SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’. It is the process of enhancing the quality and the quantity of the content/data on websites, webpages, etc. received by the organic search results. This is confined to the unpaid traffic in various types of organic searches. Due to this process, the number of visitors on a website or webpage increases according to the content displayed.

The SEO takes into consideration the search engine, as well as how the designed algorithm displays search results based on the input search or any keywords entered by the user.

Why SEO is Important for Law Firms?

More Traffic! More Conversion! More Prospects!! Search Engine Optimization can play a very crucial role in marking your law firm visibility. While paid ads, social media, and other online platforms can generate traffic to websites, search engines drive the majority of online traffic. Organic search results cover more digital real estate, seem more reliable to savvy searchers, and receive way more clicks than paid ads. For eg., of all US searches, only a small number of people click on paid ads.

Increasing Visibility

Well SEO optimized web content can add feathers to your cap! It not just improve your google search ranks i.e Search Engine Result Page (SERP) but also your firm will be more visible to your potential clients.

Web Traffic

SEO’s can help law firms to gain more traffic on their websites. As per data available, nearly 33% of clicks gain first ranking page, and the first five listings get over 75% of all clicks.

More Authority

You are a law firm and of course you should look like that! SEO’s helps to gain more reliability, it makes the website look high quality, relevant and trustworthy.

Better Visitor Experience

When you have an SEO optimized quality content on your website it will no doubt create a positive and seamless user experience alongside if the website can be made responsive your law firm can very well track mobile and desktop reaches and can customize the site accordingly to reduce the bounce rates.

Key Benefits of SEO Marketing

Content is king, in these times of digital visibility. But, content which stays hidden, cannot increase your reach. One needs to tap in the important search terms and keywords, in order to increase the visibility of their content. Let us see how SEO helps lawyers increase their visibility and potential of landing future clients:

Market Repute

The factors like how well known and established a lawyer/firm depends on their ranks in the search results. Higher ranks indicate a well-established firm/lawyer. The reason behind this is that people often see higher-ranked law firms as more reliable, trustworthy and professional than those ranked lower or on the second page.

Target Traffic

If you run an Intellectual Property firm and routinely post about Intellectual Property and related keywords, you would attract relevant traffic. Having 10 uninterested audiences, who are just `website-hopping’ may not translate into future opportunities. You need to attract your potential clientele. SEO helps in attracting relevant traffic and not just traffic.

Increase in Potential Clients

If someone wants help in Intellectual Property laws and every time they type in the relevant keywords, they are directed to your website, they would know that you are a lawyer with good knowledge in this domain. Hence, SEO helps in increasing potential clients.

Increase in Views

An SEO-optimised content is bound to give you greater views. Higher visibility often translates into a higher client base.

Creation of Barriers for Competitors

SEO can help you eliminate competition, If you have the money, you can get your links listed on sites which have higher visibility. For example, if you engage in tertiary activities such as running scholarship campaigns, you may get space in sites which use the .edu domain name.

Search Engine Optimization Techniques

In order to improve a site’s search rankings, the first step would be to understand how search engines work. To improve a site’s rank, various SEO techniques need to be leveraged which will optimize the site for search:

Keyword Research

Your blog or article should contain frequently used keywords. This would enable the audience to find your article easily. Further, the visibility of your article would also expand.

Content Marketing

After you have identified and used potential keywords, you should make a strategy to market the same. Update your existing content, create new pieces and make your blog or website more relevant. The content should be of high quality to have a high ranking in the search engine results. Good content not only has a greater chance of being shared on social media but also to attract links.

Link Building

“Backlinks” (in SEO terms) which are links from external websites are considered to be one of the core ranking factors in Google and other major search engines. SEOs can be effectively used by finding high-quality backlinks to be used in the content. You can get good quality backlinks by searching for good content. You can also maintain friendly terms with other webmasters or submit websites to legal directories.

On-Page Optimization

Along with off-page factors such as links, improving the actual structure of the page will be highly beneficial for SEO.  Common on-page optimization techniques can be optimizing the URL of the page to incorporate keywords, updating the title tag of the page to use relevant search terms, and using the alt attribute to describe images. Updating a page’s meta tags such as the meta description tag can also have benefits for SEO. Furthermore, the said tags don’t have a direct impact on search rankings. However, they can increase the click-through rate from the SERPs.

