I really dislike the term ‘backlink’.  It goes against everything SEO in my opinion.

Now my industry, Search Engine Optimization, is one of the most convoluted, fragmented, unregulated misleading industries in the marketing world.

This has led to an abundance of misinformation and poorly executed campaigns.

And strategizing to acquire ‘backlinks’ is one of my most hated strategies in my business.

Just because you acquired 17 new inbound links from 7 different domains and your rankings increased, doesn’t mean it was a smart move.

SEO is Just Marketing

This is a common theme in our practice.  But before you take my word for it, let’s think like Google.

In fact, let’s think like the founders….Sergey and Larry.

Larry and Sergey founded the first Google algorithm in 1996.  It proved to be very successful and provided incredible relevant results compared to any of the competitors in the ’90s.

Google quickly became partners with NASA, AOL, Sun, News Corp to name a few.  Their algorithm was so good, within four years they had market dominance.

The algorithm was so good because of the backlink structure Google looked at.

History Tells the Story, but Not All of It

Point is, Google was founded on backlinks.  But before you rush out for backlinks, let’s tell some more of the story.

Larry’s father was a scientist.  Larry noticed (in real life) that when he published a paper in a journal, his authority of a scientist increased in the community.

He also noticed that when someone else used his father’s research paper as a reference, Larry’s father’s authority further increased.

In other words, the more people talk about his father, referenced his work, the more people wanted his opinion and did not challenge it.

Larry and Sergeythen attempted to digitize this concept with webpages, as Google’s history tells us.

It was thought that if the webpage ‘A’ linked to webpage ‘B’, then the trust and authority of webpage ‘B’ increased and should be shown further in the list.

We call this list a SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

This is when the term Backlinks was coined.

The Algorithm of 2020 is Much Different

I’ve been involved in SEO since 2005.  I began teaching it in 2009.  With a Marketing degree under my belt, several years to old school B2B sales and some time in a corporate marketing department, learning SEO was hard.

The first days were very math-related.  Reverse engineering the algorithm and replicating it.  It worked.

I used to say I could sneeze at 40,000 links.  I could get a website 1,000 backlinks in two days.

Did you know I founded the first national online delivery company?  We did over 80,000 deliveries in our first year.  This was all from SEO in 2009.

It seemed every six months rankings would drop, and we’d have to keep up the momentum.  I always had a gut feeling thing would break.

In 2010 I had an epiphany. About Larry and Sergey.

They knew Google was not where it needed to be.

What they were doing was trying to replicate human behavior.

This was the big light bulb moment.  That’s when backlinks died for me.

I should not be chasing backlinks.  I should be going where prospective clients are hanging out

It was a short two years later Google’s updates started making major changes, such as with Keyword Recognition, Trust, Authority and dispelling page rank.

By this time, Google was claiming they were looking at over 200 factors to rank…backlinks being one (albeit a powerful one).

In the world of marketing, we create a message and distribute that message to where an audience resides.  [source: American Marketing Association]

It’s nearly impossible to isolate any particular ranking factor.

A Good Backlink Strategy is Good Marketing – with a Plan.

We know marketing is creating the right message, for the right audience and giving it to them where they are.  Sounds simple, right?

Well, no good strategy starts without a plan.  You should have a marketing plan.

Here is a good template to download a marketing plan for your law firm – Download Attorney Marketing Plan Template.

Attorney Marketing Plan Overview

1 ONLINE ASSETS

1.1 Personal Profiles

1.2 Business Profiles

1.3 Online Properties

2 OFFLINE ASSETS

2.1 Chamber of Commerce

2.2 Associations

2.3 Networking Groups / Events

2.4 Publications

2.5 PhoneBook

2.6 Printed Material

2.7 Charitable Community Involvement or Contributions

3 ONLINE CAMPAIGNS

3.1 Audience

3.2 Driving Traffic

3.3 Conversion

3.4 Online Reputation Management

3.5 Credibility

3.6 Assets

4 OFFLINE CAMPAIGNS

4.2 Market Selection

4.3 Tools / Assets

5 SALES

5.2 Sales Process

5.3 Up Sell Opportunities

5.4 Tools

But I’m not here to talk a lot about your plan and how to formulate it, I’m here to talk about execution.

Now while your strategy might vary, I want to show you what a typical link building strategy is for one of our clients.

