Basic Schema for Attorneys

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Have you ever seen a search result that comes with a little extra?

Sitelinks and knowledge graph rich snippets
The first result for “Mockingbird Marketing” has 6 other links in addition to the homepage. On the right are our address, phone number, and business hours.
Post date rich snippet
Blog posts show the date they were posted on the left-hand side before the text in the search result.

These “extra” pieces of information are called rich snippets, and appear when Google decides information is important enough to display directly in the SERPs. When rich snippets from your site appear in search results, they take up more space (blocking out competing search results) and increase the likelihood that a user will click to your site.

Google gets the information for this by looking at your site and identifying the important pieces. While it has been pretty successful, it’s best to help Google notice your website as much as you can. We do that using structured data, essentially a way of flagging information as important (“LOOK AT ME! I AM THE ADDRESS!”).

Schema Starter Pack

Google has documentation on what kinds of structured data it supports, but most categories aren’t applicable to attorneys (such as recipes and software apps). Three of these apply to lawyers, and we’ve included templates for them as part of a Schema “starter pack” that you can copy over to your website and fill in.

Legal Service

This displays your business information to Google and identifies you as a legal service. This is the most important piece of Schema to use. If you get anything from this blog post, it is that you should use Schema for your business information.

Previously this was the “Attorney” category, but now the official name is “LegalService”.

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LegalService">
   <span itemprop="name">YOUR LAW FIRM NAME</span>
   <div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
      <span itemprop="streetAddress">YOUR ADDRESS</span>
      <span itemprop="addressLocality">YOUR CITY</span>,
      <span itemprop="addressRegion">YOUR STATE</span>
      <span itemprop="postalCode">YOUR ZIP CODE</span>
   </div>
   <span itemprop="telephone">YOUR PHONE NUMBER</span>
</div>

Event

If you are attending, speaking at, or hosting an event.

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Event">
   <span itemprop="name">EVENT NAME</span>
   <span itemprop="image">EVENT IMAGE</span>
   <span itemprop="url">WEBPAGE FOR YOUR EVENT</span>
   <span itemprop="description">EVENT DESCRIPTION</span>
   <span itemprop="startDate">EVENT START DATE</span>
   <span itemprop="endDate">EVENT END DATE</span>
</div>

Videos

Marking up videos helps Google understand what information is associated with a video, and can help your videos show up in search results.

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoObject">
   <span itemprop="name">VIDEO NAME</span>
   <span itemprop="about">VIDEO SUMMARY</span>
   <span itemprop="embedUrl">VIDEO URL</span>
   <span itemprop="dateCreated">DATE CREATED</span>
</div>

Resources and Further Reading

If you’re interested in expanding your knowledge of Schema, you should look into some other categories and check out some of the tools we’ve found useful.

 

 

How do you use Schema? Have any success stories? Let us know in the comments!

Why You Shouldn’t Let a PR Agency Run SEO

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Seems like an obvious title, but at least one Personal Injury firm in LA apparently needs this heads up.  About 5 years ago, I wrote a post for Search Engine Land about the value of good PR for linkbuilding.  The fundamentals remain true today and I can’t stress enough how good PR, working in tandem with smart linkbuilding can score big time for law firms.

But….

Unfortunately, every man and his dog is getting in to the legal SEO business – frequently to the detriment of their own clients.  Social Media gurus, networking mavens and today…. PR “professionals”.

From LinkedIn email today:

Conrad,
I’m working with an LA-based lawyer and wanted to run a cross-promo idea past you. Let me know if I can send you some info.

-Veronica

OK. I’ll bite….

sure – give me a call 206 486 2087 Conrad

Reply:

Hi Conrad, Thanks for LinkingIn. As I mentioned, I am working with a Los Angeles personal injury law firm. We are looking to collaborate with firms you represent to cross promote blog posts with the goal of increasing both of our online visibility. Below is a brief overview. Let me know if you are still rep-ing lawyers and if this interests you. Thanks, -Veronica

CROSS-PROMOTION OVERVIEW SUMMARY: A Los Angeles personal injury law firm is looking to partner with law firms you represent to help build online visibility for both firms.

