“Chris has literally delivered on every idea or marketing concept we have discussed which is rare in his industry."
- Matthew Dolman, Dolman Law Group
Challenges
Few online niches are as challenging or as cutthroat to compete for rankings as personal injury and civil litigation.
It’s a fact Matthew Dolman, owner at Dolman Law Group, knows all too well. For years, his firm had been battling for clients and rankings against big-name competitors.
The company had earned a reputation among clients for being both personal and professional – delivering big firm results with the care and attention of a small firm.
Still, Matthew knew that in order to grow, they couldn’t continue to rely on word of mouth or professional referrals to bring in new cases every month.
He also knew that he didn’t want to spend six figures on billboard, radio and TV ads which are difficult to track in an already-saturated market.
Sketchy SEO firms fail to deliver results
- Past SEO Professionals failed to produce results or share strategy ahead of time.
- Needed to make a big impact without spending a fortune on traditional advertising.
- Minimal traffic and poor lead quality.
- Limited search visibility with few first page rankings.
- Spammy links and over-optimized content damaged site trust and brand reputation.
“I had heard about Rankings.io’ reputation beforehand but I’d also been misled by others … They outperformed my expectations. Even on the best day, I didn’t expect them to do this well.”
- Matthew Dolman, Dolman Law Group
Nor did the expense and volatility of an online pay-per-click campaign appeal to him, making search engine optimization (SEO) the most attractive option.
But after numerous years – and multiple tries – working with different SEO companies, Dolman’s online presence was a total mess.
Past vendors – and unscrupulous competitors – had built thousands of spammy links to Dolman’s site, badly damaging Google’s trust in the domain and dragging down its rankings to the point where the site was at serious risk of being penalized.
The site’s architecture was jumbled and confusing, making it difficult to navigate. This frustrated leads and dampened their search rankings even further.
In the menu architecture above, the pages are not organized in any logical hierarchy. Estate planning legal services for example are mixed in with medical malpractice and personal injury focused legal services. Multiple navigation structures in drop downs and on the home page make it confusing as to where a visitor should look for information first.
Even when the site DID rank, the keywords being targeted weren’t attracting the right types of visitors. For example, the site did not rank anywhere near the first page for keywords with purchase intent specific to his practice area, like “car accident lawyers.”
And as one firm after another tinkered with their content in an attempt to rank, the knowledgeable, helpful tone with which Dolman treats its clients had been completely destroyed.
In the screenshot above, the content on the practice area page as well as several other onsite elements needed to be optimized in a more effective way. For example the target keyword phrase for the page, “automobile accident” did not have the purchase intent Dolman needed to convert visitors.
Things go so bad, Matthew had to invest his own limited time and energy into trying to learn SEO so he could understand what was being done – or not being done – by those he’d hired.
Despite having been burned before, Matthew’s hopes were renewed when he heard through the grapevine of an SEO firm that specialized solely in website optimization for attorneys.
Matthew reached out to Chris Dreyer and his team, hoping they could provide the same type of service Dolman offers its clients: winning results with a personal touch.
“I’ve had to teach myself about search engine rankings. It’s like a whole different language. It’s like meeting an mechanic when you know nothing about cars… you nod your head but you don’t really know what they’re talking about. And that’s how I felt after a while. I was being charged for things that were redundant. Some things were not being done. They were taking advantage of consumers who don’t know any better or who don’t understand. I was feeling really ripped off.”
- Matthew Dolman, Dolman Law Group
I was feeling really ripped off.
Matthew Dolman
Dolman Law Group
Solution
Specializing in attorney websites, SEO firm Rankings.io uses a customized Attorney Ranking System methodology to get legal websites on the front page of search rankings.
Chris and his team immediately proposed two things to Matthew and his team that other firms hadn’t: a clear process and transparency.
Rankings.io promised to let Matthew know what they were doing, how they were doing it, and provide regular reporting on results – all key elements for the clarity Matthew craved, and which past firms couldn’t provide. Importantly, Rankings.io would also encourage the Dolman team to get involved in the process.
Satisfied that he wouldn’t be left in the dark, or charged for ineffective work, Matthew signed on.
