I agree with plenty of what Tony says, except to stress that as far as lawyers are concerned truly smart firms have only ever had Website SEO (and PPC advertising) as part of an overall, far wider, Business Development strategy.
When he says Google will always "win" because they control the rules and can and do change them when they want, he implies that Google is your competitor…they're not, but they're of course very important to how people access the vast information on the web...
We know huge volumes of people search…both anecdotally and from the evidence in the numbers...and we know a good percentage of them click through to law firm sites either via organic search results or via the paid ads.(Approx. 60/40 split).
That's delivering people to your website, where you must provide the quality content and good experience.
That will deliver acceptable levels of new enquiry for the cost, and provided you look after them they are your clients then like our existing others sourced from whatever strategies.
Sensible SEO still makes a lot of sense (especially because much of the good SEO is content based)…if we're not being ridiculous in manipulating Google, when they make a big change to shake off the underhanded nonsense engaged in by others we're not much affected…in fact our rankings may well at least temporarily improve...
SEO helps get you better exposure to searches that you would otherwise…well done it's got you on page one and well ranked on page one…and Content is a big part of the SEO mix…
When you're ranked well in organic search for your chosen words, terms and phrases, and you also have well-drafted PPC ads appearing in the right spots above the search results, anecdotal evidence is that your click through rate improves quite markedly…I guess your "authority" appears to get cross-pollinated in effect in the eyes of the person searching.
You're not "losing" to Google by being involved ongoing in quality SEO…you're deriving a strong advantage over your competition in this one area of Business Development strategy.
As Tony rightly says, there are other areas of strategy that are more traditional and remain effective…all part of a smart total mix…especially as very often the types of clients delivered straight from "Search" will be quite different from the types of new clients delivered by smart other strategies as they always have been.
Above all, experimentation and monitoring remain vital…test new opportunities and monitor cost vs return…across all of your strategy...
However the biggest impediment to strong business growth I've found in practices throughout Australasia in consulting to them over the last twenty-five years is lawyers who do exponentially more talking and planning in marketing than they do in executing, "walking the talk".
Once all the planning and discussing is done a true professional is comfortable being held to account for consistent effective delivery.
If there really is too much good work, arrange short-term and then permanent extra assistance.
However, the world is full of lawyers who claim to be "very busy", can't fit in consistent effective marketing, yet don't produce particularly good outcomes. Being ineffective comes in many different shapes, sizes and colours!
Well I am agree with you that this one best way of making money in the search enging optimisation Thanks for sharing such useful information.
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