We’re excited to share that Avvo Founder and CEO Mark Britton is profiled as one of the American Bar Association Journal’s Legal Rebels!

A project taken on this month by the Journal to showcase those who are driving innovative change in the legal profession, Mark’s story outlines his vision for Avvo, and its mission to empower both consumers and lawyers in a way that has never been done before.  Sendi Widjaja, Avvo’s CTO, is also highlighted as the company’s technical ‘Wizard of Oz’, who has led the product development of Avvo since day one.

You can read Mark’s Legal Rebel profile here.

Tomorrow we kick off our Avvo Tour on the east coast – a series of free seminars on online marketing. The tour wraps up 3 weeks from now in Philly and NYC where Ari Kaplan is joining us as a guest presenter. Get a preview of Ari, this Thursday during a 30 minute webinar covering 5 Easy Ways to Create Opportunity in a Down Market.

Google has just announced that it will be incorporating Twitter real-time updates into its search results.   This comes on the heels of this morning’s announcement by Bing that it has reached a deal with both Twitter and Facebook to incorporate their real-time updates into its search results.

The search engine wars are heating up!  Isn’t it amazing how in a few hours Bing goes from staging an amazing coup to having the wind completely sucked out of its sails?  So much for my speculation that Google might be avoiding such a deal in favor of a more robust real-time search solution…

Larry Port, Founding Partner and Chief Software Architect at Rocket Matter, will be presenting at Avvo’s Among the Experts: Online Marketing for Lawyers seminar in Miami next week.

As a technology services provider for the legal industry, Larry will be speaking about project management best practices to boost law firm productivity. Here is a brief overview:

Small law firms can be run more efficiently and with less potential errors, leading to more billable time (or productive time for value billers), and reducing risk of malpractice.  Managing matters is similar to the highly developed field of Project Management.  By borrowing some ideas popular with the software and manufacturing industries, such as Agile Software Development and the Getting Things Done System, attorneys can learn practical, simple techniques to employ right away.

Join us in Miami next Tuesday, October 27 to hear from Rocket Matter, as well as experts  on topics covering online marketing strategies, ethics, search engine optimization and website analytics. Best of all it’s free!

Register

Microsoft today announced that it has struck deals with both Facebook and Twitter to integrate their real-time status updates into Bing results.  So what does this mean for search engines and marketers?

Google is conspicuously absent

[Update: Google announced a deal with Twitter hours after Bing]  A key bit of info here is that Bing’s deals with Facebook and Twitter are nonexclusive, which means there is nothing stopping Google from doing the same thing.  And since Google remains the 800 pound search engine gorilla, presumably Facebook and Twitter would not only allow Google to do the same, but would prefer it.

So if this deal is such a coup, why hasn’t Google followed suit? Certainly this idea has already occurred to Google.  After all, the idea that real-time search is a weak spot for Google is nothing new, and it’s actually a long-standing cause for speculation that Google might acquire Twitter.

Is Google Caffeine the missing link?

Google announced a couple months ago that it was releasing a new search infrastructure for its core search called “Google Caffeine.”  The idea was that it would be faster and more comprehensive than the current Google.   Combine that with the following quote from Google VP, Udi Manber, and it’s clear Google is moving toward real-time search:  “If something is written on the Web that is important, we should bring it back to you in seconds. Right now we’re in minutes. Five years ago, it was once a month.”

Google may be avoiding deals like the one Bing just struck in favor of a more robust solution, perhaps with Caffeine.   This would make sense, because Google is known for insisting on scalable, algorithmic solutions rather than manual Band-Aids.  And when you think about it, what could be more of a manual Band-Aid to the real-time search problem than pumping in results from two other websites?

The Twitter spam problem

In addition to the issues of scalability and comprehensiveness, there are some serious quality control issues with integrating Twitter and Facebook into search engine results.  In particular, Twitter is a spammy mess, and if Twitter can’t or won’t fix the problem, then any search engines that use its results will either inherit the problem or have to fix it themselves.  To make things worse, incorporating Twitter results into search engines only amplifies the incentives for spammers.

More reasons to embrace social media

Regardless of how this all pans out, if you’ve been reluctant to jump on the social media bandwagon, this is another reason to get started, as social media and SEO are clearly overlapping.  It’s certainly going to be interesting to hear what the people from Google, Facebook and Bing have to say about it at the Avvocating Conference this coming January in Seattle.

