Much has been written about the best blogging/content management systems for search engine optimization (SEO). For over a year I have been using WordPress and the Thesis theme for various websites, and I’ve found it to be very easy to use for SEO. And you don’t have to sacrifice in terms of style. The Wall Street Journal Law Blog and WSJ Magazine, plus a lot of other top-flight sites, use WordPress. The fact that my sites aren’t any prettier is a reflection of my desire to control my own work, and my lack of skill as a designer. But even for a design-challenged lawyer, I can publish a decent-looking website in a matter of hours. And the Thesis theme is designed from the start for SEO. [click to continue…]
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blogging,
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I’ve recently been blogging (with some help) about the Gulf oil spill at BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. When I started the blog, I was struck by the fact that there were no pay-per-click lawyer ads when I used Google News to search for articles. But that changed in a hurry. Within a couple of days the lawyer ads began emerging in an ever escalating war to sign up claimants. When mass tort ad campaigns such as this start, I’m usually either involved in it professionally or I follow the campaigns because I find them interesting and, sometimes, educational. As of the time that I’m writing this post, there are seven law firm ads displayed on Google News when you run a “BP oil spill” or “Gulf oil spill” search. Seven law firms and one almost unnoticeable ad by BP.
Perhaps it’s the technology geek in me, or my interest in Internt marketing, but I enjoyed comparing the ads. The lawyer ads all utilized the top line of the ad well, with large blue letters proclaiming something such as “Gulf Oil Spill Lawsuit” or “BP Oil Spill Lawsuit.” BP’s ad, by comparison, simply said “Spill” on the top line. It’s as if they are ashamed to be associated with it, and don’t want to admit which particular “spill” it is they are talking about. But if BP is too embarrassed to shout out its message in a way that competes with the lawyer ads, why even buy an ad on Google? And if BP, a company which had profits of $6.1 billion in the first quarter of 2010, wants to run an ad on Google, why doesn’t it bid high enough to rank higher than sixth out of eight ads?
Somehow the fact that BP is inept in handling its PR makes me even less confident of its ability and intention to clean up the mess it’s making in the Gulf. I’ve written more at BPOilNews.com about BP’s poor PR, including its waffling and refusal to commit to pay for damages caused by the Gulf oil spill. You can also follow my posts about the Gulf oil spill at Facebook and on Twitter @bpoilnews.
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Gulf of Mexico,
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oil spill
I’ve written before that attorneys who market over the Internet can gain a huge advantage from the use of well-optimized video. As I mentioned in a post on the “Easiest way to a First Page Rank on Google“, Forrester Research has performed tests that show a video is 50 times more likely to be found on the first page of Google than a text page.
This has been consistently borne out in my own use of video in online legal marketing. I’m involved in a project with other lawyers to represent victims of Yamaha Rhino rollovers. We’ve posted two videos in connection with the project. According to recent Wordtracker reports, the search term “Yamaha Rhino recall” is by far the most frequently searched term associated with Yamaha Rhinos. I ran a Google search for “Yamaha Rhino recall” on October 7, 2009, and our two videos appeared in the top five results on Google’s first page.
Here’s a screenshot:
First page of a 10-7-09 Google search for "Yamaha Rhino recall"
[click to continue…]
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Google,
Online Video,
search enine optimization,
Video SEO
Mediapost reports that Google will launch AdSense for mobile on Wednesday. Mobile content developers will be able to insert a small snippet of code into their pages; this will tell Google where to display an ad. The ad targeting is contextual, similar to targeting that exists for AdSense partners.
A Google spokesperson said Google is also experimenting on ways to allow advertisers to bid for ad placement on specific applications. Anybody want to buy an ad when an iPhone user Googles the location of the local jail?
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The law firm of Susman Godfey LLP said Friday it had received preliminary approval of a proposed $20 million class action settlement filed on behalf of AdWords advertisers who were allegedly tricked by Google into paying for ads they didn’t intend to buy. This news comes from a Sacramento Business Journal article.
The class action lawsuit is pending in the Federal District Court of the Northern District of California, San Jose Division. Final approval of the settlement will be considered on Sept. 14.
