Many have said that submitting your website or blog to directories is no longer an effective way to build links and improve your website’s search engine rankings, but this isn’t entirely the case. Yes, not only are (some) directories still good for SEO and link juice, but listing your website and local business information on directory sites can also increase your Google Local/Google maps rankings as well as Google Local pulls from many trusted directory sites when verifying that your information is correct.

So now you need to know what directories to submit to and what rules to follow. Here are 5 tips that you should follow when listing your site or blog on a directory.

1. Is it a niche/legal directory?

You don’t want to submit your website to a directory that is too general or has nothing to do with law because this can actually negatively affect your rankings. The quality of you inbound links is very important, and the last thing that you want is a bunch of links coming in from non-legal-related sites.

One directory that we can show as an example (there are plenty out there but this is just one that we prefer for a number of reasons which we’ll explain below) is Local-Attorneys.com. This is a directory site that specializes in ONLY lawyer listings.

You can also look for niche directories that are location-based, meaning they only list businesses in your city or state. These can be good for improving your location-based search engine rankings and some of them are also good for traffic as a lot of quality directories that are location-specific get a pretty good amount of visits.

2. How does the directory rank?

How the directory is structured is also very important to look at. You want to make sure that any directories that you submit to have SEO-friendly URL’s for your listing (meaning that some of your keywords are actually included in the URL of your listing), some sort of content on the directory site and not just a bunch of links, and a decent Google Pagerank.

Again, we like to use local-attorneys.com as an example because they have all of these things and also rank on page 1 for terms like “local attorneys”, “find local attorneys”, etc. Try to see if the directory you’re listing on ranks for any of your local searches (also, conduct these searches to see what directories DO come up and submit your website or blog to those as well).

This is important for rankings because a) the higher the quality and rank of the directory, the more “link juice” that you’ll receive by being listed, and b) a quality directory is a lot more likely to get more visits which should direct some traffic to your website.

Remember, a directory can help you in two ways: it can help improve your inbound “link juice” which will dramatically improve your Google and other search engine rankings, and some directories can also get your website more traffic.

3. It’s a paid directory, is it worth it?

Clients e-mail us all of the time asking if they should be listed on a paid directory and if it’s worth the submission fees.

Yes, there are plenty of free directories out there that are effective, but a quality paid directory can help you earn a return on investment as long as you know what you’re looking for.

(And, by the way, if you’re using any types of software or web-based programs to submit your website or blog to multiple free directories at once, you’re shooting yourself in the foot).

We’ve seen listing fees range anywhere from $50 all the way to $1000. So, our tip: find some quality directories with lower listing fees ($50-100 is usually pretty reasonable) and submit to a few of them to start off with.

You can monitor Google Analytics to see if any of these paid directories have referred traffic to your website, but just remember that there is return on investment that you won’t be able to see and that is the link juice that this directory is providing your website and helping it rank better on the search engines.

4. Be sure to use effective effective submission methods

What do we mean by “effective submission methods”?

Don’t use the same description for every directory. Be sure to change the wording and included keywords around and, if possible, try to link to interior pages of your website for appropriate keywords/practice areas.

In other words, if you’re submitting your site or blog to directories trying to build your “link juice” up for an auto accident keyword, don’t always link back to the home page itself. Your website should have a page dedicated to each of your areas of practice, and the more inbound links that you have going to these types of interior pages, the better.

Also, to save time, instead of typing or copying and pasting all of the generic information like address, phone number, e-mail, etc., download and use a Firefox plug-in called Informenter. This will save you a LOT of time, trust me.

5. Always try to be as detailed as possible

Listing a website or blog on multiple directories in one sitting can become very tiring and repetitive, but you’d be surprised how much adding little details like a company logo or hours of operation can actually make a difference. Try to take the time to fill out AS MUCH INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS AS POSSIBLE. Add as much content to every directory submission as you can and make sure that you’re maximizing the listing on that directory. Sure, it may take a few extra minutes, but it’s better to do it then and to do it right than to have to go back and do it again.

Twitter launched a new version of their web page today, and the new design is eerily similar to that of a search engine. They announced the new design on their blog this morning, and the reason that they gave for the redesign:

Helping people access Twitter in more relevant and useful ways upon first introduction lowers the barrier to accessing the value Twitter has to offer and presents the service more consistently with how it has evolved.

