I meet with a lot of attorneys who grew up in an era of radio broadcast and then television. The Internet was introduced to them much later in life and as all of us do when we get older we tend to like the things we are familiar with and shun away from those things with which we know very little about. I have taken great pleasure in trying to communicate with such attorneys how the Internet works in a basic easy to understand way.
Think of Google as your eyes that look for information as you move through out your day. In a physical world we are limited by geographical structure and our eyes can not see a block or two over in order to gather information about the businesses and homes in that location. Google is much like the eyes are except it breaks down the barriers of physical limitation and becomes the eye that can see many different streets and buildings and locations all at the same time.
When someone starts a search for information in Google they narrow down the street with which they want to search by typing in a location and then they further break down the location by specifics that relate to what they are looking for. Several things come into play when you are looking for information in Google.
1. The structure of a Website – A website is much like a house in that it contains information about the individual living in the house. It conveys information about their taste, their dreams, their desires and their past. But what if you got to the house you wanted to see and the person that built the house did not build any windows or doors into the planning of the home. Now no matter what kind of information is in the house or how good that knowledge would be you will never see it because the foundation and the general build of the home does not allow it. A website is very similar. It can have the best information, the most information and be exactly what you are looking for but the search engines will never see that information as the website was constructed poorly from the very beginning.
2. Visibility of a Website – When you are driving down the road your eyes look for information to tell you which restaurant would best meet your need for a juicy hamburger. Your eyes look to the restaurant on the left and it is run down and not maintained very well and their are only two cars that seem to think that restaurant is legitimate. Then your eyes scan to the right and you see a huge sign that shows a juicy burger and a chocolate shake and the parking lot is filled with cars and smiling faces. You naturally choose the place that is well maintained and where there is some validity of others choosing the good food.
A websites visibility is much the same but the terminology is a little different. You see a website must also be maintained in order to continue to do well in the search results. The search engines put some validity in how many other organizations, websites say that a particular site is important. These are called inbound links. The ranking on an inbound link is from 0 to 10. An inbound link from a 9 ranked website is like the Governor saying your restaurant is a good place to eat and an inbound link from a 1 ranked website is like a total stranger dressed in rags is telling you a restaurant is a great place to eat. The rank of the inbound links do matter and the number of inbound links matter as well.
3. Content (External and Internal) – Content is like the menu in a restaurant. Some menus go into great detail about their burger telling you everything that is on it and how it is cooked. The menu will explain the processing of the fine cut meat and how the cook takes careful consideration to insure the flavored juices stay inside of the meat. The more content you have the better you understand the product and the more validity there is to what you have found.
The content on a website is much the same way. When a search engine indexes a website it considers the number of times key words are used and how important those key words are by looking at whether or not they are bold or if they have bullet points. In a hamburger competition you would carefully review each menu and the one the best fits your idea of a perfect burger will win. The content on a website is much the same way assuming of course that the site was built to allow the search engines to see your menu. The more relevant the content and the more content the better.
You don’t want to pay good money for the kid down the street that has learned how to go to GoDaddy and put together a website. If you are paying good money for your website you need someone who can get results and help coach you through the process. Let Lawyer Marketing Services, Inc. provide that service to you.
Lawyer Marketing Services, Inc. 