Why SEO is a Smart Investment for Lawyers
Why SEO is a Smart Investment for Lawyers
SEO is incredibly cheap compared to other marketing and digital channels. It will get more expensive in the next several years so now’s the best time to invest in your website and your brand.
The definition of investment is the process of using money for a profit. Most wise investors have historically invested their money in long-term investments. Using a tree as an analogy: a mature, grown tree is much more impressive than a brand new tree that just started to grow. Websites and SEO are no different.
So why is SEO a smart investment for lawyers?
1. SEO Creates Long-Term Compound Returns
SEO can provide a great return on investment over time. While achieving a high-ranking status will take time and resources, it can be an incredibly cost-effective method of generating steady traffic and compound returns. For example, adding a well-crafted content page to your website will not only generate leads today but for months or potentially even years.
Let’s Do The SEO Marketing Math
What is marketing math? It’s simply how you can calculate the ROI of your marketing campaign. Let’s use simple numbers and take Eli’s example of $10k in the Tweet.
Let’s further explore the potential return of search engine optimization using some basic SEO marketing math and a few round figures. In this scenario, we will assume that your SEO strategy costs you $10,000 per month. This translates to $120,000 per year in SEO investments.
To keep things simple with a modest example, let’s assume that your SEO investment will lead to five new signed cases each month on average at the end of the year. If each case has an average value of $7,500, you would be generating approximately $37,500 in monthly revenue via SEO alone. Even after you subtract your $10,000 monthly SEO expenses, you would net roughly $27,500 per month or $330,000 annually. Five new cases per month is also very conservative and most advanced SEO experts can drive much more than that with the right SEO strategy.
What are you investing in?
Content. The individual content pages that you create and add to your website can produce leads today – and that same page could still be producing leads in 5 years from now. One single page creating leads for 5 years is quite the investment.
2. Search Engine Optimization Generates Traffic and Fuels Growth
You can pay Google to feature your law firm in sponsored results, which are listed at the very top of SERPs pages, above the organic listings. But according to G2, 53.3% of website traffic originates from organic search. Organic searches are searches in which users select a non-paid result from the SERPs page.
Think of that statistic in this context. Would you turn down 50% of the clients that walk through your door or call your law firm? Probably not. So why would you neglect over half of prospective clients by failing to invest in search engine optimization?
By investing in SEO, you can increase the total volume of website traffic that you receive. While not all of this traffic will turn into paying clients, a portion of it will. This can lead to stronger cash flow, higher revenue, and growth for your firm.
3. SEO Allows You to Connect with Local Audiences
When engaging in search engine optimization, it is important that you use a focused approach. Instead of targeting prospects across the state, why not zero in on those that reside in the city/county that you serve? A great SEO strategy makes it possible to do exactly that.
In order to engage in local audience targeting, you will need to incorporate relevant phrasing into your keywords. Some common examples include using the phrases “near me” or the name of the city where your firm is located.
For instance, if your law firm is in Philadelphia and you practice personal injury law, you could target the keyword “Philadelphia personal injury lawyers.” This would increase your visibility among prospects in your vicinity.
4. It’s only competitive if you have the wrong strategy or the wrong SEO partner
According to Statista, there are over 1.18 million people working as attorneys or auxiliary legal professionals in the United States. There are also more than 439,000 law firms across the nation. This means that every state has thousands of law firms vying for the attention of potential clients.
At first glance, these figures can make the task of getting noticed in a sea of competition seem insurmountable. The good news is that you don’t have to compete against more than a million other legal professionals. You don’t even have to compete against the potentially tens of thousands of law firms in your state.
In reality, the only businesses that you should be competing against are those that operate in the same practice areas as you and serve clients in the same geographic region. But how exactly is this possible when over 91% of the world’s search traffic passes through a single search engine (Google)? The answer lies in search engine optimization (SEO).
Search engine optimization not only provides a mechanism for increasing your visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs), but it also gives you the ability to target local audiences. These are only a few reasons why SEO is a smart investment for your law firm. Below, we reveal three more.
5. More key benefits of investing in SEO
- Increased organic traffic: A successful SEO strategy can help a website rank higher in search engine results, making it more visible to potential customers. This can lead to an increase in organic traffic, which is often more targeted and relevant than traffic from other sources.
- Better user experience: By optimizing a website for search engines, you can also improve its overall user experience. This can include making it easier to navigate, faster to load, and more mobile-friendly. A better user experience can lead to increased engagement with visitors and lower bounce rates.
- Higher conversion rates: A website that ranks well in search engine results and provides a positive user experience is more likely to convert visitors into customers. Investing in SEO can therefore lead to higher conversion rates and more revenue for the business.
- Long-term results: SEO is a long-term strategy that can continue to provide benefits for a website over time. Unlike paid advertising, which can be expensive and require ongoing investment, SEO can provide a sustained, cost-effective source of organic traffic.
Bonus Tips for lawyers
Be patient – these results don’t happen overnight or in the first few months (or even the first year of an SEO campaign). You can get small short-term wins, but you will benefit in the long run 3 – 10 years from now as well with the content and optimizations on your website.
Focus on the output – the objective of an SEO campaign is to drive more leads and cases, but they are a lot of moving parts with an SEO campaign. So many moving parts that it can drive you crazy to try to control every aspect. Set clear KPIs that actually impact performance and then review those frequently with your team.
Visibility is a win too – SEO is also to build brand awareness and increased visibility online over your competitors. These are small wins along the way that can be causes for celebrations too.