10 Tips for writing quality content and blog posts for your website

Below are a few key factors to keep in mind when developing pages of content and blog posts for your sites.

GOOD content/posts:

1. Gives helpful guidance or tips = Is “link worthy” (liked by Google who wants a good experience for users who visit your site)
2. Relevant and of interest to your audience
3. Easy to understand by readers 
4. Well written with good grammar and no spelling errors
5. Aligns with the practice areas, services, or products of your firm/business
6. Includes one keyword term that would be used by a consumer who is looking for information about this particular subject
7. Has a subtle call to action that is personable

BAD content/blog posts:

1. Rehash of other articles
2. Not important to readers  (they don’t care about the subject or topic)
3. Too vague with quality information (not enough information)
4. Hard to understand (too much legal jargon)
5. Overstuffed with keyword terms (spammy)
6. Includes link(s) to “anchor text” such as “asset protection lawyer”
7. Misspelled words and poor grammar
8. Does not provide enough quality information

Phone number spam

Does Google penalize websites that keyword stuff their phone numbers on website pages that are useless?  

Hear what Matt Cutts says about this in this 1 minute video

Google Webmaster Tools notifications

How many types of messages does the Google webspam team send out?  

Watch this video clip with Matt Cutts from Google that explains the types of Google Webmaster Tools notifications that they send out. Each month Google sends out thousands upon thousands of emails and 90% of the notifications are related to black hat tactics. 

Types of Notifications:

• Google Black hat spammer notifications: 90% 
• Google low quality or no quality content notifications: 4% 
• Google hacking notifications: 3% 
• Buying links notifications: 2% 
• Selling links notifications: 1% 
  

Unnatural Links - message from Google

What should I do if I get an "unnatural links" message from Google? 

If you receive a message from Google Webmaster Tools about unnatural links on your site, don’t hoit the panic button.  Some links are distrusted because they are related to spammy activity or may be links hacked by your competitors that they are pointing to your website.

Click HERE to read more and watch this brief video from Matt Cutts.

How to improve your LinkedIn Profile for SEO

Here are 10 simple ways you can improve your LinkedIn Profile to help improve SEO

1. Have a complete profile and don’t leave any fields blank. Add all of your awards, honors, and languages.
2. Ask for recommendations and endorsements
3. Add website URL(s) links (a max of 3 are allowed)  
4. Use a relevant keyword to optimize your job titles. Sample: Don’t use “Experienced Lawyer in Dallas,” instead use “Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer in Dallas”
5. Avoid overusing or repeating keywords
6. Promote your LinkedIn profile on your website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.
7. Write Recommendations for other contacts in your network. Writing recommendations are beneficial and helps make you look well-liked by others. 
8. Join relevant groups to get exposure
9. Increase your network by adding 10+ contacts each month
10. Promote yourself by writing about topics of interest that are important to business professionals

How to address Negative SEO links pointing to your site

In this video clip, Matt Cutts, Head of Webspam and distinguished Engineer at Google talks about negative SEO and backlinks from competitors who try to sabotage your website's rankings on Google.

You'll learn how to use the Disavow tool to counter attack the tactics of jealous competitors.

Does a Keyword-rich domain help get my website on the 1st page of Google?

The Power of Keyword Domains

Does having a Keyword-rich domain help my website rank and get to the 1st page of Google and other search engines? 

View this short video clip with Matt Cutts, Head of Google's Webspam team to get a better understanding of rich-keyword domains and brand marketing strategies to get the best results.

Website Marketing Testimonials From Lawyers - SEO for Law Firms

Internet Marketing for Lawyers

Are you wanting a better return on your website marketing dollars? The best form of marketing for attorneys is having a dominate Internet web presence on organic results.  If your firm's website is not visible on the 1st page of Google and the other search engines, you are wasting your money.

Click on the link below and hear testimonials from attorneys who have tried big name SEO companies, print media, TV ads, and other forms of marketing but did not have results until working with iLawyer Marketing. 

