In the competitive legal services landscape, standing out on Google can be the difference between a thriving practice and one barely getting by.
This was the challenge faced by a lawyer based in NY, who approached us SEOLeverage due to our innovative framework around the SEO process, leading to better traffic and increasing amounts of high-quality leads!
The Challenge:
Unoptimized Content and Underwhelming Leads
Despite having a wealth of content on its website, this law firm was not seeing the desired traction in terms of leads from Google.
An initial audit by SEOLeverage revealed a common yet overlooked issue:
Most of the content was outdated, poorly structured, and not optimized for SEO.
This content clutter was failing to attract leads. In addition, it was also diluting the website's overall SEO performance.
SEOLeverage's Approach: Prune and Refresh
Most legal professionals face a unique situation with their websites, which is why standard SEO tactics often are doomed to fail:
- lots of irrelevant or only top-of-funnel content
- outdated content that dilutes Google's brand perception
- website visitors that are not ready to take the next steps
Following our proven SEOLeverage framework, we devised a three-step approach for this law firm:
Step 1: Content pruning for more focus
Not every piece of content created over the years is still worth keeping on your site.
“After an initial analysis, we often find tens, or even hundreds of articles that are not driving traffic at all and just cost Google valuable processing time they could use for your actually relevant content”
Gert Mellak, CEO @ SEOLeverage
Here is a screenshot of the content audit that gave clear data around which articles needed to be pruned, and which pages were worth keeping:
Using the content audit, we gave a series of recommendations around what to keep and remove, and our client quickly approved our suggestions.
Once this law firm’s irrelevant and outdated content had been pruned, it was time for the next step: refresh + create!
Step 2: Refresh and Conquer
After the initial pruning process, the next step was to sift through the remaining content to identify articles that could rank much better.
These articles, characterized by their clarity and relevance but lacking in SEO structure, were then revamped with targeted keywords, improved readability, and strategic structuring to meet Google's ranking criteria.
We brought them back to life!
Our client was looking back at years of experience from past cases in their niche documented.
Now, the content documenting that experience finally started to do the heavy lifting:
The revised pieces of content started to rank again within just a few weeks!
Step 3: Expanding the Foundation with Optimized Topic Clusters
Google loves to give specific answers to specific search queries.
Building on top of this knowledge, we implemented a series of content clusters going deep into specific topics, aiming for topical authority.
Topical authority comes when Google associates a website with a specific topic based on the amount of high-quality, focused content created and strategically connected.
If you have written a lot of high-quality, original, SEO-optimized content about surgery compensation claims, chances are that Google trusts you when it comes to this topic and will rank your content higher, getting you more visibility and more traffic.
But traffic isn't everything!
The traffic has to convert into leads!
This is why every single article that was optimized for SEO rankings, was also prepared to make it easy for readers to become a lead through the following options:
- Content upgrades (downloads) from within those articles
- Via direct requests for a consultation through the form we hosted on each page
- ebook downloads
- Direct phone calls
- General inquiries through a contact form
The Results: A Surge in Qualified Leads for the lawyer’s intake specialists
The implementation of this tailored SEO strategy yielded remarkable results:
Within a few months, the lawyer's website saw a significant uptick in organic traffic, with a notable increase in the quality and quantity of leads.
From there, the only way was upwards.
After a few more months, the site growth really took off, leading to almost doubling traffic - again - towards the end of 2023.
"The strategic content overhaul and targeted content sprints transformed the website into a lead-generation machine, attracting potential clients actively seeking legal assistance".
(Feedback from the law firm)
The most telling metric of success, however, is the number of conversions from organic traffic from Google, here directly from our dashboard we share with the law firm (the blue line indicates conversions into leads, the red line shows the organic traffic level that month):
In January alone, SEO brought this law firm more than 1300 conversions, among them
- Whatsapp clicks
- 233 Phone number clicks
- 198 booked a call
- 172 downloaded their free PDF and will receive e-mail marketing
- 92 filled in the form on the site directly
- PLUS: hundreds showing great interest by checking out the client's contact page!
The influx of high-quality leads translated into a surge in case sign-ups, with the lawyer reporting hundreds of leads each month, about 30-40% ending up in signed cases over the next few months.
Our team at SEOLeverage has not stopped the work on this project. We are still building out new topic clusters to further drive the number of quality leads up month after month!
Here is the year-over-year comparison directly from Google's Search Console, showing a whopping 40% PLUS in additional clicks to the site, while improving overall positioning and visibility as well:
A Testament to Strategic SEO and Implementing based on a Proven Process
This case study proves the effectiveness of SEOLeverage's strategic approach to SEO and content marketing. By optimizing existing content, and engaging potential clients through targeted lead capture techniques, this New York lawyer can now lean on a steady stream of leads while his SEO agency continues to build out his legal marketing success:
Imagine your law firm got hundreds of free leads from Google every month, how would your business change?
