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Table of Contents

Who is ApricotLaw? 1

Message from the Co-Founders 1

5 Ways Your Firm Can Be Worse-Off Than Before You

Hired an SEO Company 3

8 Ways to Avoid Being Ripped Off by an SEO Company 7

6 Signs You’re Talking to a Subpar SEO Company 12

How to Avoid Hiring an SEO Company That Treats You

Like Sheep 15

3 Ways to Spot a Conflict of Interest with a Potential SEO

Company 17

Why Your Law Firm Needs an SEO Company 18

3 Common Misconceptions about SEO for Law Firms 22

4 Steps to Page One of Google for Any Keyword 23

Free Website Audit 25

How to Hire the Right SEO Company for Your Law Firm

Copyright 2015 ApricotLaw All Right Reserved - Phone: 212-960-8584 1

Who is ApricotLaw?

Although the majority of this report will focus on helping you pick the right SEO

Company for your law firm, it will benefit you to know who wrote this report and

why you should continue reading.

ApricotLaw is a Boutique Digital Marketing Agency for Law Firms, specializing in

ranking web pages for competitive client-generating keywords. The company was

founded by the dynamic duo of Tom Desmond and Nick Kringas.

Tom Desmond has been an expert in SEO since the days of Netscape. His first

website grew to an industry leader and ranked on the first page of Google for over

10,000 search phrases.

Nick Kringas built and opened his first restaurant at the age of 25. That little 70-

seat restaurant grossed over $1 million in sales in its first year in business and

went on to serve hundreds of thousands of satisfied guests to date.

After selling that first website, Tom turned his focus to providing SEO services for

law firms. Nick fell in love with the power of Internet Marketing and left the

restaurant business to build his own SEO Agency.

When Tom and Nick first crossed paths, they were competitors, fighting for the

same clients and ranking the same Personal Injury keywords. Both of their

businesses were flourishing. The last thing on either of their minds was to switch

gears and take on a new partner.

After hearing about one another through the law firm Internet Marketing grapevine,

they decided to sit down one afternoon and compare notes. They learned a lot from

each other and began meeting regularly. The relationship gradually grew until the

two decided to merge their enterprises. They knew that together they would be

unstoppable.

Today, ApricotLaw is the go-to SEO Agency for top law firms across the country.

Their mission is simple, To Help Law Firms Win Online. That includes positioning

clients as the subject-matter experts in their fields, helping them make more

money with less stress and greater peace of mind.

ApricotLaw’s Core Values are Winning Attitude, Competition, Excellence, Integrity

and Rhythm (their word for open and regular communication).

Message from the Co-Founders

Many attorneys we have spoken to have been burned by SEO companies in the

past. Regardless of this fact, you know you need a greater presence online because

that’s how people search for an attorney today. There are great companies out

there that can help you. But, how do you tell the pros from the amateurs?



That’s why we wrote this report. To show you what to look for, questions to ask and

how to vet any SEO Company.

We truly hope that this report helps you avoid certain pitfalls of the SEO industry

and helps you pick the right SEO Company for your law firm. If you have any

questions do not hesitate to send us an email at [email protected] or call us

directly at 212-960-8584.

To Winning Online,

Tom Desmond Nick Kringas

CEO & Co-Founder President & Co-Founder

mailto:[email protected]



In this section we will look at SEO practices that can actually harm your website.

Some can be recovered from and others are irreversible. Heeding this advice can

save you from major headaches in the future.

1. Anchor Text Over-Optimization

Today, this is the most common and easiest way to be filtered out of Google’s Top

Ten – over-use of keywords in link anchor text.

Anchor text is the clickable text in a link. Generally speaking, the best anchor text

you can have is the name of your law firm. It shows that people are referring to

you by name, a sign of trust and authority. In addition to trust, this is how people

commonly link to a company’s website. Google sees this as totally normal.

In the past, using the keyword you wanted to rank for over and over again would

eventually result in a first page listing for that keyword. Now, using any term too

much will cause Google to filter your site off the first page for that phrase. This is

known as Anchor Text Over-Optimization.

The only way to know if an SEO Company does a good job with this is to plug a few

of their clients’ websites into a tool like Majestic.com. Simply type the name of the

5 Ways Your Firm Can Be Worse-Off Than Before You Hired

an SEO Company



website into the box, choose Root Domain from the dropdown and scroll down to

the Anchor Text pie chart.

Here is an example of a healthy anchor text profile versus one that is over-

optimized. If something doesn’t look right, ask the SEO Company about it.

2. Does the company build spammy links to their clients’ websites?

Link building is a gray area with Google, no matter what type of websites you place

a link on. Google would rather you focus solely on your own website and leave the

ranking up to them. But, doing that will guarantee your website is never found for

any search query of value.

