Search Engine Optimization

The SEO section of our Learning Center has been adpated from various reliable sources from around the web, including Google’s Webmaster Tools Help on Search Engine Optimization and Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. There are many different opinions about how search engine optimization should be carried out. We have tried to articulate our perspective based on our experiences working carrying out search engine optimization strategies specifically for law firms. We hope you find the information helpful.

Should you have any questions or comments about the information posted here, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

What Is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Search engine optimization (SEO) includes all of the methods that can be used to improve the visibility of a web page in the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. Generally speaking, higher on a search result page, and more frequently a web page appears in the search results, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Optimizing a website may involve editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines. Promoting a site to increase the number of backlinks, or inbound links, is another SEO tactic. Because effective SEO may require changes to the HTML source code of a site and site content, SEO tactics may be incorporated into website development and design. Here are some general aspects to SEO:

  • Site Architecture, Structure, & Content
  • Keyword research
  • Technical Website Development
  • Content development
  • Link Building
  • Social Sharing


Site Architecture, Structure, & Content

The SEO process begins before you even register your domain. During your website planning process, you should make sure that your site has clear hierarchy and is easily navigable through text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link. You should have various forms of navigation on your site, as well as, a site map that will help users find important parts of your site. Be sure that you don’t go overboard on the number of links you include on each page. As a general guideline, try to limit links on a page to around 50.

Keyword research

Understanding your audiences, and how your audiences use search engines and the Internet to find services like yours is absolutely essential to having long-term success. Start by thinking about the words and phrases that users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your site actually includes those words within it.

Avoid targeting industry jargon and legalese, unless of course your target audiences use these types of keywords when researching online.

Technical Website Development

In order for your website to appear in search results, it has to get crawled and indexed. Crawling is the process by which search engines discover new and updated pages to be added to their index. Search engines process each of the pages they crawl into a massive index. They also process information included in key content tags and attributes, such as Title tags and ALT attributes.

This technical aspect of SEO is also referred to as “on-page” or “on-site” optimization. You should think about on-page optimization as the foundation to your “SEO house.” Without a sound foundation, a house can’t stand. However, a foundation alone won’t keep the rain out. Without sound on-page optimization, your site many not get crawled or indexed at all. However, merely having a sound foundation won’t get you good visibility for competitive search phrases.

Be sure that your <title> elements and ALT attributes are descriptive and accurate. You should incorporate relevant target keywords into the following:

  • Title Tags
  • Headers
  • Img Alt Tags
  • Emphasized Text
  • Internal Links
  • Regular Text


That is why it’s important to have an SEO specialist involved in your website design & development process.

Content development

Next to having a solid technical SEO foundation, creating useful, information-rich web content, is probably the single most important component to having success in search engines.

Link Building

To search engines, links to your web pages are like votes or editorial endorsements for those pages. But not all link votes are created equal. A link from a very authoritative website is a much more influential vote than from a topically unrelated non-authoritative website. Attracting a constantly growing quantity of quality link votes to your website is a major part of SEO. And there are numerous ways to attract links.

We recommend that you take a content-driven approach to link attracting. This means that you focus on developing useful content and finding ways to get that content in front of audiences that have the means to link to, share, and further publicize your site content.

Social Sharing

In addition to attracting links, you need your website to attract social shares. These includes shares and status updates from people within your online social circles including sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Social sharing signals are gaining increasing importance within the algorithms of the major search engines. However, like link votes, social share votes aren’t all created equal. You shouldn’t expect that you can “like” or “tweet” your way to the top of search results. This wouldn’t be very useful to search engine users and, therefore, search engines aren’t likely to grant increased visibility simply because the site owner spends a lot of time on social media websites.