|
 By Sean McMahon, President and CEO at EngineWorks, Inc., a full-service Search Engine Marketing (SEM) company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached at 503.223.5718 and sean@engineworks.com.
The law firm Gilroy & Napoli dramatically boosted traffic from target clients to their website by using a combination of search engine optimization and paid search marketing using Google Adwords.
The firm employed sophisticated online techniques that any law firm could use, to make certain its top 10 most important search terms appeared on the first page of search results on Google. As a result, the firm enjoyed an increase of nine times the total number of qualified visitors arriving at their site.
More law firms are realizing that in the midst of an uncertain economy, it is paramount to focus on marketing efforts that increase results and reduce costs. Therefore, now is the time for your firm to embark on acquiring new clients through the world’s most effective, and most measurable, media channel: online search engines.
Google is No. 1
 Google is far and away the most popular search engine: according to statistics from Compete.com, 69.4% of all online searches as of August 2008 were made on Google, Yahoo trailed far behind with a 20% search share, and the rest were in single digits.
The percentage of users searching on a typical day has risen again, from about 40% to 49%, according to a Pew/Internet research, “Search Engine Use - August 6, 2008.”
“What has changed in the search world that might account for this increase? One likely reason is that users can now expect to find a high-performing, site-specific search engine on just about every content-rich website that is worth its salt,” the report states.
Last year, more than $12 billion was spent on search marketing in the United States, according to the SEMPO State of search engine marketing 2007. These expenditures are projected to increase beyond $25 billion in 2011. Dollars that were previously assigned to off-line channels such as print advertising, direct mail marketing, and television are now being diverted to search engine marketing (SEM).
Cost effective means of acquiring new clients
Search engine marketing delivers to law firms of all sizes and areas of expertise the most cost effective means of acquiring new clients. Your professionally designed Web site is not worth the code it is written in, if prospective clients are not able to find it. An advanced SEM campaign featuring both:
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Professional paid search marketing that ensures that your services are prominently positioned throughout the world’s most important search engines.
SEM gets your firm in front of prospective clients at the exact time they are searching for legal representation. Professional SEM campaigns extract precise behavioral information about who is searching for specific legal services, which messages resonate with them, and what factors entice them to choose your firm. Armed with this invaluable knowledge, law firms can turn their websites into lead-generating machines, to acquire clients through search engines, and also drive the rest of the firm’s marketing.
Dramatic results
 A real-world example of how search marketing’s in-depth research and analysis, coupled with instant return-on-investment (ROI) measurement, has resulted in dramatic improvement in a law firm’s ability to acquire new clients can be seen in a recent engagement launched by EngineWorks, Inc.
John Gilroy and Jeff Napoli established Gilroy & Napoli in 2003 after working together in the Washington County District Attorney's office as Deputy D.A.'s. Since then, they have represented hundreds of clients in legal matters ranging from DUI cases to personal injury claims and employment discrimination matters.
The law firm approached EngineWorks in March 2008 with the aim of dramatically improving their website’s performance. EngineWorks consulted directly with the partners of this regional law firm to fully understand their online presence. We determined that a concerted SEM strategy -- featuring both a natural SEO and a highly targeted paid search marketing strategy -- was the best approach. The goal of this campaign was to increase qualified traffic through major search engines, and ultimately, to improve the conversion-to-leads rate at GilroyNapoli.com.
Search Engine Optimization strategies ensure that your Web site achieves prominent positioning within the natural results generated by the world's most important engines and directories. EngineWorks targeted individuals actively searching for Gilroy & Napoli’s services by conducting:
- Exhaustive keyword research
- competitive keyword analysis
- natural keyword generation
 Optimization enhancements (i.e., relevancy improvements that appeal to search engines) for site pages and overall structure enable natural search engine algorithms (a.k.a. “spiders”) to easily access the important parts of your site, including text content and properly structured titles and tags. This, in turn, results in highly ranked search natural search listings that deliver qualified visitors and potential clients to your site.
Paid search marketing
Paid search marketing consists of managing text-based advertisements that appear in the ‘sponsored search’ section of online search results. Google AdWords, the most popular Paid Search advertising program, lists text ads at the top and also to the right of their natural search results. More than half of all online advertising dollars this year will be spent on paid search marketing campaigns. Last year, Google (alone!) captured more than 25 percent of total interactive marketing revenues. The driving force behind these impressive statistics is the fact that paid search marketing is highly effective, targeted, and measurable.
A successful paid search marketing campaign is more than just bid management and spend-cap monitoring. In addition, regular adjustments are made to ad copy, creative messaging, and landing pages to ensure the greatest return-on-ad-spend.
Beginning in April 2008, Gilroy & Napoli partnered with EngineWorks to improve the firm’s presence within the major natural search engines. As shown in the chart to the right, all of the firm’s top 10 most important search terms (a.k.a. ‘priority keywords’) were not ranked in the Top 100 Google results on April 1, 2008, prior to EngineWorks optimization efforts. After the initial five months of the SEO campaign, the majority of these top 10 priority keywords are now positioned on the first page (positions 1 through 10) of relevant search results in Google.
 In addition to improved natural positioning for relevant search terms, EngineWorks dramatically increased Gilroy & Napoli’s performance through major Paid Search engines. The graph at the right depicts (in a generic scale to protect client confidentiality) the increase of nine times the total number of qualified visitors arriving at their site during during initial five months of the Paid Search campaign. More importantly, as shown in the graph on this page, Gilroy & Napoli received an increase of almost 400% in the total number of visitors who converted to an online lead during this same time period. Through continued testing and refining, EngineWorks anticipates that the law firm’s conversion rate will continue to improve over the life of this Paid Search campaign.
Search is the answer
An ever-increasing amount of marketing dollars is shifting away from traditional marketing channels, and being put toward efficacious search marketing campaigns. The benefits detailed in this article convey the reasons why smart marketers today are driving this shift in media budgets. In addition, almost any law firm can experience the tremendous results that Gilroy & Napoli has achieved over the past five months by choosing to engage with a professional search engine marketing company. If your firm is actively searching for new clients, now is the time to put the power of SEM behind your efforts. |
RSS FEED
