My Philosophy

My Philosophy 1Values Align

Maybe you’ve been a client for years or you’re just finding this page. Either way, thanks for visiting! A little about my Philosophy and Values:

  • I’m laid back, easy to work with and I like results.
  • I’m also blunt, honest and value my time.
  • I expect the same from the people I work with.

I’ve long been a believer in doing the right thing, being honest (both with yourself and others) and Karma. I try to align myself with companies and clients who feel the same. This is one of the reasons I began working for my current employer. They are active in the community, give back, care about people and employees and are a Force for Good. Companies and people with these values are inspiring, leaders and are always focused on the big picture with an end goal of building a better future. I like that.

I want to work with companies who:

  • Don’t devote 100% of their marketing budget to SEO
  • Have rabid, loyal fans
  • Are philanthropic
  • Care about their customers
  • Stand for something
  • Are transparent

I practice what I preach. You’ll notice that when you talk to me. There are examples scattered throughout my blog as well. Check my Local SEO, Citation BuildingGMB, Consultation or Audit pages. Notice how I have my pricing on each page. That’s transparency! I may lose some clients this way and competitors may copy or low-ball me but that’s how the game goes. The clients who really want to work with me do so because I’m honest, open and communicate clearly throughout the process. If I lose a potential client purely on the costs which I have listed, that is not a client I would want to work with anyway. See where I’m going here?

This should not be simply about cost. It is about building relationships, helping each other and making what we do worthwhile for everyone involved. 

I recently found that Wil Reynolds has similar values and has a name for it. Wil calls this RCS. That’s what I want from my clients too – Real Company Shit.

If you hit me up and our values don’t line up, we won’t work together. Don’t take it personally. I would simply rather not deal with someone who is going to waste my time, turn into a burdensome client or put me in a situation where I may have to go against my own values. If that turns you off and away from my website, we probably weren’t going to work well together anyway.

It’s cool if you aren’t into Real Company Shit but we won’t be working together. Just my style and my values.

Email me if you’re in a good company, doing good things for people.

If you are a good company, trying to do good things for people and doing it the right way – Lets make something happen!

My SEO Process

My SEO approach is a bit different than others you may have previously seen. Here’s a few ways I’m different:

  • I’m laid back, value time and results, and expect the same from you.
  • I won’t work with your competitors – mostly because that would be shitty for everyone involved.
    • I don’t want to compete with myself for ranking a similar business.
  • I don’t like contracts (maybe to my detriment).
    • We work together month to month on a flat fee.
  •  I work on your site every month.
    • Shocking? Maybe. The key to continued rankings and leads is to continue optimizing your website, creating content, and building links.
  • I have a strategy you can see and adjust
    • You will be able to see everything I do and can have a say in your strategy

Here is a rough outline of what you can expect in the first 3 months we work together:

Month 1

The first month of work is making sure everything on your law firm website is foundationally and fundamentally correct. Think of digital marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a house. You need a strong foundation to build the house on. If the foundation is not stable, the entire house will collapse. Digital marketing is very similar. If the proper processes and fundamentals are not implemented early on, your chances of success will be greatly diminished, or you will waste time going back to fix broken items in the future. I will perform a technical website audit as well as a Local SEO audit to determine where we stand in the first month.

Implementing tracking systems via Google Tag Manager and potentially other call tracking systems is key. Lastly, ensuring Google can access your website properly, find all of your pages, and come back to find new pages. This is all detailed in a list of more technical terms below:

  • Technical website audit
  • Local SEO audit
  • Build Local Citations
  • Pitch New Content Ideas
  • NAP Consistency Audit
  • Set Up Schema
  • Linked GSC and GA
  • Set up or Confirm Access to Google Analytics
  • Plan for Reviews
  • Set up GTM/test for click to call
  • Get Access to and Optimize GMB Profile
  • Ensure Bing Places is live and Accurate
  • Set up a Google Alert to notify you every time the brand or attorney get mentioned

Month 2

The second month activities is more about testing and verifying items on the website are working properly and all the tasks from Month 1 were implemented correctly. Testing forms, optimizing your mobile site for clicks and goals, optimizing your website for site speed.

I will also be researching your competitors content, backlinks, and reviews. These will be the top 3 components in being able to consistently show up in the Google searches when people are searching for your services.

  • Add Goal Tracking to Analytics
  • Get Feedback on Blog Post/Practice Page Topics From Client
  • Competitive Link Research
  • Practice Area Page and Blog Post Content Research
  • Site speed Optimization
  • Reviews
  • Running screaming from crawl to check for broken internal links
  • Testing forms
  • Optimize mobile for CTA
  • Reviewing/testing forms for spam/captcha

Month 3

The 3rd month is about setting you up for success moving forward. Items like creating a reliable content plan for each month, determining any linkable assets, and continuing to study your competitors. Content which your (potential) clients are searching for needs to be created on a consistent basis. Keyword analysis, competitor research, and trends will all be reviewed and taken into account.

I will also add internal links to your website. These are important and will allow Google to easily crawl your website from page to page, and come back more often. The more the Google spider is on your page (finding new pages, crawling old pages which are updated, finding new links) the better off your website will be.

  • Linkable assets
  • Content calendar
  • Internal linking
  • Competitor Research (cont.)

What’s Next?

Send me an email or connect via Twitter and so we can get the intro’s out of the way. From there, we can jump on a call, or Skype. I look forward to meeting you!

Brian Barwig