Pitfalls of Bad Marketing: What to Avoid When Picking a Legal Marketing Agency

blog home Legal Online Marketing Pitfalls of Bad Marketing: What to Avoid When Picking a Legal Marketing Agency

Lawyers face many unique challenges in online marketing. Fierce competition and catastrophic Google updates have left many firms without a viable source of new leads. Worse, many marketing companies exploit law firms with hollow promises of success. The result? Many law firms spend thousands of dollars per year and see no progress in their online marketing.

If you have been working with a marketing agency for years but have seen no results, any of these problems may be to blame:

A Lack of Transparency

Many marketing companies promise the world during the sales process but, after you sign up, offer nothing of value to the firm. Worse, they are not clear about how funds are used for your campaign. If you believe your SEO or ad spend is going to waste, ask questions. A good company will give you a clear idea of how your site is performing and where it is focusing its efforts.

Black-Hat SEO

Black-hat optimization is any method to attain rankings that goes directly against Google’s guidelines. These tactics are popular because they are cheap and may provide immediate gratification. Regrettably, they are also doomed to fail as Google updates its algorithms to penalize these tactics. Never trust a marketing company that will compromise your best interests by violating Google’s guidelines.

Non-Exclusive Marketing

If your marketing company handles multiple clients in the same city, chances are you are not receiving the attention needed to compete in SERPs. This is especially true if you are competing with numerous law firms handled by the same company. Don’t fall prey to companies that are more interested in their cash flow than your ability to rank. You should only seek out marketing agencies that provide exclusive marketing for your firm and will not profit from your lack of success.

Multiple Websites and URLs

Are you using multiple websites for the same firm? This strategy is not only against best practices but also a surefire way to destroy your web presence on all URLs. Having a single, centralized website is much easier to manage and will provide consistent traffic. But with separate URLs, you are ultimately competing against yourself and limiting your brand’s development.

Fake Law Offices

Many law firms try to set up fake or virtual offices in numerous locations to create the illusion that their firm services various locations. This is harmful to your practice and can also cause a negative experience for your clients who generally want to sit down with a real person in their area to discuss their case. Any marketing agency worth its salt will comb through your business listings and remove any fake locations and ensure that your actual listings are accurate. In addition, Google My Business (GMB) allows firms to add service areas to their business listings in order to show clients what cities, zip codes, and counties their attorneys work in.

Superficial Work

Many marketing agencies pad their services with extensive content packages with no real goal in mind. While you may be tempted to accept a discounted rate on hundreds of blogs and social posts, quantity never trumps quality when it comes to SEO. Superficial blogs that offer no real value to users will bring in minimal traffic at best and every social post should be clearly planned out to boost engagement. If your marketing package consists of work without substance, such as high volumes of low-quality content and social media posts, you probably aren’t getting what you need to thrive online.

Low-Cost Link Packages

Content and links are often upheld as the cornerstones of an SEO campaign, but many marketers falsely equate quantity and quality. Any agency that offers you cheap linking packages is leading you down the primrose path. The best links are acquired naturally and organically from reputable sources as part of a long-term plan. Never trust an agency that offers you low-cost links for short-term results.

Inability to Track ROI

ROI is the only facet of your SEO program that really matters. Why invest in SEO if you have no idea what you are getting out of it? Your marketing agency should make it clear to you what services you are investing in and how they will benefit your firm. In addition, you should receive regular reports on where you are seeing growth and the real-world impact of your plan.

The SLS Approach

With SEO, you often get what you pay for. Buying thousands of inexpensive links will not bring the long-term success your law firm deserves. In fact, employing black-hat techniques will hurt you in the long run and waste valuable time. Every day, the SEO landscape changes, and your competitors get fiercer in their marketing efforts. Taking shortcuts will only allow them to snag key cases and outpace you at every step.

With so much on the line, you cannot afford to settle on an inferior marketing plan or to work with a dodgy marketing firm. But, with SLS Consulting, you will only get the very best in legal internet marketing for the right price. We do not rely on shortcuts, pay-to-win strategies, or work for work’s sake. Instead, we build robust, thorough marketing campaigns based on tried-and-tested practices. Our agency has served numerous law firms across the Nation for over 20 years. We have seen every SEO strategy there is and know what works for our clients.

By working with our legal marketing experts, you can trust that your firm will receive the best white-hat SEO strategies available. If we seem like the right agency for you, give us a call at (323) 254-1510 to schedule a free case evaluation.