Comments on: Search Engine Optimization Article on Law.com

By: dave

dave — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 17:50:57 +0000

Sorry Randy, didn’t mean to use a put down.

Yes, I think we agree that the old site had some good links, but there were real problems with it getting the maximum value out of those good links.

So Google did not like the old site, and she fixed it, probably with standard SEO improvements as well as fixing the internal site linking structure, and more and better content.

And yes, you would need to compare it with the old site to see the changes.

And for that matter, if you really want to spend the time and investigate this phenomenon, you could compare it to the other sites further down the rankings for [Oakland DUI lawyer]. Everything is relative!

By: randy

randy — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:29:47 +0000

dave, I am not trying to argue. I am trying to be informed. Your confrontational and “put-down” tone doesn’t seem warranted.

I agree Google thinks the site is well optimized for [oakland dui lawyer]. I agree it likely has to do with in-bound links. However, those in-bound links existed before and after the optimization work.

It seems that the site should have ranked for [oakland dui lawyer] prior to the optimization project but that there was something blocking it. If this is true, than Araceli removed the blockage rather than adding something in.

If the optimization is more a matter of taking something away than adding something in, that means we can’t see the important changes in the current site.

By: dave

dave — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:54:58 +0000

Again, I believe there is a lot of link authority for that phrase pointing to the site, much of it 301 redirected and passing through the old site.

I would guess that the old site was probably not so much badly optimized, as it was built with no search engine considerations whatsoever. So, fixing a terrible internal navigation structure, and adding some decent title tags, and a bunch more targeted content can work wonders.

But again, I’m not sure what your point is. You don’t see how the site is well optimized for [oakland dui lawyer], yet google disagrees. And then you admit that you don’t know much about SEO.

All that means is that Araceli knows much more about it than you!

By: randy

randy — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:52:06 +0000

dave, I think you might be right about the power of off page factors. However, that doesn’t help me understand what Araceli Parra did to make the site jump in ranking.

From the law.com article and the comment sin this blog it sounds like she added content, changed site structure, and adjusted on-page factors. It makes it sound like external links were constant before and after the seo project, yet the ranking jumped.

I am starting to think that the major thing the was done was not the inclusion of new optimization but the removal of some really bad attempts at optimization. For example, I have seen rankings jumps like this for the removal of keywords stuffed in invisible text.

I do not want to disparage the work of Araceli Parra - obviously the proof is in the pudding. I just don’t get it. Based on the little I know of SEO, the site doesn’t seem optimized for [oakland dui lawyer] at all.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:05:28 +0000

Hi Randy,
Good question. You also need to consider “off page” factors, as well as on page factors like title tags and body copy. There are likely some good links that point to the site with the word “Oakland” in the anchor text.

The classic SEO example that explains the value of off page links is “click here”. The #1 ranked site for the search term “click here” is the Adobe Acrobat download page, because millions of web pages have a link that says “to download acrobat, click here“. Click here appears no where on the page or in the title, and it just doesn’t need to with that kind of off-page, incoming link power.

By: randy

randy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:48:14 +0000

Interesting blog and original article on the law.com site. I am a bit confused, though, on why the site ranks number 1 for [oakland dui lawyer]. The phrase seems to be only usewd once in a meta tag, is not in the title, or anywhere in the body. If anything the site seems to be concentrated more on bay area of san francisco terms.

By: Craig Mullins

Craig Mullins — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:52:54 +0000

I’ll be on the lookout for Paralegals & Office assistants at the next Pubcon.

By: dave

dave — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:22:37 +0000

Craig,
Yes, I thought I was clear that duioffice.com was the old site, though undisclosed in the article.
True that I neglected to whois the forstrank.com site, but it was just an aside to my analysis.

I agree that someone highly motivated can get pretty far. What I didn’t like about the article was the impression that anybody could get their site to #1 with hard work and pluck.

I would be concerned if the article results in 100 lawyers sending their secretaries to Pubcon. If these lawyers expect to be delivered #1 rankings 7 days later, and then for their secretaries to get back to typing motions to support all the new business, I think they will all be quite disappointed.

By: Craig Mullins

Craig Mullins — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:45:26 +0000

Hey Dave,

Pretty cool site you have on attorney stuff. Looks like you jumped the gun a little bit in your analysis.

Looking at duioffice.com on godaddy you could have seen the attorney owned that one also:

http://who.godaddy.com/WhoIs.aspx?domain=duioffice.com&prog_id=godaddy

as well as what it looked like beforehand:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/duioffice.com

Then you have domain info on forstrank.com and Araceli Parra name is right their:

http://who.godaddy.com/WhoIs.aspx?domain=forstrank.com&prog_id=godaddy

Anyway’s I thought the law.com story was great & highly motivational about what can happen when someone wants something really bad in their life & goes for it.

Props to Araceli for making change in her life & saving her employers business.

By: pingo calling cards

pingo calling cards — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 15:37:04 +0000

I forwarded the Law.com post without even seeing this thread. Nice to see the discussion worked out. congrats to earning the number 1 oakland dui lawyer.