Common Mistakes Law Firms Make That Tank
Their Web Traffic
Primerus Spring Conference 2014
Tom Foster Founder | CEO
Danielle Ruderman Chief Marketing Officer
• Attorney marketing since 1998 • About 400 websites live right now • Over 500,000 visitors each month • We have manually performed hundreds of
website analyses in the last year • Backlink data on over 75,000 law firm
websites • Over 1,000 pieces of content produced
each month • 400-500 paid hours of SEO each month
Why is it so hard to get on Page 1…
Google PhDs
• Google makes over 500 changes each year
• Algorithm changes target specific SEO tricks – and there are more to come
• Search results are customized for users
• Local search factors always evolving
Google Panda Updates Google Penguin Updates
Targets Low-Quality Content Targets Unnatural Links
Google Kills Organic Keywords
Google Hummingbird Update
• Google algorithms are different for mobile
Is your website ready? (It better be!)
• 10 – 50% of visitors to FWM sites are using mobile devices
• Mobile traffic spikes on the weekends • Google said “mobile is growing faster than
anyone anticipated”
What does this all mean…?
STOP OBSESSING OVER KEYWORDS!
Focus on your firm’s BRAND
Deliver a GREAT User Experience
“I want to be on page 1 for Dallas personal injury lawyer!”
“You need to give me a page 1 guarantee”
“I only pay for results”
Typical demands we hear from lawyers:
Consequences of Page 1 Obsession for coveted vanity
keywords
Massive Traffic Drops – No Recovery
Overall 40% drop in traffic
What Causes Massive Traffic Drops?
STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3
Write Content Using Your List of Vanity
Keywords as Anchor Text
Post the Content All Across the Web
Get Links Back to Your Website from Keyword-
stuffed Content
Cheap article marketing gets you backlinks from these types of websites:
Cross Linking Your Sites…
Linking your sites together, or a network of your peers sites = unnatural backlink profile
SEO Link Wheels, Link Farms, Link Networks…
Over Optimized Content…
Excessive internal linking to one page…
How much do you REALLY know
about your Web Marketing Provider?
Referring to a lawyer as an EXPERT in
online content is a no-no.
Do they know about lawyer ethics?
“Visit website to hire personal injury lawyer who will put all effort to get the claims you deserved”
And… firm name spelled Incorrectly!
Grammar & Spelling Issues
Fake addresses using firm’s real phone number Trick used by lazy SEOs to rank in other cities – also great for ruining your local SEO!
Article Marketing on low-value article directory websites Listing your business in irrelevant directories It’s a great deal if you want to ruin your backlink profile!
“Spinning” or “Reusing” Content
You might be at risk if you… • Engage in article marketing • Pay for cheap link building or SEO • Outsource your marketing and
don’t have regular meetings to review progress – meetings, not reports.
Protect Your BRAND
Do Not Fall For:
SHORT TERM THINKING
IMMEDIATE GRATIFICATION
PAGE 1 PROMISES
Questions?
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