Typical Monthly Backlink Strategy for an Attorney

1. Citation & Profile Building– This month we used strategies to acquire citations. The first, and most difficult, is acquiring 30 new profiles manually.  Second, we use a cloud-based propagation service such as YEXT.  Here is an example of Citation Lists for Attorneys.
   1. This includes a full audit, NAP corrections, Duplicate Profile Suppression
2. High Authority Blog Content– We have highly educated attorney writers on our team that research, write and produce some of the highest quality, highest-ranking attorney content on the internet. Our content is at least 1,500 words, uses multiple authority sources, goes through rigorous QA and is highly optimized to rank.  We will produce a minimum of two pieces per month.  Here is an example of our Blog Articles for Attorneys.
3. Video Content– Complimenting the above blog content, we’ll create a high impact conversation client objection video. The video is keyword & client objection optimized, sully scripted, transcribed & optimized.  We create custom images, b-roll and thumbnails to be distributed & propagated to YouTube, embedded on Blog content and sent through social media channels. Here is an example of High Impact Video for Attorney Firms.
4. Press Release– Utilizing the inverted pyramid approach, on a quarterly basis we’ll write a press release distributed to over 200 news sources, including NBS, ABC & Fox. Here is an example Press Release for Attorneys.
5. Authority Guest Post– We have relationships with hundreds of industry-related blogs and new sources for attorneys. We will provide our partners with an informative piece which they publish, and link to our clients from high PageRank website.  Here’s an example report for Attorney Partner Linking.
6. Foundation Authority Building– We create several mini-websites on Web 2.0 sites like WIX.com focusing on valuable, unique content for your niche. We then send many Web 2.0 links to the mini-sites, that link to your specific blob content called out in your marketing plan. Here is an example of a Foundational Link Building Strategy for Attorneys.
7. High Authority Front Page Links– We have relationships with hundreds of industry-related websites, associations, magazines, media and forums for attorneys. Our partners allow us to request a permanent partner link on their homepage linking to your site.  These are extremely high-value links.  Here is an example of a High Authority Homepage Link for Attorneys.
8. Social Media Brand Lock– While social media is sometimes overrated for small businesses, it doesn’t mean you should be taking action. Each month we acquire at least 50 new social media profiles, essentially locking your brand out.  Here is an example of a Social Media Brand Lock for Attorneys.
9. Blog Syndication– We take your blog content and syndicate it through our partner media channels. In some cases, we can generate 100+ links by publishing your blog content on sites like ABC, NBC, and Fox.  Here is an example Blog Syndication Report for Lawyers.

So I hate backlinks. Everything we do generates backlinks, but everything we create is driven from a marketing plan.

Essentially our Backlink Strategy would still exist without SEO.  Can you see that?

Keyword research is one of those topics that has become too confusing with too many shiny objects. Before we talk about keyword research, let’s understand that this is a process of marketing research.

Marketing Research

Marketing research is merely the process of gathering analyzing and understanding information about a particular market.  In its simplest form, marketing research can be understood by two unique processes. Primary marketing research and secondary marketing research.

Primary marketing research is essentially gathering the information yourself, and secondary market research is relying on that information that others have already gathered.

In a perfect world, primary marketing research is getting you to the best data for your company however in many instances this is not feasible therefore we rely on secondary research.

I feel in the discussion of keyword research far too often to business owners and Internet marketers rely solely on secondary research.  I’ve always said the best keyword research is with the clipboard and walking through your local mall.

Buying Cycle

The buying cycle is the process that every customer client goes through when they decide to purchase a product or service.  It is very important that you offer lies your website for the stages of your client buy cycle.

It is said law firms and their clients go through four unique stages while making a purchase of attorney services.  (SOURCE: Disruptive Advertising).  Those are:

1. Awareness
2. Research
3. Comparison & Purchase
4. Retention & Referrals

The two stages that are most important for us and the phase of keyword research is stage two and stage three.

Research Stage of the Buying Cycle

After a client has recognized that they have a problem, such as a DUI or upcoming divorce, prospects have now become aware that they may need help and they begin to research.

The first thing we have to think about here is the feeling of the prospect.  How do they feel? Are they scared? Are they looking for answers to what might happen to them? Are they looking for a peace of mind with the timeline of their situation?

The bottom line is this they have a problem and there was a negative feeling associated with that problem. It is your job as the attorney to rid them of that feeling and provide a sense of relief. 

During the research phase, your prospective client is going to be researching keywords and key phrases that are related to getting an understanding of their situation.

These searches on Google are typically what we call long-tail keyword searches and are in the form of a question.

ACTIVITY TIP

Think of all the questions your prospects have asked you in the past.  Group those questions into groups labeled as your services…such as DUI questions, or divorce.

Now prioritize these questions.  You should easily be able to come up with at least a dozen per service.

With your three, four or maybe five lists of a dozen questions for each of your services, in order of priority (for frequency asked), this list is going to be very helpful later in your keyword research stage, plus serve as a content creation schedule, we’ll discuss later.

Comparison & Purchase Stage of the Buying Cycle

Your prospect has now decided they need to hire an attorney.  In many cases, prospective clients will go through the research stage mentioned earlier, however, in some cases they’ll already know they need an attorney and will proceed to find an attorney.

Of course, if you’ve served the client in the past and did great work, you’ll be on their radar.  However, if personal experience and recommendations fail, almost everyone and anyone will jump to google.

Buying keywords are your #1 keywords you want to rank for.  I consider a buying keyword to have one, two or all three of the following components.

1. Core Term
2. Modifier
3. Geomod (Geographical modifier)

The Core Term is your service.

The Modifier is your practice.

The Geomod is your location.