HOW IT WORKS: We would mention “your firm” and link to your website in one of our blog posts or feature a “guest post” by your firm and link back to your site. In return, we ask that you do the same.

WHY: Peer recommendation, third party acknowledgement and “soft “referrals can build firm recognition with the intent of increasing our respective client base. Since we are in different states, this partnership will allow us to cross-promote without competing for potential clients.

GOAL: To acknowledge each other online, linking back to each other’s sites.

Uggg.  My reply:

So – you are interested in endorsing firms you’ve never worked with and ignore that what you are proposing is most likely going to incur an SEO penalty if done at scale?

I also sent Veronica to Google’s Guidelines about reciprocal links and just so you don’t have to read through:
  • Excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
  • Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links

Don’t get me wrong – PR can be amazingly valuable for SEO.  But not like this.  I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars of lawyers’ marketing investment unravelling backlinking schemes like this that have decimated law firms business.  Hopefully by reading this you’ll never have to spend those dollars with us…. unless you happen to be a certain LA based PI firm… we’re here to help.

Google Core Algo Update this Past Weekend

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Looking for patterns in web traffic for law firms between November and February is extremely hard given the natural fluctuations drop in lawyer interest that occurs over the holidays and the spike that occurs in January (and for divorce – sadly around Valentine’s day).

It just got harder.

Google confirmed that a core ranking algorithm update was pushed out over the weekend.  SEO nerds around the world are calling this “massive”.  Of note – this is NOT Penguin related.  So strap in, check your GA numbers and see what the impact is to your business.
John

 

Best Free Legal Directories: 2016

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There are thousands of legal directories out on the web and more popping up each day. Some are awesome and some are atrocious. In this post we’ll focus on what Mockingbird has deemed as the best free legal directories from 2015.  Why best?  Because they deliver … clients, or search authority that delivers clients.  But mostly… clients.

First, let’s review 4 compelling reasons every lawyer should be actively creating listings on these sites.

  1. Clients – As with any marketing effort, your end goal is to gain more clients at a lower cost. It doesn’t get easier or more cost-efficient than acquiring a new client through a free listing on a third party website.
  2. Citations – When Google sees citations for your business showing up consistently across the web (same name, address, and phone number), the more inclined Google will be to serve up your business in localized search results.
  3. Links – It’s all about the links baby! Linkbuilding is one of the most daunting tasks we face as SEOs. Directory listings are the lowest hanging fruit in terms of legitimate linkbuilding. (Be careful though, low quality links can do my harm than good.)
  4. Directory sites dominate – More often than not, legal directories command much of the real estate in SERPs (search engine results pages). The screenshot below shows results for the search query “Nashville Divorce Lawyer” – notice how 4 of the 7 results show are for directory sites rather than individual firms? If you don’t have a listing on the sites that are consistently dominating search results, then you are missing out on a lot of eyeballs and potential clients.  We’ve been saying for years that this is going to change… and we’ve been wrong year after year. So play the directory game, because they are already winning.

Nashville Lawyer Search Query

Best Free Legal Directories – Ranked by Mockingbird

Below are Mockingbird’s favorite free sites ranked by our (incredibly official) Birdie Rating that accounts for things like: ease of use, whether or not the link is followed, competitiveness, and search presence.

Avvo

Birdie Rating 5
Link: No follow
Why we like it: Industry leader; attorney endorsements; continually does well in the search results.  Unfortunately Avvo’s removed the follow link on your profile a few years ago; but you can still drive business with a robust profile and/or aggressive engagement in their Q&A section. (Oh – and Conrad used to run their marketing back in the day when it was just the speck of an idea.)

