This is the first in a series of short videos we’re working on to answer some of the most commonly asked questions we get to Customer Care.

This video will walk you through the steps of how to sign-up and receive daily notifications of new questions posted in your practice area(s). Along with helping people with their legal issues, answering questions can also bring more visitors to your profile and earn you contributor points. Top contributors are featured on the Leaderboard and the Avvo Answers homepage.

[This video was updated in May of 2010. View the update.]

OK, so end-of-year top blogging lists are as inevitable as the rubber-stamped holiday card. Having said that, we’re going to do it anyway (and we’re not even going to pay lip service to objectivity). Here, in no particular order, are those legal blogs that generated the most conversation around the Avvo offices in 2009:

1. Myshingle – Carolyn Elefant is the fairy godmother of solo practitioners, offering advice from the philosophical to the pragmatic. She’s also willing to jump into any fray on behalf of solos – providing the first defense of the 5 solo practitioners targeted with felony prosecution in the Total Attorneys case.

2. Above the Law – People Magazine meets legal blogs. If blogs were magazines we’d have a stack of Above the Law in the men’s room.

3. WSJ Law Blog – Ashby Jones filled some big shoes when Peter Lattman left WSJ’s Law Blog – which remains one of the best sources for insightful commentary on breaking legal issues.

4. Simple Justice – Scott Greenfield is described thusly in Avvo’s office: “that guy is an abrasive ass – but I love reading his blog.” I think Scott would agree.

5. Robert Ambrogi’s Lawsites – Through blogging his thoughts, Bob Ambrogi has arguably become the legal industry’s most insightful commenter. If you really want to stay up to speed, tune in to Lawsites.

6. Social Media Law Student – Rex Gradeless is on the list because of the Paris Hilton effect: he’s famous for being famous. But if you still have your head in the sand about social media, Rex spoke last week on a Martindale Hubbel panel based entirely on his ability to become the most followed Twitter lawyer – - – while still in law school.

7. The Legal Satyricon – Easily the most NSFW of legal blogs, it’s a rare day that we aren’t chuckling at Marc Randazza’s tales of First Amendment and political “asshattery.”

8. What About Clients? – Sure, we’d all love a little work-life balance, but Dan Hull and crew offer a constant (and literature-steeped) reminder that being a lawyer is all about service to one’s clients.

9. My Law License – Brian Tannebaum provides a knowledgeable, insider’s view of bar regulation and the legal marketing industry. And he’s not afraid of a fight. He also holds legal blogging’s best disclaimer “You pay for legal advice. This is free.” (Which we’re pretty sure he lifted from Greenfield.)

10. Citizen Media Law Project Blog – Besides lawyers of course, we here at Avvo love coffee, peanut M&Ms and the First Amendment. We’re also kinda fond of the concept of open government. CitMedia does a great job delivering news and notes on the last two.

To everyone on this list – and the rest of those legal blogs that entertained us, provided us with great information, or both throughout 2009 – keep up the good work. We’re looking forward to more of the same in 2010.

1) Alan Brinkmeier of Chicago, Illinois

2) Shawn Alexander of Olga, Washington

3) Norman Victorino of Lake Zurich, Illinois

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4) Erin Dixon of Valencia, California

5) Okorie Okorocha of Los Angeles, California

6) Blair Frederick Paul of Seattle, Washington

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7) Carlos Gonzalez of New York, New York

8. Gary Furlong of Seattle, Washington

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9) Thomas Nawalany of Portland, Oregon

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10) Howard Bailey of Newark, New Jersey

On December 4th, Google announced that it was personalizing results for everyone, as opposed to only those who are signed into their Google accounts. Learn about how Google personalized search works, privacy concerns it raises, and how you can take advantage of it below.

How Google personalized results work

Google personalized search uses your search history to determine which websites you will like, and then it gives those websites a ranking boost when you search Google.  An example of this is if you have a history of clicking on Epicurious.com, then it may rank higher the next time you search for recipes. To keep track of your search history (even if you’re not signed in to a Google account) Google uses a 180 day cookie, which is a small file your browser downloads that allows Google to anonymously identify you and log your activity. Users can opt out of personalization, but it is the default for everyone now.  Previously, personalized search only applied to those who searched Google while signed into a Google account.

Bad timing for Google to push the bounds of privacy?

It’s interesting that Google has decided to do this in the wake of growing sentiment against advertisers collecting user data. For example, rising FTC pressure to self regulate has prompted web advertisers to agree on a universal symbol that shows ads are interest based, and the Internet Advertising Bureau has even launched a campaign arguing that interest-based ads and cookies are a good thing.

Now, before you think, “Google is a search engine, not an advertiser,” remember that Google’s primary revenue source is ads, and it recently implemented personalized ads that also operate off of user search history. So, tracking search habits may not be just about providing better search results, but also more relevant ads that generate more revenue for Google.  In that sense, Google can’t really separate itself from the other interest-based advertisers fighting public and regulatory pressure.

How to adapt to personalized search

Regardless of privacy concerns, personalized search is here to stay for now, so how do you adapt to it?

