Underpinning the Google Local algorithm is a number of data providers.  The more citations to your firm from these data providers, the higher you will rank.

So get listed!

Google Local – Get your Listing
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php

1.    infoUSA
Check – http://www.infousa411.com/Business.aspx
Listing – http://list.infousa.com/dbupdate.htm?Vendor=099842

2.    Superpages –
Check – http://www.superpages.com/
Listing – http://www.supermedia.com/spportal/quickbpflow.do

3.    Localeze
Listing – http://webapp.localeze.com/bizreg/

4.    YellowPages
Check – http://www.yellowpages.com/
Listing – http://listings.yellowpages.com/

5.    Yelp
Check – http://www.yelp.com/
Listing – https://www.yelp.com/signup

6.    InsiderPages
Check – http://www.insiderpages.com/
Listing – http://www.insiderpages.com/friends/new?header_link=true

7.    Niche Industry Sites (BBB, Vertical Directories)
http://www.justia.com
http://www.findlaw.com
http://www.lawyers.com
http://www.martindale.com
http://www.hg.org
State Bar Associations
Local Bar Associationes

8.    Acxiom
Check – http://www.databyAcxiom.com (Not yet online)

9.    Yahoo
Check – http://local.yahoo.com/
Listing – http://listings.local.yahoo.com/csubmit/index.php

10.    Citysearch
Check – http://www.citysearch.com
Listing – Click on Register in Top Right.

11.  MapQuest
Check – http://www.mapquest.com/
Listing – Data is pulled from InfoUSA.com http://list.infousa.com/dbupdate.htm

12. Local
Check – http://www.local.com/
Listing – http://www.yellowbot.com/submit/newbusiness

Also check out listings here – http://www.locallytype.com/pages/submit.htm

You may already know this, but I thought I would share anyways.

When you run the quick research, if you highlight all the rows of data and paste that into another program (say a blog post, MS Word, an email, or even notepad) you get the raw numbers of the costs per click.

I am not sure if its the average, high, or low cost – I am assuming average cost to be in that position.  It at least gets us into the game quicker and on the phone I can tell a client “Hey, consumer law protection costs $3.33 a click”.

Neato!  Now I don’t have to setup an Adwords account or do more research to get the exact figures for a potential client.

Here is the output that I copied from this screenshot.  As you can see it shows positions 1-3 are $17.50 for dallas criminal lawyer.  Great data to quickly share on the phone or with a client.

Law firms now need to pay attention to this area, if they have not already.  The good news is that getting a listing is relatively easy. Getting a top rank can be done with minimal effort.

Let’s read more though to understand the algorithm.

Business Quality Guidelines From Google

http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=107528

• Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. The name on Google Maps should match the business name, as should the address, phone number and website.
• Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.
• Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business’s title, address or category fields.

Other Top Articles on Google Local Optimization

http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml

• One of the best articles to read.
• Top 41 Factors
• Top 8 Negative Factors
• Most important data providers
• Most important data review engines
• Must read

http://www.davidmihm.com/blog/general-marketing/local-seo-citation-is-new-link/

• There is a difference between a citation and a link.  Citation can just be address.
• You do not necessarily need links, but citations to your office address.
• “Plenty of sites that are only listing address and phone number, or otherwise unspiderable links, are showing up as citations.”
• For the most part, the businesses with lots of citations rank higher than those with a lower volume.
• Two of the top 10 Local businesses have MORE citations than they have inbound links!
• Submit your site to the typical InfoUSA, SuperPages.com, and InsiderPages.com, but also submit to all types of niche sites.

http://www.seorabbit.com/optimizing-for-google-maps

• Priority to City Center is Key.
• Title tag is important.
• Categories are important – but don’t be spammy.
• Create multiple listings, if you are in different cities.
• Add in details, photos.

http://www.naturalsearchblog.com/archives/2007/01/11/extreme-local-search-optimization-tactics/

• Tip # 1: Change your business name to include a few of the top keywords that users type into search engines when seeking your type of business in your area.
• Tip # 2: Change your business name so that the first characters will be earliest in the alphabet for your locality.
• Tip # 3: Move your business so that you can have presence closer to your city’s center.
• Tip # 4: Get a separate directory listing for every city in your area for which you provide services.
• Tip # 5: Customize your address by having your street renamed to include beneficial keywords.
• Tip # 6: Lightly influence user ratings to your benefit.
• Tip # 7: Add the common nicknames for your locality into your site’s front page text.

http://www.smallbusinesssem.com/10-likely-elements-of-googles-local-search-algorithm/519/

• Use of Google’s Local Business Center (LBC)
• Availability/Trust of other business data
• A Business Web Site
• Listings in 2nd-tier Local Directories
• Listings in Vertical Directories
• References from other Web sites
• Reviews
• Proximity to location
• Location Prominence and User Query
• Use of other Google services

Any other articles?  Let us know and we will summarize and link up.