Justia

Birdie Rating 5
Link: Followed
Why we like it: ROT (return on time) is maximized – along with a link from Justia, you also get a listing in the Oyez directory and in Cornell directory.  We also love their founder, Tim Stanley, who is mad-scientist-smart about all things legal marketing and the original founder of ehmmmm… FindLaw.

Lawyer Legion

Birdie Rating 4
Link: Followed
Why we like it: Ties to NORML and NCDD so it’s especially great for DUI lawyers

Lawdeeda

Birdie Rating 4
Link: Followed
Why we like it: Strong link; non-competitive; we love the founder Brint Crockett who has done more than his share to expose legal marketing chicanery.

 

Lawyer Central

Birdie Rating 3
Link: No followed
Why we like it: User friendly

Findlaw

Birdie Rating 2
Link: Followed
Why we like it: High authority site offering a strong link (listing bonus includes free calls from commission-driven sales people in perpetuity)

Martindale Hubbell

Birdie Rating 2
Link: No link – citation only
Why we like it: Uses birth date as safeguard against manipulation and spammy tactics; strong domain that consistently performs well in legal search queries

Popular Membership-Based Legal Directories

Listed below are niche practice area sites that require paid memberships and/or an application for acceptance into the directory. 

Bankruptcy:
nacba.org

Consumer Advocates:
naca.net

Criminal/DUI:
ncdd.com
aapda.org
norml.org
nacdl.org

Elder Law:
nelf.org
naela.org

Employment:
nela.org

Family Law:
nacchildlaw.org
aaml.org

General:
nlg.org
bestlawyers.com
superlawyers.com

Immigration:
aila.org

Mediation:
attorney-mediators.org

Trial:
thenationaltriallawyers.org
nlg-npap.org

Trust & Estate:
actec.org
naepc.org

Looking Ahead

It’s a new year; do yourself a favor and take a few hours out of your weekend to create listings in the above directories.

If you would like to see the slide deck from Mockingbird’s webinar, view the recording, or just say hi, please feel free to email me directly.

HTML Sitemap: Creating in WordPress and Their Importance

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What is an HTML Sitemap? An HTML Sitemap is a page on your website with links to every single page of important content on your website. Any pages on your site that can be indexed by search or are navigable from your menus should be linked to by your sitemap page!

But I already have an XML Sitemap! An XML Sitemap is purely for search engines, and all of the pages you submit via XML are not guaranteed to be indexed. XML Sitemaps are of no use to your end user. They are made for robots and look like they are made for robots. See ours here.

What Does an HTML Sitemap Look Like? A simple list of important pages with links to each one. Check out our Mockingbird Marketing sitemap page!

Why Your HTML Sitemap is Important

All of the content on your site should be navigable with clicks. But, some of your really old blog posts or deep pages may take quite a few page links and clicks to reach. When you create an HTML Sitemap page and place that page link in your footer, you provide links to all the important content on your site within 2 clicks! This is useful for visitors and the search engines alike. It may increase the likelihood of that old, yet important content, being indexed by search. All of this increases the chances of people finding your website and content through search.

This video may be a few years old, but Matt Cutts explanation still rings true, see below:

It’s unclear if HTML sitemaps are still a major SEO force/factor…. However, they are easy to create and possibly useful for search and users, every site should have one.

How To Create Your WordPress HTML Sitemap: Our Favorite Solution

WordPress has thousands of free and premium plugins available to do anything under the sun on your website. Some plugins we love make certain SEO tasks a breeze. We use WordPress SEO by Yoast to do all sorts of on site SEO tasks, like creating XML Sitemaps. That plugin has amazing functionality, but is missing an HTML Sitemap generator. And trust me, you don’t want to manually create an HTML sitemap. This would require creating a link to every page on your website, and adding a link every time you create a new page.

That’s why we use this amazing plugin – WP SEO HTML Sitemap. It integrates with your Yoast XML Sitemap settings, but does not require Yoast to function. With Yoast, this HTML Sitemap plugin will create one link to every page on your website that exists in your XML Sitemap. You should already have your XML Sitemap configured to include all indexed, important content on your site.

