An effective SEO strategy in place for your law firm will keep you competitive and give you access to more prospective clients.
If you want to appear in Google search results – and appear high enough to generate traffic – then law firm SEO is essential.
Because of this, our Digital Marketing Company has created this SEO Guide for Lawyers, which contains all the information you need to rank your law firm on search engines such as Google and achieve SEO success.
Understanding SEO
Have you ever wondered why certain websites appear on the first page of Google when you search “Criminal Defense Lawyer in Houston”?
SEO makes this possible.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) simply increases your visibility in search results. Backlink building, decreasing website load time, and other methods can all help you improve your search rankings.
If your website is currently on the 27th page of Google search results, implementing just a few of this article’s ideas could significantly improve your search rankings.
Keep in mind that ranking your website on top pages requires consistent effort because other law firms are likely competing for the same position. However, you can benefit from free search engine traffic by implementing an SEO strategy for your law firm.
Does SEO Work For Lawyers?
Absolutely—when done right.
The most difficult aspect of SEO for law firms is determining how to get your firm to the top of organic search results.
Although numerous vendors offer lawyer SEO, there are no foolproof plans or guarantees that you will rank at the top of the organic search results.
Fortunately, there are various ways to improve your chances of appearing on the first page of search results. It’s simple to cut through the market noise and catch the attention of prospects if you understand the basic factors search engines consider when deciding which websites have the most value to online users.
There are three types of SEO ranking factors for law firms:
Content
This refers to the words and other sorts of content you use on the pages of your law firm’s website, such as images. If your website has high-quality content that is likely to fulfill user intent, it will improve the user experience and boost your search engine rankings.
Off-Page Citation and Backlinks
The online impression, credibility, and authority of your law firm compared to other law firms. This is impacted by the number of external website domains and pages that refer visitors to your website.
Technical SEO
When Google ranks your website, the user experience is a major ranking factor. This means long-term goals should be considered, such as page speed, title tags, and site structure.
Why Is SEO For Lawyers So Important?
SEO can seem hard to understand, especially if your law firm has never done this type of marketing before. However, it is essential to a law firm’s basic marketing strategy.
We’ve explained the meaning of SEO and why it’s crucial for law firms and attorneys. Now, let’s delve deeper into each significant SEO ranking factor.
SEO Ranking Factor #1: Content
What does SEO-friendly website content for a law firm look like?
It all comes down to achieving the following three criteria:
Your Content Must Answer the User’s Inquiry or Search Term
For instance, if you want your law firm’s website to show up when someone searches for “criminal lawyer in Houston,” you must have specific content that informs your potential client about your practice area—in this case, a criminal lawyer in Houston.
Consider it from the standpoint of your potential clients. When they arrive at your website, they’re probably wondering:
- Is this a Houston-based law firm?
- Does this law firm handle criminal cases?
- Can this law firm meet my specific needs?
- How good is this law firm?
- Is this law firm within my budget?
- Do I want to work with this law firm?
The content on your law firm’s website should be able to provide preliminary answers to potential clients’ questions.
This is because search engines want to send users to the best possible place to find answers to their questions. So, if Google believes your site is likely to satisfy the user’s intent, it will likely feature it higher up in its search engine results pages. Google may play an active role in generating leads for your law firm in this case.
Adding reviews to your website is another way to use content to attract customers. Promoting positive client reviews is an effective way to stand out and provide prospective clients with the information they require.
Your Content Should be Keyword Optimized
It’s a pleasure to answer a visitor’s questions. But how does a search engine know you’re doing a good job of answering questions? And how does answering those questions affect SEO for law firms?
Enter the keywords.
When Google or another search engine evaluates your website, an automated bot reads the content to determine what each web page is about.
You must specify which keywords are targeted for each page of your law firm’s website. This makes it clear to both visitors and search engines that you are, in fact, a “criminal lawyer in Houston.”
To fully optimize your content for keywords, make sure to include them in the following areas of the page:
- Title tag
- Description tag
- Headings and subheadings
- Evenly throughout paragraphs
- The web page’s URL
There Should Be a Wide Range of Content that Addresses Keywords from the Same Category
This is one of the more difficult aspects of SEO for law firms.
