If you are like most attorneys, you tend to be competitive. When it comes to search engine marketing, being #1 when you type “practice area + your metro area” (e.g., "personal injury attorney Sacramento"), into the search box, you want to be #1! Who wouldn’t! So, when you finally DO show for such a search term, it feels good. You have succeeded!
Have you ever entered a similar search query into Google on a computer that you have used for the first time, and your law firm website does NOT come up like it does at the office? What happened?
Google Personalized Search
When a user is logged into a Google account, all of his or her searches on Google Search are recorded into Google Web History. So when you perform a search, the search results are not only based on the relevancy of each web page to the search term, the service also takes into account the previous sites that you have visited in order to determine which search results to determine for future searches in order to provide a more positive user experience. Read more about Google Personalized Search.
The More You Search The Same Topic, The More You Click, The More the Same Site Comes up….for You (and only you)
I had a meeting once with an attorney partner at a Sacramento Estate Planning law firm. He was a very nice man, and I enjoyed our discussion mostly because of how enthusiastic and interested he was with the Internet and online marketing. He spent the first half-hour showing me all of the effort he went through to get his firm #1 in the search results for specific vanity searches. He had multiple websites, URL redirects, and anything else you could imagine that was contrary to best practices. BUT, he was showing #1! Success, right? Well, that all depends on how you define success.
Sign Out. Clear the History and Cache. Then Search Again.
At that point in the discussion, I felt the need to shed some light on the situation, but I also didn’t want to crush the poor guy who had spent so much of his time and worked so hard to implement his concept of what effective online marketing is. So, I talked a bit about vanity search vs. long tail search, effective design and content, and that success should be defined by one thing: Quality business growth and meeting the firm's goals.
So I showed him how to log out of his Google products and clear the history/cache in his web browser. And in one instant, all the “success” he had achieved online was wiped out. Gone. No more #1. Not even a #15. In fact, he had gone so far off the path of Google Guidelines, there was no finding his firm by search engine no matter how hard you tried.
By clearing out all of the Google Web History and his browser history, Google no longer knew what his personal search habits were. He then saw the real results that normal prospective clients would see if they were searching for legal information or help. His law firm website was nowhere in sight. Here is some more information about how to turn off Google Personalized Search.
To be Competitive Online Takes a Long-Term, Well Thought Out Strategy
Of the hundreds of lawyers I have met with over the years, the vast majority have answered the same way as the above attorney did. Why?
1) A vast number of attorneys are COMPETITIVE by nature! They want to be #1 (who doesn’t?).
2) They have been bombarded for years now by fly-by-night SEO “experts” who promise the #1 spot on Google (by the way...if anyone makes such a promise, they are misleading you), so then the focus becomes all about getting to that #1 spot for certain vanity searches.
3) The day-to-day workload of running a law practice leaves little time to focus on a broad-based long-term strategy. So a short-term fix can be tempting.
While simply placing focus on a certain number of vanity searches might seem like the easy solution to attracting new clients online, it often does not produce real results. For more information about different search types, and the impact on client development, read my Blog article: “Tips to Increase Search Engine Visibility for Your Law Firm”.
So, if you are one of those attorneys who has been striving for that #1 spot, don’t worry, you are not alone! And if you are one of those attorneys who has that #1 spot, and it is not producing profitable clients, then perhaps take a step back and try a different approach.
To Learn More, Contact Us today!
BWM Lawyer Marketing helps attorneys with effective online client development strategies that produce results. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you achieve your law firm’s goals, fill out our online form or call us today at 707-774-5607.
