Today, honing your legal expertise and building a reputable attorney practice isn’t enough to connect with your clients. In a world where Google holds the cards, and online searches dictate most decisions, you need to master the subtle art of law firm SEO to make a case for yourself online (no pun intended).
How to get started with SEO for lawyers? We’ve asked our search engine experts to tell us more about attorney SEO, and they’ve helped us create this comprehensive guide. Read on to learn all about it!
Table of Contents
What Is SEO for Lawyers?
Attorney SEO or search engine optimization for lawyers simply means optimizing your content and website to show up in the search engine results pages (SERPs) for people looking for legal help.
Ideally, the optimization process will start with identifying the search terms (keywords) potential clients might use to find a law firm like yours online. After identifying those, you will want to optimize your content with them to help you rank higher on Google, Bing, etc. Why is this important? It’s been estimated that 99% of searchers only look at the first page of search results.
In addition to this, it’s also important to:
- Optimize for local searches
- Build strong backlinks to improve your site’s hierarchy
- Optimize your site’s technical performance
- Maximize the amount of traffic you can get with other methods such as PPC
If all of this sounds confusing or overwhelming, don’t worry, we’ll dissect each of these strategies below. A seasoned SEO agency will also be more than happy to help you get a better grasp of these concepts.
Search Engine Marketing for Lawyers: Understanding Common SEO Terms
SEO can sound a bit complicated, especially if this is your first time reading about search optimization. To better understand it, here are some of the basic terms you’ll often hear:
- SERP: Search Engine Results Page
- Rank: This refers to your site’s position in the search results
- Keywords: These are a set of words that you optimize your content with/the terms used by your potential site visitors when typing in search engines
- Crawl: This is the process of search engine bots scanning your website and its content to understand what it is about
- Index: A structured data set about websites that search engines use to return a user query
- Organic SEO: This is the process of your page naturally appearing in the search results without the help of paid advertising
- Paid SEO: These increase search visibility via paid methods (paid ads)
- Featured snippets: These are content excerpts that will appear on the top of Google SERPs, directly answering user queries
- Search volume: The number of searches for a particular keyword in a specific period
- Local pack: These are the top three businesses or sites that appear on Google Maps or the SERPs from local searches
- Backlink: This is a link from one site to another
- Bounce rate: The percentage of site visitors who leave your platform without taking any action
- Meta descriptions: These summarize the content on a given page, appearing as small snippets under the search result’s headline
- Click-through-rate: The number of clicks your ads get divided by the number of times they get shown
- Duplicate content: When more web pages have similar or identical content
- Conversion rate: The number of conversions divided by the number of views or clicks on an ad or a website
The Importance of Attorney SEO
Search engine optimization for attorneys can have several crucial benefits for lawyers, as SEO can build a strong online presence, helping them find potential clients, and enabling them to scale their practice. In addition to that, SEO for lawyers will typically bring the following benefits:
- Better online visibility: This means rising above the competition and ensuring that your practice is the first choice for people who need legal help in your area of expertise.
- Qualified traffic: Law firm SEO helps you attract qualified leads actively seeking legal assistance, resulting in higher conversion rates and more meaningful client engagements.
- Build trust and credibility: A strong online presence and high-quality content on your website can help you establish your firm as a reputable and trustworthy expert in your field. This instills confidence in your potential clientele, encouraging them to opt for your help over competitors.
- Cost-effectiveness: Compared to traditional advertising, law firm SEO represents a cost-effective marketing methodology, delivering a high return on investment and long-term results.
- Improvements in reputation management: SEO helps you proactively manage your online reputation, as you can establish yourself as a trustworthy professional and reinforce a positive brand image.
- Data-driven decisions: Law firm SEO also enables you to gain valuable insight into your target audience’s preferences and behavior, allowing you to hone in on your marketing strategies to help even more people with their legal issues.
Attorney SEO Strategies
Getting started with SEO can feel like a huge task, but the following steps will help you better understand the overarching process of optimization and will make your partnership with your SEO firm easier too.
Check Your Site
First of all, you must find out whether Google recognizes your site. You can use the Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool. All you must do is choose the Inspection Tool tab, enter your site’s URL, and click “Inspect.” The second method we recommend involves searching for your URL directly in the search bar.
If neither of these methods yields any results, this means that your site isn’t indexed. If that’s the case, then you should submit your sitemap to Google and look for any technical errors. If you’re not sure how to do this, it’s best to reach out to an agency from the start.
