SEO

SEO

The Importance of Regular Content for Your Law Firm Blog

Maddie Platt
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Having a strong online presence is crucial for any business, and law firms are no exception. One effective way to enhance your online presence is by creating and maintaining a blog on your law firm's website. A law firm blog not only showcases your...

What is Google Search Generative Experience, and how will it affect law firms?

Jamie Stevens
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Google Search Generative Experience (SGE) refers to the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms in Google Search to generate relevant, engaging, and contextualised content. This experience allows users to interact with a conversational...

What is the difference between a fluctuation and a trend in SEO?

Jamie Stevens
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When reporting on the performance of a campaign in SEO, marketers will often talk about fluctuations in rankings. We often get questions from clients asking to explain why this keyword or that keyword has decreased in ranking or suddenly jumped up by several...

What are the key differences between Universal Analytics & Google Analytics 4?

Jamie Stevens
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Google will be officially retiring Universal Analytics at midnight tonight (30 June). If you are still using Universal Analytics and have not upgraded to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) yet, it is essential that you upgrade as soon as possible or use another...

Takeaways from Brighton SEO, 2023

Megan Gibbs
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Our Head of Digital PR, Joanna Cunningham, and PR & Outreach Executive, Megan Gibbs, attended this year’s BrightonSEO conference. Here are their insights… BrightonSEO is the world’s largest search marketing conference and includes...

Does my law firm need to be concerned about its profile strength on Google Business Profile?

Chris Mundy
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Google Business Profile (GBP) has rolled out a new Profile Strength label which could be in a bid to boost PPC revenue – what does my law firm need to know? Google has just rolled out a new “Profile Strength” feature for Business Profile...

Trends in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for law firms in 2023

Jamie Stevens
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The world of search and SEO is ever-changing, however, 2022 was a big year in search, and not just in terms of Google updates, but also in terms of the competitive landscape of search. Below we discuss some of the most interesting changes that we can see...

Why should my law firm have a SEO audit?

Kitty Kampf
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Once an SEO audit has taken place, it can show areas your website can improve in to boost its prominence in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and therefore increase your ROI. It can identify your website authority The components of how search engines...

Search Engine Optimisation Tools for Law Firms

Kitty Kampf
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We believe that Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) isn’t  just  about getting your law firm’s site to number one with a handful of keywords.  It is in fact made up of a variety of different elements to drive those all-important...

What is the impact of the Helpful Content Update?

Jamie Stevens
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When Google initially announced the helpful content update on 18 August, the reaction of the SEO community was that we were expecting an update with a large impact, similar to the Google Panda Update , which launched way back in late 2011. Both of the...

A guide to SEO for law firms

Joe Marcovitch
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If you already know a thing or two about digital marketing, you’ll probably know all about search engine optimisation (SEO). But, if not, there’s no time like the present to get to grips with it! The importance of SEO for law firms cannot be...

How to attract more readers to your law firm's blog

Matt Joyce
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Search engine optimisation (SEO) is important to consider when creating your website content to make it more visible to potential customers. But, climbing the ladder of SEO needs a bit more knowledge than just a bit of writing and clicking the publish...

What should I avoid when writing content for my law firm website?

Joe Marcovitch
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If you already know a thing or two about writing digital content, you’ll probably be aware of some of the techniques you should be utilising to craft effective copy. We recently discussed what the secret is to writing great SEO copy , as well as the ...

Google Search Volatility - What Does my Law Firm Need to Know?

Jamie Stevens
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May, and especially June, have been very volatile months in Google Search results, with a broad core update announced by Google on 25 May 2022, picked up by search volatility trackers as a huge spike on volatility on 26 May 2022. The large spike in...

Are you ready for Google Analytics 4?

Jamie Stevens
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Marketing in 2022 requires a certain amount of reliance on Google. So when they make an announcement that they will be sunsetting  Universal Analytics  and moving all users to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), we all need to pay attention. All...

A Guide to Google Reviews for Law Firms

Chris Mundy
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Should your firm be striving to gain more Google reviews? Well, Google reviews affect both local rankings and the customer conversion process in very real ways. Google uses reviews as one-third of their proximity/relevance/authority local search algorithm ,...

What content should I create for my law firm?

Joe Marcovitch
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Content is the cornerstone of any website shared with the public, especially one offering clients a service. Having a website that only briefly speaks of your services in a few sentences is not going to cut it with potential clients. If you want to bring...