In many cases, Google determines or overrides the geomod.  Whether it’s GPS location, cellular triangulation, IP trace code or user input, Google tends to solve the problem of the geomod for its users.

You can also see that there are several subsets of the main core term.  In this example, [car accident] or [nursing home abuse] are examples of two umbrella core terms.

There are really only three main modifiers, Lawyer, Attorney, and Law Firm.  The term [attorney] is searched on average twice as many times as [lawyer] and four times as many times as [law firm].

ACTIVITY TIP

Open Microsoft Excel (of your favorite spreadsheet software) and start with a blank canvas.

In the first column, write down in order of your priority, all your Core Terms.

In the next column, put down your modifiers.

Finally, list your geomods. This will include your City, State, County, Zip Code and any potential abbreviated local terms describing the area…In some cases this is the airport (hence airport code).

Once you have your list in three columns, jump over to this handy Local Keyword Tool and combine the three columns into one single list.

You should have a list of 40 to 100 of your top keywords.

Tracking

Everything that is measured improves.  Plain and simple.

There are several keyword tracking tools out there today, and it’s been a thorn in my side since I began with SEO.

There is not one single SEO tool out there that I love.  Some I like, most I don’t.

As far as tracking keywords, many of the tools simply track the organic listings and not the local listings. Most tracking tools emulate a typical good search from a specific geographical location.  Most only give a perspective from a single physical location.

Another way to measure keyword performance is to determine where a business ranks on Google for a variety of specific locations.

Unfortunately, there are no online ranking tools that do both.  So a combination of some of the online ranking tools out there, along with Google Analytics and Google My Business Insights, you can get a good perspective of where you rank along with potential opportunities.

Attorney Keyword Lists

Bankruptcy Attorney Keywords

Personal Injury Attorney Keywords

Family Law Lawyer Keywords

divorce Attorney

divorce Lawyer

divorce Law Firm

child custody Attorney

child custody Lawyer

child custody Law Firm

child support Attorney

child support Lawyer

child support Law Firm

military divorce Attorney

military divorce Lawyer

military divorce Law Firm

alimony Attorney

alimony Lawyer

alimony Law Firm

paternity Attorney

paternity Lawyer

paternity Law Firm

family law Attorney

family law Lawyer

family law Law Firm

third party custody Attorney

third party custody Lawyer

third party custody Law Firm

mediation Attorney

mediation Lawyer

mediation Law Firm

father\’s rights Attorney

father\’s rights Lawyer

father\’s rights Law Firm

prenuptial Attorney

prenuptial Lawyer

prenuptial Law Firm

I’ve been providing and teaching SEO since 2005, and frankly when I hear someone say ‘The SEO industry changes so much’ I get that chill down my spine…like, they just don’t get it.

You’ll see that we rank at the top for the keyword [Local SEO Case Study for Attorneys] 

 The case study is nice, but today I’m going to cover the implementation, not the strategy.  So if you’re interested in a high level overview of the strategy, head over to learn about to marketing your law firm on the Internet using SEO.  

You see, the SEO industry is really just…well bullshit.  Everyone’s got an opinion and not is really regulating what’s being said.  I’ve written a lot about my thoughts on this, but for now to get value from this piece, I’ll say this in proper SEO fashion, just believe me!!

Today is about the activities that provide the greatest SEO bang, along with the greatest value for your Law Practice.

7 Most Effective SEO Activities for Lawyers

1. Consistent High-Value Blog Content
2. Quality Effective Website
3. Video
4. Press Releases
5. Guest Posts
6. Profile Citations
7. Reviews

It’s really that simple, just not easy.  You’ll hear so much in SEO about ‘content is king’, write blog posts that are 1000 words and 5% dense with your target keyword, have a website that scores 90 in Google, get data aggregators, citations, optimize your profiles….and on and on and on and on.

There are so many strategies and opinions it’s quite frustrating, gives me a headache more than that when I’m in a hockey locker room full of 13 year old boys going through puberty.

Listen to Google

It’s about Trust and Authority.  Heck, look, I’m referencing the greatest authority source on the matter, Google.  They are literally telling you exactly what you have to do to rank on their search engine. You have to be a trusted authority source on the matter.  It’s that simple.

The hard part is actually proving to a search engine that your content is worthy to rank.  

I tell my students a little secret in trying to understand is a particular ‘SEO strategy’ is worth it. Imagine yourself in a completely dark room, eyes closed, and ask yourself….if this strategy good for my clients?  Is this strategy good for my business?  Is this strategy good for my own values?  If you answer YES to all three, then it’s probably a worthy strategy.

Imagine the question of link building…having link on a quantity of sites.  Is this good for the client, being listed on a directory in Canada? Probably not.

What about a video that answers a DUI question for a Criminal Defense Attorney’s potential client? This would make great sense for the business, the attorney and the client.

The following list I’ll be talking about in a authoritative and trustworthy sense, I’ll be forgoing the nuances of the SEO world.  I don’t want a headache today.

Blog Content

This one is definitely not the most insightful or unique tip you’ve ever heard.  It’s also quite a boring discussion, so I’ll try and give you the nuts and bolts in a couple of breaths.

