Two Law Firms, One Address

[underdogmike]

Hello Forum!

New to the site and have already found a lot of great information!

I have two questions.

Question 1

I have a solo lawyer that rents an office from another law firm. Up until this point all of his citations are built for the main office address and not differentiated what so ever.

Is this affecting where he appears in the local pack?

Do I need to change all of his citations and add "suite C" to his address?

Will this affect the search results for the other law firm at this location?

Questions 2

Starting in March of this year I manually built all if my clients citations. As of today, when I check webmaster tools no back links are appearing from the sites that I would expect a do follow link from.
However when I check the sites i.e. Hotfrog, the profiles are alive and well.

Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for your comments in advance!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hey Mike,

Welcome to the forum. Glad you found us!

Sorry but I'm crippled up with multiple RSI injuries in both arms. So can't do a long detailed post. Plus Sundays are quiet here since many are off playing on the weekends. This problem is actually quite involved. I can only hit a couple points, so hang on and see if you get other replies.

Don't do anything until you feel sure you understand, because GMB NAP mistakes are very hard to undo.

#1 Attys are under additional scrutiny because so many break the rules. One of the things spammy attys do is set up additional locations by doing (or pretending to do) a shared office arrangement.

Plus another thing aggressive attys do is set up multiple listings with different names websites and phone numbers. So it's really the same practice pretending to look like two separate practices.

Sooo legitimate shared office arrangements are tricky because they can look to the algo like either one of the scenarios above.

#2 Regarding adding a suite number, I wasn't clear based on what you said if there already was one or not… However if you are thinking about adding a suite number that doesn't really exist, to try to differentiate then please read my answer in the post below.

http://www.localsearchforum.com/goo...ses-sharing-same-address-solve-nap-issue.html

Hope this helps and hopefully some other pros will weigh in as well, but it may not be until tomorrow.

 

[underdogmike]

Thanks for your insight Linda!

The attorney in question is a newbie. He started his solo criminal and personal injury practice on a shoe string budget and decided to rent an office from an established law firm that practices business and family law.

So to answer your question, there is technically a space that could be labeled "suite c". As of now, no citations have been created with that designation.
I am just worried that two practices are representing the same address in the search engines eyes.

Thanks again!

 

[Colan Nielsen]

Starting in March of this year I manually built all if my clients citations. As of today, when I check webmaster tools no back links are appearing from the sites that I would expect a do follow link from.
However when I check the sites i.e. Hotfrog, the profiles are alive and well.

I'm guessing it's because Google simply hasn't crawled that page of the directory yet. Some of these sites have SO many pages that Google just doesn't get around to crawling them all.

 

[Andrew Sawyer]

So to answer your question, there is technically a space that could be labeled "suite c". As of now, no citations have been created with that designation.

It would only be kosher if the local authority on physical addresses has that space listed as a separate suite. If the physical address is just the main address use that.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JoyHawkins]

If the 2 lawyers are using different business categories their listings shouldn't conflict with each other. Have them both use the category that specifically is for their type of law (ex: Personal Injury Attorney). I agree with Andrew - you don't want to make up a suite number if it doesn't actually exist.

 

[CodyBaird]

The legal office he is renting from is going to be a real problem IMO for the reasons Linda mentioned. Joy offered the best "shortcut" but that only works if they aren't targeting the same category. If the categories are different he is still going to be competing with the more seasoned/authoritative lawyers in his city.

Bottom line, you are in one of the most competitive verticals in legal. It's even worse if the city is large. 100k population tuff, 250k, 5 times harder, 500k ug.

It's not just the other lawyers that you are up against. You are up against the firm's that they hire like Nifty Law. They have 10 years experience on you.

I am not trying to discourage you. But the biggest mistake I made early in my career was underestimating the budget required to compete on the first page. Do not over promise! He most likely has 12 to 24 months of work to start competing.

I would seriously consider a PPC budget. And a manager that has already done PPC in legal.

You're biggest shortcut is to gather Google reviews faster than the competition. If the local competition "personal injury lawyer" for example has 10 reviews, your client needs to get 10+.

That is often possible becuase the larger firms have too big of heads to treat their clients with as much care as the new guy on the block. Large firms are often too proud to ask as well.

Better click through and conversion rates will make up for the lower ranking keyword sets and traffic and Google reviews are the trump card for both.

If you are new to SEO, I would seek out clients in less competitive verticals. Legal, insurance, and dental are hard. Pet grooming and maid service are much easier. I would also focus on verticals where the average ticket/or range from $200 - $400+ because they stand to make the most per lead. Allowing them to recoup the digital spend with fewer leads.

Cities with 15k to 70k will be much easier than large cities with lots of sharks in the water.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Linda Buquet]

Awesome answer and insights Cody!