Website Optimization
Regardless of the type of SEO we’re talking about, every concept involves organizing your website. When discussing website optimization, we aren’t just addressing content. Website optimization looks at other site elements like meta descriptions and images too.
These are the elements that need to be considered:
- On-page SEO: The content on your site, from service pages and blog posts to FAQ pages, all have relevant keywords in them to help with your rankings.
- Image optimization: Your images also need to be optimized by naming them, adding alt-text to them (to help with indexing and address accessibility needs), and using the right format (like PNG or JPEG).
- Keyword optimization: Implement specific and relevant keywords into your content. Usually, these terms should all be relevant phrases your target audience might use to get their questions answered about their legal issues (for example, “personal injury firm in Miami”).
- Optimizing meta descriptions: Metas summarize what your page is about, helping the searcher decide whether to click or not. They can help you rank higher and increase your click-through rate, especially if they are more compelling and to the point.
Optimize Your Content
Your content strategy should also be created with SEO in mind, more precisely, in line with what people want to watch or read about within your industry. In the case of attorney SEO, this means crafting content that discusses your area of expertise and sharing useful information that helps them navigate any legal issues.
Keyword Research
Creating SEO-focused content always starts with conducting keyword research and pinpointing the most relevant search terms your target audience uses. There are several paid and free tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner to gain insights about different keyword metrics such as difficulty, search volume, and competition. Optimizing your headings, titles, subheadings, text, and other content with keywords can dramatically improve your on-page SEO.
Content Optimization Tips
If you’re new to content marketing, the best place to start would be content pillar strategies. This approach involves organizing your content from “pillar” topics that branch out to more specific “clusters.” This approach ensures that bots can crawl your site faster and get more accurate data about the information they find.
Also, take time to optimize your service/area of expertise pages. These are the bread and butter of your online presence. As such, they should be organized in high detail, and enriched with the right keywords. For example, if you are an expert on family law, then you should have separate practice pages for Custody, Divorce, and Adoption.
Lastly, using FAQ pages can also help you give more value to your readers and to optimize your content. FAQ pages will usually feature your most frequently asked questions from existing and previous clients about legal services or legal issues. You can create a list of these questions and add your answers in Q&A format, enabling your readers to find the information they need in a quick and straightforward way.
Address Technical SEO
Optimizing your content with the right keywords is one thing. But to make the most out of your optimization efforts, you also need to ensure that the technical aspects of your site are up to par with Google’s standards, ensuring the best possible user experience for your visitors when spending time on your site.
Loading Speed
The acceptable load time for websites should no longer be more than two or three seconds. The probability of users leaving the site increases by 32% as page load time goes from one to three seconds. Google also looks at loading speed as a part of its Core Web Vitals, which are all essential for ranking high. On that note, you can use PageSpeed Insights from Google to check your site speed.
Site Structure
Your website should also have a followable structure, with an easy-to-understand hierarchy. This means, your homepage, parent and child pages should be organized in a way that makes sense for Google. An organized site structure can help you rank higher in the SERPs, increase your traffic, and make it easier for your visitors to navigate your site, boosting user experience in the process.
Mobile-Friendliness
Ensuring that your site works correctly on mobile devices has several SEO benefits. Google also prioritizes a mobile-first approach, which means that your site should look and work excellently on mobile devices. It should also load fast on mobile, with easy navigation and readable buttons and fonts.
User-Friendliness
It's imperative for your website to be easy to use. There are several ways you can achieve this, but in most cases, these things are better left to a seasoned web design team. With their help, you can focus on the following:
- Creating a website with consistent and simple design elements
- Easy-to-read yet brand-consistent fonts and typography
- Easy task completion like signups, or application processes
- Creating an accessible website
Addressing Local SEO
By strategically leveraging local SEO techniques, law firms can ensure that their services take center stage when potential clients in their area need legal assistance. From fine-tuning Google My Business listings to integrating location-specific keywords and citations, local SEO tactics empower law firms to carve out a robust presence within their communities. This not only attracts highly relevant traffic but also translates into increased conversions.
Additionally, by securing placements in local map packs and directories, law firms can amplify their visibility among local clientele, cultivating trust and credibility in the process. In a landscape where clients prioritize convenience and proximity, prioritizing local SEO isn't merely a choice – it's a vital strategy for law firms striving to dominate their local market and emerge as the preferred option for legal representation.
