Enter any type of law firm into Google—the attorneys you see on the first page of results are there because of search engine optimization (SEO).

Even with the extensive TV, radio, and outdoor board advertising that many lawyers do, a firm still needs SEO to ensure that it will be found when people need their services. Traditional advertising is good for your brand, but digital marketing is how prospective clients can easily and directly connect to you. Best of all, a well-planned and executed SEO strategy levels the playing field, giving you the power to go up against even your largest competitors.

It gets easier every day to find an SEO provider, even one that specializes in SEO for attorneys. There are important differences between providers, however, and we believe these are at the top of the list: contract terms and transparency.

Why do we emphasize these? Because we’ve heard from more than one of our attorney clients that their previous SEO provider didn’t keep them informed about campaign performance or they were locked into long-term contracts that made it a challenge to part ways.

At Dagmar, we have only short-term contract agreements that give you flexibility, and we provide in-depth reporting every month so you’ll always know how your money is being spent and what kind of results we’re getting for you.

In addition, SEO is our core service, and it’s been our focus for nearly a decade. Rather than offer SEO as a sideline to other marketing services as some agencies do, we keep SEO front and center, since it’s the most effective and sustainable way to position your firm in front of your best prospective clients.

Your day-to-day main point of contact will be a dedicated account manager who has a background in SEO and PPC. Your account manager will share monthly reporting with you and be available to answer your questions and concerns. He or she will be the liaison to your team of technical specialists; these team members will also be available to you as needed.

SEO can deliver excellent results, but it’s a long-term strategy. Although you may see some positive results in the first few months, other factors affect how well your SEO will perform in the initial phases. These factors include the state of your Social Security disability lawyer website—if only a few technical updates are needed, you will likely see results earlier. And, if your existing SEO is in good shape when you begin working with us, you’ll also see improvements earlier.

Widely available tools do allow anyone to do SEO themselves, but the better question might be “What will it really cost for me to do basic SEO for my law firm?”

One of the most important considerations in taking on SEO yourself is time. Researching keywords, setting up campaigns properly, analyzing results and making adjustments—these tasks need to be done frequently in order to get great results that make the investment of your time worthwhile.

Not every attorney wants to work with an agency for SEO services, and we understand that. That’s one of the reasons we offer free, no-obligation consultations during which we can discuss your concerns, your need for greater exposure for your firm, and how we may be able to help attract new, better-qualified leads to your practice.

After all of the initial technical SEO tasks are done and your campaigns are set up, the most effective use of your budget is to devote it to content. Search engines give a lot of weight to how much content your site has, how well-written it is, and, most importantly, how relevant it is to the searcher’s intent. Google and other search engines reward the most in-depth, informative content with higher rankings on results pages.

Content takes a lot of time to strategize, develop, and market, but it’s unquestionably worth it. You’ll find that most of your main competitors have a healthy body of content on their websites, and that didn’t happen overnight. For the best long-term, sustainable performance, publishing great content every month is key.