If your law firm struggles to attract new clients, your online presence may be to blame. In this comprehensive SEO guide for lawyers, discover tested strategies to boost your website visibility, captivate search engines, and convert site visitors into paying clients.
As a busy attorney, you may lack the expertise or bandwidth to optimize your website for search engines. That’s where this complete SEO guide for lawyers comes in. Learn insider tips tailored specifically to law firms on how to rank higher in Google and earn more cases.
Read on to discover:
- The must-have elements all attorney websites need for top SEO rankings
- How to choose powerful keywords that capture client searches
- Valuable local SEO tips to connect with clients in your city
- Types of engaging content that improves click-through rates
- Ways to measure website traffic and conversion successes
Master these proven SEO and content marketing techniques for lawyers, and watch your caseload grow.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, a critical process for improving a website’s visibility in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. These engines use web crawlers to index sites, prioritizing those deemed most relevant to users’ queries. With over 90% of clients turning to the internet to find an attorney, appearing on the first page of search results is essential. A successful SEO strategy involves optimizing your site to rank high in these searches, avoiding the pitfalls of tactics that can lead to penalties from search engines.
Why Law Firm SEO Matters
Here’s a staggering stat: over 90% of prospective clients use search engines to find legal services, making SEO for law firms and attorneys a critical strategy. That means if your law firm’s website doesn’t rank on the first Google search engine results page (SERP), you’re missing out on valuable business opportunities.
Successful SEO for attorneys requires an integrated strategy across multiple factors. These include optimizing individual web pages, earning high-quality backlinks, producing magnetic content, and tracking analytics.
When done right, SEO delivers a steady stream of qualified website visitors who convert into real clients. Read on to discover the key elements your attorney website needs to start ranking higher.
The Importance of Lawyer SEO
A previous study conducted by AccuRanker found the legal niche to be the most competitive when it comes to SEO. Effective Attorney SEO can help your firm outrank and outperform competitors by:
- Generating more leads
- Rising higher in search engine results pages (SERPs)
- Increasing calls and email inquiries
- Boosting conversions with effective calls-to-action
People search online first when seeking legal help. With so much competition, effective SEO strategies are crucial for standing out.
Successful Ranking Factors
To achieve high rankings, law firm websites need to focus on several key factors:
- Domain-level Links: Crucial for establishing your site’s authority, these are links from other sites to yours.
- Page-level Links: Also known as backlinks, these are essential for showing the relevance and trustworthiness of your content.
- Keywords and Content: Relevant keywords must be naturally integrated into your site’s content.
- Technical Details: Search engines also evaluate technical aspects like uniqueness, load time, HTML structure, and content structure.
- Engagement and SERP CTR: Your site’s click-through rate from search results pages indicates its relevance to users.
SEO vs Paid Advertising for Law Firms
Paid advertising like PPC can quickly generate results for law firms. However, it carries expenses for ongoing monitoring and misses long-term SEO benefits like:
- Organic traffic growth
- Improved online visibility
- Building trust and engagement with site visitors
- Much higher return-on-investment (ROI) than ads
SEO costs less over time yet converts visitors at 3 times the rate of paid options.
Craft Targeted Keywords Across All Pages
Keyword research is a fundamental building block of any SEO strategy. As a lawyer, identify frequently searched terms and questions specific to your practice areas and location. These may include:
- “personal injury lawyer Miami”
- “best divorce lawyer Atlanta”
- “workers compensation attorney Austin”
Improving your search engine rankings involves naturally incorporating relevant long-tail keyword phrases across all your website’s pages, including the homepage, about us, services, blog, and contact page. Avoid awkward spamming.
Pro Tip: Install Google Search Console to discover which keywords currently drive visits to your site. Expand upon these terms by adding location modifiers, practice areas, lawyer vs attorney, etc.
User Experience and Website Design
While SEO drives visitors to your site, user experience (UX) and design convince them to stay.
