Law Firm Marketing: What Lawyers Need To Know About SEO
If you’re running a website you want it to be as visible to those interested as possible. Things are no different whether we’re talking about personal blogs, cooking sites, or law firms. SEO for law firms is just as important as SEO for any other types of websites.
However, considering the more complicated nature of legal services – getting a good lawyer is not too similar to buying a Tupperware set, after all – there are certain additional benefits to having a search-optimized legal website.
We’re talking about credibility, building a solid, professional image and developing trust over time. These are all key factors that weigh into the success of your law firm, and they have a lot to do with how responsive your website is to certain Google metrics.
What you need to understand is that search engine optimization is more than just about ranking high on Google. It’s really all about providing real value to page visitors, because Google wants to be as reputable as possible. If your content responds well to the potential visitor’s needs, then your webpage will rank high for the specific keyword you’re targeting.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of having a well-optimized legal website. We’ll show you how much traffic a solid website will generate, and give you an overview of why your brand image is closely related to what your website looks like.
SEO for Lawyers: Credibility and Trust
Two of the most important things that you’ll get through solid SEO on your attorney website are credibility and trust.
By making sure your website looks professional, you’ll give your visitors the motivation to continue to read through your content, and eventually to contact you directly for a consultation.
You see, ranking well isn’t only about meeting some mathematical algorithms – it’s also about how users engage with your websites. You may have great keyword density and page readability, so you’ll probably get on the first page for the target keyword – but if the users find your content uninteresting and they leave within five seconds, your website will soon get penalized.
Investing in SEO will make your website look good, be readable and responsive to all types of platforms – including the crucial mobile and tablets – and provide great value to your customers.
Actually, the value part is all up to you. But there are great SEO content writers out there that will provide valuable content tailor-suited for your visitors’ specific needs. Quality content is also part of SEO, and if for some reason you can’t do it yourself, there are people who’ll help you.
Take a look at the website above. It ranks first for law firm saint louis, and unsurprisingly so. The website looks crisp and professional. The background photo is a classy-looking office, the menu is easily accessible, the motto is promising, and the contact info are very visible. Plus, the “free consultation” is also great for encouraging the first contact.
This website is credible and visitors might be willing to give it a chance. Of course, not all contacts are going to turn into clients, since there might be a lot of visitors who won’t be able to afford the services. But there will be some who’ll seal the deal.
And it all started with a great webpage.
Law Firm SEO: Huge Traffic Increase
Getting in the top three positions for your target keyword is crucial – and you don’t get there without investing in SEO.
A Chitika survey found that more than the top three search results get a large majority of the total traffic for a specific keyword:
What this means is that, unless you rank in the top page, you’ll get hardly any organic traffic.
Sure, you might still get some visits via social media and other types of direct promotion. But it’s organic traffic you want the most, since that’s where buying intent is. Throwing an ad in front of internet users won’t necessarily get you contracts – but being on the first Google page when people are looking for law firms will.
As you can see, every bit of increase is important. Simply by moving from 11th to 10th for any keyword will generate a huge amount of extra traffic – that’s how important search ranking is. That’s where you want to get – and to get there you need SEO for your law firm.
Lawyer SEO is a Great Internet Marketing Opportunity
Another aspect that web SEO experts will handle – and that most users sometimes overlook – is the way your website looks in search results.
That’s really important, because a search result is often the first contact between you and a potential client.
Think of it like an ad. You don’t want your ad to be randomly generated by Google, do you?
Again, look at the top result for law firm st louis. The overall picture is crisp and clear – the meta description is concise, direct, and it highlights the most important achievement of this law firm.
That’s how people trust you.
By contrast, look at the following result:
Obviously, this results isn’t as impressive as the first one. The fact that the meta description is probably Google generated makes it read awkwardly: What are the qualities that continue to attract lawyers? What top 50? A random meta description is a bad marketing move.
Now, for all we know, Polsinelli might be a great lawyer – or law firm – but they’re not making a professional first impression to their potential customers.
Local Attorney Marketing and Mobile Users
These two concepts are closely related, and they’re two essential components of your online image.
Ever since 2014, Google’s Pidgeon update focused on increasing local relevance for all Google searches – which means that your website gets to beat industry giants.
That’s right. If a particular user searches “property lawyer”, they’re going to get the results that are most relevant to them. This means that if somebody in your area – let’s say West New York – searches for a law firm, they’re going to get local results even if they don’t specify the location. So your law website will be favored over bigger, more popular websites from East New York, or any other areas.
What this translates to is less competition and more opportunities to get clients.
On condition that you have a mobile-friendly website.
Recent results show that mobile searches have surpassed desktop searches. This means that more people will check out your website from a smartphone. What’s more, Google will penalize you if you’ve got an ugly-looking page that doesn’t read well on mobile devices.
That’s where SEO experts come in. Having the best professionals take care of your website’s appearance is great for getting more traffic from mobile users, which in turn is great for your legal business.
Conclusion
Whichever way you look at it, SEO for law firms is just as important as SEO for any other websites. If you’re an attorney looking to grow your business, you need to take care of how your website responds to targeted searches. Everything from your market reach to your brand credibility is dependent on how your website does in Google searches. You don’t want to miss on that.
Your competition certainly doesn’t.