So far, the new year is off to a great start, and we have some important updates to share with you.
- No-Follow Links / Brand Mention: There appears to have been a Google update involving no-follow links and brand mentions. A no-follow link is a link to one website from another website, but where the coding advises Google’s bots not to “follow” the link. A brand mention is simply where a firm or company is mentioned but where there is no link. Historically these have played a lesser value when it comes to SEO; however, there appears to be more weight now placed on these items in order to create a natural link profile.
- Cannibalization: Over the past 90 days we have seen multiple instances of website cannibalization. This occurs when a firm or company has multiple websites. If Google algorithmically determines that two websites are for the same business entity, it may collapse one into the other. Outside of the Consortium, we have been retained on several occasions to correct a website that had been negatively impacted. As it pertains to your particular practice, if you had a prior SEO vendor who placed other websites such as micro-sites, blog sites, or other practice area sites, please advise us ASAP so we can implement “best practices” to avoid cannibalization. If we built the site or the secondary site is already in the Consortium, then you do not need to notify us.
- Avvo Ethics Case: Many of you are familiar with Avvo.com, which has a service that allows people to connect to a lawyer for a 15-minute consultation for just $39.00. The Florida State Bar has just issued an advisory opinion declaring Avvo a referral service, which, if the Florida Supreme Court agrees with, means Avvo has to comply with the regulations for referral services. The impact could be far-reaching and impact other lead generation services which have become a polarizing concept in the medical and legal industries.
- Google, Amazon, Voice Search: We are actively in beta, testing voice search with Google’s Home platform and Amazon’s Alexa platform. We will keep you updated once we have additional information to report. We also are further tweaking our voice search key phrases.