Start Building Links
This is also a highly important part of legal SEO, which often gets overlooked. Valuable backlinks from reputable sites are among the main ranking factors for search engines. The best way to go about link building would involve pitching articles to publications, writing guest posts on other sites, signing up as a journalist source, or crafting quality content that gets shared on other sites.
Track and Measure the Results of Your Efforts
After working hard on your SEO campaigns, it's pivotal to track the results of your efforts to see what's working and what aspects could use some tweaking and improvement. By keeping an eye on important numbers and looking at data like traffic, conversion rates, bounce rates, and time spent on site, you can assess which aspects of your site might need further work or where you might benefit from adjusting your strategies.
With a clear understanding of your SEO performance, you can adjust your approach, ensuring that you're getting the most out of your efforts and staying ahead in the digital game. This ongoing refinement ensures your business stays competitive and continues to thrive in today's fast-paced online world.
Best SEO Agencies
As we’ve hinted above, it’s always best to leave your SEO needs to the experts. To help you find the most suitable professionals for your needs, we took the liberty of highlighting some of the best agencies in the industry.
Rankings
Rankings is a leading SEO agency that specializes in serving law and legal firms. They offer tailored services to meet the needs of the legal industry, helping attorneys and other law firms reach top rankings on search engines and generate qualified leads. Apart from offering comprehensive optimization services, Rankings also covers other digital marketing aspects such as Google Ads, website design, PPC, and more.
Rankings worked with Dolman Law Group to improve their online presence via SEO services. The company received 400% more organic cases from search engines after the campaign and managed to win several first-page rankings for local phrases and keywords. The project also boosted year-over-year organic traffic from 3,076 sessions to 13,000,
MeanPug
MeanPug is a digital agency that tailors its services specifically for law and legal firms. Its highly skilled team designs creative solutions that align with each legal firm’s clientele, message, and brand, leaving a memorable mark. They leverage both cutting-edge technology and traditional tried-and-tested marketing tactics to deliver their clients the best possible results.
Their project with Pinkham & Associates, APLC included a new branding strategy, content marketing, web design, development, and SEO. After implementing the comprehensive approach, the brand has seen a 11.49% increase in daily impressions and a 34.6% boost in number of daily clicks.
HigherVisibility
HigherVisibility is a four-time SEO Agency of the Year winner, making it one of the most respected teams of experts in the industry. Several influential organizations and expert teams, such as Search Engine Land and Forbes have recognized them.
HigherVisibility worked with Restauration Roofing, a Memphis-based contractor company, that needed help with its online presence. HigherVisibility devised a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for the client, which resulted in a 162% increase in organic traffic, a 400% boost in conversions, and a 164.89% increase in organic visibility.
Attorney SEO: The Bottom Line
Search engine optimization can look overwhelming for legal experts at first glance. Still, with the right proactive approach and willingness to explore the latest digital marketing trends, lawyers and attorneys can leverage the power of Google search and reach more people who need legal assistance.
On that note, outsourcing your SEO needs to a team of experienced professionals is a wise decision. While lawyers can certainly learn the intricacies of search engine optimization, the ongoing learning curve can be time-consuming, and can potentially divert them from their primary expertise: helping clients navigate the legal system.
SEO for Lawyers FAQs
Is law firm SEO worth it?
In short, attorney SEO is a worthwhile investment for every legal practice that seeks to leverage the full potential of digital marketing. SEO is an integral part of almost every digital marketing strategy and is a necessary investment for every legal expert who wants to remain relevant in the digital age.
Can attorneys perform SEO alone?
Technically, every business owner/blogger can optimize their presence for search engines, but it’s pretty much like learning how to pilot an airplane; getting every aspect of it right requires plenty of monitored practice as small errors can lead to catastrophic consequences.
On the other hand, SEO is a time-consuming practice that requires continuous learning and tweaking. This can take up a lot of time, which may rob experts of running their businesses/providing their services.
Are paid ads better than SEO?
In terms of bringing faster short-term results, paid advertising is still superior to search engine optimization, where ideally, clients will see tangible improvements after three to six months.
Still, it's worth mentioning that while yielding results slower, SEO ensures that these results last longer, as content and other optimized assets will keep on generating traffic and driving conversions even after a campaign. With paid ads, when the budget is spent, traffic also dies off.