On the other hand, it’s a good idea to make sure the SEO Company doesn’t build

thousands of spammy links to a client’s website. This is something you may never

recover from.

To check the SEO Company’s links, all you need to do is analyze a few of their

clients’ websites with MOZ’s Open Site Explorer or Majestic. Here are a few types of

links that should raise a red flag.

Do you see any foreign language domains linking to the client’s website?

How about the anchor text? Do you see any foreign characters there?

If you visit the web page where the link is found, do you see hundreds of

spam comments on the page?

Any of these are a bad sign. If the company is buying links by the hundreds that

point directly to a client’s website… run. We need to see that the company took

great care when building links, not buying them by the dozen like a carton of eggs.

Healthy Anchor Text Profile Over-Optimized Anchor Text Profile



3. Does the SEO Company outsource any part of the work? If so, what exactly

do they outsource and why?

Not many companies are great at SEO. Therefore, many of them outsource some

parts of the process. Link building is one activity that is often outsourced because it

is the most commonly misunderstood.

If the SEO Company you are considering outsources link building, you should at

least know that. Do they use an outsourcing service or do they have a separate

company doing this for them?

We believe you should be paying for technical expertise. Simply turning around and

paying someone else to do the work only shows that they are interested in making

the most money for the least amount of work.

Outsourcing is not inherently bad but if another company is working on your

website, you’ll want to know exactly what you’re paying for and who will be working

on your website.

4. Make sure you keep all the passwords of sites and properties the company

creates for you.

I cannot tell you how much time we spend trying to gain access to a client’s

websites and accounts. Most attorneys have no idea who created accounts for their

firm, let alone know the passwords.

If someone has claimed, or plans on claiming, a Google Plus Page for your law firm,

make sure you are listed as the owner/admin. Same goes for Facebook and

LinkedIn. This way you can always gain access fairly quickly even if you don’t

remember the password.

For other sites that don’t need a personal profile to be the owner of the page, make

sure you have all usernames and passwords stored in a safe place. RoboForm and

LastPass are two password keepers that will make your life Online a lot easier.

At the very least, have the SEO Company create these accounts for you with an

email account you own. That way you can always recover the password with the

registered email address.

5. Will all content published on your website be unique and original?

Here is another way to get on Google’s bad side. If an SEO Company is reusing the

same content for multiple clients, your website will have a hard time climbing the

Google results. This is usually referred to as a Duplicate Content Penalty.

All content published on your website must be 100% unique and original. You can

use Copyscape to check if your content is found anywhere else on the Web.

Look at pages and posts published by the SEO Company. Do you like their writing

style? Does it match the style of your law firm?



Low quality content published directly on a client’s website is a sign that the SEO

Company does not take pride in their work. Regardless if anyone ever reads the

content on your website, it represents your law firm. Make sure all content

published on your site is top notch.



he word “ripoff” sounds harsh, especially when discussing our own industry. But,

the original section title was going to be 8 Ways to Avoid Giving Your Money to an

SEO Company and Getting Nothing in Return, technically the definition of the word.

Let’s jump right into the list.

1. Is link building the only thing the company does to improve a website’s

Google ranking?

In the past all you needed to do was point links to a one-page website, or a single

webpage titled properly. That would be enough to rank on the first page of Google

for just about any keyword you wanted.

That expectedly led to a lesser quality user experience for people using Google. So

Google released update after update to close these shortcuts and loopholes.

With Google’s current algorithm, simply getting other websites to link to yours is

not enough. The only way to succeed currently is to employ a comprehensive

strategy.

Today, unless you are a real law firm, with everything online that goes along with

that, you will have a really hard time getting Google to trust you enough to present

your site to its users.

8 Ways to Avoid Being Ripped Off by an SEO Company



Therefore, if you are speaking with an SEO Company that wants to simply build

links to your existing site, proceed with caution.

The only time this is an effective strategy is when all the other components (which

we will discuss later in this report) are in place and the only thing left to do is find

other sites to link to yours.

Make sure the SEO Company proposes a comprehensive strategy for

improving your search engine visibility, more than simply building links.

2. Does the company have a clear plan for the entire contract term? Are there

benchmarks the company must meet along the way or at least reasonable-

sounding time expectations?

You want a company that has a step-by-step plan for ranking your website for your

target keywords. Any SEO Company that has worked within a particular industry

enough, should have a good feeling about what will happen and when.

If an SEO Company is asking for their only accountability measure to be ranking

position of a defined set of keywords, you may be setting yourself up for failure and

frustration.

What happens when those keywords are not on the first page of Google after six

months of paying these people? What specific work have they done to improve

your law firm’s online presence?