What is the secret to writing great SEO copy?

Matthew Nicholls
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Writing copy for SEO isn’t much different than writing for any audience, it just takes more research and planning to make sure Google can read and understand what your content is about. It used to be that you could identify the...

Google To Sunset Universal Analytics

Jamie Stevens
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Google has announced that they will be sunsetting Universal Analytics to compel users to move over to Google Analytics 4. All Universal Analytics installations will stop recording new data on 1 July 2023 and existing Universal Analytics data will be...

The Vicinity Local Search Google Update: What You Need to Know

Chris Mundy
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Between 30 November and 8 December Google was busy rolling out the largest local algorithm update since the Possum update in 2016. That means the update will affect the local map pack at the top of a search result page and not the organic rankings below...

GMB becomes Google Business Profile: What does this mean for your law firm?

Matthew Nicholls
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Tech-savvy law firms will be familiar with the name Google My Business (GMB), a platform for managing their business profiles on Google, but that all comes to an end this month with the app rebranding to Google Business Profile. The reason Google gave for...

Why Readability is Vital for Your Website's Content

Joe Marcovitch
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We get it. Writing content for your law firm’s website can often seem like a chore that delivers little in the way of reward. What’s more, it can be deceivingly difficult to strike the right balance between engaging and informative content,...

Google Business Profile Attributes...And Why You Should Care

Chris Mundy
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Google Business Profiles (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB), encourage business owners, including law firms, to highlight unique features of their business that also enable their listing to appear for relevant local searches and Google Maps...

Skills Learnt as a Junior Copywriter for Law Firms at Conscious Solutions

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When you walk into the job of your dreams, the role you’ve been working hard to land, you might think you have all the skills needed, but the truth is that this is only the creation of your ever-growing skills, or so I have learnt since becoming a...

How Important Are Google Reviews for Local SEO and How Do You Get Them?

Matthew Nicholls
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Curating Google reviews is an integral part of a successful online marketing strategy, and they have a much larger impact on a company’s local search rankings than they’re given credit for. Any law firm that has a storefront in a particular...

What are the Differences Between Local & National SEO for Law Firms?

Jamie Stevens
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In the early days of Google & SEO, the differences between local and national SEO were very simple. If you wanted a national business, you would simply search for the service, e.g. “personal injury solicitor”. If you wanted a local business,...

How to add SEO keywords into your website content without making it sound terrible

Joe Marcovitch
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Keywords are an essential part of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If someone uses Google to search for ‘divorce solicitors in Bristol’ and your website has a page with that exact phrase on it, Google is much more likely to show the searcher a...

What is The Google Page Experience Update and How Will It Affect My Site?

Jamie Stevens
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The Google Page Experience Update, which we have written about before , is due to come into effect in less than one month and could have wide-reaching implications on the web. Just as Google making HTTPS a ranking signal drove adoption of HTTPS, or pushing...

How can law firms use Google's new tool to remove unfair reviews?

Matthew Nicholls
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Last week Google released a new tool that allows law firms and other businesses to manage their Google My Business reviews. Previously, trying to get a dishonest review removed from your profile was a real hassle with no definite way to request their...

Three types of blog post you should have on your website (and why they all matter)

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Why blog? What, as a law firm, could you get out of regularly posting blog content to your website? Well, the obvious reason is SEO. Search engines love blog posts – fresh, relevant and interesting content that is often written by experts in...

Google Analytics 4

Jamie Stevens
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Google Analytics 4 - What is it and do you need it for your Law Firm Website? Google Analytics 4 is the new version of Google Analytics, which has been created to eventually replace the existing universal analytics tracking. Google created Google Analytics...

The Top 15 Localised Organic Search Ranking Factors

Chris Mundy
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This article is a companion piece to our previous 2020 Local Pack SEO Ranking Factors blog post. That post focused exclusively on factors that influence rankings in the local map pack (that appears above localised organic search results). This post will...

2020 Local Pack SEO Ranking Factors for Law Firms

Chris Mundy
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When it comes to divining the hidden secrets of Google’s core search algorithm and how that affects ranking in the local search pack, there is no user manual with instructions to follow. Even if there were, it would become outdated almost as soon as it...

December 2020 Google Broad Core Update

Chris Mundy
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On 3-Dec Google announced it was rolling out its first algorithm core update since the May 2020 core update. Many observers felt the update rolled out quickly, but as of 10-Dec Google has confirmed that the update is still rolling out . It is...

