Are you finding fulfillment with your SEO vendor? Are you still in love or are you working way too hard to make the relationship work? It may be well past the time to reconsider your relationship with your SEO vendor if things have gone stale.
When searching for a vendor, more often than not you’ll see phrases like “your SEO partner,” “digital marketing partner,” or some similar terms using the words “partner” or “partnership.” While you may come across these phrases and believe them to be mere rhetoric, designed to take out the cut and dry element of “I am hiring you to do an SEO service,” your participation is actually needed in order to have a successful marketing campaign.
Here are five ways you can participate in your SEO campaign for a mutually beneficial relationship.
1.) Conversations are Key Lawyers need to be involved in their marketing campaigns first and foremost because it is their business. You know more about your firm than anyone. To participate in the campaign doesn’t mean you’ll need to learn technical SEO or even code. It can be as simple as a conversation.
Consider the following questions:
● Why did you start practicing law?
● Who are you trying to help?
● What practice areas do you work in?
● Who is your ideal client?
● What qualifies as a good lead?
● Has your firm ever changed names?
● Have you lost any employees in the last two years?
● How are you involved in your community?
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These are just a few of the questions that are typically asked at the start of your campaign. It is through these conversations that a good SEO vendor is able to build a customized marketing strategy for your law firm. A generic marketing plan may get you mediocre results in the search engines, but a custom strategy will allow you to target quality leads and show your potential leads how your firm can help with their legal needs.
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2.) A Knowledge of the Industry In the SEO world, things are always changing. From Google algorithm updates to changes in the local map pack, to a new testing tool, it is constant and never-ending change. Consultants need to stay current and up-to-date on these changes in order to effectively carry out an SEO campaign. Similarly, staying current with legal issues is a priority for lawyers. From recent court rulings to changes in statutes or even changes in technology that could affect your clients (for example, driverless cars). Your SEO vendor should work together with you, so that both parties (vendor and client) are up-to-date and informed about changes on either side.
3.) Trust Factor: Expertise One of Google’s main trust signals revolves around expertise. If you show that you are an expert in your field (and send these trust signals to Google), Google will rank your site higher in the SERPs, making the information on your site more accessible to Google’s users.
With this in mind, your SEO vendor should be able to perform keyword research to see the trends in search traffic or look at other ranking pages to see what the content covers in an effort to outrank the current top-ranking content. However, the client’s law firm should help review and approve the content. Some lawyers even enjoy writing some content themselves, and your vendor can assist with edits to fit SEO needs. For those less inspired by Hemingway, sending content ideas that your vendor can review and check search traffic on is always helpful.
For example, if there is a recent ruling in a case that may affect future cases or that people may be interested in, share this information with your SEO. The more information your SEO has when it comes to content ideas and creation, the more successful your campaign will be.
4.) Community Involvement The more active and involved a law firm is with the community, the more successful your campaign will turn out. An easy way a law firm can participate in their marketing campaign is by being active in the community. Whether you sponsor a bicycle helmet giveaway, grant a scholarship, participate in Earth Day activities, or support whatever cause or organization, getting involved will help your SEO campaign.
Taking pictures while at the event and posting to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram can help with your SEO campaign, not only for branding purposes but also the engagement that your social profiles see is connected to the schema markup language that is on the back end of your site. Your SEO could also publish a blog that features information about this event or cause that you are a part of, which has the potential to drive traffic. This is also a prime opportunity to build a link from that organization to your site.
5.) Share Your Case Data Knowing case data will help your SEO vendor provide insights that are beneficial for your campaign. An experienced SEO company should calculate ROI to show you the value of the work they are providing. Having the ability to pull a report that shows names, phone numbers, and emails for the case sign ups you have also allows you to narrow down where these leads are coming from. If you have a lot of case sign ups that are converting on a specific landing page, similar landing pages can be created for other terms in order to replicate the process.
Aside from just the landing page, you can also distinguish the keywords used to land on that page and work to increase those rankings that are bringing the more qualified leads. On the flip side, reviewing case data also lets you see the cases you are not signing. Only you have the information as to why the case didn’t qualify or what happened that caused the person to choose not to sign up. This information can be used to tweak your campaign and make sure you are targeting people in need of legal services that you provide in your geographic area so that you get the most bang for your buck.
