Consumer habit has made SEO and digital marketing essential for businesses and service providers across industries, and lawyers are no exception.
In this digital world, people rely on the Internet for almost everything, even legal matters. Whether someone’s looking to find more information on the consequences of underage DUI or in need of a criminal defense lawyer, the first thing they’ll probably do is run a search online.
A law firm without a website is clearly behind the times and missing on a lot of potential clients. However, merely having a website won’t be enough to attract and convert new clients via free search engine traffic. You need to develop a good SEO strategy to reach your target audiences and hit your goals.
SEO is a long-term strategy and, therefore, will take time. The process of improving your website to increase your visibility can seem daunting. Be sure to focus not only on the quantity of your website traffic but the quality to yield positive results.
This search engine optimization blueprint for attorneys will help set your website up for SEO success.
Analyze Your Competitors
Checking out what your competitors are doing is a good place to start when devising your SEO strategy. Instead of guessing your way around what keywords to use, types of content to create, or links to building, why not analyze the techniques that other law firm’s websites are already using and then leverage the knowledge to improve your SEO efforts.
Competitor analysis is a powerful strategy in search engine optimization. By reverse-engineering the most successful elements of your competitor’s SEO strategies, you’ll be able to get more traffic, earn more conversions, and even outrank them in the search results.
Determine Your Target Keywords
Once you have a grasp of what your competitors are doing with their SEO, it’s time to research keywords to use on your site. Keyword research is the very first step to optimizing your law firm’s website. And the more specific your targeted keywords are, the higher your chances of attracting qualified traffic for your practice.
When determining what keywords/searches to rank for, use your primary areas of practice and the legal services you provide as a starting point. You can use tools such as Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, KWFinder, SEMrush to discover how people are searching for your legal services online. There is, of course, another more convenient option, and that would be to outsource the task to SEO professionals.
Claim Your Google My Business Listing
Ranking for local searches, where potential clients are already looking for you, can provide the highest ROI out of all your marketing channels.
Google uses several ranking factors to determine local search results. While the exact criteria are not made public, three of the most important factors are distance, relevance, and prominence.
Google My Business is one of the most effective and efficient tools for promoting your law firm’s online presence and getting it noticed by Google. Businesses with complete, accurate, and well-reviewed GMB listings have higher chances of ranking for local searches and showing up in the Local 3-pack.
Optimize Your Website
Responsive web design is one of Google’s baseline ranking requirements. This means that slow-loading, non-mobile-friendly websites with poor site structure can expect to have very little search engine visibility.
For your law firm’s website to attract more potential clients, you must invest in improving both its UI and UX functions – and this is not just in compliance with Google’s ranking factors. People nowadays have very little patience when dealing with websites.
If your pages take more than three seconds to load or they can’t find the information they need as quickly as possible, then you can bet that people who need a lawyer will move on to a law firm website that can better serve their needs or answer their inquiries.
Create Quality Content
SEO strategies have changed and evolved over the years, but one thing remains the same: content is king. The written content on your website is still the biggest driving force behind your leads and search engine rankings.
Google primarily depends on text to determine if a website is a reliable source of information to a search query. Posting relevant content such as articles, blogs, and FAQs with quality backlinks will boost Google’s confidence in your website and help establish your authority in your niche.
The supremacy of content allows solo and small practices the ability to compete and win market share against bigger and more renowned law firms, regardless of budget.
Hire Experts For Your SEO Campaign
SEO for lawyers has become very competitive. A large number of law firm websites employ advanced SEO techniques to get to the top. That being said, it will take more than using the right keywords and publishing informative content to gain an edge.
You’ll need the help of an SEO expert to realize your practice’s goals and get ahead of your competitors.
Author Bio
Victoria Brown currently works as the Marketing and Communications Specialist at the Law Offices of Brian D. Sloan. Her experiences with DUI cases in the past have inspired her to spread awareness about DUI laws in the United States.
