The 3 Things Your Firm Needs Before SEO

You do not need an SEO strategy to grow a seven-figure law firm and even beyond.

What you actually need are three things.

One, you need a clearly defined client avatar.

Who have you built your law firm to serve? And the more dialed in you can make that, And ideally, like a single practice area or a small group of tightly related practice areas, not only is it easier to like deliver the legal work, right, because you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time, it is much easier to build your brand and market your law firm when you are dialed in on a very specific client avatar.

So that's number one.

Number two, you need to have an intelligent relationship development strategy.

So here's what that looks like.

When you are in the early stages of growing your firm, your best clients are coming to you primarily through referrals.

So you need to understand who is in position to refer you your ideal clients.

That can be professional referral sources.

that can be family and friends.

Oftentimes it's current clients, past clients, so you should be building that list, right? So have an idea of who is in position to send your ideal clients to you and put a strategy together to build relationships in those areas, right? Whether those are networking groups, community events, whatever, right? Get active and build relationships with referral sources, people who are in position to send you clients.

And then number three, Use digital marketing strategically.

Not a shotgun, spend thousands and thousands of dollars a month approach.

Use it strategically to support your relationship development strategy.

Two great ways to do that.

One, email marketing.

Yes, I know, not incredibly sexy in the year 2026, but it still works.

It's really valuable.

Email marketing to keep you connected.

to your list and to your referral sources and to your clients and your past clients and new leads that are coming in.

And then number two, social media retargeting.

Take that email list, load it into the meta business manager, the LinkedIn business manager, and even just a couple hundred dollars a month in ad spend is going to let you saturate those lists pretty well.

And what that means is not only are you meeting these people in person and creating these relationships, not only are they getting your email marketing, But when they log on to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, they're seeing your content.

That is how you leverage and multiply the work that you're doing to build relationships.

Do that before you spend a penny on SEO.

So it's three things.

One, dial in your ideal client avatar.

Two, get active in the areas where those people spend their time or where those referral sources spend their time.

And then three, Use digital marketing strategically to support those efforts.

That is where I would start if I was building a law firm and trying to get to seven figures.

You do not need an SEO strategy to grow a seven-figure law firm and even beyond.

What you actually need are three things.

One, you need a clearly defined client avatar.

Who have you built your law firm to serve? And the more dialed in you can make that, And ideally, like a single practice area or a small group of tightly related practice areas, not only is it easier to like deliver the legal work, right, because you don't have to reinvent the wheel each time, it is much easier to build your brand and market your law firm when you are dialed in on a very specific client avatar.

So that's number one.

Number two, you need to have an intelligent relationship development strategy.

So here's what that looks like.

When you are in the early stages of growing your firm, your best clients are coming to you primarily through referrals.

So you need to understand who is in position to refer you your ideal clients.

That can be professional referral sources.

that can be family and friends.

Oftentimes it's current clients, past clients, so you should be building that list, right? So have an idea of who is in position to send your ideal clients to you and put a strategy together to build relationships in those areas, right? Whether those are networking groups, community events, whatever, right? Get active and build relationships with referral sources, people who are in position to send you clients.

And then number three, Use digital marketing strategically.

Not a shotgun, spend thousands and thousands of dollars a month approach.

Use it strategically to support your relationship development strategy.

Two great ways to do that.

One, email marketing.

Yes, I know, not incredibly sexy in the year 2026, but it still works.

It's really valuable.

Email marketing to keep you connected.

to your list and to your referral sources and to your clients and your past clients and new leads that are coming in.

And then number two, social media retargeting.

Take that email list, load it into the meta business manager, the LinkedIn business manager, and even just a couple hundred dollars a month in ad spend is going to let you saturate those lists pretty well.

And what that means is not only are you meeting these people in person and creating these relationships, not only are they getting your email marketing, But when they log on to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, they're seeing your content.

That is how you leverage and multiply the work that you're doing to build relationships.

Do that before you spend a penny on SEO.

So it's three things.

One, dial in your ideal client avatar.

Two, get active in the areas where those people spend their time or where those referral sources spend their time.

And then three, Use digital marketing strategically to support those efforts.

That is where I would start if I was building a law firm and trying to get to seven figures.