PaperStreet Knows SEO.
Top Rankings for Law Firms.

SEO: We Get the Results You Need

If you browse Google and do a few searches, you may feel like you can become an SEO expert overnight. Articles outline the dos and don’ts of SEO in a way that makes it sound easy. Though it is certainly possible to teach yourself SEO, do you have the time it takes to master the skills? Even if you choose to hire someone else, can you risk hiring a marketing firm that seems inexpensive but may not engage in ethical practices? What happens if you or the agency make a mistake and/or your website is penalized?

At PaperStreet, SEO is what we do. Sure we create awesome campaigns for other businesses and we’re proud of that success, but we were founded by a lawyer and lawyers serve in all areas of our company. We were created to help law firms, and we remain true to our founding principles. Our clients have successful campaigns because we know how important it is to combine SEO best practices while still respecting the ethics that govern law firm marketing and advertising.

We know you want clients and you want to promote your legal services in the best way you can. We also know what Google is looking for and we know how to make a great website. Don’t try to teach yourself SEO overnight. Let us earn you the results we’ve proudly earned for hundreds of clients.

Sample Top Rankings for Many Clients (Updated 1/14/21)

PaperStreet’s SEO: What Does It Mean to Have the Best SEO Campaign?

When examining what makes the most effective SEO practices, you have to think about SEO goals. What do you want to achieve with your law firm SEO campaign? You may know already, but if not, we’ll tell you to focus on:

• Ranking highly on Google for the keywords that matter most
• Achieving brand awareness by having meaningful and relatable content
• Turning site visitors into clients with engaging content that has a low bounce rate
• Earning clicks, phone calls, downloads, etc.
• Gaining social media followers
• Having a website that stands out from your competitors

At PaperStreet, we know that there is more than one measure of success when examining the performance of your website. We want you to see improvements in all aspects of your SEO campaign, and we work hard to hit all of the important site factors.

Good things come to those who wait, and SEO is no different. There are a number of factors that can play into just how long it will take for your rankings to improve, including but not limited to:

• How competitive your market is
• How long your website has been online
• The amount and quality of content on your website
• The size of your geographically targeted area
• The overall design and usability of your website
• The structure (or site architecture) of your site
• Whether you previously engaged in “black-hat” SEO techniques

We typically see our best results in six months for the average law firm, though rankings can improve days after some changes are made. We’ve seen clients rise thousands of spots in mere weeks, but we keep our goals realistic. Organic SEO takes time, patience, and dedication, and that is something we can promise you. Don’t listen to a firm that tells you otherwise. At PaperStreet, our approach to SEO is to create lasting success, and our clients enjoy the rewards that follow.

Full Transparency Promised

We’re confident in our team, but we’ll never promise you the moon. Any SEO firm that guarantees results should be treated with extreme caution. In addition to being against Google’s guidelines, this is simply not realistic in the ever-changing climate of the organic SEO. We can guarantee that we’ll do everything we can to improve your website and overall online marketing campaign. At PaperStreet, we’re passionate about SEO, and our results speak for themselves.

Many of our clients boast first-page rankings and bring in several new inquiries each day, along with millions of dollars in revenue. Once you sign up, we provide monthly reports that will allow you to easily keep a finger on the pulse of how your legal marketing campaign is performing. We do our best to be transparent and honest about every step of the SEO process, and we want to help educate you on how and why we make certain decisions. We encourage open communication, and we’ll never make any changes to your website without your approval.

What We Can Do For Your SEO Campaign

PaperStreet’s team is comprised of technology experts and attorneys in order to make sure your law firm’s website achieves its maximum potential. Some law firms come to us with an SEO campaign in place that just isn’t yielding results. Some come to us and they don’t even have a website yet. Either way, our approach to SEO stays the same. We make sure an SEO campaign has:

1. Keywords that target your desired location and practice area—with research to support your choices
2. SEO content that details all that your firm has to offer—presented in a way that your clients find to be engaging and informative
3. A powerful link building campaign where we not only find great links to your site, but we suggest and write content that garners attention and links.
4. Social media, blogs, videos, and more. We’re a full service law firm marketing agency, so we’re happy to implement whatever ideas you have in mind.

