Chris Buckley
Director at Pixel Kicks
Chris Buckley takes digital marketing for law firms back to basics
1. Start a Google Search PPC campaign
Getting your website to the top of Google is a lot easier than you think. Just above and below the main search results, which are organised by Google based on a series of algorithms, is a section of sponsored links, placed as part of campaigns on Google Ads.
Google Ads, formerly known as Google Adwords, is one of the world’s most used platforms when it comes to online advertising, offering a range of options including video adverts on YouTube, and graphic banners that can show on millions of websites. The ones that feature in search results come as part of a Google ‘search campaign’, something which is relatively easy to set up.
Whilst we recommend getting a Google partner on board to save you time and optimise the campaign to work most efficiently, there’s plenty you can do to get good results without help. Setting up a new search campaign can be done in a few easy steps; just determine what search terms you’d like your website to appear for and add them as keywords in a new campaign. The type of law services you provide will be the basis on which you choose the majority of these, whether you work in employment law, corporate law or property law, these can help you to generate search terms. Then, set a cost-per-click bid for each keyword, or for the full ad group – typically, the higher the bid the better the position of your advert (although many other factors come into play).
2. Optimise your website
The world of SEO can be quite tricky at times. Google uses a combination of many factors to determine where websites appear on their search results, and it’s important you get the balance right. A proper SEO campaign takes a lot of research and planning, as well as a lot of time.
For a full, thorough SEO campaign, we’d recommend working with a digital marketing agency, although there are still some tasks you can carry out yourself.
Some tasks are simple to complete, although far larger sites with more content, can take up much of your time. If you have a Wordpress website, installing the free Yoast SEO plugin can work wonders, with it checking all of your pages and posts and giving you some pointers on where you can improve. It also allows you to edit your meta titles and descriptions – the two things that determine what your links and information look like on Google. Include key points about your firm in the short snippet of text that will show for your homepage meta description, and for other pages, include relevant specifics about your legal services.
Some simple exercises like this can really help you get off the ground with your SEO, although there are many more steps to take to get it right.
3. Be active on social media
While being active on your social media channels isn’t going to bring you as many direct enquiries and leads as some good SEO & PPC might, it’s something that is guaranteed to raise your profile.
Basic social media marketing for your company should consist of posts that highlight information about your company, including selling points, achievements etc. This can help to keep your firm in the mind of any potential clients that are already subscribed to your updates, but how can you increase your followers, and consequently, your profile?
We recommend breaking out from the usual subjects you’d cover. Continue to post about law and your firm, but occasionally break out into another subject. It’s good to talk online about your local area, with Twitter a great platform for interacting with the community. Search on Twitter for the name of your town or city and see if you can find a dedicated hour for it. For example, #ManchesterHour takes place every Thursday night between 8 and 9 o’clock and allows businesses to post promotional messages or push any events they have coming up. These hours have a great active audience, and your tweets are guaranteed to be seen by a wider audience.
Post about interesting things near your offices. Based near the Christmas markets? Put a photo out! Small things like this can get a decent amount of engagement from the local community, and as you do this more and more, your profile will raise.
