1	Catalyst Lawyers 100 Making Your Website Work For You Philosophy of Presentation Why is optimization important? What do search engines look for? How do they rank sites? Why do they change their algorithms? Optimizing your site Private Critique of your site – today or later This presentation will be on Catalyst Website & CW Website
2	Why Is SEO Important? The Web is growing as a resource for services & products - statistics Audience poll – purchases, online services (Expedia), banking / billpay, research, local, children, grandchildren. Increasing use for you? Accessiblility - wireless, hotels, airports, meetings Too many Yellow Page providers & the associated costs TV is very expensive & is becoming crowded Print diminishing – newspapers in their present form will eventually disappear – agree? Priceline, Mapquest, ebay, Weather.com, Expedia Traditional retailers are also going to the Web Journalists use the Web In 2006 and 2007, the Web will be a leading method for searchers to find all services.
3	Myths Leading SEO myths – can’t be done, use PPC - proof Consultant Articles & Websites – many provide outdated or inaccurate information. SE’s are understandably secretive. 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. Talk to clients. Check long term.
4	Consultwebs Approach Sixth Year Law Firm Web Consultants 100 Directories (example 2) 200+ Clients, 1,000+ Websites – 3 Here Client examples – Leading Law Firms, ABA, NCATL Leading speakers (ABA, NCATL, TECHSHOW, etc.)
5	Consultwebs SEO Example searches against top competition: Law firm web consultants – 5,000,000 - #1, #2, #6 out of 8,000,000+ (14M) Law firm web designers - #2 out of 14,000,000 (8M) Web marketing consultants - #4 out of 12,000,000+ Law firm SEO consultants - #1, #2, #5 out of 142,000 This has allowed us to grow rapidly, but affordably
6	Clients Truck accident lawyers (Munley) #1 New York personal injury lawyers (Belluck Fox) #1 (3.6M) - Web is only advertising they use New York mesothelioma lawyers Belluck Fox #1, 2, 4 (1.7M) Maryland cerebral palsy Medlawlegalteam) #2 Dallas personal injury lawyers (Kraftlaw) #1 Pennsylvania personal injury lawyers - #1, #2 St. Louis personal injury lawyers - #1, #2 Boston person injury lawyers - #1, #2, #8 Wake County or Triangle personal injury lawyers NC personal injury lawyers - #1 & 7 of top 1 Richmond personal injury lawyers - #4 of 786,000 Pennsylvania or California abogados accidentes - top 4
7	Why Do They Change Their Algorithms? To maintain quality To prevent dominance by certain Webmasters Other considerations
8	What Do Search Engines Look For? Page 1 Goal Quality – for competitive reasons) Meta tags – primarily the title - http://www.kraftlaw.com/ Relevance / ratio of key words Be careful, don’t overdo – can be banned Narrow your focus – pages & sites Articles – especially niche areas, languages Blogs, News (doesn’t have to be a blog) Popularity / backward lengths Emphasize Quality, Relevancy (Neighborhood) Depth of content
9	What Do Search Engines Look For? – Cont’d Entrenchment (Takes Time) Age Multiple sites (Google consideration, Spam Consideration) Appear as a specialty (SEO & PPC) Links Be prepared to rank well for future, e.g., Vioxx, Bextra Depth of site Activity (clicks) News, Press Releases Updates PPC?
10	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
11	Judging Vendors SEO is time-consuming, requiring time, expertise & constant monitoring, & persistence. Do you have time? Test vendor site & client sites & links (tests) Call clients Ask for a plan & guarantee Ask about competitive posture Cost – can be a few hundred to six figures – measure the payback
12	Example Searches Example searches 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
13	Getting Clients to Call Define what you do – quickly Make it easy to contact you – 800#, Free Review, Quick Feedback Form, Free Information Emphasize why you are different Presenting your message Track Record - http://www.scottgottlieblaw.com, CW While doing it, be different – testimonials Audio – www.samakowlaw.com – our experience TV - http://www.hardisonandleone.com www.brownandcrouppen.com www.garycjohnson.com Languages – http://www.abogados-pennsylvania-accidentes.com
14	Getting Clients to Call Quick contact forms on each page Online chat – discussion Content that is packaged numerous ways - www.kraftlaw.com FAQs, news feeds, articles Multiple sites Specialists Information resource – get to the 80% Visibility – 2 or 3 sites in top 20
15	Approach Determine your time and resources Content – do you have time News sources Press releases Articles Spanish pages Newsletters – Kraftlaw Expertise – buy or develop or both Budget – set goals & phases
16	Thank You! See Catalyst or our site for presentation – See CW presentations dropdown. Las Vegas Photos Call for site evaluation or questions – Dale Tincher – 800-872-6590, dtincher@consultwebs.com