We’ve envisioned Twitter as a major player in the search engine world for a while now, and it looks like this may be the first step.

Twitter has one thing that Google, Bing, Yahoo!, and other search engines don’t: Real-time search capabilities.

How long does it take traditional search engines to index a page of a website? Days, weeks, and sometimes months. Sure, you could use Google Blog Search, Google Trends, or Google News search for certain up-to-date information, but how about a Twitter search for what everyone thinks about the newest Harry Potter movie as opposed to going through 20 different review sites and blogs?

Just today I was looking for the score to a pre-season soccer game that was overseas, but no major news site had the score until an hour after it ended. How did I find the score before them? A Twitter search.

Ticketmaster codes for special concerts?

Low-carb Recipes?

Wordpress plugins?

Tweeting is easier than blogging (logging in to your Twitter account and typing 140 words or less vs. logging into Wordpress or blogger, typing content, adding pictures, links, and tags, spellchecking, etc…. ), and the fact that you can Tweet on most smart phones means that Twitter will continue to grow in contributors and content that a Twitter search can “crawl”.

Yes, Twitter is also good for promoting blog and website content if you have enough followers, but for those who don’t have the time or resources to manage a blog full-time, Twitter is a great alternative (hence why it’s called a “Microblogging” service).

When you’re Tweeting, be sure to include keywords that people may be searching for from time to time, similar to how you optimize your website and content for SEO purposes. Include generic keywords relative to your practice areas, as well as location-based keywords, and utilize the “hashtags” (#) for any keywords that are commonly used in the Twitterverse.

Twitter is at an all-time high in popularity, with every celebrity and news outlet signing up as each day passes. Whether or not it will stick around and continue to rise in popularity will remain to be seen, but seeing as creating a Twitter profile is free and it doesn’t take much time to manage, what do you have to lose?

Twitter currently serves as a social networking tool, a content marketing tool, and an rss reader to some extent. Twitter as a major search engine? It might be sooner than we think.

I recently came across two lists which I think every attorney should look at when using Twitter.

The first: Twittering Journalists

I’m sure the folks on this list get follows and direct messages from attorneys and other professionals looking for exposure all of the time, so tip: take some time to build a rapport with them before you go asking them for help or favors.

The second: Lawyers to Follow on Twitter

Follow other lawyers in your practice area and build your social network. This can come in handy for a variety of different reasons. Also, get yourself on the list! George has been on the list for a couple of months and has picked up multiple followers from it alone. Oh and don’t forget to follow me of course!

How about this…. SEOMoz published an article last year, but it still holds weight today (with the exception that keyword in domain name should now be higher and so should SEO-friendly URLs): Search Engine Ranking Factors, where a number of experts in the industry ranked different on and off-page search engine optimization factors on a scale of 1-5. Some of those related to link building:

Anchor Text of Inbound Link- 4.4 According to most, this is the second most important factor when it comes to Google and other search engine spiders figuring out what your site should rank for. For Foster Web Marketing clients who Tom and George have been preaching to about changing your titles in DSS and making them shorter: your practice area and home pages are linked to and from on other FWM clients. The anchor text for these links pull directly from…. you guessed it… the TITLES! Get them under 70 characters and make them page-specific… meaning don’t focus on the home page for every keyword, that’s why you have practice area and other pages!

Global Link Popularity of Site- 4.4 And the third most important factor. Your inbound links shouldn’t only point to your home page. That’s why FWM clients have blogs, library pages, and other resources. Now you have to build links to these pages. It’s called deep-linking, and is VERY important.

Link Popularity Within the Site’s Internal Link Structure- 4 And number five overall. Each link on your site to another page on your site counts as a link. When writing blog posts and other content, include links to your other pages that are relevant, and use the proper anchor text. And remember that footer feature that we mentioned we’re launching for FWM clients this month? This is why.

So, as Dave Frees mentioned in his comment the other day, what are some ways of building links as an attorney or law firm? Here are a few great techniques to use:

1. Blog Commenting

Dave couldn’t have done it any better. In his comment, he included a link back to his blog, which, while blog comment links don’t carry as much “link juice” as other methods, they kill two birds with one stone.

