Tag, you’re it: Accesspoint on using SEO to boost law firm brand
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an integral part of any business’s online presence – and an important component of the success of a business overall.
At times, SEO seems to carry a certain “fear factor,” says Scott Brown, digital services manager at Accesspoint. “This is mainly due to a lack of understanding around its ever-evolving nature, which leaves people a bit uneasy. Firms need to know how it works, the time it takes to get it right, but also the benefits they can reap.”
Simply put, the purpose of SEO for a firm is to connect with people searching for services and then to turn them into customers. When done correctly, it’s seen as an investment, not a cost, he adds.
He says: “Your website and SEO strategy are working for you 24/7. It’s a bit like a perfect employee who never calls in sick, is never late for work and continuously delivers leads like clockwork.”
Myth-busting SEO
SEO is not a magic formula, Brown says, and the old days where sites could be populated with metatags, with just a few sentences about your services, some keywords, and off you go, are over.
“It should be seen as a sort of art, which is beautiful when you get it right. It does involve a lot of market research behind the scenes. And it should be said that it often doesn’t yield instant results but gradually starts to deliver over time – a lot of business leaders have a hard time grasping its importance as a result.”
He says that building up SEO works in just the same way as building up a reputation. Firms need to grow their online presence and demonstrate cohesive thinking in their marketing strategy and use of SEO. In order to get to that point, real effort should be made to arrange regular get-togethers for “bouncing around ideas,” he adds.
“Nothing should be last minute. It would be great to get a calendar together and come up with a plan of action, gather ideas for topics to be covered on the website and any areas of improvement. “There’s always room for even the smallest of firms to gain opportunities online and increase their presence. An increase in high-quality web traffic can ultimately lead to new clients – and could create a ‘David and Goliath’ scenario out of the SME firms and their larger competitors.”
Do it right
It’s hard to measure the success of any strategy if the goals are vague; the same is especially true for an SEO strategy. Firms should break their SEO strategy into specific, measurable goals such as getting X-many visitors to the site, Y-many leads from these visits and Z-many conversions to cases as a result, says Brown. “It helps us as SEO experts to measure, analyse and adapt based on changes in traffic and conversion rates.”
SME firms particularly need to think outside of the box in regard with choosing keywords. He says that simple words such as ‘family law’, ‘conveyancing’ or ‘probate’ won’t cut the mustard online.
Brown says: “Instead, they need to use long-tailed keywords which are more in tune with what people are searching for. Google is actually taking into account the phrases and terminology that people use to search. It is very important for SME law firms to monitor this behaviour.
“In the legal world, we use terms such as ‘dispute resolution’, whereas the client would be unlikely to search for this. It’s very easy in this market to lose track of how your clients actually speak.” He adds that Accesspoint has tools that can help firms find the keywords that are applicable to the topics clients search for – which is why having an SEO expert who understands the legal industry can create big opportunities online.
A key thing to understand about law firm websites, Brown says, is that requirements can be split into two categories: distress purchases, which are urgent services such as immigration or abuse cases, and planned purchases, which are things like conveyancing or drafting wills and take more time to think through.
“Firms can use this knowledge to work on two areas of improvement: local SEO and onsite SEO. Local SEO is extremely important. Google now heavily relies on GPS locations to find appropriate services closer to the individual. And now over half of searches are done on mobile devices, so local information needs to be ready and waiting for your clients from the moment they look for it.”
But with GPS being used to direct traffic online, even if clients are just searching for numbers and directions, SEO needs to be precise so as not to lose interest.
And this is supported by the back end of your website, with onsite SEO, he says. “We still see a lot of pretty stale websites in the SME legal market – especially content that isn’t mobile-friendly.”
Digital future
“Even the smallest of things can swing a person’s decision away from leaving your website and convert them into a client. So, you need to engage with your audience across several platforms to increase your brand exposure and traffic to your site.
“For the legal industry, we often find a four-step marketing plan is successful,” he says.
Awareness – you must create awareness of your brand via your online and offline advertising, campaigns and lead generation.
Engagement – engage with your clients and those who interact with your business.
Decision-making – create elements that make it easy for people to convert into clients.
Retention – keep these clients with good management and encourage them to leave positive reviews on websites such as Google or Facebook. This will feed back into the first step – awareness.
Brown says SEO and the way Google reads information on the internet has evolved and will continue to change rapidly. Modifications to search engine algorithms will actually give firms of all sizes a chance to supply high-quality content to users in many areas. And, in turn, interest in quality web content will grow in importance.
“Therefore, Google will continue to punish all websites with excessive links, keyword stuffing and poor web-building techniques harshly. Previous, poorer SEO techniques will also be cleansed,” he says.
Though the internet may be vast and the SME legal landscape perhaps even more so, firms can learn to strengthen their SEO strategy and market where it counts.
This article appeared in Briefing May 2018. Read the full edition of Briefing May 2018: Feel the path here.