75% of users judge a company based purely on website design. Simple elements like fast page loading times, mobile optimization, clear navigation, and more can make the difference between losing a lead and gaining a lifelong client.
Ensure your law firm’s site offers an outstanding user experience with these quick wins:
- Compress images and optimize site speed
- Use responsive mobile-friendly design
- Include search bars and avoid confusing dropdown menus
- Display site breadcrumbs so visitors can retrace their steps
Deliver an effortless, user-friendly website, and your conversions will grow.
Earn Trustworthy Backlinks
Backlinks signal trust and authority to Google. These occur when an external site links back to a specific page on your law firm’s website. Relevant legal organizations, attorneys, resources, and reputable sites linking to you can quickly boost credibility.
Pro Tip: Produce outstanding legal content and resources that sites in your field wish to reference or recommend. Useful content earns the best backlinks.
Capture Local SEO Opportunities
An immense 89% of smartphone users turn to search engines for local information. Local SEO is vital for law firms wanting to connect with clients in their city or county. Follow these tips:
- Fully optimize and promote your Google Business Profile listing
- Encourage satisfied clients to leave online reviews
- Ensure your law firm’s full address, contact details, and practice areas appear on every page
- Use geo-modifiers like “Miami” or “Queens” in page titles and content
The ultimate goal for optimizing your Google Business Profile is to be part of the “map-pack,” the listings that populate just below the map of matching businesses. These listings are usually the most selected.
Based on information from Google, the top three criteria for ranking on Google Maps are how relevant a listing is to the search query, the geographical proximity to the searcher, and the listing’s overall significance or prominence.
However, studies on local ranking factors have shown that the largest factors that determine the rank in the map pack are:
- Your Primary GBP Category
- Keywords in the GBP Business Title
- Proximity of address to the point of search
- Physical address in the city of search
Here is a screenshot with more expanded ranking factors from that study:
Create Magnetic Content
Content marketing involves publishing various types of content to attract clients. Well-written, relevant blog posts and legal resources focused on your clients’ needs earn attention and links from other sites. This in turn lifts your overall domain authority.
Aim for long-form, pillar content organized around common questions your ideal clients ask during the research process. For example:
- “How Long After a Car Accident Can I File a Claim?”
- “What to Expect at Your First Child Custody Court Date”
- “10 Mistakes That Can Sink Your Disability Benefits Case”
User-Generated Content
Incorporating reviews, testimonials, and feedback enhances your site’s trustworthiness and can influence potential clients’ decisions.
Pro Tip: Actively encourage happy clients to leave positive reviews on Google, Facebook, and industry sites like Avvo. For negative feedback, address issues transparently while remaining professional.
Stay Ahead of Google’s Algorithm Changes
Google’s algorithm determines search rankings based on factors like relevance, quality, and usability. Stay updated on significant adjustments by signing up for Google’s algorithm update notifications.
Unexpected volatility in rankings often results from unannounced minor algorithm tweaks as well. Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Google Search Console to regularly monitor your law firm’s organic traffic, conversions, and keyword positions. This allows swift identification and correction of any SEO impacts.
Build Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness
Google prioritizes pages demonstrating experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trust (E-E-A-T). Strengthen these elements on your attorney website through:
Experience:
- How long have you been in business?
- What types of cases do you work?
- What are some of your case results?
Expertise:
- Detail attorney qualifications, credentials, experience
- Provide educational legal resources
Authoritativeness:
- Establish attorneys as thought leaders in their field
- Link to certifications, awards, membership in legal associations
Trustworthiness:
- Feature client testimonials
- Ensure consistently high-quality content
- Emphasize lawyer transparency and professionalism
Specialize Your SEO Strategy
Though general SEO best practices apply across law firms, optimizing your website for your specific practice area and location nets better results.
