One of the issues faced by law firms is that they fail to notice any improvements in their SEO despite hiring SEO agencies and paying the so-called SEO experts. One thing that law firms need to realize is that quality SEO can’t be cheap. If you are paying less than $1000 per month for SEO content or link building services, you are wasting your money.
Lets’ have a look at seven common reasons why their SEO efforts keep failing and how they can avoid these mistakes, finding a reliable SEO agency.
- Hire someone interested in SEO and not a website designer
Law firms may fail to realize the difference between an SEO expert and a web developer. Most web developers don’t write or edit content or have an understanding of link building. They are not aware of finding and fixing the technical SEO complexities of a website.
Law firms must only trust a digital partner that has real-world testimony of SEO success along with before and after case studies of the clients. They must answer all queries patiently. Also, they should be able to demonstrate how they improved organic visibility, traffic, phone calls, and keyword ranking for their clients. They should show you actual data from analytics tools. Having a good website design is excellent, but it is not SEO.
- Lack of communication and not meeting expectations
Many lawyers pay more than 10000 dollars to SEO companies, but what they receive in return is some Google Analytics screenshots highlighting data points that look good. All this may be vague for the lawyers. Most of them are unaware of what the SEO agency does every month.
The right SEO partner is the one that makes the client feel comfortable and visually walks the client through the entire SEO experience. We show the clients everything that can help in improving their online presence. During the bi-monthly meetings, we as SEO partners show what we have accomplished so far.
This begins with a comprehensive technical audit where we show the client what is broken and how it can be fixed. These meetings can further become once a month, but we make sure to show the clients the links we have built along with written content and improvement in the ranking. We also give them details of leads and phone calls they have received.
- Tracking
Tracking set up is a must. When we work with any client, the first thing that we do is set up the tracking such as goals, call tracking, and events in Google Analytics. When we run a link building or content campaign for the client, we need to find out if it’s working.
If a client was receiving 15 phone calls in the beginning and receives the same number of calls even after six months, we need to adjust the strategy. Getting all tracking codes in places helps in figuring out which pages are converting. You must always remember that anything that is not measured can’t be improved and without data, it’s only guesswork.
4. Lack of content strategy
Without a proper content strategy, you can’t get more traffic to the website. SEO doesn’t work wonders to double organic visits. It needs effort in a lot of areas. Traffic can’t increase without a proper content strategy. Google needs targeted content if you wish to get more traffic, leads, and cases.
Law firms need a good content strategy and schedule. The right SEO partner takes the responsibility of studying the competition, performing a keyword search, developing a content strategy, and writing quality content for the client. Even the lawyer can write the content and give it to the SEO partner for optimization.
The content won’t be read by lawyers, but by people in trouble looking for solutions. Writers can build stories and create high-quality content which potential clients can understand and relate to.
- Link building strategy
Publishing content and eliminating technical SEO issues is the key. It is not possible to survive in competitive fields such as the legal industry without an aggressive link building strategy. Most agencies ignore link building. It is essential for the SEO partner to be transparent and vocal about the links built and if they are safe or risky.
You must always remember that link building is about quality and not quantity. The right partner will come up with an excellent link building strategy and figure out opportunities based on analysis. Any agency can’t build all the links you need, and the best relationships are earned with the help of outreach or publishing link-worthy content.
Read Why link building is important in SEO
- No client education
The right SEO partner educates the client about SEO practices. The lawyers should also do some research to get acquainted with Google’s search updates so that no one takes their undue advantage.
Lawyers must ask questions to the SEO partners and read news sites such as search engine journals for staying abreast of the things that are changing in the industry. Being updated and well informed is the only way you will be able to hold the SEO firm accountable.
- Not enough focus on conversion strategy
The right SEO partner must focus on how the site is converting. You can use the tools from Google, Lucky Orange, and others. It is essential to understand how people interact with websites.
You must find out if the digital partner is doing A/B split testing for improving the conversions. If not, they may be missing the opportunity to drive more leads to the firm.
The right SEO firm improves the conversion rate along with driving more traffic to the website. The SEO partner should be able to offer insight that is tested and proven on other sites in the client base. It can be beneficial to work with firms that specialize in digital marketing for law companies.
Summary
You need to stop switching SEO agencies every six months.
- Give VR Digital a chance to earn your business as they have experience working with law firms.
- Check for references.
- Educate yourself regularly.