Should A Law Firm Consider Doing Its Own Search Engine Optimization / SEO?
Web marketing can bring in cases for a law firm if done properly. Law firms sometimes debate whether to hire an outside Web marketing vendor or do the work in-house. There are pros and cons to each approach.
Advantages of a firm doing its own search engine optimization (SEO) include having control over the outcome and knowing how much effort is invested into the campaign. A law firm that handles its own SEO may have faster response and will not have to worry about its marketing approaches being utilized by competitors.
However, many challenges come into play when lawyers attempt to do their own SEO. In addition to having to hire individuals versed in SEO, law firms may soon discover that they need additional content developers, designers and programmers. Some law firms find that their SEO manager is interested in building a costly personnel empire.
A law firm that does its own Web marketing enters a complicated and risky business. We are aware of four law firms that do their own Web marketing. All of the firms have increased their number of Web personnel over the past three years. One invests more than $2 million per year in Web marketing and achieves a very good return. The firm has been investing in the Internet for more than seven years. I have great respect for the firm and agree with this firm’s approach. Another spent more than $2.5 million per year for several years and, due to an ineffective campaign and return, eventually reduced its expenditure significantly. One of the other firms invests $360,000 per year in personnel and marketing and does not achieve the rankings or results that an investment of $60,000 per year would achieve with an SEO company. The other has grown to nine people and invests $480,000 per year and achieves rankings and results comparable to those a high quality legal SEO company could achieve for a fraction of that cost.
The Internet changes rapidly and requires ongoing work to maintain success. It is difficult for a few SEO individuals at a law firm to have the daily client and market experiences that a professional legal vendor receives across a broad range of legal websites, Social Media platforms, satellite websites and other important market segments. It is also difficult for law firm SEO employees to stay current with marketing techniques that work in today’s legal Internet marketing environment, which has expanded to include video, free books, blogs, online chat, press releases, conversion improvements through more effective design, and other Web marketing options.
Offshore And Outside Contractors
You should be careful about hiring offshore firms and outside contractors to assist you. Several law firms have run into issues with unlicensed photos and “blackhat” SEO techniques. Consistency is also a problem. Offshore and U.S. contractors go where the money is. If they receive a client of their own or find someone who is willing to pay more, your Web presence will probably suffer.
Cautions About Using Partnering With Large Vendors
I also encourage you to be cautious of choosing large vendors who have a smorgus board of products and profit centers of which SEO is one. Many of these vendors place a primary emphasis is on selling, while and little emphasis is placed on support or a proactive website involvement. With large vendors, you often receive a template website design and you are shuffled from one support individual to another and essentially treated as a number rather than a valued client. Additional vendor considerations are listed on our article, How To Evalute Your SEO Consultant Team.
The Consultwebs Approach
A valid consideration is whether law firms will receive the time and attention that is needed or if their SEO vendor will be supplying the same information to their competitors up and down their block. At Consultwebs, we address these concerns by limiting the number of clients we accept in a market area and by assigning a project manager to manage the law firm’s Web presence. With Consultwebs, for a reasonable amount per month, you have access to 30 law firm marketing professionals who can be deployed as deemed necessary by your project manager. We have a content team, conversion/design team, SEO team, Social Media team, programmers and individuals who obtain and analyze client report. It is impossible for a few in-house individuals can product the results and work that Consultwebs’ team of seasoned professionals can produce.
In terms of support response, we have been told that some Web vendors take weeks to make text changes or react to search engine algorithm changes. We typically complete client text change requests within 24 hours. When search engine algorithm changes occur, our SEO team reacts immediately. We realize that websites that rank well will get the cases and we work hard to achieve rankings for our clients.
Summary
A professional law firm SEO vendor can offer you the flexibility to increase and decrease output on your marketing campaign as you need it, without the worry of hiring and firing staff. The right vendor will provide solid results. In addition, your staff won’t feel stressed trying to accomplish tasks for which they don’t have the expertise or interest.
We hope you found this article helpful. If we can provide additional information about our law firm Web marketing services, please contact us at (800) 872-6590 or marketing@consultwebs.com.
