Are you looking for ways to grow your legal practice?
Is your website somehow not delivering results?
SEO for law firms and lawyers is what you need to stand out in the competitive legal service market and attract more prospective clients!
What is SEO for Lawyers?
SEO for lawyers is the process of improving your law firm website’s online visibility, so it is seen more often by people searching for legal services provided by your firm in the search engines.
It mainly involves creating a Google and user-friendly law firm’s website. And we do this through various SEO strategies like keyword research, content creation and link building, to name a few.
Nowadays, people resort to Google search when looking for a reputable law firm or legal services. So, if you are a personal injury lawyer in Melbourne, for example, you’ll want to appear in Google when they type in “personal injury law firm Melbourne”.
With SEO, we can find and use similar search terms that your target audience uses to make your law firm’s website more visible.
Why is Law Firm SEO Important?
More and more law firms are investing in SEO services primarily because they are doable and, in today’s digital age, they work. People use the Internet and their smartphones to find you. You may have substantial legal expertise.
But if you are still struggling to get quality leads and potential clients, rarely visible or nowhere to be found, and consistently outranked even by smaller firms, then you need search engine optimisation.
Legal practitioners also find SEO services crucial because of their many advantages. Here are some of them.
1. Competitive edge
As mentioned, clients with legal concerns are more likely to turn to the Internet to find your law firm office. However, considering the competition, it’s not enough to put up a website and wait for enquiries to come. SEO strategies can help direct your market to you.
Most law firm appointments do not require a referral, making an SEO-friendly website even more important. With a commanding online presence, you can effortlessly attract fresh leads. A steady stream of new clients is, undoubtedly, crucial to your success.
As you become more and more visible online through SEO, prospective clients can easily find you! More importantly, high online visibility also means more people visiting your law firm’s website.
High organic traffic naturally increases your opportunity to build a better client base. On top of that, it also sends search engines, like Google, all the right signals to boost your local SEO rankings. Of course, securing a slot on the first page is a feat, but up-to-date SEO efforts can help you get there.
2. Enhanced online reputation
As a lawyer, you need to rely on a credible image to attract more client opportunities. Through SEO for law firms, you have higher chances of appearing at the top of the Google search results page.
In turn, users are more likely to see you as a reliable practitioner and visit your website. And even if they do not need your legal advice right away, constantly seeing your brand can help build recall or put the power of word-of-mouth to work.
SEO helps you position yourself as a trustworthy legal professional through various techniques like linking your site to credible sources. Guest posting or writing blog content relevant to people’s legal concerns is another way.
Adding a review or testimonial page, an FAQ section or narratives of successful case studies builds your credibility, too. With SEO plus fact-driven content, more visitors will believe your legal website enough to refer your services to others.
3. Cost-efficiency
We know that the legal industry is a highly competitive market. With so many larger law firms in Australia, it’s quite a feat to outrun them without a proper plan or campaign.
Traditional legal marketing strategies through print and broadcast may be effective. But if you are a start-up firm, these options are expensive and impractical. They don’t target specific audiences either. And even if you successfully generate traffic through them, it is short-lived unless you spend more.
SEO for law firms is considered a more cost-effective law firm marketing strategy and offers you a better return on investment. Aside from its lower cost, SEO campaigns can target audiences that matter to your legal practice.
And compared with traditional advertising, SEO lets you stay relevant to these markets for a longer time frame. SEO will require more time and effort, though. But it also gives you tangible results at significantly affordable rates.
4. Defined audience
With a boosted online presence and enhanced credibility, SEO can increase organic search traffic. But this kind of traffic is special. You see, lawyers like you have distinct specialisations, and people have varying legal service needs. Effective SEO is like your missing puzzle piece that connects the two.
Here’s an example. Try putting yourself in the shoes of a person looking for a corporate lawyer through organic search results.
If you type in “corporate lawyer” on the search engine, you’ll probably get all sorts of links that you do not need. However, if you search for “corporate lawyer for merger agreements”, you get more relevant results.
SEO for lawyers, together with search engines, can give you qualified traffic. A strategic selection and use of keywords bring you leads or people who respond positively to services that you offer.
They’re the type of users who find your website helpful and are likely to become your new legal clients.
How is SEO for Law Firms Applied?
Search engines decide who gets first-page slots. But they do not do that at random. Google, for example, uses hundreds of ranking factors when assessing websites. And its ultimate goal is to choose those that meet its high standards and users’ expectations to show on the search engine results pages.
SEO strategies play a significant role in meeting these standards. Here are some of those that are relevant to your website performance and search engine rankings.
