Who Gets the Dog?

Burke Mangan Lawyers (BML) is a boutique Australian law firm specialising in family and employment law. Their team works across separation and divorce, parenting arrangements, unfair dismissal, workplace disputes, and more.

With a strong reputation and a loyal client base, BML wanted their online presence to reflect the quality and depth of their expertise — especially at the early research stage when people are actively seeking help.

Despite having the expertise and depth in the matter, BML was unable to gain enough strong conversions. They approached us, looking for 3–4 high-value clients annually—people pursuing mediation, negotiation, or litigation after weeks or months of deliberation.

But here’s the catch – people don’t start by looking for a lawyer. They start by searching for answers. BML needed to appear at this early search stage, not just at the point of conversion.

They faced four core challenges:

• Complicated legal topics + low public understanding: Family and employment law issues are emotionally heavy but legally complex. Most people feel overwhelmed before they ever reach a lawyer — and traditional legal content only widens that gap.
• Little to no visibility for early-stage questions: Users were searching for answers, but BML wasn’t showing up where those questions were being asked.
• No authority signals in search or media: Without branded mentions, expert commentary, or topical depth, search engines (and journalists) had no reason to see BML as a trusted voice.
• Increasing competition from government sites and high-authority publishers: For many legal queries, BML wasn’t just competing with other firms — they were competing with high-trust institutions already dominating search.

Above all, BML needed their expertise to show up where real people were already asking real questions — and to do it in a way that felt human.

We built an SEO-strong digital PR campaign to help BML show up in the conversations that mattered most. Here’s how.

1. Humanising the Law

We reframed complex legal updates into real-life situations Australians were already searching for, such as:

• Separation and divorce scenarios
• Pet custody during relationship breakdowns
• Unfair dismissal and workplace disputes

This shifted BML’s voice from technical legal commentary to plain-English guidance — the kind that everyday readers can engage with.

2. Real-time, search-led PR

We monitored legislative changes and emerging public conversations weekly. When Australia’s family law reforms reclassified pets as ‘companion animals’ rather than merely property, we moved fast — launching a PR intended to show that BML are abreast of changing legislation and deal with the legal aspect of relationship breakdowns in families with pets. The title? “Who Gets the Dog?”

Behind the scenes, this was supported by a structured SEO ecosystem —

• keyword harvesting (500+, manually harvested)
• funnel-mapped content
• authored expert articles
• micro-answer Knowledge Base (for legal queries under 50 words)
• schema

ensuring that media attention translated into sustained visibility and trust.

3. Behaviour-informed optimisation

To ensure our efforts were turning into enquiries, we performed heatmapping using Microsoft Clarity to track:

• scroll depth
• CTA engagement
• session recordings

These behavioural insights helped refine page layout, improve conversions, and ensure that our PR campaign built trust and demand — not just headlines.

The combined SEO + PR strategy shifted BML from obscurity to national recognition — and generated real, commercial outcomes.

1. Major Media Coverage

The Who Gets the Dog? campaign secured top-tier placements, including:

• ABC Southern Queensland Radio (12-min segment)
• Radio Adelaide (5-min segment)
• Lawyers Weekly
• Newsreel
• CHILD Magazines
• female.com.au

This positioned BML as a trusted voice on family law during a major legislative moment.

2. Brand Authority Lift

• Google Search Console
  • Clicks: 171 → 328 (June – July 2025, MoM comparison)
  • Impressions: 5K → 42.8K (June – July 2025, MoM comparison)
  • Average CTR: 6% → 0.8% (June – July 2025, MoM comparison)
• Bing Webmaster Tools
  • Clicks: 93 → 150 (June – July 2025, MoM comparison)
  • Impressions: 3K → 5.8K (June – July 2025, MoM comparison)
  • Average CTR: 77% → 2.59% (June – July 2025, MoM comparison)
• Inclusion in AI Overviews, signalling strong topical authority

Kylie and Lyndon became go-to commentators on emerging legal issues.

3. Backlinks & Mentions

Ahrefs tracked:

• 78 clean, reputable backlinks during PR windows
• Multiple unlinked brand mentions in respected publications

These strengthened both trust and visibility.

4. Demand Surge

BML reported:

• Two qualified enquiries per day, consistently
• Leads generated directly from PR exposure and TOFU/MOFU content
• Higher engagement with their lead magnets and Knowledge Base

In short, BML became part of the national conversation.