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You can read this pdf to know law firm SEO more important than sex right now http://bit.ly/2ddj3pb
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WHY IS LAW FIRM SEO MORE IMPORTANT THAN SEX?
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 3 LOOK FOR SIGNS: DECODING THE BEHAVIOR OF YOUR USER BASE �������������������������������������� 3 IRRESISTIBLE SEDUCTION: THE BENEFITS OF SEO ��������������������������������������������������������������������� 4 EASY ON POCKETS ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 4 MEASURABLE ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 5 ASSET OPTIMIZATION ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 5 BRAND LOYALTY ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6 RULE DIGITAL ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 6 TIPS TO ORGASM: TOP DO-IT-YOURSELF TECHNIQUES ������������������������������������������������������������� 7 GO MOBILE ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 BE SPECIFIC WITH YOUR KEYWORDS ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 7 ONLINE DIRECTORIES ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9 OPTIMIZE FOR LOCAL SEARCH ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9 CREATE GOOD CONTENT���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 9 HYGIENE: THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE HIRING AN SEO AGENCY ������������������������������������ 10 TIME IN INDUSTRY �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 CASE STUDIES ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 ETHICAL SEO ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 10 LIST OF ACTIVITIES ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11 WHAT TO EXPECT? NOT A BABY BUT ROI ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11 SERP VISIBILITY �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11 ORGANIC TRAFFIC �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11 LEADS ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11 OVER TO YOU ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 12
INTRODUCTION We thought we would say better than sex, but justifying that would have been a task too difficult to pull off. However, is law firm SEO more important than sex right now? Yes! Why? ‘Cause moolah! Your profession is your commitment. You have paid $300,000 for your education; a little time to take it to the next level won’t hurt anyone. But ignoring SEO might as well do! The entire universe is going gaga about search engine optimization. Even the smallest of shopkeepers have SEO optimized websites. Why should the world be refrained from good lawyers just because you don’t pop up in Google search results? Yes, that’s happening right now! LOOK FOR SIGNS: DECODING THE BEHAVIOR OF YOUR USER BASE Let’s switch roles to understand user behavior. If you need an attorney, you will most likely look for people in your connection. You zero in on several attorneys based on the referrals, and you start your own research. 74% of consumers visit a law firm’s website to take action. Most likely, you will too, considering you are equipped to use the internet. Now, are you more likely to shortlist an attorney with good digital presence, reviews, and a website or one that is barely there? We know your answer! “ According to Findlaw U.S. Consumer Legal Needs Survey 2014, 38% OF PEOPLE USE THE INTERNET TO FIND AN ATTORNEY.
It is safe to assume that these numbers only increase given the penetration of internet in our lives. A fraction of your customers are using the search engines to find an attorney, and if you are nowhere to be found, you are missing out on major opportunities. Moreover, it’s not just your sales pitch that needs your reader’s attention. You have to prove that you are an expert. How else would they believe you? “ A Google Consumer Survey revealed that 96% OF PEOPLE SEEKING LEGAL ADVICE USE A SEARCH ENGINE! 96% is huge. SEO gives you an opportunity to address the issues of your target audience and create a lasting brand recall in their minds. You say you are already doing some kind of marketing and SEO is not important for you? It’s more important than you realize. Let’s delve deeper to understand the irresistible benefits of SEO. IRRESISTIBLE SEDUCTION: THE BENEFITS OF SEO Before you make a decision whether you need SEO or not, you need to, at least, be well aware of what SEO does. Rejecting or accepting a concept even before getting the drift is not a good idea. The benefits of search engine optimization go well beyond the search rankings. Here’s proof! EASY ON POCKETS: Search Engine is cost effective marketing. Unlike PPC, it’s not high-maintenance. Most law firms spend big bucks on PPC advertising and directories. While we do not imply that they are impractical, we definitely want to make a point that they are not as cost effective as you can get. Moreover, spending a fortune on third- party ads seems like a good way in the beginning, but is not sustainable. Ads work on a bid basis. Someday someone pays more than you, your ad automatically gets a back seat. Sustainable marketing is the key to building a strategy that helps you reap benefits without breaking the bank. Search engine optimization, on the other hand, is the alternative. A cost-effective alternative. Even when you do spend money, you are spending to build a better website and better search presence which turns out to be far more fruitful in a longer run. It may take time to rank on Google, but once you do, the cost of every click is far lesser. In PPC, your cost per click is anywhere between $10 to $50 per click, while with SEO, there’s no dearth of the number of clicks you can achieve with minimal investment. With a single strategically ideated piece of content, you can achieve 3000 to 5000 clicks, and the cost of that content will be no more than $150. Good execution and planned strategy are all it takes. SEO is a long term investment.
