This is the EAT SEO Legal Sector case study of a well-known law firm, and how in 12 months we managed to increase organic visibility by 150% to turn them into one of the leading legal references for startups and the tech sector, thanks to EAT SEO positioning.
EAT: How to earn the authority and trust you need to rank on Google
Everyone in the SEO world already knows what EAT stands for: expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. However, by the time this concept was published in the guidelines Google hands to its quality raters, it was a brand-new field to explore and one where a new methodology needed to be developed.
For those unfamiliar with EAT, this concept implies that not all content people search for on Google is measured by the same rules. There are topics where Google needs to give users guarantees that they can trust the sites and content appearing in top positions.
We call this content, which isn't the only area EAT applies to, although probably the most representative, Your Money or Your Life:
"Some types of pages or topics could potentially impact a person's future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.
We call these pages 'Your Money or Your Life' pages, or YMYL."
In other words, for anything affecting users' "happiness, health or wealth", Google wants to make sure the websites showing up are recognized entities that users can trust for advice on their health or finances.
This is also the case for legal searches users run on Google.
150% visibility increase
We took over the project in February 2019. As you can see in the chart below, visibility had been stagnant throughout 2018 and was starting to trend downwards in 2019. In April 2019 we managed to change course and set a growth trajectory that would take organic visibility up to the 10,000 monthly users mark.
The points below are a few highlights of the processes and actions we rolled out during the first weeks to heal this project's trajectory.
Content with the power to build trust and capture clients
One of the first steps was to produce content with transactional value, i.e. content with the capacity to generate leads from clients interested in the service. In order to be considered a reference and experts in our sector, Google needs to find on our site the content that satisfies user search intent and that also encourages users to reach out for more information.
So we must ask ourselves:
All these questions are just a starting point.
Getting industry leaders to talk about us
Our brand reputation plays a fundamental role, and the occasions when it is referenced on other sites in our sector are crucial to earn Google's Trust.
Our client had an expert and respected team in the sector; however, this leadership was not yet reflected on their website or on other leading websites in the field. So we put together a plan to get Google to recognize our authority in the sector. How did we do it?
Experts at positioning you as an expert: EAT SEO Legal Sector Case Study
To capture clients online you need to earn the trust of both Google and your users. Many professionals' main weakness is that they don't know how to translate their authority and mastery of their specialty to the internet. To achieve that, content must be created exhaustively and rigorously, but also structured in a way that's easy to understand. Likewise, if other authoritative sites on the internet don't echo the content published on your site, it's much less likely that Google will consider you a reference in your sector.
At iSocialweb we're experts at helping experts, professionals like you, earn the online visibility and trust your know-how deserves. To do so, we put at your disposal a multidisciplinary team of writers, SEOs and analysts capable of:
Our methodology has been battle-tested across hundreds of projects. If you're an expert in your sector and want your potential clients to know it too, don't hesitate to contact our team of professionals today. We'll be delighted to help.