• Test, Test and More Test with Conversion Rate Optimization
  • Setup a CRO campaign to test out variables in copy, images, design.
  • See what works and does not work in near real-time.
  • Double your leads, by improving your conversion rate from 1% to 2% and beyond.  Small changes can make all the difference.
• Make your Web Site the best it can be.
  • Branding / Message
    • Focus on Key Benefits you Offer to your Visitors
    • Focus on Above the Fold Calls to Action
    • Focus on Calls to Action on Each Page
  • Review your Analytics
    • Bounce Rate – Keep below 40% and strive for below 20%
    • Time on Page
    • Exit Pages
    • Error Pages
    • Top Pages
    • Visitor Location
  • Test, Test and More Test with Conversion Rate Optimization
    • Yes, we said it twice.
    • Don’t just launch a web site and sit back.
    • Review your Analytics and Test
  • Integrate a Publishing Platform
    • Allow you to quickly update your site.
    • Allow you to blog
    • Allow you to get Social
• Consider Practice Sites
  • Specialty sites can bring in quality leads.
  • Can assist in keeping the firm branding on point by separating out competing practice groups or groups that take away from the firm’s main focus.
• Create a Blog
  • Decide whether to integrate a blog or brand the blog on its own domain.
  • Pick a niche topic and become the authority in that area.
  • Devote time to connecting with other bloggers
• Get Social
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIN
  • Facebook
  • Other Networks
• Set the Groundwork for Search Optimization
  • Build LINKS!!
    • Get links from top ranked sites.
    • See who links to your competitors, get those links.
    • Write interesting content and get free links
    • Press Releases
    • Articles
    • Social Sites
    • Reciprocate links
  • Write Quality, Relevant Content
    • Want to rank high on a topic, write an article (like this one)
    • Want to rank high for an area, write many articles
    • Don’t spam.
  • Use a Publishing Platform that is SEO friendly.
    • Site Architecture
    • SEO Friendly Page Names
    • Title Tags
    • Meta Description
    • H1 – Headlines
    • Content
    • Footer Text
    • Alt Tags
• Consider Traditional Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
  • Quick Traffic and Guaranteed Traffic
  • Key is to track and cut non-performing terms

What else are you doing?  Let us know.

1. Web Sites still dominate and are considered the core of the firm – a home base.
2. Firms got niche.  The rise of practice area sites, including blogs continued.
3. Better branding and focusing the web sites message / key benefits.  It’s good to see a firm truly brand itself with something professional and creative.
4. The convergence of technology (i.e. blogs, video, audio) on the web sites.  The web is becoming one.
5. Social Media efforts exploded, unless you were under a rock.
6. SEO became harder, as more firms want top rankings.  Not everyone can be #1.
7. Paid campaigns (PPC) made some clients a lot rich and others just poorer with bad targeting and overspending.
8. The rise of the use of Analytics to review performance.  You can track just about everything these days.

What trends did you notice?

Some Background with Numbers

First, according to Jakob Nielsen, the guru of usability, 88% of people use search to find what they need online.  Over 70% of people use Google in the United States.  This means that basically we can look to just Google in terms of our search results.

When users search for something in Google, they mostly click on the top slots.  The number that is typically thrown around is that 40% of users click on the number one listing and 20% on the second spot.  Over 90% of users only click on the first page of results.

That is simply staggering if you think about it.  That means for your firm to be found, you basically need to be on the first page and most likely need to be in the top three slots!  If you are not, then you are not found.

So the key question is how do you get to be #1?  SEO can be broken down into four major categories:  Research, Architecture, Linguistics, and Authority.

1. Research

Research can be easy.  In fact, you can do keyword research in as little as three minutes: http://www.paperstreet.com/blog/index.php/archives/2004.  Of course, if you are spending thousands on your site, you may want to take more than a few minutes to plan your campaign, but this is a good start.

Here is a specific example for a mythical Boston law firm that does corporate and business work.

a.  Brainstorm Session – come up with just keywords.

• Boston, Corporate, Business, Employment, Lawyer, Law Firm, Attorney

b.  Compile a keyword phrase list based on those phrases.