Steps to Setup your HTML Sitemap Page:

  1. Install the plugin on your WordPress site.
  2. Create a page titled “Site Map”.
  3. From your site’s WordPress admin screen, hover over “Settings” and click “SEO HTML Sitemap”.
  4. Settings:
    1. Sitemap Page: Select “Site Map”.
    2. Location on Page: Select “After Page’s Content”.
    3. Disable Plugin’s CSS?: Select “Disable the CSS Styles”. This will disable the column setting. Hint: you don’t want to load unnecessary extra css resources on your site.
    4. Link to XML Sitemap: Select “No, Don’t Link to the Sitemap XML”.
    5. Credit Link: Select “Don’t add”. Sorry Plugin Author..
    6. Hit “Save Changes” button.
  5. Add a link to your new HTML Sitemap page in your websites footer.
  6. You’re done!

See how easy that was? A few quick steps to increasing the quality of your website!

Easy Button

2015 – The Year That Was

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First off – We wish you the best in all that you do in 2016 – Happy New Year!

Thanks for following us here at Mockingbird! As we look forward to the future, we wanted to also present you with some of our most popular blog posts from the past year.

As a reminder: You likely only need one domain name. If that one domain happens to be www.practice-area-your-city.com then good for you. You don’t need the neighboring town(s).

We also dove into what you should be paying for legal websites, hosting , registration, and professional marketing services.

According to Google, doorway pages “…are sites or pages created to rank highly for specific search queries. They are bad for users because they can lead to multiple pages in user search results, where each result ends up taking the user to essentially the same destination.” If this sounds like pages on your site, read more to see why you should get to removing them now.

As I mentioned above, you probably only need one domain name. in 2015, new .law top level domains were released. Read the article below to see why you can save your money on this one.

We also had a great piece that discussed six great ways to get your site and content in front of your target audience. This fantastic piece has a lot of amazing information, so be sure to check this one out.

In 2015, Google let everyone know that Mobile-Friendliness will become more and more important. The future is here, and mobile views have surpassed those one desktops. If you haven’t already switched to a mobile optimized site, you should be concerned.

Have a great 2016, and stayed tuned for more important news about legal marketing!

Ranking Reports (email exchange outlining the uselessness thereof)

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First the Backstory:  We have a particularly prickly client in the car accident space who started with a pretty big mess and we’ve been doing some janitorial SEO for them for roughly a year.  The client has been aggressively courted by another agency (who will remain nameless) during our entire tenure, via emailed doomsday ranking reports (that the client forwards to me):

May 5:  I wanted to send you your current ranking reports for the major cities in XXXXXX.  Please take a look at them when you can and call me when you are ready to discuss them.  I am going to have to send you 3 separate emails because of the attachments, so I apologize in advance for cluttering your inbox

August 18: There is another lady in my office marketing XXXXXX accident as we speak.  Can I expect the signed agreement back today so I can get you up and running?

August 21: Let me know which cities you want to start off with and I will send you out the proposal so you can read it and view our written guarantees.

October 26: I have attached your current ranking report to this email.  You are nowhere to be found on Page 1 anymore.  Are you ready to remedy this yet?

Not our style to be so aggressive; but I’m a big boy.  More importantly, it gave me an opportunity to go back to the client and show how actual business results don’t correlate with ranking reports.  My email exchange with the client from the latest doomsday ranking report is below.

Client:

what do u guys make of this?

Mockingbird

It confirms the uselessness of ranking reports.

