Check your own jurisdiction(s)
• Include disclaimers where you can
• Be careful not to provide legal advice
• Be careful about unauthorized practice of law in other jurisdictions
• Watch language
• Specialist
• Expert
• Numerous ethics opinions involving social media and the web
• Still developing
• Rules off line apply on line
• See 7.x and 8.x
Contact Us
Jennifer Ellis, JD
Lowenthal& Abrams, PC
www.lowenthalabrams.com
www.jlellis.net
717-256-1638
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