Join the best technology minds to explore the future of legal marketing.
When: January 21 and 22
Where: Seattle, WA
Cost: $249
Discount Code: $50 off with code AVVO1015

Online event registration

Topics:
Under the Hood at LinkedIn
Going Deep with Facebook
Getting the most out of your Avvo Profile
Social Media Panel with LinkedIn, Facebook and Avvo.
Ethics of Online Marketing
Website Analytics and Website Optimizer
Advanced Pay per click advertising
Cost effective blogs and websites
SEO and the future of Search

Avvocating Conference Detailed Agenda

Online event registration

Have you ever wished running ads on Google Adwords were as simple as buying ads in the Yellow Pages? Or that you could easily tell how many phone calls and website visits your ads were generating?  If so, you’re not alone, and Google has responded by launching new product called Local Listing Ads.  This limited beta release probably doesn’t affect you right now, but it could easily turn local internet marketing on its head.

Local Listing Ads in a nutshell

Local Listing Ads, only available for now in San Francisco and San Diego, appear in the same places Adwords ads normally appear and they look similar, except they contain no ad copy.  They just contain a simple listing with basic business information.  The major differences between Local Listing Ads and Adwords ads are under the hood (video explanation here).

Unlike Adwords ads, which are keyword auction based and require active management of keywords, bids, ad copy, placements, etc., Local Listing Ads are flat-fee based, meaning you pay the same regardless of how many people click on them, and require no active management.  You also don’t even need a website because you can direct the user to a Google hosted page.  But most impressive of all, Local Listing Ads contain integrated phone tracking and analytics.  This means you’ll know exactly how many people view your Local Listing Ads and then call your business.

Why is this a big deal?

Google Adwords, Google’s flagship pay-per-click (PPC) product, serves many advertisers well, but can be intimidating for small businesses because  it’s complicated to manage and track return on investment. In fact, it’s so complicated that a cottage industry of PPC management firms has sprung up to help small businesses run their PPC campaigns.  Businesses who don’t hire professionals or beef up their in-house skills can easily waste a ton of money.  Because of the complications and potential to waste money, some businesses avoid Adwords altogether.

Google’s new Local Listing Ads are an improvement over Adwords ads because there is no management required and performance tracking is included. Advertisers can set their ads up easily, never have to manage or optimize them, pay a flat monthly fee, and then easily see how many calls those ads generate.  Best of all, the advertiser can easily see whether the cost per lead makes sense.

Good news and bad news, depending on your business model

For PPC management services like Yodle and Reach Local, this has got be scary news – their business models are built upon simplifying the complexities of PPC advertising for local businesses, which Google seems determined to make unnecessary.  If you can easily setup ads, not have to manage them, and see exactly how many people are calling you because of your ads, then why not just handle them yourself?  If Google is truly serious about making local advertising simple, then it’s eventually going to render PPC management firms unnecessary middlemen.

For local advertisers, this is great news of what’s to come.  If you’ve been waiting to jump into Adwords for fear it’s too complicated or expensive, this program could be just what you’re looking for.  On the other hand, if you’re already doing Adwords yourself or through a third party, then this program could be a better, more cost-effective way of advertising.

What is Google’s master plan?

Questions still remain about the future of the program.   For example, without an auction-based pricing system, how will Google decide who gets precious first page real estate? Will all advertisers be rotated so that they all share equal exposure? Or is Google going to sell exposure on a first come, first service basis and create a massive land rush? Or could there be other plans in the works?

Also, since these flat-fee ads are sharing real estate with Google’s traditional, auction-based PPC ads, Google is effectively competing with itself.  One has to wonder whether sacrificing auction-based ads in favor of flat-fee ads make financial sense for Google.  After all, in certain verticals like law, the auction system allows advertisers to bid up the cost per click of certain keywords to $100, creating a gold mine for Google and a giant, money-sucking black hole for some advertisers.  Maybe Google thinks a simplified product will attract so many new advertisers that it’s worth it to lose a bit of revenue per advertiser in some cases.

Sign up now if you can

While we wait to see Google’s next move, grab your Local Listing Ads if you can.  They are currently only available in San Francisco and San Diego, so if you’re in either of those two cities, then sign up.  Google is giving away one month free, so there’s nothing to lose.

We’re excited to tell you about our upcoming online marketing seminars for lawyers. At the end of  October we’ll be visiting four cities in Florida. Mid-November we’ll be making our way along the Mid-Atlantic Coast with stops in Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York City.

Please join us for an afternoon to learn online marketing techniques from the experts–lawyers and marketing consultants that use the web everyday to generate new clients and maintain their existing ones.

