Five Foolproof SEO Tips for Law Firms

April 2017

Many attorneys advertise themselves liberally on TV, on the radio, and on billboards. While these promotional tools can bring potential clients to your door, you are likely to draw a lot of your new customers from Google and other search engines. When someone needs legal advice or representation, they aren’t going to wait to see it advertised on a television commercial: they are going to Google law firms in their area and choose one that ranks near the top of the list. As a result, every law firm needs to place emphasis on building and implementing a robust campaign to maintain their online presence. Here are five foolproof SEO tips that can help.

Related: Why Quality Matters in Law Firm SEO

1. Take time to do keyword research: Every successful SEO campaign starts with a strong collection of keywords. You probably already have a few ideas of what your keywords might be, just based on the services your firm provides and where you are located (more detail on that later in this article). The goal, though, is to target keywords that get searched enough to drive traffic to your site, but not so much that your site can’t compete for a top search engine rank. Use Google’s Keyword Planner to get an idea of how your keywords might perform.

2. Target specific locations: When your potential customers search for legal representation online, they aren’t just typing in “law firm” or “lawyers.” Instead, they’re searching for a business that is geographically close to them—lawyers who can represent them in a local county court or meet them face-to-face for a consultation. Your keywords should target specific locations. City names, suburbs, boroughs, counties, neighborhoods, districts, and even county names are all location-based keywords that might crop up in a Google search. Including these geographic cues in your keywords will result in more local web traffic.

3. Theme keywords around all the legal services you provide: In many cases, the people searching for lawyers online are also looking for a particular type of attorney. Maybe they’re searching for a divorce lawyer, or a child custody attorney... Another common search is for lawyers who specialize in traffic law. Think about the services you offer and make sure that there are keywords on your keyword research list that correspond with each of those services.

4. Emphasize engaging copy: Once you’ve selected your keywords, you need to incorporate them into the text on your website. Your homepage, your service landing pages, and your blogs are all places where you can put copy. Whatever you write needs to be engaging: don’t stuff it with keywords or you’ll be penalized by Google. Instead, you have to shoot for things that your potential clients are actually going to want to read. Many law firms write blogs themed around frequently asked legal questions, which is a fantastic way to incorporate new keywords into your website.

5. Don’t solely focus on written copy: While high-quality, keyword-optimized content is the driving force of most SEO campaigns, it isn’t the only component of search engine optimization. On the contrary, everything from your website design to your meta tags and title tags is going to affect your Google rankings and your conversion potential. Working with a professional design team that specializes in law firm websites will help you navigate the parts of SEO that have to do with your site’s backend.