SEO FOR LAWYERS
Does Legal SEO Work
If you don’t believe SEO works it’s probably because your website has never ranked that high on Google. Most attorneys have a bad taste in their mouth about SEO and rightfully so. I’ve been working with law firms since 2006 and between then and now most lawyers have been burnt more than once by empty promises. Optimizing a website is a slow process which means even the best online marketers need time to show results. In the most competitive markets it can take a year or more depending on where you’re starting. But, to answer the question, YES, legal website optimization works if done properly. Look at any major market to see how’s ranking and I can guarantee it’s not by accident. The question is, do you have the resources and time to take out the biggest competitors in your market.
The video below will show you examples of great rankings and how to get them. When SEO is done well you can achieve exponential growth. SEO is a fixed cost so there is no limit to the amount of cases you can sign.
Search Engine Optimization Is An All Or Nothing Game
When it comes to SEO you can’t do a little bit. Getting to page 2 for all of the most lucrative keyword phrases won’t change a thing. You need to invest in being the best or you’re just paying for expensive hosting. If your rankings are horrible (page 5 or worse) it’s not too difficult to make modest improvements but, the closer you get to the coveted top 5 spots, the better you have to be. When you get to the middle of page 2, everyone in front of you is making an effort and you need to employ real SEO in order to pass them. The struggle is worth it.
No one goes to Google because they have the best ads. People trust Google and believe they will find the best information based on their search terms. If you are at the top of the page for search terms that matter, you will increase the number of qualified calls that you get. Plus, SEO is a fixed cost. You pay a set price each month for the service. PPC can work but it must be managed intelligently but even the best run campaigns can be wildly expensive compared to SEO. We manage several accounts who spend nearly 10 to 1 on PPC vs. Organic and get roughly the same number of clients from both. Strong organic rankings will have a profound affect on your bottom line. Choose a company that can get you there.
You Can’t Fake Results
When it comes to hiring a team to do your SEO there is only one true yardstick, rankings. Most legal SEO companies will try to dazzle you with charts, technical jargon, or a couple of outlier clients that rank well. If you’re going to partner with a marketing company you need to make sure you pick someone who has gotten good results, in tough markets, time and again. Once you’ve narrowed down the companies that you work with find cities where they both have clients and see who they rank for the keywords that matter to you.
Task Based vs. Results Based SEO
Online marketing companies that can’t get strong rankings fall back on “task based” marketing. That means they will promise you so many blogs, Twitter posts, Facebook Likes, videos, etc in order to make you feel like you’re getting something. The truth is, unless you have amazing content a blog post or Twitter mention won’t do anything to affect your position on Google. Real SEO is hard. It’s coming up with unique, compelling content that can attract high quality links. Those links don’t just happen on their own. You need a team of people who are trained on building links from online properties that have value. Knowing which links have value and which could have a negative affect on rankings is not obvious to the untrained eye. We use custom tools and years of experience to find and vet the links we target for our clients.