Five things to remember when optimizing your website
One of the most difficult things to manage when providing optimization services for websites is the client’s expectations. Most law firms know that being listed on Google’s first result page will bring a lot of targeted visitors to their website and that they will get a lot of new clients through that listing. Unfortunately, these same lawyers don’t know how SEO (search engine optimization) works and what they can expect. The law firms still expect that their website will be listed on Google’s first result page after submitting the site to Google. That might have worked eight years ago but it does not work today.
Here are five things to remember when considering your website optimization:
1. SEO takes time
You cannot optimize your website today and expect results tomorrow or next week. Search engine optimization takes time. Search engines have to find your new optimized pages, they have to find the new links to your website, they have to update the index, etc. Many times it takes weeks before the search engine spiders will visit your website for re-indexing.
2. You must change your web pages
If you want to get high rankings for certain keywords, then these keywords must appear on your web pages. It is only possible to get high rankings for a keyword that is not listed on your website if lots of other websites link to your website with that keyword. That’s the exception, though. The best practice is that if you want rankings for – lets say toledo injury lawyer – you need to make sure you have a page of content related to that set of keywords.
3. You need links and you need the right links
Good backlinks are the key to high rankings on Google. Automatically created backlinks usually won’t help your rankings and they even might get you banned from Google’s index. These kind of links are typically offered by very low cost optimization company that even take the great leap of guaranteeing rankings.
As a general rule, the easier it is to get a link, the less is its influence on the position of your website on Google. The links to your website should be from related websites and they should contain your keywords in the link text.
4. It’s crucial to choose the right keywords
If are a Cleveland criminal attorney, than you might think that it would be cool if their site was found for the keyword “cleveland drug laws”. That might be cool but it does not necessarily make sense.
People searching for “cleveland drug laws” can be interested in anything: a law student working on a paper, another attorney researching a case, etc. If these people come to your website, they are not likely to result in a new client.
Optimize your website for keywords that attract the right kind of people. For example “charged with a drug crime in cleveland” or “dui lawyer in cleveland“.
5. You must be realistic
If you have a website with just a few pages and your competitors have large websites with forums, communities, blogs, etc. then you must improve your website if you want to compete. Search engines want to show the best sites on the result pages.
If you absolutely want to get high rankings for a term such as “cleveland bankruptcy attorney”, start with less competitive keywords and then proceed to the more competitive terms. Search engines must trust your website before they give you high rankings for very competitive keywords.
Some content inspired by Axandra Search Engine Facts July 6 2010 – Issue #428
