Tuesday, November 10, 2009

And what do you think of the emperor's new clothes?

About once a week I get a phone call from someone with some firm that does search engine optimization -- whatever that is. Everyone of these folks tells me they can get my website to the top of Google or Yahoo! They all tell me they represent a handful of other attorneys in Houston that are already on top.

The fun comes when I ask them just how they plan on getting my website to the top of the search engine rankings. They can never answer the question. They give me some gobbledy-gook about optimizing this and leveraging that and that they will have me at the top within a week or two.

Then I ask them how their other clients (some of whom I always know) would feel about them promising to put someone else on top of the rankings. I mean, if you're telling me you can put my website on top, I'm sure you told the same thing to the attorneys you signed up. That doesn't sound too ethical to me.

As an attorney all you really have is your reputation -- harm that reputation and you harm your ability to stay in business. Do you really want firms that act in such an unethical manner representing you to all the world? Do you really want those firms to post content under your name?

1 comment:

Hunter Biederman said...

The best is to ask them, "how'd you find me?" They always say, uhh... online. So I guess I don't need you afterall!