It is much better to know what work an SEO Company plans on doing for your law

firm as opposed to simply watching the end result, rankings.

Compare this to a personal trainer who tells you that in 6 months you will weigh

185 pounds; but fails to give you a workout schedule, diet to follow or time-specific

benchmarks.

Even if Google rankings are not expected to move ten pages in a month’s time, you

still want to know what will be accomplished during that time.

Get as detailed a timetable as possible from the potential SEO Company.

3. Can you break the contract if the company is not performing?

Many SEO companies will tell you they can’t guarantee Google rankings. Even if

that’s the case, what if the company’s reports consist solely of unimpressive

keyword rankings? In other words, what if you are ranking on the first page of

Google only for long keywords that no one ever searches?

What have they done during that time to help your law firm succeed?

Has your traffic improved?

Have they posted to social media?

Have they published new content on your website?



Has the company created and optimized profiles on other sites like Tumblr,

Wordpress, LiveJournal and YouTube?

This ties into Number 2 above, having a clear plan for the duration of the contract

term. Without a clear timeline and game plan up front, there is nothing you can

hold the company to.

The specific benchmarks don’t matter as much as simply having them in the first

place.

We should also mention here that three months is not a sufficient time frame to

expect all of your keywords to be on the first page of Google either. But six months

is plenty of time to see big jumps in rankings across the board.

Having an out at the six month point or simply signing a six month contract instead

of twelve are great ideas. This gives the SEO Company enough time to prove itself

and also gives your law firm enough time to see ranking improvement.

Setup specific benchmarks with the SEO Company and reserve the right to

break the relationship after 6 months if you are not satisfied with the

results.

4. Are the keywords the company wants to target competitive or long-tail

phrases that rarely get searched?

When a client of ours first came to us from another law firm marketing company,

we were amused to see the ranking reports they used to receive.

One search phrase that stuck out was, “Slapped in a nursing home in (city) and

need a lawyer.”

WHAT?!

The fact that this company included such a long-tail search phrase that might get

searched once a year is an insult to the lawyer’s intelligence.

The fact that the report had no keywords of value was also concerning.

Valuable keywords are phrases that get searched and have a suggested Cost-Per-

Click price according to Google Adwords. If they are not valuable according to the

Adwords Keyword Planner, you should know with certainty the keywords are

extremely valuable to your firm.

For example, you may want to attract a Traumatic Brain Injury case in your city.

This keyword will probably not show any suggested cost per click in Google

Adwords. But just because you can’t bid on it in Adwords doesn’t mean it’s not

valuable. This would be the exception to that rule.

Make sure your SEO Company is working on valuable keywords.

5. Which rank tracking tool will the SEO Company be using?



As you probably know, even if you are not logged into your Google account, each

person’s search results will be slightly different based on location and other factors.

How will the company be tracking keyword rankings? Get the name of the specific

software they will be using. A few widely-used tools are Pro Rank Tracker, SERP Fox

and Market Samurai. We have found that rank trackers from Moz and SEMRush are

not accurate, even though these are high profile companies.

Ask the SEO Company how long they’ve been using their chosen rank tracker. It

usually takes a few months of using the tool to really know if it’s an accurate rank

tracker.

Make sure the SEO Company is using a reputable tool, not simply searching

the terms in their own browsers.

6. Is the person at the SEO Company steering you away from Page One

rankings towards other subjects of Internet marketing?

Of course, SEO is not the only form of traffic. That’s not what I’m suggesting. But if

you are looking for an SEO Company and the person you are interviewing keeps

bringing up Facebook advertising, for example, he may not be that confident about

his ability to rank your website.

If you want to rank higher in Google, hire an SEO specialist.

7. Does the SEO Company guarantee keyword rankings?

This is the most common problem in our industry. None of us work for Google so

we can’t guarantee with 100% accuracy what Google will do. But this is

unacceptable. You’re paying money for a service. Therefore, you should get

something in return.

If you are Internet savvy, you may decide to pay for individual components of SEO

like links, blog content and on-page optimization. But for most attorneys, you want

a company that will rank your website for specific keywords.

If that is what you are paying for, and it is agreed upon by all, then the SEO

Company should be accountable for Google rankings. If they don’t get your site to

page one for a certain number of keywords, or for specific keywords you really want

to rank for, you should be able to get your money back or break the contract.

Your SEO Company should guarantee something, even though they are not

affiliated with Google.

8. Will you own the website and all the content or will the SEO Company? If the

company owns your website and the content, will it ever be transferred to

you? If so, when?



Many of our clients came to us after dealing with a different agency. Some of these

attorneys learned that they didn’t own or even control the website the company

built for them.

