SEO Agency for DUI Attorneys and Criminal Law Firms

Did you know that 87% of people who contact an attorney end up hiring one? If your target audience cannot find you online, how do you expect them to contact you? If your law firm is not incorporating SEO into your marketing strategy, you are losing out on a potentially great demand for your services.
Continue reading to see why SEO is a vital marketing tactic, especially for law firms. Capturing high-value internet traffic should be one of your top concerns when investing in the future and brand awareness.

SEO: An Essential Tool for DUI Attorneys

Let’s be frank. In most areas of the U.S., the criminal lawyer market is saturated. There are numerous attorneys available to meet the needs of their client base. That doesn’t mean you cannot compete and build a strong firm, but it means you need to put in the right resources (and with that, we mean time and strategy) to build a strong basis. Search engine optimization, or SEO, is at the heart of this process.

SEO is an essential tool for DUI attorneys. Simply, your competitors are using it, and if you do not, you don’t have a way to stand out online as a DUI attorney in your area. However, there are numerous reasons SEO is the marketing strategy to use when you want your law firm to compete.

At Array Digital, we are transparent with our clients from the start. There are several reasons SEO is competitive, specifically among criminal law firms.

• There are dozens of local law firms in your area (most likely) that provide criminal legal services, including DUI law.
• Criminal law is complex in that there are very limited words and methods to describe the legal services you offer. This guideline can make it challenging to stand out.
• There’s no cost to using a search engine. That means that people are going to use a search engine to find the attorney they need; they are not likely to use any other method to find an attorney unless a friend gives them a phone number.
• SEO is a cost-effective method of marketing. That means that most criminal attorneys in the same area use it as an affordable way to get in front of their clients.
• Recognizing that it takes just one lead to generate a significant return in this industry (the perfect DUI cases against a trucking company, for example), most criminal law firms will use SEO to bring in as many leads as they can.
• Criminal defense attorneys have very strict rules on what they can say and how they can say it in all of their advertising — and that can limit your ability to reach some potential clients.
• Most attorneys are quite busy, and they do not learn and incorporate SEO strategies into their websites. Rather, they hire professional digital marketing firms to build out their law firm website and optimize it. That means you’re not likely going up against a small attorney typing away in their office but an SEO agency with incredible experience and reach.
• Most attorneys have a head start.

To provide more insight on that last point, consider that if you are just entering the online market now, you are likely going up against attorneys who have been using digital marketing for five, ten, or more years. That time is often more valuable than the money that goes into digital marketing efforts. Simply, time matters.

Incorporating SEO-optimized content into your website should increase your organic traffic. If you are a DUI attorney, it should also help build brand awareness and garner potential leads instead of remaining untargeted.
Yet, this process will take time. Law firm SEO will take time to build up as you compete against all the factors listed above. Here’s the excellent news, though. Every step you take now to build out your SEO strategy on solid methods will help increase the leads and web presence you have on a consistent basis.
Hiring a professional agency to handle your legal marketing, appear in Google search results, and build out a very effective law firm website is possible. Let’s talk about how that happens.

Is your website user-friendly and optimized?

As a DUI lawyer, one of the first stumbling blocks your potential clients may have is the ease of using your website. Having an online presence isn’t enough. You need to ensure your website is operating at its very best.
Your website needs to have a beautiful interface, perform multiple functions to provide your potential clients with the information and tools they need to get help, and must be search-optimized. Website design incorporates elements that help a person who has found you from a web search to move through your site, get the information they need, and then contact you. To get new clients like this, you’ll need to optimize your website using SEO and on-page optimization.
Your goal is to create a premium user experience. What happens when someone lands on your DUI law firm website? If you don’t know, now is the time to find out.

Losing traffic to your competitors?

If your criminal law firm isn’t using SEO, you need to heavily consider doing so. Each year, more and more potential leads look up longtail queries in search engines before ever picking up their phone to contact an attorney. What does that mean?

People may search for something like “criminal defense lawyer in New York” if they are ready to contact an attorney. However, most people start this process by typing a question into a search engine like Google instead. That may include a question like, “What happens after my first DUI in New York?”

