Law firms are confronting more competition than ever before because potential clients have many new options for meeting their legal needs, according to a 2019 report by Georgetown University. That is one reason why it is so important to invest in digital marketing with an agency that specializes in custom campaigns and can save your website from negative SEO. Your website can be an important vehicle for reaching potential clients and establishing your firm as a respected authority in your legal area of focus.
However, your website may be vulnerable to a type of hacking known as negative search engine marketing (SEO). If a third party intentionally tries to push your website rankings down by taking one or more of the following actions, then you may be the target of a negative SEO campaign:
- Posting content from your website on other sites without your permission
- Using “link farms” to create backlinks from a bogus page to your site
Google’s algorithms detect these actions, then automatically penalize your website by ranking it much lower in organic search results. When that happens, a client will be unlikely to find your website when they perform a search using keywords that identify your firm.
Detecting Negative SEO Campaigns
There are several warning signs that indicate your website could be under attack. The most obvious sign is a message from Google saying that you are violating their guidelines when, in fact, you have done nothing wrong. The Google message will refer to the use of unnatural or artificial links pointing to your website. Other warning signs may go unnoticed if you are not using analytics to monitor the health of your website. These signs include:
- A significant drop in your keyword rankings
- An unexplained drop in your website traffic
- An unexplained spike or drop in the number of backlinks pointing to your website
Tools, such as Google Analytics, can help you spot these symptoms. If you are paying for Google Ads and you are seeing less responses than you have in the past, you could be a victim of click fraud. Negative SEO campaigns do not happen very often, but when they do, they can do significant damage to your bottom line. Diligent use of the right tools to monitor your website’s effectiveness can enable you to stop a negative SEO campaign in its tracks.
SEO Specialists at Premier Legal Marketing Craft Leading-Edge Digital Strategies to Help Law Firms Achieve Their Business Goals
Law firms face more competition today than ever before. Our SEO specialists at Premier Legal Marketing offer strategies for maximizing website effectiveness to attract potential clients. We know the latest trends and do the work for you so you can focus on serving your clients’ legal needs. Discover how we can adjust your digital marketing campaigns to better meet your business goals. Call 856-320-2016 or fill out our online form today. We help law firms nationwide.
