For personal injury law firms, calls and form submissions are priority #1. A higher volume of leads, whether qualified or not, means more potential cases. Naturally, this means that contact forms and phone numbers are present and persistent on all pages of a law firm’s website. However, potential clients have to not only find your website, but also be influenced by your content before they will contact you. This begs the question – what type of and how much information do we give a website visitor before we ask for a call or form submission?
The Importance of Organic Traffic
Most personal injury law websites show organic traffic as the #1 driver of visits – usually by a large percentage. Unlike other marketing channels, the top spot doesn’t go to the highest bidder. It takes several components working together to be successful at achieving higher rankings for case-type keywords. It takes time and ongoing effort by experienced writers and developers.
While there are several alternative search engines popping up, Google still reigns as the leader. As they are constantly optimizing the way search results show up after a query is typed in, law firms need to adapt in the way information is published to their website. In the last 4-5 months, Google has released updates that could harm your previous rankings as they put more restrictions on what is allowed and what is considered ideal.
The Value of Educating with Helpful Content
Back in August 2022, Google began their rollout of several updates that they titled “Helpful Content.” It is a big picture project that rewards websites that are 1) informative, credible, and trustworthy and 2) provide the desired information requested from the search typed into Google. The latest release in December 2022 has caused some websites to see drops in rankings and authority for older content that does not meet new guidelines.
This means that now it is more important than ever to establish your website as a credible source of information – not just a lead generator. It is not enough to write a few paragraphs of copy with variations of keywords to drive a visitor to a form. And the fact is, if your website does not educate by providing answers to search queries, it will not rank, and you will lose traffic.
Competition in Organic Search
The content on a personal injury firm’s website is key to building up authority on certain topics – and these may not be lead generating topics. Successful websites have built up a library of educational content for the ordinary person to digest and come back to when in the situation of needing an accident attorney. If you haven’t built one, your competitors will take that traffic and, in turn, take that top-of-mind brand awareness and your leads.
While your competitors are certainly vying for the top position on many of the same terms as you, they are not the only factor to be considered. AI tools, such as ChatGPT, are becoming the hottest trend of finding credible information online. They provide detailed, unbiased answers on nearly any topic – and they don’t link to any websites. So, when it comes to your content strategy – be like ChatGPT.
Disqualifying Leads to Open Up Resources
By supplying some basic answers to questions regarding cases on your website, you can lower the number of unqualified leads that your team is spending time on daily. Every piece of content will encourage a call or form submission simply because your potential clients are not injury lawyers so they can’t be sure they do not have a case. The fact is – people who believe they have a case will always get in touch even if you have given them information. You need to be there when they are choosing which firm to reach out to for help. Educational content that establishes your authority on the subject matter is a huge factor in their decision-making process and in the ranking success of your website. The benefits far outweigh any risk of losing leads.
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To get an understanding of your current SEO landscape and a comprehensive strategy that works for your firm, reach out to your Brand Strategist or to askus@cjadvertising.com for details. You can also read more about the full-service capabilities of cj Advertising.
