Future Searches

Optimizing For Trending Topics

What are Trending Topics?

 A key aspect of marketing is taking ‘the next big thing’ and harnessing its appeal. Trending Topics are the popular subjects, recent news stories and current events that everybody is talking and writing about. Finding and harnessing these topics is an excellent search engine optimization tactic. Trending Topics are a fantastic way to optimize website traffic towards those who are searching for those current topics.

There are typically two different categories of Trending Topics: Short-term and long-term. Short-term trending topics are news stories that will not remain popular for a long amount of time. A prime example of a short-term trending topic would be celebrity news and gossip. A subject such as a celebrity marriage may be a Trending Topic one week but irrelevant and forgotten the next. Long-term trending topics are sustainable issues that have both staying power and growing potential. An example of a long-term Trending Topic is the current ‘green’ trend. A few years ago it was a specialist subject of minimal popularity now it is a huge trend that will continue to grow.

How to find Trending Topics

The Importance of SEO in the Legal Industry

The legal competitive landscape has changed. Small law firms with a great web presence are now in direct competition with the bigger, legacy firms. Web sites and social media have overtaken “word-of-mouth” or yellow page ads as the best ways to generate leads for attorneys and law firms.

Law firms do understand the importance of having a web site. What some lawyers and law firms don’t understand is the importance of doing an online marketing campaign. Using such essential strategies as search engine optimization, search engine marketing, social media marketing, pay per click ads, blogging and geo-targeting, attorneys are discovering the value a solid online marketing campaign can have on their bottom line.

SEO Impact on Attorneys

Lawyers working in the same practice areas need to differentiate themselves from the pack.  For example, personal injury lawyers cover a wide spectrum of cases.  When a prospective client is online searching for an attorney, they will probably not search for a “Personal Injury Lawyer” but for a “San Diego Personal Injury Law Firm” or a “Dog Bite Attorney in San Diego. “ At that time when a prospective client finds you, the value of having great searchable content and relevant Meta data becomes evident.

On-page Search Engine Optimization Checklist

I always prefer working with checklists to make sure I don’t miss any important tasks while working on a SEO campaign or designing a SEO friendly website. Below is my on-page SEO checklist I’ve came up with at the end. I believe the list can be extended by several topics and I am waiting for your recommendations to enhance it.

So here we go…

Important on-page search engine optimization issues:

Does the URL of the website contain any keywords?
Does the website have a search engine friendly URL structure?
Does the copy of website SEO friendly?
Is there “no-follow” in the code?
Is there a splash page?
Are there too much re-directs?
Are there frames, iframes in the code?
Is there RSS available?
Is there any broken links?
Is 404 pages optimized to direct users to the homepage instead?
Is there any dublicated content?
Is the website accessible?
Is CSS Valid?
Is there a sitemap?
Is there robots.txt file available pointing sitemaps?
Is the content text based?
Does it contain to much Flash?
Is there a footer menu?
Is there an enquiry / contact form available in homepage and it it easy to navigate to contact form?
Is the user journey easy to complete an enquiry or a purchase?
Are metatags specific and relevant for each page?
Are anchor texts targetted and relevant for destination?
Are there relevant keywords used in the content?
Are header tags used in titles?
Is “alt” attribute applied to images and are they relevant and targetted?
Is the navigation flat and easy to follow both for users and search engines?
Is the navigation text-based?
Does navigation contain targetted keywords?
Are there title tags applied for navigation elements?
Does website take long time to upload?
Is the content updated regularly?
Is the content helpful?