First, if you measure SEO solely in terms of “I rank #3 in Google for XYZ keyword,” then stop. That thinking is going extinct. Now that most people’s search results will be relative, the ultimate measure of SEO should be how many qualified visitors search engines are sending to your website.  The only way to measure this is through analytics, so if you  don’t have an analytics package like Google Analytics (which can also share all your traffic data with Google …are we starting to notice a trend?), then now is the time to get one.

Secondly, it has been a bad idea for some time to have a website that’s merely a brochure, but now it’s really a bad idea. The new imperative is to get people to your website early and often, and a great way to do this is with top of funnel content. By “top of funnel content,” I mean content that people want when they’re just starting to research their legal problems. Once consumers do this research, they eventually work their way down to the bottom of the funnel, which is hiring a lawyer. If you attract consumers when they’re in research mode, then you’ll have an advantage in Google when they’re in hiring mode.  An easy, inexpensive way to add and manage content on your website is through a blog.

A new spin on things

All the ways clever marketers will react to personalized search remain to be seen, but one thing that comes to mind is the “Google it” tactic, meaning offline ads telling people to “Google something” instead of “visit XYZ.com.”  A better-known example of this is this Pontiac commercial.  Now that Googling something and clicking on a site means that site has a 180 day advantage in your search results, advertisers could start doing more of it.

Oh, this is a tough one.

On Saturday, we received an email from a fellow lawyer telling us that Brian Dinday had been killed while diving off the California coast. According to news reports, he was diving for abalone with his 30-year-old son when he was swept out to sea by heavy surf.

The entire team at Avvo would like to offer our condolences to the Dinday family. As a son and father, I can only imagine the weight of their loss. At Avvo, we also become attached to active participants such as Brian. I have gotten used to seeing his bushy mustache and big smile all over our site. He will be sorely missed.

Times like these remind us to hug the loved ones around us. Donations in Brian’s name may be made to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, 820 B St., San Rafael, CA 94901 or ARC/Morris, P.O. Box 123, Morris Plains, NJ 07950.

Mark

One way to gain an advantage in the search engines is to have a keyword rich domain name. In other words, if you’re trying to win for “Houston divorce lawyer,” it’s good to have the domain name HoustonDivorceLawyer.com.   The trouble is most domain names that exactly match valuable keywords are already taken…but not all.  So how do you find the hidden gems without checking thousands of domain names by hand? Here’s a trick to do it thoroughly and in minutes.

Step 1: Find out what keywords people are searching for

Before your domain name can contain the right keywords, you have to know what keywords people are searching for.  One of the best ways to do that is by going to Google’s free keyword tool.  There, you can start off by typing in some basic keywords like “Houston divorce.”  The tool will return a list of related keywords and show how much traffic each one gets.

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Step 2: Export and clean up keywords in Excel

Now that you’ve got a big list of keywords, click “Add all” under the relevant sections and export them to an Excel file.

The reason we need Excel  is a lot of the bulk domain checkers choke on keywords with spaces, so you need a way to turn “Houston divorce lawyer” into “Houstondivorcelawyer” (and there are some other nifty Excel tricks you can do, discussed below).  Removing spaces only takes a second with this simple Excel formula: =SUBSTITUTE(A103,” “,”") .  A103 is the cell containing the word with the spaces.

Step 3: Paste your list into a bulk domain checker

Now that you have a list of pruned, spaceless domains, simply copy/paste them all into a bulk domain checker like this one, where you can easily tell which domains are available in .com, .net and .org.

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Tips and tricks

Having your keywords in Excel allows you do to all sorts of tricks.  For example, let’s say you’re open to having dashes in your domain name, like “divorce-lawyer.com”.  A slight change in the Excel formula to remove spaces will do that:  =SUBSTITUTE(A103,” “,”-”).

Or let’s say you have a national practice and you wanted to search for every major city in America plus “mesothelioma lawyer.”  To do that, just copy/paste this list of American cities into Excel.  Once you’ve got a that list in place, use the concatenate function,  =CONCATENATE(A1,”mesothelioma lawyer”), to add the cities to “mesothelioma lawyer,” and then use the function from above to remove spaces or add dashes:

Click to enlarge

Happy domaining!

Over the next couple weeks we will introduce the speakers confirmed for our two-day Avvocating Conference in January. The goal from the outset was to invite technology leaders – those who drive online marketing and see firsthand how it’s impacting the legal industry. We’re absolutely thrilled to announce such a great line-up and happy to provide a sneak peak of what to expect if you can join us.

Introducing Stefan Weitz, Director of Bing at Microsoft.

Stefan, a 12-year Microsoft veteran, is an evangelist for the company’s Search technologies. Working across the industry to better understand searcher behavior, he gathers and synthesizes feedback to drive product improvements.

Prior to Search, Stefan led the strategy to develop the next generation MSN portal platform and developed Microsoft’s muni WiFi strategy, leading the charge to blanket WiFi across metropolitan cities. He has also worked in various groups including Windows Server, Security, and IT.

As a huge gadget ‘junkie’, Stefan can often be found in electronics shops across the world looking for the elusive perfect piece of technology.

At the Avvocating Conference on January 22 from 3:00-4:00PM, Stefan will be speaking on “The Future of Search”. He will provide a behind-the scenes look at Bing, highlight how it’s different compared to other search engines, explore advances in local search and discuss how to position your law practice to be prominently featured in search queries.

Sign up for the Avvocating Conference today!