If you are looking to get more clients at your law firm and more traffic to your website, you’ll want to think about boosting your SEO. In this article, we’ll go over some simple law firm SEO tips that will have you on your way to seeing an increase in web traffic and clients.
What is SEO?
First thing’s first, in order to improve your law firm’s SEO, you need to know what it is. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it is a digital marketing practice that increases traffic to your website by improving your website’s ranking in search engines like Google and Bing. By optimizing your website, you are giving search engines and potential customers a clear message of who you are and what you do.
This kind of clarity will lead to higher search engine rankings which in turn creates more web traffic, more leads and more clients. If you’re still not convinced, we’ve got some numbers to back up the importance of SEO. Did you know that 96% of people looking for legal advice use a search engine to do so.
96% of people looking for legal advice use a search engine to do so.
In addition, 74% of consumers will visit a law firm’s website to take action.
Now, let’s get to the tips to get you on your way to search engine optimization:
It’s All About the Keywords
In order to optimize your law firm’s website you’ll need to come up with some keywords to target. To do this, think about what kind of searches you’re hoping your firm will rank for. For example, what kind of law do you practice? What area are you located in? If you specialize in worker’s compensation law, you want to focus on that so that you don’t have clients contacting you looking for a DUI lawyer or any speciality where you won’t be able to assist. You want to attract clients, not send them away.
Use Keywords to Optimize Your Home Page
In order for your keywords to work for you, you want to make sure they are all over your homepage. Insert keywords into your headline, subheads and the content on your home page. It’s best that your headline includes the keywords that you want to rank highest. For example, your main area of practice. So, instead of “Arizona Lawyer” in your headline, you want to go specific with “Phoenix DUI Attorney.”
Make Sure Your Website is Mobile-Friendly
We use our phones for everything these days and some people may use their phones to browse the internet more than an actual computer. You want your website to be mobile-friendly so people can access it anytime, from anywhere. When someone is in a pinch and seeking an attorney, the last thing they have the patience for is waiting for a website to load on mobile or simply not responding. That’s a surefire way to lose out on a potential client. What’s more, mobile-friendly websites are also factors in search engine optimization. Bing, Google and other search engines use responsive web design as a big factor in how they rank websites.
Improve the Speed of Your Website
Our patience is thinner than ever these days and the amount of information on the internet is higher than ever. This means that as soon as we have an unenjoyable experience on a website, we are outta there! Having a website that loads quickly is key in both how likely a potential client is to stay on the website and come back and in a search engine’s ranking of your website. If your website is running slowly, there are a few things that can be done.
- Reduce the size of the images on the website
- Save and upload images as JPEGS, which load a lot faster than PNGS.
- Minimize the amount of HTTP requests required for downloading things on your pages like images and graphics.
- Make sure all plugins are up-to-date.
Focus on an Optimized User Experience
Search engines want to offer the best websites that will provide the best experience to visitors. So, in order to rank higher on SEO and provide good customer service and client retention, you want visitors to your website to have a positive experience. This includes what we’ve already talked about as far as speed of your website and mobile-friendliness. You also want your website to look good and be easy-to-read and navigate. Make sure you include some attention-grabbing, high quality photos to break up all of the text.
Keep Your Website Up to Date
You don’t want to spend time researching keywords, developing a blog, checking the speed of your website and then just leave it untouched for months and years to come. You need to make sure your website is full of fresh content, that links are not broken and that plugins are up to date. You should routinely check on the content and performance of your website in order to continue ranking on SEO and bringing in new visitors.
Optimize Your Profile on Law Platforms
Yes, you also have to worry about your online presence on websites other than your own! Sounds crazy, right? But, it can lead to even more optimized SEO for your law firm’s website. If you have profiles on websites like Super Lawyers or Justia, take some time to make sure your profiles are looking good, updated and are optimized. These can be updated by specialty and location and will help your own website rank higher since the content on these types of website is consistent with what’s on your own site.
Create Content
You may have heard that content is king when it comes to SEO. This is because
creating content through a blog allows you to constantly pump out fresh content, which helps your SEO ranking. Content also allows you to become a resource for clients and potential clients alike.
Creating content through a blog allows you to constantly pump out fresh content, which helps your SEO ranking
A blog can allow you even more opportunities to get your keywords out there and also allow you to use some different keywords that are more research-focused. These are keywords that may get a lot of traffic which means without a blog, it will be hard for your website to get ranked with those popular keywords. But, with a blog you’ll be able to use those keywords a lot more frequently and create an informational post using the keywords that clients and visitors will refer to and even share with their followers, friends and families.
Check Out The Competition
If you haven’t noticed by now, the law firm space is quite saturated online. While this will make things a bit harder when it comes to attracting unique visitors and creating unique content, it can help when you’re first getting started. Check out websites of similar law firms in your area, around the state and country to see what they’re doing to garner high SEO rankings.
This can help you get a good idea about what you can do to improve your visibility and highlight your services and you may even pick up on some things not to do as well.