5 Signs Your Law Firm SEO Agency Is Missing the Mark
There are many people out there who claim to be law firm SEO experts who can increase your rankings overnight. You can find them at the agency level or as individuals selling their services on websites like Fiver. While there are many people who are the real deal, there are just as many who will sell you SEO snake oil for short-term gains while never helping your law firm reach its full potential.
Of course, the question is, how can you tell the difference? How can you know who is an actual SEO agency expert who can help your law firm grow and who will just take your money and never deliver results?
Here are 5 signs that your law firm SEO agency isn’t everything they claim to be and what you should be looking for instead.
1. They’ve increased your rankings but not your revenue
This is number one with a bullet.
If your SEO strategist isn’t helping you grow your revenue, you should look elsewhere. Contrary to what many believe, SEO is not just about rankings; it’s about helping your audience find your law firm and convert them into clients.
There are many ways that SEO strategists can boost your rankings and increase vanity metrics on your website (such as traffic) without ever getting you a conversion. Sometimes, all they need to do is start with some basic foundational changes to your website, which are often a great start but won’t carry you over the finish line.
When it comes to SEO, it’s not just about getting your website to rank #1 for keywords. It’s about ranking for the right keywords. It’s not just about getting people to visit your website. It’s about getting the right people to visit your website. When you’re ranking for the right keywords and targeting the right audience, you should also see an increase in revenue.
2. They’re not communicating.
SEO is not a hands-off process. While you shouldn’t be doing the work, you should be involved at several points in the SEO process. To be successful, your SEO strategist and your team need to collaborate. It should be a red flag if you aren’t involved in the SEO process for your law firm.
What should the process look like instead? First, your SEO strategist should conduct a stakeholder conversation with you and other key team members. Key members might be partners in your law firm, your CMO or other marketing team members, and quite possibly members of your IT team (if they are helping to manage your website). This conversation aims to identify your law firm’s goals, any keywords or audience you feel are worth pursuing (if known), and to obtain access to your CMS and any existing Google Analytics. A stakeholder conversation helps your SEO strategist understand the direction your law firm wishes to go so that they can help you get there.
Your SEO strategist should also communicate the results they are delivering for your law firm. They should report on what’s been done, what efforts are in process, and what results are being achieved. If your SEO strategist has gone dark or isn’t communicating, that is a problem.
3. They aren’t providing recommendations.
Similar to the issue outlined above, you should expect continual recommendations from your SEO strategist on increasing your rankings and furthering your business goals. These recommendations could take many forms, depending on your law firm’s goals and your website’s unique needs.
Some common recommendations for SEO might include:
- High-quality, relevant page content
- Blogs
- Technical edits
- UX/UI improvements
No one-size-fits-all solution exists for law firm rankings, so these recommendations should be unique to your firm and continually evolve based on each month’s results. The recommendations should also be informed by your feedback and changing needs, which is another reason why your SEO strategist needs to communicate with you and involve you in the SEO process.
4. They’re ignoring Local SEO
Something else that self-proclaimed law firm SEO experts or agencies will fail to do is consider local SEO in their overarching strategy. Local SEO is the process of optimizing your online presence for Google and other search engines’ local packs to increase your local visibility. It helps your law firm appear higher in SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages) for local searches, typically those that include the name of your city/cities or the phrase “near me.”
While local SEO is similar to other SEO practices, there are unique factors to consider when approaching local SEO. For instance, has your law firm claimed and optimized your Google Business Profile? Does your law firm have NAP citations – places on the internet that list your law firm’s Name, Address, and Phone number? Are you actively soliciting client reviews on Google and other websites?
These are just a few approaches an SEO strategist should consider when optimizing your law firm’s presence for search engines. If they aren’t making local SEO recommendations, you might want to search “law firm SEO agencies near me.”
5. They “guarantee” results
This one is tough to swallow – even for SEO strategists: You cannot guarantee results when it comes to SEO. Like an attorney working on a case, you can give your clients the best possible outcome for the circumstances, but you cannot guarantee what that outcome will be. If an SEO strategist is making guarantees about their work, they are likely making promises they cannot keep. Here’s why.
SEO is always changing. It’s a dynamic process, not a fixed checklist of to-dos. Google and other search engines continually make core updates to their algorithms, and those can impact your rankings. A knowledgeable SEO strategist will know how to remain nimble to these changes, informing you of these updates, what you might see in your SEO report, and the steps they plan to take to mitigate any setbacks in your progress.
An SEO strategist cannot make guarantees and won’t try to shy away from the realities of search engine optimization. They will embrace them, explain them, and help you to overcome them as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Timmermann Group: Your Law Firm SEO Agency
While many people will claim they can help your law firm rank, it’s important to ensure your SEO team avoids the 5 mistakes outlined above. Better yet, schedule a conversation with Timmermann Group to avoid all of these issues and provide the law firm marketing your law firm deserves. Our Rankings to Revenue process can help your law firm see organic growth, increase leads, and support the long-term success of your firm.