Your blog is your communication to your audience.  So answer their questions!

If you’re a Personal Injury attorney interested in getting more car accident cases, think about the typical questions a prospective client asks you.  Make a list of the dozen most asked questions.

Now create a blog post answering each question.  Don’t outsource it.  Don’t write a piece to achieve 1000 keywords.  Write an essay like you were taught in school.  Submit a piece that you’d be proud to give to your favorite professor.

Make you have your works cited (outbound links).  Make sure you use visuals when you can (images).  Make it readable (headlines / short paragraphs).  

Your list of a dozen or so topics and this is your content creation schedule for the next year.

Website

OK, so every small business should have a website.  You can spend build a free one, you can spend $25,000.  You can make it flashy, have great features and impress your best collegues, but the bottom line is, if it doesn’t perform, it’s useless.

As far as SEO is concerned, there are perhaps a dozen or so important things to consider.  Some will give you a list of 25, others say five or so factors are truly important.

We call these On The Page factors.  Technically, your website should be error free, load relatively quick and be fairly up to date in the coding.  So plan on getting a rebuild every three to five years.

Page loading speed is pretty important.  We measure with two tools

1. Google Page Speed Test
2. Pingdom Speed Test

As long as your website is loading in less than 4 seconds and less than roughly 4mb, your going to be OK. However, you ideally want a website to load in 2 seconds.

As far as user experience, your website should be achieving a Call to Action, or CTA.  Typically this is either a phone call to the business or a form filled out on the website.

Obviously there are many elements required to help optimize the CTA such as user navigation, user experience and technical elements such as CTR (click through rate) tracking.

A good website requires the skills of several areas.

Of course content is important, but you’ll see this entire piece is merely focused on quality content, which is housed and organized properly on your website, the users and the search engines.

Video

Let’s face it, video is the one digital medium that touches all three factors that influence human behavior…our words, our tone, and our physiology.  While each has its own weight in its ability to influence, it is said our physiology represents 55% of our influence.  This was first written about by Albert Mehrabian and his 7-38-55 rule.

We can only convey physiology with video

Video is usually very confusing and scary for some.  It could cost a lot of money, it could require an investment in technology and skill. It brings the deer in headlight look when considering what to do with video.

Video is really not that hard, if you stick with the basics.  You don’t need a highly edited, heavy b-roll scripted studio shot video to be effective.

A simple rule with video is good lighting and good audio.  So let me give you a simple video strategy for your firm, this is exactly our strategy for our clients.  It consists to two types of video.

1. Attorney Talking Head
2. Blog Talking Head

Sure, you can spend $15,000 on a solid commercial and have that as your headline video, but here I’m talking about creating videos on a regular basis.  Remember, the search engines love consistent quality content.

You can choose both of these strategies or either one.

Attorney Talking Head

Hire someone or bring someone in to record you at your desk.  Wear your typical daily clothing and psych yourself up to speaking with a prospect, not a camera.

Have your dozen questions written out that you put together for the blog exercise. 

Make sure you have some good lighting on your face and eyes, with no shadows.  Don’t use the camera mic, plug in a lavalier or use a good boom mic.

Have someone ask you the question and start talking.  If you feel more comfortable, speak to a person in the room rather than at the camera. Just stay consistent.

Editing the video is easy, you’re shooting for 90 seconds to four minutes, ideally in the two minute range.

Post the videos regularly (not all at once) to YouTube.  Embed the video on your blog.  Propagate to your social channels.

Blog Talking Head

We have a little studio that we create talking head videos for our clients.  It’s simple, we take a popular blog post of theirs, create a script, read it and add b-roll.  Check out this client video.

Videos like this will run your around $500 a piece.  But look at it like this…a year’s worth of video is valued at $6k, and for that price you’ll have a complete library of content that is answering your client’s objections.  These videos can be used for years to come, over and over…on your blog, on YouTube channel, social media and client presentations.

Press Releases

It would be nice to be able to put this image on your website and social channels, wouldn’t it?!

A press release when done properly will do this.  We’ll do a press release at least quarterly for our clients and get distribution into at least 150 press publications.  This PR piece below was submitted to 267 Full Page Placements on 267 different news sources. This included Google News, Fox, Associated Press, ABC, CBS and NBC!

There are many PR distribution services available, and many are simply useless.  It’s tough the play the free game here.  We spend significant time creating a quality piece that’ll be picked up and spend upwards of $1000 for effective distribution.  The media game is a pay to play game.

Guest Posts

You’ve heard links are important in SEO.  You’ve also probably heard a quality link is more important than quantity.  But the question becomes, where do you get links from?

Vision this…a scientist publishes a paper and it’s picked up in a science journal.  Another scientist doing research and uses the first piece as a reference.  When the 2^ndscientist moves up in the ranks, the trust given to the first scientist will increase.  Guest Posts do the same and provide that value in the form of improved SEO…or links.

