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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.
“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.”
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.” explains Matthew. “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.”
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.
We were looking for the entire gamut – everything from organic rankings, to amplifying our blogs, to increasing our social media presence.
Rankings.io implemented a process they have perfected over the past half-decade and customized for the unique challenges of the attorney law niche.
“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.”
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.
“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.”
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.
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