Many believe that SEO (search engine optimization) is necessary for all businesses. But really, every business doesn’t need SEO. Some small businesses with a limited marketing budget may find more success investing in other types of marketing campaigns.
SEO isn’t as simple as it used to be. So before you decide to invest resources into SEO, it’s essential to determine if it would be beneficial. So before hiring an SEO expert, we’ll give you information to help determine if SEO would benefit your law firm.
What is SEO and How Does It Work?
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to increase its visibility when people search for services related to your business. The more visible your website is in search results, the more likely it is to get the attention of prospective clients to your law firm.
Search engines like Google use bots to crawl from page to page on the internet to collect and index information from the pages. After the pages are indexed, the algorithms analyze the pages in the index to determine what order the pages should appear in search results.
Benefits of SEO
Here are some of the top benefits of SEO.
- Find clients who are looking for your services — You can attract targeted traffic from users who are actively searching for the services you offer.
- After you rank, future traffic is free — SEO works differently than paid ads. When you stop paying for an ad, traffic stops. But with SEO, traffic continues to flow after your initial investment because the work is already done. However, you will have to put in continued work to help sustain your ranking over time.
- SEO helps with conversions — When you rank well, you gain credibility, which can help make it easier for a potential client to retain your services. A website that is easy to navigate and full of relevant, helpful content will increase people’s trust in your brand.
Questions to Think About
When deciding if SEO is right for you, here are some questions you may want to ask yourself.
1. How Do Clients Find You?
Some businesses can benefit more by using paid ads on social media to gain attention as opposed to using SEO. In the case of law firms, the majority of people will use a search engine to find a lawyer in their area. Because of this, SEO could be beneficial to increase your business.
2. How Old is Your Business?
When you first start a business, it is basically non-existent on the Internet. Therefore, utilizing SEO to boost awareness can be highly beneficial.
3. Are You Willing to Create or Pay For Content?
If the answer is yes, using SEO could help promote that content. Quality content will give you the opportunity to include more keywords which will result in the quantity and quality of website traffic and exposure of your brand through organic search engine results.
4. What’s Your Budget?
SEO doesn’t work if you’re unwilling to make room for it in your marketing budget. While you can always find someone who can do SEO for “cheap,” keep in mind you get what you pay for, and the cheapest isn’t going to be in your best interest.
The cost varies depending on whether it will be a one-time project or if you will require ongoing services. It can also vary depending on:
- The size of your website and how many pages need to be optimized.
- The amount of new content required.
- If there are technical issues that need to be resolved.
- Do you have multiple physical locations that need a profile listing setup or edited?
- How many backlinks your website has, and if any need to be removed.
- How you currently rank with competitors and how strong your competition is.
- If you and your team will be doing any of the work yourself.
As with anything, the higher the budget, the more work will be able to be performed each month, allowing results to be generated faster. When creating a place in the marketing budget for SEO work, decide how much a new client is worth to you. While it will cost you to implement SEO, gaining one new client a month from those efforts could make the SEO service pay for itself.
5. Are You Willing to Wait to See Results?
Unlike paid ads, you don’t get instant traffic from SEO. SEO is a process, and it takes time to see results. These results can vary based on several factors, including how strong your competition is and how far along you are in optimizing your presence on the web, both off-site and on-page.
Some websites can see results as soon as three months, but it could take between 6-12 months before you see a significant improvement. If you need to see immediate results, paid ads may be best for you, as you can often see results in as little as 24 hours.
6. Are You Keeping Existing Clients in Mind?
SEO can bring new clients to your firm, but don’t forget about your existing clients. Your existing clients already know and trust you, so selling to them again will give you a higher return on investment than putting the work in to sell to new clients.
Not only that, everyone knows the importance of word of mouth. And statistics show that 32% of people looking for a lawyer will ask for a referral from friends and family, and a happy client will likely think of you.
Turn to the Experts at Conroy Creative Counsel
If you’re looking for an expert digital marketing agency to create an effective marketing strategy to convey expertise, establish credibility, and build trust in your law firm, trust Conroy Creative Counsel as your marketing co-counsel.
Our team is here to provide web design, digital marketing, and SEO services to expand the reach of your law firm. We strive to deliver sustainable momentum and growth while reducing overall market spend.
We’d love to help you reach your goals! Contact us today for a consultation.
