How Do I Build Links?

Links can be built internally, by linking two of your own pages together, or externally, by connecting links with content from other websites. Of the two, external link building is decidedly more complex but can result in better domain authority. To build internal links, all someone needs to do is include the URL of one page in either the site’s menu or within the content of a page. This allows users, as well as Google, to understand the relationship between different pages on a site. As for external link building, look for authoritative figures in related industries who would benefit from linking your content on their website, and inquire about building a connection of links.

How is SEO Different from Paid Ads?

SEO, or organic results, differs from paid ads, or Pay-Per-Click, in two main ways. First, the position of organic results differs from ad results on a search engine results page (SERP). Ad results always appear at the very top and very bottom of the SERP. On average, around 2-3 will populate in these spots depending on the search. Organic results appear in between the paid ads. The second biggest difference is the cost of visitor traffic. PPC ads have a pre-determined cost that the site owner must pay Google each time a user clicks on one of their ads. Organic traffic, on the other hand, has no direct costs associated with the number of visitors that click on their site.

Why Does a 404 or Technical Error Affect Rankings?

404’s and other technical errors are a common and unavoidable occurrence on the internet. Typically, having a few 404 errors will not impact a site’s rankings in any significant way. However, if a site has too many 404 errors, search engines may develop a negative impression of the site and stop indexing this site’s pages. This can result in two serious issues: loss of traffic volume and dead links. Visitor traffic is one important factor in SERP rankings, and a considerable decrease can drop a site’s rankings by a large amount. 404 pages also do not pass on backlink authority, so any quality links from a page that 404’s will no longer contribute to the site’s authority and hurt rankings as well.

Does Social Media Affect SEO Actual Rankings?

Social media can affect SEO actual rankings but not directly. Google has stated in 2014 that direct social signals, such as likes and shares through social media platforms, does not affect actual rankings on the search engine results page (SERP). What social media can do, however, is be an amplifier for other important SEO factors, such as backlinks, click-through rate (CTR) and content quality and authority. Producing high-quality, consistent content that receives attention through the various social media platforms allows for better online visibility for your brand, and subsequently, your website. This helps create more backlinks if your content is being shared, and more visits to your website directly from a social post.

Preview of the 2026 PILMMA Super Summit

In this episode of The Conference Connection, hosts Paul Faust and Seth Price welcome legal industry legend Ken Hardison to discuss the 16-year legacy of PILMMA. Ken provides a deep dive into the upcoming PILMMA Summit in San Antonio (May 21-23), which features over 40 speakers covering everything from AI integration to the technicalities of buying and selling law firms. Paul emphasizes that PILMMA is a “gold standard” for industry partners because it fosters a genuine community where attendees and service providers hang out together rather than disappearing to private events.

A major theme of the conversation is the critical importance of the “Number Two” or Second in Command. Ken notes that firm owners often get stuck in a growth loop because they lack an implementer to execute their ideas. To solve this, Ken announces the launch of the Operators Mastermind, a program led by veteran COOs Eric Sanchez and Stacy Monahan, specifically designed to train Office Managers and Directors of Ops at airport hotel intensives.

Seth and Ken also discuss the value of the “hallway conversations” where firm owners can openly share their failures and solutions with a curated group of peers who “get them”. With the summit nearly sold out, this episode serves as a final call for any firm owner looking to reduce costs, scale management, and reclaim their time from the daily “weeds” of practice.

Links Mentioned

BluShark Digital: https://blusharkdigital.com
RingBoost: https://www.ringboost.com
Price Benowitz: https://www.pricebenowitz.com
PILMMA: https://www.pilmma.org/

Timestamps

Working On vs. In your business. (00:40)
San Antonio Summit (01:34)
Scaling Success (02:34)
Industry Partners (03:27)
Hallway ROI (05:00)
The Right Hand (07:50)
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT (08:46)
Visionaries vs. Implementers (10:52)

Transcript

BluShark Digital 0:00

Welcome to the conference connection. Your go to place to get the scoop on what conferences are coming up that you need to know about. Here are your hosts. Paul Faust, president of ring boost and Seth price, founder of BluShark digital and managing partner of price. Benowitz,

Paul Faust 0:16

how you guys doing? Paul Faust, here from Ring Boost with my my co host, as always, have Seth Price. I don’t know, Price Benowitz guys, it’s still BluShark, and this episode special, special to me, because we have the one and only Ken Hardison who was the first person I really met, first conference that I ever go, ever went to the one and only Ken Hardison.

Ken Hardison 0:37

Thank you, buddy.

Paul Faust 0:38

So we got PILMMA coming up.

Seth Price 0:38

Let’s take a step back, Paul, because, you know, we talk about a lot of different conferences, and to me, for those people that are not out there doing depositions and trying cases, this is your conference, right? Meaning, even if you do, if you’re running the firm, you got to be there. But it is the ultimate place where you’re working on your business, not in your business, right, whether it’s making sure the systems for your operations are there or your marketing is right. Three days, plus there’s plus. You get to come in for cocktails before but three days of non stop content with the curated speakers that Ken’s put together.

