Published on April 25, 2017, by GAVL
SEO
Do you know the difference between HTTPS and HTTP protocol? First, let’s take a step back and explain both terms. The HTTP/HTTPS protocol is that weird beginning part of your law firm’s website URL. It’s parked in front of your site’s domain name, and it essentially governs how data is transferred between your website and the browser making a request to view your website. HTTPS stands for “Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure” and is the secure version of HTTP. HTTPS protocol means that all the communications between a [...]
A great looking law firm website that runs smoothly, helps visitors locate the information they need, and is easily and organically found on search engines is the #1 way to gain new clients online. By now you may already know this, especially if you’ve read our spiel. What you may not know is how to turn a decent website into one clients won’t gloss over. Or, perhaps more imperatively, how do you turn a not-so-decent site into one that’s more than decent? You do this by utilizing proven [...]
Google’s dubbed “Penguin” algorithm has been a vital part of how legal clients locate law firms every day since its implementation in 2012. Essentially, the algorithm targets web spam, decreasing rankings for sites that violate Google’s existing quality guidelines by using excessive links, keyword stuffing, or other “black hat” SEO strategies to attempt to force a site to rank without featuring quality, engaging content. The Penguin update was great for businesses that wanted to rank well by doing all the best SEO practices that are regularly encouraged by [...]
If you’re a lawyer with a website, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with those pop-up live chats that are extremely popular on many law firm websites. If not, take a few moments and browse the sites of your competitors. You’ll find what we’re talking about. You’ll be on a firm’s site one minute, happily looking around, then all of the sudden—bam—a smaller window pops up in front of your screen, asking if you’d like to speak to a live representative. At best, these pop-up windows are rather [...]
There are a whole lot of search engine optimization (SEO) providers and agencies out there that claim to be SEO “experts”. Most provide quality SEO services and can succeed in helping your law firm’s website climb Google’s rankings, but every now and then you’ll come across one that doesn’t quite fit the bill. There are a surprising number of dishonest SEO “experts” out there looking to make a quick buck off business owners they hope don’t know any better. But, hey, you’re reading this. You know better. So, [...]
If you follow the latest webmaster and SEO blogs, you’re likely familiar with the fact that there’s been a recent push for those keyword-rich .news, .live, .lawyer, .attorney, and .law TLD addresses (top-level domain addresses) that are becoming slightly popular. For those unaware, here’s a brief rundown: Essentially, companies are selling web addresses that make your law firm website URL end in .law or .attorney instead of .com. This end portion is what’s referred to as the top-level domain or TLD portion of your domain name. As unique [...]
With the ever-increasing arrival of virtual assistants like Siri, Google Voice, Cortana, Amazon Alexa, Viv, and Google Home, our lives and homes are becoming more intertwined with our favorite technological devices every day. These virtual assistants encourage and essentially train us to become more comfortable with having vocal “conversations” with our devices whether we’re instructing them to play a music file, adjust the volume on a video, help us find the nearest grocery store, or perform an online voice search. The recent boost in mobile voice searches shouldn’t [...]
In October 2015, Google talked about a new component of their infamous search engine ranking algorithm which is collectively called “Hummingbird”. This new component is referred to as RankBrain. It uses computer learning to help place search engine results in the ranked lists we see and interact with on a daily basis. Google understandably keeps a tight lid on the exact workings on the company’s entire algorithm in order to keep site owners and SEO experts from min-maxing the algorithm too much, but every now and then the [...]