It entails identifying a primary keyword and uncovering its variations or long-tail forms. This guarantees that your content can cover as much ground as possible when users conduct online searches.
Many users will search using the most popular keyword, while others will ask questions or enter variations of the keyword. The objective is to produce as much content as possible that answers search queries associated with your primary keyword.
SEO Ranking Factor #2: Off-Page Citation and Backlinks
Having great content is one thing, but the internet is like a vast ocean of never-ending content that extends beyond the horizon.
This raises the question: how does Google decide which content is the best to put on the first page of rankings?
One of the most important factors is the quantity and quality of backlinks. Backlinks are links on other websites that send traffic to your site.
Backlinks are like a popularity contest when it comes to SEO. If a lot of popular websites link to your law firm, it’s like they’re saying, “These lawyers know what they’re talking about!”
But if your law firm’s website only has a few backlinks, that means you aren’t very popular or trustworthy.
Even though backlinks are important, 66% of pages don’t have any, and 26% have links from only three sites or less.
Remember that search engines want to send users to the best place where they can find the answers to their questions. Search engines will regard your law firm’s content as trustworthy and reputable if it has a high number of referring links from other credible websites.
Off-Page Citations Improve Local SEO for Law Firms
If you want to optimize local SEO for law firms, the “popularity contest” metaphor can be extended beyond referring links. Your law firm’s contact information appears in various places on the web or internet, making it visible to search engines and potential clients.
As a result, obtaining backlinks from places where business contact information is displayed is the best way to gain more exposure through local SEO (i.e., citations). This will be critical to your company’s long-term SEO success.
Here are some places where you can get off-page citations to boost your local SEO:
- Legal directories like Avvo
- Local directories such as Google My Business
- Shares of your content on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook
- Other websites’ reviews and endorsements
SEO Ranking Factor #3: Technical SEO
More than any other factor, technical SEO can make or break your law firm’s SEO performance, making it a significant contributor to your SEO success.
However, it is also the hardest to get right, particularly if you are not an SEO specialist.
Technical SEO measures how “Google-friendly” your law firm’s website is. Technical SEO, like user-friendliness, includes aspects such as security and sitemaps.
Because it can be hard to execute, many law firms hire an SEO consultant specializing in law firm SEO. It lowers the risk of having to handle everything yourself.
Here are some technical SEO tips to keep in mind:
Check That Your Firm’s Website Follows all of Google’s Guidelines
Google is transparent about what you can do to improve your law firm’s technical SEO. For technical SEO tips, read the Webmaster Guidelines.
Make Certain That Your Firm’s Website is Fast and Mobile-Friendly
Two basic (but important) technical SEO factors ensure that your website:
- Loads fast for less than 2.5 seconds.
- Displays well on a wide range of screen sizes, particularly mobile phones.
Make Certain That Your Law Firm Website Is Easy To Navigate
What happens if the website of your law firm is easy to navigate?
There is a good chance that a robot sent by Google to investigate your law firm’s website will be able to:
- Find all of your pages
- Understand the content of those pages
Therefore, creating simple, user-friendly menus and frequently linking to other important pages on your website is essential.
Get Everything Set Up Properly
One advantage of technical SEO is that you only need strong technical SEO from the start. Once that is done, and assuming your law firm website is small, you should be able to work stress-free for the most part.
Conclusion
Lawyer SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Expect your law firm’s search engine rankings to improve slowly at first. Continue to focus on creating great new content relevant to potential clients, generating client reviews, and building backlinks per Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Of course, having a good website is one of the best ways to ensure you are found. Even better if you can create that website without knowing how to design or code.
The bottom line is that you must be patient. You will rise in the rankings if you can execute with greater quality and quantity than your competitors.
Contact Us Today
Contact our digital marketing company if you want to work with an attorney digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO services for lawyers and only provides growth marketing services for lawyers. We’d be delighted to discuss your SEO needs with you.
a variety of both.
