Law Firm Website/Practice Areas Questions

bigp1612 · 03-18-2011, 06:08 PM

Hi, this is my first post on the site so be gentle. I'm helping out my father's law firm with some basic seo. It's a personal injury/criminal/family/social security law firm. I've got the site to be competitive for some good keywords, but I have some questions. The home page is dedicated towards personal injury and auto accidents and it's starting to rank well, but the criminal side is another story.

We've decided to make an additional website dedicated to criminal law and make it a good 20+ page site. First of all is this a good idea? Secondly, Do I have to worry about duplicate content for criminal as well as using the name of the firm? And lastly should I use a different phone number?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm still a rookie and don't want to hurt the integrity of the site I've worked so hard to build up. Thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated.

dburk · 03-18-2011, 06:45 PM

Hi bigp1612,

The first rule of SEO is that search engines don't index and rank websites, they index and rank individual URLs, or pages. So for the purpose of ranking in search engines, it makes no difference whether you put the criminal law content on the same website or a different website. Do what makes the most sense to your website users.

You do want to create unique content for each page, whether those pages are on the same site or under 2 different domain names. Be sure to use unique and descriptive page titles that include your targeted keyword for that page.

Jonathan Beaton · 03-18-2011, 09:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigp1612

Hi, this is my first post on the site so be gentle. I'm helping out my father's law firm with some basic seo. It's a personal injury/criminal/family/social security law firm. I've got the site to be competitive for some good keywords, but I have some questions. The home page is dedicated towards personal injury and auto accidents and it's starting to rank well, but the criminal side is another story.

We've decided to make an additional website dedicated to criminal law and make it a good 20+ page site. First of all is this a good idea? Secondly, Do I have to worry about duplicate content for criminal as well as using the name of the firm? And lastly should I use a different phone number?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm still a rookie and don't want to hurt the integrity of the site I've worked so hard to build up. Thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated.

I would keep it all on one website.

If you want to share the site with me, I would be happy to take a look over and make some recommendations.

bigp1612 · 03-19-2011, 08:54 AM

Well it sounds like I should just keep it one site. I have alot of catching up to do for my subpages. I tried to PM you Jonathon Beaton, but since I'm a new user I can't. Anyways the site is michiganlawattorney.com. I would appreciate it if you didn't post your advice in the actual post but either PM me (think you can do that) or email me. My email is paul @ the clark law office.com with no spaces (won't let me post email) Thanks for helping out and look forward to your reply.

03-18-2011, 06:08 PM	#1
bigp1612 Warrior Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 14 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Law Firm Website/Practice Areas Questions Hi, this is my first post on the site so be gentle. I'm helping out my father's law firm with some basic seo. It's a personal injury/criminal/family/social security law firm. I've got the site to be competitive for some good keywords, but I have some questions. The home page is dedicated towards personal injury and auto accidents and it's starting to rank well, but the criminal side is another story. We've decided to make an additional website dedicated to criminal law and make it a good 20+ page site. First of all is this a good idea? Secondly, Do I have to worry about duplicate content for criminal as well as using the name of the firm? And lastly should I use a different phone number? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm still a rookie and don't want to hurt the integrity of the site I've worked so hard to build up. Thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated.

03-18-2011, 06:45 PM	#2
dburk Senior Warrior Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Tampa, Florida Posts: 4,643 Thanks: 162 Thanked 671 Times in 581 Posts Contact Info	Re: Law Firm Website/Practice Areas Questions Hi bigp1612, The first rule of SEO is that search engines don't index and rank websites, they index and rank individual URLs, or pages. So for the purpose of ranking in search engines, it makes no difference whether you put the criminal law content on the same website or a different website. Do what makes the most sense to your website users. You do want to create unique content for each page, whether those pages are on the same site or under 2 different domain names. Be sure to use unique and descriptive page titles that include your targeted keyword for that page.
	Don Burk * Get Results - Outsource Your PPC Management * Get a Keyword Domain Name - www.SeriousNames.com

03-19-2011, 08:54 AM	#4
bigp1612 Warrior Member Join Date: Mar 2011 Posts: 14 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Law Firm Website/Practice Areas Questions Well it sounds like I should just keep it one site. I have alot of catching up to do for my subpages. I tried to PM you Jonathon Beaton, but since I'm a new user I can't. Anyways the site is michiganlawattorney.com. I would appreciate it if you didn't post your advice in the actual post but either PM me (think you can do that) or email me. My email is paul @ the clark law office.com with no spaces (won't let me post email) Thanks for helping out and look forward to your reply.