Search engine optimization is a priority no matter the market you’re targeting with your business website. Thus, creating an SEO playbook for your business is crucial. For law firms, as well as for attorneys who work solo, effective SEO is a must. You want potential clients to be able to find you online easily. You also want to outshine the competition.
With that in mind, we’ll talk you through the SEO strategies that work best for legal professionals. Plus, we explain why each approach works.
This is something that a lot of people get wrong when it comes to SEO. You want to fill your site with content that’s compellingly written and tailored to your target audience. But, resist the temptation to go overboard with SEO during this process.
Sure, using plenty of keywords still helps search algorithms find and rank your blog posts. The issue comes when you go too far with your optimization efforts. Thus, you compromise the experience for human readers. The answer is to know your audience, write concise, relevant copy and keep SEO tweaks under the radar.
As explained in Rankings’ comprehensive SEO guide, when it comes to SEO for lawyers the most important aspect is how you showcase your expertise in all the legal matters your firm tackles. Include these details in your SEO playbook.
Again, striking a balance is important here. While you can publish content that covers topics that are not within the scope of what you can handle professionally, it isn’t the best move from a conversion rate perspective.
It’s better to focus on the things you know about intimately. Tailor your website to exactly the type of people who you want to sign up as clients. In short, it’s better to attract a smaller number of visitors who are easier to engage and convert, rather than reeling in a lot of traffic. As, this can cause bounce rates to go through the roof.
While you can make a difference by optimizing your website in various ways, this is just one branch of the broader SEO tree.
Search algorithms want to see that sites are reputable and respected, not just internally well-ordered. That’s where earning inbound links from other high-ranking sites comes into play. It’s a potentially perilous process because if search engines think that you’ve earned backlinks inorganically, you could get penalized rather than promoted up the ranks.
You can also combine this with your social media marketing strategy. Getting links to your site shared on popular platforms is a good way to establish authority without having to jump through some of the other hoops.
Law firms tend to target clients in a particular part of the country. This could be a single city, county, or state.
You need to do the same with your SEO, through the use of carefully chosen keywords. Use keywords that tie to your desired location, as well as by adding your site to local listings services. Doing so will point prospects toward you.
Lastly, you have to be attuned to how well your website is doing in terms of visitor numbers and conversion rates. This is a crucial part when creating your personalized SEO playbook. Only by checking up on analytical info will you know whether your SEO input has been effective, or whether there’s still room to improve performance.
There are ample tools to do this yourself, or of course, you could outsource the entire process to a third-party agency, so long as this fits in with your budget.