Site Architecture Optimization

Both the internal (i.e., the links within one’s own website) and external links have large roles to play in SEO. In order to improve a site’s SEO, a search engine optimizer should make sure that the key pages are being linked to and that relevant anchor text is used in those links which helps in improving a page’s relevance for specific terms.  Creating an XML sitemap is a good way for larger pages in helping search engines discover all of the site’s pages.

Semantic Mark-up

Optimizing a website’s semantic mark-up is the other SEO strategy that SEO experts use. Semantic mark-up such as Schema.org can be used to describe the meaning behind the content on a page, helping in the identification of the author of a piece of content or the topic and the type of content on a page. Additionally, it also helps in certain snippets getting displayed on the page. Snippets such as review stars and images may attract further traffic.

How Law Firms Can Improve their SEO?

Increased number of online reviews

The more positive online reviews you have, the more likely search engines are to boost you up in ratings. Ask your clients to give you testimonials so that you can use them on your website. The more respected a source is, the more it will help to increase traffic to your site. Additionally, when a prospective client visits your site and sees all of the great reviews your past clients have left you, they’ll be more likely to trust you as their legal advisor.

Appropriate Usage of Keywords

A big thing to remember is that SEO is all about utilizing effective keywords. If you optimize your site for a keyword that’s never searched then you’ll never get results. Instead, analyse the competition, use keyword research tools and find keywords that are relevant to the legal world. The more relevant your keywords are, the stronger the results will be.

Visual Appearance

Something that most companies don’t realize affects SEO is the visual aspects and appeal of their websites. Google and other popular search engines have recently put a greater emphasis on user experience in the ranking process. When your site is more visually appealing and has a good user interface, you’ll grow on search results pages. Consider adding videos, up-to-date web design and make sure that your entire site is mobile friendly.

Consistency of Content

Finally, make sure that you’re regularly producing some sort of content and posting it weekly. Regardless of whether you decide to publish vlogs, blogs or a mix of both, regularly posting content is a great way to improve your company’s SEO. There are a lot of law firms that start a blog and then fall off the face of the Earth a few months in. However, a huge piece of the algorithms for search result rankings include producing new content. Try to aim for at least 1 new blog post every two weeks that includes relevant backlinks (both internal and external) and share them on your social media page. Make sure that the writing is fresh, unique and creative in order to get the best result. Who knows, you might even create something that goes viral.

Takeaway: Tips for Law Firm SEO Strategy

Keywords

It is very important for a law firm to choose the right keywords to enhance the SEO of its content. Once you’ve your keywords, you need to find out how you’re currently doing in the search engines compared to your competitors.

Compare Yourself

You might find that you’re doing a lot better or worse, but that’s going to give you a good view of the playing field. Once you have the results of your SEO analysis, move on to fix your website’s technical issues. Once you’ve your keywords and your website is cleaned up, you need to optimize your current site pages.

Local SEO

Local SEO for law firms would put your law firm at the top of the search results for a local service area. Now that you’ve taken care of the crucial SEO factors, it’s time to expand your law firm’s SEO efforts. Look at your website pages and make sure you have a dedicated web page for each service you offer.

Blogging

Having a blog not only increase your chances of ranking on search engines, but it also creates trust in your law firm. Backlinks in the search engine algorithm have huge weight. The more links you have, the more authoritative Google believes it is, and the higher you’ll rank in search engines. If you don’t track, measure and analyze that data none of the above will work.  Doing so will help you decide which lawyer marketing tactics work and which should be eliminated or changed.

Finally, you should look at the results you’ve obtained from your law firm SEO strategy and modify your strategy based on those results.

Read our Guides on Digital Marketing for Lawyers

Digital marketing is the new traditional marketing! Read our guides on digital marketing for lawyers and law firms to get tips and strategy to grow your law practice in 2021:

We can help you with your marketing initiatives to generate more leads and get you more clients, contact us now and we will reach out to discuss your marketing strategy. At Altclik, we believe in moving ahead together and we are there to help you at each and every step of your marketing journey! 

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This post was first published on January 18, 2022

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