Are you looking for a guide on SEO for lawyers? Do you want that your law firm appears first in Google search results?

Even though SEO is one of the most effective strategies for law firms that want to attract clients, many lawyers aren’t sure how to use it.

In this post, you will read about the most overlooked keyword selection and ways to improve your law firm’s search engine optimization!

In the digital age, a solid legal SEO campaign driven by content is vitally important. More people are searching online for help in a pinch.

You want your law firm and your details to arrive first in their search results, so they call you for advice and hire you to represent them.

You can build a strong law firm SEO campaign, which focuses on search intent, uses keywords, makes content that attracts organic traffic, and converts them to clients.

SEO content is the words, blog articles, videos, or other content used on your website that has a purpose.

The purpose of your content could be to sign up people for your newsletter, to help answer simple questions or to promote a new product or service.

To achieve that purpose, SEO content has keywords, deliberately used heading and title tags, and has a call to action to encourage whoever consumes your content to do something, usually to contact you or take further steps with you.

Blogs

These are the backbone of an SEO content strategy. It is an all-encompassing term that includes articles, helpful lists, brief how-to articles, or long introspective pieces.

If you can decipher what the user intent is from search results, and deliver a great blog piece, this helps your website rank.

Have an eye-catching title, with your primary keyword included, sprinkle some subheadings (H2) throughout to help guide the reader, make the content easy to read, and you’ll have a winning blog piece on your hands.

Consider a hub-and-spoke blog strategy. It is where you have the main article of at least 2000 words. This is the hub. From here, you expand on key points in their own 1000-word articles. These are the spokes.

You link from the Hub article to the Spoke articles, but you don’t link anywhere else on your website from inside the blogs.

This leads a user into a content hub, where they can get more information without being distracted or taken away from the topic with other links.

Google loves this as it can reinforce you as the authority on a subject and rank above your competitors in the search results.

Category Pages

What kind of law services do you provide? This is in general, with more specificity listed below each category page.

For example, injury law can be a category page. When people are searching for ‘injury law’, use the right keywords, and your category page can rank.

The types of injury law can be included as internal links to this page, and they would be Product and Services pages.

Products and Service Pages

These are the specific products and services you provide and can rank well with good legal SEO applied.

Following the category page mentioned above, you can have a service page for Personal Injury, a service page for Work Injury, and a service page for Vehicular Injury.

Do some keyword research for each type of injury. Use that SEO in creating the pages to describe your services, have a call to action (CTA), and you can rank for specific pages when people search for them.

SEO For Lawyers and Landing Pages

Landing pages work as a place for web browsers to land before reaching your website. They are separate from your website but associated with your brand.

They have a purpose beyond just bringing organic traffic to your website, thanks to good SEO.

The pages talk about one specific thing – such as a new product you’re launching, or if there is an event you are promoting.

Landing pages are used to collect people’s data – name and email address. Add these details to your customer list for better marketing in the future.

Content Strategy

Here are some easy ways to start a content strategy for your law firm.

Keyword Research

You need to know what keywords people are using to find you or look for products and services you are offering. You can use Semrush or AHREFS, to do this. They’re easy to use, and both have many instructional videos to help you.

Use these keywords in article titles or page titles, subtitles in your blogs, and used in the body of your content.

Don’t overuse keywords. Google will consider this ‘keyword stuffing’ and penalize you.

How many words?

Google recommends 1500 – 2000 words as the ideal length for a blog post.

However, if you can get a strong message across in 800 words, with strong legal SEO keyword research, that should work for you.

Think of your target audience. Are they consuming your content while on the train? Or leisurely in the office? How much would they want to read?

SEO For Lawyers – How often should you post?

A blog post once a month is good enough. It shows Google that your website is live and updating, and it keeps you conscious of your website and content. Two per month is better.

If you can produce quality content, with good SEO, every week, that would be good for your website to rank, and good for your business.

Also, look to refresh your content regularly. If there are updates to the legal process, or you have an annual update, look to refresh and update.

Google likes this as well as it shows your website is alive and current, and you’re serving your readers by providing great content.

SEO Content for law firms can be done effectively and easily. It will take some time to research and time to show results. But once started, you will start to see increased organic traffic, which will translate into a rise in clients and a rise in revenue.

Overlooked Keyword Selection Considerations Lawyers Make

Things are different. Everything is rapidly changing, and today it is impossible to imagine having any company without an online presence.

While commercial businesses always needed to think of and develop marketing strategies, word of mouth and other forms of personal referrals were enough for law firms.

