Working with a single search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist can offer certain benefits. But you should take care to partner with the right consultant. It can be tricky to find the right help if you don’t know what to look out for. This guide will walk you through what a good law firm SEO consultant looks like and how they compare to working with an agency.
Key takeaways
Working with a single consultant or an agency’s team can affect how they engage with you.
A consultant’s experience can be assessed in various ways.
Prepare questions to ask a consultant directly to understand what they offer.
A consultant may make more sense than an agency in certain situations.
LawSEO’s approach may help clients improve their online visibility with a holistic approach.
Law firm SEO Consultant versus agency: What is the real difference?
With a consultant, you’ll be working with a single individual who will be responsible for developing and managing your robust SEO strategy. An SEO agency gives you access to an entire team of professionals. This difference can impact your working relationship in various ways, such as:
Consultants interact directly with you. An agency may provide an account management layer that separates you from the people actually doing the work.
An agency generally brings more resources than a consultant. This can affect the areas they can work on and the scope of the strategy.
A consultant may be more flexible in the arrangements they offer clients. Agencies often provide one-size-fits-all templates.
Experience signals worth checking
Finding the right support means getting past the marketing claims and understanding a consultant’s practical experience. There are various things that may help you assess what they bring to the table, including:
A portfolio of their previous work with similar clients to you.
Case studies that show measurable results for a law firm’s online presence.
Client testimonials that detail how the consultant helped with aspects such as local search results.
A clear explanation of how their law firm SEO services achieve results.
Questions a genuine specialist should be able to answer
Speaking with a consultant is important to understanding what they offer. It’s good to consider their experience, as well as their use of ethical marketing practices. It can help to prepare questions to ask beforehand, such as:
What keyword research do you perform for potential clients?
What experience do you have with our legal service area?
How do you approach local SEO for lawyers?
How do you measure whether our strategy is delivering results?
Do you avoid using black hat techniques?
When a consultant makes more sense than an agency
Here are some reasons why a consultant may be best placed to create a strong online presence for your law firm’s website:
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You want to work closer with the person who’s actually performing your legal SEO.
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You’re specifically focused on SEO rather than a broader digital marketing strategy.
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You’re looking for a specialist who can perform a comprehensive seo audit of an existing strategy on matters such as:
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The website’s speed and mobile-friendliness.
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The website’s structure and cannibalisation issues.
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The quality of the content and its local relevance.
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Your legal practice is a boutique law firm that needs a more tailored arrangement.
How LawSEO fits in
LawSEO may help bridge the gap between each approach. Our SEO team has worked with clients across many different practice areas. We can develop your strategy based on your positioning. Our services include the following:
On-page SEO that involves a combination of regularly updated authoritative content and technical SEO to improve your website’s user experience. We target relevant keywords that help boost your local visibility with blog posts and service pages.
Off-page SEO that supports your search rankings. This can involve link-building to increase your local authority and keeping your Google Business Profile up-to-date.
Providing regular reports on your SEO performance. This provides updates on metrics like website traffic, rankings, and lead generation.
Our strategies are designed to generate more traffic from prospective clients over the long term. This is based on building trust and credibility, which takes time. Over a period of around 6 to 12 months, your website can become a high-converting asset. While it can take longer, effective SEO generally provides more return on investment than other avenues, like paid advertising.
Conclusion
SEO for law firms can be managed by a single specialist or a team at an SEO agency. Which one is going to work for your legal website’s traffic can depend on a lot of different factors. With a proven strategy, a consultant may offer a flexible and focused arrangement that fits better with your law firm’s brand. But you need to be able to find an effective consultant for your needs first. Use our guide as a jumping-off point to put you in the right direction.
Do you need local SEO services?
LawSEO has experience working with firms that have a range of legal expertise. From technical SEO to the creation of content and high-quality backlinks, we take a holistic approach to each legal firm’s SEO success. Contact us today to set up a free consultation.
