1260: Optimize My Firm: SEO Secrets for Law Firms That Actually Work with VP Lindsey Busfield

Robert Plank 0:04 Music, hey, we're here. We're back on the marketer of the day podcast to talk about the exciting world of SEO for law firms with Miss Lindsey Busfield, and she's one of the leading SEO experts in content marketing and search engine optimization in the legal sense, Her website is optimize my firm.com they help law firms grow with SEO and content marketing. And Lindsey has become an industry disrupter by revolutionizing the client law firm relationship. And rather than locking clients in with long term contracts and over promising results, they have completely done away with contracts, which attorneys, surprisingly love. So we're going to find out about how AI has impacted SEO, how to identify a market need, work, life balance, wherever the randomness of the day in the conversation takes us. So Lindsey, glad to be speaking with you,

Lindsey Busfield 0:56 so glad to be talking with you today.

Robert Plank 0:59 And likewise. And so like, whenever I talk, especially with like, the legal and the SEO people, there's, it seems like there's, like, three tiers, right? There's like, well, what can the like, someone wants to use your services learn? And then there's the aspect of, like, looking from the outside in, what like, you know, it's easier to, like, look at some other industry and figure out what they're doing, SEO wise, and, like, get some ideas there. And then there's also just, kind of, you like, rising up in the space and showing, like, you know, how you compare and how you're a better solution. And so to help us get a grip, so to speak on what optimize, my firm.com, and what you is all about, what's kind of the elevator pitch. What has you so excited these days?

Lindsey Busfield 1:44 So optimize my firm is a bit different from other agencies that are out there. We are not the biggest. We have no aspirations to be the biggest. We just want to be the best, and so we have really taken more of a reactionary approach when it comes to building our brand within the market, we see what the market needs are, we see where the pain points are, and then we have built our business around meeting law firms where their needs are. So there are a lot of SEO giants out there that try to get every client on board that they possibly can, and they promise great results, and these giant markets that they have absolutely no business being in with budgets that are not going to move the needle at all, and it becomes kind of a turn and burn model for SEO agencies. And we don't like doing business that way. We want to make sure that if somebody's paying us, that we're giving them a result that's actually going to be helpful for them and it's going to make a meaningful difference in their firm. And so with that being said, we're really selective on the clients that we choose to bring on, partially because we want to do business the right way. We want to make sure that our clients are benefiting and getting a positive ROI from their experience with us. But the other part of it is we want to have an easy relationship. So we want to know that the strategies that we're going to be putting into place work, and we don't want to have to, you know, grind it out by the end of the day. We want to work with clients that are going to succeed with the model that we've built, and because of that, we have completely changed the way that our company does business with law firms in comparison to how other SEO agencies work. So that's why we did away with the contract. We want our clients to stay with us, because our model works and that they are, you know, getting a return on their investment here. So in that sense, that's how we have become industry disruptors, as we have changed the business model from the ground up to be more supportive of the clients that we work with, and making sure at the end of the day, they're getting exactly what they needed.

Robert Plank 3:53 Well, that sounds great. It sounds like you have a better plan than most, as far as you say, Hey, here's what works. We're not going to just waste a bunch of money for some stuff that looks good. We are there to get your results, and we have a process, and we know it. And so as far as, like, say, some law firm comes to you, or vice versa, what kind of resistance are you coming across? Do they understand, like, the value of content and search engine ranking? Have they tried it? What's the before picture usually look like?

Lindsey Busfield 4:23 So what's funny is, my business partner, Len and I were just talking to somebody about this the other day, and we have a very no sales pitch model. So somebody who is coming to work with us, they they need to understand the benefit of SEO, because we can't take the time to educate somebody on you know, this really works, and it's not so much as educating them, but we don't want to sit here and try to convince them, so if they really don't want to try SEO, we're really not going to push it on them. And so the people who come to us typically have worked with another SEO agency in the past, and they've been burned by them. So. So we have a lot of clients who approach us from really saturated markets like Los Angeles or Tampa, and they've been told by this other SEO agency that for $5,000 I can get you 90 clients in 90 days. And remarkably, it doesn't work, because that's just not how SEO works, and you're not going to be able to be able to get those results. So we're very upfront with people who approach us. We want to make sure that they have realistic expectations for what is going to be able to happen in their market, and have a realistic budget for what it's going to take to achieve those goals.

