Should You Hire A Digital Marketing Agency In 2023? - Above the Law

Devising and managing a marketing scheme involves much more than creating a website, listing services, and adding blog posts. Online marketing aims to rank higher in search engines than your competition. Achieving high search engine rankings involves a lot of planning, research, and consistent work.

Websites must be designed impeccably and provide ease of access to all users; the perfect keywords must be used to drive the right kind of users to your site; research must be done on competition to see what marketing tactics are working and not working for them; relevant and current content must be added frequently and consistently to demonstrate your firm's trustworthiness, and search rankings must be high.

This is not an easy task, but a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) company can help. If your law firm is growing and your goal is to establish a competitive online presence, an SEO company that understands not only digital marketing but also the law might be exactly what your firm needs.

What is an SEO Company?
An SEO company helps clients to optimize their search engines, which means ranking higher in online searches. A search engine compiles search results when a person searches for a topic.

Most users don't look beyond the first page of results, so the higher a website ranks in the search, the more likely it will show up on that first page and be seen by a potential client. An SEO company will work with your law firm to increase website traffic, procure clients, and help your business grow and earn more revenue.

SEO companies possess tools and resources to create strategies that will boost a law firm's search engine optimization. SEO agencies will analyze site speed, grade content quality, and research algorithms of search engines so they can decode their rankings and implement factors that increase ranking into SEO strategies for clients. They utilize local and technical SEO, on- and off-page SEO, and content SEO to bring more users to a specific site.

What Do SEO Companies Do?
SEO agencies offer unique services. Many agencies focus on the same SEO issues. They use similar tactics to increase search engine rankings. Some basic methods include:

Analyzing Client's Websites and Researching Target Markets
A reputable, experienced SEO company will first evaluate a client's current website and online presence. They will see how it performs and what the competition is doing. An SEO agency will
focus on the client's potential clients and relevant keywords to bring in those targeted users.

Modify On-Page and Off-Page SEO
An SEO agency will review content to ensure it is consistent, concise, clear, and SEO-friendly. The company will also ensure that proper keywords are used to optimize a website's pages.

Content creation is part of an effective SEO strategy, but websites also need mentions and citations from other reputable websites on the internet. Backlinking, when another website links to yours as a source, is a helpful tool to build trustworthiness and improve a firm's brand. Backlinking can also drive traffic to a website.

An SEO company will improve a website's ease of use to draw more potential customers. Suppose a site is difficult to navigate, slow to load, or has irrelevant content. In that case, visitors will move on to a competitor's site quickly, which is a crucial step towards enhancing a law firm's website and building its brand.

Update Website Frequently
An SEO agency will continuously monitor and update a client's website to ensure that they keep up with current marketing trends and provide relevant news and information to potential clients. SEO constantly changes, and an experienced SEO company understands the changes and continues to adapt and improve its client's rankings.

What Are the Benefits of Hiring an SEO Agency?
An SEO agency provides many benefits. Benefits may include:

• Increasing quality traffic, leads, and revenue
• Building an effective marketing strategy that will track and adjust marketing efforts
• Providing cost-saving marketing assistance and resources

Hiring an SEO Agency
Any business can benefit from hiring an SEO Agency. For clients in competitive industries like law, SEO services can accelerate the growth of law firms. SEO increases sales, conversion rates, and potential revenue. Law firms rely on SEO Companies for SEO expertise and marketing savvy.

Questions to Ask Potential SEO Companies
Choosing a company to hire is challenging, but knowing what questions to ask can be helpful. When interviewing an SEO Company to work with your law firm, you need to ask about the following:

Track Record
A reputable SEO agency should have many positive customer reviews, testimonies, and case studies. Ask to read reviews or speak with satisfied customers. Find out how their services helped other law firms succeed in SEO.

Experience
SEO changes constantly, and agencies cannot apply the same methods to different types of businesses. A tactic that works in real estate will not work in a legal office. Finding an SEO agency with law firm experience specific to your type of practice is important. The SEO company you hire should have proven success and understand keywords and industry-specific information to help clients rank higher in search engines.

Understands the Law
Make sure that your digital marketing agency not only understands SEO but also the law. Too many times, lawyers find out too late that their SEO agency is giving them content that violates ethics guidelines or simply has incorrect law within it. Make sure that the digital marketing agency you hire truly understands all aspects of the law and ethical obligations lawyers must follow.

Goals
When hiring an SEO company, you want to ensure you both have the same goals for your law firm. The end game is to generate more leads and increase your search engine rankings. If the SEO company does not have the same goals as you, move on to a different SEO Company that can help you achieve your goals.

Employing an SEO company could be an excellent marketing move for your law firm. The right company could propel your law firm towards more success, generate more leads, build your brand, and increase your revenue. Understanding the unique characteristics of SEO will guide you toward hiring the right SEO Company for your particular situation.

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Annette Choti, Esq. graduated from law school 20 years ago, and is the Founder of Law Quill, a legal digital marketing agency focused on small and solo law firms. Annette wrote the bestselling book Click Magnet: The Ultimate Digital Marketing Guide For Law Firms, and hosts the podcast Legal Marketing Lounge. She is a sought-after keynote and CLE speaker throughout the United States and Canada. Annette used to do theatre and professional comedy, which is not so different from the legal field if we are all being honest. Annette can be found on LinkedIn or at at annette@lawquill.com.