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SEO is undoubtedly a crucial part of a lawyer’s comprehensive digital marketing strategy. PPC ads are great ways to get your name in front of potential clients. Together, they can push your law firm closer to reaching your full growth potential.
All too often, people approach search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising as individualized strategies and many law firms focus more heavily on one over the other. However, each can be seen not just as distinct marketing opportunities, but instead as complementary strategies for best results.
While SEO remains very important, most law firms will find that in today’s digital landscape an integrated strategy combining SEO and PPC ads is integral to developing an effective marketing plan designed to reach the firm’s practice growth goals. In this post, we offer our insights into the benefits of a combined SEO and PPC strategy.
The Evolving Field of Digital Marketing
In the past, PPC ads were a (relatively) few clearly-labeled, simple text ads viewed on desktop computers. But with the increase in the number of ads over recent years, the rise of mobile device usage, and changes to the ads themselves, lawyers who want to grow their practice can no longer afford to avoid integrating both SEO and PPC advertising into their legal marketing strategy.
Watch this clip to learn more about PPC.
Today, the Google search engine results page (SERP) is dominated by ads. Google remains the top search engine in the world with more than nine out of ten internet searchers utilizing Google. The percentage of paid ads relative to organic results on the SERP only continues to increase year over year.
Presently, Google Local Services Ads (LSAs) get the top spot on the SERP, followed by PPC ads, and the Google My Business (GMB) local pack. Now the first organic results are much further down the page than before, or even below the fold depending on the size of a searcher’s device. On a mobile device, many users will be forced to scroll before getting to any organic results at all.
Therefore, a diverse strategy is required for maximum visibility. Strong SEO, even ranking as the first organic search result, is no longer enough to ensure that potential clients see your law firm when they are looking for a lawyer. Instead, you must utilize a diverse, integrated strategy designed to put your name before potential clients through both paid ads and strong SEO practices.
Benefits of Combining SEO & PPC Ads
An integrated strategy can help your law firm thrive by leveraging the power of both strong SEO practices and targeted PPC ads. With these two solutions working together, you can reach more potential clients and attract more high-value leads for your firm. The overall marketing benefits for your law firm include:
- Greater Command of the SERP Page: With a combination of PPC ads and strong SEO practices, your law firm has the potential to command a greater portion of the search engine results page. For instance, you might have a PPC ad displaying at the top of the page, in addition to a result in the GMB local pack, and your website or blog ranking well in the organic results. This potential for increased visibility increases your overall likelihood of connecting with more potential clients.
Your paid ads may even actually boost your organic rankings, because they may also increase the likelihood of clicks on your organic results (and a higher click-through rate in the organic results is a ranking factor).
- Keyword Insights & Integration: By running PPC Ads and monitoring your SEO performance, you have twice the keyword data to analyze for your law firm. This larger dataset can help you better identify the keywords that bring in more leads and even increase conversion rates. You can also see where your website and ads may be underperforming. This allows you to better determine keywords you can use to reach more clients now, as well as identify areas for growth and further optimization.
- Optimize Messaging & Copy: Similarly, you can use combined data to better optimize your messaging and copy on your website and in ad campaigns. While it may be weeks or months before you can fully evaluate your SEO performance for new web content and messages, PPC ads present a much quicker turnaround time. Within a matter of days, you will know whether certain headlines, keywords, and copy are working in your PPC campaigns, and you can use these insights to inform your SEO strategy and practices. Similarly, if you receive a lot of organic exposure (and clicks) for certain content on your website, you can allow this to inform your PPC strategy.
- Reputation Management Benefits: A key part of digital reputation management is working to control your namespace online. A huge part of this is controlling what searchers see when looking for you and your law firm. By utilizing PPC ads, you can better manage the message sent to potential clients.
- Branding Benefits: Similar to reputation management, a combined approach helps you better control your overall law firm brand online. You can use SEO to optimize for long-term, unchanging parts of your brand. Meanwhile, you can utilize your PPC campaigns for short-term branding efforts, such as getting the word out regarding recent news about your firm or a change to your brand assets.
Ready to Get Started?
At Justia, we are committed to equipping lawyers with the tools they need to succeed. Our Justia Marketing Solutions are designed specifically for law firms, and we offer expert SEO and PPC management services for our clients.
We are even so confident that PPC ads are now an integral part of a comprehensive legal marketing strategy, we are giving away Google Ads credit to new Justia Amplify PPC Management clients. This credit from Justia is over and above any promotions new clients may be eligible for directly from Google.
Final Thoughts: Why Do You Care?
To set your law firm up for success, you need to adapt your digital marketing strategy to the ever-changing landscape of search engines. Both strong SEO practices and targeted PPC ads are important parts of a comprehensive legal marketing campaign. Contact us to learn more about how SEO and PPC ads together can help your firm grow.
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