Pay Per Click Mistakes Lawyers Make: Poor Keyword Research and Inappropriate Use of Long Tail Keywords

As more clients begin to rely on Internet search engines to find a lawyer, and as more law firms increase their Internet marketing budgets, the average cost per click (CPC) of legal terms has increased. increased more than 30% annually during the last five years.

So when it comes to PPC (Google AdWords) advertising, mistakes absolutely, positively, should be avoided. Mistakes can be VERY, VERY costly. However, regardless of how often it’s talked about, the most common PPC mistakes seem to be made over and over again. Today we are going to talk about just one of dozen of them … Poor keyword research and improper use of long-tail keywords.

Good keyword research is one of the most important components of a successful campaign. There are a variety of keyword research tools that you can use to build your keyword list, including Keyword discovery Y Wordtracker, which are two of the best keyword research tools available today. Google also has a free tool called Google AdWords External Keyword Tool and it even suggests new keywords directly in the main interface where your campaigns are located.

One of the most important features of these tools is that they allow you to assess how competitive the terms you are targeting are. They can identify the most competitive keywords as well as the least competitive “ripe fruit” keywords, providing invaluable guidance on which keywords to focus on and stay away from.

It is very important to spend time creating a list of keywords that will convert for you. Sure, you can see their website on the first page of the sponsored results column for trophy terms like “Boston Personal Injury Lawyer” or “Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer”, but while these terms can get a lot of volume, it may not be your best performing keywords in terms of cost per conversion.

Terms known as “long tail keywords” will have much lower volume than these trophy terms, but they will be less expensive to bid and generally convert into customers much better than generic termsFor example, the volume of search queries for a tail term like “Ford F150 Turbo Diesel Problem” will go far, far fewer search queries than a search for “lemon law” will get. However, the people looking for you are much more likely to be your best prospects and not just researchers or tire kickers.

Another way to discover long-tail keywords is to use a tool like SpyFu or KeywordSpy. These tools are one of the best ways to spy on your competition and find out what keywords they are bidding for.

Are you currently making this mistake with your ad groups? This could cost you a fortune. Not using long tail keywords is one of the biggest mistakes you can make and a surefire way to go bankrupt quickly! Make sure to use long-tail keywords and you’ll see your performance improve significantly.

For the success of your PPC!