When they do this, a list of results with knowledgeable answers will appear on the search engine results page (SERP). You need to be on this list of results. It is the best way to draw in leads to your law firm. It is also the best way to show authority as a DUI law firm serving that area.

If you fail to do that, chances are good your competitors are overstepping and capturing your leads. SEO services can help. To do that, we need to consider the following specifically.

Competitor analysis

Knowing where your competitors are in their SEO campaign journey is a must. We need to know what terms they are ranking for in the search engines (which means that Google recognizes their website as one that offers valuable information for searchers on that particular topic). A competitor analysis will help you to see what they are doing and provides insight into how you can stand out.

Intent

The next factor to consider is intent, or understanding why people are typing that phrase into the search engines. This allows you to target the right audience with your SEO campaign. We conduct keyword research to understand what your likely and most desirable potential clients are using to find the services you offer.

Then, we write content tailored to your audience and your law firm. Content marketing will build into this (we’ll create content that helps you stand out as a criminal defense lawyer while also helping visitors find your site and contact you).

Linking

Another core component of successful websites is backlinks and developing a strong overall linking strategy. Internal linking allows people who visit one page of your site to see a natural progression from that site to the next. In other words, it encourages them to move through your site until they get to the ultimate goal, which is your contact page.

Backlinks are links on other websites that link to your site. These are critical components of your SEO efforts because they help Google see the value your law firm website offers. A strong link-building strategy will have your website’s link on numerous sites, including directories, local sites, and much more.

The ROI of SEO for DUI Law Firms

As you work to build high-quality content for your website and tap into DUI attorney SEO strategies, it’s critical to consider the financial part of this puzzle.

Did you know the cost per click of the keyword “DUI lawyer” is $65 if you were to pay to be in an ad position?
Pay-per-click, or PPC, is a type of advertising in which your landing page can listed at the top of a SERP. However, you pay a noticeable fee whenever someone clicks on that link. Using the pricing above, that means that, for every client you attract using PPC, like Google ads, it will cost around $65 per click (not per person that fills out a contact form).

What if you wanted to localize the keyword to only traffic in those in the area? That would mean you would target just the most likely prospective clients for your law firm. Take a look at this chart:

If you look at this chart, you can see that the two keywords at the bottom have a higher volume. That means more people are typing those into the search engines. However, they do not have any relationship to a specific location. In this situation, when a person living in Chicago types in “DUI lawyer,” Google automatically shows them local results. Simply writing content targeting these national terms does not help your firm.
We put these two keywords here to demonstrate that just because a keyword has a higher volume does not mean it is an optimal keyword for your website.
Now, think of how much money you could save with SEO if you could organically rank for a term like “Atlanta DUI lawyer.” Naturally, we want to localize that to your specific city and state. By doing this, we shrink down just how competitive those terms are. The cost per click is much lower and more within reach. Yet, often the price remains if you continue to use PPC.

Difference between SEO and PPC

It’s essential to understand the difference between SEO and PPC. Both could be a part of your digital marketing strategy, but when it comes to the return on your investment, you need to consider the value that SEO offers.

With SEO, we aim to help you appear in the search engines for the specific terms used, also known as organic search. In this method, we do not pay per click but rather use on-page SEO strategies to show the search engines the value your site offers, allowing for it to better position your site in the SERPs.

By contrast, PPC requires you to pay every time your ad gets clicked, whether or not that person actually becomes a client.
DUI lawyer SEO, then, provides an ongoing route to building leads and continues to pay for itself over time. Your SEO company can provide specifics on the cost of SEO and PPC ROI within your local area. The difference can be very interesting.

How does your marketing team measure ROI?

We monitor and proactively provide feedback on how we’re progressing with metrics like keyword rankings, traffic, and time on site. Our clients capture the leads, and we request that information, along with the business results they’re seeing. Some of our clients have reported as much as a 3x increase in their client intake within a year of starting with us.

When developing your marketing campaign, like any local business, we need to ensure we are doing what it takes to show what your law practice has to offer and why it stands out. Your law firm marketing needs to incorporate information that drives the right people to your site who find the information they need. As your marketing agency, we look at all pieces of the puzzle to ensure we are not just focusing on search engine rankings but also looking at Google Analytics to understand what happens when people get to your site.

