How To Kick-Start Your Attorney SEO Strategy

Do you like to hire an SEO agency for your law firm to  position at the top of Google’s search results? Are you looking for the best SEO service for attorneys in your city? 

You must know that acquiring the best SEO results, and before finalizing an attorney SEO marketing agency, you must set the law firm’s top SEO goals. Organic listing and monthly leads are two different objectives of an SEO campaign. Most law firms aim to achieve higher online visibility in a particular region by doing effective local SEO.

The searches like – Best law firm in Los Angeles, or how to hire the best attorneys in Los Angeles or How to win bankruptcy litigation in Los Angeles add more value to SEO.

Today, digital marketing agencies highly rely on SEO results to boost visibility and obtain higher search rankings.

Why is SEO for attorneys so significant ?

The legal profession is a specific area focusing on target audiences. It is difficult to get the results. Only expert-level Attorney SEO specialists can design ROI driven SEO campaigns for law firms.

SEO is considered the best way to hire the best attorneys and provide reliable legal services in different domains such as business, real estate, healthcare , etc. Most people search on the internet to find the best attorneys nearby. Here are some facts published regarding search intents that justify the need of SEO;

• 96% of people seeking legal advice use a search engine.
• 74% of consumers visit a law firm’s website to take action.
• 62% of legal searches are non-branded (i.e., generic:  Business attorney in Los Angeles).
• 72% of people seeking legal advice only contact the best attorneys in specific domains( like the top 5 commercial litigation attorneys in Los Angeles).

[Source: https://www.inboundlawmarketing.com/seo-for-lawyers/ ]

Now , we know the importance of law firm SEO as well as people’s urge to search for best attorneys.

Attorney SEO Ranking Factors ?‍⚖️‍?

SEO for attorneys generally starts with lead generation. Therefore, it is important to understand the user’s mindset right from their search for hiring a lawyer. The end user’s attention, interest, desire, and action are the four criteria to consider before you design an SEO campaign.

Attorney SEO for lead generation mainly works with the volume of traffic, meaning generating the more relevant organic traffic you gain. For law firms, a tried-and-true way to gain SEO benefits starts by considering below- mentioned factors:

• Keyword Research

Before you start SEO , the SEO agency handling project must research keywords defining law firms’ services. The generic keywords will not help in creating intent-based content. Rather, the keyword research must include long tail keywords and queries.

The targeted keywords should strike the balance between search volume and search intent. Rather than focusing on popular keywords only, searching for the keywords that local people can use in search can change the search results.

For example, don’t only consider obvious keywords such as “hire the top most attorney in Los Angeles” but also target keywords like “how to choose a criminal attorney in Los Angeles”.

Even distribution of the keywords also plays an important role in SEO success. The order, you must follow includes;

• Meta tags
• Optimization of Headings and subheadings 
• Evenly throughout paragraphs
• The web page’s URL

ProTip:

Most law firms offer legal services in nearby areas in specific domains like criminal law, business litigation, commercial litigation, and so on. To show quick results, you must follow a local SEO strategy that targets a specific domain in that particular city .

• High-quality links

The credibility of external links on high-authority law websites will help create higher visibility. The impression, credibility, and authority of your website on search engines are the priority of an SEO campaign.

One major factor is the quality and quantity of backlinks. Backlinks will point the traffic to your websites with relevant searches like how to choose the best criminal lawyers in Los Angeles.

For attorney SEO, links work like a popularity contest. If your law firm gets lots of links from other popular websites, they are essentially viewed as the credibility of your website.

Pro Tip:

Search engines find the best results for the users answering users’ queries.If your law firm’s content has many referring links from other credible websites, you’ll be viewed as a trusted and reputable source.

• Optimized Content

Great content has varied opinions. The internet is like an ocean of different types of content for a single search. Rather than stuffing the keywords, it is important to understand the intent of the user this will help in generating valuable content for your law firm.

