The Whitespark Local Pulse

The Whitespark Local Pulse for 08/20/2021

August 20, 2021

Here are today's local search posts. Woo!

The Whitespark Local Pulse

Never Miss a Local Search Post

By Casey Meraz on Aug 19, 2021 06:00 am

We do marketing for law firms. As such, there is nothing more important for us to understand than how people find and hire a lawyer. We have a ton of data and fancy tools that help with this. But their numbers don’t always tell the whole story. Sometimes, to better understand how people think and why they make the decisions they do, you have to do something crazy: Ask them. So that’s what we did. We gathered 25 participants and we conducted a good old-fashioned focus group from a specific market. The video below is about 30 minutes long and contains every single response to each question that we asked all of our participants. We suggest you start here, as there are so many great nuggets that ought to get your creative juices flowing: Next, we’ve distilled all of the responses below so that you can glean quick insights into our findings: 1. Have you ever hired an attorney before? If so, how did you find them? 11 of the 25 participants answered that they had hired an attorney before. Here’s how those 11 found the attorney they hired: Responses: Yes – Yellow Pages Yes – Through Work Yes – Through Real Estate Attorney Yes – Hired via past reference yes – Through Google Yes – Referral Yes – Word of mouth Yes – Commercial Yes – Google Search Yes – friends and family Yes – Met up with LGBT center 2. What factors are important to you when looking for an attorney? Word Cloud A key takeaway here is to not assume that all clients do not define success by the same metrics. Using data like this can help you tailor your marketing efforts to address not just one, but all of your potential clients pain points in your messaging. Raw responses: Communication, reviews, price Specialization in specific case, success rate, locality Price, recommendations Proximity, success rate, has my best interest Reputation and price Specialization, location Communication, affordability Knowlegdable, reviews Success rate, price Attentativeness, good report, fees Competency in the legal matter Competency in the legal matter Honesty, affordability Years of experience, background Years of experience, price, location, accessability Case assessement, reputation, price How long they’ve been in business, multiple state jurisidiction Reviews, specialization Reviews, price Specialization in specific practice Locality, reviews Communication, professionalism, reputation Longevity, success rate Success rate, qualification, reviews Honesty, integrity 3. Would you ever look for an attorney online? 4. If you were injured in an accident and needed to hire an attorney, how would you go about finding one? An interesting takeaway from this data is that even though many of the participants would ask a friend or a family member, they would also look online as a part of their search to make sure they were hiring the right attorney for them. Responses: Yelp, Google Ask family and friends, then do a Google Search Ask family and friends Internet, family and friends Friends and family, then Google Friends and family, then Google Google search Yelp, Google Free consultation Google search Legal shield Personal recomendations, then internet search Google search, then friends Google search Ask friends, then Google search Friends and family, then Google Friends circle through church Google Search Google Search, friends and family Google Search, friends and family Friends and family Interesting comments: “I would start with a broad search and narrow it down from there.” “I would look up a local attorney online.” “I’d look for a lawyer who I have seen on billboards and commercials.” “I would want to know if they give a free consultation.” “I’d Google names of people that I’ve heard on the radio.” “I would Google local people and read reviews.” “I would talk to my accountant/financial advisor to get a recommendation.” “I would use Nextdoor.com and look at the Florida Bar website.” “I would use the term lawyer accident injury.” 5. What websites would you trust to to find an attorney? Notice how prominent Google was. It’s also interesting that some people already have an idea of where to look online. This goes back to our theory of barnacle SEO or share of search. You want to be everywhere your potential clients are looking (if it makes sense in your market / budget). Responses: Google, Yelp Google Google Legal shield Google, Yelp, Yellow Pages, Yahoo Super Lawyers.com Google Google Google Google Legal Zoom Florida Bar, American Bar, Google Search Legal Shield Google Google Google Google, Yelp Google Santa Clara Bar Asscocaiton 6. Type in what you would type if you were injured and looking for an attorney This one is for SEO nerds. We asked the same question but got a variety of different responses. A few things to highlight here are: Many of the participants types in a city name, zip code, or state as a geo modifier. [Are you rank tracking these keywords?] Notice how several people used “Near Me” without being promoted Notice how many keyword variations there are even from a small sample size Results Injury attorney san francisco injury attorney near me local lawyers injury law group attorney Christian injury lawyers personal injury lawyer bangor Maine personal injury lawyer tyler, texas personal injurt lawyer near 39466 personal injury bosrd certified attorney near me personal injury lawyer san francisco personal injury lawyer free consultation injury personal injurty lawyer sunnyvale personal injury lawyer san jose attorney injury san jose injury lawyer san hose attorney for injury accident accident attorney 1-800-lawyer bay area best injury lawyer san jose personal injury attorney 7. Where would you click first in the search results? If you have the time, make sure to watch these videos. Search behavior is very interesting. Some people skip the ads, some click on the ads and then click to organic, but the search behavior is different between each person. Key Takeaway: Don’t make assumptions in your market! Test! Also focus on being everywhere you can 🙂 Results Browse the first few options, would click on the local pack Would click on...

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