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So how does your Web site stack up? If it isn’t producing results, it’s probably because you have a poorly designed site or because no one actually visits. In a recent issue, Larry Bodine’s article focused on creating a great Web site. This article focuses on the second issue – maximizing your Web site traffic – commonly called search engine optimization.

The overwhelming majority of Web traffic comes from search engines. If your site’s leading referrers aren’t search engines, like Google, you’re probably doing something wrong. Google directs millions of surfers to Web sites each month. You should be getting some of that traffic, especially if your Web site includes articles and other content regarding your practice areas. Many firms, however, have not optimized their sites to get the most traffic.

In order to generate more traffic, it is important to understand a little bit about how Google works. I focus on Google because it’s the Internet’s leading search engine. If you gloss over this section because you think it’s too technical, you shouldn’t be in charge of your firm’s Web site! This is where the rubber meets the road.

Google’s method for ranking pages as search results is like Coke’s secret formula. No one knows exactly how it’s done, but the experts have identified some key factors. I’ll focus on two: link popularity and anchor text.

Link popularity is the number of links that point to a Web page. All things being equal, the more links that point to a Web page, the higher it will rank vis-à-vis another Web page. This is an oversimplification, but Google ranks sites based on popularity. If more sites link to your site, Google reasons, it must be more relevant. Google assigns a numeric “PageRank” to each page that it indexes and generally returns the page with the highest rank.

Of course, link popularity doesn’t explain it all. If that were the case, a site like Yahoo (which has millions of links pointing to it), would rank number one for any search phrase, from “cat food” to “car parts”. This is where anchor text makes a difference.

Anchor text is the word or words that make up the link – the text you actually click on (generally highlighted or underlined). This is one of the most ignored elements of a law firm’s Web site.

Using Anchor Text Effectively

Having a basic understanding of how Google works, many believe that they can achieve high rankings by simply getting more links. It’s true, but it’s not that simple.

An example should make the point. My site has 7,300 links pointing to it. The EEOC’s Web site (www.eeoc.gov) has three times that number (22,900 links). However, my site appears on the first page of Google results for ‘employment law’, while the EEOC’s site ranks at about 50.

The anchor text for links that point to a law firm’s site are almost always the firm's name. Therefore, your firm’s site should always rank #1 for its name, but it will rarely rank highly for other more competitive and valuable search terms – like "employment law" or "bankruptcy lawyers."

In this context, a generic keyword link is more valuable because people use those kinds of words when searching the Web. Look at it this way: no one searches for a New York bankruptcy lawyer by typing in the name of an actual New York bankruptcy lawyer! As you would imagine, they would type in “New York bankruptcy lawyer”.

Corporate counsel might search by industry, using a phrase like ‘bankruptcy lawyers retail.’ The number one result on Google for that search is the bankruptcy practice page for Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle, LLP. That page, however, has just three links pointing to it! The third result is a lawyer’s bio from Sonnenschein, which has one link pointing to it! Another law firm could easily outrank either of these Web pages for that search phrase.

So how do you do it?

1. Links On Your Own Site (Internal Links)

The easiest way to increase your rankings is to use popular keywords as anchor text on your own Web site. An internal link can be as valuable as one from another Web site, and by adding the right kind of links, you can easily increase your search engine rankings.

This is the wrong way to create a link on your site:

Click Here for more information on our Bankruptcy Practice.

Rather, you should make ‘Bankruptcy Practice’ the link! Clearly, it is a much more popular search phrase than ‘click here’. The ‘bankruptcy practice’ link should take you to your group’s practice description, which in turn should contain a link to your bankruptcy lawyers (the link should use those words). This creates two keyword links that should boost your firm’s position for those more common search phrases.

This idea holds true for links to your newsletter articles. You should never have the following link on your Web site:

October 2003 Newsletter

Rather, you should have a link pointing to each article and each article should appear on its own page. As you might have guessed already, the anchor text for the link should be the article title!

You should also avoid the temptation to create clever titles for your articles, like “Bosses Burned for Bad Behavior.” Again, all things being equal, that article will produce less traffic than one that is titled “Employer Liability for Sexual Harassment.” Certainly, no one searching for information on that topic will use the clever title as the search phrase.

As you can see, there is no magic to making these important changes. Review all of the links on your site and, where possible, change the anchor text to search phrases that are more likely to be used by the average Internet user.

2. Links From Other Sites (Inbound Links)

Increasing inbound links is an important means to improving your Web site’s search engine rank. If you were fortunate enough to have the New York Times link to your firm’s site using the anchor text “employment lawyers,” you would probably rank #1 for that search term.

The problem is that inbound links are hard to get. First, it’s time consuming to request inbound links. Second, few Web sites have an incentive to link to a law firm’s Web site (comparatively speaking). Third, most sites ask for a reciprocal link and providing one may not be in your firm’s interest.

In my opinion, the best method to getting inbound links is to post substantive articles that cover your practice areas. Other Web sites (and now blogs) are more likely to link to an article that discusses a relevant legal topic.

In contrast, I do not recommend writing articles for other Web sites (let’s call them “publisher sites”) as a means to generate traffic. Please don’t misunderstand. There may be many benefits to writing articles for well-read publisher sites, but increasing your Web site’s search engine traffic is rarely one of them. To help with your link popularity, the publisher site has to guarantee three things:

1. A link to your site. You’ve done nothing for your own Web site if the publisher doesn’t provide an inbound link.
2. A permanent link. A temporary link has only a temporary effect (and may have no effect at all).
3. A public link (i.e., one that doesn’t appear on a “subscribers” page). A link is useless to your site’s rank if a search engine cannot reach the page on which it appears.

Even if the publisher can meet each of these requirements, it is still unlikely that the link will have a noticeable impact because the anchor text for the link will undoubtedly be your firm’s name (or the author’s name). You would need hundreds of these kinds of links before you noticed an increase in search engine traffic for popular keyword phrases.

Here’s the proof. My home page has approximately the same number of inbound links as Littler Mendelson’s home page. Yet Littler’s home page appears on the fifth page of results for employment law. The EEOC’s site has 14,000 inbound links and appears on the fourth page of results. Littler attorneys could write hundreds of articles, garnering hundreds of inbound links to its home page, but still not make it to the first page of results for more popular or competitive search phrases.

Now consider the downside to writing articles for publisher sites. First, you have less content for your own site. Obviously, there is no chance of someone finding your Web site if it doesn’t have content that relates to a user’s search. Second, your site is less frequently updated. Search engines are more likely to “spider” your site if you regularly upload fresh content. Third, you’ve helped boost the search engine rank for the site to which you give content (search engine ranking is a zero sum game).

Again, any inbound link should help your site’s rankings, but if the return on your investment is only a handful of visitors, I would recommend concentrating your effort on the quality of content on your own Web site.

Conclusion

If your firm’s Web site is not generating real traffic from search engines, you should be able to boost your rankings by making some basic changes to your site’s link structure. Of course, as Jill Whalen from HighRankings.com says, “search engine optimization is part art and part science.” While making basic changes can help, you should consider having a professional optimize your firm’s site. There’s simply too much at stake.