Robert Plank 5:39 Well, great. And so, so that makes me think, okay, so the getting 90 clients and 90 days, that's, you know, over promising. And so there's some more realistic work to be done. And I think about, like, all the times in my life when I've needed the services of one attorney or another, there's like, different kind of stages I might be at, right? I might be like, Hey, I'm just looking for a phone number, I might say, Well, I'm just on their YouTube or their social media, and I'm looking like, do they seem competent? Are they posting regularly? And then, like, maybe I'm I'm searching for, like, local laws in my area, and like, well, or like, you know, this type of attorney in this city. So I feel like there's like, different kind of no matter, depending on where I'm at in that process of finding them, there's like, different things I'm looking for. And then if I if they're not there at any of those points, and I kind of, I might get funneled somewhere else. And then if it comes time to communicate with them, then it's like, okay, then who calls me back first? Or who is the most responsive? And so when you are looking to, like, build out their SEO. What's the sort of strategy there? Do they already have content in place? Do you start from scratch? Is it like a back and forth? What's it like, as far as, like, setting all of the, I don't want to say, like the land mines or the traps, but like, there's, you know, you need, you need stuff in front of the prospects who are looking for, for the solution. So what's that thought process like

Lindsey Busfield 7:01 so going back to what you were originally saying, where you want to see what information is out there, because you might be at a different point in your journey, and so having content out there that meets them when they're at an information gathering phase. So that informational content, you're looking up laws. You're looking up what is the statute of limitations for a car accident in Boynton? Like there, there's in there are informational pieces that somebody might be looking for, and then there, once they get beyond that informational phase, they go to what's called a transactional phase, and that's where you're vetting an attorney to make sure that they have the right chemistry, the right process, the right fees that you're looking for. So making sure that a website has both informational and transactional web pages is important because it's meeting clients wherever they are within that phase of the journey. And as far as SEO goes, we really just work with websites. So we aren't posting on social. We're not doing the Facebook we're not for most of our clients, we're not doing the YouTube stuff like that's that's more of a specified niche of marketing that is beyond what we tend to focus on. So when we develop content for a new client, typically they already have some content on their website. So we'll go through and look at what exists, and then we will go and update any of the existing, existing content that needs to be optimized, and develop a strategy around the types of cases that they're wanting to attract. So let's say we're working with a personal injury attorney who really wants to be bringing in more of the catastrophic accidents, or they really have a heart for the motorcycle accidents, we'll go through and build out a content hierarchy that meets the needs of Google searchers as they are looking for an attorney, or they're Looking to gather that information, and will kind of exhaust the content opportunities for that particular case type and either build out more case types or look into different geographic areas to expand the territory for the Google search results.

Robert Plank 9:18 I love thinking this through. And like I said at the beginning, it's for me as, like, you know, not not an attorney whatsoever, but from the outside looking in, it's kind of, it's cool to have a different perspective, right? And this idea that no matter what business you're in, what problem do you like to solve? And thinking about, like, okay, so like that, that personal injury attorney role, do they really like to solve the motorcycle accidents, it's, it's an interesting introspective journey, is to say, like, Okay, well, I've done all these kind of So, served all these kind of people in my career, solve all these problems. Like, what was the most rewarding? Maybe money is part of it. But also just like, what do I really excel at? Or just what really gets us excited to. Start our business in the morning, and so going into that, and then exhausting the content opportunities, and then so as far as like, the the like, standing out from the crowd, right? Do the law firms worry about that? Do they say, like, Okay, well, we could make all this content, but like, Isn't everyone in, you know, New York City and Chicago, haven't they already locked it all down?

Lindsey Busfield 10:23 So that's a really great question, because there are a lot of firms that have really similar content page to page, because a lot of law firms are hiring SEO professionals, content marketing professionals, to write the content. And we all have a pretty basic understanding of what people are searching for, how they're searching for it, but the difference comes into how the content is written. So there are a lot of SEO agencies out there that will outsource the development of their content to places that are not native English speakers, or they'll use AI to generate content really quickly, and it becomes not reliable content. So with my firm, all of our content is written in house by humans, by people who actually have empathy, and we try to take more of a cutting edge approach. So yes, we're going to have the car accident lawyer in New York City page, because everybody has to have that as a part of their hierarchy. But then we try to come up with topics that haven't necessarily been covered. And this goes into what's called a long tail keyword content where it's, you know, let's say I live in Missouri, and there is a Home Depot down the street and they allow dogs in and a dog bites somebody. So I would, instead of just having a dog bites in Missouri page, I would have a dog bites at Home Depot in Missouri page. And that way, if somebody is in that particular position and they are Googling, what happens if I'm bit by a dog while I'm at Home Depot? That page is going to show up for them. So we try to target more specified case types. And then we'll also make informational pages that not everybody has. So if I wanted to make a statistics page on dog bites in Missouri, not every lawyer is going to have that already. And so we try to get creative and go after some low hanging fruit that hasn't been written a million times over, and then we write it really well.

