In this guide, we’ll teach you how to dominate the market in 2023.
Key Takeaways
- SEO for lawyers & law firms is one of the most competitive fields in search engine optimization due to the lucrative nature of the profession
- Since there are many different types of lawyers you need to optimize your site for your occupation type, this naturally helps with local search rankings
- A simple 5-10 page website won’t cut it, you need to take a holistic SEO approach to demonstrate topical authority to search engines (like Google & Bing)
If you’re sick of blowing money on ineffective SEO campaigns, being lost in the realm of search, & not knowing where your next client is coming from, then this guide is for you.
So..
What is Lawyer SEO?
Lawyer SEO is the process of optimizing lawyers’ websites for organic discoverability.
Through search engine optimization lawyers can increase their digital visibility, resulting in higher search engine rankings for keywords relevant to their practice.
Is SEO a worthwhile investment for lawyers?
It depends. You need to know what you’re getting. You need to work with an agency (or individual) with a clear & concise action plan for moving forward.
SEO done right is definitely a worthwhile investment because it provides you with more organic search traffic straight from Google.
Meaning somebody types in “personal injury attorney near me” & you pop up amongst the top 5 organic search results.
However, each market is completely different on the level of search, & there are an unending amount of variables that come into play to constitute who ranks & who doesn’t.
If you’re a lawyer in a metropolitan city (like New York) & all of your potential clients are local, it’s going to be insanely competitive & you’ll need an elite (& costly) SEO strategy to make serious headway.
However, if you’re an attorney in a small rural town with only a handful of law firms around, ranking on a local level will be much easier.
Our Content-Driven SEO method allows lawyers to gain topical authority by demonstrating mastery of the topic of law, which gives you the ability to rank for thousands of keywords & opens up hundreds of potential doorways for organic discoverability.
SEO or PPC | Which is better for lawyers?
Both acquisition channels can work quite well, especially in congruence with one another.
SEO is more of a long-term investment that helps you convert your website into an asset & appreciate your digital real estate, while PPC presents a quick way to obtain paid leads.
Due to the sheer competition of the market, if it’s within the budget, we recommend investing in both channels, after all, the overall goal is still the same, to get more clients & cases, consistently.
Alternatively, many people don’t realize the power of PPC for generating brand awareness, since you only pay per click, you can attain thousands of impressions for free, which can help in remaining “top of mind” when a potential client is ready to make a decision.
A newly optimized site will take at least 3-6 months (on average) to produce any organic traffic from SEO, which is why it’s smart to leverage PPC immediately.
Make sure you funnel the traffic correctly, if someone is searching for “Criminal Lawyer Near Me” DO NOT send them to a general services page. That’s a surefire way to annihilate your advertising budget without converting any prospects into paying customers.
So, if you do decide to run ads then make sure you run multiple ad sets targeting different keywords while sending people to optimized landing pages sculpted for conversions.
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How To Do SEO For Lawyers & Law Firms (In 3 Steps)
1.) Optimize Your Google Business Listing
To start, you need to have an optimized Google My Business listing, & you need to obtain as many positive (ideally 5-star) ratings as possible.
Within your Google Business profile, you can select all of the services you offer & the areas that you serve, which will come into play every time somebody performs a search within close proximity to where your business address is located.
Furthermore, having tons of positive reviews & feedback creates tons of social proof for someone thinking of investing in your law services.
2.) Optimize Your Website Architecture For Maximum Discoverability
For your web pages to be discoverable for relevant search terms that your potential clients type into search engines, you need to have published web pages on your site that are optimized in accordance with those terms.
Keyword placement is absolutely crucial, & seamlessly choosing headings that “sound good” will provide little to no SEO benefit.
For example: Let’s say you’re a personal injury attorney and one of the keywords you want to rank for is “Personal Injury Attorney Consultation”.
For maximum page optimization, you need to have that search term tied into your page title, <H1> title tag, URL slug, & within your paragraph text.
Here’s an image of the <H1> title tag 👇
This is the page title 👇
This is the URL slug 👇
Once the page is created, submitted, & indexed, you’ll need to get backlinks directly to that page.
We call this “powering up” the web page because when other websites link back to yours it sends powerful social signals to Google that your page is indeed high-quality & worth ranking among the top results.
3.) Create Blog Posts On The Topics Potential Clients Are Searching For
People don’t invest in your services without asking questions.
So why not overcome as many objections as possible, showcase your expertise, & position yourself as the expert in the field by creating high-quality articles answering the questions your readers have?
Our studies have shown that people who do this can charge more for their services & tend to attract more high-paying clientele.
In other words, GET A BLOG.
On-Page SEO Ranking Factors For Lawyers
What exactly are the on-page SEO ranking factors for lawyers?
And what can you do to make your website as search-engine-friendly as possible?
Here’s a complete guide to on-page SEO ranking factors:
1) Title Tags
2) Meta Descriptions
3) Header Tags
4) Keywords
5) Image Optimization
6) Internal Linking
7) External Linking
8) Mobile Friendliness
9) Page Speed
10) Schema Markup
1) Title Tags: The title tag of a web page is meant to be an accurate and concise description of the page’s content.
It is also one of the most important on-page SEO ranking factors.
The title tag should be no more than 60 characters, and it should include the main keyword or phrase for the page.
For example, if your law firm specializes in personal injury cases, your title tag might be “Personal Injury Lawyers in Houston.”
2) Meta Descriptions: The meta description is the short paragraph of text that appears under the title tag in search results.
Like the title tag, the meta description should be accurate and concise, and it should include the main keyword or phrase for the page.
The meta description is not a direct ranking factor, but it is important for click-through rate (CTR), which is a factor in search engine ranking.
3) Header Tags: Header tags are HTML elements that are used to designate the headings and subheadings on a web page.
There are six header tags, from H1 (the largest and most important) to H6 (the smallest and least important).
Google uses header tags to determine the structure and hierarchy of a web page, so it’s important to use them correctly.
The main heading of the page should be an H1 tag, and subheadings should be H2, H3, etc.
4) Keywords: Keywords are the words or phrases that people use when they search for something on the internet.
When it comes to SEO, keywords are important for two reasons:
First, because they tell search engines what your website is about; and second, because they help potential customers find your website in search results.
For lawyers, it’s important to choose the right keywords so that your website appears in searches for the right kinds of cases.
5) Image Optimization: Images are an important part of any website, but they’re also an important SEO ranking factor.
Search engines can’t read images, so you need to make sure that your images are properly optimized with keywords and alt text.
Alt text is the text that appears in place of an image if the image doesn’t load.
It should be a concise and accurate description of the image.
6) Internal Linking: Internal links are links from one page on your website to another page on your website.
They help search engines find and index all the pages on your website; and second, they help visitors navigate your website.
When linking to other pages on your site, use keywords or phrases in the anchor text (the text that you click on to go to the link).
For example, if you have a page about personal injury law, you might link to it from another page with the anchor text “personal injury lawyers.”
Here’s a snapshot of the interlinking structure of our website 👇
7) External Linking: External links are links from your website to another website.
They help search engines find and index your website.
They also help build trust with potential customers.
When linking to other websites, use keywords or phrases in the anchor text (the text that you click on to go to the link).
For example, if you have a page about personal injury law, you might link to it from another page with the anchor text “personal injury lawyers.”
8) Mobile Friendliness: Mobile friendliness is an important ranking factor for all websites, but it’s especially important for lawyers.
That’s because more and more people are using their smartphones and tablets to search the internet, and if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, they’re likely to bounce.
To make sure your website is mobile-friendly, use a responsive design, which automatically adjusts to fit any screen size.