Part Three: 3 Ways to Soup Up Your Site Google Style

OK. You’ve got outstanding content on your website. You’ve used proven SEO tactics
to bring the search engines on board. Now it’s time to soup up that website with
all the extras in your Google toolbox.

1. Google Analytics

With Google Analytics you’re privy to a wealth of insights into the ways people
find your site and how they use the information you provide. In fact, there’s so
much data at your disposal that you might feel a bit overwhelmed at first.

Google Analytics will tell you how many people view your site every day, the number
of pages they view, and the amount of time they spend on your site. The bad news
is there too, in the form of your bounce rate — the number of people who click
on your site and then leave immediately.

If you want to know what pages are the most popular with your visitors, Analytics
will provide that data. You can find out which social sites drive the most traffic
to your site. Most importantly, you can set conversion goals and then measure your
success.

What do you do with all this information? Easy. You use it to improve your site’s
performance, by making informed decisions regarding content, landing pages, and
all the ways you connect with potential clients.

2. Google+

Want to put your law firm on the map? Google+ will do that. It will also give you
a way to collect and publish online reviews. It’s a growing social platform to reach
potential clients. And because it’s part of the Google empire, it can give your
site a nice boost in rank, too.

Start by creating your personal Google+ profile, if you haven’t already got one.
Then create a Google+ Business
page for your firm. Make sure all the photos you use are high-quality and high resolution,
and optimize everything for local. And don’t forget to include
a Google+ 1 button
on all your webpages.

Next, add and verify your firm’s location on Google Places for Business. This is what puts you on the map, literally.
And that’s important, since about a third of all searches include a location, e.g., “DUI attorney in Columbia.” Once
your firm is on the map, you can add all kinds of useful information, like nearby
parking and bus routes.

Once your Google+ is live, use your personal profile to share cool photos and information
of general interest and post links to interesting cases or articles written by peers
on your business page. Take it a step further and respond to online reviews, start
conversations with Hangouts, and develop an active community. You’ll be boosting
your credibility with Google while expanding your network of friends, clients, and
peers.

3. Google Authorship

Finally, it’s time to let readers put a face to all that great online content you’ve
been producing. You’ve probably already seen what Google Authorship looks like:

Authorship helps differentiate you from a faceless block of text on a search page.
It builds a connection between you and the public. Add some extra information with
a
rich snippet — reviews, a byline, a brief description — and you’ve got
a tiny powerhouse that sends readers to your site at a rate as much as 150% higher than the usual search page listing.

With Authorship, each time you post an article online, you’re building your reputation
as an expert in your field. You’re also laying claim to your online content, and
adding a bit of protection against plagiarists and content thieves.

The jury is still out on the question of whether or not Google is using a system
of author ranking to determine position on a search page. But
if they’re not doing it now, they will be doing so soon. In the meantime, consider
this nugget from Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal: “The true cost of remaining anonymous… might be irrelevance.”

To sum up, Google might not be the ruler of the universe yet; but it’s getting there.
To rise to the top of the Googleverse, you’ve got to play the game their way.

Does all this seem like way too much trouble? Trust us, it’s not. If you don’t have
the time or skills to complete our comprehensive tune-up on your own, turn the job
over to a professional web partner. When your website can pass all these checkpoints,
you’ll have a site that will leave your competitors in the dust.

Take advantage of a free evaluation
of your site’s optimization. It could offer valuable clues for improving your website’s
position on search engines.

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