Click HERE to hear attorney testimonials

Please contact me (Hector Perez) 24/7 at 714.883.1831 for a free consultation and review of your website marketing strategy and show you tangible ways that I help attorneys increase lead generation results.

Did Google sent out 700K warnings to websites about unnatural black hat links?

Unnatural or Black Hat links

A rumor is going around stating that Google sent warnings to 700K plus websites about Black Hat spam links. Is this true, or not? 

Hear what Matt Cutts from Google has to say in the video clip

How does Google detect spammy sites?

How does Google detect and penalize spammy websites?

1. Google's Googlebot detects spammy websites by using on-page signals  such as:

• Keyword Stuffing
• Hidden Content
• Poorly written content is also seen as a spam signal
• Any type of duplicate or plagiarized content that is copied or scraped from other sites

In addition to Google's On-page signal, they also use the backlink profile of a web page to detect spam by analyzing backlink components like:

• How many links are there in total?
• What is the quality of the pages that they are coming from?   
• Are the pages “genuine” or do they just host links?
• What anchor texts are being used? (Link text is also known as anchor text)
• What is the ratio of commercial versus non-commercial anchor texts?

2. What are Commercial anchor texts or Competitive keywords and how do they influence backlink profiles? 

A commercial keyword is a competitive keyword term that has HIGH monthly search volume or a HIGH financial value, such as: "Injury lawyer" or "Accident attorney"

• If 80% your anchor texts on a page are backlinks to commercial or high competition keywords, it is likely that the page of content on your site will be seen as spammy
• A natural backlink profile usually has non-commercial keywords in the anchor texts

3. On-page optimization is very important and plays a key factor for your SEO strategy:

Good on-page SEO tactics must be part of your online marketing strategy which is being detailed about the basic elements on the pages of content such as:

• Title Tags
• H1/H2 headers
• Meta descriptions

Off-page SEO (link building) is like filling your car with premium gas but on-page SEO elements are like the wheels on your car.

 

4. What type of link building practices work with Google? 

Think of link building like relationship management. If your website is about asset management laws, acquire backlinks that are relevant to financial and legal industries.

• The quality and relevance of backlinks are key to PageRank.  
• One backlink from authentic page will do much more than 500-1000 links from spam blogs. 
• Quality is always more important than quantity when it comes to backlinks. 

Andre Weyher is an Ex-Search Quality Team Member of Google who shares additional insight to their quality signals. Click HERE to read more.

Does Google Have A Parked Domain Detector?

Does Google have a parked domain detector and should I have content on a parked domain that I buy from GoDaddy? The answer is "yes." 

Google does have a “parked domain detector," says Matt Cutts from Google that avoids trying to show those pages in their search results.

If you buy a domain that you intend to use later on, it is always best to write some type of content on your placeholder page so it can be indexed by Google's Googlebot.

You may want to include:

• A paragraph or two on your company 
• Product you will be offering 
• Services you provide 
• Social links 
• Newsletter or email subscription 
• Add a few links to relevant or informative websites that relate to your business 

Watch this two minute Webmaster Help video clip from Matt Cutts regarding a parked domain and pitfalls that you should avoid.

Does using Google Adwords help with my organic ranking results?

Recently, Matt Cutts from Google was asked if customers who have a website and buy Google AdWords get special treatment and ranker higher in organic results. 

Listen to this 1 1/2 minute video clip and response from Matt Cutts regarding Google AdWords and website rankings:

Google's new tool help sites "DISAVOW LINKS"

Google's new tool to help disavow links

Google introduced a tool allows you to "disavow links" that are considered unnatural and may be hurting the rankings of a website. 

According to Matt Cutts, the new disavow tool is designed to help webmasters clean up their sites if they have been notified of a manual spam action based on “unnatural links” pointing to their site. 

The tool is for POWER or ADVANCED users and should not be used If you haven’t gotten a notification from Google. 