Paul Faust 1:16

This this is the OG. This is the industry. This was the first conference I ever went to. I didn’t have gray hair. I’m not, you know? I mean, this is this is it. So Ken, you’ve run them, you put them on, tell everybody what’s going on, where it is, when it is, how to register. And then I’m going to jump back in and say a couple things, because it really means a lot to me.

Ken Hardison 1:34

Yeah, thank you. Yeah. It’s actually next week, September. I mean, may the 21st to the 23rd in San Antonio, Texas, on the river walk at the Hyatt, and we’ve almost sold out, I think checked yesterday, 478 we’ve got capacity for 500 so we got 22 seats left.

Seth Price 1:56

That’s amazing.

Ken Hardison 1:57

Yeah, it is amazing because we, as Seth said, we probably picked the worst date in the world to do it right around, you know, graduations, but, you know, we’ll do it earlier next year, but

Seth Price 2:15

that’s there. I mean, look that you get on a plane and you go. you know, we’ve talked about this conference before on this but if you have not already registered, this is one of those few things where you drop what you’re doing. You get yourself a plane ticket. You’re not going to break the bank in San Antonio. There’s going to be a hotel you can afford and just get yourself to this conference.

Ken Hardison 2:34

Yeah, it’s all about it’s not a. Our conferences are different than most. We’re not about partying. I mean, we have parties, and we will have a reception, we’ll have a karaoke night, you know, and you got the Riverwalk, but I got over 40 speakers. And we’ve got, we’re talking from everything from selling and buying law firms to AI to the new Google stuff that you guys going to be talking about, Seth, and, you know, just about how to scale. We got a bunch of our mastermind members that are going to pull back the curtain and share you know, how they went from like 300,000 a year to 26 million, how they went from 5 million to 40 million. And so yeah, and we got over 80 vendors there. We sold out about a month ago. So there’ll be a lot of people you can sit there and talk to.

Paul Faust 3:26

Ken, that’s important. I want to, I want to bring that up, even though, this year, you know, sold out as a as a vendor, I don’t like the term vendor. I like the term industry partner. To believe we’re truly partners with the law firms this. Ken has gone out of his way, him and his team at PILMMA to make sure that there is lots of activity in that vendor room. Can announce from the stage, there’s lots of breaks. If you’re an industry partner and you provide services to law firms, you don’t have to worry about sitting in a dead booth all day and then figuring how am I going to talk to people? Ken has done an amazing job of making sure the people who support this industry, which is us, industry partners, get time with the attendees. I think it’s, you know, it’s something to think about for next year, when you’re budgeting out your conferences, which ones you should be at. And I also think that PILMMA, unlike you know, I love, I love a lot of conference I go to many people tend to hang out together. We tend to go to the karaoke night, spend time in the hotel together. It’s not there are a lot of great conference a lot of great cities where people disappear and they have their own private dinners and private parties and invite only events. PILMMA tends to be a very cool community. It’s again, it’s the original conference I want to I credit Ken with helping me out and growing in my career. One of the OGS, and this is a conference that you really need to look at from every angle of your law firm. I don’t care if it’s you’re the partner, the CMO, the COO, the intake specialist. This is a place for you, and you should really think about the PILMMA community in general,

Seth Price 4:56

and the community I you know, can’t reinforce enough you. Know they always talk about what goes on outside of the speaking room and speakers. You have 40 speakers. You’re not going to not everyone’s going to be on point for you. But I got to tell you, I personally have picked up more having conversations in the hallways. Industry partners that have helped my law firm, connections for BluShark. Stuff goes on in that hallway because it’s a curated community of people, everybody there. That’s why, you know, Ken called me, you know, the the original PILMMA groupie. Because what when you find a group of people that get you that what you love is building and growing a firm like once you get there and you see that they’re like that, all of a sudden questions that other people look at you like, I can’t believe you’re asking this are, oh, yeah, I dealt with this. This is the two screw ups I made, and this is how I got it done. And it’s that type of added value from that community that’s been superb at building our firm.

Paul Faust 5:52

If somebody wants one of these last spots, where do they go.

Ken Hardison 5:57

The PILMMA Summit, p, i, L, M, M, A, S, U, M, M, I t.com,

Seth Price 6:04

yeah, we are. Ken, are you doing a stream this year or no stream?

Ken Hardison 6:08

No stream this year because we’ve got a day and a half everybody in one room within a day and a half of three sections, like marketing, AI and management. And so it’s, we could it just, it was just too much. The stream three, three things going on at the same time. It was just technically too advanced for me and too expensive, be honest, too expensive. So we just go to, we’re testing. I like to test new things every year. I mean, we’ll try this, you know, and then we take things that work and we keep doing them, and then, you know, we’ll change some things, but I like to keep it fresh, because we’ve been around for 16 years, you know, and you can’t do the same old thing, right? Just like practice a lot, just like building.

