Here’s a quick case study of my work with Laura Anastasia Brown, a tax lawyer in Massachusetts. It starts with a discussion of the attorney’s pain points that drove her to seek an SEO consultant, covers what we did for her, and discusses the results achieved according to Laura’s own evaluation.
Circumstances
Inadequate Traffic
Responses from Laura’s previous website were way down. She reported that the volume of calls had really decreased, and specifically that clients she considered to be a good match were not calling.
Previous SEO Consultant
Laura had received some suggestions from an SEO consultant, but thinks she didn’t follow through sufficiently. She explained that the SEO consultant would check in with her annually (!), and make some suggestions.
She said “I didn’t want to deal with it at all. Maybe if I had understood the specifics about why he was asking me to do these things, I would have paid attention. It wasn’t until I met Bill that I understood exactly what SEO was and how my website content affected my rankings. Now I pay attention!”
Lack of Visibility
The client’s website was very old and not cell phone friendly; she recognized that she needed to have it redesigned. She recognized that most clients found her from searching online and she needed to significantly increase the number who found her that way. Her goals were to have an SEO consultant work seamlessly with her web design team to achieve an increase in her business from the website.
Looking for a New Team
She wanted a brand-new team but had no idea that SEO consultants and website designers were usually separate entities. As she looked for someone new to help with her website she found the process frustrating. She complained that “No one explains what goes on behind the curtain”.
Laura felt that she went to law school, not computer school, and wasn’t interested in becoming a web design or SEO expert, but still wanted to have a general idea of what was going on.
Marketing Consultant
Laura explains that she had time during COVID to really look at her website and marketing. She interviewed a number of people about developing a new website and creating a social media presence, but nothing felt right to her. Someone referred her to Jackie Zuk at Next On Scene who she says was amazing for her social media campaign, and Jackie’s professional photos would be perfect for her new website.
Referral to SEO Consultant
Jackie referred her to Rank Magic to consult on her SEO. Laura says that “Bill conducted an SEO audit of my website with me over Zoom and I felt very comfortable with him. I especially appreciated that he explained everything about SEO to me – the who, what, where, when & why – in plain English. I finally understood what the big fuss was about SEO and why it was so important!. Bill explained his charts and analysis in plain English, and I finally understood SEO recommendations.”
Based on that, she felt comfortable hiring me as her SEO consultant.
Referral for Web Design and Hosting
Laura asked me for a reference for a new website designer, and I referred her to a few people I’ve worked with successfully. She explains “I hired Tag Online after a conversation with the owner, Amy Gideon. I figured if my SEO consultant hired them, they must be great, and they are.”
Laura has since been very pleased with them and their work.
Cautionary Warning
A previous SEO/website consultant warned her that an updated website would cause a sharp decrease in rankings and it could take a year to recover. But she felt she had to do something because her old website wasn’t doing the job. She swallowed hard and took the leap.
Actions
Keyword Research
Based on discussions with Laura, I began with keyword research, identifying the kinds of searches her potential clients were using most often. Laura took that research and after a discussion and lots of question she identified the most important search terms that she needed to show up for. Those are the ones we would optimize the appropriate pages on her website for.
Baseline Reporting
Based on that, I presented and explained a baseline report with charts representing strengths and weaknesses of the website before making any SEO changes. This included detailed keyword rankings compared with competitors, inbound link authority, and a technical site crawl outlining a number of technical coding issues for the web designer to address.
Addressing the Cautionary Warning
While the redesign was in process over at TAG Online I wanted to address Laura’s concern about the website redesign causing a severe drop in rankings, I asked them to ensure that all old URLs were permanently redirected to her new ones to retain as much as possible of the link authority they’d earned. That effort was quite successful.
On-Page Optimization Recommendations
I developed detailed written recommendations of what needed to be included or improved on the website to be optimized for the keywords Laura chose.
Some responsibilities fell to her in terms of content on the pages, and other responsibilities fell to her web designers for coding issues. I also suggested Laura add a blog to her website and add to it regularly.
