96% of people seeking legal advice use a search engine. Law firm SEO is, therefore, a critical business strategy.
“Today, it’s not about ‘Get the Traffic’ — It’s about ‘Get the Targeted and Relevant Traffic.’”
Adam Audette
In recent years, how clients locate, research, and select a law firm has changed dramatically. Clients use search engines to find information and attorneys online, and ever since Google was founded in 1998, it has become the dominant player in the field. 70% of law firms have landed new cases through their website.
Thus, if a law firm wants to leverage the potential market and grow its business, its website must be visible among the top results in Google search.
Let’s quickly take a look at 5 benefits of performing SEO on legal websites:
- Increased Organic Discovery & High-Quality Website Traffic.
- Impressive ROI.
- Improved Credibility & Trust.
- 24/7 Promotion.
- SEO Targets the Entire Marketing Funnel.
- SEO Reaches Your Entire Target Audience.
Now that we know the benefits of effective SEO, let’s go ahead and learn about SEO strategies for law firms.
Law Firm SEO Guide: Proven strategies for law firm SEO
42Works has a proven experience of over 8 years in providing end-to-end digital services to its legal clients. We have successfully designed and ranked 100+ legal websites. The proven strategies for law firm SEO can be categorized broadly in 3 points:
Technical SEO: Website design for law firms
Content marketing/On-page SEO: Website content writing for law firms
Link Building/Off-page SEO: Website marketing for law firms
Let’s examine each strategy in more detail.
1) Website design for law firm SEO (Technical SEO)
To begin your SEO journey, the very first and foremost step should be website designing. The website design should be able to deliver a phenomenal user experience. Site visitors should enjoy navigating the site.
““Google loves you only when everyone else loves you first!””
- Wendy Piersall
Google with its current updates like Core Web Vitals, Page Experience update, etc, is loud and clear about prioritizing “ User Experience”. Website design/UX should be able to deliver a good user experience.
Let’s discuss more about the features affecting user experience:
Easy-to-Read Design.
Users may be unable to read what they came to your site to do because of poor web design. Any audience that you managed to draw onto your site is practically erased by pages with blocks of text in odd places and too many hyperlinks that don’t serve a clear function. White space, line length, and any additional features like graphics can all influence how users interact with your website.
Mobile-Friendliness.
You could risk alienating half of your users by not having a mobile-friendly website design. That is enormous. A high bounce rate on a website caused by it not loading properly on a phone or tablet may send negative signals to Google, and your rankings may suffer as a result.
Website Speed.
Page speed is an established ranking signal. Thus the law firms should optimize images, remove unneeded plugins, enable browser cache, and so on. Page speed is not only important to users, but it’s also important to Google. The speed of your website affects Google’s ability to crawl it. If your page speed causes Google to crawl fewer pages, you won’t have as many pages getting indexed.
Sitemaps.
Your sitemap gives search engines a map of all of your website’s pages and information. This allows you to inform search engines which pages on your site are the most significant. User navigation is also aided by sitemaps. A new visitor to your site can use the sitemap to find their way around.
Gaining Users’ Trust.
Most consumers will have a negative view of a website if it appears old and outdated or is too difficult to use, and they may leave and never return. We’ve grown accustomed to seeing flawless websites that deliver exceptional user experiences.
2) Website writing for law firms (Content marketing/On-page SEO)
Once you have designed a user-friendly website, it’s time to add engaging content to your website. Content should immediately address your client’s queries and should speak their language. There are many tools available online like Google Trends, which can help you understand exactly what your prospects are searching on Google.
Content writing is essential in any industry, but it is especially important in the legal field. Depending on the circumstances, seeking the services of a lawyer can be a highly emotional experience. The posts on that blog could be the deciding factor in whether a person on the fence decides to hire the firm. As a result, the content must be current, authoritative, and pertinent to the firm’s target audience.
Build a strong website content
Your law firm’s website should accurately reflect the firm’s practices and ideals. Your website can also serve additional purposes, such as providing free online information (but not consultations) to address common legal concerns in your sector or location.
Write for Topics Over Keywords
Content that revolves around SEO keywords is a relic from a bygone era, and it will stand out for all the wrong reasons. Instead, the content of a law firm’s blog should be focused on real-world legal issues.
