March 7, 2010
Would you hire a lawyer who has been suspended from practice multiple times for trying the same unethical and ineffective tricks, and then allow that lawyer to employ the same tactics in representing you? Many attorneys hire this sketchy lawyer's "SEO" equivalent when it comes to promoting their websites.
Link spam is highly frowned upon by the search engines. But as bad as it can be for your website's long-term survival online, in this lawyer's opinion, it is problematic from an ethical standpoint as well. In essence, it is fraud.
Link spam comes in several forms, including:
Every day I delete more than 10 spam link posts from the various pages of my main website, and several more from other websites that I run. Sometimes it is some misguided attorney who doesn't understand how the Internet works doing it directly. Other times I trace the IP address back to a foreign country where, I presume, the "dirty work" has been outsourced on the cheap.
The search engines are looking for reports of this kind of activity. Google is actively soliciting the reporting of such behavior.
It is bad to do. It is dangerous to do. It is clearly a black-hat tactic.
If you or your web person is doing it, cut it out or fire your web person. What your web person is doing to you is the equivalent of you opening a trial with "Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, this case is about the bad choice that my client made when he drank a fifth of vodka, had his 12 year old daughter blow into his interlock device, and then drove them both the wrong way on the freeway at 95 miles per hour".
If I haven't made it clear enough, if you or your web person are engaging in link spam, somebody is committing internet strategy malpractice.
Inbound links from other websites to yours are generally good. But link spam links are definitely worse than no links at all.
Most modern blogs (which is where, in my experience, about 90 percent of the link spam is attempted) are typically equipped with safeguards against link spam. Those include holding posts for moderation, having aggressive spam filters, and adding "no-follow" tags to all comment links.
When you try to post your link on another law firm's website or blog without their permission and in a way that does not add more useful information to other readers of that blog, it is like you are trying to take a dump in their office lobby. No ethical or self-respecting attorney should do it, nor allow it to be done for them. Period.
It boils down to this: If you feel like you are "getting away with something" by posting a link on somebody's blog to your site, just don't do it. In my opinion, one good link is worth hundreds of spam links, and sometimes hundreds of spam links are worth less than no links at all.
Build good and relevant content. Link out to good and relevant content on the subject. Create relationships online. That is the formula. That is the way to be legitimate. Link spam tells the world that you are a fraud.
You can't be both legitimate and a fraud at the same time, so which will it be?
Filed under Dear DUI Lawyers, News, Updates