Kristaps Brencans
Lawyer SEO Expert: How to Hire The BEST in 2025
Having done legal SEO for a decade and producing results for premiere law firms in the most competitive markets of the nation, you can classify On The Map Marketing as an expert in search engine optimization.
Our team specializes in helping firms crack top top search engine rankings in personal injury and criminal defense. But we have helped family law and other practice areas too.
How about a couple of examples?
Roberts Law Firm’s site was underperforming on organic search due to its lack of authority, resulting in low keyword rankings. For 18 months, we started creating well-written content and consistently building high-quality links to the website, leading to a 150% increase in organic monthly leads.
Hipskind & McAninch hired us in 2019 to develop and launch SEO campaigns that consist of local optimization, web design, and link building for the next two years. The site’s local organic visibility allowed the firm to close the largest case in its history thus far.
Why Do Most Law Firm SEO Services Suck?
Many of you may have had bad experiences with a law firm SEO agency at some point. It’s frustrating that these service providers don’t deliver results after months of burning cash. They don’t give personalized attention to an SEO campaign, often lack transparency about their marketing campaigns, and focus on vanity metrics.
There are tons of such low-quality agencies. To add to the woes, many BIG agencies that work for the legal industry will handcuff firms to their proprietary websites and platforms. Some go to the extent of owning the content they create. To separate wheat from the chaff, look at the past results of the marketing agency you’re evaluating. Ask for detailed breakdowns of the agency’s project management, and the like.
What Can You Expect From a Lawyer SEO Expert
A digital marketing expert treats all its clients equally and with a personal touch. It is also accountable for the campaigns it launches and measures KPIs that positively impact the law firm’s revenue. They focus on driving more conversions for you.
On The Map Marketing, for instance, has a core value to “Get Results” for clients. We have been practicing these principles for years, and our clients can attest to our expertise.
“I’ve broken even on my yearly marketing budget and we’re only a few months in,” says Brett Beaubien. “On The Map knows Law Firm SEO. I couldn’t be happier with the service they provided. Excellent customer service.”
“What truly sets…On The Map Marketing apart is their genuine care for their clients,” Freddy G in Google says. “They didn’t just treat us as another project; they treated us like partners on a shared journey towards success.”
Always remember that the end goal of SEO is to help you passively acquire new clients through organic search results. It ties in with the objective of digital marketing in general, but you’ll need specific technical skills that broad-level marketers sometimes lack.
Ramzy Ladah, founder of Ladah Injury & Car Accident Lawyers, explains this well:
When I decided to invest in SEO for my personal injury law firm, which is still relatively small but growing, I knew I needed expertise beyond what a generalist could offer. I hired a specialized SEO agency with a strong track record in legal marketing. My vetting process focused on their experience with law firms, transparency in their strategy, and, importantly, their understanding of the competitive landscape in Las Vegas.
How to Go Hunting For an Attorney SEO Expert
There are many places you can find SEO experts to work with, but we’ve refined the steps below to help you narrow your choices and save time doing it.
Ask Your Legal Network For Referrals
As the interrogator that you are, cross-examine your lawyer friends about SEO experts their law firms have worked with over the years. Find out how the experts operate and what your colleagues think of them. Their sentiments and recommendations help you decide which experts to check out, making your hunting process much easier.
Have a Budget in Mind
Are you ready to spend $3,000 to $10,000 monthly for law firm SEO services? (Yes, that’s the budget range for the SEO services you should be getting.) Mind you, the price ultimately depends on the factors influencing the cost of the service packages. For instance, the more competitive your practice area and the bigger your target market is, the higher the cost will be.
If you’re on the budget-conscious side, looking for an agency with a flexible and scalable fee structure could benefit you down the road.
Joy Owenby from Owenby Law, P.A. chips in on the budgeting component of working with SEO agencies:
As the owner and founder of a top family law firm, partnering with a lawyer SEO expert has been a big step in elevating our online presence and driving growth.
