Developing an effective website for a law firm is a challenging process. Not only do you need to convey your attorneys’ credentials, your firm’s values, and your specialized practice areas, you also need to ensure your website is visible in online searches and databases. Generally, this means the implementation of search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) strategies to help your website appear atop Google’s list of results for related searches.

SEO is a set of approaches that helps businesses place their websites in front of the eyes of users searching for related content. In turn, SEO helps users by keeping businesses that can truly meet their needs at the top of the list. SEO has become relatively popular within the last decade, as businesses realize just how powerful it can be. However, it’s important not to overlook Pay Per Click (PPC) strategies, which can be equally as powerful as SEO. In fact, both should be incorporated together in a comprehensive marketing strategy.

Because so many firms could benefit from this tool, but few understand its details, we’ve compiled a list of FAQs to help clarify the benefits of PPC.

What Is PPC?

To begin, it’s important to understand what PPC actually entails. This strategy is a search engine marketing system, with Google acting as the most popular platform. In this model, advertisers pay every time a user clicks on their ad. While SEO uses keywords and tags to earn site visits organically, PPC allows you to pay search engines for your site to appear at the very top of the search engine results page. You may have noticed PPC ads at the top of your Google searches before, as they generally are tagged with an “ad” identifier.

What Is The Difference Between SEO and PPC?

A large part of the difference between the SEO and PPC systems resides in the ways they’re funded. With SEO, you’ll spend some money upfront to have an expert optimize your website. After that, SEO is generally cost-free, allowing you to utilize a number of free strategies until it’s time for a refresh.

By contrast, PPC has no cost upfront. However, you’ll pay a small, pre-arranged fee every time someone clicks on the ad link. The ad spots are given based on a number of factors, such as your website’s Google Quality Score and how much you are willing to pay for an ad. In this way, implementing PPC is often like an auction.

PPC can be a fairly lucrative strategy for law firms, with the potential to have a $3 click leading to your firm earning thousands in legal fees from a new client. In addition, it’s important to remember that SEO and PPC aren’t mutually exclusive tools. Instead, it’s best to use them together.

How Much Will I Pay for PPC?

Your cost to advertise using PPC will vary based on a few considerations. Though you don’t always have control over these, there are ways you can optimize your website to ensure that you’re getting the best PPC price:

• Quality Score: Your quality score is an overall grade given by Google that encompasses several aspects of your website. Three factors determine this score: click through rate (the amount of people who click through to your website), ad relevance, and landing page experience. Optimizing the user experience on your landing page could have a positive impact on what you pay for Google PPC ads.
• Competition: Your direct competitors make a large difference in what you will be charged for a PPC ad. Your quality score, among other considerations, is weighed against the same aspects of your direct competitors’ website. The comparison helps to determine who will get the top advertising slot and what you will pay.
• Seasonal changes: There is generally a large influx of paid advertisements during the holidays or other busy seasons in your industry. As your competition grows during these times, so will the cost necessary to keep your ad spot.

To summarize, there is no succinct answer to the question of PPC price. It’s an ever-changing number that depends on several factors, some of which are out of your control.

Can PPC Really Help My Firm?

Overall, yes. Though the strategy requires skill and dedicated attention to be done properly, PPC is a powerful marketing tool for most law firms. Fortunately, PPC doesn’t necessarily require a lot of funds and can help you prioritize searchers who are looking for information about specific services.

For example, if you are a law firm specializing in military divorces, you can use PPC to place an ad with information about military divorces. The targeted ad attracts users searching for legal representation in their military divorce, making them more likely to click through to your site and request your services. PPC also allows you to highlight your specialties, setting you apart from competitors who might otherwise outrank you in the organic search engine results. Using SEO and PPC together to reach potential clients just as they’re ready to commit to hiring an attorney can create a significant return on your investment.

Why Is PPC Important?

Though SEO is critical to ensure the right users see your website, PPC gives you an additional boost in both site traffic and revenue. PPC is quickly replacing expensive marketing strategies by successfully drawing in customers without elaborate ad campaigns. Simply placing your website’s link where it can be easily viewed by users ready to commit to securing legal representation can be an enormous boon to your marketing strategy.

Traditional ad placement decisions incorporate emotions and sentimentality, while PPC ad placement is based entirely on math. The search engine’s algorithm determines the best placements for ad spots, eliminating decisions based on extraneous factors. Users truly get the best matched sites, and companies have the ability to use a smaller part of their marketing budget to create a significant uptick in business.

Turn to the Experts for PPC Help

Because PPC advertising strategies are constantly changing, it’s always wise to turn to marketing experts to help you optimize your online presence. Expert marketers have experience handling the intricacies of SEO and PPC to use them correctly — details that can be difficult to understand for novices. If you’d like to utilize PPC to boost your website traffic and capture more potential clients, contact the experts at RizeUp Media. We’re here to make sure your PPC campaigns help you grow your law firm for years to come.