For a law firm, the target audience is the potential clients that are looking for a specific service such as business bankruptcy lawyers. If they search a website and land on a page where they don’t find the relevant content  or thin content related to their query, they will not opt for the service, no matter how much you have spent on website creation and SEO.

 A law firm’s website content must answer the “People Also Ask “and “Search Engine” queries. Also, the website content must answer the questions of a potential client would have.

Pro Tip:

While generating the content, think about the user who is looking for a service from a law firm. This includes clear descriptions of services offered by your law firm, transparent pricing, attorneys in specific domains, and so on. Also, keep updating the content of your law website for generating optimized and user-friendly content.

• On-Page and Off-Page SEO

The top-rated law firms offer exclusive services.The general SEO strategies won’t work for these agencies. Moreover, looking at the tough competition of law firms, increases the need for optimizing the on-page and off-page activities . As far, backlink creation is concerned, the below-mentioned resources are valuable for a law firm:

• Legal Directories
• Local Directories of Law Firms
• Social media
• Reviews and endorsements
• Understanding Attorney SEO Marketing

On-Page, Off-Page, and Technical SEO activities must be designed to achieve favorable results.

To do effective SEO, it is important to consider HTML code For example, Google algorithms will understand terms written within < > tags. Therefore for attorney  SEO, you need to modify the information contained in tags to produce better on-page SEO results.

As far as Off-page Law SEO is concerned, it deals with building your reputation on the internet as a top-rated legal service provider. Building quality backlinks is the main activity of an SEO company that will help you increase the domain authority and achieve better results on SERPs.

Technical SEO is another area that will help a law firm to establish its brand name. Some of the activities to focus on are URL structure, sitemaps, security, and your website’s code.

Pro Tip:

When you outsource an SEO company providing services to law firms they will have an in-depth look at on-page, off-page, technical, and local SEO activities.

• UI/UX Web Design

For a law website, the main focus is on providing information related to services offered by them, their strengths, areas of expertise, and so on. Therefore, developing a UX/UI design will act as an additional resource to gain benefits from SEO campaigns. An experienced SEO agency suggests changes in website design before implementing SEO.

An SEO audit report includes changes that are required to achieve SEO results. So, it is better to evaluate your law website before you start SEO.

Pro Tip

It is always better to hire an SEO agency offering a full range of services including website design and development and building functional websites with faster load speed.

• Navigation Structure

High-authority legal websites focus on inner page design and content. A sitemap with active links is a must to describe the services of the legal agency. Also, internal linking, calls to action, and menu sidebars play a vital role in creating a navigated website. A well-strategized website also maintains tags and the categorization of services.

 Pro Tip: 

The attorney SEO goals are possible to achieve only when you have proper navigation structure

• Load Speed/Page Speed

Law service is an intensive service. A good page speed is a must keeping mobile users in mind. You don’t want users to consider the second option when they are searching for the best attorneys for hire. From a technical perspective,  better loading speed maximizes your website to rank higher in search engine result pages.

As per the latest search engine algorithms, page speed also plays a vital role in ranking apart from the load speed. For a law agency, service pages are more important, and good speed will always help in SEO.

Pro Tip: 

Search engines like Google always prefers websites with good loading speed. A well- optimized load speed and page speed will stand out from competitors and help in increasing organic traffic.

How to start your law firm SEO strategy?

Today, people like to search through local maps to find legal service locations in their area. This just goes to show the trend of locating your law firm through SEO efforts. If we speak about SEO for lawyers then it is related to direct lead generation.

This means that more relevant organic traffic will help you convert more leads. Building a successful SEO strategy catches users at different stages of their user journey.

Ensuring a contact form on the service pages can help in getting genuine queries regarding legal services. Other possible options are quizzes, informative legal whitepapers, case studies, and in-depth eBooks. All these will engage visitors and convert them into leads.