For example, if you run a website, you always want to invest skills and time into marketing. But if you were a lawyer, your work was advertising itself.

According to a new study conducted by iLawyer Marketing, a California-based lawyer firm marketing company, not anymore.

SEO For Lawyers – Invest In Marketing Strategies

Today, every law firm is not online present on the internet but invests in marketing strategies. It is not surprising that the competition is fierce.

Some studies such as this one conducted in 2019 by Market MyMarket indicate that clients rely on referrals and online searches.

However, a closer look at the situation from the iLawyer Marketing study shows that things are not so simple.

The study included 1040 participants from the United States. They were asked to imagine a situation of being in a car accident that wasn’t their fault and looking for a personal injury lawyer.

98% of the participants said that they would research online reviews of the lawyers before choosing the one they want to hire.

The primary source for researching lawyers

Among other questions, participants were also asked to choose the primary source for researching which lawyer to hire, and 86 percent responded that they would use Google.

Therefore, we can conclude without a shred of a doubt that Google is still the best source for leads for your website.

Now, considering the fierce competition between law firms online, which we already mentioned, it is logical to expect that you would want yours to rank high in Google search results.

And what is the best way to achieve this? Of course, the best thing you can do is develop excellent SEO and keyword selection practices.

Why Is SEO Important for Lawyers?

As we already mentioned, same like everything else, when they want to find a good lawyer, people ask Google for help.

Some people think, “Okay, but why do I need to think about the process of selecting keywords? I have created a website so people can find me online!”

Yes, but as you are certainly well aware, things are never simple. You are not the only one of the few lawyers who created websites for their firms.

On the contrary, you can rest assured that every firm has done or is in the process of doing the same. The concept of search engine optimization is based on implementing high-volume keyword phrases.

SEO For Lawyers

That means that the better the keyword selection, the higher your website’s rank in search engines. Why is that important?

To say it simply, like everyone else, lawyers use SEO to attract clients to visit their websites. If your law firm website doesn’t appear on the first page of search results, the chances that someone hires you drop significantly.

Nobody has time to click on the next page these days. That is why if you want your firm to be searchable, like £5 deposit slots.

You need to do adequate keyword research and use targeted keywords when creating content on your website.

Law firms understand the importance of SEO and want to implement it quickly. The problem, however, is that lawyers are taught to win cases and are not at all about the business sides of running a law firm.

Hence, they often overlook critical aspects of SEO. That is why we will talk about the six most common things lawyers neglect in their keyword considerations and ways to improve the situation.

Six Most Common Keyword Selection Mistakes

Of course, you want to use a highly competitive keyword phrase for any SEO campaign you start.

So, for example, if you are practicing family law and are based in Seattle, one of your main law keywords will be “Seattle divorce attorney.”

That is an example of adequate target keyword research. However, keep in mind that not all of them correlate with your field of practice.

SEO For Lawyers – Don’t Rely Only on Keyword Research

For example, maybe you are a disability lawyer, and you want to target people who experienced injuries. In that case, you have to think about what keywords will work well for you.

But you should consider that personal injury lawyers might use the same word. Not to confuse your target audience, it might be better to use phrases like “back injury disability lawyer”.

Generally, the best thing would be to use a mix of “money phrases” and those that correspond to your practice.

Keep in Mind that Location is Important

Many lawyers find this confusing. Yet your keywords need to be connected to the target location and cannot be used interchangeably with another location.

Say you are based in Beverly Hills, but you want to target people from Los Angeles.

You may think these locations are synonymous. However, you still can’t use both terms in your keyword selection.

Don’t Use Keyword Phrases Interchangeably

Here is the thing. For you, as a lawyer, some things like the car accident page and personal injury page might seem the same. They probably are similar from a legal perspective.

However, from the view of Google and your clients, these are two different things. Hence if you want to rank high for both pages, you need to make a clear distinction.

Therefore, you need a negligence page, for example, to rank for a personal injury page and a separate page for traffic accidents.

Long-tail Keywords Are Critical for Your Website

In general, most SEO campaigns include short keyword phrases that you can find quickly on Google, Bing, etc. An example of such a phrase is “best Boston divorce lawyer.”

But there are also so-called long-tail keywords that lawyers often overlook even though they prove to be critical for good SEO. These are usually longer phrases that come in the form of a question.

Don’t Overlook the Importance of Keyword Density

Many people choose a good keyword and then use it only once in the text. However, this is not a way to go. While working on keyword selection, keep in mind that you need to repeat at least some of them.

