Phase III: White-hat Land (2013-present)
Posted: Sat Dec 21, 2024 4:55 am
On April 24, 2012, Google rolled out an algorithm update called Penguin —basically a penalty for over-optimizing a site, but Penguin was aimed at unnatural links . Over the next 18 months, Google became increasingly aggressive about spam, and its actions and algorithm updates caused traffic to drop for many legal sites. Lawyers began talking about Penguin, Panda, and Hummingbird. Armed with a little knowledge and a lot of (justified) fear, firms scrambled to find white-hat SEOs who could bring back traffic/client calls after Google penalties had decimated their businesses.
Also read: How to position a blog on WordPress?
Even site owners who weren’t directly affected by the anti-spam switzerland whatsapp number algorithm updates noticed drops in traffic as their competitors began to gain high-quality positions earned through white-hat SEO. All of this has had a huge impact on the businesses of many lawyers . Law firms that used SEO outsourcing are now learning about Penguin and Panda firsthand the moment their phones stop ringing.
The solution to the problem is simple:
White hat SEO activities. Of course, this takes time and increasingly more money.
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Here’s another dirty secret: recovering from a Penguin blow is a long, expensive process with no guaranteed results. We’re talking years here, not months. That’s not a window of time when independent lawyers can take a break from marketing.
White hat SEO is expensive. Unique, insightful content is expensive. Changing your name, address, and phone number because you’ve changed your name three times in the last two years is time-consuming. And expensive. And the SEO arms race—with more and more companies entering the fray—is making all of this increasingly expensive, even if the approach weren’t guided by the damaging effects of the algorithm .
Phase III is also being shaped by the increasing prevalence of local results—queries that provide results on maps indicating the location of a business. These results often appear on mobile devices (mobile use is also becoming increasingly popular) and are usually provided by high-converting queries like “Warsaw divorce lawyer,” where the prospect of hiring someone is raised, not just studying a legal matter. Solo lawyers who work from home or Starbucks are largely excluded from local search marketing . Who wants to meet an unannounced client looking for a criminal defense lawyer on their doorstep at 2 a.m.? It’s a long-standing problem without a clear solution, and it’s only getting worse as local searches grow.
Also read: How to position a blog on WordPress?
Even site owners who weren’t directly affected by the anti-spam switzerland whatsapp number algorithm updates noticed drops in traffic as their competitors began to gain high-quality positions earned through white-hat SEO. All of this has had a huge impact on the businesses of many lawyers . Law firms that used SEO outsourcing are now learning about Penguin and Panda firsthand the moment their phones stop ringing.
The solution to the problem is simple:
White hat SEO activities. Of course, this takes time and increasingly more money.
Click To Tweet
Here’s another dirty secret: recovering from a Penguin blow is a long, expensive process with no guaranteed results. We’re talking years here, not months. That’s not a window of time when independent lawyers can take a break from marketing.
White hat SEO is expensive. Unique, insightful content is expensive. Changing your name, address, and phone number because you’ve changed your name three times in the last two years is time-consuming. And expensive. And the SEO arms race—with more and more companies entering the fray—is making all of this increasingly expensive, even if the approach weren’t guided by the damaging effects of the algorithm .
Phase III is also being shaped by the increasing prevalence of local results—queries that provide results on maps indicating the location of a business. These results often appear on mobile devices (mobile use is also becoming increasingly popular) and are usually provided by high-converting queries like “Warsaw divorce lawyer,” where the prospect of hiring someone is raised, not just studying a legal matter. Solo lawyers who work from home or Starbucks are largely excluded from local search marketing . Who wants to meet an unannounced client looking for a criminal defense lawyer on their doorstep at 2 a.m.? It’s a long-standing problem without a clear solution, and it’s only getting worse as local searches grow.