I remember having a difficult time with one agency in particular. We spent hours on

the phone trying to get the client’s domain name, website content and social media

profiles.

They finally released to us a CD with all the website’s content. But they would not

transfer ownership of the domain name or the social media profiles to our client.

We had to start fresh on a new domain name and with new social profiles.

The best scenario for you would be to have everything created on your own hosting

account and under your social media profiles. This way if you ever part ways, no

transfers are necessary. You own everything from the beginning.

If the company won’t transfer ownership of a web property to you until after being

paid in full, those terms must be spelled out up front.

Make sure anything created for your law firm belongs to you.



Not all SEO companies are created equal. This is true in all industries, including law,

but it is especially true with search engine optimization. Here are six ways to vet

any SEO Company to make sure you are not dealing with a bunch of amateurs.

1. Is the SEO Company regurgitating what everyone else in the industry says

instead of testing to find out what’s actually working now.

It is Google’s job to keep SEO’s from gaming the system. Matt Cutts is the Head of

Web Spam at Google (currently on indefinite leave of absence). For years he’s been

the face of Google, regularly publishing content about SEO best practices.

One has a right to be skeptical about the advice coming from Google itself. Why

would Google teach the public how to perform better in its results? Right, it

wouldn’t. It’s a clear conflict of interest.

Hearing someone quote Matt Cutts about what works in SEO should raise an

eyebrow. It’s better to find someone who’s been actively learning, through trial and

error, what really works.

2. Does the company have current Page One results for competitive keywords

in your niche?

6 Signs You’re Talking to a Subpar SEO Company



All industries are different. Certain niches within an industry are more competitive

than others. And a handful of keywords within every niche are the hardest to rank

in Google for.

If you’re considering hiring a company to improve your Google ranking, find out

what keywords they have successfully ranked in the top ten in the past.

Like the disclaimer says, past performance does not guarantee future results.

However, past performance does greatly increase the probability that an SEO

Company will be able to rank your website for similar keywords.

3. Does the company focus on many different types of traffic generation or do

they specialize in search?

To become an SEO you don’t need any special certifications or training. The barriers

to entry are extremely low. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or how

old you are. Anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can claim to be an

SEO. But very few can truly say they are a Professional Search Engine Marketer.

Furthermore, to become a professional SEO requires dedication and commitment.

You can’t do this once a week and claim to understand how Google works.

This is similar to visiting a Family Doctor versus a specialist. The Family Doctor is

necessary but some ailments require the care of a specialist.

Same goes for Internet Marketing and SEO. Ranking high in Google’s organic

results requires a specialist. A General Practitioner won’t do.

4. How strong are the links pointing to their clients’ websites?

The power of the pages linking to any website directly affect where the site will

rank in Google's organic results for relevant keywords.

To check how powerful any website's links are you'll need to do some quick and

easy research online.

After you have a few websites that the potential SEO Company has worked on, visit

MOZ's Open Site Explorer tool at http://www.moz.com/research-tools/ose.

Once there, type a domain name (LawFirm.com) into the search box and click

enter.

Scroll down a bit to the Inbound Links section. Choose This Root Domain from the

first drop down menu in that section. By default the tool shows you inbound links to

a specific page. We want to see all the links pointing to any page on the firm's

website, not just the homepage.

Now take a look at the column on the right called PA. PA stands for Page Authority.

That 1 - 100 metric tells you how strong the linking page is. 1 being the weakest

and having the least effect on ranking. 100 being the highest and having the



ultimate effect on ranking (a PA 100 would be the homepage of Facebook.com or

Google.com).

Analysis of thousands of legal websites shows that you will need a handful of PA60's

and a larger number of PA50's to rank for any competitive law-related keyword.

If the most authoritative links pointing to a firm's website are in the PA40's or

lower, the SEO Company may not have a great pool of great links to draw from.

Your website will attract medium authority links on its own eventually. Make sure

the company you hire has rank-improving power in their arsenal.

5. Does the company build and optimize web properties other than your main

website?

We spoke earlier about the need for a comprehensive search marketing strategy.

It’s no longer sufficient to only have a website. Real authorities online don’t just

have one website. And neither should your law firm.

In order to rank high in Google for many relevant searches, you will also need

branded profiles on authority sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Twitter,

Tumblr, LiveJournal, YouTube, Wordpress and many more.

Regardless of Google’s trust and ranking, the bigger net you cast, the more

prospects you will catch. These websites are the most visited sites on the entire

World Wide Web. Make sure you take advantage of that.

6. Does the company’s website rank on Page One for any relevant and

competitive keywords?

If the company’s own website doesn’t show up in Google’s organic results for

phrases that would obviously bring them clients, find out why?

