When talking about the most effective tools in digital marketing for law firms, SEO marketing, and PPC campaigns are the favorites. Choosing between SEO and PPC is easily the most frequently asked question for many law firms seeking to market their services online. It is common to find several law firms that are very committed to their SEO campaigns, while others enjoy using PPC.
So, which of the two is the better pick and why? Let’s discuss these two elements of law firm marketing in detail.
A] SEO in Law Firm Marketing
SEO (search engine optimization) is a fundamental strategy in marketing for attorneys. This is how it operates: your website is fine-tuned to ensure the search engines can easily locate your site and comprehend its contents so your website can rank better in the search engine result pages (SERPs).
Did you know that, as per the National Law Review, 79% of law firms believe SEO to be the most effective marketing channel? Here are the four main parts of SEO strategy for legal marketing firms –
- On-page SEO – measures taken directly within the website to improve its position in organic search results, which includes page titles, headings, content, and internal linking.
- Off-page SEO – activities outside of the website that can boost its position on Google search results, like link building and social media engagement.
- Keyword research – the discovery, selection, and use of words and phrases relevant to your website’s topic or content that are helpful for SEO.
- Technical SEO – all aspects of your website are optimized for search engines, like making your website mobile-friendly, adding meta tags, and improving page load times.
B] PPC for Law Firm Marketing
In the context of lawyers, pay-per-click is an online advertising model to drive website traffic. This is done by placing ads on the Search Engine Result Pages and other affiliated sites, where you are charged every time a person clicks on the ad.
Here are the four main components of a PPC strategy for marketing for lawyers –
- Keyword Research – involves finding the most relevant and popular terms that potential clients will likely use when searching for services related to the law firm to generate targeted ads.
- Bid Setting – choosing how much you will pay each time someone clicks on your Google Ads.
- Audience Targeting – tailoring your messages to specific demographics likely to be interested in your services.
- Ad Creation – crafting compelling copy, designing eye-catching visuals, and creating interesting videos for your advertisement to highlight the offered services.
You can refer to our guide to learn how to use PPC for law firm marketing to maximize ROI.
C] Pay-Per-Click V/S Search Engine Optimization: Which one suits you best?
The answer to what mix of strategies is most suitable for each law firm depends strongly on factors such as timing, visibility, and budget –
1. Timing
Improving a website’s organic rankings with SEO takes longer as it takes time to prove to search engines that your law firm’s website is a valuable authority for a particular practice area/matter. If a law firm wants clients right away, it should steer towards a more significant investment in PPC advertising. If it prefers more gradual growth with sustainable lead generation for the coming years, then SEO can be a better solution for law firms’ marketing.
2. Visibility
Paid advertising through Local Services Ads or PPC is often the only way to penetrate competitive markets. While paid ads have major effects and rank most search terms, organic SEO is not entirely out of reach for firms that hope to rank higher. Organic search results can accomplish this, but they will be much more frequently the first results shown when someone is doing a detailed informational search. PPC and SEO are both great options for visibility, as people online may be in different stages of their journey.
3. Budget
Over time, PPC expenses can grow if you want to sustain the same level of lead acquisition. SEO can have significantly less expensive monthly fees as you pay for a specialist to dedicate resources to research, planning, implementation, and other optimization elements required to accomplish your goals. Thus, SEO offers a more affordable solution, especially for small law firm marketing.
D] Using Both PPC and SEO
To maximize your marketing efforts, you can incorporate PPC and SEO in your marketing strategy. By leveraging both, you can get the benefits of long-term organic search engine rankings while receiving quick and targeted results via PPC marketing. With SEO, you can build a strong foundation of organic search traffic on a search engine results page, while PPC ads can help increase visibility and drive qualified website traffic for your law firm. Using both PPC and SEO will provide high organic results and paid visibility, enhancing brand awareness and credibility.
Conclusion
To conclude, SEO campaigns and PPC marketing are helpful strategies to increase the quality of website traffic. However, you will need trial and error to understand how to use these digital strategies for attorney marketing and how to combine them for the best results.