The Tale of GMB Listing Spam and Why You Should Care

Chris Mundy
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On a standard Google results page, the available real estate in a local map pack is restricted to just three local Google My Business (GMB) listings. This obviously means that the space is highly contested and much fought over. Ranking in one of the top...

Closing your office - will it kill your local SEO?

Chris Mundy
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Well one thing is for sure, it won’t help it. As the UK officially enters the greatest recession on record it is inevitable that many formerly thriving businesses will soon find themselves in desperate times and looking for ways to cut outgoing...

The Google Page Experience Update: The Shape of Things to Come

Chris Mundy
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On 28 May 2020 Google pre-announced a new set of ranking factors based upon User Experience that will come into effect in 2021. Google giving this much notice before a major update is unprecedented. They are so committed to this direction that they have...

Google Core Algorithm Update and the affect on UK law firms

Chris Mundy
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If you’ve been keeping regular tabs on your keyword rankings and organic search traffic levels, you may have noticed a bouncy ride beginning at the end of April 2020. Since that time there have been two major Google updates; a Core Update on 20 April...

Are you making these 5 common mistakes with your law firm's website content?

Joe Marcovitch
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Everyone can write, right? And you know all about the law because you work at a law firm. So, it should be pretty straightforward to sit down and write some content for your firm’s website, shouldn’t it? You might think so, but bitter experience...

2019 Google algorithm updates

Chris Mundy
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For those who are closely involved in the organic search engine marketing industry, it has become obvious that over the past few years Google has been rapidly accelerating the pace at which it releases major updates to its search algorithm. For the first...

Brighton SEO 2019 - Local Search, Entities and 'keeping it simple'

Matthew Nicholls
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Last week me and my SEO compadres, Jamie, Chris and Ed attended the two-day Brighton SEO convention. It was my first time in Brighton, a crazy city on the south coast of the UK that has transformed itself from an old-school English pleasant pier to a...

Latest Changes to Google's Local Search Pack

Chris Mundy
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For those who have been watching the evolution of Google’s local search pack that sits above organic results on a typical S.E.R.P. page, there may be another seismic shift on the near-horizon. Over the years we have seen that crucial bit of contested...

Complete Your Google My Business Listing

Chris Mundy
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A quick heads up to all owners of Google My Business profile listings: Google has added a new “Short Name” option in your “Info” tab and if left incomplete your formerly 100% complete listing is now an 85% complete listing. Incomplete...

The Google Medic Update & Mobile-First Indexing

Chris Mundy
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The Google Medic Update & Mobile-First Indexing – The Impact on Law Firm’s Websites There are two factors that influence whether, where, how, and for which search terms any given page will be presented by Google in response to a...

Free Local SEO Audit for Law Firms

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Please go ahead and fill in the form below, there is a second page after this and then your audit report is automatically prepared.  Please feel free to email sales@conscious.co.uk with any feedback on the process, or if you'd like to discuss your...

LSN Legal Supplier Forum

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Being only my second week at Conscious, I had never been to a conference of this nature before and had no idea of what to expect, though I’ve also never written a blog post before so let’s see how this goes too…. As I approached the main...

Major Google algorithm seems to have been rolled out

Chris Mundy
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Google has just confirmed another major series of search algorithm updates took place in mid-December 2017. In line with their long-admitted intention to ultimately shift search to mobile-first indexing, it appears that the largest impact on rankings did...

Google pressure Symantec to change CA practices

David Gilroy
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If you have a website with us running HTTPS there's a good chance that the secure certificate was issued by Thawte who are part of Symantec - an organisation who issue about a third of all the certificates in use today . You may also have read about...

Automated SEO v Human SEO

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With developments in technology these days, we can almost become too reliant on it; from RSS feeds populating our websites, to chat bots answering questions for our website visitors. But what about when it comes to SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)? How...

Optimise your Firm's Presence with Voice Search

Jamie Stevens
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“Siri? Show me conveyancing firms near me” “OK” And whoosh – your personal assistant Siri has a selection of firms for you to choose from while you wash the dishes, have a bath or put the children to bed. No need for typing...

Google Is Switching To A Mobile First Index

Jamie Stevens
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Last week in Las Vegas was one of the largest digital marketing conferences held anywhere (no, I did not go). It’s called http://www.pubcon.com/ Anyway, there was an IMPORTANT major announcement from Google, and when I say major, I mean REALLY...