To learn more about the disavow feature, watch the video below and check out Google's Help Center

Click HERE to read more about Google's Disavow tool

Google makes 65 quality changes in August and September

Click HERE to see the list of Google's 65 quality updates in August and September

Why does Google make so many changes to their algorithms? 

Google's passion and goal is to build the perfect search engine of the future that is highly intelligent by understanding what a User is looking for on the Internet and deliver exactly what the User wants. Click HERE to read more about Google dream search engine...

What is Google's Knowledge Graph? 

Watch the video clip below to learn more and click HERE to read more about the Knowledge Graph.

Do Links That Point To My Site Really Matter?

Do Links That Point To My Website Really Matter with SEO and Rankings?

Yes they do. Ranking results in Google are partially based on the backlinks of other websites that point or link to your site. 

Google looks at three link factors: 
1. The quality of a link
 2. The quantity of links
3. The relevance of a link

These three link factors will effect your website ranking results in positive or negative way. Lots of links used by SEO companies are from link-farms which are intended to manipulate a website's ranking results and will jeopardize the trust and popularity of your site.


CLICK HERE TO READ MORE more about Google’s guidelines regarding links, link schemes, linkwheels, and spammed links that may impact your site in a negative or profitable way. 

Hear what Matt Cutts has to say about analyzing links or removing links that look spammy

 

Hear what Matt Cutts has to say about links from article marketing, widget links, etc.

Hear what Matt Cutts has to say about effective techniques for building quality links.

Does freshness of content help my website rankings on Google?

Lots of opinions are expressed by SEO guys who say that freshness of content helps your website rank higher.  Watch this informative video clip from Matt Cutts who explains the freshness signal called QDF and how it impacts or benefits website rankings for certain types of websites.

Matt Cutts from Google announces a new exact-match domain (EMD) algorithm change

Exact-Match Domains (EMDs) 

Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam broadcasted on Twitter that a new exact-match domain (EMD) algorithm change was implemented. The algo update is designed to help reduce the amount of low quality Exact Match Domains in Google's search results.

What is an Exact Match Domain (EMD)? 

An EMD contains a keyword term that matches the search query. Below are some sample EDMs:

• Personal Injury Law Firm = www.InjuryLawFirmInLosAngeles.com
• Wine Store = www.QualityWinesForLess.com  
• Designer Suits = www.Designer-Suits_For-Less.com
• Cheap Prom Dresses = www.CheapPromDresses.net

Most search engines gave a greater weight in ranking results to a domain name that associated with a keyword search term result. Some individuals seek to “trick” the search engines into listing a website on the 1st page or getting a higher ranking by having an Exact Match Domain. The update will affect 0.6% of English-US queries. 

The new Exact-Match Domain (EMD) algo update affects 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. Unrelated to Panda/Penguin. — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) September 28, 2012

Google Analytics and descriptors for Key Performance Indicators

What is Google Analytics and what factors should I be looking at for my website?

Click HERE to see details regarding Google Analytics and descriptors for Key Performance Indicators or KPIs.

Is your business or law firm listed in YELP?

Why should I create a listing in Yelp? 

Yelp has fast become a great digital directory used by thousands of consumers every day to find 5 star rated restaurants, quality retailers, local businesses, hotels, shopping malls, gas stations, and 5 star rated attorneys.

As an example, my wife and I used Yelp the other day to find a local Japanese restaurant. The first thing we did was read the reviews left by consumers. If the restaurant had a poor quality rating (3 stars or less stars), we went on to the next 4 star listing until we found one that had excellent reviews by past customers.


If your business or law firm is consumer based and provides services such as: Personal injury law, criminal defense law, family law, asset protection law, probate law, estate planning, etc. You should  take 5 minutes to create an account listing if you don't have one.

A listing in Yelp can help your law firm pick up new leads when people are searching for an attorney for your particular niche or practice area.

