On-page optimization is what most people think of when they are discussing SEO in general. It’s the process of putting a page’s content in better context for the search engines. It may include modifying the meta title, meta description, image alt tags, proper header (i.e. H1, H2, etc…) usage and other page changes.

Incoming links are also critically important to good search engine results. Most good SEO experts will stress the importance of focusing on the creation of great content. This is because having great content will naturally and organically create incoming links: people in your industry or niche will link to you because you have demonstrated authority on a topic. The more this happens, the more authority you build in an industry or niche. (Aside: Jamison is doing a really great job with this – his blog is frequent, filled with great information and demonstrates his expertise in his area of authority)

What most likely has happened is that the DC attorney you mention realizes the importance and cost-effectiveness of online marketing in general. He hired a firm that promised to build incoming links to his site, which on cursory examination would build more authority in his site, and thus affect his search engine rankings positively. This reason this generally does NOT work is because most content management systems, in your case WordPress, greatly minimize the effect of this type of marketing by affixing a tag to outgoing links called “external nofollow,” meaning no “Google juice,” or authority, links from your site to the site being linked to.

Note also that the name on the comment is “DC Criminal Lawyer” – when you use words like that to link to a website, it is what’s called a “contextual link” and adds a bit of weight to the site being linked to, assuming they are optimizing for terms such as this. This is a common link building strategy.

There would be one other benefit to this type of marketing – he wants to be on the radar of the same people who are checking out your site and considering retention of your services.

That said, its pretty obvious that in this case, the primary goal of leaving comments on your website is to build contextual incoming links that will boost search engine presence of one of your primary competitors. Killing the link and leaving the comment is probably the most appropriate way to address this, and allows you to continue to build a dialogue around your blog entries.

Another interesting event was when I noticed on Google analytics that spiking over a period of a day or two, my site had received an unusually high number of hits, from India. I am a Minnesota criminal lawyer. Why would someone in India be interested in what I have written on my website? I could think of only one. And I have seen content from my sites copied to other several lawyers’ sites.

I assume, as you seem to, that the lawyers employing these black-hat SEO firms are unaware of the deceptive and ethically suspect practices they employ. They are sold on “results,” overcharged due to ignorance, and unaware of the means employed to desired end. I think that sooner or later these deceptive practices will come around to bite those that employ them.

There are some methods to be learned and employed for SEO, inlcuding building inbound links. But it is essential for a good lawyer to avoid unethical shortcuts, and maintain integrity.

I have told friends in my area: we lawyers are not competing with each other, we are competing with SEO and SEM firms. We can learn this stuff. It’s not that hard, nor that time consuming. And if we do, we can build quality and community together over time, to the benefit of all.