Perhaps it’s a new website and they have others that rank for relevant keywords. If

however, the site has been around for a while, there is no reason it should not rank

for at least some valuable keywords. When you search terms like lawyer SEO,

Personal Injury Lawyer SEO, Criminal Lawyer SEO, Divorce Attorney SEO or Your

City Lawyer SEO, the company should appear in the top ten for at least a few of

these.



There is nothing worse than paying a company and being treated like you’re one

out of ten thousand. When it comes to SEO, you especially need personalized

service.

1. How many people will be working on your site?

One person is normally not enough to make a big impact for your firm. The nature

of SEO is there are a lot of moving parts.

On the other hand you don’t want to hear that there are twenty-four people

working at the company and all play a role in your success. What does that mean?

What will each person be doing? What qualifies them to do that job?

A small team of specialists is usually the best balance. Find out as much as you can

about the team that will be working on your site upfront.

2. Beware of SEO companies that openly advertise and charge low fixed rates

for SEO services.

Unless you know a lot about Internet Marketing and SEO, and you know specifically

what you need, you’ll probably be best served by an agency that creates and

executes a custom game plan for you.

How to Avoid Hiring an SEO Company That Treats You Like

Sheep



Low priced packages openly advertised on a company’s site often means they have

a cookie-cutter system they like to use for all websites. This may be in their best

interest, but not yours.

When it comes to SEO, one-size fits all rarely works. At the very least, you deserve

a company that will present a price after they have thoroughly analyzed your web

properties and the other firm’s competing for the same keywords.

3. Does your point person know what they are talking about?

Is the person you will be working with an actual SEO with experience ranking

websites, or is it simply an “account executive?”

We have had the pleasure of speaking with Account Executives at other agencies

and we were shocked. A few had no idea what they were talking about. The bad

part was they acted as if they knew by occasionally using some technical jargon.

You don’t need a marketing guru that has grown law firms into multi-million dollar

players. Someone who has specialized experience in ranking websites will do.

4. Will the person selling you on the company be the one you will be talking to

after you sign?

Many times the salesperson you are speaking to will not be the one you deal with

after you sign with the company. If that’s the case, it’s a good idea to get to know

you will be speaking with before signing a long-term contract.

What if you can’t stand the person assigned to your account? It will be hard to get

things done if you don’t like the person you are dealing with.

5. Will your point person be with you long-term?

Find out how long have they been in that position? Also inquire about the

company’s employee turnover.

There’s nothing quite as frustrating as building rapport with one person, only to

hear that person left the company a month later.

Do your best to ensure that the person you will be working with will be with you for

the duration.

You may even consider asking the company to put this in writing. If so-and-so

leaves, perhaps you can break the agreement.

Best case scenario is the company’s employees are happy and have been there a

long time.



1. Will the company be allowed to link from your website to other law firms?

The number of times we have seen one law firm’s website linking to another’s, for

no apparent reason other than building as many links as possible, is shocking.

Please, don’t allow any SEO Company to link your website to another one of their

clients’ sites without your consent. This practice is just lazy.

2. How many law firms does the company work with in your Geographic area or

for the same keywords you’d like to target?

This is a big one. Will the SEO Company work for your direct competition?

Obviously, paying a company to rank you for a valuable keyword, while they are

doing the same for a law firm down the street, is a clear conflict of interest.

When you go to war, make sure the guy in the foxhole next to you is not also

fighting for the enemy.

3. Does the company want to rank its own website for the same keywords as

you?

Many big agencies do this. They’d rather rank their own website (or directory) for

legal search phrases. How can you trust a company that is ranking their own

website for the very keywords you’d like to rank for???

3 Ways to Spot a Conflict of Interest with a Potential SEO

Company



There are only ten spots on the first page of Google’s organic results. You have

enough competition from the other law firms in your market. The last thing you

need is your SEO agency taking up one of those ten spots.

You’ve seen the link agencies place at the bottom of law firm websites crediting

them for building the site. That’s powering their Google rankings, which is perfectly

acceptable. But not if the firm is targeting the same keywords as you.

In that case, that link is not a kind gesture. It’s actually hurting your firm because

you are linking to a competitor.

Why Your Law Firm Needs an SEO Company

Why Have a Search Engine Friendly Website

According to a recent survey conducted by FindLaw and Thomson Reuters, 38

percent of the 1,000 respondents said they would use the Internet first when

looking for a lawyer.

According to Fleishman Hillard’s 2012 Digital Influence Index “Eighty-nine percent

of consumers surveyed use Internet search engines to make purchasing decisions.”