A transparent partner with a proven, ethical approach
- Comprehensive SEO audit
- Complete restructuring of site architecture and rewrite of content
- Extensive, content-driven link-building campaign
- Scholarship program targeting .edu links to improve domain authority
- Citation clean-up and acquisition for local SEO
"We were looking for the entire gamut – everything from organic rankings, to amplifying our blogs, to increasing our social media presence."
- Matthew Dolman, Dolman Law Group
Rankings.io implemented a process they have perfected over the past half-decade and customized for the unique challenges of the attorney law niche.
Here’s what they did
- First, they did an SEO audit to unearth the site’s core issues and explain them all clearly to the client.
- Next, they did onsite SEO, optimizing the site’s content for keywords that would actually convert visitors and bring in qualified leads – one of the main goals Dolman had had little success with to date.
- After that, Rankings.io turned their attention to link building. That meant cleaning up a ton of spam links so newly built links wouldn’t be drowned out by years of unethical link building.
- Part of this link-building process revolved around producing and syndicating authoritative content for the niche, building Dolman’s online voice and giving them a reputation for subject matter expertise online.
- But among the most powerful tactics was developing a scholarship campaign that focused on earning “.edu” links. These links are among the most trusted on the internet: they’re extremely difficult to earn and highly trusted by Google.
- Meanwhile, as they executed their link building campaign, Rankings.io also helped Dolman Law clean up their local listings and earn consistent citations across the web.
- Throughout the entire process, Dolman received regular reports written in plain English that explained all steps and results in detail. They also explained that each step was being done legitimately, and in the right way.
- As a final step to increasing the transparency of their work, the Rankings.io team also taught Dolman’s team how to use tools like Ahrefs and Moz’s Open Site Explorer. This allowed them to get a real-time look at how their link count and domain authority were changing over time. This training meant Dolman no longer had to take Rankings.io at their word – which is standard among less-than-reputable SEO experts – but could monitor the independent results for themselves.
“Chris was able to help us in all those areas – increasing the domain authority of our website on page ranking sites and really strengthening our website.”
- Matthew Dolman, Dolman Law Group
It was seamless. I’d known companies who’d hired other firms with all kinds of issues. We really didn’t have any problems whatsoever.
Matthew Dolman
Dolman Law Group
Results
When comparing January 2017 to the previous year, organic traffic has skyrocketed from just 3,076 sessions in 2016 to over 13,000 in 2017 – more than quadruple the volume.But it’s not just volume.
Ahrefs shows the estimated traffic value that a site experiences based on its niche and other factors. Dolman’s traffic value skyrocketed to 1 million+.
That traffic is generating high-quality leads from discerning customers.
In fact, Dolman is now welcoming 20 or more new cases a month from the site, versus 3 to 5 in years prior. That represents an estimated 400% greater intake, representing up to $170,000 in added attorney fees billed per month.
400% more cases from search engines
- First page for location-based "car accident lawyer"
and "car accident attorney" phrases - 330% increase in organic site visits
- 400% higher intake of cases from website
- $170,000 per month new revenue
“If you look at big firms that are putting tons of advertising money, commercials across all different mediums … small firms often can’t keep up with that, but we’re getting a bigger bang for our buck with organic search results. If we’re spending 15 or 20 cents to every dollar, my competitors are probably spending 90 cents on traditional media like billboards, radio and TV. It just can’t compare.”
- Matthew Dolman, Dolman Law Group
Rankings have also drastically improved on account of the successful link building and content creation being done on Dolman’s behalf.
To date, the Dolman Law Group domain has acquired over 105 links from .edu domains, an extremely high number for the average legal website.
When Matthew compares the ROI he’s getting from Rankings.io against virtually any other channel, SEO is the winner by a mile.
That existing level of trust means Dolman’s team doesn’t have to work as hard to close the deal and can focus on customer care instead of sales.
The Dolman team also feels empowered, Matthew explains.
Plus, he adds:
“These are clients that have an inherent level of trust in you – they’ve researched you, and they come in knowing they can trust you."
- Matthew Dolman, Dolman Law Group
Rankings.io has really made us feel like part of the process. They don’t do anything without explaining it to us first and showing us the follow-up reports. And not only is the communication better, the quality of the work is better too.
Matthew Dolman
Dolman Law Group
