Being a lawyer used to mean you mostly received referrals by word of mouth or by professional networking. But in today’s post-digital world, the competition is different due to advances in technology.
Consumers often look online first when they’re looking for a lawyer. That means you should start thinking like an online marketer if you want to stay ahead.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. Search engine algorithms use a broad variety of factors to determine which pages will rank higher than the others in terms of whatever users are seeking.
Designing an SEO marketing strategy may seem like a complicated process (and it can be), but there are simple steps you can take to get the ball rolling.
Here are five beginner tips that will improve your SEO rankings as a lawyer.
- Create a Quality Website
The very first thing any attorney requires in the digital age is a high-quality website. This will be where people first show up to find out about your practice.
And if you want to be found on Google, you’ll need a place to draw in potential clients. Take a look at the websites of other lawyers to get an idea of what you may or may not like.
Gibbs & Fuerst, a personal injury and business law firm in Murrieta, is a great example of a quality website for a legal practice. They have a clear call-to-action right at the front.
They include service pages for every area of practice they handle. And their navigation is simple so users may find exactly what they need.
- Research Your Target Audience
Law firms typically have a well-defined niche audience, according to the nature of their work. Part of creating your SEO strategy necessitates having a clear understanding of who it is you’ll want to target online.
Create client personas to determine such aspects as demographics, income, education levels, and marital status. You may have more than one persona, which is quite normal, especially if you cover a variety of branches of law.
- Perform Keyword Research
Keywords are a vital part of your SEO marketing strategy. These are the words and phrases that people are most apt to be actively searching for online, when you might be their ideal expert.
Your job is to find ways to add these terms naturally to your website. A great place to start is by researching relevant keywords in Google Keyword Planner.
This is a free platform that helps you learn about which keywords are ranking along with how competitive they are in your field.
Google Trends is another place you’ll want to check. This shows you which topics are currently trending in Google’s search engines.
You can find subjects that relate to your area of law and use those to write articles for your blog.
- Index Your Website
Search engines won’t be able to rank your site if they can’t find it. That’s where indexing can play a useful role.
Using the related keywords and metadata, search engines are able to do what they call “crawling” your website. There are several reasons your site could be blocking Google’s ability to crawl your site.
The best way to find out is by using Google’s URL Inspection Tool. You can search any URL from your website to ensure that you’re able to find it on Google.
If the page isn’t located, it’ll supply details as to what the error might be. Sometimes there’s a simple option, which is to submit a request for Google to begin indexing a certain page with one easy click of a button.
- Use Both Internal and External Links
Backlinks are essentially connections that take the visitor from one page to another, whether internally (somewhere else on your site) or externally (an authoritative source on the topic). A part of your SEO strategy should include the use of both internal and external links.
Internal links within your website will help visitors find exactly what they need. For example, you may link a certain key phrase in your blog to one of your law firm’s service pages.
External links are what help to create authority through the search engines. The more often your website is linked, the more likely Google will see it as an authoritative site that provides quality content, since so many other websites are referencing it.
Conclusion
These SEO marketing tips for lawyers are just a start. You can do dozens of other things to improve your rankings so you will generate more leads.
Instead of focusing your energy on trying to wear the marketing hat alone, you might want to consider working with a digital marketing company.