ROI is not just the cost of SEO but the results you get throughout the entire process. Our marketing services focus on long-term, positive ROI.

Crafting your SEO DUI strategy

SEO marketing works along with other components of your website to achieve your desired results.

Keyword research

Relevant keywords are a huge part of this process. We aim to target both longtail keywords and short-form keywords. SEO success means paying attention to these terms now and as they change over time.

Continuous publishing

To consistently get website traffic, we need to ensure your website stays relevant with new blog posts. This may include rewriting content or updating information on information that changes, like practice areas.

Local SEO

Local search is essential. There are various components to this, but the ultimate goal is to ensure that your business profile shows up in the Google Business Profile (which used to be called Google My Business). That will show on the first page of the search engines when someone is looking for a service you offer.

Content marketing

Our strategies always involve the creation of high-quality, unique, and fresh perspectives. We want to ensure your criminal defense law firm has lots of information that helps people to learn from you. We want to bring people in wherever they are – whether they have found you on social media, a Google search, or in other areas. Fresh SEO work does that.

Featured snippets are on the rise!

Snippets are another marketing tool that you have available to you. Did you know only 19% of SERPs have a featured snippet? Most appear when a longtail keyword that starts with “why” is entered in the search bar. The nature of blogs is changing to incorporate this knowledge into how a blog answers a lead’s question.
You should start to care about featured snippets as mobile users continue to rise. These featured snippets provide a quick, upfront answer to users who are looking for information. They appear in “position zero” and therefore rank above all other content on the SERP.

Reassess your current DUI SEO strategy

You have a lot to think about, including questions like, “Why is my traffic stagnant or dropping?” “What’s wrong with my law firm website?”

Take a step back for a moment and look at what could be occurring. Was there a new Google algorithm update that is impacting your traffic? If that’s not the case, it’s time to look deeper.

Take a look first at what you are ranking for as a way to see what’s occurring. What local keywords have you acquired from your website content? If you’re not gaining any new local keywords, rethink your content strategy and update it to draw in better results.

For example, if you have a criminal defense firm in Miami, Florida, make sure you’re not targeting the entire state. Instead, focus on a keyword like “Miami DUI attorney” instead of being focused on “Florida DUI attorney.”

3 SEO tips to remember for DUI law firms

As we consider marketing strategies and effectiveness, we focus heavily on these three areas.

One: SEO takes time

It’s an unfortunate fact, but you need to realize this. Manage your expectations around this. If your metrics look great, but the leads aren’t flowing just yet, give it time. You’re still moving forward, and with the competitiveness of some legal areas – like criminal defense and personal injury – it just takes time. Your competitors have likely been doing this longer, and you need to take back that edge over time with better content and strategies.

Two: Intent surrounds audience

You have to define your target audience and ensure that you are, without a doubt, using strategies to attract the right people to your site.

Three: Watch for keyword cannibalization

Don’t try to write optimized content alongside an agency you hired to do it. You don’t want to try to outstrip the work you do for one page of your site by confusing Google about which page should rank for keywords. You also do not want to create repetitive content. Always answer different questions for your audience in a new piece of content.

How to choose the right SEO agency for your DUI law firm

When you select an agency for your DUI law firm, you are putting a lot of trust in them to improve your site and help you to increase your leads. Here’s why Array Digital is the right fit.

Transparency

We don’t just “do it” but teach you what we are doing and why. That way, you know what’s happening all along the process.

Knowledgeable

Being an industry leader in law firm marketing means we get your firm, understand the legal stipulations around your industry, and are dedicated to working carefully with our clients to ensure their authority always has representation.

Fast troubleshooting

We’re here for you. Let’s talk about what’s going right and wrong with your site so we can troubleshoot a solution for you.

You can handle the courtroom. We got the SERPs.

Our clients are in good hands. With the combined experience of roughly 50 years in the web and marketing industry, we will help you grow your traffic and your law firm as a result. Let’s get started now. Call us at 757-333-3021 or fill out our form now, and we’ll get right back to you.