• Boston corporate lawyer
• Boston corporate attorney
• Boston corporate law firm
• Boston business lawyer
• Boston business attorney
• Boston business law firm

c.  Check out actual search traffic using broad or exact matches with Google itself:

• [Boston business attorney]        390
• [Boston business lawyer]           390
• [Boston business lawyers]         91
• [Boston corporate lawyer]          28
• [Boston corporate law firms]      16
• [Boston business law firm]         -1
• [Boston corporate attorney]       -1
• [Boston corporate law firm]        -1

What does this mean?  That 390 people per month search for Boston business attorney or lawyer using Google.  Hardly anyone searches for “Boston business law firm” or “Boston corporate attorney”, as those results return the “Not enough data” from Google, so don’t focus your efforts on those.  I suggest focusing on “Boston Business Attorney and Lawyer” and writing your copy, title tags and pages to match up to the pages that have the most searched for terms.

2. Architecture

Now you need a web site that is setup to be indexed.  Yes, Google will index just about anything these days.  They index HTML, PHP, ASP, JSP, CFM, PDF, TXT, JS and even Flash!  Moreover, if you use any standard content system, like Wordpress, Movable Type, Joomla, Expression Engine your site will be indexed.  Moreover, if you use any custom content system, your site will be indexed too.

However, while Google indexes everything, it may not put equal weight on all sites for on-page factors.  For instance, sometimes web designers leave out Title Tags, H1 tags, Alt Tags, Footer text, and internal links either during the build or in the content insertion stage.  Ack!  Sometimes web designers leave out even HTML text on the page or make an all Flash site.  Double Ack!  Sometimes, these elements are just not planned for at all.

So there is a difference between a web design firm that knows sound architectural principles and one that doesn’t. A good firm knows tactics to improve SEO with on-page efforts and off-site efforts.  Most of it involves planning.  Some on-site efforts that we have found include (in order of importance):

• Copy that is relevant to search
• Title Tags
• H1 Tags
• HTML Copy Text
• Internal Link Structure
• No Orphan Pages
• Most important pages linked from home page
• Menus (How they are created and where placed in the CSS code)
• ALT tags, Footer Tags, H2 Tags
• Only using www or non-www version of your site
• Only using / for your home page and not index and /
• Uploading XML Sitemap
• and a lot of other tactics to improve the structure of the web site

So yes, there is a lot to consider when building a site.  Most designers know this, but you should always double check with them in the planning stage.

3. Linguistics

Linguistics boils down to your copy.  Everyone says “write good copy,” shoot we even state that.  But what is good copy?  To search, good copy means that you have the relevant terms that a person is searching for on the site.

You create relevant copy by answering the question the person is searching for.  If I was a Boston corporate law firm, you better well write about LLCs, S-Corps, LLPs, C-Corps and all the other types of organization you can create for your clients.

To a person good copy is more than just being relevant.  You need to make it readable, scannable and easy to digest.

Did you know that most people read in an F-Pattern?  This means that your good copy needs to have the most important elements in the top of the page.  If you already write like a journalist, then you are probably fine (i.e. the inverted pyramid).

People also scan.  You also need to breakup your page with headlines, subheads, bullet points, charts, graphics and write anything but long, boring paragraphs.  You should also have calls to action on every page to convert people and get them to drill down into your site.

So if you write on relevant subject matters, make the text easy to read, you will benefit.

4. Authority

The final area of SEO that many people miss is authority.  Google’s PageRank algorithm is based on links. How many people are linking to your site?  Google has over 200 factors to determine the relationship of the link to your site, including:

• Who is linking to your site?
• What is the sites rank that is linking to your site?
• What is the context of the link?
• What is the text that links to your site?
• What is the surrounding text of that link?
• Where on the page is that link?
• …and more factors.

You can see who is linking to your site using this tool – http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/.  Check out your site and check out your top competitors.  There is a reason why you are #1 or #100.  Bottom line, the more people that link to your site, the higher ranked those people are that link to you, then the higher you will rank.

You must consider your web site’s authority when planning an SEO campaign.  If you have zero people linking to your site, you will not rank high except for niche searches where you are the only relevant resource.  If you thousands of people linking to you, you can actually get away with having poorer copy.

So where can you get links?  Easy here are several ways, in no particular order.

• Directories (Free and Paid)
• Writing Good Articles or Link Bait Articles (Blogs are great for this)
• Issuing Press Releases and getting links from those
• Article Submission or Blog Postings and getting links from those
• Clients / Vendors / Affiliates
• Blogging
• Social Media

That is just the tip of the iceberg.  Get creative, get more links, and become an authority online.  When you combine that with a structurally sound web site architecture and relevant copy, you will rank higher.