Robert Plank 12:32 That is refreshing and reassuring, and it's just a cool aspect to think about that there's no limit to how specific and how long tail you can get, keeping in mind that it's geared towards what people are actually searching for, right? You're not just cranking out the spam content. You're like, hey, well, people are actually searching for dog bite and Home Depot in this city. So let's kind of explore that. And so what always impresses me about SEO people is the recurring thinking through of what you set up, right? Because if someone were to create the SEO on their own, it wouldn't, it definitely wouldn't be as close as good to someone like you and optimize my firm, who you guys, eat, breathe and sleep this stuff. And there's like the creating the content part, and then there's, like, going back and looking at the metrics, the goals, and how is it ranking, and how is it all working? And so, and that's like, really hard to do, right? If you're, if you're a law firm or an attorney, and you don't specialize in SEO, it's all this new stuff to learn. And so what's the ongoing process? Like, like, there's creating the content, but you actually have to like, kind of like measure and work on this over time. So what kind of expectations should someone have going in with you as far as just the ongoing work?

Lindsey Busfield 13:49 So in our particular niche, working with lawyers, they tend to not care about the data. They aren't looking for. What are the keywords that are ranking higher this month? You know what keywords are ranking lower? They don't tend to care. What they care about is, are they getting cases? And so the monthly calls that we have with our attorneys are, well, what cases did you get this month? How many did you get? How valuable were they for your firm? Should we continue to target this specific case type, or should we transition to somewhere else. Where are these cases coming from? So it's much less in the Google Analytics, the GA for the SEMrush, we still use those tools to give ourselves kind of an ongoing snapshot and look at trends over time. But really what matters is, is this a good investment for the attorneys that we work with? And, you know, nine times out of 10 it it's bringing in and in, um, bringing in a positive ROI, because we're constantly adapting our strategy to the metrics that make sense for them.

Robert Plank 14:54 That's great, and that's a wonderful insight that there you might have your own internal. KPIs metrics that your client doesn't care about, but they're important for you to just to kind of stay on task and get the make the work consistent and get it done. But then there's the real metrics, which is, well, how can they justify continue paying us money? And you say, well, if it's resulting in cases and it's making the money, then it's kind of a no brainer for them to keep on getting keeping that machine running. And so it's always great to get a little bit of an inside track or look into how someone's business is going. And so as far as you and growing optimize my firm, and getting this awareness, getting clients, Have you struggled at all? Have you had any kind of, you know, pivot points where you said, man, like, I don't know how I'm going to pay the bills this month or this year. I'm not sure how to continue. Have you gone through any kind of trials and tribulations like that?

Lindsey Busfield 15:48 We haven't been in that position, which is, which is really, really fortunate. So I came on with optimize my firm, I think maybe about seven years ago, and at that point, it was I now business partner Len, and we had one other employee that we had on staff, and we had a handful of clients that were all law firms that that Len had been working with for several years, many of whom we're actually still working with today. But when I came on, I came on as a project manager, and I had a background working in legal marketing. I had some experience with SEO, with a law firm that I had been working at previously, but I really came in with the purpose to grow our company and to streamline operations and make sure that our clients were receiving everything they needed, and that we could support the business and kind of scaffold the growth as we brought on new clients. And what's funny is, most of our sales and marketing efforts that we have put forward have been total flops, and we we have relied on word of mouth, and that has really been the best source of growth for us. And then over the past seven years, we've grown from eight clients to now several dozen. I've got a team of about 15 that we're working with to support all of that growth, and it's been a phenomenal experience. And I think part of that is because of the types of clients that we have chosen to work with. Again, going back to this model where we aren't wanting to be the biggest, but we're wanting to be the best. So people are naturally wanting to refer their friends over to us, their colleagues in other states over to us, because what we're doing works really well for them. And then the other part of that is my team, and we have been blessed to have just an incredible team of writers and website developers and lawyers that have worked with us as we have continued to grow, and it's been obviously we we've had some challenges along the way, but by putting in the right team, By accepting the right clients. It's been a great growth experience.