The latest SEO strategy working successfully for law firms are

• Mobile-friendly website
• Malware-free website for safe browsing
• Use of HTTPS to ensure website security
• Non intrusive pop ups to distract users

Even starting a blog on lawyers’ services will help you preview your knowledge and can attract direct leads. Posting articles on highly searchable lawyers’ websites from the eminent attorneys associated will help you gain visibility and improve SERP results. Also, ensuring the correct and updated information regarding the laws discussed in articles will add credibility to SEO results

Testimonials and Client Reviews

Client testimonials and reviews are essential opportunities to establish and build the reputation of your law firm. But how can an SEO agency help you? A testimonial or review might help you increase credibility, and trust, in the law firm. Moreover, the related testimonials help you gain confidence in and relatability in choosing an SEO agency.

Social media platforms, LinkedIn, local directories, and glassdoor are some of the common places where people look for SEO agency reviews. Testimonials on the website create a direct impact on users’ minds when looking for an SEO agency for a law firm.

Pro Tip:  Video testimonials are more impactful than textual. So, request your clients for some video testimonials and ask your SEO agency to optimize them in the best possible way.

Case Studies

Today, there are many agencies providing SEO services. Their services look similar and it is difficult to find out the best service for yourself. In such a case, it is better to read the previous SEO law case studies. The successful case studies will help you choose an SEO agency that can provide a Pro SEO Service for your law firm.

You can look at the analytics and progress reports of the previous case studies of providing real estate-related law services including insurance recovery, commercial lease counseling, mortgage-related disputes, and many other related services.

Pro Tip:

Case studies with impressive stats perform much better than without it.

SEO Budget/Overall SEO Cost:

The cost of the overall SEO is also a deciding factor when hiring an SEO service to kick-start your attorney services. Even if you have a low budget for SEO, you can choose an SEO company that will provide better service. You can consult them and find out the ways to decide on an SEO strategy.

However, a law website needs a moderate budget for doing an effective SEO. Most law firms start with working on search engine ranking and establishing their brand.

Pro Tip:

Professional websites such as law firm websites should stay away from Cheap SEO Services as they can hurt your brand that could be irrecoverable. There is always a difference between affordable SEO and cheap SEO. So, we suggest going for an affordable SEO rather than cheap SEO in case you have a low budget.

Final Takeaway!

In a nutshell, SEO for law firms is always a winning strategy. Choosing the right SEO company can produce quick benefits.  One of the best ways to search SEO companies for lawyers is to start your search with a query like how to choose the best agency for your law firm.

After shortlisting 2-3 best SEO agencies, you can schedule a call with any leading SEO company that is already providing SEO services to top-rated law firms.

To summarize, without giving a second thought, you must consider an SEO company that specializes in attorney SEO, as well as for SEO experts for law firms that fit into your budget.

FAQ – Law Firm SEO Services

1. Does SEO work for law firms?

Law firms face a tough time generating traffic on legal service-providing websites. It signifies that having an effective SEO strategy is a necessity but local SEO is especially important for attorneys and law firms.

Hiring an attorney SEO company having expertise in local SEO and optimized SEO can help law firms to get effective leads from law website.

2. Why Does My Law Firm Need a Well-Designed Website for an SEO Campaign?

An optimized website with a proper linking structure is the first requirement of SEO. Without it, SEO efforts will go in vain as Google considers well-designed, informative, and user-friendly websites for ranking. The broken links, bad structure, and bad formatting of images and content will definitely affect the SEO results.

Well, don’t get confused, If you are a startup company, contact a full-range design, development, and digital marketing agency that can cater to the needs of website development and marketing.

3. How much does law firm SEO cost?

SEO cost completely varies from project to project. Different factors are deciding the cost-  type of SEO, (local, technical, on-page, off-page SEO), market competition as per the target audiences, website design, present ranking, etc.

For a normal SEO $ 2000 per month is a good amount to start SEO with a top-rated SEO company. The budget can increase and go up to $ 20,000 per month and beyond depending on the results required. To get a free audit of your website and a free cost estimation of SEO, contact the digital marketing team of a leading SEO agency.