Your organic traffic is up 16% since his last “report”.  Your business from organic has more than doubled since his last “report”.  Your local traffic is up 27% since his last “report”.   The specific terms in this “report” that you “aren’t ranking for” are centered around car/truck accidents.  Yet over the past 30 days, 5% of your traffic enters your site on pages about car and truck accidents and you’ve appeared in queries including truck car or auto over 3,000 times.
Your impressions on Google searches are consistently increasing – over the past 90 days you are up roughly 50% (see graphic below.)
Inline image 1
Oh – and below is a list taken from Google’s own reporting on your site over the past 30 days that shows queries for car, auto or truck in which you’ve actually appeared on the first page of search results.  (And remember – these results are fluid and personalized so you won’t be able to replicate exactly what their reporting shows, but….)
truck accident attorney XXXXX
XXX XXXX truck accident lawyer
XXXXX truck accident lawyer
XXXXX hills truck accident lawyer
car accident lawyer XXXXX
XXXXX car accident lawyers
car accident injury lawyer
XXXXX hills car accident lawyer
XXXXX car accident lawyer
truck accident attorney XXXXX
lawyers for car accident
truck accident attorney XXXX XXXX
XXXX car accident attorneys
XXXXX car accident attorney
car accident injury attorney
truck accident lawyer XXXXX hills
attorneys for car accidents
car accident attorney XXXXX hills
XXXXX truck accident lawyer
car accident attorney XXXX XXXX
car lawyer
car injury lawyers XXXXX
XXXXX XXXX car accident attorney
truck accident attorney XXXX
XXXXX truck accident attorney
XXXXX truck accident lawyer
XXXXX hills car accident attorney
truck accident attorney XXXXX hills
truck accident lawyer XXXXX
XXXXX truck accident attorney
car accident lawyer
XXXXX car accident lawyer
car accident attorneys
car accident
car accident lawyers XXXXX
car accident near XXXXX XX
truck accident attorney XXXXXX
car accidents lawyers
trucking accident lawyer
XXXXX county car accident lawyer
car accident lawyers XXXXX county mi
car accident attorney XXXXX county mi
XXXXX county car accident
truck accident attorney XXXXXX
XXXXXX car accidents attorney
XXXXXX county car accident
car accident attorney XXXXXX
car accident attorney XXXXXX
truck accident attorney XXXXXX
XXXX county car accident
XXXXX county car accident

Client:

thanks i think this means they r full of shit.   evan will be helping me with my ads now so i don’t go jumping in bed with every scum bag operation that sends me what looks like the next coming  of our savior

Coudn’t have said it better myself.  Beware anyone who offers guarantees OR ranking reports.  And be double aware of anyone citing both.

 

6 Content Marketing Tactics for Lawyers that Actually Work

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You may have heard that content is an essential element to driving traffic to your site. The problem is that most content out there just doesn’t cut it. You need to create unique and engaging content will make people want to share and/or link to it–the kind of content that Google notices and rewards websites for.

The question is, how do you get those links? As an attorney, it can seem like a struggle, especially when content from other “sexier” verticals are vying for attention, shares, and those ever elusive links. As an attorney, however, you have knowledge and expertise that, if presented properly and with the right timing, can be extremely successful.

Below are some tactics we’ve seen that could be the the ticket to driving more quality traffic to your website:

Write an Op-Ed piece About a Big News Story

As a lawyer, you have a unique opportunity to contribute your expertise to a specific issue or topic that people are talking about about on the news.

Here are some Op-Ed headlines that come to mind:

  • The big question about [New Law] that hasn’t been answered.
  • What the plaintiff in [Recent Controversial Lawsuit] needs to prove in order to win.
  • 5 Reasons Why [New Proposed Law] will be difficult to enforce.

While many attorneys write about the news, most of what I’ve seen is a rehash of the story, lightly peppered with a few comments and opinions.  Instead, write a piece that offers a real argument, and spends 750-1000 words supporting your argument with examples and evidence. Make it compelling, unique, and accessible. You can publish these op-ed posts on your own blog and share it on reddit, Facebook, or other social media channels. Also, in addition to writing about news stories on your own firm’s blog, you can reach out to local reporters and offer yourself up as a source to provide a legal perspective. This is usually easier to do if you have a few successful posts under your belt.