This is an article that we hired to have written for us by Sharon Rondeau.  Her blog is a very busy blog with high authority on Google…in this case, her blog and this page receive a PR6 rating.  So a link from her blog to any site passes high page rank value.

As you can see in this article, it’s a piece that written about a car accident situation and provides a link with the anchor text [personal injury attorney].  This link is directed to our client, and in this case, we’re trying to improve the keyword of their main core competency, a PI attorney.

You can become a guest writer on your association websites, your school, clients’ websites or publications you’ve been published in.

A firm such as ours spend a lot of time building relationships with high authoritative blog writers that can offer value to their audience with content relevant to our clients.  

Profile Citations

These are simply directories.  There are major one, niche directories, local directories and industry, major aggregators, the telco’s, the list goes on.  

Our industry is split on opinions on who to hire, how to execute and whether to hire data pushers. I’ll tell you what we do.

You’ll need a consistent profile about your business.  We take the time to create a properly optimized profile with description, image set and all relevant and pertinent information.

First we purchase the elite plan at YEXT for our clients.  This costs us about $1000 a year.  This is nice, in a nut shell, because it instantly covers a lot of the biggest directories such a Bing, Yelp and Yahoo.  It’ll help with about 50 sites and ensure you have all four of the major data aggregators.

Over the first six months, we then proceed to manually claim and own the profiles that YEXT has created. YEXT is also nice for duplicate suppression.

Next, we begin the monthly ongoing process of acquiring about 30 new citations a month.  We have a huge database of local and industry citation sources.

There are literally hundreds available.  Some can take 30 minutes or more to properly acquire and claim.  This is an ongoing process, indefinitely.

Reviews

Reviews are said to be the digital form of word-of-mouth, or WOM.  WOM is definitely the best marketing strategy in history for attorneys, and this still holds true.

You need a firm-wide Review Strategy.  Period. I believe it is imperative that you, as the attorney and business owner, to build a company philosophy towards the importance of receiving positive reviews on a consistent basis, for the life of your practice.

We call this finding your hero clients.  You want to do what you can to ethically encourage your most satisfied clients to talk about you online.  Whether it’s Google, or Facebook, you need a system to encourage, measure and monitor this activity.

Your goal should be to receive at least two new 5-star reviews per month, but one a week would be better. Obviously the volume of your firm will further dictate this activity, but regardless, you need consistent reviews.

We implement our RAP system, or our Review Acquisition Programfor Attorneys.

This is a system that helps build that company culture, provides the tools to encourage client reviews and helps measure and monitor progress.    

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of increasing your firm’s visibility on the major search engines.

Click Through Rates

Google holds a whopping 88.5% market share for search volume in the United States [source: Statista]

Moreover, 97.5% of consumers use the Internet to search for services locally [source: Adaptive Marketing]

This means that 86% of ALL NEW ATTORNEY CASES have been won with a search on Google.

Since Google is particularly good and showing the best business choices, they typically only provide consumers with 3 choices.

We call this the Local Pack with Organic Placement.

Another thing to consider is the CTR, or the Click Through Rate.  This is the percentage of people that click on the number one spot, number two and number three.

It is said that the #1 spot receives 53% of the clicks, #2 receives 37% and the #3 spot receives 10%. [source: BrightLocal]

Ponder on the these numbers. Being placed in the coveted #1 spot will yield you the opportunity to earn about ½ of ALL NEW BUSINESS in your area!

Service Area

While rankings #1 for your best keyword is a nice feat, being #1 when searching for your best keyword when you’re located five or 10 miles from your office is a complete different animal.

Take a look at this graphic below.  This is the ranking service area for a client after six months of SEO.

This is an example of a [Bankruptcy Attorney] located in Los Angeles.  Each push pin is equivalent to One mile.

Your service area is vastly important and typically overlooked when trying to rank a linear keyword. 

Imagine this.  Attorney A and Attorney B.  Both attorneys are working the same community, went to the same school and are roughly the same age, working the same field of [Personal Injury].

But Attorney A has a much larger, more profitable practice.  They built their practice on solid word of mouth advertising.

Attorney A gets their clients to provide recommendations to their friends and family, who need to travel 10 miles to get to Attorney A’s location.

They get great service and leave a review.

Google now knows that Attorney A has clients 10 miles from their location.  Google knows Attorney A must be a good attorney if they have clients travelling 10 miles, when the average client in the attorney world would only drive 5 miles.

This scenario is one of many on how to influence your service area.  Get your best, furthest distant clients to leave positive reviews!

Rankings

We understand we must maximize the CTR & Service Area, which are two factors that ultimately influence rankings, however Google says there are over 200 factors that are considered when ranking a business.

Let’s clarify something first, the difference types of ranking results.

1. Paid Ads
2. Local Search Results
3. Featured Snippets
4. Knowledge Graph
5. Organic Results

Paid Ads

For a local business, there are several options you have for paid ads.  In this articleis further discuss paid advertising for attorneys. 

I think of online paid advertising like going to the Las Vegas Strip.  There are a handful of the world’s largest hotel & casinos, taking money from 1000’s of people.  Online a small number leave the strip with a profit…most lose their money.

