SEO AND SEA FOR THE LEGAL PROFESSION
Many people have to deal with a legal problem. For example, an employment dispute when you, an employee, are dismissed by your employer. Or after a divorce you might need a family law lawyer for the division of the estate and to bring about visitation arrangements. But you can also become a victim of an accident, such as a traffic accident or industrial accident. You may then need a personal injury lawyer (Dutch: letselschade advocaat), such as a personal injury lawyer in Utrecht (Dutch: letselschade advocaat Utrecht).
Findability of a lawyer
If you are a personal injury lawyer or employment law lawyer, you naturally want a litigant to engage you and not another personal injury lawyer or employment law lawyer. In the past, lawyers did this by placing an advertisement. If you were mainly looking for clients in the area, you advertised in a local newspaper or door-to-door paper. A national newspaper, radio and television were mainly used for a national advertisement.
Many industries realized at a certain point that advertising in newspapers, via the radio and on TV no longer had a future. This is due to the advent of the internet and social media. However, the legal profession in the Netherlands was largely unaware of this. Smaller firms, such as one-man firms and law firms with less than 10 lawyers, continued to advertise in the traditional manner. This with all its consequences.
How the lawyer in the Netherlands got into trouble
Unfortunately, the need for SEO and SEA only reached the legal profession in the Netherlands too late. The consequences of this became clear, for example, to personal injury lawyers in the Netherlands. This profession has had a very difficult time. The reason was that other legal assistance providers recognized the great importance of SEO and SEA. These are legal assistance insurers and personal injury bureaus. Because personal injury lawyers could not be found on the internet and social media and personal injury agencies could, personal injury lawyers received fewer and fewer cases. These went and went mainly to personal injury agencies, which can be found on the internet. Both organically and between the ads on Google.
Not only did personal injury lawyers have to deal with other legal assistance providers, but this was also the case in the field of employment law due to the emergence of employment law lawyers. But also, in the field of family law, for example, other legal aid providers who did understand SEO and SEA came along, which caused problems for the legal profession in the Netherlands.
How to apply SEO and SEA in personal injury cases
Several law firms have now become aware of the importance of the internet and social media. Especially young lawyers now blog on Instagram or advertise or have a Facebook page to offer their services. But this group of lawyers can also be found on LinkedIn.
Personal injury lawyers have also become active in the field of SEO and SEA. For example, there are several offices that are particularly good at creating and converting landing pages in the field of personal injury. For example, in cities you will find pages such as “personal injury lawyer Utrecht” and “hit as a cyclist”.
The legal profession is therefore catching up when it comes to Google ads and generating organic traffic. But it took a long time!