Let me be honest here: I know very little about SEO. I have vague ideas of links and headers, but I know that there are a lot of ins, a lot of outs, a lot of what-have-yous. (10 points to who gets the movie reference) One thing that bothers me about the SEO craze, however, is that most people aren’t looking to generate their revenue from the web.
If you have a web-based business or you’re specifically looking to get customers via the web, by all means, optimize to your heart’s content. I would assume that most people, including law firms, are not looking at web surfers for the bulk of their business. If you’re in this category, why spend time, effort and possibly money on SEOizing your site? (I know that’s conjugated incorrectly. I don’t care.) Every firm should have a website, but the website is something you point potential customers to rather than the site pointing potential customers to you.
The Dude, “The Big Lebowski.” You know, that, or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you’re not into that whole brevity thing.
On spending time, effort, and possibly money on SEOizing a law firm’s website: (1) never underestimate a lawyer’s ego; (2) there is value to being the most “prominent” (i.e., optimized) person/firm with your name; (3) clients are not going to remember the URL, they are going to google you, so client service would dictate SEOizing the site; (4) image control — when people research you (potential clients, opposing counsel), you want your site to be what they see first.
Ding-Ding! We have a winner! 10 points to “Face”!
You bring up good points; I agree to a point, which is a balancing test of available resources against what you’ll get out of the SEO issue.
I was referring to a solo working on his/her own site, so the first 2 issues may not be that important — if you aren’t worried about your ego and if you use your own name which is unique enough.
As far as (3), I would keep the URL in a prominent place on the business card, and if you’re careful to follow up potential contacts it should help that out.
Image control is one of those gray areas that I’m just not totally convinced is really worthwhile outside of the political or corporate arena. Big law would fall under my corporate umbrella term.
Like I said, interesting and good points. Your blog is very interesting, I especially like the [sic] post (http://thatpseudoblawg.blogspot.com/2008/08/on-sic.html).