PPC advertising on the Internet is the same.  The hotels are the Google’s of the world and you’re the gambler.  Except you have control over your odds.

Google Adwords is Google paid advertising product.  Adwords is what has made Google the fastest growing company in history, and of course, extremely profitable.  But it has also made a million millionaires.

Adwords is a form of Pay Per Click, or PPC, advertising.  Facebook has their version.

With Adwords, you can place ads on the Google Search Results Page or on their ‘content network’.  The CN allows website publishers to place ads on their websites and receive a share of the revenue with Google.  The advertiser can chose what sites in the network or allow Google to choose.

Adwords is the easiest online and quickest strategy to gain exposure, however it can be very costly and failure rates are high.

Local Search Results

While discussed later, organic results rank webpages, local results rank businesses.  Well, they rank a business profile that is managed within your Google Account.

The local search results are where you want your business to be.  There is tremendous value, in fact a synergy, if you are placed #1-3 in the Local Pack and have a paid ad.  It is said this synergy uses more SERP real estate and increases the propensity to get the click.

Improving rankings in the Local Pack is often called Local SEO, or in this case, Local SEO for Attorneys.

Local SEO for a Law Firm isn’t much different than other businesses, however the attorney marketspace is very competitive, and expensive.

It’ll often take six to 12 months to get a firm to rank in the 3-pack…but with the right trust, authority and exposure, it can almost always be done.

We start with the 3-Pillars of Local SEO.  Think C.P.R.  – Content, Profiles and Reviews.  Or rather Marketing, Distribution and Praise.

Featured Snippets

Featured Snippets are Google’s way to growing beyond its 10 blue links you have been accustomed to with Google.

These are selected search results that are featured on the top of Google’s organic results below the ads in a box.

Think of your prospects, one who got DUI.  Perhaps they want to know how long they are going to lose their license.  So they go to Google and type [How long do you lose your license for with a DUI in Illinois?]

See how Google answered my question?  See where the answer is coming from? 

A local attorney!

Your prospects will go through a research and buying stage while deciding on a specific attorney.

By establishing trust on the Internet, and authority, Google will use your quality content to answer buyer objections during the research phase.  Rich Snippets are gold for attorneys!

Knowledge Graph

Let’s face it, Google is King when it comes to Knowledge.  And they are not doing it themselves.  They got your help, mine, and practically everyone you know contributing to this knowledge.

Start with Google first and only prominent Mission Statement “To organize the worlds’ information and mike it universally accessible and useful”

The knowledge graph is then a database that collects millios of pieces of data about keywords people frequently search for on the world wide web and the intent behind those kwyords, based on the already available content.

Try this, go to Google and type [best movies for 2019].  

This is the knowledge graph at work.  This list is compiled by Google, on the fly of the best movies based on dozens of factors. This is not a webpage from a single author listing the best movies of 2019.

Organic Results

I’ve left Organic Results for the last, because they are the most familiar and often misunderstood.  

Looks at the trend of the previous four SERP listings.  None of them existed in Google’s first years.  They each addressed a popular usage of the Google search engine, and at least three of the four are relevant for an attorney.

Here’s a little secret, the Featured Snippet is usually the first Organic listing.

Since you want featured snippets to answer buyer objectives, your strategy is the same for Organic rankings. This is where you want to rank for search related client objections.

I discussed the example of a DUI client.  For your firm, try this exercise.

Take the service you wish to become the local expert in.  If you are a Criminal Lawyer, chose a field such as traffic law.  Perhaps you’re a personal injury attorney, pick a field such as Nursing Home Abuse.

Now write our 10 questions you typically get asked during such initial meetings.

These 10 questions are your next five months work.  Write a 1500-2000 word blog post centered around each question, and post them on your blog every two weeks.  Don’t forget to propagate to your social media channels.  We automate this with Zapier.

It’s that simple!

Next Steps

In this post I’ve introduced three key concepts in SEO and how to rank your lawyer website in Google. I’ve discussed

1. Click Through Rates
2. Service Area
3. SERP Rankings

SEO is not about some magic formula or get overly concerned about whether you know the correct right strategy of the week.

In fact we podcast weekly about the changes of the SEO industry, but after 10 years of a weekly podcast, I can assure you the fundamentals of SEO are simply basic marketing.

There are literally hundreds of SEO strategies being used, but the real success comes into the hard work.

Take a look at this post where I begin to talk about some of the more lucrative strategies we employ, such as the 3 Pillars of SEO or perhaps the power of a Press Release.

So you’ve made the decision to go at in on your own.  Good for you.

Maybe you’ve worked in a firm for some years, are fresh out of school, or have had your practice for a few years and simply need to get more new clients.

Either way, you’re looking at an ocean of experts and advice.  Really, no matter where you are with your firm’s history, today’s ways of finding new business can seem very daunting.

But let’s get something straight.  Today’s ways aren’t much different, and client referrals are simply still the staple of any law firm.

Now when I say today’s ways aren’t much different, even in the world of SEO, PPC, Social Media, Video or blogging, they aren’t much different.