Conclusion

Ranking higher can bring in more results.  For instance, if the Boston Corporate law firm example we did above ranked #1 for all their phrases they would bring in roughly 400 new visitors to their site each month.  If that firm just converted 1% into clients that means they bring in 4 new clients per month.  If each of those clients averaged just $10,000 a project, then that is $40,000 in new business per month.

The good news, is this a tactic you can use to improve your business and market your firm.

#1:  Do some quick SEO research. It only takes 3 minutes with a quick method found here.

#2:  Make sure your Title Tags correspond your content and include keyword phrases. No more firm name only on your home page.

#3:  Make sure your web team builds an architecturally sound site (Title’s, Headlines, CSS, xHTML, Alt Tags, Meta).

#4:  Create topical content that matches up to your keyword phrases.  Include links in your text to relevant pages / sites.  It’s only the start though, as links are important.  Read more here at SEOMoz.

#5:  Build links. Make sure the anchor text of the link is focused and you diversify the links.  Check out the experts thoughts on SEO and links.

UPDATE (December 24, 2010):  Good news, as you may know by now, the Bar has a moratorium on the advertising rules.  You can read the full opinion here.

The committee acted at the request of Ft. Lauderdale lawyer Peter T. Boyd, who owns PaperStreet Web Design, a company that designs Web sites for other lawyers. Boyd asked the committee whether parts of lawyers’ Web sites could be made “information upon request” through the use of a disclaimer page.

The committee said lawyers could set up the section of their Web sites dealing with information on request as a disclaimer page, a pop-up, or any other technological mechanism. Which option would be up to each individual law firms as long as the guidelines were followed and no information could be found without viewing the disclaimer page and making an affirmative acknowledgement of receipt of the information.

……………………………………………………………….

As you may know by now, the Florida Bar has required that all law firm web sites comply with the advertising regulations of the Florida Bar.  This means that if you practice in Florida, your web site can no longer:

1.  Have testimonials.

2. Have past results.

3.  Have laudatory statements.

You can see more detailed information and our thoughts on this post.  We were thinking of new solutions for our clients this week and are proposing a few to see if they will pass with the Florida Bar.

1.    Disclaimer Page.
Create a page before any testimonials/past results, that would require the user to click on a disclaimer.  They could only view the text if they actively click on the disclaimer.

2.    Disclaimer + Contact Form Page.
This would be the same idea as a disclaimer page first, but also allow the firm to capture important contact information.  This would help them create a list of potential leads, but also prove that people in fact clicked on the disclaimer.

3. Pop-Up Overlay with Disclaimer and/or Contact Form
A new technology that we have been using lately is a pop-up overlay.  Using javascript the pop-up screen comes online at any interval you set, including on page load.  We use this at a 5 to 10 second interval to prompt people to contact us on our web site.  This technology could be added to any existing page easily, which is great if you have to modify an existing site.  Moreover, the overlay can be full-screen or any size you dictate.  Thus, allowing you to completely block only the testimonials area or web site text area.  Nice!

Anyways, we are prompting the Florida Bar for a ruling and will let you know the results when they are available.

What is the Big Idea of the New Rules?

Law Firm sites are no longer “requests for information”.  Therefore your web site must comply with all advertising rules, except the filing requirement.

What does this mean to my firm?

1.  You can no longer have testimonials on the web site.

2.  You can no longer have past results on the web site.

3.  You can no longer have laudatory statements.

That is all you need to know for now. If your site has any past results, testimonials and laudatory statements you must change by January 1, 2010.

Our Thoughts

Below is our analysis and quick thoughts about this rule change.

Is a Click a Request for Information?

The Supreme Court fails to recognize that clicking on a link is a request or action on the users part.  Put simply, this wrong.  Just because it is easy to make a click, does not mean it is not a request for information.  A user is actively requesting information when they make a click.  It just happens to be easier than picking up the phone.

Anytime someone picks up the phone, asks a lawyer for information, they can respond with testimonials, past results and laudatory statements.  If asked, a lawyer can tell the person about their verdicts, so long as it is all true.  However, because a user clicks on a link, wanting the same information, the firm cannot give that out online.

This seems at odds with common sense.  Every click should be considered a request for information.  If a person is wanting information and trying to compare law firms quickly online, should they not have access to that information?

Is the Consumer Even Really Hurt by Testimonials or Past Results?

This is more of a theoretical question.  Are consumers hurt or helped by testimonials and past results on web sites?  If they are truly hurt, then should they not be banned in all situations?

The main reasoning for Florida Bar Rules on advertising by lawyers is to protect the consumer and the practice of law.  How is the consumer hurt by testimonials and listing past results though? The bar states:

“[Testimonials] are extremely troubling because they have the most potential for abuse, as well as the most potential for further denigrating the justice system and the legal profession in the minds of the public.”