Cited: 2012 Digital Influence Index Shows Internet as Leading Influence in Consumer

Purchasing Choices, http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/31/2012-digital-influence-index-

shows-internet-as-leading-influence-in-consumer-purchasing-choices/

If you weren’t convinced of our reliance on Google, listen to what happened when

Google went down for a few minutes in August 2013.

Google suffered an outage late on Friday night, though you might not have noticed

-- it only went down for five minutes. During that brief window, Internet traffic

around the world dropped by a massive 40 per cent, according to Web analytics

firm GoSquared, Sky News Online reports.

Cited: Google goes down for 5 minutes, Internet traffic drops 40%, Joe Svetlik, August 18,

2013, http://www.cnet.com/news/google-goes-down-for-5-minutes-internet-traffic-drops-40/

That means the majority of people use Google as a gateway to the rest of the

Internet. When that search engine was down, people didn’t know what to do and

web traffic just about stopped.

This is similar to relying on your cell phone to remember people’s phone numbers.

When you want to call someone you simply type in their name and hit Call. When

you lose your cell phone, you literally don’t know anyone’s actual phone number

and have a very hard time contacting anyone.

That’s how people rely on Google. We tell Google what we are looking for and they

serve us web pages that might satisfy that search. It’s pointless to try to remember

http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/31/2012-digital-influence-index-shows-internet-as-leading-influence-in-consumer-purchasing-choices/

http://fleishmanhillard.com/2012/01/31/2012-digital-influence-index-shows-internet-as-leading-influence-in-consumer-purchasing-choices/

http://www.cnet.com/news/google-goes-down-for-5-minutes-internet-traffic-drops-40/



hundreds of different web addresses when we have such an enormous index at our

fingertips.

Why You Need More Traffic to Your Website

It’s safe to say you’d like more of your ideal prospects calling your offices. And just

like everything else in business, a percentage of people that visit your website will

be ready to call you. It’s a numbers game.

Regardless of the exact percentage (aka conversion rate), the more people that

visit your website, the more people you will have calling your law offices. Simple

enough.

Why Search Engine Traffic is Better Than Other Types

Why go through all this trouble? Why not buy traffic from Facebook or take out an

ad in a magazine or produce a 30 second television commercial?

Search engine marketing is the only form of advertising that is non-interruptive.

Interruption-based marketing is a thing of the past. The power is now in the hands

of the buyer with millions of pages of information at their fingertips (and with them

at all times on their cell phones).

With search engine marketing, people are searching for a specific solution. They’re

not chatting with friends when your ad interrupts them and they’re not actively

trying to avoid you. They are looking for you. By definition, search engines will send

you people looking for what you have to offer.

Other forms of traffic will send you people that found your ad attractive, for a

number of reasons, and decided to click through to your website. By definition,

these people will be all over the map with regards to what they are looking for.

Some won’t be looking for anything. Some will be looking for a different type of

attorney. And very few will be looking for exactly what you have to offer.

Because of this difference in intent, the percentage of visitors that pick up the

phone to call you, will be greater with search engine traffic than with any other

form.

Better visitor intent, visitors that are more receptive, more calls from the same

number of visitors, and better qualified prospects. These are just a few reasons why

search engine traffic is the most powerful of all.

Why You Want Your Law Firm Listed on the First Page of Google

Why do you need to be on the first page of Google? Don’t the other results pages

get any traffic? Actually they don’t.

It may be common sense that people just don’t go past the first page but the

following study confirms just how dominant page one results are.



According to a July 2014 study released by Advanced Web Ranking, “On average,

71.33% of searches resulted in a page one Google organic click. Page two and

three get only 5.59% of the clicks.”

Cited: A New Click Through Rate Study for Google Organic Results, Barry Schwartz, October 1,

2014, http://marketingland.com/new-click-rate-study-google-organic-results-102149

If you want to get more search engine visitors to your website then you need to be

on that first page.

Why Not Just Buy the Same Traffic Through Google Adwords?

This is a great question. Since Google Adwords, or Pay-Per-Click Advertising, puts

you immediately on the first page for keywords you want to appear for, why not

pay Google instead of bothering with SEO?

For other industries, you should use Google Adwords. But for many legal keywords,

paying per click will bankrupt your firm.

Take a look at these prices taken from the Google Adwords Keyword Planner.