Blog comments can be good for building link juice and traffic, but it also helps you expand your social network. If you’re a motorcycle attorney in New England (he wouldn’t be the Million Dollar Man without a link back to his site, would he?) and you come across a blog post or article that you think is relevant or interesting by a motorcycle attorney in California somewhere, comment on it! Not only will you be getting a link back to your site, but you’ll also be expanding your online social network.

Tip: Exercise good taste when using this link building method. Don’t put your practice area as your name and don’t shamelessly self-promote. READ THE BLOG POST and then comment, and add something that is relevant to the discussion and topic. Nobody likes a spammer. Use some of the resources I mentioned in my Ways to Market your Attorney Blog post like Google Blogsearch and Google Alerts to find posts relevant to your practice area(s). And don’t focus too much on NOFOLLOW vs DOFOLLOW, it’s not a huge issue if you’re commenting on blogs that are relevant to what you do.

2. Forum and Answer Services Participation

You, as an attorney, offer valuable information that can be relevant to everyone. And this information is trusted. You didn’t spend all of those years in law school and making a name for yourself over the years for nothing, people know that the knowledge you possess is trusted and accurate. So share it!

You might be saying to yourself, why offer advice and information for free? I’m here to get leads and clients, not trade industry secrets.

The Web 2.0 mentality is all about transparency. People (and search engine spiders) notice you taking time out of your busy day to contribute to legal forums and other informative websites. Including a link back to your site in the signature of these sites can’t hurt either. I’ll make a post later about some legal forums you can use to answer law-related questions (and get a link or two in the process), but in the meantime, registering and using answer sites like Yahoo! Answers, Fluther, and others cant hurt.

TIP: Again, be tasteful. Don’t use wording like “for a free consultation, visit http://www.spammylawyer.com”. And again, the forum and answer service links don’t carry a LOT of linkjuice, so don’t focus too much time on these thinking it will help you reach #1 next week. The main goal of this is that search engines see you contributing to relevant conversation. Also, deep-linking (linking back to a blog post or library page) is much better than linking back to your home page when using this method.

3.. Article Submission

Creating articles and submitting them to article submission sites is a common link building technique. However, two things to keep in mind:

1) Duplicate Content

You can either a) write an article specifically to submit to these sites, and don’t publish the article on your blog or website. or b) revise the way the article is worded if you decide to include it.

2) Trusted Article Sites

Google has made it known that there are articles sites out there that are not trusted. Stick to sites like  EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare.

TIP: If you have a website as well as a blog, you can link back to each through this method. And if you don’t…

4. Get a BLOG!

Many debate whether it is better to have a blog on or off-site. On-site is good because it’s another way to add content. But off-site is better for link building and networking purposes.

Bloggers don’t mind linking to other blogs; in fact, they are way more likely to link to another blog than they are to your website. You can also use an off-site blog to drop links to your site pages from time to time. Take the time to build the authority of the off-site blog by

1. Linking to useful pages and resources
2. Submitting your blog to the resources I mentioned in Ways to Market your Attorney Blog3. You can even install a footer on your off-site blog that links every page to your web site. This is good, because most blogs are multiple pages, resulting in more links to your website. But, content is key, and building the blog’s authority not only improves the link juice coming to your site, but it also gives you another site that has a chance to rank well.
4. Promoting your blog as actively as you promote your website, and take the time to come up with useful and informative content.
5. Get a domain name that is relevant to your practice area. Google seems to be putting more and more emphasis on ranking sites with good domain names higher, so see what is available other than your or your law firm’s name.

5. Niche Directory Sites

Google has made it no secret that regular directory sites like DMOZ are not as valued as they once were. However, relevant niche (law-related) directory sites are still good, if they are trusted and have a decent authority built. Look for directory sites that include content and a few articles, and not one that just links in and out.

TIP: Set up a “links page” for niche directory sites that require reciprocal linking.

These are five (and by the way, top 10 or top 5 lists as link bait and article topics are great because they are easier to read through) link building methods that are good for attorneys and law firms. I will share some more next week some time.

A client of ours, Atlanta Car Accident Attorney James Murphy are wondering why they’re not ranking as well for their blog posts as they are for their practice area pages. From her e-mail:
 
Type “school bus accident dublin ga” in the Google search bar.  We should be the 5th result or so.  When clicking on the link, however, our car accident practice area page appears….

