Geoff Caplan

An Internet content specialist specializing in online marketing and promotion for attorneys has noted that the most successful legal professionals who market online have a keen insight into legal issues that affects the every day lives of individuals and businesses.

“It’s a challenging time for marketing of all types,” observes Boca Raton Florida based legal online marketing specialist Geoff Caplan.  “Those attorneys who carefully target their message, however, and skillfully communicate their most proficient areas of their practice, are doing quite well.”

Caplan points out that “organic” or “natural” search engine content for attorneys has been very cost effective, as opposed to pay per click advertising, because search engines “like” relevant content that contributes to the user experience.

“Content devised simply to spoof a search engine will not have lasting duration,” he observes, “Google especially is always enhancing its search algorithms to discover unique, relevant content that helps them to build a quality index of sites.”

Attorneys have an especially fertile landscape to plow right now due to the many legal specialists who exist and the hypercompetitive, crowded market for legal services in most of the major metropolitan areas of the United States. Strategies like useful blog content, interesting, issue-driven press releases and well-produced videos on various legal topics have proven to be extremely valuable to attorneys in these crowded markets.

Natural Search

Unlike Pay Per Click advertising, which can yield fast click throughs and results, Geoff Caplan says that SEO Content and SEO Copywriting is more sustainable, at a lower cost.

“Quality and sustainability of web content should be an important strategic goal for any attorney or service professional, for that matter,” he observes.

The premise behind natural search as an Internet marketing strategy for attorneys is that savvy website visitors know the difference between paid listings and natural listings. The credibility is there because, like traditional public relations via journalism, readers tend to place more credence in content that is displayed based upon relevance and topic appeal.

He points out that, according to blog.strategynoder.com, it is also likely that natural search will become more important in the coming months. Yahoo’s new Site Match program, which mixes some paid results with natural results, is certain to get some close scrutiny from the FTC (even though the fees paid are not supposed to influence rankings). This type of public attention will no doubt educate some oblivious users as to what “sponsored results” actually are. More importantly, other search engines are likely to use this as a means of differentiation from Yahoo. It is no coincidence that Ask Jeeves announced that it was getting rid of its similar program the day after Yahoo’s new program was unveiled, claiming that it was impossible to produce unbiased results using this methodology. Microsoft also recently claimed that they were taking steps to further differentiate paid results from natural results. No matter what the end result, one probable outcome of this new attention to paid search engine advertising is that more average searchers will learn the differences between paid and natural search results, and many will instinctively favor the latter.

Geoff Caplan can be reached at 561-620-4856, email Geoff@geoffcaplan.com

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Matt Cutts (CNN)

CNN — Web retailer Overstock.com, which never does anything quietly, fired off a press release Monday announcing its release from the “penalty box” Google threw it into after it was caught violating the search engine’s policies.

What’s the penalty box? It’s the time-out corner where Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) sends naughty websites that have tried to game its search algorithms.

The vast majority of Google’s search results are automated. But the company can — and often does — take manual action to bury sites that are running afoul of its rules. Google’s powerful webspam team serves as its search referees. Incur their wrath, and online oblivion follows.

Overstock (OSTK) got itself in trouble in late February for “noncompliance” issues. The company offered student discounts to colleges in return for links pointing to its site. Google puts a premium on .edu domains in its search formula, and it viewed Overstock’s move as an attempt to artificially inflate Overstock’s search visibility.

“Google has now made clear to us that it believes these links should not factor into the Google search algorithm,” Overstock said in a regulatory filing in February. “We understand Google’s position and have made the appropriate changes.”

Webmasters live in fear of provoking Google’s ire — for good reason. Overstock sells a wide variety of cut-rate items like furniture, clothes, jewelry and electronics. Its wares often turn up on the first page or so of Google search results, but Google’s punishment buried its catalog. Overstock said its revenue dropped 5% as a result.

Two months later, the site is finally being set free. Overstock’s typically outspoken CEO, Patrick Byrne, offered up a meek statement that “we have made changes to remain clearly within their guidelines.”

Overstock isn’t the only retailer to be caught using questionable tactics. JC Penney felt Google’s wrath after a New York Times article exposed the use of scuzzy “black hat” methods to boost the department store’s ranking in search results.

“The webmaster guidelines are designed to protect users, and when a site violates them, we take action to preserve a good user experience,” a Google spokesman said Monday in response to Overstock’s announcement. “We typically don’t comment on how specific websites rank in our search results.”

How the Penalty Works

Overstock’s two-month stay in search purgatory was a bit longer than Google’s usual punishment. The site typically slaps a 30-day penalty on sites that break its rules.

“[It's] essentially a time out,” Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s webspam team, said in a recent YouTube video explaining how the site’s penalties work.

Danny Sullivan, editor of the influential Search Engine Land site, says there are likely thousands of websites in the “penalty box.”

“Some of the penalties are manually applied by Google engineers, but most are automatically filtered,” Sullivan says. “There are so many websites out there that thousands more should probably be penalized.”
Tactics like hidden text — website copy.

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It’s an impressive development.

We all know about Open Source software. Now, BitTorrent is producing TV shows for free download via torrent sites. It’s perfectly legal and, from what I have seen so far, it looks very promising.

I watched the first episode of Pioneer One, a sci-fi show that actually has some good production values and an interesting story. You can watch it online here, plus it’s also freely available for legal download on torrent sites. The high resolution quality of the show, by the way, was excellent, due to use of the .mkv video codec.

I really like this trend and will be watching closely for further developments. You can also read more about commercial-free programming and  the socialization of free TV programming via torrent technology  at Vodo.com.

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