Pro Se SEO: Does “He Who is His Own Lawyer Has a Fool for a Client” Apply To Law Firm SEO?

Gyi Tsakalakis
March 12, 2010

I encourage every lawyer to understand some basics about how search engines work. In fact, we have made it a priority to provide several educational materials for law firms on the subject of search engine optimization. However, the question of do-it-yourself SEO vs. hiring a professional continues to circulate throughout the web.

As the saying goes, “He Who is His Own Lawyer Has a Fool for a Client”. Is the same true when it comes to SEO for your law firm? The answer, sometimes.

There are many basic SEO tasks that most relatively web-savvy attorneys can probably handle on their own. Optimization of title tags, use of images, and headings, etc. just to name a few.

And there are some additional methods, that are vitally important to generating results, like link building, that aren’t necessarily complicated, as much as time-consuming.

However, there are a whole lot more that require more technical web knowledge than most attorneys would ever care to have.

The truth is that the decision of whether or not to hire an SEO consultant really depends on your web marketing goals and the level of competition in your segment of the legal services market.

Let’s face it, if you’re a Chicago personal injury lawyer, law firm internet marketing competitive landscape is saturated. Having an experienced law firm SEO consultant is essential.

On the other hand, if you’re an intellectual property lawyer in Boise, you may find that you are able to produce some significant results on your own.

The decision of whether or not to hire a professional shouldn’t be taken lightly. Costs associated with law firm search engine optimization can be pretty steep. Also, due to the disparity between what most lawyers know about SEO and the low barrier of entry to becoming an “SEO expert”, there is a lot of “snake oil” in the market.

Generally speaking, hiring an SEO is a lot like hiring a lawyer. You can avoid a lot of headache by researching your law firm SEO, talking to their clients, and simply by searching for them on Google. Let’s face it if they can’t generate business for themselves on Google, how are they going to generate business for you?

Gyi Tsakalakis
Co-Founder of AttorneySync
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