How to Overcome the Challenges of Legal SEO: Tips from Rankings.io’s CEO, Chris Dreyer

Welcome to the Marketing Growth Podcast. I’m your host, Shane Barker. On this episode, Chris Dreyer, the CEO and co-founder of Rankings.io, joins us for an in-depth conversation about the top challenges of Attorney SEO.

Before jumping into the conversation, I’d like to take a minute to talk to my listeners. If you need help with digital marketing tactics like SEO, influencer marketing, online PR, and content marketing, please get in touch with my team. We offer fully managed services and consultations. For more information, check out our website, shanebarker.com—that’s S, H, A, N, E, B, A, R, K, E, R.com.

Now, let’s get back to our conversation with Chris. So, what do you think are some of the common challenges when you’re doing SEO for legal attorneys, and how do you overcome them? What are some of the challenges you’ve seen that make it difficult for someone to do it on their own?

Yeah, like I said, we found that out firsthand. They were like, “Oh, just jump into the attorney game and you’ll be fine,” and then all of a sudden, I was like, “This is just…” I mean, I had a client who, after three months, said, “Hey, we want to do this again.” And I was like, “I think I lost money. I don’t want to do it again.” We weren’t ready for that. We were an SEO agency, and it’s important to realize just how much you’ve niched down. It doesn’t get any better than that. If you’re a PI attorney listening to this, you can figure it out.

Let’s put it this way: if you have tons of time to take a Udemy course and read all of Chris’s blogs, then maybe you’re not that good of an attorney—don’t take that too personally. You really should be in there doing cases, shaking hands, and kissing babies while letting the big boys handle the work behind the scenes.

So, what are you seeing in 2021 regarding attorney SEO? Is there anything you’re noticing that has changed over the last few months?

Yeah, and I can imagine that’s hard, because it’s always hard to write articles. But adding the extra legalese makes it even tougher, especially if the articles have to be approved by the attorney who’s ghostwriting them. That adds another level—it’s hard enough to get someone to approve something, so you can’t even put anything out until the attorney puts their stamp on it. Plus, clients need to understand that this is a long-term play when it comes to content. Most people want results yesterday. I mean, if I do six sit-ups, I don’t expect abs by tomorrow. So, it’s important for them to understand that this is a long-term game.

You can even show larger attorney firms with big SEO teams and say, “Hey, this is what they’re doing. If you want to compete with them, here’s what you need to do.” I might compare them side by side with a dream company—say they have 50,000 backlinks and you have 500, so all you have to do is get 49,500 more to compete. It sounds easy until you realize you can’t get that many in a week or two. But my team of “elves” will go ahead and make it happen—like, we’ll make cookies instead of SEO, and magic will happen.

And that is, and I think that’s one of the biggest things that’s always been weird to me—how can a company, not just in the attorney realm but in any niche, have clients who are working with you and your competitors at the same time? I’ve always been like, “How do you do that?” You could say, “Hey, I want to help you in this city,” whether it’s a 10-million or a 2-million city. It really comes down to who’s paying you the most. It’s always been a hard deal to wrap my head around.

Yeah, I like it—good old rebuttal. So, what are your future plans for Rankings.io? What do we have coming up?

Yeah, I love that. It’s about getting scrappy—you have link acquisition, reviews, and figuring out how to identify clients who aren’t playing by the rules and then letting Google know, “Hey, we’ve got some quality stuff over here.” That heads into spam compliance; it’s interesting that you have an entire department dedicated to that—all they do is look for the bad guys trying to do bad things.

I remember a client (I can’t say the name) in car repair—didn’t matter what city it was—who was cloaking and jamming keywords, doing some really shady stuff. I told them, “Oh, Google will find out one day.” And three years later, they got back to me saying, “Hey, this is still happening.” I was like, “Well, now we can call Chris—he’s got that black truck that’ll pull up and check your backlinks and, if not, take you to SEO prison or something.” That’s good leverage. I love it. I can’t wait—if you pull up to my house in your black van with your name on it, I’ll know I’m in trouble—either the IRS or Chris will be here. I’d rather have you just come to the house.

Alright, let’s talk about a few more things. I’m excited to have you on the podcast. With your expertise, proximity strategies, and all the different tactics you use, I think a lot of the audience is really going to enjoy this. And I don’t need to tell you that if you’re a PI attorney, you know who to go with. Or if you have plenty of time to take Udemy courses and train yourself for the next 10 years—great. Then maybe try to find more cases and do less on the SEO side of things. Now, let’s move to a fun section. Since it’s still COVID, we’re trying to have as much fun as possible. If you could travel anywhere in the world for free, and COVID wasn’t a factor, where would you go?

Yeah, so nice and green. I’m Irish, and I’ve never been to Ireland, which is probably a terrible thing to say. My wife always says, “You’ve never been to Ireland. We gotta go!” We’ve talked about it every year. We definitely need to make plans—I’m adding Ireland back to the list.

Okay, what about superpowers? If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

Ah, there we go.

And what was that movie with Bradley Cooper? Not “Irresistible”—what was it called?

Yeah, I mean…

Limitless—that was it. And it wasn’t about losing weight. He just could do whatever he wanted, and make things happen. So awesome. I like that. Man, that would be so much easier, because I love eating food. I just enjoy it. Shedding the pounds is never the fun part; eating is where I want to spend most of my time.

So what is one of your favorite books or podcasts that has shaped your career or personality—anything fun that you listen to all the time?

I flip properties too. Are you serious? That’s too funny—swear to God.

16 doors? That’s impressive.

We’ll have to include some of those in the show notes as well because they’re definitely good books. So, Chris, if anyone wants to get in contact with you, how can they reach you?

That’s awesome. Well, Chris, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. And to everyone listening—if you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe. Chris, it was a pleasure, brother, and I’m really glad it was awesome. It’ll be fun—we’ll have to connect outside of this too. If I ever get near St. Louis, I’m coming to your house, or you’re coming out for barbecue—definitely anytime.

Sounds like a plan, brother—I’ll talk to you soon. Thank you for being on the podcast.

Thanks, Chris. It’s been a mind-blowing discussion, and I’m sure my listeners have learned a thing or two about Attorney SEO and its challenges. Thanks for joining the conversation, and don’t stray too far—you don’t want to miss another exciting conversation. Stay tuned.