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SEO Is For Suckers

SEO is what you do when nobody knows who you are.

It’s important, but it’s checkers, not chess.

An Open Letter To My Clients, Past, Present, And Future

A law firm website has ONE purpose, to convert website visitors into phone calls.

It has no other purpose. It can do nothing more than convert website visitors into phone calls, or not.

As a lawyer website search engine optimization expert, I find a certain situation happens with excruciating regularity.

I get an email from a Client that amounts to no more than this:

Example 1 –

Hey Dustin, RandomLawFirm.com has a blue website, and ours is green. Does it make sense from an SEO perspective to have a blue website instead of green?

Example 2 –

Hey Dustin, random person says we should use random shiny object x on our website. Does it make sense from an SEO perspective to have random shiny object x on our website?

Winning the War vs. Winning the Battle

There are 1,000+ different things that could “help” your SEO.

But once you hire someone competent to handle your SEO and website, then stop thinking about it.

SEO is checkers. As the owner of the company, you need to be thinking chess.

You need to be winning the war, not trying to win the battle.

Let me think about the SEO and the web design.

I’m going to make sure your website converts internet traffic into phone calls.

I’m going to put that website on page one of the Google search results.

Regarding SEO and web design, I’m going to do what I do, and anything else after that is negligible, it will not move the needle in any meaningful way (if so, I would have already done it).

And everything after that is checkers, it’s not chess.

YOU are the OWNER of the company.

YOU need to stop worrying about what font your website is using.

Stop worrying about what color your contact page is.

Stop worrying about what your college sophomore communications major fall semester intern has to say about Twitter.

You are trying to win the battle instead of winning the war.

Maybe your clients would prefer a blue website instead of a green website. This is checkers. 

What would be more beneficial is to make the ENTIRE city know who you are

WILL THIS MAKE ME FAMOUS?

As the OWNER of the company, those are the things YOU should be focusing on.

SEO is for suckers.

SEO is what you pay someone like me to do, when nobody knows who you are.

You don’t want people finding you because they went to Google and searched for a random KEYWORD like “car accident lawyer.”

You want people finding you because they went to Google and SEARCHED FOR YOU BY NAME.

You want them to go search for you BY NAME because you’re freaking famous.

That’s the kind of shit the owner of the company needs to be thinking about, HOW DO I GET FAMOUS?!?

Let me, your lowly SEO consultant, worry about whether we’re going to use Times New Roman or Arial font.

Your ONLY Problem

Your only problem is that nobody in your city knows who you are or what you do.

And because nobody knows who you are, as a stop gap, you have hired an SEO consultant, so that people who go to the internet and look for a random lawyer (KEYWORD), will find you.

Don’t get it twisted. SEO is important.

It’s important, but it’s ONLY checkers. IT’S WHAT YOU DO WHEN NOBODY KNOWS WHO YOU ARE.

Once you get someone competent handling your SEO (and I am the best in the business vis-à-vis lawyers), the real game is make everybody know who you are.

If You Are Going To Spend Any Life Energy On Marketing…

If You Are Going To Sit Around Thinking Of Ways To Help Your Marketing…

If You Are Going To Email Me With Questions Of Should We Do This Or Should We Do That…

IF YOU ARE GOING TO SPEND ANY BRAIN POWER, AT ALL, ON MARKETING, IT SHOULD [ONLY] BE ABOUT…

HOW DO I GET FAMOUS?

And changing your damn font from Arial to Times New Roman is not going to make you famous.

SEO? We’re good.

Web design? We’re Good. I got you. Now go get freaking famous.

But I Don’t Know How To Get Famous

Hey, you said it. I didn’t.

Your biggest problem is that nobody knows who you are or what you do, and you just admitted that you do not know how to solve it.

This is a problem that is worthy of the owner of the company.

I now give you permission to find the solution. Meanwhile, I’ll take care of your SEO and web design so that people who don’t know who we are can find us when they look for a random lawyer.

Getting famous might be as easy peppering your city with 10 billboards for 6 months.

But Dustin, I can’t afford billboards. GREAT! NOW START SOLVING THAT PROBLEM.

Getting famous might be as easy as falling in love with video, and making a ton of them on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram.

But Dustin, I’m embarrassed to make videos. GREAT! NOW START SOLVING THAT PROBLEM.

