Keyword Cannibalization: What it is and how to stop it

By now everyone should know that keywords are king when it comes to search engine optimization content.  In fact, the way search engines index your website weighs heavily on the way keywords are placed into your text. Keyword Research can illustrate what searchers are looking for relevant to your site.

The common misconception is that it would make sense to put keywords everywhere. Repeat them over and over again like a broken record and this will help my rankings. Once upon a time this was true but now this will send you so far back into the rankings that you might as well rely on the yellow pages. Some even went as far as to repeat keywords all over their websites in the same color as the background- invisible to the eye but not to the search engines.

Search engines have learned to separate the ethical from the unethical and there are known strategies for keyword implementation. Statistically, a 12-14% keyword to text ratio is what you should aim for. Go lower and you miss out on capitalizing on being indexed; go higher and you run the risk of being penalized. Think Goldilocks and porridge, get the mix that is just right.  

It is apparent that our country is in the midst of a poor economic climate. Does that mean business’ stop spending money on advertising? No, this means that business owners are more involved, and smarter with marketing budgets and marketing avenues. Your doors can very quickly shut if you don’t spend in the right place. Just what are the right places for your law firm? Todd M. Hamilton, President and CTO of Gaveltek discuses a few smart and cost effective forms of advertising that will drive targeted audiences to your door.

First of all Id like to thank you for taking time out of your busy law practices and  reading our posts. This is particularly relevant as it can save time and make you money. As any SEO firm would tell you, A LAWYER MUST PARTICIPATE IN THE CAMPAIGN. That means you have to contribute content, no matter how much you don’t want to. This does not have to be pages and pages, however, it does have to be relevant. I suggest at least two new posts in two different sources per week. Perhaps even signing up for a yahoo answers account, or participating in a live forum specific to your practice.

Make sure to use your network. If you know other lawyers, talk to them. Request that they put a link on their site and vice-a-versa. This can only benefit you both and the links are relevant as they are law related. Link-juice can be one of the most effective measurements of your success. If you are able to get a .gov or .edu link it can really boost you very quickly to the top of the charts.

Create videos and do interviews. Be creative in your media. Putting all your eggs in one basket can lead to duplicate content, etc… You will suffer at the mighty hands of the search engine gods if you make that mistake. Keep it fresh, keep it relevant,  and keep it coming, Words to live by. Think about posting Slideshows (Slideshare is great for this) with voice overs (Camtasia makes a great product for this).

We all understand that time is critical, so spend it wisely. Create a schedule and stick to it. The dividends you reap will be paid in new business. SEO is a lot of work. There are literally thousands of people competing for your market space. Don’t allow them to muscle in on you by letting your duties slack.

Put the mailer in the trash. Why? Well…. Everyone else does so you probably should do the same. I have seen law offices spending over 50k per year on mailers. The return is less than 1% in all but a few cases. Sure it brings clients, but the ROI is almost nill when drawn out over time. Be open to more directed advertising like the internet. Imagine a system where billions of people access it every day looking for specific services. That is the internet, and the clients are out there, but where is your site in relation to their search terms? Those that search for law firms on the internet are looking for your business, 3 out of 4 according to Nielsen.

Keep in mind that SEO firms exist for a reason; we are here to partner with your business and do the majority of the heavy lifting. I will not take a client if I don’t feel that the client is willing to work with us on their campaign. It’s not a matter of being rigid, but successful campaigns are waged by teams, not one or two people doing the work.

If would like an example of our work, go to Google and search for RMV Lawyer. I assume (based on your geographic location) that suspendedlicensehelp will be very near to the top, as will the other 3 sites we maintain for that particular client. SEO works.

Todd Hamilton is President and CTO of Gaveltek, Inc. He is a 14 year IT Industry Veteran and has lead the charge on numerous successful SEO campaigns. His team consists of highly trained and motivated staff. Gaveltek does not outsource any component of their business, and strive to provide significant value and service to each of their clients. 

What is SEO, why do I need it, and what can I do to increase my site rank?