Our firm is mid-sized, and as we’ve grown, our marketing budget has expanded accordingly. What started as a modest investment in SEO has become a key component of our overall business strategy.
Ensure That You Vibe With Them
Essentially, you want to know if you align with the agency’s client profile. A premier agency that works with select elite firms, for example, won’t take you in as a client unless you have a well-established reputation working in high-profile cases. On the other hand, inquiring about an agency with experience working with law firms under ten employees is ideal for your small firm.
Mark Hirsch, co-founder of Templer & Hirsch, emphasizes the importance of communication when looking for agencies that can pass your “vibe check”:
When choosing a firm, we looked for one with experience in the legal field, a track record of success, and a focus on data. It was also important to us that everyone understood our firm’s goals and that the conversation was open and honest. Much research went into our firm choice; it had to meet these standards.
Our partnership has worked out well. Our website has received many more visitors, our search engine results have improved, and we’re getting more quality leads.
How to Evaluate an SEO Expert for Your Law Firm
You have a shortlist of SEO specialists to work with your law firm–here are ways to properly vet and determine the right expert your law firm should work with.
Get an Overview of Their SEO Work
Good reviews from sites like Clutch, Featured Customers, Trustpilot, and others are an encouraging sign of a trustworthy expert. But fair warning: the credibility of positive reviews can be misleading if the reviewer’s characteristics don’t exude trust.
So, use reviews as a filter for finding reputable experts, but always do due diligence like looking at their case studies. In particular, try to find experts who have worked on campaigns in your practice area and geography. If they don’t have results to share there, ask for results in a market as competitive as yours.
Ross Albers, founder & CEO of Albers & Associates, mentions this:
In selecting our SEO partner, we interviewed several prospects based on a few critical factors. First, we looked for deep industry expertise—specifically, experience in the legal field and a strong understanding of the nuances of family law. We also considered client testimonials and case studies to ensure that the agency had a history of delivering measurable results.
Also, try to look for agencies that have a deep, industry-specific understanding and track record. The more their expertise aligns with your practice area, the better SEO results you can expect.
Lawbike Motorcycle Injury Lawyers founder Charles Watwood reflects on the importance of ensuring agency fit:
I work with a three-person law firm specializing in motorcycle accidents, a niche within personal injury law, since these cases make up less than 2% of all collisions in Georgia. We chose to work with an agency experienced in niche markets. While the ROI is gradually improving, it has taken about thirteen months to start seeing top-three search results for terms like “motorcycle accident lawyer” in the Atlanta metro area and other major cities in Georgia.
Learn How They Execute Their SEO Campaigns
Link building, local SEO, and content writing are critical to an effective SEO campaign. Ensure that the expert includes them as part of your law firm’s SEO strategy and dials down their processes.
If the specialist added other techniques besides those above, ask how they work and their effectiveness. The last thing you want is to be saddled with an “expert” who relies on black hat tactics that will make your site rank in the short term but disappear from search results afterward.
A great way to avoid this is to ensure you pick an agency that works through transparency and consistent communication.
Ask them directly about the communication aspect of their service, particularly in terms of reporting.
Scott Monroe, founder of Monroe Law, P.A., says:
As a top criminal-defense attorney running a mid-sized law firm, working with a lawyer SEO expert has been a critical component of our marketing strategy.
One of our primary concerns was ensuring that we would have clear communication and transparency regarding the progress of our SEO efforts. The agency we selected provided regular updates, detailed reports, and was always available to discuss strategy and make adjustments as needed.
Understand the Fineprint of Their SEO Contracts
This is important; some agencies hold clients’ websites and data hostage if they decide to cancel their contracts or not renew. Recovering some of it is possible, but it’ll be a long and expensive battle.
So before signing on the dotted line, ensure you own the website or will own the website its team will design for you, the content it creates, and that you’re not restricted to the agency’s proprietary platform.
Evaluate Your Options
Jump on a call with these experts to understand their services and SEO knowledge better. The tone and voice they use to answer your questions also reveal the quality of service each offers. Most will also provide a free website marketing audit if they think your objectives and goals align with theirs.
