No matter how many try, few succeed
We’re kicking off a Law Firm SEO series, because we want to help attorneys across the country better understand SEO and how a lawyer can grow their practice by working with SEO and inbound marketing experts.
I started this business in 2012, and as a law firm SEO expert, I can tell you one thing for sure: I have never seen a conference room full of attorneys fall asleep faster than when they asked me to explain what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is.
Good news: this is not your standard SEO guide. It isn’t written to appeal to all audiences. This content series is geared towards successful attorneys and law firms, and it’s about one thing: making you money. As the only law firm SEO agency with a money back guarantee, we mean business when it comes to creating a return on SEO investments.
I won’t begin with explaining what SEO even is. The first thing you need to know is the hard truth about SEO.
The Hard Truth
Imagine you’re in a sports stadium watching your favorite team. Focus on the crowd, its energy and enthusiasm.
Now, all of a sudden, imagine that everyone in that stadium is a competitor. Everyone is committed to building a website and making money off of it.
Here’s the cold hard truth: only a handful are going to succeed.
No matter whether you’re a general practice law firm in a small rural community or a hotshot injury lawyer in LA, the truth applies across the board. There’s one person who is going to really kill it with that top spot, but a handful are going to soak up all the traffic.
Understand Your Market
It is critical to understand your market before you make any investment in SEO. I never ever sign with a law office or firm unless we have conducted a thorough market analysis. I have run across way too many law firms that simply decided to throw money at SEO, only to see zero return on their investment. We’re talking six figure annual investments for a firm that didn’t even show up by page 10 of a Google search for their primary area of practice.
Informed decisions are the best decisions. You can’t just throw money at an SEO vendor. You don’t have to become an expert, but a clear understanding of your market -- particularly your competition -- is critical. We will talk more about the relative nature of SEO later, but you have to have a plan to beat everyone. What that entails is a product of competitor research.
SEO Experts With Legal Experience Are A Must
I met a guy in my neighborhood who has a lawsuit against a local government institution, and he considers it his full time job to sue them. I run into him regularly, and he is constantly researching and attempting to figure out next steps and best moves. I asked him why he doesn’t just get an attorney, since you could find someone to work on a percentage. Best of luck, but succeeding in a lawsuit is not a DIY project I want to take on, when there are so many talented lawyers who could handle my case for me and take that off my plate. After all, I’m a full time business owner! I don’t have the time for that!
You wouldn’t recommend any of your non-lawyer friends try their own cases. Nor should you leave the responsibility of your law firm’s SEO strategy and execution to anyone who wants to learn on the job.
If you’re serious, you shouldn’t take your nephew up on his offer to build you a new website, as he’s trying to learn and build experience. (Okay, maybe my first attorney website was for my aunt, but my second was for the president of the state’s Bar Association’s firm.) You need a law firm SEO expert with extensive experience in working specifically with attorneys. There are plenty of talented SEO and inbound marketing agencies who sell to anyone, and they do great work.
BUT -- they don’t have years of experience and data guiding how they build their websites and implement strategies that drive leads for your intake.
At Intrepid.Marketing, we are focused on law firm SEO, building on our experience and knowledge base acquired by creating success stories for our clients.
In the end, do you want to be one of the handful who succeed, or would you rather join the masses who spend a wide range of budgets and fail to generate leads?
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If you’d like to schedule a FREE consultation with a law firm SEO expert, shoot us an email using our online contact form, and I will personally reach out to you as soon as possible.