A growing North Carolina personal injury law firm had strong statewide visibility, but was being outranked in five local markets that mattered most for new case acquisition. New Path Digital launched a local SEO program that gave each city its own set of pages and measurement capabilities so results could be tracked back to signed cases, driving an estimated $432,610 worth of revenue from new cases in just the first five months.
Key takeaways
- Each city received its own dedicated page. A statewide presence doesn’t win local searches. Each of the five cities got its own location hub page, with practice-area pages linked from within it.
- Signed case value mattered, not just traffic. The goal was growth in valuable signed cases, so results were measured by matching form submissions to lead and case data rather than by visits or rankings.
- Markets were analyzed for conversion potential as well as volume. We know that smaller markets can drive a higher lead to signed case rate from lower competition, so we invested in creating dedicated pages for those cities as well.
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| Industry | Multi-location personal injury law firm |
| Markets | Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Wilmington, Greenville, Durham |
| Form submissions | 103 |
| Signed cases | 47 |
| Est. earned case value | $432,610 |
Results compiled by New Path Digital from CRM data.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the art and science of optimizing a businesses’ visibility on search engines in regions, cities, and areas where a business operates or provides services. It is also one of New Path Digital’s marketing specialities. For a law firm, that means being a top-listed option across search engines in cities where they practice law so the firm shows up where clients in that market are searching. For this project, New Path Digital leveraged its strength in local North Carolina SEO to create more business for long-standing law firm client.
The Problem: Strong Statewide, Outranked Locally in Five Cities
The firm was doing well. It had strong visibility across North Carolina and solid practice-area pages. But in five cities (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Wilmington, Greenville, and Durham), a competitor ranked above it for “personal injury lawyer” searches.
The firm did not have local landing pages targeting each city, leaving market share and new case acquisition on the table. New Path Digital saw an opportunity to grow the business.
The Strategy: A Hub-and-Spoke Location Page Build for Personal Injury Firms
A hub-and-spoke build gives each city one location hub page, with practice-area pages linked within it. For this firm, every market got:
- A location hub page for the city.
- Five practice-area pages beneath it: personal injury, auto, car, motorcycle, and truck accidents.
One workers’ compensation page served all markets. The pages included clear calls to action, a callback request form that fed the firm’s lead management system, and Google Business Profile links tagged with UTM parameters so traffic could be tracked.
Each of the tracked metrics were defined as:
- Form submissions: completed forms on the pages.
- Signed cases: submissions matched to signed cases in the firm’s case management data, by phone, email, and name.
- Estimated case value: the revenue the firm could earn from winning each signed case, estimated by case type.
Results by Market: Greensboro Led in Volume, Wilmington in Conversion
| Market | Form submissions | Signed cases | Submission-to-case rate | Estimated case value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greensboro | 59 | 24 | 41% | $192,994 |
| Winston-Salem | 22 | 10 | 45% | $102,396 |
| Wilmington | 9 | 7 | 78% | $53,935 |
| Greenville | 9 | 3 | 33% | $35,453 |
| Durham | 4 | 3 | 75% | $29,176 |
Greensboro led in volume. Wilmington shows why to read conversion alongside volume: the fewest submissions of any market, but the highest share of them becoming signed cases. The metro’s population growth, which ranked seventh in the U.S. for 2025, is the likely reason.
How Did Location Hub Pages Drive New Cases?
Each location hub page gave a searcher in a specific city a clear reason and a clear way to act, and a clear page structure builds search authority over time. The shared workers’ compensation page shows how much visibility a single well-built page can earn across every market.
How Did New Path Track Searches to Signed Cases?
Most firms never connect an original organic search to a lead, let alone the revenue earned from that lead that results in a won case. Here, leads from form submissions and calls on the location pages were matched in the firm’s CRM and followed all the way through to a signed case. That showed which markets produced cases and estimated revenue, and where to expand, retract, and ultimately invest time and resources.
Key Takeaway: Attribution Made Local SEO Measurable and Repeatable
Local SEO lets businesses build digital infrastructure much like opening a new storefront in a new location. Like a new storefront, locally optimized web pages are open to bring in qualified business, but unlike a new storefront are easily adjusted to respond to business, client, and seasonal needs with minimal investment and overhead. When they’re connected to lead and case data, every page can be traced to revenue. For a personal injury firm, that turns “we rank well on Google” into “we know exactly how much value Google search brings.”
Bottom Line
$432,610 in estimated case value. 47 signed cases. 30 pages. Five months.
Local SEO isn’t just about rankings — it’s about building an infrastructure that puts the right firm in front of the right person at the right moment. When you can trace that moment all the way to a signed case, you’re not doing marketing anymore. You’re building a revenue engine.
Check out New Path Digital’s digital advertising services for growing law firms for more information on our approach and successes!
