/CEPACLaw.com/Kevin Quinlan/ 04/02/2010
If you are considering hiring an SEO partner to help you market your law firm, sooner is better than later. One of the most optimum times to take this step is when you are about to embark on a redesign of your current website or launching a new one. Partnering with an SEO firm prior to the development stage can help ensure that your new site’s architecture is both W3C (World Wide Web) compliant and spider friendly to enable the search engines to crawl the site and make it easier to improve your rankings. Re-engineering your existing site can also make improvements.
Here are a few questions to ask to hire the right team for your law firm marketing program:
Do you use White Hat techniques and follow the Google Guidelines?
Google offers insights into what makes websites both more user friendly and more easily indexed in their algorithms. Many SEO consultants try to “game” Google and take shortcuts that may get short term results, but ultimately can get a website penalized in the long term.
What is your experience in SEO for the legal category?
Experience marketing law firms on and off the web provides a framework from which to build and allows for a shorter learning curve for your firm. Working with professionals familiar with your unique business model and target market can make a difference in both quantifiable results and in preserving the image of the profession.
What is the focus of your SEO efforts?
In addition to providing the basics such as improving a website’s architecture to aid in indexing, building links, the addition of web analytics and thorough research into keyword rich content and semantic indexing, are there other techniques that are offered that are proprietary to the firm.
Will you provide a detailed analysis of the benefits of all of the modifications and techniques that you are recommending for our law firm?
It would seem only natural that an SEO engineer would carefully explain the reasons for the various elemental changes to a website and for the strategies and tactics used to elevate your law firm’s website rankings, but that is not always the case. It is important that your law firm has a grasp of what tactics are used, so that you are not surprised down the road. For example, when optimized articles and press releases are syndicated for pick up on the web, it can be very beneficial for building links to your website. That said, while you and your SEO may have control over what goes directly on your website or blog, very little can be done about bloggers that pickup your article and repurpose it for their blogs.
In conclusion, finding the right SEO to market your law practice on the web is not just about picking the best firm for the job, it’s also about learning as much as you can so that you put yourself in the best position to find the right SEO and know when you do.
For more information on law firm web design or search engine optimization for lawyers contact Kevin Quinlan.
Press Release Contact Information:
Kevin Quinlan Phone: 561.313.7410
