If you run a law firm and desire not just to survive yet also thrive then getting a consistent flow of clients is imperative. Though there are various ways of promoting and marketing a law firm website but the finest method will be to invest in SEO for law firms. Once the legal SEO has been nailed down, you can depend on higher organic traffic for the site from leading search engines that will result in more clients thereby ultimately cutting down the amount on advertising.
Law Firm Websites- SEO Basics
With regards to SEO for attorneys and lawyers, SEO for law firms in the real sense is not that difficult as Law Firm SEO services are readily available these days. These do not vary from SEO strategies for other website types. SEO, in a nutshell, will aid a law firm’s site to rank higher for particular keywords as well as terms in the SERPs than other websites of law firms within the same area.
If your site attains a ranking on Google’s first page, you will get better chances to get more leads, more clients and inquiries as the majority of the people will not have the time to check all results so will only prefer the first page results. SEO for a law firm as such is an excellent and proven means of boosting up the online visibility of the law firm and bring in more clients. The SEO strategy must include getting the right keywords for the law firm, website optimization both for local SEO and keywords and other tactics too that are covered below.
Why SEO Has an Upper Hand Over Traditional Marketing?
Take a look at the different reasons why developing a solid legal Search Engine Optimization strategy makes sense over going with traditional marketing. In the case of conventional marketing to generate leads, you will have to depend on networking, cold calling, business cards, direct mail and newspaper ads. But this will come with a cost such as,
- No control on which people can view your ads, neither will you be able to measure your ad’s success, so it is difficult to calculate the ROI.
- In the case of traditional marketing the process needs to be repeated, and you need to re-invest in the ads continually. That along with impacting your budget will also need a lot of time investment.
- Pay attention to prospective customers that may require your services or may not at that time and may fail to remember you during the actual need.
On the contrary, SEO marketing can offer you with the following perks namely,
- Help in generating interest and attracting relevant and organic traffic and clients that can book an appointment as you provide a solution for their immediate needs.
- After setting it up correctly, it will not need enough upkeep. Once your site gets optimized for specific search terms and keywords, the site will show up always which means you require to ensure it remains high on Google with fresh, quality content.
- The best part it is simpler to check what is working or what is not. This way you can tweak as well as optimize devoid of going above the budget.
- Pay attention to educate regarding your services along with making it simpler for clients in finding you and reaching you when they require your services.
What Makes SEO the Best Choice for Law Firms?
SEO has a little learning curve so needs some time investment initially, but considering the long-term perks, it is truly worth the effort. To get started these are some best tips and practices,
- Analyze Competitors- The best way to begin will be by analyzing the competitors which mean other law firms and lawyers within your area to have an idea as to how they have structured the site and the terms and keywords they are using. Also, consider the content type that they publish along with the sites which link back to them. One can also use tools such as Alexa can be used for conducting this research and finding means for implementing such techniques on the website.
- Keyword Research- After having an idea what the fellow competitors are doing, the next step will be to research the keywords which you noted and also get ideas for extra keywords that you can utilize on the site. Google Keyword Tool can help you in viewing search terms associated with the keywords that you desire to rank for as well as add the same to your list. Also, focus on the local keywords like your country and city. Use these keywords in the following areas- URLs, image alt tags, blog post titles, About Us page, meta tags or title.
- Fill Out Meta Description Tag and Title- The meta descriptions and title are used via the search engines for displaying the site and will also be the foremost thing that users will notice when they look for an attorney or law firm in their area. Most importantly to ensure that your meta description and the title is not cut off within the SERPs so limit the title within 60 characters and the meta description within 200 characters.
- Consistency With Details- In case of SEO for attorneys or law firms, consistency indeed matters as different spellings may provide the impression that this information belongs to various law firms. The name, contact number, and address of the law firm must be the same all over the website, social media, directory listings, and all other online channels.
- Start a Blog- Last but not the least start a blog. Though regular blogging is time intensive yet will aid your site to get crawled via search engines regularly as you will post quality content. Besides, it will help you in building trust with prospective clients mainly should you take some time in explaining the complicated legal terms.
Apart from these the other strategies that you can try including listing your law firm in the Google My Business, asking for reviews from clients, use Schema Markup, and make it mobile and desktop friendly. Besides, there are some pitfalls which you should keep away from such as sending press releases, getting tempted via link schemes, paying for any guest post especially on a high ranking site and avoid paying for local link directories.
