20 Law Firm SEO Tips
Bobby Holland
Founder, CEO BipperMedia.com a Website Design & SEO Agency serving clients throughout the world.
20 Law Firm SEO Tips
Here’s a list of the top 20 law firm SEO tips
I’m sure you, as a lawyer, have had success up to this point with your legal practice.
And I’m also sure that you, as a lawyer, have vast experience and work hard to get your clients favorable outcomes.
However, getting new clients may seem like it’s getting harder despite your successful track record.
Word-of-mouth has long been the most effective marketing strategy for lawyers.
You simply needed to work hard and get great results for clients and even colleagues to refer people in need of your services to you. However, times are changing.
The modern generation no longer relies solely on word-of-mouth to find a lawyer.
In fact, 96 percent of people seeking legal advice start by using a search engine.
It’s interesting to note that 74 percent of prospects that begin their search online end up contacting law firms via phone
An online presence is a necessity for any law firm that hopes to be successful in the digital age.
Law firm search engine optimization (law firm SEO) is key to making you visible to prospects.
It is the process through which you can boost your website rankings on search engines, generate more traffic and ultimately get more leads.
That said, SEO isn’t a magic bullet and it won’t give you instant results.
A successful law firm SEO strategy requires continual tweaking and monitoring to ensure the best results.
The following are 40 law firm SEO tips you can apply to your SEO strategy for greater success and to attract more high quality clients to your law firm practice.
20 Best Law Firm SEO Tips
Below are the 20 best law firm tips to growing your law firm in Google search.
Tip 1:? Keyword Targeting
When people search for information using search engines, they use keywords to ‘tell the search engine’ what they are looking for.
Knowing what these keywords are is the first step to optimizing your website and driving more traffic to it.
You’ll increase your chances of driving qualified traffic that is more likely to become leads to your website by using highly specific and targeted keywords.
Start by making a list of keywords and phrases that people could use to search for your services.
These keywords should cover all your areas of service.
You can use Google’s suggestions to find out what people look for by typing the keywords you have listed and looking at the search engine’s suggestions.
Another great way to identify the most popular keywords people use is by using a keyword tool.
There are many free keyword tools you can use.
These include Keyword.IO, Google Trends and WMS Everywhere.
Tip 2:? Strategic Keyword Selection
Your keywords should be distributed in the content of your website.
Use your keywords in your home page, blog posts and service pages.
Be sure to include them in your H1s, H2s and H3s.
They should also be included in your call to action.
It is also important to optimize your Meta description and images on your website using the keywords.
Successful optimization isn’t about stuffing your website’s content with these keywords.
It’s about using your keywords wisely.
Using any keywords aimlessly or excessively within your content can result in penalization by search engines.
Tip 3:? Create Practice Area Pages
Many law firms make the mistake of only listing their practice areas on their home page and leaving it at that.
However, practice areas should have separate pages dedicated to them.
These pages should also be keyword specific.
Practice area pages offer two main benefits.
The first is that they provide visitors to your website with more information about that particular area.
For example, if you’re a family lawyer, pages providing information about child custody, child support or divorce will give visitors a better understanding of the services you offer and help them make a decision on whether or not to contact you.
Practice area pages also help to increase your visibility.
Creating individual pages with optimized title tags, headlines and URLs will impact how search engines rank your web pages for relevant searches.
For example having a web page for car accidents will help your website rank well in searches for ‘’car accident lawyers’’ because the page’s URL and content matches the keyword.
Tip 4:? Create High Quality Content?
One of the first steps internet users take when seeking legal counsel is to search for general information on the particular legal issue they need help with.
For example, someone that is thinking of getting a divorce and seeking child custody may search for keywords such as ‘how to get a divorce’ or ‘how to file for custody for your children’.
Providing potential clients with high quality content that is informative will therefore increase your visibility and increase your chances of turning your website visitors into leads.
Blogs, guest posts and social media posts are a great way to provide readers with relevant and informative content.
This content will help to establish you as an authority in a given area.
Readers are more likely to contact you when they need legal help.
Use keywords in your content to make it visible to search engines.
