The online legal marketing space is one of the most competitive around. Advertising costs for legal-related key phrases commonly exceed $10 per click and can even reach $50-$100. Real estate for organic, or natural, search engine listings is becoming more and more saturated as well. Let's face it, there are only ten organic results on any given Google results page. Combine that with the fact that as much as 90% of organic click traffic goes to the top three listings, and it is clear that the actual competition is even greater than many lawyers may suspect.
Unfortunately, there are many lawyer internet marketing firms that will represent multiple competing law firm clients in a particular practice area and geographic location. In fact, some of these law firm seo firms will take on over 30 competing clients. The simple fact is that some of these companies' clients have to take a back seat to other clients. As previously stated, there is only so much online real estate. Someone has to be relegated to the second, third, and fourth pages, and beyond.
That is why it is so critical to consider exclusive law firm internet marketing agreements. Under an exclusive, or limited-competition, agreement, your lawyer internet marketing consultants are limited in the number of competing law firms they can take on as clients in a give practice area and geographic location. With a limited-competition agreement, you won't find yourself in a bidding war against your competition with the company you are paying to generate business for you online. It's the classic Coke vs. Pepsi situation. Would it make sense for these competitors to hire the same advertising/marketing firm? Obviously not.
Another issue that arises from too much competition is the "watered down" effect. If everyone in your legal services market segment is employing the same company, they're also probably using the same law firm marketing strategies, techniques, and methods. Generally speaking, the more your campaign is the same as your competition's, the less effective it may be.