In an excellent article entitled The Power of Google Link Juice, venture capital legend Fed Wilson writes:
"I've thought about moving my blog from this lousy URL (avc.blogs.com) to something better. But I can never get past the google juice issue."
In other words, thanks to years of quality inbound links, Google thinks so highly of Fred's blog that his articles often appear on Google's first page when people search for keywords in those articles. If he changes his domain name, much of his Google link juice will evaporate.
What's the Lesson?
Carefully choose your domain name for your firm's Web site and blog(s). They should reside at the same domain name (which does not mean they must reside on the same Web server).
What Are the Consequences of Ignoring This Lesson?
Let's look at an all-too-common example.
A law firm launches a Web site at www.myfirm.com. Great. The site attracts links to its lawyer biographies, articles, etc. Great. A few years later, the firm decides to launch one or more blogs. Great.
But then the firm runs off the rails by placing its blog at a different domain name when instead the firm should use a subdomain of its existing domain name (e.g., asbestos.myfirm.com).
The upshot is that the blog will not benefit from any of the firm's existing Google link juice. The blog will have to start from square one.
Why Do Law Firms Make This Mistake?
Many law firms don't appreciate Google's dominance and how much power it wields. And so they wind up falling prey to one of three lines of faulty thinking.
1. Too Complex or Expensive
Some firms host their blog using a free service such as Blogger on the mistaken belief that it's difficult or expensive to host their blog at their existing domain name.
Blogger and other free services don't allow you to use your own domain name, but plenty of modestly-priced services do and the process is not difficult. You simply create a CNAME in the DNS settings of your domain name, and then domain map this CNAME using the tools provided by your blog hosting service.
Notwithstanding all that jargon, it will take you 10 minutes — 9 minutes to read the instructions and 1 minute to do the work. TypePad has the best explanation I've seen.
2. The Blog Beta Test
Some firms host their blogs at a different domain name because they're unsure about blogging and don't want the content on their main site. These firms should not bother blogging. You can't get a little bit pregnant after all.
3. Vanity URLs
Some firms want their blog at a vanity URL such as asbestoslawyers.com instead of at their firm's domain name. I understand the appeal of a memorable domain name, but from a search engine optimization perspective you then have to worry about juicing multiple domain names rather than one.
If you insist on going this route, at least envelope your blog in the same design template as your main site. This way, visitors can somewhat seamlessly go from your blog to your main site and back again. The URL will change, but people may not notice.
If you haven't built much equity around your current domain name and your site is small, you could move it to the more memorable URL that you now prefer for your imminent blog and use HTTP 301 redirects to preserve whatever Google juice you had.
Coincidentally, lexBlog CEO Kevin O'Keefe offers similar advice today about vanity domain names, including some tips on how to secure one, but he does not discuss the benefits of sticking with your established domain name (assuming you have one).
How About a Tasty Test?
Given that we're discussing "juice," it just so happens that I recently perfected a recipe after 4 years of tests. This fairly popular dish in the Northeast surprisingly pulls up only 1,570 listings on Google when the search terms appear in quotes and 35,500 without quotes.
Even though TechnoLawyer Blog doesn't usually cover food, it has considerable Google link juice. Therefore, I think there's a good chance Google will list my recipe on its first page. No tricks here. Just quality content written well.
Here's the Google search with quotes.
Here's the Google search without quotes.
Check these Google searches on Thursday or Friday to see how the recipe is performing now and you'll see my recipe listed on the first page. Remember, people at this very minute are searching Google for keywords of great interest to you and your firm. Make sure they find you.
About TechnoEditorials
A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.
