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Google Social Search

There is a lot of speculation about how Google will start implementing social search and the effect it will have on traditional Internet marketing.

Matt Cutts, from Google's search quality team, has developed a educational video explaining how Google is going to utilize social search.

Article In Trial Magazine

Dan Goldstein and I wrote an article that was published in Trial Magazine. It was called, "Polish Your Online Identity". If you're an AAJ member, you can check it out online. Here's an excerpt:

Attorneys often hear that their most valuable asset is their reputation. With the advent of social networking and the interactive Web, that advice rings true now more than ever.

In today's connected world, you know that prospective clients are going straight to the Web to check you out. If they have your name or your firm's name, they will type it into a search engine. They may find you even without knowing your name if you are savvy--or lucky--enough to be on the first page of Google's search results when prospective clients search for a lawyer in their area who handles a certain type of case.

Now, with the ubiquity of social networking, prospective clients may research you and your firm online without ever visiting your Web site. Regardless of where they go to find out about you, the image you portray to the public on the Web is extremely important. Your prospective client wants to get a sense of who you are--personally and professionally--before calling your office.

Niche Websites

Many times I'm asked whether or not an attorney should launch a secondary or even tertiary website. I've encountered firms that have several websites, one for every area of law that they practice, even one for every type of drug that they are targeting for pharmaceutical litigation. The question is, is this strategy right for every practice?

The answer is no, at least not initially. Web marketing can be tough for a firm to afford in the beginning because the firm hasn't yet seen a return on investment. This is because Web marketing, especially search engine optimization for the organic listings, takes time to see results. So, unless the firm is quite sizeable and has a significant budget to throw at the project, it is more affordable and more effective to focus Web marketing resources on one website and get it up on the 1st page of Google and the other search engines. Then, once the website is generating a return on investment, launching another, specialized website starts to make sense.

One Time Fee, The Bait For Unsuspecting Attorneys

Many Internet marketing companies lure in law firms with the promise of a low, one-time fee for their search engine marketing services. Essentially, when you sign up for these services, you are paying for upfront work on the website. The problem with this is that in most markets, a one-time optimization of your website will not be sufficient to help you break through to the first page of the search engine results. Look for an Internet marketing firm that works on an on-going, monthly basis to boost your law firm's website to the 1st page. Sure, this means that you'll pay a monthly fee, but your website will be more likely to generate a return on investment. You can go one step further and really narrow down your list of Internet marketing companies by demanding a performance-before-payment guarantee. Very few companies offer this type of guarantee, but the companies that do will be worth the additional cost. Just be sure to scrutinize the guarantee and ask for references.

Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

This economy brings to mind several cliches: "separating the men from the boys", "trial by fire", "when the going gets tough, the tough get going". They're all pretty trite, but they're particularly relevant in today's economy when it comes to marketing. Many attorneys are putting their tails between their legs (there's another one), hanging up their hats (and another), becoming victims of the economy. This is a huge mistake! This economy represents a golden opportunity.

It's time to be The Tough that get going in this hour of adversity. If you invest in aggressive marketing now, when your competitors are retreating into their shells, your firm will reap the benefits. Not only will you thrive now, but you'll gain momentum that will carry you on to dominate when times are good again. Your competitors will try to catch you when the economy perks back up, but your lead will make it impossible.

"It's your time to shine." "Only the bold survive."

This economy represents a turning point for your firm whether you "seize the day" or not. Make the decision to move "onward and upward".

Is Your Website Impeding Your SEO?

As the Web has evolved, websites have become very diverse, particularly in how they are constructed. There is such a variety of programming languages and design techniques used to build a website. Some of these coding and design techniques are detrimental to search engine positioning. If your website uses any of the below, it's probably time to build a new website, or at least rebuild it in a format that is better suited for search engine positioning.

These can all be problematic:

1. Websites coded in a database format
2. Websites built with "dirty" code
3. Websites that are built almost exclusively in images or Flash

Websites Coded in a Database Format

There are a several programming languages that make heavy use of databases in the construction of web pages: .PHP, .ASP, .JSP, and .CFM (ColdFusion). There are others, but these are the most popular, especially for those built with content management systems (CMS). Another popular one for CMS is Joomla.

Just because your website is built with one of these programming languages doesn't automatically mean it is doomed in terms of search engine positioning. It just depends on whether or not the programmer that built the website knew how to code it with SEO in mind.

The biggest problem with database driven websites is that many times they are constructed in a way that inhibits search engine optimization of individual pages of the website. Instead of having one page for each procedure or practice area, the website will have only one page or file that dynamically updates to fill in the content appropriate for every subject. For example, rather than having one fill for breast augmentation and one file for tummy tuck:

http://www.scottgreenbergmd.com/breast_aug.htm

http://www.scottgreenbergmd.com/tummy.htm

the website will have:

http://www.plasticsurgdoctorwebsite.com/index.php?=breast

http://www.plasticsurgdoctorwebsite.com/index.php?=tummy

Note that the file for both breast augmentation and tummy tuck is "index.php". It simply has a variable that indicates which content the web page should pull from the database. This means that the search engine optimization specialist has only one page to optimize for all of the procedures, which means that the search engines won't see a page that is focused on one set of keyword phrases.

Websites built with "dirty" code

In the early days of the Internet, websites were extremely simple. They were built almost exclusively in text. Occasionally, there would be a need for a table to display some data. Then websites grew to be more complex, and the table code was repurposed to built more intricate designs. This made the code very complicated and bulky. The problem only got worse with time, and the addition of interactive elements such as roll-over buttons and drop-down navigation menus necessitated the addition of lengthy, advanced programming such as Javascript. This made for very bulky web pages, and it made the search engines' job more difficult because their indexing program would have to weed through the extraneous code to get to the actual text of the website.

Since then, a new way of building websites has emerged. The style of coding is called CSS. With CSS, the amount of code needed to build a website is greatly reduced, at least when done properly. In the Web marketing world, we call this "clean" code. Clean code makes it easier on the search engines to spider the pages of the website, and makes it easier for designers to make updates.

Websites that are built almost exclusively in images of Flash

The search engines don't have eyes. Most of them are not human-edited. The search engines can only count the keywords on a page. But if the website doesn't have actual text because it is built primarily in images or Flash, the search engines can't see the keywords. Look at this website: http://www.drfeng.com/. The home page is built entirely in Flash, which is a web animation program (See this blog entry for an explanation of why this is problematic.). Google recently improved its ability to read Flash files, but they still cannot be optimized effectively. Note on this example that even the address is an image. You can't highlight it with your mouse cursor. In this example: http://massiha.com/, the home page is built in HTML, but there isn't much keyword-rich text for the search engines to see. Your website's home page is the most important page of the site. It's where your site makes its first impression with the search engines. Therefore, it's important to present the site with informative text that both the search engines and people can use.

If your website suffers from any of these problems, it's time to make a change. It may be costly, but the cost of not showing up on the search engines is far greater in the long run.

Jonathan Fashbaugh is an Internet Marketing consultant for Page 1 Solutions. His company specializes in Internet marketing for plastic surgeons, dentists, ophthalmologists, and law firms. Contact Page 1 Solutions (www.page1solutions.com) to talk about a website makeover.