SEO Tips to Help Boost Your Law Firms Visibility

Search engines are a very powerful tool for today’s consumers. They can use it to find their local dog walking service, a garage to fit a custom exhaust, an online store that sells unusual gifts, and even a lawyer when they need one. 

You’ve already designed and published your law firm website, but there’s little point in the effort you’ve made if it languishes anywhere other than on the first page of Google. Not only is it the most popular search engine in its home country, but it’s also the dominant internet search provider in many major online markets.

When it comes to law firms, the internet has also become a popular tool. Whether the consumer is looking for legal advice on Arizona probate or something more general or researching lawyers in their area before hiring one, the internet is now one of the most popular ways to find what they want.

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is a way of improving the visibility of a website on organic search, and there are several things you can do to help.

Create a Blog That Contains Optimized Content

One of the most effective ways to leverage SEO to drive lead generation is maintaining an active blog full of valuable and engaging content. 

With the right kind of content, you can cover various search queries, increase the visibility of your business online, and build authority. 

Potential clients will be able to find you easier and be more likely to trust your law firm. 

There are several things you should focus on:

• Regularly adding content that’s relevant, fresh, and consistent
• Providing content that is useful and highlights your expertise to improve the user experience
• Dive deeper into related landing page and homepage keywords via your blog

How you format the content is also important. Metadata and title tags are especially important. They provide clues for potential clients as to what your website is about. Search engine algorithms provide information about your site, helping the search engine to rank you. 

In the title tag, include high-volume keywords as this will increase visibility. Also, incorporate keywords into the metadata, so the search engine has more details about your webpage. 

Ramp up the Speed of Your Website

Google’s algorithm considered user experience to be important. You can improve the customer experience of your website by making load times faster. If you want to know how fast your website pages are loading, try out Google’s Page Speed test.

For many years now, the page speed of a website has been a key ranking factor. It’s even more critical for mobile searches. 

Potential clients will likely move to a competitor if a website page takes too long to load. In addition, a slow-loading website also runs the risk of being less visible on Google. 

Spend Time Conducting Keyword Research

A critical part of SEO for law firms is optimizing for keywords. Google Analytics Keyword Planner is a good tool for beginners, but plenty of others can choose from it.

Determining your law firm’s keywords is an important step for SEO. They will be words or phrases that are specific to your firm and terms that people are most likely to search for.

There are two types of keywords:

• Long-tail Keywords: These are strings of words that are targeted. They also determine the intent of the searcher. For example, they might have a specific need or require guidance on a particular situation. Arizona lawyers for probate inquiries or attorneys for traffic incidents are just a couple of examples. When you use long-tail keywords, it improves the ranking of your law firm and allows you to target prospective clients more selectively. 
• Short-tail Keywords: These keywords are more generic and short. Generally, they will be no more than three words long and cover broad topics. DefenceLINK attorneys or injury lawyers are just a couple of examples.

Knowing what keywords to use is just the beginning. You also need to know where best to place them. 

Here are a few tips:

• Titles, subheadings, and headlines (H2 or H3): People tend to be drawn to headings and titles. If they can see what they’re searching for, they’re more likely to click and spend time on the page. 
• Meta descriptions: These appear in the search results and provide snippets of information about your website or a specific page. Keywords should be short and incorporated naturally.
• Images: When you include images on a page, don’t forget to add Alt text, as this helps the search engines understand what your image is about. Ideally, you should also use an image title tag as these help searchers know what an image is. 

One final tip about keywords is that you should only use a healthy number of keywords in the right places. If you use too many, your website will appear spammy to readers. Search engines are also likely to penalize you for using too many keywords and using them unnaturally and in an irrelevant way.  

Consider Link Building

Link building is a way of linking other sites to your own and is another key element for effective SEO. 

Quality backlinks and inbound links are also vital for an effective SEO campaign. These links exist on one side and point back to yours. 

With the help of links, you can get your website pages shared across local, legal, and other critical sources. 

Links help you rank for Google Search, but you do need to refresh them regularly to eliminate the risk of sliding down the search rankings. 

Another avenue to explore is guest posting. It is possible to do this yourself, but if you’ve got a busy law firm to run, you can work with an SEO agency that offers law firm SEO services. Third parties like these have the expertise to scale your guest posting and promote other forms of link building. 

Focus on Ranking Well Locally

Law firms tend to operate in a specific geographical area, so you must concentrate on ranking well locally. 

There are several ways you can do this, such as:

• Creating listings on online directories
• Use local keywords
• Generating positive reviews
• Create unique, optimized pages on your website for each office location

A good place to start is to claim and great your Google Business Profile. Activating your Google My Business profile is the best way to manage how your business appears in search results. Make sure your profile is always up to date with the basics that include: address, hours, pictures, and more. You can also use this page to post updates and links to your website.  

Be Active on Social Media

Don’t concentrate all of your attention on your website. The many social media channels are also crucial because they link to your website content. 

SEO and social media have a relationship that shouldn’t be underestimated. They are powerful tactics you can leverage to attract and nurture qualified leads. 

They are both very effective on their own but combined, and they have significantly more value and are more capable of bringing value to your audience and more visitors to your law firm’s website. 

A large part of SEO for lawyers takes place off-page. In other words, it includes actions taken away from your website, such as backlinking. 

Social media also offers a wealth of opportunities for sharing links to your law firm’s website. In turn, this will bring more traffic to your site, more links will be shared, and lots of other great stuff that helps to improve your search rankings.

Here are some other important ways that social media can help your business:

• Link-backs and social sharing: Google has been taught to look for social signals such as Tweets and Facebook posts. The number of social media followers you have and your social reach play a key role in SEO. Having many followers allows your content to be shared and viewed by many more people. 
• Boost authority with a social media influence: When Google sees that your blogs and website are credible sources, it will rank them higher. Social media influence is also considered in terms of its reach, relevance, and engagement. The more you like, comment, and share on social media platforms, the higher your law firm will rank. 

Always include visible and easy-to-use social sharing buttons on every page and blog you post. Visitors to your website can click and share on their social page. When other people share links to your website, it boosts your credibility and leads to better rankings. 

Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Reviews   

Customer reviews make a massive impact on SEO, as well as creating a positive first impression for potential clients.

Not so many years ago, word of mouth determined whether a business was successful or perished. Too many people saying bad things about a company seriously affects its performance. 

While word of mouth still plays a critical part nowadays, the difference today is that reputations are heavily digitized. Word of mouth now takes the form of online reviews, particularly Google ones.

The power of word-of-mouth marketing is trusted by Google. The quantity and quality of customer reviews are factored in when evaluating search positions. Search engines act similarly to a prospective customers who will use online reviews to validate their decisions.

Final Thoughts

If you take the time to incorporate the SEO tips above in your law firm’s digital marketing strategy, it will make a difference to the success of your business. 

However, don’t forget to spend time measuring the results of your efforts, as this will help you focus on the elements that are working and tweak others to improve their effectiveness.  

Subscribe to weekly updates

You’ll also receive some of our best posts today