There are numerous approaches you can take. There are many keyword research tools available online like Google Adwords Keywords Planner, Answer the Public, SEMrush’s subject research feature, Ubersuggest, and many more. These tools can assist you in coming up with content ideas based on key phrases.
Some of the tools are free and some are paid. You can choose any of them depending upon your choice and marketing budget.
Define Client Personas
We need to identify the distinct client profiles to focus on a higher quality of user – someone who is ready to hire an attorney right now. A client persona is a fictional portrayal of the types of people who would be ideal clients for your law company. You’ll have a higher chance of producing something relevant and beneficial if you know who you’re writing for.
Recognize the power of content marketing
Publishing unique, high-quality content is a great method to demonstrate your knowledge to customers. If you want people to trust you with their legal difficulties, you must establish yourself as an authority, which you can do by sharing authoritative content or personal experiences.
Keep your blog current
You can keep an eye on industry-relevant news to demonstrate to potential clients that you’re up-to-date in addition to talking about legal concerns or your own practice. Blogs are also great places to put photos, movies, and other multimedia that will engage your visitors and make them want to stay on your site longer.
Types of content to create for law firm’s website
- Blog Posts. The keywords for law firm blog content should be carefully picked. The blog posts should always link back to the website’s top-level pages, such as the firm’s primary legal service pages.
- Location Pages. People will travel a relatively small distance to get the services of a high-quality lawyer, so key locations are vital. Targeting the right client personas in a city 10 or even 20 miles away from the legal firm’s premises is acceptable.
- Audio & Visual Content. Are you a digital marketer? Do you want to keep on top of current content-stacking trends? Then, you should tell your law firm clients about developing podcasts, based on their existing textual material. This can boost their organic ranks significantly.
Essential Qualities of the Content for Law Firm’s Website SEO:
Make sure that any material your digital marketing business assists a law company in producing is accurate down to the last detail, as the general public may misinterpret it as legal advice and follow it to the letter.
Promoting Your Content for Law Firm’s Website SEO:
Content promotion is ideal on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Sharing new content on your social media platforms is not only a quick method to get it in front of an audience, but it also ensures you’ll have something to share regularly.
3) Website marketing for law firm SEO (Off-page SEO/Link Building)
Now, your website and content are all ready to realize your ambitious business goals. This is the time you should market your website and get the referral traffic your website always deserved.
In today’s fast-paced digital environment, law firm marketing is a must. A dynamic website, well-maintained social media profiles, and successful advertising are all necessary components for effectively promoting a legal business online.
Embrace social media marketing for law firm website marketing
The most significant benefit of social media is that it allows you to establish a relationship with a potential client before they even walk through the door. To ensure that you’re as accessible as possible to your client base, you can respond to them via direct messaging, comments, tweets, and other options.
Increasing local SEO for law firms through off-page citations
Getting backlinks from business contact listings (i.e. citations) is one of the most effective ways to gain more exposure through local SEO. Local listing/Local directories make your contact number and address visible and approachable for both clients as well as the Google search engine. This will be crucial to your firm’s long-term SEO success.
To help improve your local SEO, here are some examples of places to get off-page citations:
- Legal directories
- Local directories, like Google My Business
- Social profiles, like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
- Shares of your content on social media
- Reviews and endorsements on other websites
Quick Solutions For Better Law Firm Website SEO
1) Page Speed
Improving your load time by 0.1s can boost conversion rates by 8%. (DELOITTE)
2) Create a long-term SEO strategy
17.8% of people between 18-25 use internet search to find lawyers. (SEO ADVANTAGE)
3) Register the website in the most popular legal directories
33% of legal consumers begin their search for a law firm using online resources. (SEO ADVANTAGE)
4) Improve overall website design
74% of all legal consumers visit a law firm’s website before taking an action. (SEO ADVANTAGE)
5)Implement a detailed FAQ
The majority of businesses spend $5000+ per month on SEO. (Moz)
Conclusion:
SEO is highly effective when you combine web design, using keywords & implementing strong marketing techniques for your website. SEO might appear to take a lot of effort and time. However, if you implement it the right way it’s one of the most lucrative business techniques with high ROI. We hope you found this guide helpful.
Need help with SEO? 42Works is here to help!
