Lawyer SEO junkies like crack cocaine addicts
LexBlog's VP of Client Development, Kevin McKeown, asked me this morning how I bring lawyers down from their SEO fixation. Thought I'd share with you what I shot to McKeown.
Lawyers addicted to SEO are like crack cocaine addicts who need to get their fix. Don't care how, from whom, or at what price. Just give my fix. As a result they get hooked up with crack cocaine dealers dressed up as SEO consultants - not a good crowd.
Effective blogging on a legal niche propels a lawyer to the top of the Google search results. And not just on what they do and their location, ie, Palm Springs Estate Planning Lawyer, but also for terms on which thousands of people search, ie, living will, estate tax etc. No question, effective blogging gets you found on Google.
But at the end of the day, the search engines are one big yellow pages directory. If you advertised heavily in the yellow pages and your good clients came primarily from the yellow pages, by all means, pour all your marketing and business development time and money into search results. Getting to the top of Google results is like having the first 2 full page spread in the yellow pages.
But if your best clients came by word of mouth, as opposed to the yellow pages, Google is not the be all and end all. You need an effective online presence so that your prospective clients and those who influence them see you as a reliable and trusted authority in your niche. A link from the top of the search results to a web page proclaiming your accolades is not going to do it.
I'm speaking from experience. I was a plaintiff's trial lawyer for 17 years. We spent heavily on advertising. TV, radio, yellow pages. You name it, we did it. But at the end of the year, the largest fees were generated on cases we received by word of mouth.
When I started answering injury law related questions on AOL's message boards in 1996, there were no search engines. But injury victims and their family members saw what I was doing and spread the word across the Internet. Thousands of people, including many from my state of Wisconsin, came to my website where I archived the questions and answers. Work and notoriety as a trusted authority followed - in spades.
Don't get me wrong. Google matters. And good blogging gets you to the top. But Google results is not the leading way the best lawyers get their best clients.
- The best lawyers get their best work by word of mouth. Period.
- Word of mouth is generated by being recognized as a reliable and trusted authority in one's practice area. Offline that takes a decade or more for a good lawyer. With effective blogging, a good lawyer can do it in a year or two.
- Forgo this and you're acknowledging that you'll be on the never ending rat race chasing the top results on search engines, which is like chasing the largest ad in the yellow pages.
- Better clients come from being an authority and by word of mouth, not from search engines. Good clients are evaluating a lawyers skill, acumen, and passion as well as who is citing that lawyer on line (other bloggers & reporters).
- An effective Internet presence through effective blogging and the innovative use of social media is achieved by very few lawyers. 99% of lawyers don't know how to do it or are too lazy to learn how. That's far less competition for you. Chasing SEO is something everyone of your competitors is doing.
Better clients. Less competition. Less Cost. Long lasting. What's not to like?
Back to weaning lawyers off their fix. ;)
As a relatively new attorney, I find the internet fascinating! By "networking" on it from the comfort of my living room, I can become an expert in a field and have people calling me for help from all over the country! However, I must say that I completely agree that word-of-mouth is the most effective advertising. Networking is something that must be done on and offline! However, I wonder as more attorneys enter the field that grew up with the internet, if it will become more difficult to just blog your way to the top?!?
All true. SEO may get 'em there, but good content is required to keep 'em there and then trust and good lawyering are required to get 'em as clients.
You hit on a key point too many lawyers are entirely worried about. Too many worry too much about writing for the search engines instead of taking the time to write to their audience and potential clients.
Good relevant, up-to-date content on a consistent basis will get you noticed. Not just by search engines but by other lawyers in your niche, the media and people looking for answers to their problems or issues. If you blog for the sole reason of providing information and answering questions, you will see results. And not just page rank and search engine placement.
The numbers are not what is important. Giving your readers what they want in a form and fashion they can understand and use is what will get you results.
Great post again Kevin.
Great post Kevin. Twitter seems to bridge the gap between blogs and face to face conversation. Combining the strength of third party word-of-mouth promotion with the speed, reach and transparency of the Internet, Twitter is probably the best "white hat" traffic driver and readership builder for attorney bloggers.
The recognition as a reliable and trusted authority in one's practice area that may take a decade or more offline for a good lawyer and a year or two with effective blogging, can be achieved in a matter of months on Twitter.
Hi Kevin,
My company is putting together an eBook for law students to teach them about the wide range of free resources that can help them while in school, and (hopefully) well into their career years. Topics include blogging, twitter, facebook, and a crash course in SEM, just enough so they get the basics of it.
Would you mind if I paraphrased the following in our ebook so I can drive home the importance of blogging?
"Word of mouth is generated by being recognized as a reliable and trusted authority in one's practice area. Offline that takes a decade or more for a good lawyer. With effective blogging, a good lawyer can do it in a year or two."
I can send you the page before we publish.