There’s a lot more to twenty-first-century marketing than relying solely on billboards, and Yellow Pages – these days no lawyer or law firm can afford to ignore the power of the Internet.
Of course, getting noticed online isn’t always particularly easy, and is a popular sector like the law, it’s pretty easy to end up as one of the wallflowers who never get asked to dance at the ball. Basically, there’s one major thing to keep in mind – if you want your law firm to be found by potential clients who are browsing the net you are going to have to put some thought and effort into it.
You need to create an attractive, professional and welcoming online space that is positioned to make it both easier to find, and easier on the eye, than competitor’s sites, and doing this means getting to grips with standout SEO strategies.
Face the facts
· Over 95% of those looking for legal advice or a law firm turn to a search engine to find leads.
· Around 75% of those who use a lawyer initiated action via the lawyer or law firm’s website.
Lawyers know this, so they tend to take the need for strong SEO efforts seriously. To get ahead it’s not enough to keep pace, you need to find a way to take the lead.
The good news is that alongside the handy hints on seriously boosting your SEO, like those we share here in a few moments, there some also top-class experts out there to help you do this too. Lawyer SEO is unique, so if hiring help make sure they are 100% invested in this sector, and its nuances.
Our top 8 SEO tips for lawyers or law firms
Tip 1 – Shift focus to feature high on an aggregator site
This may not be a conventional suggestion, but instead of channeling all your energy into hitting page 1 or 2 of Google (a serious task), look at getting featured at the top of aggregator site lists for a change, as they make up three-quarters of the top-ranking results. With the right approach, you can piggyback their ability to attract so much traffic. (Some allow you to advertise on them too, which boosts your exposure even further).
Tip 2 – Invest in specialist keyword research
Keyword research is the natural starting point of any SEO campaign, as the better you know which words and phrases people use to find sites like yours the easier it is to identify those which could work best for you. That’s all great in theory, but inevitably the most used keywords are magnets to others in your field, which waters down the chances of making them work for you.
Instead of battling the crowds focus on keywords in a niche market, as this decreases your competition’s numbers drastically. If you need help to find good keywords try some of these free research tools: SERPS, Wordstream, and Keyword.io.
Tip 3 – Be critical of your website – is it truly mobile friendly?
If it is then you will impress Google, earning vital extra points in the race for high ranking status. (Google kindly offer a free tool which will check and report back on how mobile-friendly your law firm website is).
Tip 4 – Is your legal website user-friendly?
You should never make someone viewing your website have to work really hard; instead, their experience should be straightforward, engaging and interesting.
Tip 5 – Does the website make it easy to find relevant information?
In general visitors to a site are eager for a positive experience, and they are not actively looking to criticize. Hold their attention and gain their respect by creating a site with a simple navigation menu, clear and accurate contact information such as your current trading name and address, and an easy to see phone number.
Make a note to check each page regularly to make any updates due. Finally, create a fresh content information page of 300+ words for each aspect of, or service offered by, your business – this is a smart way to boost your chances of appearing on niche topic search results.
Tip 6 – Make your content top-notch
You probably already know that all of the content on your website needs to be accurate and engaging to read. If you choose to add a blog then the content there should be added regularly to show Google you are maintaining it properly. This is a great opportunity to use those keywords you already researched, and if you have some search phrases which are less popular, but very relevant to your business, it’s worth building blog posts around those to capitalize on the niche search for traffic.
Tip 7 – Tap into free promotional resources
Register for ‘Google MY Business’ as soon as you can, as the process isn’t completed until you receive a postcard to your business address to verify the information filled out. Once you have completed verification your business details will appear on Google maps and local searches.
Directories are worth signing up for too. Look for opportunities to add your SEO boosting law form details to listing sites on sites such as Yelp, Yellow Pages, Bing, Brown Book, Yandex, Law Guru, Avvo, Best Attorney, and Law Link.
Tip 8 – Boost SEO by checking your site is quick to load
Basically, Google ranks a site partly on how quickly it moves along when loading information, and partly on user views, which is why its data should be checked regularly. Pages that are painfully slow to load are more likely to be closed down by impatient or frustrated viewers, further lowering the SEO clout of what may well be amazing content.
These 8 top tips should be enough to help you get a good start on boosting your law firms SEO and grabbing a bigger share of the net browsing community as a result.
