04/02/2012 // West Palm Beach , Texas, USA // Rene Perras…… Le Buzz // Rene Perras…… Le Buzz

(Lawyer Marketing Alert) – Over the last few weeks many lawyer websites have been either de-indexed or de-ranked due to the recent Panda update announced very quietly by Google through a Tweet. Just 3 weeks after Google heavily penalized many websites that had poor quality content or content designed solely to game the search engine, Panda version 3.4, the latest tweak to the now famous update, has upset the apple cart again for lawyer Internet marketing professionals and everyone else with skin in the game.

Although the 3.4 update is reputed to be just a rerun of the existing algorithm with no new modifications, Google reports that just over 1.5% of queries will be affected. While that may seem like a small percentage, considering the number of searches and websites on the Internet, many lawyer websites can and will be impacted if they have not followed Google’s webmaster guidelines for quality content and an excellent user experience.

While this new iteration has vexed many webmasters and Internet marketers who feel that they have been zinged without cause, as that their content is of good quality and they have not violated the rules, it is hard to fault Google for their less than perfect system, when their goal is to provide searchers with the most relevant results possible.

Many of the lawyer websites that have been penalized are because they have generated links through private blog networks, which publish numerous articles across their network of blogs with the singular goal of creating links for SEO. The caliber of the writing and the relevance of the articles have been of little concern in the past, but many of these networks have been completely delisted and are nowhere to be found.

Lawyer marketing professionals need to learn from the penalties paid by those that have not followed Google’s Webmaster guidelines that dictate a focus on high quality content and even more importantly an excellent user experience. Google’s algorithm may be in constant flux, but the key elements that determine high ranking always distill down to relevance and user experience.

It is critical at this time to do a thorough evaluation of your current lawyer website and to learn more about how the Panda 3.4 update may have affected your SEO efforts, now and in the future.

About the writer:

Rene Perras is a search engine optimization consultant, who has helped law firms of all types with attorney websites for over 20 years. For a free consultation about lawyer marketing and attorney websites, please contact Rene Perras at 720-ONE-RENE or visit Cepac.com.

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