Ensure that you are hiring the right SEO company for your law firm and start to outrank your competition!
Hiring a search engine optimization (SEO) agency sounds simple, just like picking the right plumber to fix your sink or carpenter to build your new deck. But in reality, it is much more complex and your selection here can easily make or break your practice. Finding the right SEO agency for your law firm can help establish your practice as the go-to resource for your ideal clientele. Hiring the wrong one can bring your whole practice crashing down.
Every SEO agency is going to make some ridiculous predictions that they are the best and they will rank you on page 1 of Google, but don’t fall for the fluff. When searching for an SEO agency to boost your practice be sure to avoid these common mistakes:
Assuming the SEO agency that ranks highest is the best
This is one of the major mistakes that are extremely easy to make. If you’re like most people, you look for which SEO agency to hire by going to Google and searching for “SEO + your location” and hire the first SEO agency the comes up in the search simply because the company ranks on top for SEO services in their region.
You may think that the agency ranks on top because it obviously knows the ins and outs of SEO. But this is not always true. A company could rank high on Google for a number of reasons and thus the search rank alone isn’t indicative of their skill or success rate.
Signing up for a set package
SEO strategies are not one size fits all. It instead every lawyer and law firm website requires a custom approach to be successful. That’s why fixed-cost or set SEO packages aren’t the best choices for any practice. Instead, ensure the agency you’re considering hiring understands your practice, the niche area that you serve, and creates a plan that is going to work best for you and your law firm.
Look for the fakers
There are certain keywords or phrases that if an agency claims to “have” or “be” then run avoid them like the plague.
If an SEO agency says it’s a Google SEO partner, knows the Google algorithm or has “connections” at Google then back out, close the door, and don’t come back. There is no such thing as a Google SEO partner. It’s a simple trap to fall into and even easier one to avoid.
Stick With Specialists
For the same reason that lawyers limit their practice areas, the best SEO agencies have teams that focus on one industry.
At a high level, SEO tactics can be used from one industry to another. But only a specialist will know the types of content that search engines find most relevant for certain keywords, or which websites give the most backlink juice for a particular industry.
Specialists will also understand the culture of their clients’ industries. This includes understanding industry jargon used by practitioners and their clients.
In the case of lawyers, content clarity and conciseness conveys professionalism and attention to detail. To do their jobs effectively, agencies will introduce your firm to legal industry thought leaders, journalists, bloggers, adversaries, and peers. If they get this wrong, you’ll look dopey.
Remain in Control
SEO is laden with tech jargon that’s unfamiliar to lawyers. For this reason, if a firm sees results, they tend to take a hands-off approach.
Even if SEO tactics seem complicated, have your agency explain what they intend to do, who they will be contacting on your firm’s behalf and how they will be going about it.
Just like supervising lawyers have an ethical responsibility to manage their subordinates, you should be managing your SEO consultants.
Take a common-sense approach. If anything makes you feel uncomfortable, have the agency make changes.
Conclusion
For lawyers, there’s more to hiring an SEO agency than the promise of backlinks and search results. There can be serious consequences for those who blindly abdicate this responsibility.
With law being a business built on credibility, there’s much to lose.
Everything that gets published with your name on it either enhances or dilutes your credibility with clients and peers.
So the bottom line is this, make sure you are more involved with, and aware of which SEO agency is going to best service and boost your practice. Otherwise, you could find yourself looking for a new job in someone else’s practice instead of your own.
