By Peter LaSorsa
You took the plunge, did your due diligence and just launched your website. Now you need the website to show up in the first page of search listings. So how will you accomplish this?
First, make sure all of the links out to other sites, a/k/a out links, are not broken and are not duplicated. If you link to the same website more than once on a page, search engines will penalize you. Second, not all links are of equal value. Linking to a website that the search engines deem inferior or unreliable will not help you and even hurt your rankings. So when attorney Bob sends you an email saying, add my link to your website and I will do the same for you and it will be great for both of us — run, don’t walk, run. If the sum total of a lawyers Internet strategy for increasing rankings is to send out emails for cross-links, linking to their website is probably going to hurt you.
Third, make sure you update your website daily. What do you mean update it daily, I am a busy person and don’t have time for that! Well make time because search engines are looking for original content and content that is updated daily. Would you purchase a newspaper that wasn’t updated daily? You don’t have to write a book, each day add a paragraph or two to a section of your website. You will not only increase your rankings but your website over time will really be robust from the daily updates.
Fourth, make sure your content is original. Avoid the marketers that offer to write content for you and update your website weekly for you. They are going to provide this same service — read this as providing the same content — for many lawyers, which means your content won’t be original.
Practice News
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May 12, 2011 |
Practice News
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May 11, 2011 |
Practice News
That's what Richard C. Jones, Jr. asks in the latest ISBA Real Property newsletter. And it's clear he thinks they are after the Illinois Supreme Court's recent ruling in LaSalle Bank National Association v. Cypress Creek 1. Or at least gravely wounded. "The effect of this decision is that mechanic’s lien claims will be diluted by construction loans, substantially reducing the value of mechanic’s lien claims, and emasculating the protection provided by the Mechanic’s Lien Act," he writes. Read his article.
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May 11, 2011 |
Practice News
Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride on Wednesday announced that seven candidates have applied to fill a judicial vacancy in the 10th Judicial Circuit. Under the Illinois Constitution, the Supreme Court holds the authority to fill judicial vacancies. Chief Justice Kilbride uses an extensive application, evaluation and interview process to make recommendations to the Supreme Court for judicial vacancies in the Third Judicial District. The process includes an opportunity for public comment, background checks by police authorities and with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Chief Justice Kilbride will also use a poll of all attorneys residing in the 10th Circuit, which will be conducted by the Illinois State Bar Association over the next 30 days. The attorneys will be surveyed on their opinions of the applicants’ integrity, temperament, legal ability, management skills and other professional qualifications. Chief Justice Kilbride will appoint a judicial screening committee made up of representatives from the community, including non-lawyers as well as members of the legal profession to evaluate all of the information. The names of that committee will be announced at a later date. Attorneys whose applications were received by the deadline were: David B. Collins, David M. House, Kevin W. Lyons, Christopher S. McCall, Theresa B. Murphy, Leann M. Niebuhr, and Scott E. Umland.
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May 11, 2011 |
Practice News
By John W. Olmstead, MBA, Ph.D, CMC Q. I am the managing partner of our firm of 17 attorneys. Our practice is concentrated in insurance defense litigation. In an effort to provide the best services possible and differentiate ourselves we have been discussing whether we should implement a project management system. I have been reading more lately about legal project management and hearing more about it. Do you have any thoughts along this line? A. Legal project management has become the hot topic of late and we are seeing articles, workshops, and seminars on the topic. Over the years project management has evolved into its own discipline with its own jargon, tools, methodologies, software, etc. Project management as a discipline can become quite technical and complex. Many of the techniques such as PERT and CPM came from the department of defense and were initially utilized to manage projects such as the Polaris Submarine and space projects. The construction industry makes extensive use of project management techniques. Considering that a legal matter is a project, particularly a large litigation matter, with many moving parts there has been a push by clients and an effort by law firms to look for ways to improve the management of matters and related resources, costs, timelines, etc. and to improve and streamline the overall process. Legal Project Management is a customized approach to matter management borrowing and applying some of the principles of project management and incorporating into a simpler and leaner model. Numerous workshops, training seminars, and publications are being offered on the topic. The Hildebrandt Institute is offering a workshop in Chicago on June 21-22, 2011.
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May 9, 2011 |
Practice News
Senate Bill 1746 (Trotter, D-Chicago; Currie, D-Chicago) creates the E-Business Plan to develop and maintain an automated case and statistics management system. The E-Business Plan will include e-filing, e-guilty, e-signatures, and trial court and probation data exchanges. It will be funded by a $10 fee assessed on all civil litigants and all defendants in all criminal, traffic, and municipal ordinance cases. In House Executive Committee.
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May 6, 2011 |
Practice News
The Illinois Supreme Court announced Friday that Associate Judge Timothy M. Lucas has been appointed a circuit judge in the Tenth Judicial Circuit. Chief Justice Thomas L. Kilbride recommended Judge Lucas fill the Circuit Court vacancy created by the resignation of the Hon. James E. Shadid upon his appointment as a federal district judge for the Central District of Illinois. Under the Illinois Constitution, the Supreme Court is given the authority to fill judicial vacancies. An associate judge in the 10th Circuit since 2001, Judge Lucas has presided over a wide range of cases including misdemeanor, traffic, civil, probate, juvenile abuse and neglect and juvenile delinquency.
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May 6, 2011 |
Practice News
By Karen Kies DeGrand, Donohue Brown Mathewson & Smyth LLC
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May 6, 2011 |
Practice News
By Ramona Sullivan
There may be treatment that would fully resolve a medical condition, but the patient will never get the treatment without access to medical care. If the condition is caused or aggravated by a problem in the home, perhaps something harmful in the water or the walls, treatment will not solve the medical condition if the problems in the home are not improved.
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May 6, 2011 |
Practice News
Michael R. Clancy has been appointed as a Circuit Judge of Cook County, Eleventh Subcircuit. This appointment fills the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Edward P. O'Brien. It takes effect on May 27, 2011, and terminates on Dec. 3, 2012.
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May 5, 2011 |
Events | Practice News
[caption id="attachment_19265" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Over 400 new lawyers were sworn-in on Thursday at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago."][/caption] Over 600 new attorneys were admitted to practice in Illinois on Thursday, May 5 with Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court and Illinois Appellate Court administering the attorney's oath at five separate locations. All of the candidates have passed the Illinois State Bar Examination, a required ethics examination and have been certified by the Committee on Character and Fitness. The largest group, 428, were admitted in the First Judicial District during ceremonies starting at 10:30 a.m. in the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University, 50 East Congress. Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne M. Burke presided over the ceremony with Justice Mary Jane Theis participating. Illinois Appellate Justice Thomas R. Appleton from the Fourth Judicial District made the motion to admit the class and Cook County Associate Judge Brian K. Flaherty will seconded the motion to admit the class. The 628 men and women were certified as candidates and were sworn in as Illinois attorneys Thursday at ceremonies in the five Supreme Court judicial districts: Justice Robert R. Thomas presided over the Elgin ceremony; Justice Rita B.