Keyword

Average

Monthly Searches

Suggested Bid

Total Traffic Value

Atlanta Car Accident Lawyer 590 $ 142 $ 84,051

Atlanta Personal Injury Lawyer 1000 $ 82 $ 81,900

Austin Car Accident Lawyer 320 $ 142 $ 45,504

Austin Personal Injury Lawyer 480 $ 128 $ 61,325

Chicago Car Accident Lawyer 480 $ 67 $ 32,338

Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer 1300 $ 90 $ 116,948

Dallas Car Accident Lawyer 390 $ 158 $ 61,448

Dallas Personal Injury Lawyer 480 $ 102 $ 48,989

Denver Car Accident Lawyer 260 $ 155 $ 40,266

Denver Personal Injury Lawyer 390 $ 115 $ 44,877

Houston Car Accident Lawyer 590 $ 69 $ 40,492

Houston Personal Injury Lawyer 880 $ 88 $ 77,158

Las Vegas Car Accident Lawyer 390 $ 97 $ 37,635

Las Vegas Personal Injury Lawyer 390 $ 185 $ 72,201

Los Angeles Car Accident Lawyer 880 $ 98 $ 86,073

Los Angeles Personal Injury Lawyer 1600 $ 89 $ 142,848

Miami Car Accident Lawyer 260 $ 148 $ 38,600

Miami Personal Injury Lawyer 480 $ 118 $ 56,712

Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyer 720 $ 87 $ 62,510

Philadelphia Personal Injury Lawyer 390 $ 140 $ 54,713

Phoenix Car Accident Lawyer 480 $ 94 $ 45,245

Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer 880 $ 137 $ 120,806

http://marketingland.com/new-click-rate-study-google-organic-results-102149



Keyword

Average

Monthly Searches

Suggested Bid

Total Traffic Value

San Diego Car Accident Lawyer 390 $ 243 $ 94,879

San Diego Personal Injury Lawyer 480 $ 102 $ 48,739

St. Louis Car Accident Lawyer 260 $ 84 $ 21,848

St. Louis Personal Injury Lawyer 480 $ 103 $ 49,675

The first column is the keyword for which your Adwords ad will appear in search

results.

The second column is the average number of people searching for each keyword in

a month.

The third column is Google’s suggested bid for that keyword. Those numbers are

per click! With Google Adwords you would pay an average of $118 for each and

every visitor that clicked on your ad through one of these keywords.

The last column is the approximate total traffic value for each keyword. These

figures were calculated by multiplying the monthly search volume and the

suggested cost per click for each.

Paying these prices and not trying to appear in the same search results organically

is a mistake.

“Brands who aren’t engaged in SEO at any level, and especially those relying on

just paid search for a presence in search results, are missing out on a tremendous

source of qualified visits who are in a mood to consume your content and purchase

your products.”

Cited: Natural Search's Growth Explosion, and What it Means for SEO in 2015, Herndon Hasty,

March 12, 2015, http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2399255/natural-search-s-

growth-explosion-and-what-it-means-for-seo-in-2015

Why Keeping This In-House is Generally Not the Best Course of Action

To accomplish all that one competent SEO Company can, you would need a graphic

designer, a writer, a link builder, an on-page SEO specialist and a developer for

when technology breaks.

Have a look at the other law firms in your niche. Google your practice area and city

and visit the websites listed on the first page of organic results. Even by first

glance, do you think these firms design and promote their own websites? Not a

chance.

Unless you really know what you’re doing, keeping SEO and Internet Marketing in

house will only keep you behind your competitors. Even worse, the gap between

those that invest in their Web presence and the firms trying to save a buck by

keeping this in-house, will continue to grow.

http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2399255/natural-search-s-growth-explosion-and-what-it-means-for-seo-in-2015

http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2399255/natural-search-s-growth-explosion-and-what-it-means-for-seo-in-2015



3 Common Misconceptions about SEO for Law Firms

Misconception #1: Links are bad.

Without links the Internet would not exist. How would you find any webpage? You

would need to know the specific web address of each page. Then each time you

wanted to visit a page, you would have to manually type it into your web browser.

Not very effective at all.

Let’s take a look at a few types of links and you decide if these links are “good” or

“bad.”

A link on Google itself pointing to your website?

A link on your Twitter or Facebook profile pointing to your website?

How about a link in the body of an online press release pointing to your

website?

I’m sure you agree that these are natural links that you would want to have

because they direct people to your main website for more information about your

firm.

Let’s do a few more.

A link on a new blog you just set up pointing back to your law firm’s main

website. Good or bad?

A link on your Avvo attorney profile?

A link in the description of your YouTube video pointing back to your site.

Also fine right?

So what makes a link good or bad?

From Google’s perspective, links are “bad” if their only purpose is to manipulate

Google’s results. Therefore, intent is what makes a link bad. But intent is such a

gray area.

Every time you create a link pointing back to your website ask yourself this

question. If Google was not around, would you do this? If the answer is yes

because it will bring people to your website then by all means, build that link.

Google’s search engine relies on links. Without them it would not be able to index

the Internet. Later on in this report we will share a section of Google’s Company

Page that confirms this.

Misconception #2: Design is more important than traffic.