SEO Plans - What PaperStreet Offers Law Firms and Other Businesses

Cost & Plan Levels That Work For Your Law Practice

At PaperStreet, we know that there is no “one size fits all” solution for every law firm. Some law firms need more content. Some firms need more links. Some attorney websites are a mess. Our SEO team will customize a plan to fit your specific firm’s needs.

We offer a variety of plan level and have a wide array of attorney SEO services to suit your firm’s individual needs. Most of the time we consult with the client to set a custom plan based on their content needs, geographic area, practice areas, and competitiveness of the keyword phrases they are targeting.

In the world of digital marketing, it takes time to produce the best results. However, we know that a long-term contract isn’t for everyone. We’d love to see you stick around and stay with PaperStreet forever, but if for any reason you decide that our services are no longer needed, we make it easy for you to cut ties and bid us farewell. (We would miss you, though, and we’ve had many clients return after testing the waters on their own.)

Law Firm SEO Plan Comparison

Every client is unique. However, after 20 years of doing SEO, we understand that there are some common plans that most clients need. We help place you in the right plan, not too big to bust the budget and not too small to underperform. To see our plan features please read below.

Overall, our SEO includes:

Strategy & Onboarding

• Kickoff call with client to discuss campaign goals and deliverables
• Research effective keyword phrases
• Client approval on finalized Keyword phrases

Website & Rankings Review

• Check Mobile-friendly version of the website exists
• Check homepage for mobile SEO issues
• Make sure Google Analytics is set up and on every page
• Make sure Google Search Console (GSC) is set up
• Submit XML sitemap to Google GSC
• Fetch as Google and submit all linked pages to the index
• Check for any messages or notifications from Google (manual actions or security issues)
• Set geographic target area within GSC appropriately
• Merge/sync Google Analytics and GSC
• Make sure schema markup (Local Business) has been applied to the NAP information
• Add Knowledge Graph schema markup
• Setup monthly ranking report in keyword tracking software
• Create link building plan for ongoing campaign

Content Analysis & Optimization

• Outline and finalize site architecture and keywords
• Content audit on the website based on selected keywords.
• Apply on page optimization
• Recommendation of long form content
• Check for In-depth “About Us” page including a mission statement, company directory and other signs of legitimate business
• Check for Robust Contact and/or Customer Service Information
• Fetch as Google and submit all linked pages to the index
• Check there are Authoritative outbound links included in content
• Check internal linking has been included within content
• Check Main content (purpose of page) is not below the fold

Technical SEO

• Exclude traffic from us & firm IP address in Analytics
• Apply custom channel grouping (Level 3 & 4 only)
• Google Analytics: Exclude all hits from known bots/spiders
• Check Navigation and page copy is visible/functions without JS
• Check Error pages return error status codes
• All URLs work with HTTP or HTTPS, but not both
• Google Analytics Contact Form Goal Setup
• Google Analytics/Tag Manager Phone Number Click Goal
• Google Analytics is capturing internal search (if applicable)
• Run Xenu report and check that all links are functioning
• Google Analytics - Add domain to referral exclusion list
• Google Analytics - Add segment to filter out referral spam
• Apply update to capture Google Translate usage data
• Run Screaming Frog report
• Check for redirect chains using Screaming Frog
• Check for duplicate titles and metas using Screaming Frog
• Check for canonical errors using Screaming Frog
• Make sure all relevant images have optimized alt tags applied
• No “splash” entry pages/doorway pages
• Internal technical duplicate content check
• Duplicate content is not returned by other websites
• Check for multiple URLS parameters with same content
• Hidden text does not exist
• Keyword stuffing does not exist
• iFrames, flash or JS links are not being used on the website
• Confirm no more than 300 links per page exist
• Confirm no more than 25 footer links
• Address clearly listed on each page in header or footer
• Copyright and Blog date stamps are applied
• Use rel=”canonical” for duplicate pages or check that it should be “noindex; nofollow”
• 301 redirects for alternative domain names and old pages
• WWW used only (and the non-www redirects)
• SEO friendly URLs - short, extension less, close to the URL, less than 74 characters
• htaccess file is established (if on Apache server)
• Check/setup browser caching for .htaccess
• Custom 404 error page exists
• Broken URLs redirects to 404 page
• Robots.txt file configured and XML sitemaps are listed
• Make sure an extensive sitemap page is created
• Generate a Sitebeam report
• Site Speed has been checked
• Safe Browsing Site Status Check
• In addition to part one, once the site launches, there are still additional tasks to do offsite. You need to begin link building, social media setup, content writing, and ongoing consulting & analysis.

