Marketing Tech: SEO: Will It Actually Work for Your Firm?

SEO is structuring your website so a computer program can find a relevant answer to a question. If your clients or prospective clients are searching for, say, “Do I need a will or a trust?” and your site has the best and most relevant answer to that question, you'll be rewarded through a higher rank. How do you assure you're the best and most relevant? Produce content answering that question better than others. The more visitors coming to your page for whom you can answer the question, the higher you are ranked.

Vanity SEO vs Functional SEO

Being ranked first on a Google search would be great for bragging rights, wouldn't it? Will it help actually grow your firm, though? However you achieve that ranking, you need to be sure that when a prospective client clicks on your site, he or she finds something relevant. Otherwise, you have a website visitor who generates no revenue for you. “Vanity SEO” means ranking highly on Google and not converting those prospects to clients.

If your firm's website is like most, it might simply be an electronic brochure. Your firm's history, what you do, who works there, awards, and so forth, are all good to know, but what does this do for your potential client? Does he or she care about your mission statement or where you graduated from law school? Not yet. This visitor wants to know why he or she should do business with you. If your website is all about you, and not about them, this person has no reason to choose you over a competitor.

How do we create “functional SEO”? We engage a visitor once he or she visits or website. The visitor gets the answer to the question he or she has, and, more importantly, sees a clear and distinct call to action. If this visitor wants to hire you, is there a clear path of engagement?

Congratulations! You're First on Google

Wave a magic wand and poof! Your business ranks first on Google searches. What searches, you say? Whatever searches your potential clients are typing into Google. “I don't know what my potential clients are searching for,” you might say. This topic is not just important, it's a critical distinction. Whom are you trying to attract to your website, exactly? Start with this list of suggestions:

1. Think about who is an A+ client of yours.
2. What questions did that client have when he or she was just a prospect?
3. Start answering those questions on your website.

Spend some time segmenting this set of clients and write down what problems they have that you have fixed. These will be your most viable prospects, and the topics you discuss on your website will help attract their attention. Once you take the time to answer those questions, you now have permission to ask for their business. Remember, questions have a problem embedded within them. Think about these questions and the problems implied within them, as illustrated in the following examples:

• Question: “What are the best foods to eat for losing weight?”
• Problem: I'm looking for a solution to a weight problem for myself or someone else.
• Question: “What alternatives are there to a shock collar?”
• Problem: I'm looking for a solution to a barking or misbehaving dog.
• Question: “What does it cost to set up an LLC?”
• Problem: I'm looking for solutions to protect my assets or to mitigate my business liability.

Please note that this strategy is extremely important for both SEO as well as any paid traffic to your website. If you buy ads to drive website traffic from Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other search engines or social media platforms, it's extremely important to consider where you're driving your visitors. Are you currently just sending them to your homepage? What would you like them to do once they're there?

Instead, send visitors to a page addressing the exact question for which they need an answer. These “landing pages” on your website help the visitor learn from you immediately instead of searching for the answers once they arrive on your firm's site.

Direct Your Visitor What to Do Next

After answering their question, direct your visitors how to engage your services by proposing a solution to the underlying problem. If your website is simply an electronic brochure for your firm — and not a teaching tool — this back-and-forth virtual discussion will not happen on your site, and the visitor will be at a dead end.

Google has one job: to provide answers to questions. You've heard the quote, “If it's not written down, it didn't happen.” In this case, it's “If it's not written on your website, Google doesn't know it exists.” Search engine optimization, put simply, is showing Google and other search engines how to find you. If your website is all about you and your firm, and not about your clients, Google won't direct those potential clients to your site.

State on Your Website Exactly What You Know

The #1 “How-to” Google search query for 2015 (and 2014, 2013, and on and on) was “How to tie a tie.” Let's say you have a clothing store and you sell ties. It states very clearly on your website that you sell ties. In fact, you showcase 100 different styles of ties on your website. Well, do you know how to tie a tie? “Of course!” you might say. “That's a silly question. We know a half-dozen ways to tie a tie.”

Well, if an article (or video) stating exactly what you know is not on your website, you don't even show up on Google's radar for that search. Google consists of a bunch of computers, and inferences and implications don't work. Everyone searching for “How to tie a tie,” will never find your site.

Tell Google What You Know; It Can't Read Your Mind

As another example, let's say your firm assists with estate plans. On the “services” or “specialty practice areas” page on your website, it clearly states that your firm prepares wills and does other estate planning. Here are the top Google search queries regarding wills:

• What does a will look like?
• What does a will do?
• What does a will cost?
• What does a will mean?
• What does a will consist of?

Since your firm specializes in wills, you know the answers to these questions, right? Does Google know you know the answers, though? No. Google can't read your mind. If you're not explicitly answering these questions on your site, Google has no idea you have the answers. Google knows you can prepare wills, but that's it. You need to clearly tell Google exactly what you know.

Timeless SEO: Answer Clients' Questions

Timeless SEO consists of one simply strategy — answer the questions your clients and potential clients are searching for online. Keep your website in its current form, but start adding pages that specifically answer questions. Regardless of what happens the next time Google changes their algorithms, your SEO will only get better.

Pro Tip: Use Dictation to Create Great Content for Your Firm's Website

You've now bought-in to the idea of producing content for your website. One of two things might happen, however:

1. The articles don't get written; or
2. The articles you write are too complex because you're writing content for your peer group or a legal journal. This is not your fault. Since law school, it's been your job to decipher really complex topics, and that's the level on which you operate. As a result, though, instead of articles that attract clients, the articles are too tough for non-lawyers to understand.

Here's how to fix both issues. After a client consult, you usually dictate your notes, right? In these notes, you'll detail the concerns of the client, the proposed solutions and the outcome. The answers you're providing to the client's questions are exactly the same as what people are searching for online as well. This is most effective after an initial consult, where you've spent time educating the client on very high-level topics. Instead of a digital dictator, software or dictation machine, you can use Google Voice for free dictation transcription. Simply get a Google Voice number, call and leave yourself a voicemail. Google Voice transcribes surprisingly well, and the price (free) is tough to beat.

Once the dictated notes are transcribed, they will provide the basis for an array of articles. It's best for you, then, to make them friendly for both readers and search engines (SEO) by creating compelling titles. When these articles are prepared and published to your website, guess what happens? No longer do you wonder what to share on social media. Just use these articles to educate the followers you've gathered as well as those you're targeting. Need content for your newsletter? Look no further than these well-crafted articles that were written so non-lawyers (i.e., your clients) can readily understand them.

Would you like to earn the email address of potential clients to grow your mailing list? Use these articles as the means to create digital “assets.” These assets can be downloadable PDFs, how-to worksheets, checklists and the like. Request an email address in exchange for these assets, and you'll grow your mailing list through a continuously evolving education process.

Conclusion

SEO, although extremely technical, does not need to be complicated. Simply start distilling what's already in your head as well as what's happened during your encounters with clients each week. When this information is created in digital form, and when it begins residing on your website, Google will reward your efforts through more and more traffic. Start sharing what you know today, and your firm's business development will only benefit.

***** Spencer X. Smith is the founder of spencerXsmith.com, and services law firms throughout the country. He is a faculty member for the State Bar of Wisconsin's Business of Law Conferences, and is also an instructor at the University of Wisconsin and Rutgers University. He can be reached at spencerXsmith.com.