We have our first anonymous question:

“Is SEO worth it for a small firm of three solicitors? How do we get started?“

I’ll keep sharing anonymous questions as they come through. Can’t wait to hear the answers! If you have a question for @Mel at Loyalest, just enter it below or ask it anonymously here

We had another great question in the webinar about how to find and set up Google Analytics. 

Is Google Analytics found in my Google Business Profile, or somewhere else? 

Thanks for joining me for today’s webinar ‘Low-Cost High-Value Marketing for time poor Practice Owners’. I hope you found it helpful and that you have a few of your first 5 minute marketing activities already planned out.

Tomorrow I’ll be online to answer any questions you have about marketing a legal practice between 3pm and 3.50pm AEST and 12midnight - 12.50am CT.

Even if you didn’t make today’s webinar, you may have some general marketing questions for me.

Let me know what they are below and I’ll have my responses for you tomorrow!

Question: Is Google Analytics found in my Google Business Profile, or somewhere else?

Answer: Google Analytics is a separate tool from your Google Business Profile (previously Google My Business) and is an account that needs to be set up on your website by your website developer.

If you’re a DIY kind of person, know that incorrect set up can mean the information you’ll have access to via your dashboard could be limited or incorrect, therefore not giving you the full picture to make decisions.

Question: “Is SEO worth it for a small firm of three solicitors? How do we get started?“

Answer: Your answer indicates that you definitely have an interest in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

It definitely can be incredibly powerful for driving high-quality business.

“Is it worth it?” While I’d love to say ‘Yes, 100%, all the time!”, that is just not the case. It really depends on the strategy.

In a nutshell, there are a range of ways in which you can optimise your website and the content within it, to drive more targeted interest in your business via website traffic to your site. 

A good SEO strategy starts with a website that has good foundations. That is, it has been structured correctly and that elements have been optimised so your site loads efficiently, and is easy to use on all devices, providing a good user experience. This is called Technical SEO.

A quick way for you to test your website’s load speed by using this free tool: https://gtmetrix.com/ The default analysis location is Canada, so if you’re elsewhere in the world, create an account to be able to select a capital city in your country before running the test. You’ll get a rating and if not rated an ‘A’ you’ll be able to get  some initial insights into why it’s not faster. While load time is not the only important element, it is a good initial indicator of whether there’s some room for improvement. A full  Site Audit is the only way to know comprehensively what shape your website is in. 

To return to your initial question, SEO is only worth it if your strategy is a big picture one and developed in collaboration with a person or team who truly know what they’re doing, and the market you wish to target. While that might sound like a broad strokes reply, we often re-do law firms SEO work because the initial strategy (and sometimes the implementation as well) was unsound for their geographic location and practice area/s.

On-Page SEO, the type where web page content is optimised for search terms, and additional pages and blogs are progressively added, is a long-play game. For search engines like Google to prioritise your website over others, it needs to have high quality content that means people spend time on the site, including reading or viewing more information (including blogs - answering questions that relate to your practice area). When done correctly, this type of SEO work can provide long-term benefits that drives interest and clients to your website and practice for years to come. It is an ongoing process as the search terms and queries change over time. It can take time to see results so you really need to be doing this work for 12 months at a minimum to see the very best results.

If you’d like a bigger picture understanding of SEO for law firms, read this article I wrote back in 2021. It’s like an intro to SEO, and there’s also this article about organic versus paid SEO.

SEO is truly a fascinating area because the activity is based on data. It is the analysis of this data, taking into account your specific business goals that will determine if it’s successful or not. It’s the critical analysis piece, coupled with the strong technical side of things, that when employed could well mean that your three solicitors have enough files, to warrant the SEO spend.

I hope this information has been helpful. Let me know below if this brings about any additional questions for you.

Wow, thank you so much for the super detailed answers here @Mel at Loyalest! Thank you also for your great webinar last week. 

Mel has let me know she’s happy to keep this thread open for future marketing questions. So please do ask away in the replies below .