How can my company help you grow your business? Let’s start with what you are doing as a business to grow your own establishment:

1.       Are you currently engaged in advertising of some sort? If so, how effective have your campaigns been?  

2.       What type of budget and plan have you created to support your advertising efforts?

3.       How many of the resulting inbound contacts (from your campaigns) are converting into sales?

After you have taken a few moments to answer these questions, we can start to discuss how it is Gaveltek can help you.

The Internet is hands down the most valuable advertising venue you can use. If you think about it in terms of audience, you have a vast amount of people, that you normally wouldn’t be able to reach, potentially landing on your homepage. What will they see when, and if, they can actually reach your site? That is almost as important as them actually being able to find you in the heaping masses of other pages out there. This is where we can help… by utilizing current search engine optimization and search engine marketing techniques we can , and will increase your web visibility, resulting in more conversions. “Conversions” is a term we use to describe a contact that turns in to a sale. More conversions = more business.

All of these buzz word terms like SEO, SEM, etc… leave your head spinning? I am going to break it down in the simplest possible terms. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of taking your web page and making it an advertising dynamo. How is that possible? There are two major components to any website; the front end or aesthetics and the back end, or nervous system of the site. By tweaking the backend or what we call on-site optimization, we can make your site appear to a search engine like a hamburger to wimpy (Popeye reference, for those not in the know). We do this by utilizing keywords and the proper subject headers to define the content. Keywords come in two flavors, one word and long tail. Long tail keywords are like this: “the best blue widgets”. Single keywords are like this: “blue”. By making sure that the proper amount of keyword research goes in to your site you can rest assured a  rank increase for your page.  There is one caveat however, if you are a new site, Google puts you in the sandbox, which you can read about here.  Basically Google wants to make sure you are a legitimate site. SEM or search engine marketing, is the process of paying for a settled upon amount for keywords per customer click. For instance, I will pay $2 dollars per click for the words “seo for law firms”. This is Google’s way of creating a competitive market for particular words.  We refer to paid ads, keywords, etc…. as Pay Per Click. Un-paid advertising, such as on-site optimization, is referred to as Organic. We actually built an on-site blog site for some of our lawyers to post information and build better rank for their sites and their blogs.

So if the preceding paragraph describes what we can do ON our site, what can we do OFF? What we can do is Link building, Social Network building, and article submissions (blogs). How do you decide what links, networks, or blogs to pick?

1.       Links: be sure to only pick links that are relevant to your pages theme. If you sell widgets, it stands to reason you would be linked to from Widget review sites, Widget forums, and Widget sales sites. The smarter you choose your links, the more “link juice” you will receive from them.

2.       Social Networking: You have the old standbys, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc… No need to discern amongst them, just post frequently and with relevancy

3.       Blogs: Create a blog about your day to day operations, tutorials, or general help. Link back to your site and the sites of other (non-competitive) sources of information.

We have discussed various methods and techniques for SEO | SEM. Now, why to use an SEO firm like Gaveltek? Because we are experts, although I have simplified the process, it’s rather in –depth, and very dynamic. It requires the attention of experts in order to effectively market your site, and get you the clients, and hits you deserve. SEO campaigns take a great deal of time; you have to strap yourself in for the long haul. 6 months is generally the minimum amount of time it will take to get you moving up the ranks and out of web oblivion.  Here are a few questions to ask an SEO firm you are thinking of using:

1.       Do you specialize in my industry, or are you representing businesses across a wide gamut?

2.       How many clients do you currently have competing for my sales pipeline?

3.       Do you guarantee results?

Do not ever use a company that guarantees results. The thing is, none of the algorithms (complex mathematical formulas used to determine relevancy of your site) used by search engines are made public and therefore no one can actually guarantee organic results. If you are willing to pay hundreds of dollars per day in pay per click, of course results can be guaranteed. Or perhaps using obscure, irrelevant keywords to represent your site is how they will show you page one results, however, if someone is looking for that term they will be very upset at landing on a page that has absolutely nothing to do with the search term.  It is always advisable to work with a specialist in your field. My company only represents Lawyers and Law Firms. I will not say we haven’t done design work for other branches of industry, however, when it comes to SEO we only represent legal professionals. We do this because we are owned by lawyers, employ lawyers, and generally have a vast understanding of the legal industry. 