Most people agree that it is best to use the keyword after every hundred words. It may seem unnatural to some of you, but you should know that there are plenty of ways to make it appear organic.

Whether you have your office or you work for a law firm, you certainly want to grow your business and attract clients.

Since most businesses happen online, your goal is to rank high in search engines, and the best and simplest way to achieve this is through proper keyword selection.

Seo For Lawyers

What are your tactics for attracting clients to your firm’s website? Are you incorporating SEO in your marketing strategies?

Importance of SEO for law firms

If you’re a lawyer or run a law firm, then you know that online marketing is essential to your success. And while there are many ways to market your firm online, search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most important.

Because when it comes to finding lawyers online, potential clients will almost always start their search with a Google search. And if your law firm isn’t near the top of the search results, you’re going to lose out on business.

What is the value of a #1 search engine ranking?

A top ranking on a search engine can be extremely valuable for law firms. A high ranking can bring in new clients, who may not have otherwise found the firm. In addition, a high ranking can help the firm’s website appear more prominently in search results, which can result in increased traffic and leads.

How can law firms optimize their website for better search engine ranking?

Law firms can optimize their website for better search engine ranking by adding keyword-rich titles, meta descriptions, and header tags to their pages. They can also improve their site’s loading speed and ensure that their content is relevant and engaging.

In addition, law firms can use social media to promote their website and attract more visitors. By following these tips, law firms can improve their online visibility and reach more potential clients.

Reviews also positively influence your search engine rankings. 5-star reviews will help drive consumer confidence, referrals, and repeat customers, while negative brand interactions will do just the opposite.

Is SEO For Lawyers worth it?

SEO is worthwhile for law firms if you have the right strategy in place and work with a partner that knows how to get results. A report from Brightedge found that 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine.

The value of that traffic is significant. Organic traffic (free traffic from search engines) is worth the equivalent monthly total of paid traffic in Google Ads.

Keywords like “lawyer” and “attorney” are the two most expensive keywords on Google Ads, costing over $100 per click for searches like “personal injury lawyer” and “criminal DUI attorney”. So the value of an organic click for that keyword is equivalent to $100.

The value of ranking for those keywords and getting free clicks, rather than paying upwards of $100 per click, is tremendous.

Measuring the success of SEO efforts

Of course, law firms need to calculate the return on investment (ROI) of their organic traffic based on their investment in SEO. But the main benefit is that SEO improvements typically deliver ROI for months/years to come, whereas Google Ads only delivers traffic if you’re continuing to pay for clicks.

Law firms can also keep track of the leads they generate from their website and cross-reference that with the revenue generated. A simple calculation of total revenue generated from website leads divided by the total number of website leads will give you the value each lead has to the business.

This calculation can be used to help determine budgets for marketing, including SEO.

Techniques law firms can use to improve SEO

While there are many techniques that can be used to improve SEO, there are three primary methods that are most effective: optimizing the website content, improving the site structure, and developing backlinks.

One of the most important aspects of SEO is the content on the website. Content is the most important element of SEO and has two basic aspects:

The first aspect is the text content on a website. This is what search engines use to index your site, so it is very important. The second aspect is the keywords in your text content.

The website structure impacts how PageRank flows throughout a website. Optimizing the site structure will help search engines understand the hierarchy of pages on your website. It should be structured so your most valuable keyword themes/topics are given priority.

Backlinks are also an important ranking factor.

Not only do they help to improve your site’s PageRank and link juice, but they can also help to improve your search engine rankings. Search engines treat backlinks from trustworthy sources as endorsements. More good links will help improve rankings.

SEO For Lawyers Conclusion

For effective SEO for law firms, it is important to understand what searchers are looking for when they are looking for legal services. Most people who are in need of legal services will start their search with a general term, such as “lawyer,” “attorney,” or “legal aid.”

However, there are also a number of specific legal terms that are often used when people are looking for a specific type of legal service.

Optimizing your website for a range of potential keywords and organizing your website based on these keyword themes will help law firms get more traffic, leads and cases.

Author’s Bio:

Thomas Glare graduated with a Master’s Degree in Computer Science in the UK and is currently working as a marketing expert.

He specializes in SEO for local businesses and e-mail marketing. He has worked for two major companies in the past, gathering skills and experience.

This article was partly written by SEO experts Blake Smith and Harry Sanders.

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SEO For Lawyers: A Complete Guide