It still comes down to creating a message of value for your perspective audience.  Period.

Creating Trust, Authority, Value & Perspective

This is the definition of marketing from the American Marketing Association.

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. (Approved July 2013)” [source: AMA]

This is basically saying to create a message that has value for clients and prospects, and put that message where those prospects are….oh, and make sure it’s a good message, one that has value for this audience.

SEO is just Marketing

The definition of Search Engine Optimization is different by the views of our industry, but here I’m going to show it’s the same.

“Search engine optimization is the process of increasing the quality and quantity of website traffic by increasing visibility of a website or a web page to users of a web search engine.” [source:Wikipedia]

Well by this definition, increasing the Quantity AND Quality of website traffic is the same as increasing the number of qualified leads for your firm.  Therefore, by increasing where your business ranks in Google, in theory, you will increase the number of qualified leads for your practice.

The process to improve SEOis where these definitions cross, and in fact, are the same.  

“Search Engine Optimization can be defined as the activity and process for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for clients, partners, prospects and the community at large. “ [source: Scott Gallagher]

In other words, create a message that has value for clients and prospects, and put that message where those prospects are….oh, and make sure it’s a good message, one that has value for this audience.

The SEO Industry is Ugly

Alright, enough high level discussion of SEO for Attorneys.  I’m about to turn it up a notch.

The SEO industry is very defragmented, unregulated, saturated and highly misunderstood. Johny with an internet connection down the street can buy a course for $97 and call himself an expert.  I know, my hobby business is selling a course on how to do this, for $97 a month.

I’ve approached the SEO industry with a marketing mindset since 2005….not a cat-and-mouse-reverse-engineers-the-algorithm-approach.

Search Engines Drive More New Leads to a Firm Than All Other Online Mediums Combined

So you have your referral system in place but now needs more new leads.  You turn to the internet, and here you are.

Let’s face it, you can throw money at Pay Per Click.  Or hire a young social media expert.  Perhaps you want to get behind the camera.  Maybe your web developers is trying to sell you SEO.  Yelp is calling you selling you ads.  Your association wants money for an email blast.

It’s confusing as f$%^!!!

But the fact remains the same, a search engine trumps all mediums.  

Consider this. Whether you’re a Personal Injury Attorney or a Criminal Defense Lawyer, your clients go through a similar process in deciding you’re their best partner….and it’s unlike most other buying processes your client experiences.

No one wants to hire you!  

Well, no one wants to deal with having to hire a lawyer, it’s almost always an uncomfortable situation your clients would rather not have.

But, your clients need you. And at some point, they realize they need you.  It starts something like this.

1. Problem Arises
2. Problem is Researched
3. Awareness Arrives
4. Solution Devised
5. Execution

They get nailed in a car accident.  They go home and research their pain and options they have.  They learn they can sue and need a lawyer.  The search for a lawyer.  They hire a lawyer.  

That’s it.  

Now I’m About to Explain How this Applies to SEO

You need to be in front of the prospective client during step 2 and step 4.  You need to help them during their research stage of their problem and their stage when they research which attorney to hire.

These are two different types of searches on the internet, and Google is going to handsomely reward you if you offer good help to these prospects and clients.

For example, if you’re an attorney in Chicago and someone like myself gets nailed from behind, I’m likely to first research my pain and how to address it.

But next I’ll want to know how those medical bills, my car and insurance situaitons are going to work. 

I just to google and start searches like [neck injury car accident chicago].  Try that search, see what comes up.  Notice Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC at #1 in Google?

The rest of the listings are also attorney blogs that are based in Chicago!  In other words, there are a select number of Chicago Personal Injury Firms showing up to help.

Now take a look at the top 3 posts.  They are pretty good, aren’t they?  They are all well written, they have good length, and they really help someone in need.

Rosenfeld’s post is specific to my search and problem.  His posts offer REAL value.  This firm is also ranking #1 in ALL OF CHICAGO, and this is only a 3 attorney firm (for now).

Now go do a search for [Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer].

Rosenfield is showing #1 Organically, Local Pack and an embedded local ad.  They are cannibalizing 60% of the entire Google real estate.

With 113-4.8 star reviews and this exposure, this firm with 3 attorneys is enjoying picking and choosing their clients.  They are turning down more cases than they are accepting.  Imaging their bankroll!

Because Rosenfeld is showing up when a prospect is looking for help, Google is rewarding them when a prospect is searching for an attorney for that help.

Do you get it now?

SEO is about helping your prospects before they know they need you.

This is the type of content you should have 80% of your focus on.  Ever heard of the 80/20 rule?  This is it with SEO.  The smoking gun.

Of course distribution of that content is important too.  But I’m here to simplify it and give you some direction.

This is What You Need

Need is defined by something necessary.  There are just some things you need if your plan is to double or triple the number of leads you currently are getting.

A Website is an important obvious need.  Your website should bring your prospect through the journey of answering their questions and overcoming their objections. I’m not here to talk about websites in great detail, so if you want to know more you can go learn more here.  