Your posts will also be a valuable source of quality backlinks to help improve your search rankings.
Tip 5:? Website Design & Structure?
A website with good structure and design is vital for SEO.
User experience is a significant part of keeping visitors on your site long enough to turn them into clients.
You don’t want visitors to land on your website and leave right away.
That means your website has a high bounce rate and a high bounce rate is bad for SEO.
Your website should not only be attractive in design but also be easy to navigate.
It should present information in a way that makes it easy for users to get the information they need.
Your website should have a friendly design yet reflect professionalism.
It should be a reflection of your law firm.
Tip 6:? Improve Website Performance
The 2010 Gomez Report on Why Web Performance Matters showed that 75 percent of online consumers preferred to leave websites for a competitor site than put up with loading delays.
The report also states that 88 percent of online consumers aren’t likely to return to a website after they have had a bad experience.
Your bounce rates will drop significantly if you optimize your website for speed.
You can check the speed on your website on Google’s Page Speed Insights tool.
There are several things you can do to boost the speed of your website.
These include reducing the sizes of images, saving images as JPGs if possible, updating the plug-ins on your content management system and removing any you no longer use and minimizing the HTTP requests that are required in downloading different aspects of web pages on your website such as graphics, scripts and images.
Tip 7:? Ensure Mobile Friendly Website
Mobile searches first surpassed desktop searches in 2016.
The numbers have since continued to grow as access to smartphone devices increase.
People are now using their phones for a good number of online tasks including searching for information and making purchases.
According to a recent survey, more than 61 percent of mobile users are likely to contact businesses that have a mobile site.
This is significant considering that 61 percent of Google searches are done on mobile.
If your website isn’t mobile friendly, you’re missing out on reaching a big chunk of the market.
Take the time to optimize your website for mobile.
This may mean anything from using responsive design to improving site loading speeds or creating a new mobile friendly website.
Tip 8:? Track & Analyze Data
If there is one thing you can’t afford to do when it comes to SEO is to sit back and forget about it once you have optimized your site
To be effective for the long term, SEO strategies need to be tweaked and adjusted continually.
You’ll need the right information to make the right changes.
Keep track of keyword rankings, measure your website’s performance and analyze your SEO campaign performance.
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Are the keywords you chose ranking well on search engines?
Have search engine algorithms introduced changes that will have an impact on your digital marketing strategy?
While it is necessary to keep your strategy up to date, it is also important to be patient.
It can take a few weeks to months to see the results of your optimization efforts.
Tip 9:? Implement Site Structure SEO
When an internet user searches for information using a search engine, they go through the titles and read the Meta description for each search result
Users click on pages that appear to offer the information they were searching for on the title tags and Meta descriptions.
It is therefore important to optimize not just your URL but also your Title tags and Meta description.
In addition, search engines are more likely to rank web pages that contain relevant keywords in their URLs higher in the Search Result Pages (SERPs).
Users are more likely to click on search results that include relevant keywords in their title tags and in Meta descriptions.
This simple step will increase the traffic to your website significantly.
Tip 10:? Add Schema Markup
You can boost your website’s visibility in SERPs using schema markup.
This powerful tool involves putting code (semantic vocabulary) on your website that helps search engine bots to pick up more information on web pages that is relevant to users.
Your listing on search engine results pages will be a rich snippet that includes information such as images, star ratings, site links, images and much more.
Providing users with more information about what they can expect when they visit your website or who you are is a great way to attract qualified leads to your website.
Tip 11:? Use Legal Directories
Many people seeking legal services typically search on the best law firm directories to find the services they need.
People trust businesses listed on these directories. Being listed on these directories is also a great way to improve your SEO as these directories rank well on search engine results pages.
Ensure you are listed in local business directories as well as local legal directories.
Ensure the information on these directories is accurate.
Consistency in your profiles on different directories is also important.
Tip 12:? Verify GMB Listings
Putting your business on Google My Business will go a long way in improving your online presence and driving traffic to your business’ website.
It will ensure that your potential clients are provided with more detailed information about your business on Google Search pages and Google Maps.