The Importance and Relevance of Social Networking in a Modern World

Eeking out every bit of water from the marketing stone can prove to be difficult, specifically as it relates to Social Networking.  After conducting a bit of a "free marketing" research campaign over the last week, I have learned a thing or two about what is relevant and what isnt. There were some surprises along the way, and some huge time-wasters, but its my opinion that with a little bit of elbow grease anything is possible.
Over the last 7 days I have looked at hundreds upon hundreds of social networking sites. I won't be posting my opinion on all of them, I've chosen the top 5.

Facebook: Facebook has brought sweeping change to the way we communicate. I would liken it to the jump from the written word to email. Daily, we are able to check in with everyone we know simply by signing in and making a few mouse clicks. That being said, is it relevant to SEO? There are many camps on this issue, most at completely different ends of the spectrum. The simple truth is if you can spread the word about an article, or a site to everyone in your list and everyone in your list does the same, I would say that is a win. Being able (for free) to reach that many people willing to actively participate in the social marketing of your business is incredible. 10 years ago advertising firms would have killed for that kind of exposure, now its common place. The caveat here is to be careful what you post on your personal page. Pay very close attention to the fact that one cannot be without the other, your business represents you, and you represent your business. You can view us here

Twitter: AHHHH Twitter. Who doesn't enjoy trying to break down complex thoughts and URL's into tiny 140 Character (careful with that punctuation!) blip on the web radar screen. My question is, outside of some very basic and fleeting link-building, is it worth the effort? I had to consult the magic 8-ball on this one, as my normal "checks and balances" were drawing a complete blank.  The magic 8-ball had this to say "ask again later". The idea here is to place relevant information at the fingertips of people who choose to follow you, or if you're lucky enough someone will brush past it on the homepage and decide to investigate. This can end two ways; 1. complete disregard 2. a click through to your website or blog. I would not suggest spending hours a day doing this, but a few posts in the course of a week is not going to hurt.
despite the middle of the road opinion, you can follow us on twitter here.

Blogger (by Google): I love this site. I love what this site offers you as a person with an opinion, or as a business with a service to offer. Blogger is relevant, it allows you to post content, and if you use Feed Burner or the like, make RSS magic happen. Not to mention it has a direct line to the almighty Google algorithm. The format and design are optimized for speed. You can add widgets (who doesn't love saying that word) and lay them out without having to be a coding genius. Do I need to say more about the benefits? Linking back to your site, your other social networking accounts, adding relevant articles (such as this one) are all homeruns. Blogger, you are fantastic. Check in with our blog here

LinkedIn: Everyone is scrambling around trying to get their networks established, to get themselves "connected" to other like minded people. I have never seen anyone benefit from these "connections". However, I dont have access to the amount of B2B sales conversions that have occurred because of LinkedIn. I can personally say that its awesome to have a complete corporate profile out there, and its also fantastic to be able to post information on your profile pertaining to your business. But to me, LinkedIn is the Chamber of Commerce for the web. Everybody has to be part of it, but it really amounts to nothing in the end. You can see our corporate profile here
Edit: The Twitter component of LinkedIn actually compounds the relevancy of both sites. I upgrade LinkedIn from a maybe to a yes.

Tumblr: Tumblr is a blog site on steroids. You can call in an record voice messages (think Podcast via phone) post quotes, links, articles, the list goes on and on. There is no limit the amount of information this bad boy can handle. The downside of Tumblr is you have to pay for some functionality. Because of the things it can do with your information, it is a relevant blog site for your company. I'll need to compile more data before I say it's a homerun, but it's looking like it might just be. Check us out here

So that concludes my social experiment. Be mindful of keyword stuffing, redundant content, and the fearsome reciprocal link. Google will quickly decrease your page standings if it sniff's anything nasty in the wind. Keep it on the up and up. Here is a link describing what Google believes to be suspicious behavior from SEO firms.

