1. Think like your clients. What search terms would your clients "Google" in order to find you? A person might enter the words "car accident" or "divorce" instead of the words "legal representation." Keep those terms in mind when writing the content and menu options on your web pages. You can even use the free keyword density tool at webconfs.com to find the percentage of occurrence of a keyword in your website. However, avoid using the keyword more than 10% of the time, as search engines consider this to be keyword stuffing.

2. Take advantage of the title tags and description tags that are only "seen" by the search engines. These are entered in the HTML code of your website by your website developer. To see if you have "hidden codes," go to your website home page, and right click to View Page Source (or choose View from the menu, and then Page Source). You should see a title tag and a description tag for your home page.

   The title tag for the home page of your website should include keywords that lay people might enter to find you, as well as the name of your law firm. *You can use a different title tag on every page of your website. That way if you have many practice areas, you can title each page with a different practice area. The search engines will notice this, and will direct web visitors to relevant pages of your website.

   The description tag for your home page can provide a summary of the home page content. It can be longer than the title tag (20-25 words). Keep in mind that Google might show the description tag on a search engine results page. This means that your description tag would be visible to internet visitors. *Just as with title tags, you can enter a different description for each page of your website.

3. Buy a SEO domain name (website address). Invest in a domain name with key phrases. For example, if you practice in Plano, TX you could purchase the address "planolawyer.com." If that is taken, continue to play with the words. For example, you could use "plano-DUI-lawyer.com" or "planoattorney.com." You can buy a domain at: http://www.godaddy.com/domains/search.aspx?ci=8969 Or at: http://www.mydomain.com/

4. Get back links. You might know that getting other websites to link to your site improves your SEO, and makes you more available to your prospects. What you might not know is that Google values the quality of the sites that link to you, over the quantity of the sites. What constitutes a quality website? It is typically a well known site within your industry, with a high page rank. Furthermore, it doesn't link to too many other sites (sub 60-70 links). Getting listed in HG.org, for example, will give you a back link.

5. Create a press release and post it on a PR site, such as Prweb.

both