The way that Google analyzes and ranks pages  is  evolving all the time – and every time they make a change to their algorithm, it’s always to reward helpful, high-quality pages and penalize pages that are trying to cheat the system. Recently, Google has announced that many of its new search engine changes will focus on penalizing websites that take search engine optimization too far.

Worried that you are going too far with your attorney SEO? Here are four tips on how to avoid over-optimization: 

• Beware of repetitive headers and footers. We see this mistake often: attorneys write very natural, helpful, and informative legal articles – only to add a huge link-filled block of text at the bottom of the page that is filled with common keywords. Many times, this unnatural header or footer is cut and pasted into many different pages. We wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Google spiders begin looking for these repetitive paragraphs and penalizing pages when they find them.
• Your titles should be natural – and not keyword stuffed. When it comes to your headlines and titles, write for your reader, not for Google. Be sure that your title sounds natural and human – and most of all make sure that it accurately reflects the content that follows below.
• When it comes to anchor text and page links, mix it up. Here’s an easy way to tell that you are over-optimizing: all of your articles have the same exact link anchor text (California injury attorney!) and most of your articles link back to the same exact page. While anchor text and links are vital to great lawyer SEO, textbook linking and anchoring will blow your cover in some cases.
• Don’t “spin” articles! There’s perhaps no more obvious way to over-optimize than by writing the same article with the same information (using slightly different wording) dozens of times. Your reader won’t be helped by seven different articles about how much medical malpractice cases are worth – and Google won’t like seeing the repetition. Be sure that all of your articles help the reader and offer a fresh angle on the subject.

Remember: you can never, ever, ever go wrong by producing helpful, high-quality, and unique content. It’s tough to play the SEO game when Google is always changing the rules, but it is easy to create an attorney website that is informative, interesting, and distinctive.

Need more online attorney marketing help? Call us today at 888.886.0939 to learn more about our services (and do just the right amount of SEO).