Getting famous might mean you spend some budget on televisions commercials.

But Dustin, insert excuse here. GREAT! NOW START SOLVING THAT PROBLEM.

Getting famous might mean you dream up contests to run on social media.

But Dustin…..GREAT! START SOLVING THAT PROBLEM.

Getting famous might mean you go viral on YouTube.

It could mean catchy radio ads.

It could mean you go all in on user generated content.

Some way or another, while I’m working on your SEO, every thought or idea you have about marketing should be focused on solving the problem that nobody knows who you are or what you do.

AND NOTHING ELSE! DON’T THINK ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE!

Right now, the way people find you is through a random keyword like “car accident lawyer.”

That’s because nobody knows who you are or what you do.

You need to solve that problem. You need to change the keyword that people use to find you. You need to make the keyword YOUR NAME.

As in, they found you because they went to Google and did a Google search for YOUR NAME. Why? Because you’re famous.

Because anytime anyone in your city needs the particular service that you offer, they think of YOU.

But, getting famous has absolutely nothing to do with what widget your cross town rival has in the sidebar of their website, nor what your sister’s step-nephew thinks we should put in the website header.

Nor what your husband, who makes ZERO dollars per month on the internet has to say about online marketing.

You Are Asking The WRONG Question

If you haven’t read “The 4-Hour Work Week,” by Tim Ferriss, then you should read it. Anyone who owns a business should read it.
 
Once, in law school, a visiting federal judge reprimanded me because I dared to “refer to her noble profession as a business.”
 
But, in the end, a law license, is nothing more than a license to operate a business, and that business is called a law firm.
 
And I know more lawyers who can barely pay their damn mortgage, and that federal judge is a freaking moron.
 
A law firm is a business.
 
A lawyer, especially a solo attorney, is an entrepreneur. They don’t teach us this at law school, but it’s important.
 
The 4-Hour Work Week, is perhaps the most important business / entrepreneurship book written in the last 50 years and I don’t know any lawyers who have read it. Most lawyers don’t read any business books.
 
The author, Tim Ferris, is known for 17 questions.
 
One of those questions is, “Am I hunting antelope or field mice?”
 
Which also has an alternate phrasing that I like better, Which one of these, if done, would render all the rest either easier or completely irrelevant?

Which one of these, if done, would render all the rest either easier or completely irrelevant?

What could we do to produce paying clients:
  1. Focus on a different keyword.
  2. Focus on keyword phrases instead of keywords.
  3. Write more blog articles.
  4. Write different blog articles.
  5. Improve keyword rankings.
  6. Install a chat bot or live chat on your website.
  7. Change the colors of your website.
  8. Change the font.
  9. Add “Call or Text” to specific strategic places on your website.
  10. Redesign our website.
  11. Get famous (make everyone in your city know who you are and what you do…become famous, in your city, for your specific legal practice area).

Which of these, if done, would render all the rest either easier or completely irrelevant?

In some sense, you may be looking for the easy button.

There isn’t one.

Maybe there is one phrase we can rank for that will solve your marketing problems.

There isn’t one.

Maybe there is one particular keyword or sentence we can climb to the top of the rankings for and it will solve your income problems.

There isn’t one.

SEO is important. But, it is only what you do because nobody knows who you are. And that’s the real problem.

Read these if you want your law firm business to survive long enough for you to actually practice some damn law:
  1. The Russell Brunson Books
    • Traffic Secrets, by Russell Brunson [teaches you how to get eye-balls to your offer]
    • The One Funnel Away Challenge [Once you read traffic secrets, you should just take the One Funnel Away challenge because right now you don’t now why you’re not selling, you don’t know why people buy, you don’t know how to create an offer, you’re getting price shopped and you don’t know why, and you don’t know how to stop it. This challenge solves all of that for you.]
    • Expert Secrets [teaches you how to build a tribe (a loyal group of raving fans / potential customers)]
    • Dotcom Secrets [teaches you how to sell your services to your tribe]
  2. The 4-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss [you should have already read this book, you haven’t, and that’s your dang problem]
  3.  The Ryan Holiday Trifecta
  4. The 10X Rule, NOTE: Get the Audible version
  5. The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*CK, get the Audible version
  6. The $100 Startup, NOTE: Get the hardcopy version, find the section describing the launch cycle, and re-launch your law firm.