Personal injury firm competes with directories on authority
A regional injury firm was buried under legal directories and national lead-gen sites. Digital PR and content authority moved them into the top 3.
+142
Referring Domains
+58%
Top-3 Rankings
+37%
Signed Cases
The challenge
For every valuable query, the first page was directories and aggregators. The firm's own pages were stuck between positions 8 and 15.
What the audit found
- Domain authority far below page-1 competitors
- Practice-area pages thin and near-duplicate
- No original content or data
- Slow site, render-blocking scripts
- Anchor text over-optimized on existing links
The strategy
Run a 12-month authority program: annual injury-claims data study, expert commentary for reporters, practice-area content rebuilt for depth, and technical cleanup — with careful anchor-text distribution.
Ref. domains
1,284
+142
Backlinks
18.4k
+2.1k
New (30d)
97
Lost (30d)
12
Referring domains growth
What we did
PR
State-level injury-claims data study; expert quotes on legislative changes; 19 placements.
Off-Page
Legal association links, scholarship and local sponsorships, unlinked-mention reclamation.
Content
Each practice area rebuilt with process explainers, FAQs and case-result context.
Technical
Removed render-blocking scripts, LCP -1.7s, fixed canonical and pagination.
What changed
+142
Referring Domains
12 months, editorial + local
+58%
Top-3 Rankings
tracked practice-area set
+37%
Organic Leads
case evaluation forms + calls
+37%
Signed Cases (organic)
matter management attribution
+52%
Branded Search
post-PR coverage
illustrative +$3.4M
Case Value Influenced
annualized estimate
How it unfolded
Month 1–2
Technical cleanup, content rebuild starts
Month 3–4
Data study launches, first coverage
Month 5–9
Links compound, rankings climb into top 5
Month 10–12
Top-3 for core practice-area queries
We finally rank alongside the directories instead of below them. The data study alone put us on the map with reporters.
Want results like these for your business?
Book a free strategy session and we'll map the technical SEO, on-page, local, authority and AI-visibility work that will move your numbers.