That is a really bold statement and no citation to a study that says testimonials are abused or denigrate the justice system.

Yes, there are always going to be firms that poorly market themselves and market unethically.  This will happen even after these rules.  Those firms will make false claims, get odd testimonials, run up the scoreboard with big verdicts on their site, and make outlandish claims like they invented the question mark.  However, when lawyers cross the line, we have the misleading / false information rules to slap them around with.

Why is there a need to disadvantage firms that are actually good at what they do and have happy clients?  Testimonials and past results are great resources for any business, including law firms.  I believe it actually increases the standing of lawyers and improves their image if done properly.

Instead of empowering good firms, we are now stating that all firms are equal, when that is not the case.

I Want a Winner.

If a firm does consistently win, wouldn’t you want to know that?  I sure would.  When I hire a lawyer, I want the best.  I want to know who has won, settled, or helped the most clients.  I want a firm that has verdicts, trial experience, and can organize their information effectively to showcase their talent.  This proves to me that they know what they are doing.

Yes, wins do not always equate with being the best, but it is a good indicator.  Yes, big wins make an influence on a consumer, and may lead them to believe they will get the same result in their case.  However, there are ways to combat this with informed disclaimers (a la the financial system “past results are not an indicator of future results”).  Moreover, the law firm itself will always want to match expectations with realities of a case.  So if a firm lists huge wins only, then they do so at their own peril.  Otherwise, they are always going to have dissatisfied clients, even with successful outcomes.

What this rule change does is level the playing field.  Now all firms are as experienced in the eyes of the public, when we know that is not true.  Now the best firms can’t actually advertise that they are the best.  Imagine if Audi could not advertise that it won 8 of the last 10 LeMans 24 hour races.  Imagine if Toyota could not represent that they consistently win consumer awards and races.  Imagine if doctors could not represent that they performed thousands of surgeries all with great outcomes and great testimonials from their patients.  They would be on the same playing field as other inferior car brands and medical quacks.  Only in the legal profession do we limit the ability to advertise when a firm is in fact great at what they do. 

This Puts Florida Law Firms at a Competitive Disadvantage

With this new opinion, every law firm in Florida is put at a disadvantage to firms in other states.  The internet creates a new marketing bubble, one that allows any firm anywhere to market nationwide.  No longer are Florida firms only competing with other Florida firms.

Firms in other states target Florida with their marketing efforts.  Those firms who sign the client may ultimately co-counsel or refer the case to a Florida firm, but smart firms are target their practice area nationwide.  They use web sites, blogs, and social media as their tools.  Their web sites, blogs and social media tools are not bound by Florida’s more stringent rules.  Because those firms are in another state they  do not have to comply with these rules.  This puts a significant disadvantage to all firms in our state.

Moving Forward

All Florida firms must comply with this ruling and strip out testimonials, results and laudatory statements from their web site by January 1.  We are working with our firms to comply with this decision and one possible idea is to create an actual request for information contact box.  This may allow firms to comply with the ruling, allow users to gain access to the information, and also be a win-win by capturing great contact info.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading our thoughts.  Feel free to comment as this is a work in progress on our opinion of this ruling.  I know my team will be busy next month on advising clients.

Knowing is Half the SEO Battle

1.  Keyword Brainstorm

Your first step is to get all possible keywords that describe your site and create a keyword phrase list from those keywords. People search by keyword phrases, not keywords. Personally, I just use Notepad and grab the following from the web site.

• Take your practice areas
  • Employment, Labor, Discrimination, etc.
• Take your geographic locations
  • NJ, New Jersey, etc.
• Take the root terms
  • lawyer, attorney and law firm

Now you have all your possible keywords.  You just need to combine them together.  You can do this manually or with a kick butt tool!

2.  Compile Keyword Phrases

Use a tool to multiply them all together with all possible extensions.  SWEET, you now have a keyword phrase list.  Let’s run the numbers and see what people actually search for from that list.

Generate Keyword Phrase List

2.  Research at Google

Go to Google Keyword Search Tool and simply paste in your generated results.  Enter in Google’s CAPTCHA code to check that you are human and see the results.

Google Results - Oh Yeah!

Conclusion

There you go.  In three minutes you can determine what keyword phrases to target.  Yes, of course this is a BASIC method.  You can also do in-depth research of competitors web sites, use other tools like WordTracker and Keyword Discovery, or setup a PPC to get live data.

But in just 3 minutes you can increase your knowledge and get going on other important things like writing content and link building.