About the project
The client is a personal injury law firm in Michigan. Personal injury is one of the most competitive areas in legal search: people searching for a lawyer after an accident usually call one of the first firms they see, so ranking on page one for “city plus personal injury lawyer” searches makes a direct difference to new cases. I worked on this account as the only SEO specialist at a digital marketing agency.
The challenge
The firm wanted more clients from local search in its practice area. The site had pages with technical and on-page problems, pages Google was showing but few people clicked, and pages with no internal links at all. In the middle of the project, a bigger problem arrived: the firm's main Google Business Profile was suspended.
Pages with errors and weak on-page signals
The site audit found pages with technical and on-page problems that held them back.
High impressions, low clicks
Search Console showed queries and pages with many impressions but poor positions and few clicks. Google already associated these pages with the right searches; they were not convincing enough to rank higher or earn the click.
Orphan pages
Some pages had no internal links pointing to them. Google finds pages mostly by following links, so an orphan page is hard to discover and rarely ranks.
A suspended Google Business Profile
The firm's main profile was suspended. For a local law firm, that profile is what appears in the map results, so the suspension cut off one of its most important sources of calls. The team was understandably alarmed.
What I did
Fixing the problem pages
I went through the site, fixed the pages that had problems, and restructured the content into clear practice area sections so each area had a page strong enough to rank.
CTR work on high-impression pages
Using Search Console, I picked the pages and queries with the most impressions and the weakest positions, and optimized their titles, descriptions and content to match what those searchers wanted.
Orphan pages and internal links
I audited the site for orphan pages and linked every page from relevant content, so all pages are connected and discoverable by Google.
Blog content
I published blog posts targeting questions potential clients search for.
Citation audit
Using Local Falcon and other local SEO tools, I audited the firm's existing citations and local rankings, to check that its name, address and phone number were consistent and to see where it ranked across the area.
Recovering the Google Business Profile
When the main profile was suspended, I gave the firm a clear plan: what to do, what to avoid while the profile was down, and how to request reinstatement. The profile was recovered.
What a similar business can take from this
- Start with the pages Google already shows. Pages with many impressions and poor positions are the fastest wins, because Google has already connected them to the right searches.
- Check for orphan pages. A page with no internal links can be well written and still never rank, because Google rarely finds it.
- If your Google Business Profile is suspended, do not panic and do not create a new one. Follow the reinstatement process carefully: a rushed reaction can make it harder to get the original profile back.