Use PR to Promote One of Your Own Big Cases

Are you working on a case that you believe has the potential to make the news? If so, you may want to consider doing some PR.

Let’s say you’re an employment lawyer working on a whistleblower case that you believe has some legs. Get in touch with a PR professional whom you trust to get an idea if journalists would want to pick up your story. If you don’t know anyone in PR, make sure you get a recommendation from a professional who will give you an honest opinion about your story (and not just bill you for their time).

If you want to make the most of your case’s publicity, be sure to create a webpage on your site dedicated to the case, with all formal complaints and official court documents available in one place so reporters don’t have to hunt for them. Also, post links to supplementary materials that relate to the area of law that the case is related to, preferably something from your own site is best but also be sure to include anything from an external website that could shine light on your topic. Essentially, you need to make a page so good, complete, and comprehensive that it would be silly for a reporter, blogger, or anyone talking about the case to NOT want to link to it.

When your story starts taking off, request that your PR person notifies you about every online publication that happens to pick up your story. If you manage to get on a high traffic site, see if you can’t find a way to participate in the discussion in the comments section–which can be a good way for you to drop a link to your resource page on the case if it already isn’t there in the body of the article.

Give a Legal Perspective About Your Favorite TV Show or Movie

You remember when Bane held the entire city of Gotham in The Dark Night Rising? Maybe you could write up a compelling reason for how that villain has a valid criminal insanity case, should it ever be brought up in court. Oh yeah, and when you’re done, see if you can post it to lawandthemultiverse.com and get a link back to your site!

Perhaps you’re a Harry Potter fanatic, and have read all of the books from front to back 5 times. How easy would it be to write down a list of all the laws that you can find in the non-muggle world and then submit that list to Reddit and promote that list through Facebook?

Are you an employment lawyer? You could spend a couple of weekends tallying down all the possible cases for harassment or wrongful termination in shows like AMC’s Mad Men or NBC’s The Office. Or, if you were really ambitious, you could create a chart comparing all shows that take place in an office made in the last 10 years. Do something like that, and you’ll probably never need to build another link again.

Chances are you have an interest or hobby that overlaps with your expertise in the law. This gives you an opportunity to tap into a much larger audience who will share and link to your content.

Provide a Comprehensive Resource Focusing on a Frequently Asked About Topic

While most Google searches will turn up an article or resource that provides the information you’re looking for, oftentimes it doesn’t provide content to the level of depth, detail or quality that you need. For example, while there are plenty of pages out there about how to file a workers compensation claim in a particular state, how many law firm websites provide a comprehensive resource with all the forms and special instructions for filing out certain form fields in one place? If you fill that content gap by creating such a resource on your website, that resource could eventually become the go-to page for anyone who needs to fill out a workers comp claim.

When creating an online resource, put yourself in the shoes of your clients.  A comprehensive resource that gives potential clients a good idea about their situation will not only help prospective clients gain confidence in your knowledge as an attorney but is also a good signal to the search engines that you’re providing great content and that your site is worthy of ranking and getting traffic.

Unfortunately, if your site doesn’t have many links to begin with, chances are a lower quality resource on a more established site is likely to rank higher than what you’ve created. This is why it’s important to reach out to owners of other websites who may want to link to your resource. While outreach is beyond the scope of this article, you should check out this great resource from Page One Power.

Create a Community Page

One of the easiest and most effective things a law firm can do to get links is through the relationships that you already have in your community. What organizations and non-profits does your firm support? Show them a little love!

