Attorney SEO, or search engine optimization, drives your law firm’s website traffic. Search engine optimization experts achieve this by increasing your website’s ranking on Google’s search engine results pages.
What is Attorney SEO?
In other words, if your law firm’s website appears near the top of search engine results pages, you should see an increase in visitors and new case leads.
The most difficult challenge for law firm SEO services is determining how to get your website to the top of organic search results, particularly in a competitive market. While there are Attorney SEO experts (and we at our digital marketing company consider ourselves one of those few), there is no foolproof way to guarantee immediate results.
Fortunately, there are several ways to increase your chances of ranking your law firm’s website on the first page of search results.
So, How Does SEO Help Law Firms?
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is one of the best ways for law firms to market themselves. Consider this: what better way to reach out to potential clients than through Google?
People use Google more than any other platform to look for lawyers and other legal services in their area. SEO lets law firms rank high in search results and attract clients looking for services like theirs.
But SEO doesn’t just bring in new clients for law firms. An SEO strategy for a law firm can help in many ways.
Organic Traffic
SEO is, first and foremost, aimed at increasing organic traffic and improving a website’s Google rankings. Most often, the goal is to consistently rank high in Search and earn organic visitors for the long term.
Lawyers can optimize their websites for the search terms (“keywords”) people use to find their services. For example, if you are a family lawyer in Houston, you can attempt to rank for like “Houston family lawyer,” “family lawyer in Houston,” “family law attorney Houston,” and so on.
Organic (unpaid) marketing is great because it does not require a hefty ad spend to produce results. You can rank your website using your SEO strategies or hire an SEO professional to help you.
Improved User Experience
Believe it or not, SEO is about more than just pleasing the Google gods. Your goal should be to provide prospective visitors with the best website experience, content, and information possible.
Google’s algorithm ranks content based on how well it matches what users are looking for.
SEO necessarily improves user experience or UX because UX is a known ranking factor for Google. Your website’s speed, interactivity, and accessibility are all important in pleasing visitors and informing Google that your website is optimized.
A great user experience keeps users on your website longer and encourages them to “opt-in” (contact you) rather than going to your competitors.
Faster Website Speed
Google assesses a website’s Core Web Vitals to determine how fast it is and how easily its content is rendered to users. In other words, it wants to make sure that when users visit your site, the content doesn’t take forever to load.
A slow website speed can turn away a large number of potential clients. If it takes too long to load your website, people will likely go elsewhere. Also, a slow website speed usually means you have a lot of “heavy” images and code on your site, which can cause problems when users try to use them.
An effective SEO strategy works to improve all of your website’s Core Web Vitals, so you can be sure that your site is fast and easy to use for your visitors.
Better Content Marketing
The success of your SEO is largely determined by content. The content on your web pages and blog posts attracts the right types of users to your site, increases your site’s authority, and much more.
When you care about search engine optimization, you care about your content, and you make better content for both users and search engines as a result. Not only does better content rank higher in Search, but it’s also easier for users to share. Furthermore, your written content frequently convinces people to hire you.
Earned Links and Authority
Backlinks, or links from other websites, are votes of confidence from other sites that your website is factual, valuable, and informative to users. Every SEO strategy aims to obtain these authority-boosting links to show Google that your website is legit.
Earned authority can help your website rank higher in search results. Links from other websites can also drive additional traffic to your website. Backlinks for SEO can be obtained through various methods, including blogging, content marketing, and outreach.
Referral Traffic
Referral traffic is traffic that comes from outside links or from other websites. SEO can help you get traffic from other sites that want to link to your content.
At the same time, most law firms use a localized SEO strategy, including submitting their business information to local directories. These directories can bring more visitors (and leads) to your website.
Furthermore, publishing expert-level content can attract the interest of other blogs and publications, which may then feature you. Then, you can get this referral traffic through interviews, podcasts, and guest posts.
More Phone Calls
Law firm SEO frequently necessitates a localized strategy to target users in a specific service area. To achieve this, law firms can create geo-specific content for their websites, submit to local directories, and even create a Google My Business (GMB) listing.
Local SEO can help law firms show up in local search results. Law firms can share their business contact information with local listings to get more phone calls and leads.
In short, users don’t have to go to your website if they can find your phone number on Google!
Improved Client Intake
Website optimization makes it much easier to gather lead information and file it for future client intake. By putting contact forms and information on your website, you can get more digital leads and file them in your client management system.
If you only make phone calls, you’re probably missing out on a lot of potential leads. Contact forms, chatbots, and opt-ins make gathering lead information in real-time easier than ever. You can even set up text messages or email follow-ups to be automatically sent so you can get in touch with potential clients more quickly.
Local and Foot Traffic
Local SEO also helps potential clients find your physical office. You can post your address and other business information so that people can visit you in person without having to visit your website.
Localization also sends geo-specific “cues” to Google, telling it where your business is and what areas it serves. If you have this information, you are more likely to appear in the right local search results for the right audience. This is especially true if you work in a competitive market and your competitors have not implemented SEO.
Reviews and Ratings
Reviews and SEO are a “chicken and the egg” situation; positive reviews influence SEO, and SEO helps law firms earn positive reviews. Nothing could go wrong!
Positive client reviews show Google (and users) that your law firm is trustable, real, and highly revered. SEO, in turn, encourages law firms to reach out and generate more positive reviews to improve their rankings.
Do you think 5-star ratings don’t matter in Search? Consider again! Not only do potential clients want to see those positive reviews, but Google also cares about your company’s reputation. So, when it comes to SEO, don’t overlook reviews.
SEO Helps Put Your Law Firm On The Map
SEO benefits law firms in ways other than traffic and lead generation; it provides a well-rounded marketing strategy that improves your firm’s digital presence. And a stronger online presence means more chances to attract new legal clients!
Every law firm should use SEO to improve user experience, website speed, content, and local visibility. This is one of the most effective ways to generate long-term, organic traffic and put your website on a (Google) map.
Call Us Today
Do you want to boost your revenue and leads? SEO for law firms is essential to take your firm to the next level. We thrive on real-world results for our clients at our digital marketing company, and we will maximize your firm’s visibility by combining our unique blend of SEO expertise with our deep knowledge of the legal sphere. Call us today at 832 694 1145!
