Many law firms look at search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) marketing as an either-or decision. A competitive law firm SEO campaign is not inexpensive. Depending on your region and practice area, you can expect to pay $2,500-$20,000 per month to achieve high page one search results. When looking at a bill like that, it’s understandable that firms may consider putting all of their marketing eggs in one basket.
Over the last 13 years, I have worked with hundreds of attorneys to help them with their law firm’s SEO efforts and managed millions of dollars worth of PPC campaigns. So, should a law firm focus solely on SEO or PPC? That’s a trick question — both offer significant benefits. Here are some things to consider:
Pros And Cons Of PPC
Pay-per-click marketing (PPC) is where you pay Google to place your site on the search results page. You’re charged each time your ad is clicked.
Pros
• Immediate Results: Once your campaign is live and running and you get top-page exposure for popular terms, you immediately see traffic and generally some conversions.
• Improving Results: With conversion optimization and proactive management, most PPC campaigns under professional care continue to improve with time thus reducing your cost per conversion (or cost per lead).
• Regional Targets: You can use PPC to target potential clients outside of your location in areas like suburbs or neighboring cities where it’s more difficult to get organic map rankings.
Cons
• Cost: The average cost per conversion for PPC is going to be higher than SEO because you are paying for each individual click.
• Limited Exposure: Unless you have an unlimited budget, your ads will only be seen at set times and on certain days. This isn’t a bad thing, and optimizing your placement is part of the conversion optimization process.
Pros And Cons Of SEO
SEO is the process in which you build up the reputation of your website so that Google and other search engines see it as valuable and thus rank it highly in results. To prove your worth, you have to develop great content and get endorsements of that content (i.e., links) in order to show Google that your law firm’s website is more valuable and informative than your competitors’.
Pros
• Low Cost Per Conversion: Since there isn’t a dollar amount directly attached to each click, your collective cost per conversion is much lower than PPC.
• Full-Time Exposure: Once you achieve your top page-one positions, you can enjoy full-time placement whereas your PPC ads are often scheduled to stop at a certain time each day or when your budget is reached.
• Multiple Channels Of Traffic: PPC campaigns usually focus on getting leads from search only (you may decide to use other PPC channels as well, like the Google Display Network or YouTube). However, an SEO campaign relies on third-party exposure in legal directories, social channels, news sources and other types of media. This means you get referral traffic from other sources as well as search traffic, thus broadening your reach.
Cons
• Not Immediate: It takes time to achieve those coveted page-one rankings, so you won’t see an increase in traffic the same day you start.
• Algorithm Changes: Since Google’s algorithm is always improving, your rankings will sometimes experience turbulence.
• Less Cost Flexibility: The SEO campaign typically has consistent costs, which is generally a plus. However, you can’t seasonally adjust your spend like you can with PPC.
Working Hand In Hand
You can put a dollar amount on the value of your law firm’s SEO traffic. To determine what you’d have to pay Google AdWords for PPC, take the PPC cost of the keywords for which you organically rank and their position. Then, multiply that by an estimate of traffic based on the search volume for those keywords.
Basically, the average cost-per-click of your positions multiplied by the estimated daily traffic is equal to the PPC value of your organic traffic.
Once you achieve high page-one rankings for keywords that cost $50-$150 per click, the value of your SEO really adds up. Some of the law firms I’ve worked with in competitive personal injury markets have a monthly PPC equivalent value of over $700,000 worth of organic traffic each month. If they had decided to only do PPC, they wouldn’t enjoy the low cost-per-lead that they’re getting today.
Getting The Most Out Of SEO And PPC
When planning your law firm’s SEO campaign, you should:
• Carefully vet your search engine marketing company. Ask for results and remember the old adage about things that sound too good to be true.
• Ask about timelines and expectations. This is often a tough question for your SEO service provider to answer but they should be able to share some examples from similar clients.
• Understand that you’re making a long-term investment. Look for growth trends in your ranking reports and monitor organic traffic from your region in Google Analytics. This will tell you if you’re on the right track or not.
When planning your law firm’s PPC campaign, you should:
• Trust a Google Partner Certified professional. Campaigns are a lot of work and require constant attention. A professional will not only give your campaign the time it deserves, their experience will be beneficial when overcoming challenges and market changes.
• Be creative with your targets. Sometimes it makes sense to cast a broad net and saturate a major city. Other firms find success reaching suburbs or cities that are slightly outside of their primary town. It’s not an all-or-nothing game. You can carve out PPC markets that make sense for your budget and generate leads.
• Demand reports. You should have access to regularly updated reports or at least receive a monthly overview. With PPC, every click counts.
When reviewing your law firm’s marketing options, go with SEO and PPC. You don’t have to choose.