Google Slaps FindLaw In Effort to Crack Down On 'Link Juice'
The Web's No. 1 search engine has caught FindLaw using the illegitimate tactic of selling Web links -- a.k.a. selling "link juice," which contrives to boost a Web site's search engine rankings -- such as the law firms that are FindLaw customers. See the article on CNN Money.
Shortly after Google discovered FindLaw's shenanigans,
Law firms pay FindLaw $1,600 to $2,000 per month for FindLaw's "SEM Advantage" program, billed as a "high-octane" way to double or even triple traffic on their websites. One of the ways Google determines where a law firm website will rank for a specific search is the number and quality of inbound links to a website. The logic is that very interesting pages will be linked to by many other websites and blogs, and get a high PageRank (Google measures on a 1-10 scale called PageRank, with 10=high, 0=low).
FindLaw caught the attention of
When a highly ranked site like FindLaw pays for and resells links from another website, that's viewed as an artificial attempt to boost a customer law firm's PageRank and search results. Buying or selling links to boost a site's PageRank violates Google's webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact a site's ranking in search results. John Shaughnessy, a FindLaw spokesman, said the email was an "unauthorized communication" about a new corporate advertising product called SEM-Corporate, aimed at corporate customers, not law firms.
"In cases in which we feel that sites are attempting to use links to manipulate rankings, which includes the buying and selling of links for the clear purpose of passing PageRank, we make adjustments to counterbalance and also discourage those efforts," Google spokesman Eitan Bencuya told CNN.
Todd Friesen blogged about the debacle in a post entitled 'Shame Shame Shame Findlaw.' Kevin O'Keefe followed up with FindLaw gaming Google, and possibly scamming lawyer customers? , saying "FindLaw appears to have been caught gaming Google by selling links to lawyer websites and, in the words of one blogger, possibly scamming their lawyer customers.
I am appalled how Findlaw was able to get their PageRank back so quickly. This is very disheartening especially after reading the CNN Money article. Findlaw flat out lied. They did sell links to law firms, they got away with it and made millions by doing it.
I find it hilarious that Findlaw was operating unethically with little regard for the quality of the services that they linked to, and was only concerned with making money from those links.
Only 3 days ago Findlaw removed all my signature links (that complied with their community guidelines) in my reply postings on their site.
Allegedly they removed my links for "advertising a competing site link". (They , by the way, Did NOT remove my actual, accurate, and informative replies, only my signature links and they did not bother to notify me either)
Maybe if I had only paid them a few grand my links would have stayed posted.
What a joke!
Thanks for this informative and exposing articles as to the dark ethical ways of FindLaw