The Art and Science of SEO Analysis for Lawyers
Is science really a part of doing marketing for a law firm? Absolutely. SEO analysis, which is the single best way to tell you whether your search engine optimization efforts have met their goals, works using reliable methods of scientific and statistical analysis. That part scares some marketing professionals, but search is still the most popular way to find attorneys. With some guidance you can apply these principles to do free SEO analysis even if you don't have a scientific background.
SEO Analysis: What Is It?
Many law firms, especially smaller firms and those located outside of large cities, just have a local web designer create a website that looks good and works for anyone who visits. That's a good start, but how can you be sure that your content and design are actually as good as they can be? How do you know you're getting the best possible results in all search engines?
SEO analysis seeks to answer these questions. By using an SEO analyzer, you'll be able to see whether a particular version of a web page (whether it's your home page or a landing page for a specific search keyword) is actually stacking up.
There are other applications of free SEO analysis as well. Some SEO analyzer tools actually seek out other keywords that are similar to the ones you're already using, so that you can identify new words to optimize your website for. You can also use free SEO analysis to determine which keywords are generating more conversions.
Do I Really Need SEO Analysis?
While it's true that you can have a website that isn't using any SEO analyzer tools, it's not really advisable any more. A few years ago, you could have gotten away with just some basic knowledge of how to make a pretty website, but now the competition is getting fierce. Free SEO analysis is one of the best things you can do for your law firm without spending extra money on website services.
It's much easier to start building an optimized web presence now than it will be in just a few years, when there's even more competition and more law firms have figured out how to analyze their content for its SEO value. Even very basic SEO analysis will put you ahead of the competition in some geographic areas, while other areas will require more advanced uses of free SEO analysis tools.
Setting Up SEO Analysis Split Tests
The canonical test that you'll use for your free SEO analysis tools is called a split, or A/B, test. Split testing has been part of the scientific method for centuries, and many SEO analyzer tools rely on these tests to determine which page or keyword choices are working better for your law firm.
When you're split testing to do SEO analysis, you should only change a single variable at a time. Multivariable SEO analyzer tools are much more complicated, and can be easier to misinterpret. If you change more than one aspect of your website at a time (for instance, changing both who you're targeting with advertisements and the copy on your landing page), you won't know which change actually caused the results you're seeing.
What Are the Best Free SEO Analysis Tools?
In order to do SEO analysis, you're going to need an SEO analyzer program that can help you understand your data. There's simply too much data to be able to do your own free SEO analysis without using any software help at all.
One of the most commonly used SEO analyzer programs is Google Analytics. This program, which Google actually bought several years ago from its original creators, has been continuously updated to reflect current best practice standards. For free SEO analysis, it doesn't get much more legitimate and robust than Google.
Bing also now offers a suite of SEO analyzer programs. One of the free SEO analysis tools offered by Bing is a speed tester, which detects how long it takes people to access your website. Since Google now bases page rank in part on your website's speed, this is a very relevant metric.
You can also find a number of free SEO analysis toolbars and other free web tools that can give you great results with the data you've already gathered. There's often no need to buy an SEO analyzer, because the tools for SEO analysis that work best are offered for free by multiple companies.
The Biggest SEO Problem You Can Start Fixing Today
Let's say that you've had an issue with some pages on your website getting significantly less traffic than you'd like. You've designed several different split tests and all of them have shown the exact same thing: that no changes to the copy are helping.
When this happens, it's easy to give up and just decide that certain keywords or niches just aren't popular in your area. But what if your SEO analyzer says that the keywords are still just as popular as ever? Now you've got something interesting on your hands. When this happens, apply your skills with free SEO analysis to changing something other than the copy.
What else can you change? Try changing who you're targeting. By buying some direct advertisements, you can do some SEO analysis with your SEO analyzer tools. Some split tests for targeting can reveal who your ideal audience for this particular page will be.
The Future of SEO Analysis
As the web becomes increasingly integrated across multiple platforms, it's likely that the amount of data we're collecting will just get larger. With more data, free SEO analysis will get even easier. The SEO analyzer of the future may be much better at predicting behavior and pinpointing the exact reason that some pages are generating conversions while others aren't.
It's also likely that SEO analysis will become easier for regular people. With more and more companies producing SEO analyzer programs that even beginners can use, and often releasing them for free, SEO is about to become something that literally any company, even the smallest, can use successfully.