As any AdWords user knows, Google charges advertisers when users “click” on one of their ads. When the advertiser creates an ad, he or she tells Google the maximum they are willing to pay per click. But according to lawyers for the class, advertisers can find themselves paying for ads they didn’t intend to buy. According to Susman Godfrey:
“During this process, users encounter two adjacent boxes. Into the first, customers enter the amount they wish to pay per click of an ad displayed on Google.com. The second box is marked ‘optional.’ Into this box, a user can enter the amount they would be willing to pay per click of an ad appearing on a third-party Web page. But leaving the box blank does not prevent ads from appearing on third-party sites,” the law firm said.
Google “places the ads on third-party sites anyway. And users are automatically charged per click based on the amount they entered into the first box. This suit arises from the fact that both actions occur without the user being informed,” the firm added.
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Google
After sitting there for a year without much use, Google Profiles are today getting a push from Google, according to TechCrunch.com and a number of other sources. Beginning today, all Google search queries for a person’s name will now feature a section on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) dedicated to Google Profile results at the bottom of every page. These profiles allow people to fill out their basic information, like current employer and links to various web presences, without having to maintain a personal website. Google is allocating four thumbnail spots to these profiles at the bottom of search engine results page – anyone who doesn’t appear in those four spots can be found by clicking a link to show more results. Getting one of these four thumbnail spots is going to very desirable to some people. According to Google, the four top spots will be chosen by an algorithm that favors “complete” profiles, but Google wasn’t very specific about how the algorithm will work.
The folks at Google say, “[a] Google profile is simply how you present yourself on Google products to other Google users. It allows you to control how you appear on Google and tell others a bit more about who you are. With a Google profile, you can easily share your web content on one central location. You can include, for example, links to your blog, online photos, and other profiles such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and more. You have control over what others see. Your profile won’t display any private information unless you’ve explicitly added it.”
You can go to the Google Profile Creation Page to create your profile.
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Google Profiles
The Official Google blog today reports two new services you may want to try. One is the “Similar Images” search which allows you to find images that are, well, similar to another image. Another toy that may prove more useful to some of us is the “Google News Timeline.” According to Google’s blog, “Google News Timeline organizes information chronologically by presenting results from Google News and other data sources on a zoomable, graphical timeline. You can navigate through time by dragging the timeline, setting the time scale to days, weeks, months, years, or decades, or just including a time period in your query (i.e., “1977″). To see this in action, check out the results viewed by month in the summer of 2006.”
As someone who has created a number of websites dealing with recalled products, I’ve found that most clients appreciated a timeline explaining the history of the product, from the time it was introduced until the time it was recalled. To the extent that Google News Timeline can help with that, it could be very useful to people building sites devoted to particular defective products. I tested it with a search for “Yamaha Rhino.” I currently represent clients injured on Rhinos, and operate a Yamaha Rhino recall site and an ATV and Yamaha Rhino lawsuit site.) Unfortunately, Google News Timeline was not as helpful as I hoped. It failed to turn up several relevant news articles. For example, it failed to list a single article from January 1, 2009 through March 31, 2009, although there were very relevant news articles about Yamaha Rhinos, including the establishment of an MDL and consolidation of all federal lawsuits involving Yamaha Rhinos.
I’m going to put Google News Timeline down as an item to check back on in a month or two. It’s too early to tell how helpful it may be.
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by Michael J. Evans on March 10, 2009
in Google
I recently bought a book entitled “What Would Google Do?” It’s written by Jeff Jarvis, who blogs at buzzmachine.com. In addition to the intriguing title, my attention was captured by raving reviews on the cover by Chris Anderson (author of The Long Tail), Craig Newmark (founder of craigslist.com) and other Web 2.0 gurus. With these guys all describing how revolutionary the book is, how could I go wrong by devoting a few hours to reading it? [click to continue…]
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What can we do together? Since 1999 I've been using the Internet, websites, blogs, online video, Twitter and other social media to help thousands of injured people find great lawyers. We've organized national networks of lawyers in over forty states to take on Pfizer, Bayer, Yamaha and other multinational corporations. We've put consumers on a level playing field, and had fun doing it. If you're a great lawyer looking for more clients, contact me and let's see what we can do together.
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