Design is certainly important because your firm needs to look like a million bucks.

But a nice looking website and social profiles only get you into the game. Great



design without promotion is like Miss America sitting home alone on a Saturday

night. What a shame.

In golf, the saying goes, “Drive for show and putt for dough.” Design is the driver

and traffic is your putter. Generally, both are necessary to win. But traffic gets the

phones to ring. Make sure you allocate your resources accordingly.

Misconception #3: All you need is links to rank higher in Google.

The opposite of Misconception #1, Links are bad, is Misconception #3, All you need

is links. Some people still believe that all you need to do to rank higher in Google is

to get more links pointing to your website.

That may have been true three years ago but it doesn’t apply today. In order to

win, you need a comprehensive strategy that includes design, website structure,

links, publishing and social media.

4 Steps to Page One of Google for Any Keyword

At ApricotLaw, we employ a 4 step approach to ranking a law firm’s website on the

first page of Google for any keyword. The process does not change depending on

the keyword. The only thing that changes when going after highly competitive

searches is how much of each step we’ll need to do.

For example, you may be listed at the very top of Google for a super-low

competition keyword soon after building the page. To rank for other phrases, such

as Mesothelioma Lawyer, you’ll need to publish more content and find other high

authority websites to link to yours.

Here are the four steps.

Keyword Research: Which Search Phrases Bring You Clients?

Keyword Research to determine which phrases your best clients are “Googling.”

We like to find 10 Top Priority, Urgent keywords to focus our efforts on. These

phrases are generally the most competitive in your market because they bring in

clients and cases.

Top priority keywords in the car accident niche would include the following:

Car Accident Lawyer (City)

Motorcycle Accident Lawyer (City)

Personal Injury Lawyer (City)

Truck Accident Lawyer (City)

Traumatic Brain Injury Lawyer (City)



In addition to the ten urgent keywords, we uncover between 40 and 80 secondary

keywords that may not get searched as much but would also bring in great clients

for you.

For a Personal Injury Lawyer wanting more car accident cases, these would include

the following:

Car Accident Whiplash Lawyer (City)

Car Accident Amputation Lawyer (City)

Car Accident Wrongful Death Lawyer (City)

Fatal Car Accident Lawyer (City)

Rear End Car Accident Lawyer (City)

Landing Page Creation: Give Googlers Exactly What They Want

Once we determine the primary and secondary keywords your firm should be

targeting, we then need Landing Pages on your website that Google can send these

visitors to.

After all, Google won’t send someone searching for a Car Accident Lawyer to a page

about the divorce process. Also, Google won’t send everyone looking for a lawyer to

your homepage.

Your website must contain content that gives Googlers exactly what they are

looking for. And that’s where Landing Pages come in.

Our professional writers will craft useful content about each keyword we decide to

target.

We then take that content and build webpages on your website perfectly optimized

for each keyword. These pages will contain the critical components Google looks for

when indexing web pages for any search phrase.

The top three components that must be properly optimized for your target keyword

are:

1. The webpage address

2. The webpage title

3. Specific locations in the body of the content

Link Building: Show Google Your Content is Valuable

As you are likely aware, simply having a website with a few dozen pages on it does

not mean Google will present you to its visitors. Landing pages will only get you

into the game.

It’s all right there on Google’s Philosophy Page, Ten Things We Know to Be True.

“Google search works because it relies on the millions of individuals posting links on



websites to help determine which other sites offer content of value. We assess the

importance of every web page using more than 200 signals and a variety of

techniques, including our patented PageRank™ algorithm, which analyzes which

sites have been “voted” to be the best sources of information by other pages across

the web. As the web gets bigger, this approach actually improves, as each new site

is another point of information and another vote to be counted.”

Cited: Google Company Page, Ten things we know to be true, Number 4. Democracy on the

web works, http://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/

PulseTM: Pump Life into Your Site by Posting and Sharing

Frankly, if we stopped at Link Building you would probably rank on the first page of

Google for some great client-generating keywords. But, if you want to be the

biggest player in your online market, Pulse is like pouring gasoline on a fire.

Our goal with Pulse is simple. Your law firm everywhere online.

Free Website Audit

We appreciate you reading this report all the way to the end. As our way of saying

thank you, we’d like to give your law firm a full website audit, free of charge.

You will learn many valuable insights about your website and how strong of a

presence it has online. You will also learn about your competitors and why we think

they are beating you.

You’ll even get a short video showing you exactly how your firm’s web strategy

could use improvement. The beauty of this video is you can watch it at your leisure

and really digest what’s being said. You can also share it with your partners and

associates to see what they think.

Learn more and request your law firm’s free website audit at

http://www.apricotlaw.com/report716.

http://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/

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