Robert Plank 18:05 Wonderful. That's great to hear. And I like what you said about kind of the the failing upwards idea, right? That you do all these things, you try out different ad campaigns, and they all fail, but then it's something it works. And, yeah, and, but that's not a reason not to try, and you're making me think about whenever I've partnered with someone, in some sense, or been part of a team, when the people on the team gave up, it was just like, it pulled everyone down, versus when the people on the team, like, kind of managed their expectations and said, hey, well, that didn't work. Let's adapt. Let's figure it out. That's just kind of how business is. It's it's mostly failure, until you get to the success, and then you do the next thing, and it's mostly failure, like, it's helpful to hear about it in that kind of big picture, and that, you know, failure doesn't mean that you, you drop the ball or you lose money. It just means that, like, you, you're performing all these efforts. And like, well, out of you try 10 different things, and two of them work, and then the finish. Oh, go ahead.

Lindsey Busfield 19:04 Now I was just going to say, I mean, that's, that's all exactly on point, and the things that we have been trying failed, because it's not who we are. So we, we tried hiring in a salesperson. And we're not sales people like we we're not pushy people. We're not here to try to get somebody to buy something that they don't necessarily need. So that wasn't the right approach for us, and we've gone to conferences, and I've taught CLE courses, and those are great, but they really don't result in a huge influx of new clients. But what we do really well is SEO. So we focused our efforts on doing our own SEO, and that has been a natural source of of clients for us, because if somebody googles SEO for personal injury lawyers, there we are at the top. Why? Because we do SEO really well, so it's natural that we show up and so beyond. Find the client referrals doing our own SEO like those are the two things that naturally lead to clients for us, because it resonates with who we are as a brand and what we naturally do really well.

Robert Plank 20:13 And it seems like you can only get there. You can only discover be your your inner self by iterating and by having that lived experience you think about in college, they say, Well, what's your major? Or, from what I know about attorneys, they say like, you know what? What do you specialize in? Right? Do you specialize in the big law or the tax law? So it seems like you've embraced that, right? You said, well, that you do not just SEO for anyone, but SEO for for the law firms and the legals profession, and that you are great at operations and getting the team working. And so I think we could all learn a little bit about that, right? And just embracing that feedback loop, so to speak. And so in our final few minutes here, I want to make sure that we cover the bases and talk about what, what you want to talk about, right? You said you're great at SEO, and that's what part of this is, right? You're appearing on podcasts, and so you get all those juicy backlinks and rankings for other things. But in these last few minutes, is there, like, a missing part of our conversation? Is there something that you wish I would ask you, I just don't know what to ask you.

Lindsey Busfield 21:18 That's a really good question, because there are so many pieces that work well together from a business perspective. And something else that I'm passionate about is making sure that you are paying as you know, as a business professional and just as a person, making sure that you are meeting all of your needs across the board, just in terms of life experience and having that work life balance. And so one of the things that I am very mindful of is making sure that I am not 100% business, but I am dedicating parts of my life to business and parts to family and parts to social and parts to being active. And all once all of those needs are met, each of those is working at its best capacity. So if I were to sit here and just business business all the time, I would get burnt out, and I wouldn't be able to serve my business well. I wouldn't be able to serve my clients well. So yeah, I'm a big advocate for mental health and making sure that you are meeting all of your needs across the board. That way you can go into whatever duty it is that you're trying to perform and do it to the best of your abilities,

Robert Plank 22:26 100% I like that. Don't burn out, and it's not all about business and making money. Have other parts of your life that way. You are in business for a reason, and so that way you have your hobbies and your friends and your family, and then your business helps with that, and you just have these different containers of your life, and they all help each other. And so you're reminding me that after this podcast, I'm going to go take a walk around the block, because I haven't done that yet. Today I've been like, you know, woke up at four and this thing and that thing, and sometimes you have to take a break and recharge and do those important things. But as far as, like, what you do outside of work, is there something that has worked really well for you? Are you like a outdoors person, hiker, road trip? Like, what do you like to do for fun?

Lindsey Busfield 23:12 So my big thing is pickleball, and I absolutely love playing pickleball. I started playing maybe six or seven years ago. I play competitively now, but mostly I just make sure that I have at least a couple days a week to get out to the courts and go and hit something and go and laugh with friends and get some exercise, get some fresh air. But that's that's my big outlet of choice.