SEO

Search Engine Optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. The art of gaining top rankings in search results for search terms which are likely to be used by audiences that the marketer is interested in. SEO is accomplished through a variety of programming and link-building techniques which are designed to improve the visibility of a website in search engine listings and drive qualified traffic.
Search Engine Optimization is a relatively new industry, but the methodologies behind it have reached a level of comparative maturity. Having a web presence is a necessity for many corporations that want the immediate and worldwide exposure for their business. SEO services offer a dramatic ROI when compared to paid placement and paid advertising campaigns.

Having an effective web presence on major search engines for multiple targeted keywords is important for any business and brand. Search Engine Optimization is a process that increases the rankings of a website for a specific set of keywords and keyword phrases.

Proper optimization will result in better name branding, better positioning and more qualified traffic. All search engine rankings will increase over time with consistent maintenance and constant link building and content syndication.

A large component of this process is having a streamlined web site utilizing up to date design methods, and use of pertinent content.

Search Engine Optimization Methodology

Following are several processes that are used when developing search engine optimization strategies and a brief summary of each procedure:

1. Research your domain and its perspective industry on the Internet.
2. Keyword research on PPC channels and word tracking services to target the proper and most trafficked keywords.
3. Adjustments to current strategies to assure the proper keyword focus.
4. Competitor Analysis to use as a base for optimization & linking strategies targeting proper keywords.
5. Develop a marketing strategy to promote your domain on the Internet and find related resources/portals to drive in targeted traffic (if applicable).
6. Optimization of content to add proper balance of Keyword Rich Text for maximum results. We request approximately 200 to 250 words of content per page and will adjust the text, add, or modify it and submit it for approval.
7. Optimize for several different targeted keywords. More keywords can be added toward the end of the campaign or at any time during the term of the campaign. More keywords will rank toward the end of the campaign.
8. Create and adjust the “internal link popularity” to take better advantage of the websites Page Rank and help properly target keywords on internal pages as well as improve site structure.
9. Target internal pages to rank for keywords associated with each internal page, product, feature or service. Each page represents an opportunity to rank for a specific keyword.
10. Implement PPC Campaign to achieve immediate results
11. Generate current ranking reports of keyword positions on major search engines for later comparison.
12. Maintain the rankings by tweaking the optimized content to better place the website and strip down any overuse of keyword spam, as needed.
13. Professional Submission to Web Directories (Directory fees may apply).
14. Creating of links (see link popularity section below) on related sites via either/or resource pages, blogrolls, in-content blog posts, articles, advertising, content syndication, etc.
15. Professional Submission of Press Releases

A Message From Attorney Brian Simoneau

Several years ago, I began representing clients before the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles and Board of Appeal of the Division of Insurance in license suspension, traffic violation, and hardship license cases. I have also expanded my practice into the competitive area of Massachusetts DUI defense. I wanted to establish an on-line presence, so I contracted with several web design and “search engine optimization” companies. I spent thousands of dollars and got little internet traffic. I realized that the SEO industry is like the “wild west.” It is completely unregulated, and there are no standards, quality controls, or licensing requirements. I’ve learned that I was not the only lawyer victimized by expensive and ineffective SEO practices. In fact, many of my friends and colleagues have paid even more than I have and received even fewer new clients. 

It seems like the SEO industry prays on lawyers because many of us are not tech-savvy or simply too busy to hold the legal marketing services accountable for their lack of performance. Some companies design horrible looking websites which detract from rather than enhance a law firm’s image. Others build great looking sites that rank poorly in the search results, so that prospective clients do not see the site. The best looking website in the world is useless if it does not get relevant visitors. 

After becoming thoroughly disgusted with the SEO and internet marketing services available for Massachusetts lawyers, I partnered with a couple of friends of mine who have impressive computer and technical skills to create Gaveltek, a honest, effective, reputable, and professional legal internet marketing company. Our goal is to design professional looking websites and to drive qualified traffic to those sites for client development. 

For more information on what I and Gaveltek do: http://www.gaveltek.com http://www.massduidefender.com http://www.policelaborlaw.com