Add Content to keep your site charged!

Adding Content

The content on your website is truly the engine. It drives sites like Google and Yahoo to rank your page higher. Well written, niched, keyword rich content helps the pages show up for more searches. It matches you with potential clients to answer their questions. It not only provides information to them but also helps convince them you are experts.

New content makes your site seem live to search engines such as Google. When they go to index your site and new content is found, your rank can increase. Since the programs that read websites, called spiders or crawlers, only register the “Freshness” of the content on your site by when it was added to your site.

Generally the more often a site is updated, the more often it is indexed. Although by no means scientific method, I watch several sites as well as search results and then do Google searches to track indexing.

Logically, it makes sense for a search engine to rank newer information higher. If you search the web for specs on the new Apple computer or news about a plane crash, you do not want even the best article from 1994 or even 2004. You want the best article from today.

What does this mean for an attorney’s website? Add content and do it often. Very rarely, especially if you do it on a new page, will content dilute your site. I will make sure to tell if it does not fit. By doing this your site will actually be fresh and often ranked higher. Optimized content on a variety of subjects within your practice area will make your site and therefore your firm, seem more like the expert.

The more specific problems you address, the better the chance of speaking to a specific search. If you are found for a precise type of event, a specific type of cancer misdiagnosis, a certain type of lease or a complex estate situation, and have content directly relating to that, think what that means to the person reading it. “This lawyer really knows what I am going through”

How do you add more content? What should I add?

Add a page that lets you address hot topics. Greenblatt and Agulnick are addressing the issues of the real estate financing and foreclosure crisis and helping homeowners save their homes by adding new content on mortgage modifications. This fits perfectly within their niche as Real Estate and Insurance Attorneys.

Add Cases of Interest. I know if you have ever spoken to me as a client, potential client or a passer by I have spoken to you about cases of interest. These not only do all of the above mentioned benefits. These show your firms experience as well, in a tangible way. Do not feel like you have to have a large list or big numbers. Just have specific events that really stand out. Large numbers are eyecatching, but the intelligent client is more likely going to hire someone with specific experience. David Pollack, just updated his medical malpractice cases of interest, to give you an example of a great way to do it.

Add Articles you authored Once again, David Pollack is a great example. He added an article of how he uses technology to win trials. This adds a lot of content, increases his position as and expert, increases his value as a client and also personalizes David’s practice.

Subdivide your practice areas The more specific the better. By doing this you are carving out the niche for your firm. Think of all of the type of product liability, all of the individual types of medical malpractice, all of the aspects of criminal law. Each one of these can be a page. Grunwald and Seman did this to get in depth with the many aspects of DWI cases on Long Island

Add A Blog Like this you are reading now, a web log (blog or blawg) is an easy way to comment on current events while adding content and a personal touch. Paul Cutrone’s Medical Malpractice Blog shows how it’s done properly. It does take discipline to fully utilize it, but it can be a worthwhile habit. Feel free to ask me more about it.

Keep thinking of what makes you special, the types of client’s you want and the cases that should be filling your time. Translate this into content on your site as soon as possible to make your goals reality.

Long Island Elder Law Trial Attorneys new custom site is up.

The Suffolk County law firm of Black and Black launched their custom site. The team did a fantastic job writing it and giving it a great design throughout. The firm focuses on Guardianship and Estate Litigation. They are skilled in fighting for their clients in complicated disputes such as Estate Fraud and in related areas such as Medicaid planning. Siblings Edwin and Bronwyn Black partnered as elder law and estate lawyers in1991. Since then their brother, Gregory has joined as another litigation attorney.

Inbound Links: DO IT!!

Inbound links are a must. Adding correct ones continuously is one of the most important things you can do for your site once you have everything working properly on the site. I can not emphasize this enough.

In case you do not understand, an inbound link a “button” on another site that goes to yours. If you have one to theirs it is termed a “reciprocal link”.

Inbound links are votes of confidence. It is the virtual method of the old catchphrase “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you.”

Besides quantity, links are judged on
· Relevance of the link Links from a bunch of pet stores wont help
· The rank of the site A link from a brand new site can be beneficial but not as much as from an often indexed( read by the search engines) site
· The Age of the link- If you have been linked to FindLaw for a few years, it counts for more in the ranking equation than a few months. This explains the duration from launch until you are ranked highly in every search. It is also the reason time is of the essence in linking.
· To what part of your site they are pointing- Don’t have them all pointing to your home page
· The word that links to your site The link will often not readily say the name of the site but be under a word or phrase such as Long Island School Bus Accident Attorney or Construction and Business Contracts in Nassau County (Remember the thing with George Bush/Jimmy Carter where if you typed in failure they came up? Linking was the reason.)
· Speed of the addition of the links

If someone adds a hundred links to your site all at once, it may shoot to the top but then get flagged by Google, Yahoo, MSN or one of the others. Several large companies have fallen prey to frowned upon linking practices only to have their sites removed completely from search results. As you can imagine, that is very detrimental to keeping business flowing.

If you keep asking legal directories, local directories, your bar associations and anyone that references you to add your site, you should be fine. Also make sure they are adding the relevant pages.

There is also the option of having it done professionally. FindLaw offers a couple of services that will manage your linking, and give you access to links almost no one else has. The Search Engine Specialists (some of the top in their field) doing this will not only work to increase your sites rank but prevent it from being admonished by the search engines. The results from these programs have been phenomenal, but they are in very limited availability. Call or email me to discuss them. If you really want to get serious about getting volumes of business off the internet, this is the way to go.

It can be confusing and that is why you have a consultant and the teams at FindLaw to help you navigate the waters. Adding a link or two a week will quickly add up and continuously help your site ranking. I offer in my newsletter one or two such links a week. Staying on top of that will help keep your site on top of many different pages.

New Site for the Law Offices of Glenn Koopersmith

Glenn Koopersmith's new site WWW.NYMATRIMONIALAPPEALS.COM has just been launched. Glenn's matrimonial experience augments his appellate practice. Glenn's aim is to aid those entering into the Family Law and Matrimonial Appeals process. He is utilizing his website to highlight his abilities to maneuver and succeed in this intricate event. He also has been a prolific writer on the topic. I believe his focus and niche will lead to great things for Mr. Koopersmith.