What is SEO for Lawyers?

How to achieve exponential growth through law firm SEO

If you are a law firm and you want to grow your business or attract more clients organically, the best way to do this is by increasing your online search content.?

In simple terms, create more blog posts, articles, and social media posts that can be found by prospective clients. The best way to be found is by adopting an SEO for lawyers strategy.?

This post will go through what SEO for lawyers means and how you can use it to grow your law firm.?

What does SEO mean in law?

SEO stands for “search engine optimization.” This term may mean absolutely nothing to you, but let me explain further.?

When you have a question, where do you go?

To Google of course! In today’s world, we seek answers to our questions on online databases and platforms such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. All of which are search engines. They collect information about what people are searching for.

SEO for your law firm is highly important in driving people (traffic) from search engines to your website.?

How does SEO work for law firms?

SEO = Search Engine Optimisation

SEO for law firms helps to improve and expand a firm’s digital presence.

When your clients are searching for answers about certain laws, they will look on Google first in many cases. If you have optimised your content, this means you have mindfully produced your content around SEO. As such, your website will pop up when a prospective client is searching for answers.?

Lawyer SEO can help your firm reach new eyes and build up your client base. The more your digital presence grows, the more people will know like, and trust you.?

How does SEO help law firms?

One of the main ways that people find lawyers is by searching online. This is why SEO for lawyers is key to being discovered on Google.

Ideally, you want to come up on the first page of Google for certain keywords. Because realistically, people aren’t likely to look beyond page 1 when finding a lawyer.?

SEO can help your firm grow exponentially. Take advantage of organic advertisement through Google as this is the go-to place that your clients will start with when looking for answers to legal questions.??

What is the marketing strategy you recommend for a law firm?

Potentially the most important and impacting marketing strategy that you could use for your law firm would be content marketing through search engine optimised blog posts/articles.?

Your law firm blog is vital in expanding your digital presence and bringing new traffic to your website consistently.?

Do lawyers need SEO?

The short answer is yes. All lawyers should have an SEO strategy and should be implementing SEO tactics into their blog posts and online content in order to reach as many people as possible.?

SEO for lawyers is one of the key and organic ways that new clients can find your firm consistently.?

How do law firms implement SEO?

Keywords

Your online content must include specific “keywords” which is one of the main factors of SEO.?

Your content must be based on a main keyword. In order for your audience to find you, the keywords must be properly researched as popular search terms.?

You can look for popular keywords by using multiple tools such as Uber Suggest, SEM Rush, and Keywords Everywhere.?

A good keyword is one that has a high search volume but is low in competition.

A keyword may not be an actual word, it can be a short phrase or cluster of words.

For example: “new divorce law UK”

You could then make a blog post called: “What is the new divorce law in the UK?”

Tips for keyword research

Take a look on Google and type in a few words about your target area of law and see what questions come up. Take note of the questions that Google recommends, these will be popular topics that your clients are looking for answers on.?

Make sure you use the main keyword that your blog post will be centered around in 1% of the content. If your post is 1000 words long, then make sure you mention the keyword around 10 times (give or take).

Google likes longer content posts because it sees them as valuable to the audience. Google’s aim is to provide the user with the most relevant and up-to-date content.

Ranking

It is not enough to simply think about the keywords that you are using, Google ranks your content using other metrics too.

• External and internal links
• Page loading time
• Pictures
• Web page URL
• Your website authority/reliability??

Backlinks

In terms of search engine optimization (SEO), having links to your website from another reliable website (called backlinks) is a method you can use to build up a web of links that will help you rank on Google.?

How do law firms get backlinks?

A great way to get backlinks to your website is by producing content on other websites.

What is guest posting?

A guest post is where you produce an article or blog post that appears on another website. In short, you share a well-written, valuable article on a well-known website in order to drive those readers to your website.

Why should you guest post?

Guest posting is a great way to spread the word and get your firm known to your target market. It is a good way of generating traffic to your website and getting new clients. If your guest posts stand out to your target readers, and are helpful and relevant, then you are likely to attract attention.?

If you guest post on multiple websites, you can reach different audiences and build up your client base.

Often websites such as Mondaq and the law society publish many legal articles and are used as reliable legal sources.

If your firm publishes an article on one of these leading authority websites, then you will be viewed as an authority in your field which will attract clients who will see your firm as the expert.?

It’s important to publish content on reliable, well-known websites that are already generating traffic and ranking high on Google.

Since they already have readers, this is an ideal method of free marketing for your firm.?

At the end of the article, you are usually allowed to include a short bio explaining who you are, what you do, and your contact details so that prospective clients can find you.

Where should law firms guest post?

Here is a list of some leading legal blog spaces:

• Legal Cheek
• Law Society- Gazette
• Mondaq
• Rocket Lawyer
• Investopedia
• Forbes
• Free Movement

How can law firms measure the success of SEO?

There are many different ways that you can measure the success of your law firm SEO efforts. A good way to do this is by using Google Console or Google Analytics which will provide you with the analytics that you need to decide whether your strategy is working.?

Generally, when looking at SEO for lawyers, you mainly want to know the following:

• Keyword ranking: You want to know where your keyword is ranking on Google whether it is high on page 1 or elsewhere. You can do this by simply doing a Google search yourself.
• Click-through rate: This is the number of people who clicked on your website from Google. You can get this statistic by using Google Analytics.
• Client conversion: Ultimately, you want to know which content your clients are clicking on that makes them subsequently contact you to book a consultation for instance. You can do this by tracking on Google Analytics or by asking clients how they found you.

How can I do small law firm SEO?

The best tips for a small law firm to succeed in SEO is to create consistent content that contains good keywords.

A good keyword is one that has a high search volume but is low in competition.

Keep it niche

As a small law firm, you will be competing with larger and perhaps more established firms. If you are new to the blogging game, it is important that you keep your content very niche at first and write about linked topics in your first 10-12 blog posts.

For example, if you specialise in a few different areas of law, make sure your first 10-12 posts focus on one specific area so that you can build up your reputation and trustability with Google.?

Local keywords

Small law firms likely have more local clients who choose them because they know their local area and perhaps are based on their local high street.?

A good way to utilise SEO for lawyers for small law firms is to try and rank on Google for local keywords such as “lawyers in Southport” or “law firms in Bolton.”

This way, when someone is looking for their local firm, you will come up. It is probable that not many local lawyers are ranking for these terms which would make the keyword less competitive.?

How long will it take to see SEO results for my law firm?

It is very much dependent on the keyword you use as to how long it will take to see SEO results for your law firm. But, generally speaking, it is likely to take a minimum of 3 months to appear on Google after publishing a post.?

Realistically, it can take 3-6 months depending on the authority that Google gives to your domain. Put simply, if Google trusts your website as a reliable and trustworthy source, it will rank you on Google quicker.

Why does my law firm need a website and SEO?

You’ve probably gathered by now that law firm SEO is important for your business.

In fact, if you do not focus on SEO, then it is likely that your firm will not be found on Google unless someone is looking through all the pages. In reality, most people don’t look past page 1 or maybe page 2.?

If you want to grow, attract new clients or show that your firm has credibility, it is important to develop your law firm's SEO strategy.?

Need help with law firm SEO?

This post explains the importance of SEO for lawyers.

If you need assistance with your law firm SEO strategy, your content marketing approach and actually producing valuable legal contact to rank on Google, please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected]