1	ABA TECHSHOW 2005 Search Engine Optimizing Your Content Introduction – Expectations Why is optimization important? What do search engines look for? How do they rank sites? Optimizing your site
2	Myths & Inaccuracies SEO myths – can’t be done, use PPC Articles & Websites – many provide outdated or inaccurate information. SE’s are understandably secretive. They do not provide rankings secrets to certain vendors. How do you measure vendors? – search on their criteria. If they can’t get themselves to the top, they can’t get you to the top, search on their clients, check links
3	Consultwebs Approach CW – 6^th Year, 200+ Clients – Examples – ABA, NCATL, Leading Law Firms To diffuse the myth – high quality sites can achieve high rankings against top competition. CW rankings: Law firm web consultants – 5,000,000 - #1, #2, #6 out of 5,000,000+ Law firm web designers - #2 out of 8,300,000 Web marketing consultants - #4 out of 12,000,000+ Law firm SEO consultants - #1, #2, #5 out of 142,000
4	Client Examples Truck accident lawyers (Munley) #1 New York personal injury lawyers (Belluck Fox) #1 Maryland cerebral palsy #2 (Medlawlegalteam) Dallas personal injury lawyers (Kraftlaw) #1 New York mesothelioma lawyers #1 (Belluck Fox) Pennsylvania personal injury lawyers - #1, #2 (Munley) St. Louis personal injury lawyers - #1, #2 (Brown & Crouppen) Boston person injury lawyers - #1, #2, #8 (Kantovitz) NC personal Injury lawyers - #1 & 7 of top 10 Lexington or Pikeville personal injury lawyers - #1 or #2 (Johnson)
5	Why Do They Change Their Algorithms? To provide quality To prevent dominance by certain Webmasters Other reasons…
6	Why Is SEO Important? The Web is growing as a resource for services & products Too many Yellow Page providers & the associated costs, diminishing returns TV is very expensive Print diminishing – newspapers, in their present form, will eventually disappear – agree? Priceline, Mapquest, ebay, Weather.com, Expedia Traditional retailers are going to the Web In 2006 and 2007, the Web will be a leading method for searchers to find all services.
7	What Do Search Engines Look For? Page 1 Quality – for competitive reasons) Meta tags – primarily the title - demonstration Relevance / ratio of key words Be careful, don’t overdo – can be banned Narrow your focus – pages & sites Articles – especially niche areas Blogs, News Popularity / backward lengths Emphasize Quality, Relevancy Depth of content
8	What Do Search Engines Look For? – Cont’d Entrenchment Age Multiple sites Depth of site Activity (clicks) Updates PPC?
9	Pay Per Click When to use it When time is of the essence – e.g., Vioxx To complement a campaign When the cost is attractive Example Potential costs Price depends upon bids, activity Judge the value of your return
10	Deciding How To Handle SEO - Judging Vendors SEO is time-consuming, requiring time, expertise & constant monitoring, & persistence. Do you have the time and/or interest? Perhaps outsource the links campaign. If you decide to outsource… Test the vendor’s site & client sites & links Call their clients Ask for a plan & guarantee Ask about competitive philosophy (will they work with your competition?) Cost – can be a few hundred to six figures – measure the payback
11	Example Searches Example searches (demonstration) Evaluating your results Google Page Rank Links – link:www.domainname.com Site size – site:www.domainname.com Examine content for relevance Separate pages for practice areas and other content Specialty sites, e.g., practice area or Spanish
12	Thank You! See our site for presentation – Presentations dropdown Call for site evaluation or questions – Dale Tincher – 800-872-6590, dtincher@consultwebs.com – www.Consultwebs.com www.PromoteWebs.com