Organic vs. sponsored results

If you're an attorney and you rely 100% on your website showing up organically YOU ARE MISSING CLICKS AND TRAFFIC. I believe in organic results and there are plenty of people who click on the left side of SERPS. On the flip side, there are a ton of clicks and traffic going to the sponsored links as well. Are willing to ignore them?
More and more attorneys are utilizing PPC programs to drive qualified traffic to their websites. As an advertiser you get to approve search terms, track results and ONLY pay when someone visits your site! What other form of advertising allows you to do that?
Keep your organic results. Keep your big, beautiful website. In addition to that though, don't discount the searches and traffic taking place in the sponsored link areas. The majority of these searches are people who have clicked all over the search result page and have already done research and are READY TO ACT!

Divorce Attorney launches new website!

Attorney Carolyn Robertson recently launched her new website. The site has a great profile page about Carolyn and her practice as well as a great Family Law Overview.
Carolyn is Board Certified in Divorce and Family Law and has practiced in Houston for over 15 years. She takes a compassionate, informative approach to the practice of law and looks forward to the opportunity to represent anyone in need of Family Law Counsel.

DID YOU KNOW? Carolyn’s undergraduate degree is in ‘Marketing’ from The University of Texas.

Criminal Defense website up and running...

The Law Office of James F. Pons focuses on all Criminal Defense matters including DWI/DUI defense, Drug Possession, Drug Trafficking cases as well White Collar Crimes. James practices in all counties surrounding the Houston area and is very selective in the cases that he chooses to take on.
Personal service and attention to detail are the focus of the firm. James believes in representing each client aggressively while providing information and insight to them during the legal process.

Check out the site at HOUSTON CRIMINAL DEFENSE and find out more about The Law Office of James F. Pons.

MSN and YAHOO taking on Google

After months and month of speculation. MSN and Yahoo have finally agreed on a plan to take on Google. The release of BING no doubt had a lot to do with the agreement and MSN will now have access to Yahoo's searchers. This will allow MSN to get more traffic to BING and build its credibility with searchers. BOTTOM LINE - the competition will probably be a good thing for those who choose to advertise on Search Engines. Google has had too much of the market share for far too long. I'm hoping this will reduce some of the click costs associated with AdWords and level the playing field a little.
Click here to read more about the agreement:
http://www.khou.com/business/stories/khou090729_tnt_microsoft-yahoo-google.8ab6fa1b.html

Negative keywords continued...

Problem - your child is trying to write a paper about Vikings. He tries to research on Google by searching "vikings" only to find neverending sites and articles about the Minnesota Vikings and Favre Watch 2009. Solution - use that little "-" key near the top of the keyboard. That's right, the minus key or subtraction symbol can be used to exclude certain results on search engines.
Try the search again by Googling "Vikings -minnesota" or Vikings -nfl" and see what you get. Now you should have nothing but results relevant to the kind of Vikings who were on boats with swords, shields and real horns on their helmets.
The use of negative keywords is also very helpful in driving relevant, qualified visitors to your website. For example, if you are a Criminal Defense Attorney and currently running an AdWords campaign on Google. You might like add "traffic tickets" to your list of negative keywords. I've met recently with a number of criminal defense lawyers who would like to eliminate DWI/DUI cases from their practice. Simple enough, use the "-" key again and add "-DWI/DUI attorney" and other related terms to your list of negative keywords. This way you only get the types of clicks you want and eliminate click costs that aren't EXACLTY what you target.

Gregory & Gregory

A new site launched this morning for the family law office of Gregory & Gregory. Ray and Myrna Gregory pride themselves in providing expert legal representation in all areas of family law including divorce, custody agreements, child support cases as well as modifications and enforcement actions. They provide honest and up-front legal counsel to their clients in an effort to educate them about the legal process and their case.
Check out the site at Houston Family Lawyers and take a minute to look around. Its easy to navigate and relays the expertise of the firm effectively. Myrna and the staff are bilingual and look forward to any opportunity to help the Hispanic community or anyone else in need of representation in a family law matter.

New site for an Estate Planning Attorney in Clear Lake!

Check out Kim Hegwood's new site at Houston Estate Planning Attorney. Kim helps her clients with legal matters ranging from family law to Probate Administration. Her practice includes preparing everything from simple wills to setting up special needs trusts.
The site is informative, easy to navigate and provides contact information for anyone in need of a EFFECTIVE Estate Planning counsel. Be sure to check out the How We are Different page for some insight into the philosophy of the firm.