MEASURABLE: “ 74% OF PROSPECTS BEGINNING A SEARCH ONLINE END UP CONTACTING THE OFFICE VIA PHONE� With countless dollars spent on your marketing and bagging expensive parties, measuring your marketing is a challenge. With SEO, measuring your marketing efforts gets highly convenient because Google analytics couldn’t be better! efforts is totally doable, it also opens avenues to evaluate what works and what does not. plans over clients To put things in perspective, measures taken to optimize your website can be tracked to the point where you can identify whether a visitor ended up contacting you or not. While measuring ROI of your search engine optimization ASSET OPTIMIZATION: “ Every effort made in the direction of improving your search ranks is an effort towards improving your digital assets. Your money is not going down the drain. Unlike other marketing methods, even if you are not getting a lead today, you are treading towards a path that will yield greater success and a lasting impact. With so many people eyeing on your website, optimizing one shouldn’t need a second thought! A strong presence is a ‘do or die’ case in a world where 74.6% of the population is using the internet. 74% OF CONSUMERS VISIT A LAW FIRM’S WEBSITE TO TAKE ACTION. digital (Source: A screenshot from Google search results.)
BRAND LOYALTY When you optimize your website for search engines, you do a lot of ethical stuff that genuinely helps your target audience. Google algorithms are the torchbearers that take you on the path to user-friendliness and usefulness. While you are marketing your firm, your attempt to impress Google is your attempt to impress your users in the most authentic way possible. How? Serve them with valuable information and a scoop of your expertise! This establishes you a thought leader and builds a connection between you and your audience. They start believing in you, and with better information, you have more people getting in your loyal-to-your-brand club. Establishing trust is part of good SEO, and that never fails to bring success. RULE DIGITAL Since not all law firms have considered an active presence in the digital space, there’s a lot of scope to rule the world before it gets crowded. And earlier is better! Ruling the digital landscape is not possible only with PPC or online directories, but with SEO, it’s just some little efforts away. What are those efforts? Here are some do-it-yourself tips to achieve SEO nirvana:
TIPS TO ORGASM: TOP DO-IT-YOURSELF TECHNIQUES The ultimate SEO orgasm is when you come up in the internet in front of the right audience at the right time, i.e. your website ranks on the top of Google search results for your most important keywords. Sounds utopian? It is totally achievable. All you need is to sail in the right direction. GO MOBILE “ With Mobilegeddon announcing 40% of the web traffic coming from mobile, having a mobile optimized website is because being penalized is the first thing you want to avoid. Google penalizes websites that do not conform to its rules of mobile user-friendliness. you are on the right track. 31% OF ALL LAW FIRM RELATED WEBSITE TRAFFIC COMES THROUGH MOBILE SEARCH If it’s not, you need to ask your website designer to make it responsive. With most modern content management systems, making a website responsive is an inexpensive affair and can be done in-house. fundamental Here’s how to make your website responsive. If your website is usable and readable on a mobile device, BE SPECIFIC WITH YOUR KEYWORDS But make sure you are not falling into the trap of keyword stuffing. Choose your keywords wisely and place them strategically in the content. This strategy is not rocket science. You just have to make sure that your users understand the prime focus of your business as soon as they enter your website. That precisely means that your primary keyword needs to be in the H1 tag and your content must have the same keyword several times placed naturally in the content. While this is important, you also need to consider that location is a matter of importance. If you are a law firm in Ohio, mention that in your web page. This helps Google crawl your page with the correct information about your website and rank it accordingly. Moreover, you need to categorize your keywords. You cannot target a blog post to rank on “hire attorney in Ohio” and a service page to rank on “documents required to file for bail bond.” Basically, you have to categorize your keywords in the customer funnel: Knowledge Research Lead Triggers
To gather generic information Research for attorney choices Money keywords Knowledge keywords are those that are used to gather information about a subject. Eg. “documents required to file for bail bond.” Research keywords are used to conduct research about possible attorney choices. Eg “Best attorneys in Ohio,” “Ohio attorney reviews.” Lead triggers are the money keywords that are the final steps taken by a user to hire an attorney. Eg. “attorneys in Ohio,” “Hire lawyer online.” Now, you must be wondering whether you even need to cater to the knowledge and research keywords because ultimately, lead triggers are what you need. However, to be able to establish a strong online presence, all of these are important for you at different levels. Type of keywords Sample keywords Target pages Knowledge keywords Documents required to file for bail bond Web Blog Research keywords Best attorneys in Ohio, Ohio attorney reviews Third party websites Lead triggers Attorneys in Ohio, Hire lawyer online Web Pages Such keyword mapping might seem like a Herculean task but is definitely worth your time in order to rule the digital landscape. ONLINE DIRECTORIES Just like your offline directories, your online directories are places that people use to find good lawyers. We are stating it again, with growing internet penetration, print directories are hitting oblivion, and online directories are far more popular amongst your customers. Consider Yelp, FourSquare, Yellow Pages and others. These are widely used platforms used by people for almost every service they need. A strong digital presence requires a presence on these online directories, and hey, it’s free!