Top 5 SEO Ranking Factors for Multi-Location Businesses

Chris Mundy
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Top 5 SEO Ranking Factors - Multi-Location Businesses There has been a lot of growing hype over the last few years regarding the concept of Local SEO. Local SEO strategies are what enable businesses to rank in the highly competitive local...

What are Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)?

Kevin Glass
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Overview In essence Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is an attempt by Google, Twitter and a few others to encourage large news publishers to provide a faster experience for their pages on mobile devices. For background reading please see ...

Google Confirms Ads Coming to the Local Pack

Chris Mundy
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On 21 June, The SEO world received a bit of a shock during a pre-conference workshop at SMX Advanced Local Workshop in Seattle. Ali Turhan, Google’s Global Product Lead for Local Ads revealed a screen shot of a smart phone search result displaying a...

How To Add Notes To Your Google Analytics Data

Chris Mundy
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Often overlooked, this Google Analytics feature can really help you keep track of spikes in your data. For example, did you run a really successful campaign in May and see an obvious surge of visits to your website as a result? Google Analytics allows you...

Mobile Page Load Speed is a Ranking Factor

Chris Mundy
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One of the many takeaways from Google’s recent Search Marketing Summit in Sydney is that they will be updating the page speed ranking factor as part of their latest, real-time mobile-friendly search algorithm. Google has been progressively giving more...

5 Really Easy Ways to Make your Legal Content Engaging

David Gilroy
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Whether you’re writing about the stages of conveyancing, or how to tackle legal jargon, you ideally want your prospect to keep reading. Even better, you want them to like, comment and share your content on social media. However, with so much content...

Google Has Just Removed Ads from the Side of Search Results

Jamie Stevens
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Google has just made the biggest change to the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) since the changes to the Map Pack back in August last year. The main change is the removal of the the adverts shown on the right hand side of the search results, which...

Content Marketing: Creation v. Curation

David Gilroy
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With the Internet already chockablock with content about literally everything, it’s easy to feel as though our voices are being drowned out by the noise.  It’s reported that 684,478 pieces of content are shared on Facebook in the U.S every...

The Risks of Removing Longtail Content From Your Website

Jamie Stevens
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So here’s the scenario: you’ve had a website for years now, and over time, it’s slowly grown to have lots of pages full of useful information about all the great services you offer - and Google loves you because of it. You have a high...

Does URL structure influence page authority?

David Gilroy
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Site structure is one of those topics that Webmasters sometimes agonise over. For example: will the fact that my content is on level 3 rather than level 1 influence how it is treated by Google? The short answer is “no” and this post tells you...

The 2015 Moz Local Search Ranking Factors

Jamie Stevens
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Moz, one of the leading companies in SEO research and tools has recently released a new study on the most important ranking factors for Local Search in 2015. These ranking factors are based on a survey that is filled out every year by top people in the...

Google Shows Tweets in Desktop Results

David Gilroy
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Earlier this year, Google’s partnership with Twitter brought about an update that saw relevant tweets embedded into mobile search results. As of Friday, this has been expanded to desktop searches – a natural progression in the partnership of...

A Lawyers Guide to Blogging

David Gilroy
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So, a  p rospective client has visited your website . Thankfully, it’s just had a facelift, and couldn’t lo ok any sharper. W hile 46% of consumers consider web de si gn the top factor in a company’s credibility, what...

Changes to the Google Map Pack

Jamie Stevens
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What is the Map Pack? The map pack is a section of the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) that is only shown for queries that Google believes have a local intent. It is separate from the normal organic search results and a business does not require a...

Looking at the new Moz Spam Score

Jamie Stevens
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Over the past few years, making sure that your site is spam free, and is not associated with other spammy sites has become more and more important as Google gets more clever at working out what is a high quality site, and what is a low quality site. Today we...

Check If Your Site Might Be Penalised by Google in 2 Minutes

Jamie Stevens
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Over the past few years, making sure that your site is spam free and not associated with other spammy sites has become more and more important as Google gets better at measuring the quality of a site. Today we look at a quick check that you can do...

Local SEO Training Course from BrightonSEO Conference

David Gilroy
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Yesterday I attended a fantastic training course at the BrightonSEO conference on "local SEO".  It was run by Greg Gifford of AutoRevo who had flown in from the USA specifically to deliver the training course and speak at the conference today...