Seth Price 6:59

Been along for the ride. There are times when the breakouts worked, and there are times like, no we want the energy in the room. And I think right now, there’s so many you know between not everybody’s interested in selling their law firm, but if you are, you want to find out about it. So the fact that you’re breaking it out, rather than just making everybody hear what they should, you know, may not be right for them. Like and figuring that out. I think it’s brilliant.

Paul Faust 7:22

Yeah, I’m a long way from Cary, North Carolina, Ken,

Ken Hardison 7:24

absolutely 2009. you know, and the thing is, to, like, this year, I really focused on, you know, always have a couple of little things. And, like, the two big deals this year is, is AI, how to use AI and your marketing and management and how to reduce your cost and grow and scale, but also how important your right hand person is your second in command. And I’ve seen, I’ve been watching, you know, I’ve learned stuff by doing these masterminds every month, every quarter, and I’m seeing the law firm owners that really they might they’re doing all the marketing, do everything right, but then they still kind of get stuck, because everything’s coming back to them. And when they find that second person, that right hand person, whatever you will call it, that, you know,

Seth Price 8:18

the number two.

Ken Hardison 8:20

and then I see them go,

Seth Price 8:24

I gotta say, like, when you go to a mastermind, it’s 30 to 40% of the issues are that, whether it’s the beginning guy who doesn’t have an office manager, then you have some sort of, like, you know, Director of ops, and then, you know, continuing to a COO. It’s that piece and that that allows you to accelerate when you when you no longer are doing what you don’t need to do.

Ken Hardison 8:46

And I’m going to give y’all something that I was going to wait and announce next week, but so y’all can be the first whether it’s good or bad. We’re going to start a we’re starting a operators mastermind. So I’m going to be, it’s going to be for, I call it second in command. Some people call it operators. It’s going to be advanced and just regular people that are maybe an office manager or somebody trying to learn, or you’re trying to take somebody up, we’ll be doing a lot of, it’s not just mastermind, but a lot of mastery courses. And I’ve got Eric Sanchez and Stacy Monahan, who were CEOs for one of the biggest law firms in North Carolina, actually my biggest competitor when I was practicing. They got like three I saw him take that from six people to 350 people. And so they’re going to do a it’s going to not be as flashy as that. It’s going to be meet twice a year in person, at airport hotels, so people can fly in, fly out, so you know. And we’ll do a lot of virtual stuff, you know, trainings during the month and and check ins. And so it’ll be two different groups. It’ll. Be market exclusive, but I see a need for that, and we’re going to see how it works. I don’t know if it’s going to go the survey I did seems like a lot of people want it, because they realize that, hey, I need somebody that I can turn this shit over with, so I can, you know, go so I can sit here and work on strategizing and, you know, moving forward, working on the business, and not having to be in the weeds every day.

Seth Price 10:25

I think you’re onto something. AAJ, has a more global one that they put out. And there’s a guy outside, very well known guy outside of legal, who does it for for startups.

Paul Faust 10:36

Seth, it doesn’t matter how many great ideas people give you, firm owners, if you can’t go back and have somebody to implement them, they’re just ideas so

Seth Price 10:45

or tell or tell you when you shouldn’t be implementing them

Ken Hardison 10:49

I get that a lot my CEO,

Seth Price 10:52

that’s a great idea, but it’s not a rock. Yet. You want it to be a rock, bring it to the freaking quarterly.

Ken Hardison 10:56

Yeah, yeah. That’s right, that’s right. And that’s a I’ve always had strong CEOs. I think that’s why I’ve been successful in all my businesses. I’m not a weeds person, but I’m an idea guy, but and I can take and I empower people to tell me, you know, no, you know or not just yes people, and I think that’s very important.

Paul Faust 11:19

There’s a lot of people to tell you no, but I’m gonna tell you it’s a yes to PILMMA. Make sure you get there. Make sure you register, make sure you follow PILMMA, and if for any reason you can’t make this one, whether you’re a lawyer, you own a firm, you run a firm, you work at a firm, or you’re an industry partner, pay attention to PILMMA. Pay attention the next event. Pay attention to the masterminds. Pay attention again. And thank you. Please, please, please tell your friends, people in the industry, about the conference connection. We just want to provide a resource. And if you have a conference coming up, reach out to myself or Seth, and we will get you on so we can talk about it. Let the industry know what’s coming up. Ted, want to take us away.

Seth Price 11:53

No, this is this is great. Ken, thank you for sharing your time with us. Can’t wait to see what this PILMMA summit brings. And best of luck on the second command, be well guys.

Paul Faust 12:05

Take care guys.

Ken Hardison 12:05

Thank you. Thank you.

BluShark Digital 12:07

Thank you for tuning in to the conference connection. Make sure to hit subscribe if you haven’t already, and we will see you for our next episode.

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