Successful law firm SEO campaigns are not an instant gratification experience. One big red flag is any salesman pushing instant results. There may be some markets where very fast results are possible. Occasionally we have delivered big cases very quickly, but it is absolutely not something you should expect.
Having the proper expectations up-front before signing any contract is a must, otherwise unrealistic expectations can spoil such business relationships. So we will walk you through the phases start-to-finish of a long-term SEO campaign.
Site Development
It is usually best to have your website built by the firm that’s going to do your long-term SEO. I’m different from most SEO experts, in that I can (and regularly) build websites by hand. I build the race car and then drive it. When you hire a web designer, but later realize you need an SEO expert to take over and drive the car, they should be capable of making a lot of tweaks to the motor under the hood of your website, but I never guarantee SEO success with any site that I haven’t personally developed. It is not that it’s impossible, it’s just that designers tend to make pretty things, but they’re unprepared to compete on the SEO racetracks.
If you are contracting with a company that can provide web development and SEO in-house, we recommend staying away from big-box brand names. Make sure that an SEO expert is on the team to weigh in on the site’s design. They should be involved with directing content, site pages, navigation layout and more during this process, not after.
Intrepid.Marketing keeps this phase pretty clean and minimally invasive on your time. When we know your practice areas and complete an on-boarding interview, we’re going to return a design concept around as soon as we can. There may need to be a photo shoot involved if you don’t have fresh website-friendly photos.
Once we get design acceptance and approval of our overall nav and content layout, we’ll give you the pre-final product. Once approved, we go live and we’re off to the tracks as painlessly as possible on your end.
Early Phase
If you have never had a website before, or if your web address has been around with a site that isn’t ranking in the top 50 for any keywords, then the early phase applies to you.Week 1, you aren’t going to see any keywords ranking in the top 50 on your list. Eventually, if using MOZ to track keywords, for example, you are going to start seeing keywords rankings next to keywords on your list.
Eventually, your keyword list is going to fill up with ranking numbers. They may not be very good, but your initial site should have been designed to get a significant portion of your keyword spread noticed by Google.
What you’re going to look for is for your primary keywords to begin ranking on page 1. We consider the early phase to end when most or all of your primary keywords are page one. Your organic search traffic will have grown significantly, and you are going to begin seeing qualified traffic converting into leads.
Middle Phase
In the middle phase, you’re generating leads. How constantly depends on your practice and the market, but you have finally seen that SEO can do what it says it can do - drive you business.
You will want to talk strategy with your SEO expert regarding your keyword list. You will see how your core keywords are doing, but you may want to begin casting a wider net. Secondary keywords can provide you value, and you’ll want to consider what blend of strategic importance you want to extend beyond your primary keyword list.
Further along the middle phase, you’re seeing primary keywords “above the fold”, with rankings in the top 3 or 5, as well as some map results, while additional secondary keywords are making their way into page one results.
Late Phase
A late-phase SEO campaign is firing on all cylinders. There may be some keywords that aren’t doing that well, but they’re low on your priority list. Page one performance is deep into your secondary keyword list, at least insofar as your firm’s objectives are being met.
It is especially important to ensure, from a business perspective, that you’re collecting as much data about your conversions as possible. Your strategy is going to shift from exclusively trying to overtake your competition to optimizing your conversions. The more data you collect, the more intelligent decisions you and your SEO expert can make to help increase the effectiveness of your conversions. Increasing your conversion rate a point or two could make a huge difference, and there should be enough data at this point to begin experimenting with improving conversion metrics.
If you are an injury firm, in the late phase you’re starting to have a better view on your projected ROI. Due to the length it can take between signing a case and receiving a payout, you may only be able to look at your web-driven cases, projected settlement value and have on-paper ROI projections.
In some cases, you may even begin to start seeing actual returns.
End-Game
The Holy Grail end-game scenario is a wide range of rank 1 positions on natural organic search and map results. Ranking 1 on all keywords is possible only if you believe anything is possible. It is highly unlikely, but it also isn’t necessary to creating a return on your SEO investment.
In all likelihood, end-game SEO is about maintaining dominance. You have created an empire over the matter of relatively few years. All cases you signed have been at the opportunity cost of your competitors. Some of them are going to come after you on the search engines.
Once you become the most successful firm in your search market for your practice areas, the target is on you. Don’t expect that riding out success is going to be easy.
You’re going to have to continue to fight off the barbarians in the outlying provinces if you want to maintain your keyword empire.
Timeline Expectations
The early phase should last relatively quickly with a good SEO-driven website design and solid SEO expert on board taking care of you. Think 4-6 months, but results vary, especially as markets become more competitive.
he middle phase I would simply characterize as just being the space between the early and late phases. You should not expect late phase performance before two years. That isn’t saying that it can’t happen, but expecting a mature SEO campaign within two years can be dangerous. Long-term return on your SEO investment is a long game, not a short one. But after a couple of years, you should be able to see a clearer picture for your ROI projections.
End-game SEO dominance is a phase whose entrance is measured in years, not months, if you’re facing any real competition. As time goes on, more and more people see the value of SEO, and it simply isn’t an easy process.
However, by the time you have reached end-game stages, where you’re simply maintaining your dominance, you should have enough of a basis of information to see your longer-term return on investment (ROI). You may be able to change strategies and tactics, make new investments and do so with the peace of mind knowing that your base website and SEO are generating business revenue and profits.
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Next Chapter: Pitfalls to Avoid in Website and SEO Contracts