SEO For Lawyers

The Benefits Of SEO For Lawyers

Every law firm with a website can benefit from search engine optimization (SEO). Single-lawyer law firms to multi-lawyer corporate law firms can use SEO to draw more organic traffic to their sites. A well-planned and properly optimized SEO campaign will have a positive ROI (Return On Investment) after a period of 6 months to one year.

The costs to lawyers who do not market their firms with SEO can be disastrous to future growth and profits. It’s always much harder to play  “catch up” after a period of inactivity vs. the slow and steady results of a well thought-out SEO campaign that runs continuously.

Why Use SEO For Your Law Firm?

More (and more expensive) advertising, more (and better) website content and a fully developed Google Business page (GMB) with weekly posts are becoming the norm rather than the exception. All of this takes time and costs money. Is it worth it?

Consider this: It’s pretty much certain that your competitors are using some form of SEO marketing for their law firms.

Optimizing a website helps it rank better in the search listings. This makes it easier for clients to find your firm, which can result in a significant increase in traffic, ultimately resulting in more paying clients.

Your Google Business Page Is A Big Part Of Your Business

In addition to having a website that ranks well for your keywords, your Google Business Page, if developed properly, can act as an equal partner in bringing in new business. Many SEO firms ignore the GMB, but we use it for clients in a very profitable way.

• More clients = more income.
• Less expensive than advertising.
• Great ROI!
• Better click-through rate (CTR) than advertising.
• Builds long-term firm growth
• Take business from non-SEO firms.
• Helps build reviews too.

Law Firm Search Terms Are Extremely Competitive

What is a search term, or keyword? This is whatever your prospective client types into his or her computer to locate you. If you are a criminal defense attorney, someone might type in “criminal attorney (your city). As a criminal defense attorney, you’d want your Google Business page or website to appear near the top of the page.

As I’ve learned over the 10 years I have been doing marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) for lawyers, the competition for search terms is very competitive. If fact as I update this page, search terms for most branches of law (criminal, divorce, employment, personal injury, etc.) are getting crazy competitive as more attorneys turn to internet marketing to grow their law firms.

To be at least competitive, you will need to be marketing your firm way more than you did 10 years ago – or even 2 years ago. 

Many local businesses are taking advantage of SEO to get better results with their websites, as well. Lawyers, for example, can increase their chances of connecting with clients by optimizing their website so that it performs better in the search results.

Individual lawyers and law firms alike can benefit from SEO, which explains why it is so popular in the legal field.

Lawyers Can Earn More Money Through Effective Online Marketing

When it comes to marketing, many lawyers are stuck in the past, advertising through traditional outlets like newspapers, TV ads, or law publications. While ads like these can bring some success, they may not be the most cost-effective way for today’s law firms to use their advertising dollars.

Advertising doesn’t build long-term business like SEO can.

SEO Is The Better Investment

Search engine optimization usually provides a lot better return on investment (ROI) – especially since the results can continue to pay off for a long time to come.

Newspapers and flyers usually get tossed in the trash, meaning that the money spent on printing them is often wasted. SEO, on the other hand, makes it a lot easier for lawyers to connect with clients through the Internet. That is why Lawyer SEO one of the most effective marketing techniques available today.

Every dollar spent on SEO can provide long-lasting benefits, which is why this is such a great opportunity for lawyers.

“Dollar for dollar, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your law firm beats advertising in the long run.”

If you hire us to optimize your online web presence, we take a comprehensive approach that evaluates and improves different aspects of your website.

Some of the services that may be part of the package include the following:

An Initial Review Of Your SEO Position

Before making any changes, we carefully review your business online, learning more about your law firm and about the keywords or phrases that you want to target. All aspects of on-page SEO and off-page SEO will be studied and a plan formulated.

After this initial review, the SEO company can begin identifying the specific keywords that will help you get the best results.

Caution: Many SEO Firms Offer Bad Advice!

You probably have received emails and letters from SEO companies guaranteeing to boost your SEO and rank your pages in Google. Most of these firms do not use “safe” seo tactics, and you may end up with a damaged website and SEO due to their risky and hurried tactics.

On-Page Optimization

Some of the optimization techniques involve making changes to the site itself. This could include optimizing your content, adding relevant information to the meta tags, creating a well-planned internal linking structure, adding alternate text to images, building an effective site map, and using the robots.txt file to control access to your site.

Building Backlinks

Finding effective ways to get incoming links is one of the most important tasks for any SEO company. This not only includes one-way links but also links from legal directories or other relevant resources. Ultimately, the goal of this process is to get as many high-quality links as possible directed at your site.

Performance Tracking

The SEO company will keep track of how the changes are affecting your site so that they can make any necessary adjustments. You typically will receive reports on everything from the keywords that are sending the most traffic to the quality and number of links pointing at your site.

Tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console and others will help to maximize the SEO campaign and benefits.

Optimizing Your Website And Your Content

Law firms and independent lawyers can benefit from adding a blog to their site to add fresh content. This content included in a blog can help the site rank better. It also can provide a valuable resource for visitors, making them return again and again.

Lawyers can also benefit from a page for every service they offer. The more quality, keyword-optimized content that Google sees, the better chance your law firm website has to rank well for those keywords.

A well-written, informative blog can also attract links from other sites. This can help boost the overall ranking of the site and can make it easier for new pages to get indexed.

Creating A Google Business Page

Since lawyers usually work with clients who are located in the same city or county, the content needs to be optimized for a local audience. One of the best ways to do that is by creating a Google Business Page listing and by adding the law firm’s details to Google Maps.

This makes it easier to connect with potential clients, get great reviews and to rank in the “Google 3-pack” for great, focused traffic.

Establishing An Effective Social Media Marketing Campaign

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools for lawyers. With the help of a qualified SEO company, law firms of all sizes can come up with an effective marketing plan that relies on sites like Twitter and Facebook to drive traffic. Through social media, lawyers can connect with new clients, build relationships with their existing clients, share their content, and grow their reputation.

If you haven’t optimized your site yet, there is no better time to get started. The sooner you get your SEO campaign underway, the sooner you will start seeing an increase in traffic.