Create a page giving testimonials for local organizations and vendors you do business with and link to them. These might include:

  • Community Theaters and Arts Organizations
  • Local expert witnesses you work with.
  • Charity Runs/Walks/Bike Rides
  • Trade organizations
  • Labor Unions
  • Legal Organizations (The National Lawyers Guild, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Local Bar Associations)
  • Small businesses (possibly former clients)
  • Local Chapters of National Charities (Toys for Tots, United Way, Special Olympics)
  • Pro-bono work for local businesses or non-profit organizations
  • Organizations or clubs (even a recreational club like a sailing club) where a firm member is a board member (You can link to the firm from the bio page. “Attorney smith is a partner at Smith & Smith PLLC”
  • Art purchased for the firm (Take a picture and send to artist and they may link back to the site).
  •  Local businesses your work with. This includes
    • Service Providers: Janitors, Electricians, Moving Companies, Painters, Plumbers, Carpenters.
    • Caterers
    • Delivered Goods
    • Leased equipment
    • Employee training
    • Local IT company
    • Car Dealership (for company vehicle)
    • Local Restaurants (Company Happy Hour)
    • Local Design Firms

Once you’ve created this page, shoot off some friendly emails saying that you mentioned each business or organization favorably on their site. If the website has a testimonials page, give them permission to copy the testimonial you’ve written and put it on that page–hopefully with a link back to the original testimonial on your site.

Create a Unique Scholarship Idea

One of the most successful link building campaigns that I’ve seen a lawyer do was based on a scholarship that a DUI lawyer did that required applicants to (confidentially) admit that they had driven while buzzed in the past. This scholarship offer caused quite a stir and the attorney received great links from high authority national news sites.

While most scholarships probably wont get the kind of publicity that the DUI one did, there’s still a lot you can do with them. For example, you could have each applicant write a short essay about some issue that people care about AND something that is relevant to your practice. If you’re an immigration attorney, for example, you may want to ask applicants to write an essay voicing their opinions on recent immigration reforms. The winning essay would then be posted on your website’s blog and then shared via social media. Perhaps you could even make social media traction (number of shares, etc) be a criterion for winning the scholarship. You get free content and content promotion, and a student gets a financial leg up. Win-win.

Creating Content is Only Half of The Picture

While it’s important to understand what quality content is and to be able to tailor your content with your audience, without links or authority on your site, you can’t expect that your content will just be picked up by Google and your traffic will roll in. If you’re writing about a story on the news, reach out to journalists in your area, take them out to lunch or coffee and volunteer yourself as a resource when it comes to certain stories. If you’re hiring a PR firm to publicize one of your cases, make sure you’re doing everything you can to promote your case on the social media/web side. If you’re creating a resource on your site, whether it be a guide, a video or a scholarship page, be sure to reach out the people who have the ability to amplify your content. When you combine quality content with targeted outreach, you’ll be surprised how far you can go.

Google Erroneously Labelling Lawyers with Professional Misconduct

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Google’s Answer Box is a simple function that provides answers to basic questions directly in the search results. For example, “what time is it in London” or “how many square miles in an acre?”  The goal is to utilize content from extremely trusted websites to answer simple user questions without requiring a click through.

Answer Box results haven’t shown up heavily in legal.  Although that might have just changed – specifically for lawyer name searches.  Google is now pulling data directly from Avvo profiles for name search information – pulling Titles and work history directly into the search results on a simple name search.  This also includes a click through to the Avvo website – which could provide Avvo with a huge traffic jump.

Legal Answer Box

But note the horrible implementation – the title of the Answer Box is “Professional Misconduct” (not say…. the lawyer’s name).  At first blush (don’t make me think) it looks like poor Martha has been sanctioned in all of her jobs, going back to 1984.  (If you actually click through to the result, you’ll find that the Martha Patterson listed does NOT have any professional misconduct history.)  So – great idea, but horrendous implementation from Google.  This is a particularly tricky match – there are probably hundreds of Martha Pattersons in the US – and seven Martha Patterson profiles in the Avvo directory.

Now its highly possible that Google is just testing this among professional service providers (and the bad user experience above suggests that is the case) and is going to ratchet it back; although my instinct tells me your are going to get more and more information about individuals directly in the search box.