Off-Page Optimization
I began working on Laura’s external local SEO by creating detailed information and
citations across several dozen local search engines, online directories, maps, mobile apps, and voice apps.
I also created listings for her on specialized niche directories, blog directories, and local directories, and recommended to Laura some directories that required her to submit herself.
Reporting
I’ve been sending Laura at least two reports a month showing her ranking progress, competitive standing among the top law firms in her practice area, traffic volume, and a number of technical website performance metrics.
She reports; “Bill makes everything so easy and he is always available for a conversation. He doesn’t just email me some computer charts and spreadsheets containing monthly results that make my eyes glaze over, like other SEO consultants. He actually cares if his clients understand and that he is meeting and exceeding their expectations. This is what I attempt to do with my own clients and it is nice to be on the receiving end.”
Results
Authority
By the end of the first year, her inbound link count had increased by 325%, improving her authority in the eyes of search engines.
Visibility
Her search traffic rose from a low of about 50 visits per month to an average of 150 visits per month.
Competing with some large Boston law firms, she’s achieved top-two rankings in Google for searches like
Massachusetts tax attorney
Massachusetts IRS lawyer
Massachusetts tax law attorney
nonprofit tax attorney in Massachusetts
and more.
Focused Traffic
She notes that blog posts have noticeably increased traffic for important focus areas of her practice without having to make wholesale changes to her website. For example, she’s looking to grow the nonprofit work she does and reports “I have noticed more emails and calls from non-profit organizations seeking tax advice, which is great.” These include charities, trade organizations, sports organizations, civic leagues, social welfare, and political organizations.
With respect to her blog, Laura writes “Like all successful business owners, I am always adjusting my business model in response to changing market conditions, e.g., Congress passing a new tax law, President Biden hiring thousands of IRS Agents and auditors, DOGE laying off thousands more at the IRS. I find that the blog allows me to change my online advertising quickly.”
Overall Client Evaluation
Increase in Business
Laura reports a very large increase in inquiries from potential clients, and nearly all of them hire her during the consultation. Laura says “Before hiring Rank Magic, I’d get my share of random calls/emails from folks that clearly didn’t need my particular services and I wondered why they were calling me, instead of another attorney. That seldom happens now.”
She says she often receives complements from clients telling her that her website shows up “everywhere”.
Media Attention
Not long after Laura’s on-page optimization was complete, she was contacted and interviewed by both the 6:00 news on WHDH Channel 7 News in Boston and quoted in an article in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. She attributes this media coverage as a direct result of our work.
Overall Impressions
Laura complimented me on my professionalism, my communication in plain English without jargon, and getting right to the point clearly and without confusion.
She was surprised how quickly we got her to the top of the rankings for her practice area and that we that avoided the loss of rankings that had been predicted.
She writes “I feel much better about my online presence now. TAG Online and Rank Magic have taken care of me and I am so grateful. Bill made it easy to understand what SEO is, why it’s important, and patiently answered every question I had. I had no idea it was so involved but he explained what was going on in plain English. I highly recommend him to other solo attorneys and small law firms. He is a great fit; one of his children is an attorney so he gets us. Attorneys always put their client’s needs first and their own needs way down the list. Bill made it so easy for me to get this project done. I was dreading it and putting it aside for so long. He made it pleasant with fantastic results!”
She notes that blog posts have noticeably increased traffic for important focus areas of her practice without having to make wholesale changes to her website. For example, she’s looking to grow the nonprofit work she does and reports “I have noticed more emails and calls from non-profit organizations seeking tax advice, which is great.” These include charities, trade organizations, sports organizations, civic leagues, social welfare, and political organizations.
She writes “I feel much better about my online presence now. TAG Online and Rank Magic have taken care of me and I am so grateful. Bill made it easy to understand what SEO is, why it’s important, and patiently answered every question I had. I had no idea it was so involved but he explained what was going on in plain English. I highly recommend him to other solo attorneys and small law firms. He is a great fit; one of his children is an attorney so he gets us. Attorneys always put their client’s needs first and their own needs way down the list. Bill made it so easy for me to get this project done. I was dreading it and putting it aside for so long. He made it pleasant with fantastic results!”