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“I’m going up against competing firms that have multi-million advertising budgets—and we beat them all.”
- Gabriel Levin, Esq., Owner, The Levin Firm
Challenges
A doomed domain and too few leads
Gabriel Levin had a serious dilemma: his Philadelphia-based personal injury office, The Levin Firm, was struggling to compete against million-dollar marketing campaigns running for competitors with deep pockets.
Despite their reputation for strong client advocacy and a track record of winning cases, Gabriel and his team were having trouble bringing in leads—which spelled major trouble for the business.
“Lead generation is probably the most important tool for building a private practice,” Gabriel explains. “Running a successful business comes down to leads. You can be the best lawyer in the world, but if no one hires you, you go out of business.”
Gabriel saw search engine optimization (SEO) as a cost-efficient way to get in front of qualified leads right at their point of need. So, he decided to try tinkering with his site’s SEO on his own.
His internal efforts paid off at first. His site began ranking well and new cases were coming in.
But not long after, disaster struck.
The quality of links pointing to Gabriel’s site was considered spammy by Google, damaging the site’s authority and landing the domain on Google’s blacklist.
The results were devastating.
“Because of the negative links, the site got blocked. Once Google turned the faucet off, we went from page 1 to page 7,” Gabriel says.
All those new leads quickly evaporated.
Worse, the time spent working on SEO was taking Gabriel away from what he did best: defending clients.
He knew it was time to hire an expert—one who could build his site back into a lead-generating asset and free up his time to focus on advocating for his clients.
After several interviews with firms that didn’t impress him, Gabriel knew he’d found the right fit when he spoke to Chris Dreyer from Rankings.io.
“I know a lot about online marketing, so I can tell if someone knows what they’re talking about when I’m discussing search engine optimization. It was clear after my conversation with Chris that he was one of those people,” he says.
“Running a successful business comes down to leads. You can be the best lawyer in the world, but if no one hires you, you go out of business.”
Gabriel Levin
The Levin Firm
Solution
Customized SEO for a brand new site
After careful analysis, the Rankings.io team decided the existing site was too battered to be revived. They needed to create a brand new site and build up its authority from scratch—a serious challenge in such a competitive market.
“We decided to completely remove the tumor and start on a fresh domain, but that meant it had zero links in Philadelphia,” explains Chris Dreyer, CEO of Rankings.io.
They’d need to move quickly—without taking shortcuts or using unethical tactics—to catch up to their more established competitors.
The Rankings.io team got to work determining what keywords and topic areas would attract the most qualified leads for The Levin Firm.
After plotting out a new sitemap and keyword targeting, they began creating optimized, user-focused copy. The goal was to create content that would not only rank well but also answer every lead’s questions to help them convert.
To bolster rankings in Google’s local map packs, the Rankings.io team found relevant places to list the company’s name, new website, and address. They also updated old listings along the way.
Rankings.io also undertook a massive link-building effort—but this time, with a focus on quality.
This meant conducting professional outreach in the industry and around the local region to earn links to authoritative sites that Google already trusted.
Throughout the process, Rankings.io impressed Gabriel with their accountability and accessibility.
What’s more, Chris and his team have proven to Gabriel that they can drive sustainable results over time, even as Google changes and tweaks their algorithm.
“The majority of my work is in car accident litigation. The scholarship helps raise awareness for safe drivers, and it’s also driving a substantial increase in .edu referral traffic,” Gabriel says.
“Anytime I need Chris, I just call,” Gabriel says. “If I see something that needs to be fine-tuned, he makes the adjustment and gets right back to me.”
“We’re constantly thinking of new ideas and implementing new things to help us stay where we are. Chris is adaptable and ahead of the curve. We’ve really just had great results with them,” Gabriel says.
“There’s no expectation that you’ll stay on top forever. You have to adapt. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward.”
Gabriel Levin
The Levin Firm
Results
Double the leads and 3,400% higher traffic
In just two years, the Levin Firm’s organic search traffic increased an astonishing 3,440%.
The outreach and scholarship-driven link campaign paid off in a huge way, and the Levin Firm now boasts one of the strongest (and cleanest) backlink profiles in their niche.
“The scholarship campaign improved my rankings, even for phrases that are unrelated to the scholarship— I now rank better for keywords like ‘Philadelphia car accident lawyer’ because I am getting all of this other traffic.”
In fact, LevinInjuryFirm.com now ranks number one for all relevant search terms on Google Maps.
Gabriel estimates that this improved visibility has significantly increased the number of new cases coming from the site, giving the Levin Firm the opportunity to expand.
“The total number of cases in the pipeline is 50–60% greater than it was 24 months ago. It’s allowed us to bring in new lawyers, and it’s allowed me to spend more time being a lawyer instead of an SEO,” Gabriel says.
Updated Results: 2022
Since this story was published in 2018, Rankings has continued to support the Levin Firm’s growth, and their ROI has continued to compound.
From 2015 to 2022, our work together translated into:
- $1,100,000 in Traffic Value (per Ahrefs), a measure of how much it would cost the firm to achieve the same traffic levels through paid ads
- 44% YOY increase in clicks from search engine listings, demonstrating clear alignment with what searchers are looking for
- 21% YOY increase in users on the site
- 133% YOY increase in impressions, which represents the total visibility in Google search results This work continues to drive a steady and growing volume of web inquiries, phone calls, and cases.
The proof is in the pudding, it’s the results. The true testament to any SEO firm is the cases they can generate for you. If you do that well, you’re doing a great job. And Rankings.io does that well.
Gabriel Levin
The Levin Firm
