For many lawyers, CPAs, consultants, and other professional services, client acquisition is driven by personal referrals. When you get a referral from a trusted source, you don’t have to do much vetting to know if it’s a good lead. A referral from a colleague or friend carries more weight than any online ad or website ever could. However, with the opportunities available through a targeted digital marketing campaign, relying on word-of-mouth alone can mean missing out on the big profits your competitors are making from you.
The Missed Opportunity
Your website may be a digital business card—offering little more than basic contact information—but it can be so much more. You may think investing in search engine optimization (SEO) isn’t relevant to your business because you’re worried about attracting unverified, low-quality leads. That’s a fair point if you’re targeting generic phrases.
But there are two things service providers often overlook when building their business:
- Search Engines as Referral Validators: Search engines like Google and Bing are often the first place people go to validate a referral. Consider this: a potential client gets your name from a trusted source. What do they do next? More often than not, they’ll head to Google and type in your name along with a few keywords related to the service they need. If you don’t show up in the top results, you may be losing credibility before the conversation even starts.
- SEO as a Driver of New Business: SEO isn’t just about validating referrals—it’s a powerful tool to attract clients who haven’t yet heard of your services. By optimizing your website for specific, high-intent keywords, you can reach people actively searching for the expertise you offer, bringing in a steady stream of new leads. Your website can be a lead-generating machine independent of your referral network.
SEO’s Role Beyond Validation
While SEO can validate referrals, its role goes far beyond that. SEO can drive new business by targeting people who may not yet know about your services. By identifying and optimizing for keywords that reflect the needs and questions of your target audience, your website can show up in front of potential clients during their decision-making process—long before they’ve received a referral.
For example, someone searching for “best estate planning attorney in [City]” may not know your name yet, but if your website is optimized to rank for that query, you’ve just introduced yourself to a potential client who could become a lifelong customer. This proactive approach means you’re not just waiting for referrals—you’re growing your client base through targeted SEO.
Competitive Analysis: What Your Competitors Are Doing
SEO isn’t just about ranking well; it’s about ranking better than your competitors. Understanding what your competitors are doing with SEO is key to staying ahead.
- Keyword Opportunities: A competitive analysis can show you which keywords your competitors are ranking for and which ones they’re missing. By identifying those gaps, you can target the keywords they’re not using and get an edge in search results.
- Content Gaps: Analyzing your competitors’ content can also show you topics they haven’t covered or haven’t covered well. You can then create high-quality content that fills those gaps and position yourself as the go-to resource in your industry.
- Backlink Strategies: By looking at where your competitors are getting their backlinks from, you can identify potential sites to target for your own backlink-building efforts and boost your site’s authority and rankings.
Be the Expert Online
If you have a niche within your industry—forensic accounting, estate planning, intellectual property law—there’s a strong argument for owning one of the top three positions for related keywords. Why? Because people who need your expertise are searching for exactly that.
By optimizing your website for specific high-intent keywords related to your specialty you’re positioning yourself not just as an expert but the expert. You’re no longer just a name passed along in a referral; you’re the go-to authority that potential clients find when they need specific help. When they see your name at the top of the search results it reinforces the referral.
Validate Referrals
Being able to tell a prospect in a meeting, “By the way, our firm ranks #1 for [your specialty] on Google,” adds credibility to your pitch. It shows your expertise isn’t just recognized by your peers—it’s recognized by the market as well. This dual validation, from both personal referrals and search engine rankings, is powerful.
You Don’t have to Change Your Whole Website
One of the common concerns among professional service providers is do I have to change my whole website to do SEO? The good news is you don’t have to change your entire site to see results.
The key is to be strategic. You can start by focusing your SEO efforts on specific pages that are directly related to the sub-specialties you want to highlight.
Here’s how:
Targeted SEO on Specific Pages
- Service-Specific Pages: Start by optimizing the pages that are dedicated to the specific services you want to promote. For instance, if you’re an estate planning attorney, you might focus on your “Trusts and Estates” page. Make sure the content on those pages includes the keywords your potential clients are searching for.
- Blog Posts and Articles: You can also create blog posts or articles that target specific search terms. These posts can be more narrowly focused and allow you to dive deep into topics that align with the search queries you want to rank for.
Core Messaging
While your homepage and general service pages should continue to reflect your overall value proposition and core messaging, the targeted pages can be more specific to match the search intent of the user. This way you maintain your overall brand voice and message without diluting it, while capturing high-intent search traffic on key pages.
A/B Testing and Refinement
Another approach is to start with small changes on a few pages and see how they perform. Use A/B testing, which involves comparing two versions of a webpage to see which one performs better, to measure the impact of your SEO efforts on those pages. If you see positive results, you can roll out similar tactics across other areas of the site.
Do More With Your Online Presence: A 5-Step Guide
Here’s how:
- Identify Relevant Keywords: Start by identifying the top five keywords related to your specialty. Use Google Keyword Planner to see how popular and competitive they are. Focus on long-tail keywords (specific phrases) that match your niche.
- Optimize Your Website Content: Make sure your website content includes those keywords, especially in your headlines, service pages, and blog posts. This doesn’t mean keyword stuffing but rather weaving them into valuable content that speaks to your audience.
- Build Quality Backlinks: Consider building a few high quality backlinks from industry sites to increase your site’s authority in search engines. Reach out to industry blogs, guest post or collaborate on content with partners to create a network of links pointing to your website.
- Use Your SEO as a Credibility Booster: Use your search engine rankings as a talking point in client meetings. Ranking high in your specialty on Google not only increases your credibility but also helps you stand out in a crowded market.
- Think Long Term: SEO isn’t just about where you rank today. It’s about building a foundation that will continue to drive business as digital trends evolve. Investing in your online presence now means you’ll be a leader in your field for years to come.
Get Started Today and Start Seeing Results
Ready to take back the opportunities your competitors are stealing? Let us help you turn your website into a lead generator for the same type of leads you get from referrals.
Contact us for a free consultation and find out how we can help you own your space in Google and Bing. Let’s chat about how our team at Get Visible can help your practice build credibility and get more high-quality leads through SEO.