For example, a family lawyer in Chicago would focus their SEO efforts around targeted keywords including:
- Chicago divorce attorney
- Cook County child custody lawyer
- How to file for separation in Illinois
Meanwhile, a Houston personal injury firm would track and improve keywords like:
- Best car accident lawyer in Houston
- Texas workers comp attorney
- Pedestrian hit by vehicle settlement amounts
Customize keywords, title tags, URLs, and content accordingly.
Choose White Hat Over Black Hat Techniques
While “black hat SEO” relies on deceptive tactics, “white hat SEO” uses ethical strategies approved by Google. As penalties can severely damage rankings, white hat SEO is strongly recommended for all law firms.
Hallmarks of white hat SEO include:
- Publishing original, useful lawyer content rather than keyword-stuffing
- Acquiring links organically instead of buying links
- Optimizing to benefit the website user experience
DIY SEO vs. Hiring an Expert
Now that you know more about SEO for lawyers and law firms, you’re probably wondering whether to roll up your sleeves and get to work yourself or hire an SEO expert to do all of this for you.
Well, there is no one simple answer to this as there are benefits (and downsides) to both options. However, in the next section, we’ll take a balanced look at both sides and provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision that will meet your specific needs.
The reasons to use SEO Experts
Experience & Expertise
SEO can be a complex and technical subject, and it’s not static either, with regular algorithm updates, and new trends appearing all the time. SEO experts are professionals who have dedicated their careers to understanding how all the different elements of SEO such as keywords, content, backlinks, internal linking, alt text and many more can all work together to boost your legal firm’s SERPs.
Lower Risk
Another stand-out season for working with an SEO professional is that they can mitigate a lot of the risk involved. This is because professional SEOs have experience that guides them away from mistakes such as over optimizing, or using Black Hat techniques, which could get your site penalized by Google and send it down the ranks of the organic searches.
The Reasons to DIY Your SEO
While there are some pretty convincing reasons to entrust the complicated process of SEO for your law firm to a specialist, there are also some reasons to DIY it.
Save Money
One of the most prominent of these reasons is the money you can save by DIYing your SEO. This is because professional services can be expensive as they tend to cost around $600-$5000. Although it is worth noting that the ROI on SEO is high, a topic that will be discussed in more below.
Full Control
One of the downsides of working with an SEO professional is that you have to relinquish control of the process to them. This can be a real challenge if you have built up your legal firm’s site from scratch. With that in mind, if you want to ensure full control over your SEO strategy then it may be better to handle it all yourself.
What to look for in an SEO partner
If you do decide to work with a professional SEO partner, you must know what to look for to find one that properly meets your needs. The following checklist can help:
- They use White Hat SEO practices (search engines approve White Hat practices, so it will not result in your website being penalized for using them).
- They have positive client testimonials and a good overall rating
- They have been recommended to you by another law firm
- They specialize in law firm SEO
- They meet your budget
- They are willing to discuss your needs and answer any questions about their process before you hand over any money.
How To Measure The ROI Of SEO Services
Above we mentioned just how good the ROI of SEO services for law firms are. SEO ROI is a crucial calculation that any law firm considering using professional SEO services needs to understand.
SEO ROI is calculated by taking the cost of the investment away from the gain from the investment and then dividing the total by the cost of the investment.
ROI SEO formula: (Gain from Investment – Cost of Investment) / Cost of Investment.
This SEO ROI formula is important because it will clearly demonstrate whether the investment you made was (or will be, if you are using it to estimate a prediction) worth it.
Conclusion
SEO for lawyers requires a sustained effort but can yield significant dividends by establishing your firm as a trusted authority. By integrating these strategies into your SEO strategy, you can transform how clients discover and engage with your services, ultimately leading to growth in your caseload. Recognizing the complexities and the ever-evolving nature of SEO can be overwhelming, especially when balancing the demands of your legal practice. This is where HigherVisibility steps in. Our expertise in tailoring SEO strategies specifically for law firms can transform your practice and drive more potential clients to your doorstep. Focus on what you do best and let the 4X SEO Agency of the Year help elevate your firm to new heights.
