Every personal injury firm wants more car accident cases, and our client base at Majux is no different. This blog will discuss strategies for earning more car accident cases online, the competitive landscape of this niche, and what you can expect if you pursue a digital marketing strategy.
Using Local SEO to Get More Car Accident Cases
It’s more common for potential clients to Google “car accident lawyer near me” than to Google “car accident lawyer New York.” That brings the importance of the Google Map Pack into the spotlight.
Build a GMB Profile Optimized for MVAs
In Google My Business, your “primary category” will be “personal injury attorney,” since that is the most relevant option available in Google My Business. “Car Accident Lawyer” is not available as a primary category.
However, in your info settings within the GMB dashboard, you can add “services” that you write yourself. In this section, you will want to type “car accident attorney” or something similar, along with your other services. This will show that service on your profile to interested potential clients.
Secondly, you’ll need to write a detailed description that mentions your car accident services – you want people who arrive on your profile to know that you can help them.
Thirdly, add products to your GMB profile. You can have a product for each area in which your practice, and include a thumbnail image for each:
Earn Local Citations and Backlinks
We discuss this in depth in our guide to law firm SEO, but you will need to earn backlinks to your website and citations for your Google My Business listing.
Backlinks require another website to link to your own. The stronger and more relevant the referring website, the more benefit the backlink will have for your rankings in the map pack.
Local citations, on the other hand, are instances of your business’s name, address, and phone number across the internet. This information needs to perfectly match the information on your GMB profile, and as you accrue more citations, you can rank higher in local search.
Additional reading: Backlinking for law firms
Get Reviews – But Don’t Be Spammy
If you want to compete in the map pack for a tough niche (like car accidents), you will need to acquire as many positive reviews on your Google My Business profile. Ask colleagues, former clients, and even friends to chip in.
However, Google has been cracking down on spam review practices. If you hire a review generation service to write fake reviews, or if you suddenly get a blast of 20 reviews in a week, Google may choose to hide the reviews, or worse, suspend your profile.
Proceed in an ethical and reasonable manner while getting GMB reviews.
Adding Keywords to Your GMB Title
You may have noticed that some firms try to spam the map pack by adding keywords to their title. Here’s a fictional example:
Gurney Law Firm | Chicago Car Accident Lawyers
This is against Google’s guidelines! Your competitors and their agencies will be able to successfully request edits to your profile, and you could even get suspended if you maintain this practice over time.
However, if you register your LLC as “Gurney Injury and Accident Law Firm,” or if you register a DBA, you are within the rules. You may need to send documents to Google proving that it’s your business name, but you will be in the clear. These keywords in your law firm’s title can help you rank better.
Using Organic SEO for Car Accident Cases
By “traditional SEO,” we are referring to the 10 websites that show on the first page of Google’s search engine results. Realistically, you’ll need to rank in the top 5 results to get leads consistently (unless you have a brand with a high level of differentiation).
You Need Deep and Helpful Content About Car Accidents
To rank on Google, you will need a page on your website with:
- An optimized page title and meta description
- 1,000 words, or perhaps thousands of words, of well-organized and relevant content
- Helpful and optimized sub-headings throughout your page
Firstly, include information that “localizes” your page. Mention local roadways, dangerous intersections, and your firm’s office location.
Secondly, mention and explain state-specific statutes regarding car accidents. Your audience could benefit from that information, and Google will better discern your authority in the field.
Thirdly, explain to your audience what to do throughout the car accident process, and how exactly you can help them. After all, you need to convince them to call you after they arrive on your page.
Write Blog Content Targeting Long Tail Keywords
One page on your website can’t possibly rank for all of the important keywords clients may search for on Google. That brings a “long tail keyword” strategy into play.
Write single-issue blog posts about items like:
- The statute of limitations in your state of focus
- Potential settlement amounts
- How to navigate the healthcare system after a car accident injury
- What to do with lowball settlement offers from insurance companies
Of course, a leading SEO agency like Majux can help you identify, write, and publish content that will generate cases for your law firm.
Should You Use Google Ads to Get Car Accident Cases?
Google Ads works to generate cases, but the costs can be unpalatable. Some of our clients work in cities where the average click for a phrase like “car accident lawyer near me” costs $400 or more. Here is a channel-by-channel discussion of Google Ads for law firms.
Search Ads for Car Accident Leads
Search ads let you bid on car accident terms, show a relevant ad, drive users to a relevant landing page, and sign more cases. However, here is some math:
Your average cost per click could be $300 or more in competitive markets. Let’s go with $300.
If you got a great conversion rate of 20%, you would need ten clicks to generate a lead. That would be $3,000 per lead, and your closing ability determines how good your overall cost per case may be. Furthermore, you can never totally weed out “leads” from property damage-only calls and other junk.
That can vary wildly of course, and we are working with small data sets in this blog. But the fact remains – it’s expensive!
That said, we have been able to mitigate the cost of these leads by pairing broad match keywords with a huge list of negative keywords. This seems to be the more effective way to run search ads for car accident cases in 2022, but the strategy is evolving.
Can Display Ads Generate MVA Cases?
Display ads generally fall by the wayside for law firms, but you can use Custom Intent Audiences to get cases. This feature in Google Ads allows you to build a list of relevant keywords, upload the list to Google, and run a display campaign to that audience.
We’ve generated cases by building car accident specific audiences, but we’ve also targeted audiences of people looking for collision repair services nearby, rental car agencies, and more.
The targeting is fairly broad, so your cost per lead will be similar to search advertising. But you will get a tremendous amount of impressions at a good CPM along the way.
LSAs For Car Accident Clients
We always recommend that you set up and run a Local Service Ads campaign for your law firm. The cost is low, and while you will get some junk calls, you can usually get refunded if you get a totally irrelevant lead
The only issue here is that many firms predict future growth and make binding plans based on their LSA performance. While we all wish the good performance would last forever, they are very unpredictable.
We’ve had clients get 60+ LSA leads one month, then drop to 30 the following month. They didn’t do anything wrong, they were simply the victim of more firms jumping into the market or Google metering the volume (as they often do).
Let us Help You Get More Car Accident Cases
At Majux, we have multiple clients ranking #1 or #2 in their respective markets for “car accident lawyer” terms, and we’ve driven countless leads through PPC marketing as well. We primarily focus on personal injury lawyer SEO, and we have years of experience in the field. Send us a note if you’d like to hear more about a sustainable, profitable strategy for getting more car accident leads.
