9 Ways to Boost Your Law Firm’s SEO

Your law firm may be outstanding at what it does, but if potential clients can’t find you online, generating leads and getting referrals can be an uphill battle.

There are many strategies in digital marketing that you can employ to get noticed, but one of the most impactful in 2021 is investing in your law firm’s search engine optimization (SEO). Why?

• 96% of people looking for legal advice start their search online, according to Smart Insights
• 74% of legal consumers visit a law firm’s website before taking action
• 72% of people seeking legal advice only contact one attorney
• Law firms that use video on their website see a 41% increase in site visits from potential clients, according to Hitsearch Limited

What Is SEO?

Let’s pump the brakes for a minute, and examine the basics of SEO.

SEO isn’t digital marketing wizardry. It’s simply a technique that digital marketers can use to make their firm’s website more findable by search engines.

This practice fits into a larger category of digital marketing known as “search marketing,” which relates to any tactic to get your business, brand or organization to show up in search results.

Search marketing breaks down into:

• Search engine marketing (SEM): Paid strategies for appearing in search
• Search engine optimization (SEO): Organic strategies for appearing in search

SEO itself is multifaceted and there are several different tactics for improving your website's organic search engine performance. Strategies include:

• On-page SEO: Keywords and content on each page on your site
• Technical SEO: The backend of your site, examining if it’s fast, secure, mobile friendly, indexed, etc.
• Off-page SEO: How other pages connect to your site

Why Should Law Firms Perform SEO on Their Websites?

Law firm employees, from attorneys to paralegals to support staff, are busy, but many of the traditional avenues for growing your books of business and generating leads have shifted. Even before COVID-19 drove everything online, a strong digital presence was important.

Now, it’s mission-critical. With the decline of in-person networking events, conferences and in-person meetings, you need to be findable online. You need to build trust and relationships and generate leads through the strength of your web content.

That’s where SEO comes in. These strategies can help you position your firm and its brand to do just that. A good attorney SEO strategy can:

• Increase brand awareness across your target markets (geographically and by practice)
• Generate qualified leads and calls through your website, Google and other online sources
• Allow you to be more profitable with your work and see a greater return on investment (ROI)

What Do I Need to Do to Optimize My Law Firm Website?

1. Title/Meta and Keyword Mapping

Every good website needs not just a site map, but a keyword map.

 

With keyword mapping, you identify your target keywords and map them onto the pages of your website. This lets you figure out how to make each page relevant to the keywords.

Part of this process should be evaluating your page titles and meta descriptions to ensure they align with your keywords. Missing keywords in your title tags and meta descriptions equals a missed SEO opportunity.

2. Create Strong Content

In 1996, Bill Gates made the famous statement that “content is king.” Twenty-five years later, he’s still right.

But truly, a strong, relevant content strategy is one of the best things you can do for your SEO. Google’s search algorithms are constantly updating to find better ways to deliver high-quality content to searchers.

High-quality content can be defined as: 

• Unique: Uniquely created, uniquely positioned, unique to your firm’s capabilities. Strong content is never copied and pasted.
• Targeted to your audience: Understanding your audience, knowing what their questions and problems are (i.e., their search intent) and giving them actionable solutions.
• Authoritative: Authority builds trust — trust with both your audience and trust with Google. Why is building trust with Google important? Because Google factors quality content into its ranking algorithm, and authoritative websites typically rank higher and generate more impressions.
• User-friendly: Make sure your content is written for the web. Keep it engaging. That means formatting with headers, bullet points and scannable sentences.

3. Leverage Your Network to Acquire Backlinks

Networking is an essential activity for building your book of business as a lawyer. It's also essential for building your backlinks.

Backlinks play an influential role in your link-building strategy by establishing your domain authority. They’re a way of getting tacit approval from another site, and telling Google that you’re credible, authoritative and all of the other feel-good search engine words.

How do you get backlinks from your network? Here are some common approaches:

• Post a guest blog or guest podcast
• Participate in an interview or conduct one
• Promote your network’s content on social media, especially LinkedIn
• Create helpful case studies, eBooks and other shareable content relevant to your practice area

Networking and backlinking should be a two-way street. If you’re getting backlinks from your colleagues, return the favor.

4. Write Your Attorney Bio Pages to Reflect E-A-T

E-A-T stands for expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google started adapting its search algorithms to prioritize sites that demonstrated these qualities in 2019. It seems like each major algorithm update since then has kicked the ball further down that court.

While your entire site should constantly be communicating E-A-T, make sure that your attorney profile does as well. After all, when your prospective clients look at your profile, they’re looking for precisely those qualities.

5. Maximize Your Website's Load Speed

Expectations these days demand lightning-quick load times.

How do you improve your page speed?

• Reduce site redirects
• Use or reformat images as PNGs
• Compress your HTML, CSS and JavaScript code
• Upgrade your hosting
• Make sure your most meaningful, actionable content is above the fold on your website

Also, regularly test your page loading speed to make sure you’re consistently delivering a solid user experience. A number of free resources are available online to test this, including a tool from Google.

But how do you actually implement recommended changes to improve your page speed? If you’re not as savvy on the technical side of things, you can work with a web developer or IT department to make these adjustments.

6. Ensure Your NAP is Correct and Consistent

Name, address and place (NAP) might seem like tiny details, but they’re important if you want to establish yourself in local rankings and indicate to Google that the user has reached a real site, rather than a spam site.

While you’re updating your NAP on your website, do the same across all your digital channels. Consistency pays off.

Are you looking to go the extra mile? Make sure you’re listed across local, industry and practice-specific directories.

7. Share Your Content Across Social Channels

Sharing your content across social channels is a natural extension of creating content. After all, you put all that hard work into making it, and you shouldn’t just wait for traffic on your website to find it.

We should note that sharing your content doesn't directly impact your SEO success, but it does indirectly influence it by:

• Increasing your brand recognition and reputation
• Extending the lifespan of your content
• Improving the reach and potential traffic of your website

8. Record Short Videos to Accompany Written Content

Turning your blog posts into video is more than just a smart way to repurpose content. It also supports your long-term SEO strategy by:

• Building brand familiarity
• Boosting organic visibility
• Driving lead conversions

Consider this. Marketers who use video generate revenue 49% faster than non-video users, according to Vidyard’s 2021 Video Benchmark Report.

9. Constantly Improve

When all is said and done, getting your law firm’s SEO in order takes ongoing work. Even if you optimize every nook and cranny of your site tomorrow, Google will still be changing its algorithm. What works today may not work next week.

However, that’s not a bad thing. Excellence is a moving target, and you can hit it by ensuring you’re not in the same place — or the same mindset — indefinitely.