(then) type “parking deck Sandy Springs” in Google.  We should be the first result, and Google sends visitors to the correct blog (post).

At Foster Web Marketing, clients in similar practice areas who are not in the same area (and don’t compete) link to and from each other. But the pages that they link to are the practice area pages and home page, resulting in more inbound links and higher “link juice” of the practice area pages than of the other pages.

That being said, the practice area pages ranking higher than the blog post pages are not uncommon, and goes to show the power of building links to individual pages (ESPECIALLY blog posts).

So then you ask, why does a blog post rank for the second keyword phrase, but not the first? The answer: competitiveness.

Who are people going to blog/talk about or report more, a school bus accident in Georgia that sends 29 kids to the hospital, or a parking deck collapsing (which, from what I can find, resulted in no injuries). While there’s no clear-cut answer, it would appear that the school bus crashing resulting in injuries is the more competitive topic/keyword phrase, because there is simply more more authoritative sources out there covering the story.

Proof: type in “school bus accident dublin” and you’ll see that there are triple the amount of search results, and more news stories out there than the second keyword phrase about the parking deck.

So, how do you overcome this?

Build links to the actual blog post. The search results above you are ranking because they have built more authority, meaning that particular page has built more links (both off-site as well as internal linking on-site…. if a news website has 100,000 pages, with a link on every page to this particular blog post, while the quality of those inbound links might not be that great… guess what… that’s a lot of links) than your blog post.

Taking the time to create the content of your blog post is only the first step… promoting and building links to it is a whole new level.

Check out the first post of this blog, ways to promote your attorney blog, and coming tomorrow: ways to promote and build links to individual blog posts.

Here is a three-part video on how to use Twitter as an attorney:

Twitter For Attorneys Part 1:

  

Twitter For Attorneys Part 2

 

Twitter for Attorneys Part 3:

George Murphy of Foster Web Marketing recently asked Josh King, Vice President of the fast-growing legal directory Avvo, a few questions about the site after it is heading into its third year online. Here is what he had to say:

So just give us some feedback on Avvo and a few of it’s selling points.

 Avvo helps guide consumers in handling their legal matters with confidence and choosing the right lawyer.  For lawyers, Avvo offers a free web presence where attorneys can add highlight their practice and stand apart online.  Attorneys can also answer legal questions posted on the site by consumers, and use Avvo’s self-publishing tool to create “legal guides” in their areas of law. 

All of these activities help create a depth of profile that makes it easier for buyers of legal services to make the decision to hire a lawyer.  Avvo is not only highly trafficked, but is also highly search-engine-optimized.  This is particularly valuable when a potential client is looking an attorney up by name. Another very popular feature of out site is the Avvo Rating, which is our assessment (based on an algorithm we run on every lawyer profile) of the likelihood an attorney will be able to help a consumer with their legal problem.

 

Sounds like way more than a directory site. What kind of success stories have you been hearing from attorneys using Avvo?

 We’ve heard from many attorneys who tell us they receive numerous clients through Avvo.  One WA firm told us that earlier this year, one-third of their new clients were from Avvo, and another told us they were acquiring two clients per month. Not bad for a free website.

 

Not bad at all. What kind of growth have you experienced since launching last June?

We’ve grown over 400% in 2008.  We also cover more than 1 million attorneys, making us the largest legal “directory” in the U.S.

 

Impressive. What does the future hold for Avvo?

Very soon, attorneys will be able to advertise on Avvo, much as Google features sponsored listings along with search results. We’ll also expand coverage into the states in which we currently don’t have lawyer profiles.

 

We’ve spoken about this before, but with Avvo.com having a web 2.0, almost social-media type of feel to it, what are your thoughts are on social media for attorneys? Especially Twitter?

I think Twitter is a terrific way to network and expand readership of attorney blogs, when used properly.  However, attorneys will need to find the right balance between not letting Twitter be a time sink and not posting once and going away. 

Amen to that. Thanks to Josh for his feedback, and for any attorney out there who is looking to expand their online reach, go claim your Avvo profile (everything is pulled from State Bar records, so not anyone can register as an attorney on the site. Very cool!).

Coming tomorrow: Twitter For Attorneys, in Video.