1. Technical SEO
This major ranking factor focuses on efforts that make your website search-engine-friendly. These efforts include website speed (core web vitals), website structure, image optimisation and linking (off page SEO). Some essential questions you need to answer when doing technical SEO are:
- Does your law firm website follow Google’s guidelines? Google often updates its standards for ranking to refine search results and improve its services overall. Staying updated on these Google’s webmaster guidelines can help you perform better than your business rivals.
- Do your pages load according to speed standards? Slow-loading pages significantly increase bounce rates. Bounce rates happen when users leave your web page and look for other websites that load faster. SEO experts can help you identify and fix the elements that are slowing your site’s page speed down.
- Is your law firm website mobile-friendly? Most people do online search on the go nowadays, making mobile searches very convenient than desktop ones. So, your website must be easy to use and navigate, no matter the device or screen size (responsive design).
- Are your meta tags and titles updated and optimised? Search engines speak a different tongue, and SEO experts can help fix the language barrier! This SEO service allows search engines to read your content, make your site more visible and increase your ranking.
- Is your website secure? A website with high security lets your users browse with confidence. On top of that, it also sends search engines like Google the message that your website is ideal and safe for users to visit.
Technical optimisation ensures that Google can find and understand your web pages, making it a key factor to your SEO success.
And with this in place, your site visitors also get an optimum user experience. Implementing this factor can be tricky and complicated, though. And so, in this case, it’s best to leave it to the SEO experts or consultants.
2. Content
If your content strategy is to create informative and engaging articles or pages, that’s great! You’re one step closer to successful SEO website performance. But the thing is, your competitors are producing interesting, if not better, content as well.
SEO for law firms can give your content that extra edge. But how will you know if your articles are SEO-friendly?
- Write content based on keyword research. People type in search terms when looking for specialised lawyers or legal services online. Keyword research tools can help us find the short-tail or long-tail phrases that they enter in search engines. These types of keywords on your web content or social media posts improve your content and rankings.
- Incorporate relevant keywords in your articles. Of course, people tend to use different search words or phrases that mean the same thing. Search engines can also understand these synonymous terms. And as content producers, our job is to use these keyword variations to address as many search enquiries as possible.
- Apply local SEO. How do you search for law firms or services online? If you enter terms like “family law firms near me” or “family lawyers in Melbourne”, then you are not alone. To be exact, about 97% of consumers search local businesses this way. Adding geo-targeted keywords within your pages allows you to concentrate your local SEO efforts on people who need your services and live near your office. Managing your Google My Business profile is another way to make the most of local search optimisation. This way, your law firm’s website will be more likely to show up on the local search results and Google maps.
- Combine your content with technical SEO. Digital content should have codes, so search engines and their automated bots can understand and rank it. We can do this by adding your primary keyword to meta tags, headings, URL and other essential fields.
3. Links
Quality link building is one of the vital Google ranking factors to consider when optimising your website. It’s a process of getting inbound links from external websites that lead to target websites.
It signals search engines of your site’s authoritativeness and value to users. Citations or links also make your site easy to navigate and highly competitive.
And there are several ways how to apply this in SEO. Some of these are easy to do, but others need time and lots of effort, making SEO expert assistance convenient. Examples of these strategies include:
- reaching out or collaborating with firms in relevant industries for guest posting opportunities
- requesting reviews or testimonials from previous clients for social proof
- posting blogs to establish a brand and encourage inbound linking or audience feedback
- creating infographics for promotion in social media, your blog or other’s websites
- publishing a book for news recognition, landing page promotion or product listings
- producing podcasts for exposure and relevant link acquisition from profile pages or blog transcriptions
Have you reached a verdict? Contact us now, and let our team help you apply SEO for law firms on your website!
Are Experts Needed to Apply SEO for Lawyers?
Can I optimise my website on my own? Of course, you can. However, there are reasons why it is more sensible to leave the job to the SEO experts.
- SEO is a continuous effort. Creating a functional website can make you visible online. But if you want high quality traffic, you will have to do more than this one-off job. You need the help of SEO pros for updating your content to remain relevant and competitive. Also, Google’s metrics tend to change, too. Experts will keep you ahead of the latest SEO trends and best practices.
- SEO needs time and commitment. As a dedicated legal practitioner, chances are you’ll be spending most of your day meeting clients, reading files and preparing cases. SEO, on the other hand, requires technical know-how to learn and apply effectively. Moreover, studying several ranking factors takes time. It will be difficult to juggle two very different disciplines and get positive results.
- SEO requires specialised skills. Most people find legalese or legal parlance hard to grasp. While using legal jargon makes your website more credible, in most cases, it doesn’t work with search engines and your target audience. SEO experts have the know-how to translate and make your content more approachable to average readers.
Digital marketing agencies offering an SEO for law firms operate with a team of experts with varying specialisations. Hiring them is like being in a one-stop-shop for all your website concerns and SEO needs! Aside from convenience, communicating with only one team is a time-saver.
