Although Google AdWords marketing is a very successful tool that is essential for most online and many offline businesses, it isn’t as good for lawyers and law firms; a lot of people go as far as saying that as a law firm, you shouldn’t waste a cent of your money on AdWords.
Now, this may be true if you have a small marketing budget, but it isn’t always the case. Using AdWords for law firm-related keywords can be extremely expensive, with some keywords costing hundreds of dollars per click. As you can imagine, this sort of cost can quickly drain the budget of a small law firm, which is one of the reasons why law firms should focus on professional SEO (search engine optimisation) instead.
SEO Offers A Much Greater Return On Investment
Although it will take longer to get results when you spend money on SEO instead of AdWords, you will thank yourself in the long term. Working to get your website to the top of the search engine rankings for your chosen keywords might cost you a bit, but you will be able to remain near the top with minimal work once you’re there.
This means that you will continually be getting new clients from your investment in SEO, while an investment in AdWords will only get you a predetermined number of clicks on your ad.
Organic Results Are More Reputable
Anyone can pay to have their website displayed at the top of a search engine results page through Google AdWords. This can reduce the amount of trust that people put in these results, potentially reducing the amount of clicks on ads.
However, organic search results are seen as much more reputable and more reliable. When a potential client sees you at the top of the search engine results for a certain keyword, they will straight away see you as reputable, reliable, and a leader in your industry. As a law firm, this can result in more people visiting your website, more people contacting you, and, ultimately, more people employing you.
Consider Using SEO & AdWords
If you have a large law firm with a decent-sized marketing budget, you could consider using Google AdWords and SEO in conjunction with each other. Having your both your ad and your organic search engine results appear at the top of the search engine page together will make people more likely to click on one of them, and will increase the number of people visiting your website.
Final Word
If you have a limited marketing budget for your law firm, you should focus on using SEO techniques to make your website rank highly in organic search rankings. However, if you have a decent sized budget, you should commit a decent percentage of it to SEO, and use a little bit on AdWords as well.