Our Employment Law Marketing Work for Morris Legal

Morris Legal is a Warwickshire-based employment solicitors firm specialising in Employment Tribunal Claims

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Client - Morris Legal

The Brief

Morris Legal is a niche law firm of national No Win No Fee Employment Law Solicitors. The firm offers expert employment law advice as well as Employment Tribunal representation to claimants in England and Wales.

The firm’s target market is employees/ex-employees. The areas of expertise include unfair dismissals and discrimination in the workplace.

The firm was working with an SEO marketer until August 2020.

The Managing Director, decided to part ways with them as despite being on a monthly retainer, the website kept slipping down in rankings and the number of enquiries dropping.

  • Approximately 75% of the firm’s work comes via the website and the internet,
  • The rest comes from recommendations (word-of-mouth marketing),
  • They do not purchase cases from Claims Management Companies (CMCs).

The law firm’s website’ organic Search Engine Results Page (SERP) position is a core component of their client acquisition strategy.

The firm’s founder decided to reach out to Intellistart Law Firm Marketing in May 2021. We began working together soon after that.

“Ewelina from Intellistart has been working on my employment law firm’s SEO for some time now. She has since increased the speed of our website and removed defunct plugins.

Her SEO has also generated new areas of work and the results have been fantastic!

My experience with past SEO companies is that they hook you on a retainer, take it for granted and do increasingly less. However, this is not the case with Ewelina and Intellistart as she continues to proactively identify areas to work on and improve.

Thank you Ewelina!”

Dean Morris – Managing Director of Morris Legal Solicitors

The SEO Results

The Employment Tribunal Claims website comprises over 220 pages, including blogs. When our SEO team initially tested the website’s performance in May 2021, it failed the speed test with a score of 31/100 for mobile devices and 51/100 for desktops. Since page speed is now a critical factor in Google’s ranking algorithm, we needed to improve this score.

Subsequently, we reduced the loading time on mobile devices to 1.6s, and the website now loads on desktops in approximately 1.2s. This is well below the recommended 2s.

Since August 2021, we have been optimising existing pages, fixing various site issues, and enhancing the user experience (UX).

Landing Page AFTER the Redesign

Landing Page AFTER the Redesign

Before creating new pages to rank for new keywords we decided to first take care of all the site problems, such as duplicate page titles, duplicate content, and broken links. Rectifying these issues was imperative as the website was being penalised.

Our search engine optimisation efforts and general maintenance of the site have resulted in an increase in the number of pages ranking on the first page of SERPs. We also noted an increase in the number of clicks and impressions on Google.

Clicks: 15.7k in the last 6 months compared to 3.61k in the previous 6; Impressions 1.1m in the last 6 months compared to 229k in the previous 6.

The total number of keywords (in positions 1-50) has increased from 1,023 to over 1,200.

The website began generating an average of 3 online contact forms each day.

The primary source of traffic remains organic which has a direct impact on the number of online and telephone enquiries the employment law firm receives (115 in October 2021), resulting in substantial savings on client acquisition.

The employment law firm can continue to generate enquiries exclusively through word-of-mouth marketing and SEO.

The website has also become better for the environment as a result of the changes our team implemented over the last couple of years.

Additional Challenges

The firm faced a significant challenge when its website’s keyword rankings plunged from the first page to the second (and beyond for some key phrases) following one of Google’s algorithm updates in May 2021.

Prior to the update, the firm appeared on the first pages of Google search for many relevant terms. Unfortunately, the drop in rankings caused a sharp decline in employment law enquiries. This demanded swift action to prevent further ranking drops and restore the website’s online visibility.

The Managing Director of the firm advised us that the site used an AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) plugin, which he was led to believe was essential for Google rankings.

However, while AMP can boost a website’s SEO by enhancing the mobile version’s speed, it is not necessary for all types of websites. The AMP is primarily intended for websites that receive most of their traffic from mobile devices and publish numerous articles and blogs, e.g. news websites.

The now expired AMP caused several issues on the firm’s website. They included disabled contact forms on mobile devices preventing the main contact form from appearing on the mobile version of the site.

Furthermore, the mobile site’s visitors could not access important sections of the mobile menu, which contained links to valuable pages like Discrimination and Unfair Dismissal.

The appearance of the AMP version of the website also did not satisfy the requirements of the firm. It stripped the website down and simplified it making it look unprofessional.

Another significant technical challenge was that the site’s PHP Database was out of date. This made it vulnerable to hacking and data breaches. This problem required urgent attention.