How can Infinite Ace Help?
Infinite Ace is a Melbourne-based digital agency that specialises in SEO and Google Ads management. Our experience and expertise help owners and professionals overcome digital marketing complexities to achieve optimum business growth potential.
More specifically, we follow a foolproof formula of putting SEO for lawyers and your operations together for increased organic leads and revenue.
And while there may be several agencies offering SEO services, our SEO company ensures that you, our clients, are in capable hands! So, what do you gain from choosing us over other SEO agencies?
1. You get to experience personalised service.
We know that every business is different and requires custom SEO strategies. We also understand that setting up and running a law firm office entails a lot of resources. And so, when you choose to work with us, we ensure that the solutions we give you are tailor-made!
This way, you get the results you need without wasting your valuable resources. Our case studies can attest to our extensive experience of teaming with local business owners from different industries.
2. You get to work with our credible team.
Our success stories will not be possible without our team of SEO specialist and paid search experts. By putting our specialised skills together, we carry out every step of our SEO plan with favourable outcomes. Moreover, as an SEO campaign is a long-term project, you’ll want to be with a fun and easy-going group like us!
3. You get to avoid Google penalties.
Infinite Ace implements SEO tactics without shortcuts, quick-fixes and unethical work practices. We prefer taking the ethical route and employing white-hat SEO every time. This way, your business enjoys all the benefits without any issue.
4. You get a measurable return on investment.
The good thing about SEO is that its results are objective. Through a broad range of metrics, like traffic, rankings and leads, we can measure your ROI. Our SEO firm is results-driven, and we ensure you get periodic detailed reports and numerical data to keep you in the loop throughout our campaign.
5. You get value for money.
Finally, and perhaps best of all, you get all these at reasonable rates!
How Do We Implement Successful SEO for Law Firms?
Our SEO agency can give you all these SEO benefits through our standard step-by-step process. This way, you know exactly what happens in every phase and when to see progress. Here’s how we work our magic.
1. Investigate
Our work begins with identifying the problem areas that are significantly affecting your search engine visibility and ranking position. Our findings then serve as our foundation when creating your custom SEO plan. There are many ways to do this step, but examples include:
- Keyword strategy. Here, we look for the best target keywords that people use when looking for lawyers or legal services online concerning your specialisation. A proper keyword research helps us know which short-tail or long-tail phrases should be on your web page content.
- Website audit. Like law offices, your website should look commanding yet pleasant and inviting. More importantly, it should be easy to navigate, so visitors can quickly contact you or find what they need. An audit then allows us to list down crucial website elements that need improvement, particularly those affecting your performance and rankings.
- Competitor analysis. Studying your fiercest competitors in the SERP can also give us an idea of their strengths and weakness. Specifically, it lets us identify what these law firm websites have that you don’t. Replicating their strong points on your website is a crucial element in boosting your rankings.
2. Plan
Great SEO results come from a well-planned law firm’s SEO strategy. At Infinite Ace, we don’t just make any plan. We make sure it’s a plan that suits your needs, so we get things right from start to finish.
This strategy is what makes our SEO for lawyers efficient. We ensure that our efforts focus on highlighting your best-selling points to make your business stand out.
Our primary goal is to create a website that engages and converts. To achieve this, we incorporate up-to-date SEO approaches.
Our highly skilled professionals also work in alignment with the latest SEO trends and Google search engine algorithm updates. We also incorporate techniques, like niche-specific keywords and local SEO, to ensure we’re reaching out to people who need your legal expertise in your practice area.
3. Implement
At this stage, we begin carrying out the tasks according to our checklist. We can work with your content writer and start making original, engaging, and high quality content that works for you.
We’ll start working on the technical aspects, too, like title tags, meta descriptions and images, so everything goes to plan. And if needed, we can work on transforming your website design from drab to fab!
During this crucial step, we see to it that you are part of the process. We ensure that you understand every transition that we make and how these changes will benefit you.
Establishing open communication also allows us to align SEO achievements with your actual operations. It’s not enough that we generate leads, after all. Converting these into satisfied clients relies on your quality service.
4. Evaluate
Finally, once SEO measures are in place, the next thing we have to do is wait for results. It will likely take a few months before we see them, though. But the good news is we can continually monitor our progress to see if the plan is working.
Here, we use various SEO tools to track your performance such as Google Analytics.
The numerical findings ensure that you get an objective assessment at the granular level every time. On our part, these give us a clear picture of things. These also help us decide whether we need to adjust for more desirable outcomes.
Book Your Discovery Session
Finally, if you would like us to find out if SEO is the right strategy for your law firm, you can book a discovery session with us by clicking the link below.