FindLaw’s Reported Offer to Sell Links to Websites Has Blogosphere Talking
Bloggers are talking about FindLaw’s reported attempt to sell links to lawyer and corporate websites for $1,000 a month.
A blogger known as Oilman reports on an e-mail he got from FindLaw that says the links may help increase a website’s visibility and rank on search engines such as Google. That led a blogger at GetLawyerLeads.com to say the offer is a violation of Google’s policy and that such links “will almost certainly be devalued.” The blog post headline asks if FindLaw is “scamming customers.” Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs summarizes other blog posts about the growing controversy.
Yet another blogger, Robert Ambrogi, is questioning whether the criticism by GetLawyerLeads is “the pot calling the kettle black.” Ambrogi says at his LawSites blog that GetLawyerLeads creates shell lawyer websites and then sells the leads that come in from those sites to lawyers.
He gives an example of one website apparently owned by GetLawyerLeads called Maryland Criminal & DUI Defense Lawyer. The site says, “I fight for people facing criminal charges in Maryland,” but there is apparently no lawyer associated with it. GetLawyerLeads allows lawyers to pay for leads for traffic that comes in to the site.
Hat tip to Legal Blog Watch.
