“Build it, and they will come” is a memorable line from Field of Dreams. Unfortunately, the cutthroat and often high stakes world of law firm SEO isn’t that simple. Countless law firms have built websites, and they couldn’t account for a single new client as a result.
All websites are not created equally. As we mentioned earlier, Google “crawls” through your website with automated crawler programs, not with human eyes. That designer was able to get you to approve of (and probably really like) the design they came up with, but it may look amateur-built to a search engine.
The Racetrack Analogy
Law firm SEO is highly competitive. If you’re in the high stakes arena of personal injury, big money is on the line.
I try to get people to view competing on a search engine like going to a racetrack. Your key infrastructure (website) is your vehicle you’re taking to the track. Would you want to take a Toyota Prius? I do for my clients what I would want done for me, and I wouldn’t want any street legal car. I would want a performance race-tuned machine.
Your Website Is Probably A Prius (Or Worse)
Your website is probably a Prius or worse. I pitched to a firm whose website’s footer said © 2002 in the footer. That means a well-respected firm’s website was built in an era when most people were still using projection tube monitors. Google knows this, and their infrastructure immediately disqualifies them from being in the running for page one keyword rankings. Their old Bug might not even be allowed on the tracks.
Fast forward to 2018. It is easier than ever to “build a website yourself. No coding skills required!” What’s more, these designs actually look really good! Congratulations on your new website that you paid your nephew a few hundred bucks to spin up for you!
Let’s return to the big picture of SEO: Google wants to reward the best. Is “the best” using a cheap and easy-to-build-yourself website? No, at least not in any competitive market.
To further complicate the matter, many website companies and independent contractors sell website packages that range from inexpensive to incredibly expensive …
… wait for it …
… and even the expensive websites are built on a cheap website theme that offers the “do it yourself free and easily with no coding experience” convenience.
I lost a deal once because my monthly retainer was higher than a competitor, even though the competitor was $10,000 more in up-front costs. My clients are all multi-year deals, and that monthly residual would make up for that extra up-front cost of my competitor.
Over a year later, the boss called me to meet with him. He wanted to know why he was failing to get any keyword traction.
I handed him a printout of the $45 theme that he had paid someone $10k to turn into his website. That was enough to prove he had been duped. It isn’t a good feeling, and you shouldn’t take it as a sleight against your judgement and decision making if you have invested heavily into something with little to show for it. Salesmen are experts at inducing you to what they want -- commission from a sale -- regardless of whether or not you are well-served in the end. You aren’t supposed to be an expert in evaluating websites and SEO campaign strategies, and the people you trusted just weren’t honest or completely up-front with you.
How To Get A Performance-Tuned Website
How can attorneys avoid the pitfall of the $10,000+ website built on a cheap/easy framework? Ask the salesman or contractor how they build your website. Is it a purchased theme? Is it a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor (what you see is what you get)? Or is a website designer and developer creating you a custom theme? Do their designers have an SEO expert on their team during the design phase? SEO strategy should be mapped out prior to building any site, after all.
Picking a good website and SEO company really is the key. At Intrepid.Marketing, our sites are developed on our Alexander framework, race-tuned and ready to conquer a keyword empire for our law firm clients. The framework was hand built by me, the owner and law firm SEO expert, and we’re constantly innovating ways to improve and fine tune performance.
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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.