Finally, the previous SEO team did not provide the firm with rights to their Google Analytics account despite them being the owner of the site and the account holder.

This is an issue that we encounter frequently and is not a good practice. The former SEO team also failed to set up Analytics correctly, resulting in historical data inaccuracies.

The Solution

To begin with, we prioritised improving the website’s security by updating the PHP Database.

Additionally, we resolved the issue of the disabled contact forms on mobile devices by turning off the AMP plugin. This allowed mobile users to make enquiries again and enhanced the website’s overall functionality.

Despite encountering a setback with the previous SEO team’s failure to provide the director of the firm with ownership of the website on Google Analytics, we requested admin rights on the platform. As anticipated, the previous SEO agency refused to comply. However, we managed to manually acquire the ownership of the site from Google. The process took around 2 weeks, and we successfully made the Managing Director the owner of the site’s Google Analytics, providing him with full control over the platform.

Once we had resolved all the issues and had the ability to track the website’s audience and their behavior using Analytics, we moved on to improving the website’s speed to meet the requirements of the new Google algorithm update, Page Experience & Core Web Vitals.

Initially, the webpage did not pass the speed test, which had a direct, negative impact on the website’s ranking.

However, once we had successfully improved the page speed, we could begin working on the website’s SEO and boosting the existing pages.

Summary of what we have done for Morris Legal so far:

  • updated the site’s PHP Database,
  • removed the AMP plugin that was affecting the conversions,
  • improved the website’s loading time,
  • reduced the number of unwanted visitors from overseas by 105%,
  • reduced the website’s bounce rate,
  • introduced the firm to a web-based CRM making following up on leads easier,
  • reduced the website’s impact on the environment,
  • improved the site’s SEO and keyword rankings,
  • increased the number of impressions the website gets on Google,
  • created new pages and blogs to help Morris Legal rank for new keywords,
  • increased the average number of claims that come through the website.

FAQs

Marketing an employment law firm involves promoting the firm’s services to potential clients who may require legal assistance for employment-related issues.

To be successful, you need to:

  1. First and foremost, identify the audience that is most likely to require your employment law services. Defining your target audience is a crucial step in developing an effective marketing strategy for your firm. An employment law firm acting on behalf of individuals may want to target employees who are experiencing workplace discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or other employment law issues. If your law firm focuses on helping businesses, you may target employers who are seeking guidance on compliance with employment laws and regulations.
  2. Build a strong online presence by creating a fast-loading, professional website that provides information about the services you provide, individual solicitors, and case studies. You may want to consider creating social media accounts to engage with prospective clients or to use them to advertise your services.
  3. Involve an legal SEO expert who will use optimisation tactics to help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). Ranking higher will improve your website’s visibility to prospects and help you convert them into paying clients. SEO will also allow you to get a better ROI on your employment law firm website investment.
  4. Attend networking events, industry conferences, and trade shows to promote your firm and meet potential clients. Networking may also help you build relationships with other professionals in the industry and help you generate more referrals.
  5. As part of your SEO strategy, publish articles, blog posts, and guides to establish your expertise and credibility in the field. More optimised and helpful content will result in more keyword rankings and improved visibility online.
  6. Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews of your services or refer others to your law firm. Online reviews and referrals can be powerful tools for building trust and credibility with potential clients. Research has shown that a majority of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. This can imporve your conversion rates.
  7. Consider investing in online advertising platforms such as Google Ads and social media ads to reach a wider audience and generate more legal enquiries. Online advertising is normally cheaper than traditional forms of advertising, such as radio and newspaper ads, and can provide a better ROI.
  8. Send regular newsletters and updates to your clients and potential clients to stay top-of-mind and inform them about new developments in employment law. A Client Relationship Manager software with email templates may prove handy- speak to our team to find out about the free CRM we recommend to our clients.
  9. Lastly, provide excellent client service. Foster positive reviews and word-of-mouth referrals.

By utilising these tactics, your employment law firm can successfully market its services and attract new clients to your firm.

The most common internet marketing techniques for employment law firms include:

  1. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
  2. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
  3. Content Marketing
  4. Social Media Marketing
  5. Email Marketing
  6. Online Reputation Management

Generally, the most effective marketing strategy for your employment law firm will depend on your specific target audience, goals, and budget.

A combination of the above techniques can be used to maximise your results and reach potential clients in various stages of their decision-making process.

Let’s discuss your marketing!

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