Having a Social Mediapresence is kind of important these days.  But you don’t need to be jumping on there every day posting about your day. You’ll want to propagate the content you create to your social channels.  Pick your favorite three or four.  You’ll want a simple profile on each.  

Grab a Zapier account and connect your website blog to each of the social channels.  Now you never have to log into those channels when new valuable content is created on your blog.

Business Profilesare equally as important as your website.  If you have not claimed your Google profile, you simple do not show up on Google.  One of the 3 Pillars of Local SEO for Attorneys discusses profiles, it’s the P in CPR.  

In about six months, plan on creating Video.  This is the best way to convey your physiology to prospective clients before meeting them. Yes, I mean you on camera.  If you’re not comfortable with this, there are many alternatives.

In a perfect world, that’s about it.  In the world of SEO, propagation is crucial.  

InBound Links are Evil

The fundamental foundation of SEO from the first time Larry Page and Sergey Brin created the first Google algorithm was about links…inbound links.  Brin had a vision of link hierarchy [source:Wikipedia].

That was 1996.  Now in 2019, 2020 and beyond, it’s not just about inbound links.  I remember back in 2005, maybe through 2009, we could rank a website practically overnight by sneezing 40,000 links to it.  

I had tested almost every way imaginable to fire links to websites.  At the end of the day, Google has won that battle and has figured out the world of artificial intelligence to help its algorithm.

The truth is now Google is figuring it out.  They are doing a pretty good job at rewarding businesses who help its patrons through the unique buying process of small businesses.

The better business you run, the better Google results you’ll have

It seems simple because it is simple.  It’s just not easy.  It takes time.  A lot of time.  Think of it as proving yourself to Google to get that certification….just like how long it took you to prove to your school that you deserved to be an attorney in the United States.

That mountain you’re climbing …. You’ve just reached base camp.  Those that reach the summit are farther and fewer between.  

Those attorneys that put the time, effort and money into building a competitive practice on the Internet will be greatly rewarded.  But you still have to a great lawyer…sort of McDonalds is still a great business with an inferior product.  But that’s a conversation for another time.

It’s Just Marketing

When I first started university, I had intended on two majors, business and computer science.  I finished five years later with an honor Bachelor of Commerce and double minor in Marketing and computer science.

My first year in a marketing class, one of the first things we learned was Customer Segmentation.  This in simple terms is knowing who you are talking to.  

If you’re a Criminal Defense attorney, you have to be empathetic to those arrested for a DUI and understand their problems…from their perspective.  Their perception is their reality.

• Create a solid Service based page that answers their most pressing concerns.  Just go back to those initial meetings with DUI clients.  What were their first and most pressing questions.  Answer those on this page, along with conversion optimization elements. 

A Family Law Attorneywho works with fathers will want to provide relief that their case is safe with expected results.

• Guide prospects to stories of others, to those who have left reviews or blog posts that discussed several detailed stories of other fathers.  You want someone to be able to relate to their situation.

A Personal Injury Attorneywill boast about winning that $3M case against a local drug firm. 

• Create a press release about case settlements.  Distribute those press releases properly to PR distributions services.

You Can’t Be a General Practice Attorney on the Internet

You can’t be a criminal lawyer and hope to rank for personal injury lawyer.  Let’s face it, most attorneys would love to have a prominent PI firm.  It’s not going to happen, at least not for a while.

Your best bet is to narrow down on specific niches.  If you’re a criminal lawyer, be the best criminal lawyer for misdemeanors, or serious drug crimes…you’re not going to get exposure for both quickly.

Find out what you’re best at, along with what you enjoy most and create content that speaks to that audience.  Of course a plan is critical to begin with.  We will create an initial 1-yr SEO plan for you if you’d like, check it out here.

Every firms plan would be different.  You are different than your next competitor, right?  Your plan is also different.

Your Marketing Budget Shouldn’t be Less Than Your Coffee Bill 

At $5 a coffee, an average of 21 days, that’s less than some SEO services I’ve seen per month.  That can’t make sense.

At $1000 per month, you can expect systematic processes employed or the efforts of rookies trying to decipher the seas of processes taught.

Quality SEO is a big piece of all your marketing efforts.  Your communication and exposure.

The average attorney in your shoes spends about 5% on target revenue 12 months from now. 

So if you want to bill $500,000 in 2020, your marketing spend right now should be $25,000 this year.

With the median Criminal Defense attorney’s salary at over $200k, their firms are grossing 8 figures.

 A $2M firm should be spending $100k on marketing, however this is the magic revenue number where marketing spend percentage decreases. Think economies of scale.

Your Next Step

Now you’ve read this far, it’s time you take this next step and schedule some time with me on the phone. I’ll ask you a bunch of questions about your firm and goals and discuss with you what kind of plan it might take to reach that goal by using the internet.

Click to Schedule a 1-1 with me.

If you’re interested in learning more about doing the work yourself, I’ve got this video for you below!

(maybe you’re ready to hire us, but want to know more about our process – this video will also be great for you!)