Almost everyone that has a product or service would like to get good business from the Internet.  How does a website get found in the first place?  What does one website have over another that makes it unique enough for search engines like Google (almost 60% of searches are done here) or Yahoo! or MSN to rank them high in priority?
Search Engines use a mathematicla formula called an algorithm too determine rank.  There are many different components that helo to determine rank but I am going to talk about a few that are the most critical.

1. Age of URL - The longer your URL is online and able to get found by the search engines the better off it will do.  In conjunction with this is how longer your optimized website has been online.  The more time your website has been able to get indexed by the search engines the better off it will do.  For example, two websites with all things being equal, the one that has been online longer will get better results.  Patience is sometimes the best thing when it comes to a successful presence online.

2. Content - The more contentyour website hasa the better off it is going to do.  Why?  Well think about it.  There are over 25 billion websites (and more added every day).  The search engines use common sense and and determine thata if your website has more relevant content than the next guys then it must be more important so the engines rank your site higher.  Now is content the only criteria?  Of course not so lets see what else is important to your ranking

3. Inbound Links - These are criticaly important to the success of your site.  Why?  Because the more relevant links you have coming into your site the relevant the search engines determine your site to be and thus rank your site higher.  So what makes a relevant inbound link?
               a. Links from websites that have something to with the law
               b. Links that deal specifically with the type of law you actually practice an talk about on your website
               c. The higher ranked and more respected  the site is that is providing the inbound links the better off your website will do.

4. Dynamic vs. Static Website - Does your website change on a regular basis?  For example does your site have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page that changes every month or even a newsletter?  If so, your site will do better in the rankings.  Why?  Because the search engines determine that if you care enough to change your site on a regular basis that it must have some sort of relevancy.  If your site remains static (never changes or chanegs infrequently) then your site wil most likely lose ranking.

5. Meta-Date (or Source Code) - Meta tag keywords, descriptions and titles that are highly relevant to the content on the specific page help to increase your value to search engines and assist in boosting your legal website in the Search Engines Results Page (SERP). 

Tool: To see how relevant your meta data is to you content use Widexl’s meta data analyzer.

If you have any questions please call Jon Reiter at 303-947-1737 and he will be happy to explain how to help get your legal website ranked higher.