If you’re not familiar with PageRank, here’s a quick review: PageRank was designed by the founders of Google in the mid-90s. The idea behind it was basically the foundation of Google’s goal to organize the world’s information. Google wanted to create a quality metric that could determine the relative importance of a website. Because Google’s goal is to return high-quality websites (ones that are trustworthy, relevant and useful) to its users, PageRank was a way to try and make that happen.
According to Google, here’s roughly how it worked:
PageRank works by counting the number and quality of links to a page to determine a rough estimate of how important the website is. The underlying assumption is that more important websites are likely to receive more links from other websites.
The questions we’ve received recently from attorneys revolve around their concern that PageRank is something that they need to be worried about for their law firm’s SEO. Whether it’s that they’ve been told PageRank is dead, not dead, or otherwise, there seems to be some concern about what effect this algorithm could have on their law firm’s websites.
Here’s why, regardless of what state PageRank is in, it doesn’t matter for your law firm’s SEO.
1) PageRank isn’t the only algorithm that affects law firm SEO.
Not by a long shot. Google uses over 200 different factors to determine the importance and relevance of a page, and an algorithm like PageRank was only a very small part of that. Granted, a decade ago, before Google had refined its search methods, PageRank held more weight. But as blackhat SEO providers found loopholes that let low-quality pages rank more highly than they deserved — with no benefit to the search engine or the search engine user — Google got smarter and developed a number of different algorithms designed to hunt webspam and giving search engine users just what they need: websites that feature high-quality content.
2) Single metric focus causes an imbalance to your law firm’s SEO strategy.
Whether it’s PageRank or any other metric, focusing on just one will cause an imbalance in your law firm’s SEO strategy. As you can see from above, with over 200 different factors in play, focusing on just one metric leaves roughly 199 other ones that Google uses when it comes time to determine the relevance of your law firm’s website to search engine users. Not only that, Google’s algorithms aren’t static. The search engine giant is constantly busy tuning and refining their methods to bring users the best possible results.
A link strategy is important, but as our Director of Business Development Chad Lehrman points out, a link strategy without a content strategy can be a real risk to your law firm’s website:
A backlink is a link from another website back to your site. The number and quality of backlinks a site has is one of the factors used by Google to rank websites. Backlinks should come as a result of having a well-structured site with good, useful information. The more you focus on backlinks as a strategy, the more you risk getting into trouble with Google’s algorithm changes. Ideally, when the search engines change their algorithm, you should rank higher, not get penalized. But focusing on backlinks while neglecting content may cause you to use tactics that game the system. I spoke to an attorney last week who was promised backlinks on .edu and .gov websites, but his site contained almost zero content. If your site does not contain useful or interesting information, then why would someone link to you? Ask that question of the person or team you are working with and make sure their answer makes sense.
Okay — if we know that focusing on one metric over all others is a big risk, how in the world can you possibly focus on the other 199 factors, especially if you know that Google has never revealed what all of those are? Trying to focus on 200 things at once sounds exhausting, if not downright impossible.
But here’s the secret: you don’t have to focus on 200 things at once.
3) Fix your law firm website SEO with quality content.
What do rankings, web traffic and SEO all have in common?
One thing that improves all of them is high-quality content. High-quality content is that content which is specific, useful, insightful and trustworthy. It gives your law firm the ability to rank well for specific answers to questions, it brings in — not just any traffic — but specific traffic that’s likely to become clients. It eliminates your need to worry about a variety of different aspects of SEO, or wonder whether or not your law firm website violates Google’s guidelines.
Here’s why a content-focused approach can work for your law firm: other than shopping and entertainment, one major reason people use search engines is to answer specific questions that they have. If your content addresses your potential clients’ specific questions in the way that potential clients naturally ask them, your website is much more likely to be returned in search engine result pages (SERPs).
A content-focused approach also helps you build links. How? Naturally. When you write quality, highly focused content that addresses your potential clients’ questions, you naturally find places to insert links as topics come up. You also don’t have to worry about keywords here, either: by writing natural prose, you end up using keywords in a natural fashion that helps your SEO while avoiding the contrived-sounding nature of bad practices like keyword stuffing.
So, regardless of the state PageRank is in, what we want to tell you is this: PageRank is something your law firm doesn’t need to worry about. Where your law firm’s web presence is concerned, it doesn’t matter.
What does matter — and what will truly build your law firm’s business — is giving your potential clients the answers they’re looking for in the place they’re looking for them: on the web. When you answer their questions, assuage their fears, create discourse and give them information they can really use, they’re much more likely to engage your firm and recommend your services to others.
A content-focused plan builds upon itself. It provides value to both potential clients and your law firm. Unlike plans that revolve around the latest SEO trends or misconceptions, providing great content has real staying power.
Building strong client relationships that will support your law firm through focused, tailored content will be easier and more effective for your law firm than endlessly worrying about metrics.
