This series has thus far walked you through the fundamentals of successful law firm SEO. From here, we are going to shift to more advanced topics that will help you understand the longer-term path to making a profitable investment in SEO.
SEO isn’t a catch-all solution. Remember, we discussed that few SEO experts are capable of building websites. They also aren’t always responsible for lead generation. They can position the content on a search engine, but you can have bad engagement metrics.
My Approach
Going back to my first successful legal pitch to a bar association president, I have sought to break down normal boxes that terminology can hinder progress. I use the language of SEO to describe my company, but what I really do is drive leads for law firms. Period. SEO is a tool. Websites that my company deploys on the framework I built by hand is another arrow in our quiver.
I developed what I called the Smart Approach to success. The three pillars of success are traffic, engagement and conversion.
Traffic - the prettiest website in the world is useless without traffic. That said, we want qualified traffic, which is relevant to you. If you’re exclusively an injury lawyer, you don’t want people emailing you about a lengthy and contentious divorce case. So we work on positioning you for the qualified traffic with content that spreads our list of relevant keywords.
Engagement - all the traffic in the world doesn’t matter if you fail to engage with the end-user. Unqualified traffic should “bounce,” meaning they leave your site without visiting more than one page. But your “bounce rate” will still be high among qualified site visitors if you have a low engagement value. One example of a metric that induces “bouncy” behavior is page load speed. Nobody wants to wait 10 seconds for your page to load. That super high quality image that you wanted to use just cost you real opportunities, because you jacked up your page load speed.
Conversion - as we have mentioned, all of this is worthless if you can’t convert. Clear calls to action that draw the eye’s attention are a must. Making it as easy as possible for a motivated, qualified lead to connect with you are of the utmost importance. Ensuring you have a 24/7 call coverage could be the difference between signing a big injury case. Contact forms offer them the opportunity to send you details on their case, allowing you some frame of reference before your firm reaches back out. Live chat services can be an additional tool to engage site visitors towards conversion.
Inbound Marketing
While I came up with my specific approach to SEO on my own, there is nothing new under the sun. The popularized term within the industry is “Inbound Marketing.” As if we haven’t thrown enough terms at you already!
Inbound marketing contrasts with “outbound marketing” based on the fundamental differences at the user’s end. Think “old methods” when you hear outbound marketing. The end-user is not in a ready-to-buy mindset. You’re simply pushing ads on TV, billboards or phone books. While few people lump social media and display ads into this category, I do. Someone on social media isn’t asking to see your ads.
Inbound is focused on those who need it and need it now -- a great thing for attorneys.
Buyer’s Journey
Inbound marketers obsess over buyer personas and the buyer’s journey. We’ll cover more on this later, but say a man named Mark is sitting in the hospital with his daughter who has been mauled by a fighting breed rescue dog who pulled his leash out of his owner’s grip. He is angry, but he and his wife are in protective parent mode on steroids.
While Mark and his wife haven’t slept, he took a break to catch some fresh air and began to think next steps. This wasn’t his daughter’s fault, and someone has to be liable.
Here’s the key moment: “I need a lawyer,” he thinks.
Mark doesn’t exactly play golf with attorneys. He goes to a small church, and there isn’t an attorney where he could ask on Sunday -- if he could even wait that one. He is the first member of his family to go to college, so he doesn’t exactly have a relative to ask for advice.
He turns to Google and searches “dog bite attorneys near me.” Mark sees that there are some local map results, and he clicks the top one, which happens to have the most reviews and is 5-star rated.
Instantly he realizes he has come to the right place. This injury firm knows what it is talking about, and their experience with animal attacks means they’ll know how to best help his daughter. Forget sending an email -- Mark wants to talk to someone NOW. This is his daughter’s wellbeing on the line!
Mark hits the “Call Now” call to action button, and his phone calls the firm’s intake line. Within the hour, Mark has talked to an experienced injury lawyer, who helps him see a general roadmap to taking care of his little girl. Within 48 hours, Mark has signed with the firm.
Importance of Intent
Intent is the key differentiator when it comes to inbound marketing. Inbound marketing caters to people who are in a “ready to buy” mindset. Those TV ads didn’t do a think for Mark.
The intent that drives the “buyer’s journey” is very powerful in many legal practice areas. Injury has the highest sense of urgency, because loved ones are often still in the hospital.
This is the ultimate reason why law firms should be positioning themselves on Google search. If you are interested in growing your practice, you can’t catch a fish unless the line is in the water. Maybe you have always relied on referrals, but most practice areas stand to grow when positioned on Google searches.
Long-Term Marketing Campaigns
Our SEO packages are built around long-term marketing campaigns. Success can take time, and we employ the more multi-faceted inbound marketing campaign style to truly drive engagement and conversion for our clients. SEO starts the conversation, but we’re ultimately about lead-generation.
As we have illustrated, this more advanced, comprehensive approach has the potential to tap your firm into a market of highly motivated leads who are ready to sign with your firm.
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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.