April 25th, 2007BLOG for Google!
http://www.attorneysonlineincblog.com/
By Amanda Snowden
Inarguably, one of the most popular search engines is Google.com. Those law firms that market themselves via the Internet put a lot of time and interest in trying to find out how to appeal to Google because of the large audience that Google has.Now, before you start thinking that you have “cracked the code” and can outsmart Google, you should know that 99.9% of the time, Google is all ready ahead of you. Now, that is not to say that you can’t still give Google what it wants; it just means that you have to work with what Google gives you. And, fortunately, Google likes BLOGs. Why? I am so glad you asked.
Google puts a lot (and I mean a LOT) of weight to fresh content on a website. Sure your website looks great, but Google’s supercomputers aren’t interested in your colors or graphics – they only look at your text. And if you text was written five years ago and hasn’t changed, than Google may assume it is dated and no longer relevant. However, by posting relevant information on a regular basis to your BLOG (and we are talking a couple of paragraphs), you are giving Google something new to look at (which Google loves). Your BLOG will be given priority over static, dated websites every day of the week.
Your BLOG will probably have a lot of links (usually more than a typical website). While outbound links (where you invite people to go see another website) are nice, the thing that Google likes best are inbound links (where other people are invited to come to your site). For example, as a Dallas attorney, you may have a link to the Dallas Bar Association on your BLOG. That is great for the Dallas Bar Association, Google really wants to know that other people found your BLOG and have a link coming from their site TO yours. It makes sense – if people are willing to create a link to your site, there must be something important or relevant there.
The programming that goes into a BLOG is made for other programs to read – including Google. Any time that you can make it easy for Google, it is probably in your website’s best interest.
Search engines probably have a million other reasons that they love BLOGs, but this is just a few that you should consider when deciding whether to get a BLOG up and running. If it’s good enough for Google, it’s good enough for me!