Through a series of presentations, discussions and panels we’ll cover:

Core Web Presence: Learn how to develop a strategy around your online presence–and get the most out of Google, Twitter, Avvo, Facebook and more.

Google Analytics: Understand how to track online performance with Google Analytics–a free tool that shows you exactly how many people are coming to your site, what they are reading and where they are coming from.

Search Engine Optimization: Learn the basics of search engine optimization.

Ethics: Get up to speed on the Ethical Implications of Online Marketing.

Expert Panel: Explore the experiences of local attorneys who have fully engaged in a variety of online marketing initiatives. Learn what works, what doesn’t and what you can easily do for yourself.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Register for a Florida Seminar.
Register for a Mid-Atlantic Seminar.

1.) Norman Victorino of Lake Zurich, IL has moved into the number one spot this month! He has yet to publish a profile picture.

2.) Alan James Brinkmeier of Chicago, IL

3.) Pamela Koslyn of Hollywood, CA

4.) Stephen R. Greenberg of Pittsburgh, PA

Not pictured.

5.) Blair Frederick Paul of Seattle, WA

Not pictured.

6.) Howard Woodley Bailey of Newark, NJ

7.) Sue H. Yoo of Palo Alto, CA

Not pictured.

8.) Thomas W. Nawalany of Portland, OR

Not pictured.

9.) Gary C. Furlong of Seattle, WA

Not pictured.

10.) Charles H. Kuck of Atlanta, GA

Matt Cutts of Google recently made clear that meta keywords and meta descriptions do not affect your website’s ranking in Google.  For the non-technically inclined, here is a simplified explanation…

In the code of web pages, there are various places (sometimes called “tags”) where you can insert keywords that describe your website.  To what extent, if any, putting keywords into these places affects SEO has been the subject of disagreement.  In particular, some SEOs advocate stuffing keywords into the meta description and meta keyword tags as a way to gain higher Google rankings.

Meta tags in more detail

The meta keywords tag is only viewable to search engines, although it is possible for people to see it if they dig into the code of your web pages, where they’ll see something like this:

In the case of the meta description tag, both humans and search engines can see them.  When a user sees the meta description, it’s in search engine results pages.  For example, the words you see highlighted below are the words in Avvo’s meta description tag in Google when you search for “Seattle DUI lawyer”:

Okay, so what does this mean?

It’s no surprise that the meta keywords tag does not affect rankings.  In the early days of search engines, webmasters abused this tag by stuffing it full of keywords, and so search engines eventually started ignoring it.  As for the meta description tag, that it doesn’t affect Google rankings is more noteworthy because there are a fair number of people under the impression it can.

The problem with keyword stuffing meta description tags isn’t necessarily that it will hurt you; it’s simply a lost opportunity — humans read your meta descriptions in search engines, so it’s important to use them as billboards to entice people to click on your listings.  Attempting to optimize descriptions for search engines at the expense of human readers may turn people off from clicking through to your website.  And since you don’t get any rankings boost to compensate for the decreased click through rate, you’re probably worse off.

Reasons to still use the tags

Even though we know Google doesn’t use these meta tags for rankings, that doesn’t necessarily mean to disregard them completely.  First, Google isn’t the only search engine, and just because Google behaves a certain way, doesn’t mean other search engines like Yahoo and Bing will as well.  There is, in fact, evidence that Yahoo and Ask search engines use the meta keywords tag for retrieval, but not for rankings (check out this somewhat outdated article for details and for an explanation of rankings vs. retrieval).  So use of these tags may make more sense in other search engines.  Secondly, all search engines are constantly evolving, so who knows if one day the folks at Google will decide that they want to start using the meta keywords tag again for rankings.

Indirect effects on ranking

One thing Google did not discuss is indirect effect on ranking, particularly regarding the meta description tag.  For example, we know that when a user searches for a keyword on Google, if that keywords appears in the meta description tag they’re bolded. For example, a search in Google for “Seattle DUI lawyer” produces these results:

If Google rewards websites that are clicked more often with higher ranking, and having bolded keywords increases click through rate, then keywords in the meta description could indirectly affect ranking.

Lessons

-  If you do your own SEO, consider humans first when writing your meta descriptions and search engines second because they probably don’t affect rankings.

-  If you do your own SEO and you can easily fill in your meta keyword tag, then do it, but realize it probably won’t affect rankings.

-  If someone else manages your SEO, consider too much emphasis on meta keywords and meta descriptions a red flag (getting links to your website should be the focus, not stuffing your code full of keywords).