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Aug 07, 2015

Should Law Firms Care About Appearing in Organic Results

Organic search engine results – those that appear naturally on search engine results pages, or SERPs – are incredibly important for law firms. Unlike paid results, which are what you’ll see in the top three spots on a page, organic results come naturally because Google (or any other search engine) recognizes the value in the pages you have to offer.

What’s the Difference Between Paid Search and Organic Results?

Pay-per-click advertising can buy you a spot at the top of the SERPs, but you have to earn a spot in the organic rankings. On Google, you’ll see a yellow box that says “Ad” near paid results.

Should Law Firms Care About Appearing in Organic Results

Organic search results generate a high click-through rate, which means people choose to visit sites that show up below the ads rather than to click on the ads.

Let’s just be clear, though: 71.33 percent of all searches result in a page one Google organic click. Most people don’t bother to visit the second or subsequent pages.

The first five organic (not paid) results on the first page account for 67.6 percent of all the clicks. After the fifth result, the clicks drop dramatically; combined, they total only 3.73 percent of the clicks.

The average click-through rates are as follows, based on a website’s position on the first page of Google search results:

  1. 32%
  2. 14%
  3. 10%
  4. 7%
  5. 6%

Positions 6 through 10 combined: 3.7 percent

With statistics like those, it’s important that you earn that coveted top spot on the first page – and that you want to rank for organic keywords.

How Can Law Firms Earn a Top Spot in the SERPs?

Earning a top spot in the SERPs is complicated, and it takes quite a bit of work. In fact, it takes more work than many attorneys have the time to put in – and it takes specialized knowledge, just like practicing law does.

One of the first things you need to have is a responsive website. From there, you need serious SEO work. That takes powerful content, a great design that’s easy to navigate and plenty of legwork to stay ahead of search engine.

Have you claimed your free 20-minute website audit? If you haven’t, now is a great time to find out how you stack up against the competition – and we will help you take charge of your Internet presence so you can earn your stripes with Google.

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