Oct 3, 20223 min read

Lawyer SEO Vs. Paid Ads: Which One Should Maryland Law Firms Prioritize?

Updated: Oct 25, 2022

What Gets You The Best ROI For Your Maryland Law Firm?

Law firm digital marketing has expanded opportunities to find more clients. More and more people are using online and digital mediums for everyday activities. People use the internet for groceries, search for restaurants, research, read the news, and—yes—find the right law firm.

There are several legal digital marketing strategies for Maryland law firms. One of which is the closest to traditional offline marketing: paid ads. The other is Attorney SEO, which takes a more prolonged and gradual approach to build visibility, trust, and law firm clientele.

So, which one is better? But, first, let's look at what our Maryland Legal SEO experts have to say about it:

To start, both strategies have their own benefits.

For one, paid ads can boost your law firm's traffic and visibility. If properly implemented, you'll leverage the leads generated from your ads.

On the other hand, Lawyer SEO is a more meticulous process. You'll have to find keywords, build your law firm website, optimize your pages, regularly publish content, and monitor your performance. In return, you'll start to climb up the SERPs, which will boost organic traffic and provide the opportunity to generate leads.

What Are The Possible Drawbacks To Lawyer SEO Vs. Paid Ads?

Before we discuss the benefits, let's first consider what you'll need to work around:

Certain Caveats About Paid Ads

As mentioned, paid ads get you clicks. However, you can lose traffic and audiences if you don't implement ways to keep people around. For example, even if people click on your Google Ads, they will only stick around if there's something interesting on your law firm website. Otherwise, they'll click out and never convert or return.

In essence, paid ads without other strategies aren't sustainable law firm marketing tactics.

Remember: This isn't to say you shouldn't get paid ads. However, you need to ensure other marketing strategies, like Lawyer SEO, law firm content marketing, and social media marketing optimized.

So, before you go for paid ads, consider whether you have a good landing page, a well-optimized website, and engaging content.

Certain Caveats To Maryland Lawyer SEO

As mentioned, a lot goes into Lawyer SEO. You'll need to put in the effort to learn, plan, implement, and audit to ensure the best ROI. You won't yield traffic, trust, or new clients if you don't have good keywords, an unoptimized website, or rushed content.

This means you should either have the time to do it yourself or a marketing budget to hire a law firm marketing agency.

Comparing The Benefits Of Lawyer SEO And Paid Ads

So, why should you prioritize Attorney SEO? Here are a couple of reasons why:

Law Firm SEO Generates Free Clicks

Lawyer SEO is an effective online marketing strategy that sends traffic to your website at little to no cost. Instead of paying whenever people click on your website, optimizing and ranking for high-volume lawyer keywords will boost traffic.

Remember: People look things up on Google all the time. For example, they type in questions about the law, news, and law firms. So ranking high in the SERPs means you're more visible to the searchers using Google (and other search engines).

PPC is a fantastic approach to getting a targeted audience, but getting to the perfect position can take some effort. In comparison, SEO generates organic traffic and offers free clicks. However, if you have a small budget and have yet to learn what your SEO should look like, PPC can be very successful.

PPC Can Give You A Huge Boost

PPC is more expensive than SEO, but the advantages exceed the drawbacks. PPC can assist you in retargeting your visitors, testing new messaging, and expanding your site's links.

More importantly, if done right, you'll start seeing its benefits sooner than SEO. You'll begin to see more traffic coming in. On the other hand, this might not happen as often if you're just starting out on Lawyer SEO.

That said, you must be ready to commit a sizable amount because paid ads can be pricey.

Best Tip: Improve Your Maryland Lawyer SEO To Get The Most Out Of Paid Ads

While paid ads are a great way to get people on your law firm website, you still need to ensure they stick around. You don't just want people to click on your landing page and leave; you'll want them to read your content, click around, check your contact information, and so on.