Content Writing and Marketing (Initial and Ongoing)

• Initial content writing for the project.
• Creation of blog post to enhance your website’s performance
• Evolve your core content to prevent a high bounce and increase engagement
• Competitive analysis to ensure you have the pages you need to stand out among your competitors site
• Infographics (for a fee) to help make key pages stand out
• Script editing for video production
• Review of content you produce to ensure it matches SEO and marketing guidelines
• Content refreshes whenever certain pages lose their ranking placement
• Creation of geographic landing pages to help you gain a presence in your desired locations

Link Building

• Initial Backlink Analysis
• For all new website launches, run a ranking update the same day as launch of website
• Create a Baseline Ranking Report
• Check for Broken & Lost Links
• Check if business has enough Google reviews to set up review snippet for SERP
• Periodically review if business is accumulating online reviews and provide best practices guideline
• Collect Photos from Client for Local Listings
• Set up listings and assist with backlinks specific to client’s industry/area
• Review and correct Local Listings
• Initial Competitor analysis
• Submit General Links
• Recommend Paid Listings
• Assist with Article Submissions (varies per level/client)
• Assist with Local Community/Sponsorships opportunities as needed
• Assist with Social Recommendations on Networking/Engagement/Bolstering presence
• Provide recommendations on scholarship opportunities
• Consult and assist with Small Business PR (Brand Mentions/HARO/Pitches)

Analysis and Consulting

• SEO Content Manager Starts Blogging
• Quarterly check on campaign keywords
• Quarterly check on bad backlink profile and disavow if needed
• Quarterly check on mobile speed of website
• Quarterly check on Online Business Reviews and Ratings if needed

Social Media

• Claim Google My Business Page local listing
• Confirm Google Maps is listed on contact/city pages
• Inquire about text messaging for Google Listing if desired
• Set up and/or review Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and HootSuite
• Set Up YouTube channel (if videos exist) and verify
• Video Optimization: Description and Titles, Tagging, Thumbnail Selection, Playlist Creation, Transcriptions, Adding video to relevant website pages and/or gallery
• Check Social media pages include imagery/branding
• Check all social media icons are present on website (if active)
• Send client their social media logins & strategies
• Open Graph meta data has been added

Website Redesigns and Transfers Checklist

When you are redesigning or migrating a website, we have a long 100+ step checklist to review. Some key features are:

• Find All Content – Create reports to showcase ALL content on your current site to map old to new pages.
• Benchmark Analytics – Keep the same analytics and benchmark analytics to determine traffic spikes and drops.
• Update Internal Links – You must update links internally, if any have changed.
• Check Duplicates and Canonicalization – Check out any canonicals or duplicate content on the website.
• Resolve Duplicates – Check out domains, subdomains, HTTP vs. HTTPs, individual pages, etc.
• Identify Removed Pages – Make sure any removed pages were done so on purpose.
• 404 Error Pages & Sitemaps – Create custom 404 error pages. Create a new sitemap and upload to Google.
• Redirects – Create 301 redirects as needed for all marketing materials, print materials and broken links.