Secondly, past clients can post a review about you or your firm even if you don’t have an account listing in Yelp. Take a minute to visit www.Yelp.com and do a search for your firm or business to see if anyone has written something about you. If you have a Yelp listing and no reviews, ask satisfied clients to log in and rate you

Yelp Star Ratings

1 Star = Eek! MeThinksNot
2 Stars = Meh. I've Experienced Better
3 Stars = A-OK.
4 Stars = Yay! I'm a fan.

5 Stars = WooHoo! As good as it gets!

How can I create a Yelp Account?
To create a Yelp listing for your firm, is very easy. Simply click HERE to be redirected to the Yelp Sign Up page.  It's important to add a photo, firm details, and you may want to try offering a special incentive to help engage and compel consumers to act. If you are a law firm, remember to select "Professional Services (professional) in the Category List.

Does Google ignore "Punctuation and symbols in search?"

Lots of people are wanting to know if Google ignores punctuation and symbols like: - dash, + plus sign, $ sign, _Underscore, # Hashtag Number Sign, & Ampersand sign, etc. in a search result.  

Some symbols and punctuation marks may cause the search engines to produce poor results. Its important to minimize using symbols and punctuation on pages of content if you want better results for your website content. 

Click HERE to read about about punctuation and special characters in a Google search. 

Tips on how to market my firm on FaceBook

How can I get referrals and leads for my law firm on Facebook?

Social media has become a fast growing trend to advertise your firm and business at a minimal cost. Getting "Facebook Likes", or "Twitter Followers" is mouth to mouth advertising that is cost effective and believable by having personal endorsements from people that have used your  products or services. Social media marketing takes time and constant effort, however, it's easy to learn and cost effective if you want to market your law firm on Facebook or Twitter.

10 Sample Facebook Pages That Attract Fans

• Skittles
• Harley-Davidson
• Jones Soda
• Porsche
• Victoria's Secret
• The NFL 
• Estey & Bomberger, LLP
• The Gomez Firm 
• Amtec  
• Redbull

Invest 3-6 hours of your time and you will gain excellent knowledge on new ways of generating leads through Facebook and other social media that may result in new clients!   

Click HERE to read HubSpot's FREE ideas on how you can Master Facebook Marketing in 10 days.  

Why is it important to learn Social Media Marketing?

"Social media marketing"; "Social marketing"; "Continuous change"; "Rapid advancements"; "Complex solutions"; "New technology breakthroughs" 

These words create fear and uncertainty for many business people who are not up to speed with social media trends and the technology world. We all need to face the reality that "social media marketing is here to stay" and rapidly growing at an alarming rate. 

Its not difficult to learn the fundamentals of social media marketing strategies, however, it does require time.

Click HERE to read HubSpot's free online book about The Future of Social Marketing and how you can leverage revenue generating opportunities for your firm or business on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites. Social media marketing is the new platform for mass marketing so get on board the new ship before you get left behind. 

Google's Penguin Update Will Shake Things Up For Black Hat SEO Tricksters

The Next Penguin Update from Google Will Shake Things Up

August 10 2012. Read Google's latest article regarding their Penguin algorithm update. 
Click link to read more... http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/2012/08/an-update-to-our-search-algorithms.html

Matt Cutts responds to questions regarding Penguin Update. Comments from the SEO Roundtable Conference.
Click link to read more...http://www.seroundtable.com/google-penguin-warning-15577.html#comment-621250469

How many algorithm updates did Google make in June and July?

Google's official blog post site states that they made 86 algorithm updates in June and July to help improve search quality results for their customers. For a complete list of algorithm changes visit their blogpost. Click here to read more... http://insidesearch.blogspot.com/search/label/search%20quality

Google Dominates Search Marketshare at 66.76% in July, 2012

What percent of market-share does Google have on searches? 

According Experian Hitwise's research, Google had 65.7% of all U.S. searches in July, 2012. For a detailed report on the top search engines, market share, and percetage of U.S.A. clicks by number of keywords click on the link to read more... http://www.experian.com/blogs/hitwise/2012/08/10/searchenginesjuly2012/

Information Source: Experian Information, Inc.