Steve Richardson is the owner of Richardson Law Offices, as well as a long-time friend and Foster Web Marketing client. He has always been proactive about managing his website and marketing, and he’s seen that strategy bring in really good results for him over the years. 

However, at the end of 2019, he started noticing an unusual drop in his traffic and conversions. It was a real head-scratcher. 

After all, he was doing everything right! Right? 

Steve knew something was wrong, so he reached out to our team for a deeper investigation into his sagging numbers. We were able to identify the problem, and you can check out the rest of Steve’s story in his own words:

"In October of 2019, I started to see a drop in my traffic and conversions on my site. By mid- to late November, they had dropped by over 40%! I then contacted Foster Web Marketing to find out what was going on and what I could do to fix it.

Jamie Kelly of the Foster team advised me that Google was rewarding other sites over mine because they were refreshing the content regularly, and I wasn't. In short, I had fallen down on the job when it came to posting new content and keeping the current site content updated.”

That’s right—content and updates to the website had fallen down Steve’s priority list, and his traffic and conversions had gone with it. 

Identify the “Bumps” in Your Marketing Strategy…and Overcome Them

When you market your law firm online, you expect some bumps in the road. It happens to everyone! It ESPECIALLY happens to the seasoned pros! When you’re doing well, and the marketing is working and bringing in cases, you get busy. There’s all the stuff that’s right in front of you, shouting for your attention. It makes it really easy to let the routine marketing tasks slide.

Once he was aware of the problem, though, Steve wasn’t having any of that. He got a quick SEO refresher course on keywords, content, headlines, links, and calls to action from Jamie, then they put their heads together to figure out the best way to get back to forward motion.

The strategy that came out of that? Focus on content, and do a complete content audit on the website. 

With a list of all landing pages that had not received any traffic over 12 months in his hands, Steve got down to the details of getting back into Google’s good graces: 

“[The new content strategy] involved doing several things at once (and not in any particular order):

I set about writing and posting 3 pieces of content per week starting Christmas week and continuing through February at that rate. I used DSS to set publish dates out into the future, so although they were being written in a big chunk, they were being released at a steady rate over time.

I went through each landing page with no traffic (most of which were news items that were no longer topical). I reviewed each one and, if there was no saving it, I deleted it and routed traffic back to the “News” homepage. Some of them made good topics for new content, so I recycled them after deletion, which helped keep the new content train running.

I also started revising content, changing H3 subheads to H2 to make the content more structured for a Google crawl, and made sure that keywords were put into them. I also made sure there were plenty of links, corrected any typos or formatting errors, and varied the language in the calls to action.”

You Might Only Be a Few Months Away From Marking Your Biggest Problems “Solved”

It would be a lie to say that doing a complete content audit of a website is easy, but having a plan and strategy in place makes it a whole lot easier—and the effort is totally worth it: 

“This last part is ongoing, but by the end of February, my traffic and conversion numbers were back to September 2019 levels. I then slowed to 2-3 pieces of content per week for March and April, and then 1-2 per week for May forward. Things look to be back to normal.”

There you go. Steve noticed the dive in his numbers. He asked for advice when he couldn’t find the answer, and he took quick action to address it. By February, he saw a return to normal, so he could relax a little, move into maintenance mode, and get back to work on steadily increasing those gains. 

All that in just four months! That’s some amazing work from Steve and Jamie, and you can even check out the results for yourself. Take a look at some of Steve's recent site content here

Lawyers often let big problems with their websites (like content deficiency, outdated optimization, and outdated pages) go on for so long and get so bad that it takes YEARS to fix everything and get back on track again. However, when you diagnose those problems early and treat them with expert advice, that potential marketing “crisis” turns into nothing more than a brief bump in the road.   

Because he was able to get answers quickly and get to work on an effective solution right away, Steve Richardson was back to normal in just a few months—and he’s still getting better every day.

How about you? Are YOU looking for some guidance with a content audit, SEO tweaks, or improving the quality of your site traffic? 

Are You A Lawyer Or podiatrist Who Wants To Learn How Solid Content Can Earn You More Clients?

If you are seeking a trusted, authoriative partner to help you write content that not only attracts but actually converts into clients, Foster Web Marketing is here to help. Contact us online or call our office directly at 888.866.0939 to schedule your free consultation. We have been helping clients throughout the United States and internationally since 1998 are confident we can help you not only reach, but exceed your goals.  

Tom Foster
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Founder|Owner, Speaker, Creator of DSS, World of Marketing Podcast Host, EOS Implementor