If you’re considering freelancers, take note that they’re at their best if they get to focus on the creative, technical, and laborious aspects of their job. You can get the most out of their talent if you have an in-house SEO team or hire an external consultant for strategic planning.
Of course, you’ll be able to avoid complications altogether by hiring a fully-stacked agency, which is exactly what Andy Gillin of GJEL Accident Attorneys did:
We opted for an agency over a freelancer because we needed comprehensive expertise and the breadth of resources only an agency could provide. Our goal was to find a team with a proven track record, intimate knowledge of legal SEO, and a strategic mindset. We vetted prospects based on their past performance, client testimonials, and ability to articulate a clear, actionable plan.
Scott Distasio, founder of Distasio Personal Injury Law, shared a similar approach when he opted to work with an agency:
Early on, I opted to partner with a specialized SEO agency that truly understood the nuances of law firm operations. Vetting was thorough—I looked for longevity in the business, law industry-specific experience, successful client case studies, and agency size to match our needs.
Our experience has been immensely positive—within twelve short months, we observed marked improvements in our website’s organic rankings, thereby enhancing our online visibility.
Working With a Law Firm SEO Expert: What to Expect
An expert guides law firm clients through the onboarding process, particularly aligning the personalities of the client and account manager. The manager is then tasked with developing and executing the campaign, which consists of technical SEO and backlinks, with the client.
While we’re strong advocates of SEO, it’s in our best interest to make sure you have realistic expectations.
One thing to keep in mind is SEO campaigns—regardless if you’re working with the best SEO agency in the country—will take some time to get results.
It can take anywhere from three months to a whole year before you start seeing significant results. And just because it took one year (or longer), doesn’t mean SEO isn’t worth the wait.
Here’s Mark Pierce, founder and CEO of Wyoming LLC Attorney, sharing his experience in working with a full-service law firm SEO agency:
Initially skeptical, we saw significant ROI within the first year as the difference in our online presence and client inquiries was palpable. SEO isn’t instant; patience, coupled with clear reporting and regular updates from the agency, eased our initial apprehensions. Their understanding of automated back-office processes, overcoming the challenge of explaining complex legal services in layman’s terms, especially in estate planning and trust planning, led to a considerable traffic increase and higher rankings on search engines.
While some legal practice areas are more competitive from an SEO standpoint, other markets can get organic traffic flooding your site within months.
For example, personal injury law firm owner Andrew Pickett had talent and luck on his side during his SEO campaign:
Working with a lawyer SEO expert has been extremely beneficial for our firm in terms of ROI. We saw significant improvements in our website traffic and rankings within a few months of hiring an agency. The timeline for results may vary depending on various factors, such as the competitiveness of your market, but we saw a noticeable difference within six months.
While the timeline for SEO campaigns varies from firm to firm, seasoned attorneys like C.L. Mike Schmidt understand that delays can happen but the actual results have more weight:
We decided to bring a lawyer SEO expert on board a few years ago, and it was quite the journey.
The timeline was a bit longer than expected, but the results were worth it. Working with the agency provided valuable insights into our online presence and helped us refine our digital strategy. Overall, it was a worthwhile investment, and the collaboration has had a positive impact on our firm’s growth and visibility.
A Law Firm SEO Expert That Proudly Serves Across The Most Competitive Areas of The US
- Miami
- Los Angeles
- New York
- Chicago
- Dallas
- Houston
- Atlanta
- Washington
- San Francisco
- Boston
- Seattle
- San Diego
We’re One of The Most Effective Law Firm SEO Companies For Every Budget
On The Map Marketing’s tailored approach to SEO campaign planning and execution considers every law firm’s unique needs. The team understands your specific goals, target audience, and market to identify the best tactics and opportunities to pursue in your custom campaign. This ensures your law firm website receives high-quality traffic, which you can close into new cases.
Table of Contents
Related Articles
Dominate Your Market with Digital Marketing Services That Deliver
Talk to a certified professional today, and we will design a strategy specific to your case.
