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Costs of Legal Internet Search Engine Optimization
By Bob Schwartz, CRS, GRI ©2007 Promotions Unlimited All rights
reserved. This material is subject to
copyright and any unauthorized use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.
This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorized use, copying
or mirroring is prohibited.
Five years is quite some time to maintain cost in any industry. With
Search engine optimization, payroll costs are high to secure high-tech
employees who can work with new and constantly changing Internet
landscape. The last two years have seen an increased frequency of search
engine algorithm changes, especially with Google. Needless to say, with
our increased costs and work load, we established our first ever ad cost
increase.
There are many Internet advertisement choices for law firms. Personally,
I think the vast majority are less effective that putting out flyers on
windshields in a supermarket parking lot. A good looking site with a
fancy name will NOT be effective unless it also has many city specific
legal keyword phrases in the ‘organic’ results on the major search
engines.
Traffic figures can be easily changed and short term top pay-per-click
positions can be instantly purchased. To the non-tech layperson, these
strategies can be effectively utilized to fool one into thinking they
are making a very good Internet advertising purchase, when in truth,
just the reverse is true!
Totally reputable national firms have by omission, left out important
facts that have caused potential ad purchasers to believe they are
utilizing the full value of the Internet’s new client potential by
signing up with such a major player. Though the major firms may generate
major traffic, how much of this traffic will benefit a regional small
law firm? Plus, will ranking high for terms like legal, law, cases,
court rulings, Supreme Court decisions, etc. really attract ANY traffic
that will convert to a solid paying client for a San Diego criminal
defense firm?
On the other hand, will terms like San Diego criminal defense, San Diego
lawyers, San Diego attourneys and San Diego defense lawyers offer a much
better probability of attracting a paying client?
It’s not so much the traffic a legal site creates, but the highly
targeted traffic that can only be secured from page one, or page two, of
the organic results of a major search engine search. As an example, just
for our Houston directory, we are currently on page one of MSN for the
following search phrases: Houston lawyers, TX lawyers, Houston TX
lawyers, Houston attorneys, Houston TX attorneys, Houston Texas lawyers,
Houston Texas attorneys, Houston estate lawyers, Houston probate,
Houston divorce lawyers, Houston family lawyers, Houston family
attorneys, Houston DUI lawyers, Houston DUI, Houston DUI attorneys,
Houston accident lawyers, Houston social security lawyers, Houston labor
lawyers, Houston employment lawyers, Houston labor attorneys and Houston
employment attorneys. In August, this directory had 3,110 unique
visitors, 100% from high organic legal keyword standings!
The major legal directory firms surely generate much more traffic. Even
our total August traffic for our fifteen sites was 39,289. However, it
is the 3,110 visitor number that is really important here. Since we hold
more page one placements on the top search engines, we must be receiving
more directed traffic as compared to any other similar operation.
Hopefully you see my point! High organic ranking for city specific legal
phrases should be your tip-off to maximization of the true potential of
the Internet
…Back to our slight rate increase. When is an advertising rate increase
not an actual increase? With the Internet, it’s when you are providing
more visitors for a cost that is LESS than the original cost per
visitor. This is exactly what we are doing! For the period from January
2005 through July 2006 our legal site traffic saw an increase of 84%! A
small sampling for a few directories showed San Diego up 160%, Los
Angeles up 33% and Houston up 22%.
With top pay-per-click legal phrases going for up to $15 per click, huge
local newspaper costs and astronomical monthly phone book ad costs, we
firmly believe our directories offer the most cost effective new client
acquisition cost available!
Copyright 2007 Promotions Unlimited. All rights reserved.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ABOUT THE AUTHORBob Schwartz runs 15 legal directory sites, a few of
which are: Houston lawyers, Dallas lawyers, Riverside lawyers,
Sacramento lawyers, Fresno lawyers Promotions Unlimited started out as a
general search engine optimization firm but has morphed into a
specialized search engine optimization service. Our attorney client’s
results through our directories have proven to be far more cost
effective compared to Yellow Pages advertising. What is surprising to us
is the amount of skepticism still prevalent among legal practitioners
about the effectiveness of the Internet to generate new business. Some
times old habits die hard!In August 2006 Bob's legal websites generated
over 39,289 unique visitors.
In August 2006 Bob's legal websites generated over 39,289 unique
visitors.
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