SEO is vital for every industry, no matter what your business offers. It’s the key to improving your website’s search engine rankings and bringing in new leads and loyal customers. When used with traditional lead generation methods and marketing campaigns, SEO is a powerful tool that can propel your law firm website to the top of Google search results.
Although SEO is widely used by businesses with an internet presence, there are a few tips unique to each industry. The same is true for law firms. You can’t expect to follow the exact same SEO steps as a fashion website because you aren’t aiming to reach the same audience. You may not even have the same goals in mind.
As a law firm, there are specific lawyer SEO Orlando tactics you can apply to meet your goals and approach SEO in a slightly different way than other businesses do. Keep reading this law firm SEO guide for more tips and learn how to improve your law firm’s rankings on organic search results.
What is Search Engine Optimization for Law Firms?
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of increasing your website’s visibility in search engine results. There are several different practices involved in SEO, but they all work together to push your website higher up in the search result rankings.
Law firm SEO is specific to law firms. With law firm SEO, your website becomes easier to read and navigate, making it higher quality in the eyes of most search engines. Even though Google has never released information on what their search engine optimization algorithm takes into account, the methods used by SEO experts have shown proven results.
Just like other forms of search engine optimization, law firm SEO involves choosing the right target keywords, optimizing site navigation, creating SEO-friendly content, mobile optimization, local optimization, and building trustworthy backlinks.
Why is Law Firm SEO Important?
SEO for law firms is vital because it helps your website show up first in search results. Without needing paid advertising, your site will appear higher in search results, and users will be much more likely to visit your site. Law firm SEO increases your website’s visibility organically as well as your website’s authority and reliability.
Lawyer SEO puts a heavy focus on local SEO to draw in more local clients. In essence, local SEO also helps make it easier for law firms to rank higher in search results relevant to their area instead of trying to rank high nationally.
Unlike companies looking to increase their national customer base, law firms typically operate in a specific region. This means that the tactics used in law firm SEO will be very different from those used in ecommerce SEO and other types of search engine optimization. Because of this, it’s crucial to follow law firm SEO tactics.
Top 5 Components of Law Firm SEO
To make your law firm website SEO friendly, there are certain things that you should be mindful of. Before you get started, here are some of the top components of law firm SEO.
1. Effective Keyword Research
The first step to any search engine optimization endeavor involves good keyword research. As a law firm, it’s crucial to spend time researching keywords that your website should use. Likewise, it’s also vital to keep a separate list of keywords that should be avoided.
Many law firms make the mistake of choosing high-volume, mid competition keywords that, unfortunately, bring in the wrong clients. Some may be searching for a service the firm doesn’t offer. Others may not be able to afford the services. Choosing relevant keywords can help eliminate the odds of your content reaching the wrong people or only being seen by those who won’t actually end up using your services.
Be specific with the keywords you do choose. Choosing keywords such as “criminal defense lawyer in Philadelphia” will make it much more likely that the users who find your website are searching for your services specifically.
When your keywords are too broad, such as “lawyer in Philadelphia” or even “lawyer in Pennsylvania”, you won’t be as likely to reach your target audience.
2. SEO-Friendly Website Design
Part of search engine optimization is designing a website that is easy to navigate, intuitive, and fully optimized. To do this, here is a quick checklist to run through:
- All pages on your website should load within 3 seconds
- All fonts and images are clear and easy to read
- Site content is laid out intuitively and easy to find
- Call-to-action buttons are obvious
- All contact forms are functional
- All links lead to the right pages
- Try to use more than just stock images or generic photos
- Internal links are functional and lead to relevant information
By following the above practices with your website design, your site will be easier for search engines to analyze and rank while also being more functional for users. This, in turn, reduces your bounce rate and increases the odds of users following through with your call to action.
3. Strong Branding
Ultimately, if you don’t have a strong, authoritative brand, you might not be getting the best results from your law firm’s SEO efforts. Without strong branding, your law firm will quickly be forgotten for another law firm that stands out to your client.
Strong branding means taking the time to put together a cohesive image of your law firm. Invest in professional photographs for your staff and lawyers, create a professional logo, decide on brand colors, and incorporate them into different facets of your website.
Your branding should be visible across every page of your law firm’s website in a cohesive and seamless manner. This is where using your brand’s colors as your website’s color palette comes in handy.
Ultimately, visual branding plays a significant role in how likely visitors are to remember your law firm, so use it to your advantage and incorporate it in every area of your website design.
4. Optimization: On-Page, Off-Page, and Mobile
Optimization plays one of the most significant roles in SEO, right after keyword research.
On-page optimization involves technical SEO components like keyword placement, internal and external links, and content creation. It ensures high-quality content is provided to users and helps search engines to know what your website is about. Part of on-page optimization includes having the right title tags, meta descriptions and ensuring that your content addresses user intent.
Off-page optimization is what happens outside of your law firm’s website. This includes reviews, local optimization, and link building. Creating a Google Business profile, as well as listings in online directories like Yelp, Bing, and Yellow Pages, will help improve your local optimization. Also, reviews from previous customers will help your establish authority and reliability.
To create authoritative backlinks, try collaborating with other sites, creating guest posts on relevant blogs, doing interviews, and investing in PR. These are effective link building methods that will lead to more authoritative links pointing to your law firm’s site, thereby improving your reputation and rankings on Google’s organic search results and other search engines.
5. Mobile Optimization
As a large majority of searches are completed using mobile devices, search engines place a huge importance on mobile optimization. If your law firm’s website hasn’t been optimized for mobile devices, it might be ranked lower in search engine results pages, even if the search is conducted on a computer. To avoid this, create a mobile version of your law firm’s website and keep it up to date.
Having a mobile-friendly website doesn’t just improve your rankings on search engines but also helps your prospective clients stay longer on your law firm’s website, thanks to the ease of use and functional navigation.
Stay Up to Date
SEO changes constantly. What ranks well on the Google search engine currently may not rank well in the future. This is because the rules for SEO success and what may get law firm websites penalized will never stay the same.
In order to ensure your law firm’s website is still ranking high in organic search results and that your website is still SEO-friendly, you’ll need to stay up to date on SEO trends, consistently optimize your site and publish regular content.
Rank Your Law Firm Website Higher On Search Engine Results Pages
Whether you’re a small law firm or an established company, launching an effective law firm SEO campaign is a great way to improve search engine rankings and reach more potential clients. However, law firm SEO can be difficult to understand when you’re first starting out.
With the ever-changing rules surrounding local SEO and the competition posed by your competitors, hiring a law firm SEO company like us will give you the best chances. Not only will this make SEO less stressful, but it also increases the efficiency of your law firm SEO strategy and gives you a competitive edge. With our experience optimizing law firm websites, our law firm SEO services will help you dominate online search and rank well in your local legal industry.
Call our law firm SEO experts today and let our SEO agency help you apply the best and most effective attorney search engine optimization strategies to get you more prospective clients!
Stephan Boehringer is the CEO of Get The Clicks, a web marketing company. Stephan has over 20 years of experience in the field of web marketing, and has been a speaker and consultant for many years. Stephan is passionate about web marketing and helping their clients be the best they can be.
Stephan Boehringer graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services.