Ollie and Jordan get Google Adwords certified

David Gilroy
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This month has seen the arrival of two new starters at Conscious, Paid Search Manager, Ollie Boyd and Digital Marketing Executive, Jordan Reeves. So to throw them in at the deep end, both were asked to attend the latest Google event in London, where they...

"Doorway" pages soon to be penalised by Google

Jamie Stevens
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To minimise the impact of spam on web users, Google has decided to refresh their definition of "doorway" pages in an attempt to prove the quality of the user's search experience. Websites maximise their search-ability with the use of doorway...

The latest update on Google Mobile Ranking

Jamie Stevens
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Last month we updated you on how Mobile Friendly was becoming a ranking factor for Google on 21 April , since then Google have been put in the hot seat to elaborate a little more on the subject. At SMX West, Google's Gary Illyes highlighted the 12...

Mobile Friendly Becoming a Ranking Factor on 21 April

David Gilroy
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Our site is mobile friendly! Is yours? As suspected, Google has announced that as of 21 April 2105, mobile friendly will become a ranking factor in mobile search results. This will make it easier for users to get high quality search results that are...

11 SEO Tactics You Need to Know in 2015

David Gilroy
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Do you have an SEO strategy in place? No? Want to boost your search engine results? Yes? Here are some really simple and quite clever tactics to help you learn how to market your brand and business service better....

10 SEO Predictions for 2015

Jamie Stevens
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According of Ofcom , 57% of the UK population used their phone to access the internet at the beginning of 2014[1], this is expected to have increased over 2014. Of those, 54% search on their smartphone every single day .[2] Google has addressed this by...

Important changes to Internet Security Infrastructure affect users of Windows XP

David Gilroy
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Here's a timely reminder that the Internet is in fact a creation of scientists and engineers and that these #saintsofourmodernage are passionately committed to ensuring that their creation out-lives us all. Sometimes that means that things needs to be...

Google Penguin Update 3.0 Released

Jamie Stevens
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What is the Google Penguin Update? Google initially released an update called ‘Penguin’ on April the 24 th 2012 after several weeks of rumours about Google preparing an over optimisation penalty to target the spammy side of the SEO...

Brighton SEO Conference 2014

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Brighton SEO Conference 2014 Brighton SEO is a bi-annual conference taking place in, err, Brighton, with a huge and diverse range of talks in all aspects of SEO from coding and social media through to how traditional marketing can leverage your SEO and...

What Is Heatmapping And Why You Should Use It?

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Google Analytics & Webmaster Tools are the standard tools for any website when it comes to performance, diagnostics and general health.  Google Analytics is most commonly used to give you an interpretation of how many visitors have come to your law...

Behaviour-based Automatic Personalisation

David Gilroy
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The concept of personalisation is almost as old as the internet itself - the basic idea being that a user tells the site about their interests which then allows the website to customise particular pages (usually the homepage) to provide direct access to the...

HTTPS as a Google Ranking Factor

Jamie Stevens
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What is HTTPS? HTTPS (or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure) is a secure method of transferring data over the internet that is used to stop unwanted snooping of your communications. At this point in time, it's use is mostly limited to certain areas...

What Is Thin Content and How It Can Damage Your Law Firm

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Google has been fine-tuning its search engine algorithm through the Panda updates in order to boost good quality sites to the top of the search results page across the legal sector.  The focus is on content that is original, informative and useful. One...

How law firms can reach a local online audience

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It’s easy for smaller Law firm’s to think that they are losing out on Search Engine visibility to bigger firm’s in their local geographic areas. Ever since Google have been rolling out these militant updates such as Panda, it’s...

Googles Panda 4.0 rollout and the impact for law firms

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Yesterday we saw a pretty aggressive rollout of what is being dubbed Panda 4.0 . Initially Panda focused on specific niches like pay day loans, so nothing for the legal industry to worry about from a Google perspective. Further rollouts have happened...

Long live SEO

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Hello Conscious followers!  Russell Gregory here - recently joined the mighty Conscious team as Search Marketing Manager, overseeing all things SEO, Social Media & Search Marketing related for all of our lovely clients. SEO isn’t dead....

SEO - The Latest Google Panda

Chris Pearce
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Back in the early days of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), ranking highly in the organic search engine listings was a straightforward exercise, as website pages only had to be optimised for phrases or keywords. However, when the Google Panda algorithm was...