Your listing will include comprehensive information such as your address, phone number as well as past client reviews.
Be sure to add images and make the listing attractive to inspire viewers to click on your website. Include relevant keywords to ensure you get better ranking on Google Maps and Google Search.
Tip 13:? Be Social
Social media is a great and easy way to increase your online visibility and thus improve your SEO.
You can establish yourself as an authority and drive more traffic to your site by using social media well.
The best way to do this is by posting relevant and informative content on your social media accounts.
People like to share content they think their networks will find valuable.
They will share and comment on posts that are relevant to them.
Search engines recognize that your content and website are being shared because people find value in your content.
This will add credibility to your firm as well as improve your website’s SEO.
Tip 14:? Use Video for Q&A
Video is taking the digital marketing world by storm.
Platforms that support video content such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram have experienced rapid growth in subscribers.
The time spent by consumers viewing content on these platforms has also significantly increased.
Potential law firm clients like other internet users spend a great deal of time consuming video content on social media platforms.
With more people preferring to watch videos about products or services than reading about them, potential clients will be more likely to watch and share a video about your firm or services you offer than read about them.
Create videos that are short and informative. Post them on your social media accounts and include links to your website.
These videos can be anything engaging from live action to 3D animations.
Tip 15:? Build Authoritative Backlinks
Backlinks are an important component of any successful SEO campaign.
Search engines tend to reward websites with quality backlinks with better rankings on SERPs.
Your website will be recognized as being able to bring value to online users.
Some great ways to build quality backlinks include publishing articles in law journals, collaborating with influential bloggers or journalists, having guest posts published in relevant blogs with links pointing back to your website, promoting content on social media and creating high quality videos and infographics.
Tip 16:? Get Reviews?
Client reviews work in much of the same way that word-of-mouth works.
People trust the word of clients that have already had a taste of the services or products they are interested in purchasing.
Potential clients will seek out reviews about your law firm to learn about the experiences of your former clients.
Ask your clients to post reviews on your website as well as on your social media accounts. You can send them emails or ask them in person or over the phone.
Another great way to get reviews is by sending your clients a post-engagement checklist when closing out their cases.
Include a request for a review in the form.
Avoid the temptation to get fake reviews written.
It is not only unethical but can be spotted by Google and other search engines which could result in penalties.
Tip 17:? Optimize for Local SEO
Do you have multiple locations?
If your practice is not confined to one place, be sure to take advantage of this by optimizing your content for multiple locations.
This will increase your visibility in local searches.
Optimizing for local searches will also improve your overall SEO strategy by increasing your rankings in different localities.
Tip 18:? Review Competing Firms
It’s always a good idea to check out the competition.
This practice will give you a better idea of what you can do to gain more traction with your digital marketing strategy.
Look up the top ranking legal websites in your area.
What do they have in common? What keywords are they using? Study the structure of their website.
Go through their content.
Are there things you can adapt to your own site to improve your website rankings on search engines?
There are many things you can learn from studying your competitors.
Tip 19:? Ensure Consistency?
It is important to ensure consistency in the content you post throughout the internet.
This is especially important for crucial details such as your law firm’s contact information.
Check your social media profiles, directory listings, website, blog and any other platform on which your law firm is mentioned.
Make corrections to any mistakes even if it means having to contact the account or web master of the different platforms.
Consistency is important for establishing trust with potential clients.
It is also important for better search engine rankings.
Tip 20:? Add Calls To Action
Too many law firms forget to include a call to action in their content.
A call to action tells your audience what to do next.
Do you want them to subscribe to your newsletter, call to book an appointment or click to watch a video?
A call to action will make the next expected step clear to your website visitors and therefore increase your conversion rates.
Include a relevant call to action to all your content including blog posts, website service pages, videos, infographics and any other content you create.
It should be clear and concise e.g. ‘click the link below to subscribe,’ or ‘contact us to book an appointment’.
Conclusion
Effective Law Firm SEO is something any law firm needs that hopes to be successful and world driven by search and online digital media.
Take advantage of the tips outlined above to improve your online presence, drive traffic to your website and generate new leads. Give us a call to learn more!