Search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) are just a few digital marketing strategies available for Law Firms. But which is better? Is there value in using SEO and PPC to create more prominent brand awareness and generate more organic leads? SEO and PPC can work wonderfully together as long as there’s a strategy in place.

SEO vs. PPC for Law Firms

SEO focuses on generating organic Traffic using on and off-page optimizations and keyword placement. PPC uses paid ads to display your website in front of users searching for legal services. However, the differences go beyond that. SEO is typically a long-term strategy that involves optimizing your website to bring it more relevant traffic. PPC offers a fast, yet more expensive, approach to achieving the same results. Many law firms use PPC in the short term while they focus on implementing an SEO campaign.

SEO also tends to be sustainable, meaning any work you complete on your website to optimize it will continue working in the long term. PPC, however, will only work for as long as you continue paying for advertisements.

SEO and PPC in the Legal Industry

When it comes to achieving results for your law firm, you don’t necessarily have to pick between SEO or PPC. Instead, consider creating a digital marketing campaign that utilizes both benefits to get your law firm the best results. Here are a few ways to use SEO and PPC to produce good results for your law firm.

Maximize Marketing Budget

Using both SEO and PPC can provide your law firm’s marketing team with unlimited data, which can help you maximize your budget and choose the specific marketing strategies that work based on your goals. You’ll learn clickthrough rate, bounce and exit rates, and organic traffic measurements on your website, which can help you choose the strategies most likely to bring you qualified traffic. PPC platforms also have excellent built-in campaign testing and keyword research tools, which can help your overall strategy.

The information you gather using these tools can also help you beat out your competitors. Most cities and states have multiple lawyers offering the same services within the same proximity.

Retargeting Campaigns

SEO and PPC can also work together for remarketing campaigns. Law firm SEO services can bring targeted traffic to your website using well-optimized guides or FAQs. However, just because a user is researching legal topics doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ready to hire a lawyer. They may want to conduct additional research or explore other options first. 

In the meantime, PPC can help you remind them you’re there. Display ads while they’re searching for other things. Even if they don’t convert for a few weeks or months, they’ll likely contact you because they have been seeing your ads for weeks and may have found your website content useful.

Drive Traffic to Underperforming Sites

Most websites have those few web pages that don’t perform as well as others. Perhaps you have certain cities you want to expand in that just don’t get as much traffic as you’d like, or maybe your firm is struggling to expand its divorce lawyer side but still gets a steady rate of personal injury clients.

Combining SEO and PPC efforts can help you improve and optimize these pages or services. For example, you might restructure and optimize the service page’s content to provide a better user experience. You may reassign the target keyword to the page to a phrase that better matches the intent. Then, you might run ads to the page to get immediate traffic while waiting for Google to rescan and index the page. Use the remarketing techniques discussed in the previous point to let past clients and website traffic know you’re open for other services.

Dominate More of the Search Market

Both SEO and PPC offer increased traffic and, often, different traffic. So, if you want your law firm to dominate the local market, then a campaign that includes both may be the best option. Additionally, not only will you bring more traffic (organic and not) to your website, but you’ll also boost your brand awareness. Hiring a lawyer is a process that requires trust. The more your website appears in a user’s searches, and the more valuable they find your website, the more likely they are to trust you with their business.

Law firms can benefit from a digital marketing campaign that includes both SEO and PPC techniques. Whereas SEO focuses on long-term organic traffic, PPC campaigns aim for immediate, paid leads. Create a steady flow of law firm clients by using both of these in your marketing initiatives.

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