Cobleys Solicitors is a well-established legal firm based in Liverpool, providing a range of litigation services across Criminal and White Collar Crime cases.

In 2017, we were asked to build a digital strategy that could drive leads for Cobleys who were wanting to aggressively target the Japanese Knotweed claims sector.

We combined our SEO, web design, social media and PPC services to create a website which delivered compounding levels of visibility for the business, as well as hundreds of high-value leads every year.

Challenge

The invasive plant had been the subject of a number of newspaper articles and this exposure had led to a rise in search volume for a wide range of search terms related to the topic:

With the rise in search volume came the additional challenge of increased competition. By the time we were retained, the search landscape had developed to include such authoritative websites as the UK Government and the RHS, as well as well-established removal companies.

We knew that in order to deliver Cobleys the visibility they needed to drive a consistent flow of claims leads, we had to develop a strategy that would successfully compete with these high authority domains and thrive within a competitive ads environment.

Solution

During our research of the Japanese knotweed sector, we discovered that whilst there was a great deal of information about the topic on a range of websites, there was no single resource for concerned homeowners to go to with their queries.

The government’s legal advice on the topic was threadbare, and lacking really helpful content. Meanwhile, the similarly authoritative RHS website only had information pertaining to the horticultural context, without any information to answer the queries that homeowners had related to the legal ramifications of the plant.

Our keyword research surfaced dozens of short and long-tail keywords around the topic that had been targeted in a scatter shot approach by removal businesses, property portals and insurance companies – however, none of these websites were taking a strategic approach to building out content on the topic.

Our solution was a two-pronged approach – aiming to deliver Cobleys a high volume of leads in the short term via paid marketing, whilst building the business a strong foundation to build organic visibility in the long-term.

Website Development

Whilst we’d re-designed and re-developed Cobleys website the previous year, we decided against building out the content on their new website in favour of designing and building a new website on a new domain.

We knew that additional challenges that would face us when trying to rank content in a competitive field on a brand new domain, but ultimately we decided that developing a unique visual identity for the new trading-style would create a stronger value proposition for Cobleys’ target audience; allowing us to leverage the business’ legal credentials whilst also providing strong visual cues that they were true legal specialists in the field.

Content Creation

After a short design and development phase, we launched the Knotweed Help brand and website with a selection of pillar pages, intended to provide the website with a foundational topical relevance which we could build on over time.

With a 3 day SEO retainer in place we were able to scale up content creation tactics on a monthly basis, building out two related content hubs on the website,building off our initial pillar pages.

One content hub targeted specifically legal queries. The content built on this hub was written to target an audience who had successfully identified Japanese knotweed on their property and understood that there were legal ramifications to having the plant.

The second content hub was designed to target broader, top-of-funnel keywords that would be searched by an audience who were at the beginning of the research phase. Content on this hub was designed to capture the higher volume searches, and nudge users along from the identification phase through to the legal hub, which would then lead them to enquire with Cobleys.

Google Ads Campaign

Whilst we worked on building out the authoritative content required to build the new website’s organic rankings, we ensured that a consistent flow of leads was delivered via several Google Ads campaigns.

Whilst we had a healthy daily budget to work with, the competitiveness of the niche and cost of clicks for legal terms meant that we needed to be careful with our budget allocation. With this in mind, we targeted a mixture of high-intent keywords (more expensive) and broader research-intent terms (less expensive) in order to give the Knotweed Help brand visibility in the short term, whilst ensuring we were still targeting people who were actively searching for legal assistance with their Japanese knotweed infestation.

As our content creation started to reap dividends, and the website’s organic traffic built up from day-to-today, we were able to divert more budget away from the broader search terms and focus more on the high-intent legal-focused keywords that would more consistently drive actionable leads for the business.

Social Media Advertising

We knew that in order to deliver Cobleys a consistent flow of enquiries, we needed to leverage a full-service marketing approach targeting their audience wherever they would be on online – this included social media platforms.

Thanks to the work done by volunteer organisations, we were able to leverage Japanese knotweed heat map data and use this as a basis for our location targeting for paid social media campaigns.

We combined this data with publicly available information regarding home values to specifically target an audience of homeowners who were more likely to own a home affected by Japanese knotweed and of a sufficient value to meet the quantum required to make the lead worth pursuing.

Playing off the prevalence that Japanese knotweed had in the tabloid news cycle, we created visually arresting ads that grabbed the attention of homeowners, and encouraged them to either get their potential infestation identified or to consult with Cobleys for legal advice.

Live Chat Monitoring

Whilst we had confidence that our content would satisfy the requirements of a person in ‘research mode’, we knew that not every homeowner would necessarily want to take a deep dive into the legal intricacies of the topic in order to find an answer for their specific needs.

We recommended that Cobleys use live chat functionality across their website and social media channels, so that they could engage with their audience in the moment that they were most engaged.

Cobleys were happy to take this approach but their staff didn’t have time in their schedules to respond to ad hoc questions. After proving our knowledge of the topic with our writing on the website, we were instructed to act as representatives for the business on their live chats.

Members of our team would respond to enquiries as they came in, guiding visitors through to specific resources, offering help with identification of Japanese knotweed and passing on any valuable leads to Cobleys for further investigation.

Results

Starting from a fresh domain in 2017, we understood that it would take time for our content work to have the best impact. Whilst our ad campaigns drove the bulk of the leads in the first two years of the website going live, from 2019 onwards our consistent content work began to reap dividends, and the website was generating between 25-50 organic visitors a day.

Towards the end of 2019 we saw a further increase in keywords rankings, and by mid-2020 the website was ranking for high-volume legal-oriented keywords such as ‘knotweed solicitors’ and ‘knotweed law’. These were previously costing upwards of £5 per click to target on Google Ads.

With the increase in organic rankings came a further increase in organic traffic, with hundreds of leads being driven for the business every year.