Every law firm needs a steady flow of new clients to remain profitable. You may witness that stream becoming a trickle if you don’t have a robust online presence. Please don’t wait until it becomes a dry streambed to address the underlying problem. What your law firm website needs is a local SEO campaign that will help you target new leads and bring potential clients to your door.
Local search engine optimization (SEO) will increase the influx of organic and high-quality traffic to a website. The process requires a multi-pronged, strategic approach to improve your website visibility on search engines like Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Once you have access to these prospects, turning these website or social media visitors into trusting clients is the final step.
Bolster Your Domain Authority
Domain Authority (DA) is a search ranking score that estimates a website’s likelihood of ranking in local search results. The inventor, Moz, ranks websites on a scale from one to 100, with higher scores reflecting a better chance of ranking well. Note that Google does not use the Domain Authority, and it doesn’t change Google’s organic search rankings.
A new website always starts with a DA score of zero. SEO campaigns can provide a law practice with the gradual and sustained boost it needs to improve its Domain Authority score. Because the metric uses multiple inputs and calculations, a law firm can’t directly influence its score.
While your firm’s Domain Authority score will take time to build, the results will be worth the wait. Greater authority goes hand-in-hand with more visibility in online searches and Google’s local pack. That means your firm will be more likely to appear on the first page when someone makes a search query with local intent.
Start a Blog
Blog content is one of the best yet most underrated ways to improve SEO for law practices and thus your Domain Authority score. It’s a proven strategy to help a firm rank higher on searches. Strong rankings have become increasingly important, considering that 71% of people click on the website results on Google’s first page, and 28.5% click on the first Google search result.
Your legal blog should be informative and engaging. Make sure to deliver helpful content related to your business that readers want and can use. For instance, if you’re a personal injury lawyer, you might post an article about how to collect evidence before a lawsuit. You can also blog about industry events, legal advice, or essential cases in your practice area.
It takes up to six months to see results from blogging. You will focus primarily on keyword planning and research in the first few weeks. This period identifies the search terms clients use to find your law firm’s website on Google.
Once you finish auditing your existing content and researching keywords, you can start creating content. Use your keyword research from the previous two months as a marketing roadmap to writing in-demand blogs. These evergreen posts can include how-tos and frequently asked questions.
The next three months will be about refining your work. You may start to see a gradual uptick in online visibility and Domain Authority score since Google crawlers can more easily go through and index your website. You should also see a reduction in your bounce rate and a spike in qualified leads.
Don’t stop blogging after you establish your brand name. Retaining a relevant online profile means posting new blogs regularly. If you don’t have the availability to do it yourself, you can always outsource the task to an on-staff or freelance writer.
Update Your Google My Business Listing
Business listings are more than NAP (name, address, and phone number.) They’re a vital tool to help you rank in Google search results. The web pages serve as digital yellow pages where algorithms catalog and rank law websites in a given area.
While you should find and update all your business pages, your Google My Business listing deserves top priority. It will hold the most sway over your local search results and influence Google Maps’ visibility. Fortunately, editing your GMB listing is both fast and free.
If you don’t have a business page, now is the time to create one. Google will send a postcard to your law firm to confirm your address. Once you greenlight the details on the listing, Google will verify your Google My Business account.
Here are a few things to include on your Google My Business profile:
- Business name
- Office location
- Office hours
- Practice areas
- Phone number
- Email address
- Social media handles
- Website
Updating your Google My Business page allows you to build credibility with the ranking and indexing algorithms. Make sure to post accurate information since inaccuracies will undercut your local SEO. The best-performing law firms are the ones that meet Google’s standards for distance, prominence, and relevance.
Distance measures the proximity between a law firm and search query, while prominence combines listings, reviews, and other online content to evaluate the practice’s prestige. Relevance reflects how related a law firm is to the user’s search intent. For example, if you hurt yourself at work, Google wants to show personal injury attorney web pages in the local pack instead of ones for a car accident lawyer.
A/B Test Your Content
Marketers are always trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. The best way to do that is A/B testing. The process involves showing visitors two similar pieces of content and seeing which option performs better.
The catch is that the two pieces of content have a slight, almost indistinguishable difference. For example, you may create identical landing pages with different images to attract readers. Measuring the conversion rate for each one allows you to see which landing page deserves to stay.
Pro tip: A/B test everything. You can use this comparative method regarding your color scheme, font size, slogans, and company name. Taking time to measure successful content quantifiably will provide your firm as lawyers with local SEO that brings in those needed clients.
Get in Touch
Each successful law firm these days has a well-established web presence. It allows them to attract new clients online and keep in touch with their old ones. If you want to elevate brand awareness for your firm, our digital marketing experts at Family Attorney SEO can help.
Our boutique agency gives lawyers like you the boost you need to stand out from the competition. We have years of experience and proven results elevating legal clients in local rankings, regardless of where they live or their practice areas. Discover what Family Attorney SEO can do for your bottom line by filling out our online contact form today, focusing on local SEO for law firms.
