Lawyer Marketing on Google to Evolve in 2012
Source: Rene Perras
According to search marketer Brian Whalley in his article Google Will Change Web Marketing, posted on the Harvard Business Review blog, Google is on the verge of making a quantum shift in how websites will have to market themselves in 2012.
Over the past year it seems that search engine results pages have presented a varying and continually changing look, including changes to Google Places and also the addition of site links in the search results. The Google Panda update, back in February ‘11, also altered the landscape by increasing the focus on high quality, fresh relevant content, which has always been part of SEO best practices. Although attorney websites along with others that already focused on providing a great user experience and relevant content were minimally affected, the update was noteworthy in that it provided a reminder that Google is constantly in flux.
According to this article, Google is changing again and has come up with a “new method for websites to structure data,” so its spiders can more easily access the information. This method is structured around the inclusion of schema, or html tags, used to markup web pages that are recognized by all three of the top search engines. Google, Yahoo and Bing all rely on this mark up code to provide the best possible results for user queries. Using the common vocabulary provided by the search engines offers the best chance to get the most bang for your buck when it comes to web marketing.
By adapting attorney websites to the new crawler friendly format, and including these schemas, it will allow Google easier access to the structured data that is often drawn from databases and converted to HTML, making it difficult to recover. Including the special tags that facilitate the spiders will make it easier to capture the queried information. Search engine results should improve for those sites that follow Google’s lead. All that said, the best way to continue to achieve high search engine ranking for your attorney website is to follow Google’s prescription for high quality websites. Partnering with the right lawyer marketing firm that adheres to those guidelines and fully understands how these schemas will affect attorney web marketing can be one of the most important steps you take. Here are a few of the other basic qualities that Google looks for as their algorithm assesses which sites to present in their search results:
Is the info or articles on your site trustworthy?
Does someone knowledgeable about the topic write the articles?
Does the website have repetitive or duplicate content?
Is the content well written?
Would you go back to the website for more information?
Do the articles or content provide more information than other similar sites?
As the search landscape continues to evolve there will always be a core group of underlying principles, such as those listed above, that remain less fluid and are the building blocks of a solid attorney website and lawyer marketing program. Finding the right partner to help your law firm grow its Internet presence and improve lead generation is also one of those core steps to success. Although there are a good number of web savvy marketers around, the complexity of the search algorithms is vastly more sophisticated than ever before, making it even more important to have the right team in place.
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