At a glance
Challenge
- Recovering from a drop in top 10 positions after a Google Core Update
- Turning a decline of nearly 24% in organic traffic into growth
- Increasing the conversion orientation of the website
Results
- 20% increase in organic traffic vs last year (past 90 days)
- 92% increase in organic conversion vs last year (past 90 days)
Starting point
When Straight came to us in September 2024, some recovery was already visible, but pre-Google update levels were still far away. An in-depth audit revealed the root of the problem: a lack of E-E-A-T. The website was a ‘Your Money Your Life’ (YMYL) site, meaning the content could directly affect the visitor's life.
For Google, it is crucial that the information is reliable and comes from experts. The old website did not meet this adequately: the ‘About us’ page was brief, expert profiles lacked depth and knowledge base articles did not have clear author info.
Strategy: a new foundation building on E-E-A-T
The solution was not to patch up the old website, but to build a completely new foundation. Together with Lotte van de Wetering (Rechtdoor) and Jesse Bakker (Tatof, WordPress development), we developed a framework for a new WordPress website, where every page and element was thought through from the E-E-A-T principle.
The vision behind this strategy was not only to future-proof Rechtdoor.nl in terms of Google Core Updates and the future of AI SEO / LLMs, as we are also convinced that E-E-A-T has a great contribution to make in this (legal) field to conversion.
The person behind the lawyer: Expert profiles that inspire confidence
The old expert profiles were too superficial. They contained a lot of personal information about hobbies and place of residence, but lacked the professional depth a potential client is looking for.
The revamped approach:
- Comprehensive biography: Each profile now includes a short and a comprehensive biography in which the lawyer explains his or her expertise, experience and motivations.
- Personal USPs: We have defined unique strengths for each employee, such as “Go-getter”, “Honest” and “Clear”, to show the person behind the professional.
- Evidence of expertise: All knowledge base articles written by the respective lawyer are now displayed directly on his or her profile. This provides concrete evidence of their knowledge.
- Low barrier to contact: Prominent contact buttons and direct phone numbers make it easy for visitors to step into a conversation.
From informative to persuasive: knowledge base articles as conversion machines
The knowledge base was a wealth of valuable information, but the presentation did not do justice to the content. Articles were anonymous (no author) and did not offer the reader a clear next step.
The revamped approach:
Focus on conversion: We have added several CTAs (Call-To-Actions). Visitors can now easily download model letters or information booklets (linked to an e-mail funnel) or directly schedule a consultation.
Authorship and topicality: Each article now has an author box with photo, name and a link to the extended profile. The publication date has also been added to show timeliness.
Sidebar confident: Next to the articles is now a prominent sidebar showing the excellent score on Lawyer Score (9.7/10), Google reviews and the lawyer who specialises in the onderopic of the article.
The face of the office: An ‘About Us’ page with depth
The old ‘About Us’ page consisted of just two paragraphs. This was a missed opportunity to showcase the firm's unique story and reliability.
The revamped approach:
- Mission and vision: The page now tells a clear story about Rechtdoor's mission: to make law accessible and understandable.
- Visual presentation of the team: The entire team is introduced with professional photos and a short biography, with a click-through to their personal profiles.
- Prominent reviews: The excellent reviews are no longer hidden on a separate page, but visually and prominently integrated.
A thread of reliability and personality
Besides the specific page adaptations, we have made a number of website-wide changes that constantly contribute to confidence and professionalism.
The revamped approach:
From stock to authentic: All generic stock photos have been replaced with professional, personal photos taken during a photo shoot. This gives the website an authentic and approachable look. A corporate video is in the works to further enhance this.
Always visible confidence: Both the header and footer now consistently show review scores.
After going live: the content process and the optimal custom GPT
With the new platform and migration, we achieved growth in both traffic and conversion. Yet something was still missing in the (new) content process. Lotte van de Wetering (Rechtdoor) played and still plays an important role in generating content, especially in the knowledge section of the website. Because there is quite a difference between a layman writing a content piece about yard fencing and Lotte or a colleague doing so. A difference in quality, factuality and content. However, Straight is too busy at the moment to generate a stream of content, so we have built a custom GPT that comes very close to Lotte's quality.
The CustomGPT goes through a content process for each article to be written, in which we feed the GPT with the right content. The final knowledge base article is often already so good that Rechtdoor.nl itself hardly needs to adjust anything.
Review
“I have been working with Onder for about a year now and really should have done so much earlier. I thought I could do it all myself with that SEO and I was doing just fine but since working with Onder, my website's findability and conversions have gone up tremendously. Jan Willem is a true professional who immerses himself in your business and therefore knows exactly what works. Besides, I just have a lot of confidence in Onder. I have had very bad experiences with other companies in online marketing and therefore really wanted to keep doing everything myself. I'm glad I chose to outsource my SEO after all. It's better for my business and also gives me peace of mind because I know my wesbite is in very good hands.”
Lotte van de Wetering
Lawyer at Rechtdoor
How to proceed now?
These are good results, showing that in many markets, E-E-A-T is not only important for SEO, but also definitely for conversion. Reliability is an important factor within many a customer journey, especially within the your money your life markets.
Wondering if we can do something for you too? Then feel free to contact us!
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