Like your website, your profiles on these directories too require optimization. A well-maintained profile on directories should be on your marketing checklist this year. Pay attention to your reviews and be responsible for them. Timely responses to reviews should be a part of your job because you can’t ignore unhappy customers speaking foul about you. OPTIMIZE FOR LOCAL SEARCH: “ 71% OF PEOPLE LOOKING FOR LAWYER THINK IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE A LOCAL ATTORNEY� (FINDLAW U.S. CONSUMER LEGAL NEEDS SURVEY 2014) “ Optimizing for local search is as important as having a mobile optimized Although ignoring it will not lead you to penalty, it will have a tremendous effect on your rankings. Set up your Google My Business profile it plays a significant role in local searches. because website. Also, optimize your Google Plus profile with your regional keyword in the “Business Name” section. Get your Google Plus business page verified in order to show up in local searches and maps. When your customers want a local attorney, you need to help Google identify that you are a local attorney. 85% USE ONLINE MAPS TO FIND LEGAL SERVICE LOCATIONS. (GOOGLE LEGAL SERVICES STUDY SEPT 2013) CREATE GOOD CONTENT This is a dreaded challenge, but if you are not able to produce good content, you cannot survive in the internet. That’s the thumb rule. By planning, we precisely mean mapping your content with the keyword funnel we just talked about in section 4.b. Your content for blogs and content for third party sites to build links need to be distinct. While creating good content might just mean start creating great content, it requires proper planning. You cannot start jotting down your thoughts. Identify knowledge keywords and research keywords and think of themes to create content. For eg.: Keyword Documents required to file for bail bond Type Knowledge Topics • A Step-by-Step Guide to Obtain a Bail Bond • A Complete List Of Documents Required To File For A Bail Bond • A list of Top 10 Attorneys in Ohio • How to Find the Best Attorney in Ohio Target Web Blog Best Attorneys in Ohio Research Third party Though there are a lot of other things you can do to up your SEO game, doing it all by yourself is overwhelming. So, the above techniques are just some starters to help you get on the track.
HYGIENE: THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE HIRING AN SEO AGENCY Fairly enough, you believe that you cannot pull off all by yourself, which is justified because you have other things to focus on- actual cases to win! Or Even if you achieved your results, keeping them up isn’t an easy nut to crack! Outsourcing is an intelligent decision only if you do it responsibly and carefully. Falling for bad agencies is even riskier than not having an SEO strategy at all. So here are a few things you need to consider before hiring an SEO agency. Let us tell you beforehand; it’s not difficult to identify a good one from a bad one! TIME IN INDUSTRY A freshly started agency might lure you with cheap deals, but a good one needs to be in the industry for at least 6-7 years. Hundreds of SEO agencies have run out of business because of unethical practices. An agency that is stable in the business for several years is definitely doing it the right way to be able to uphold its position. CASE STUDIES A good agency will be able to serve you with the details of happy clients and case studies. Insist on seeing a case study to prove they are good. ETHICAL SEO Before you hire an agency, understand their strategy for you. If they have a strategy in place that is all white-hat without even a hint of gray or black hat, you know you can trust them. Differentiating white hat from others is easy- just think of yourself as a user. LIST OF ACTIVITIES One last essential factor is to ask your agency to offer a list of activities they will do for you. If they are able to provide it, they are good to go. If they speak somewhere in the lines of “it’s not possible,” watch out!
WHAT TO EXPECT? NOT A BABY BUT ROI Ultimately, everything boils down to the ROI. If you are spending your hard-earned money, you should know the ROI of your SEO efforts. So, what is it that you track when you do SEO? What are the key performance indexes? Here you go: SERP VISIBILITY SERP visibility is the number of keywords for which your ranking has been improved in search results. For e.g., 6 out of 10 keywords start ranking on page 1 of Google search results whereas only 1 of them was ranking before SEO. Tool to track: SEM Rush ORGANIC TRAFFIC Another important performance index is the organic traffic. How many visitors are visiting your website or the targeted URLs from the organic search results (excluding PPC and third party sites)? Ultimately, you are doing it for visits. Tool to Track: Google Analytics LEADS This is high-level performance analysis, but an important one for your business. It tracks how many visitors ended up contacting you. Tool to track: Google Analytics
OVER TO YOU SEO is an evolving science with Google updating its search algorithms 6000 times a year. While SEO is an absolute necessity, keeping track of this science is a cumbersome process and requires expert interference. Hiring an SEO panel is an option, but building a team of your own will have you end up spending more than required. Outsourcing SEO considering the factors mentioned above is the best bet if you need to stay ahead of the curve and rule the digital landscape while you go on a spree to collect accolades of triumph in cases over cases. UNCOVER THE SEO POTENTIAL OF YOUR LAW FIRM TODAY Let’s Talk Strategy SOURCES: http://stellarseo.com/law-firm-marketing-in-2017/ https://www.lawlytics.com/seo/ https://jurispage.com/2013/seo/law-firm-seo-getting-to-the-top-of-google-search-results-for-your-law-firm/ http://webris.org/legal-seo/ https://www.seo-for-lawyers.com/the-importance-of-seo-for-law-firms/ http://www.natlawreview.com/article/legal-marketing-stats-lawyers-need-to-know http://abovethelaw.com/2014/11/why-attorney-websites-are-a-waste-of-time-for-most-law-firms/?rf=1 https://good2bsocial.com/the-top-8-digital-marketing-trends-for-law-firms-in-2016/ https://www.resultfirst.com/knowledgecenter
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