Robert Plank 23:37 Well, great. And so we could all learn from that, right? Have one of those kinds of hobbies where, preferably it involves other people. It involves physical motion exercise, and it helps you, both mentally and physically, so that way you can show up with excellence when it comes time to deliver some great SEO results for law firms. Or if some law firms are watching so that they can do great in their business. Or if some just marketing people in general, are saying, Hey, how's it done? Even though they might not be in the law space, but they want to know how the experts that optimize my firm.com, deal with content marketing, deal with search engine optimization, then they can kind of get this advice from you. And so as far as next steps here, if someone was really impressed with what you said here today, Lindsey is optimize my firm.com, the logical place to go.

Lindsey Busfield 24:26 It is the logical place to go. And you can reach me at Lindsey at optimize my firm.com, whether you're a lawyer who's interested in in legal marketing, or if you're just a marketing person who wants some pointers or just wants to talk shop, a lot of the strategies that we put in place for the law firms are very similar across the board, no matter what industry it is that you're serving. So I'm happy to talk shop with anybody.

Robert Plank 24:52 That's great, and that's a good reminder that it's not like you're watching TV or watching a movie, like you and me are real people, right? And someone is watching a podcast. Cast they can, and they should email Lindsey at optimize my firm.com, and start that conversation. Because if like the real, I think the real serious business people, they're happy to dispense some free advice, like you're doing right here. And it even, I imagine it helps you also, Lindsey, because you're paying attention to those questions that are asked, and SEO and content, people are always saying like, hey, you know, if this question gets asked a lot, maybe that's some new blog post, or maybe that's can be updated or put more effort into it. And so it even helps and benefits you, right? Because it helps you as a thought leader, expert, and just getting into your mind the questions and answers to some things that maybe you wouldn't even have thought of, right? There's always like an even more basic beginner question that you're like, oh my gosh, I can't believe someone is asking something so fundamental and simple, because I was just too close to my niche and too much in my advanced world. And it helps to if someone's asking about a dog bite at Home Depot. Well, I better go and make that kind of blog post. And so optimize my firm.com. Is the place to go if you are a law firm who needs help to grow with SEO and content marketing. Unlike most agencies, they help you sign cases. And you know Lindsey, now that we're near to the end here, it's time for the the scary part of the show where I ask you about a fun or interesting quote or lesson that has served you in life or in business that you can pass on to us. So what comes to mind for you as far as quote or lesson that has served you?

Lindsey Busfield 26:34 So the quote that really governs my management, my business, my life, is to hire hard and manage easy. And that, you know, seems like it would just pertain to hiring new employees, but really, the heart of that is to be intentional is it's easier to say no to something that isn't a right fit at the start than to try to fix it later on. So if you can be intentional and put up boundaries and put up limitations, and say, here is exactly what I want, what I'm looking for, and even if something just kind of almost doesn't feel right, it's okay to say no to that and to keep looking for the thing that is the right fit, because down the road, it's going to make life so much simpler and so much more enjoyable if you aren't having to fix whatever that problem is that you probably should have said no to off the bat, and that both comes to hiring new employees, comes to business opportunities, comes to life opportunities. So make sure that you're being intentional about what you want. Now looking towards the end game of what might not be a great fit later on.

Robert Plank 27:43 That's a great life philosophy, boundaries, and know ahead of time what you want. So that way, if it's almost there, then still no, and then you can be patient later if it's a good start and a good first impression. And so if you are the kind of person who knows what you want, you know what you want, as far as your law firm, and you say, I want the help of Lindsey and optimize my firm.com to help me out. Then that's optimize my firm.com no contracts, geographic exclusivity, proven results for dozens of personal injury firms. And you can go to that website and find out all about what they do, as far as local SEO content, web design, Google ads, video, and you will have complete control of your website and digital assets, expert written content that converts by humans, for humans. And you can discuss getting cases by going to optimize my firm.com, and then that email we also mentioned is Lindsey with an E, L, I, N, D, S, E, y, at optimize my firm.com, and thank you for showing up Lindsey and being generous with your advice and your stories and telling us what we need to just be thinking about, because it is a constant battle for attention, for progress, for finding the time. And it really sucks to be trapped in your own, thinking, it doubly sucks to do it alone. So if you're a law firm looking at dial learning SEO, optimize, myfirm.com, and thank you Lindsey for showing up, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Do you wish you had a podcast just like this one? Do you wish you did more with your podcast, like getting more traffic, being active on social media, getting more guests, better guests, or you being a guest on other podcasts, or maybe you just want your podcast to say the same, but you don't want the time commitment you currently put into your podcast. If any or all of that sounds great to you, go right now to D, F, y, podcast.com/free to claim your 12 podcast boosters.