Search engine optimization (SEO) is an integral component of attorney marketing, communicating the value and reliability of your services to potential clients while driving traffic to your website and increasing revenue. Attorneys that rank near the top of search engines are more likely to be approached by potential clients.
The four main strategies that improve a law firm’s SEO are content creation, mobile-friendly design, link building, and hiring an experienced SEO professional. Here is how each one works.
Why does content creation matter for attorney SEO?
Content is at the core of attorney SEO, and producing high-quality, engaging blog posts and other forms of informative media is key for law firm rankings in search results. A law firm that regularly publishes blogs or other informative pieces will have an advantage over competitors that don’t. Keyword optimization, the practice of placing relevant search terms throughout your legal content, makes those posts far more valuable.
To optimize content for your law firm, review your local competitors’ websites as a source of ideas. Use ContentShake’s free tool ContentShake to identify trending legal topics and keywords for inclusion in writing pieces for different stages of the sales funnel. Top-of-funnel content should attract prospective clients. Middle-of-funnel legal content addresses prospects’ reservations about hiring lawyers and is known as nurturing content. Bottom-of-funnel legal content should convert visitors into clients.
How does mobile-friendly design affect law firm rankings?
As mobile technology increasingly becomes part of everyday life, people depend on smartphones for everything. Optimizing your law firm website for mobile searches lets clients connect with you on their preferred platform and find what they need quickly.
Responsive web design is an effective way to make your law firm website mobile-friendly. It combines traditional SEO with mobile usability, which raises search engine rankings while improving visitor experiences and increasing conversions.
Responsive law firm websites are easy to share on social media, which can aid attorney SEO by increasing reach to a wider audience and driving more unique visitors. More unique visitors in turn improves search engine ranking and can bring more new clients to your practice.
What link building tactics work best for lawyers?
Link building strategies designed specifically for attorneys help them establish online credibility and authority. Common approaches include guest blogging and link reclamation, both of which grow the number of quality backlinks pointing to a law firm site.
Some tactics may look low value in Google’s eyes but still build links quickly. For example, law firms can create profiles on Justia, an attorney directory site, as a fast way of building backlinks. Those links won’t last as long as a backlink from an in-depth resource guide or a well-crafted Google My Business page would.
Contacting local business owners and asking them to link back to your website can also be effective, particularly when your law firm serves a local market. Guest posting on high-traffic blogs in your niche market is another proven method.
Should you hire an experienced SEO professional?
SEO professionals possess in-depth knowledge of the digital environment and can build an online marketing strategy for law firms. Their services include keyword research, content creation, and on-page and off-page optimization, along with identifying key performance indicators and suggesting tactics for improvement.
A good starting point is reviewing a website’s structure to confirm it follows SEO best practices, which means optimizing URLs, speeding up page load times, ensuring mobile compatibility, and implementing internal linking strategies. They then review the backlink profile and recommend strategies for improvement.
SEO professionals also create high-quality, shareable content such as infographics, case studies, and whitepapers that attract links from other websites. That kind of content builds industry credibility while raising search engine rankings. They also help clients manage reviews on social media sites like Twitter, which is a key part of building trust and establishing firm authority in a niche.
FAQ
What is attorney SEO?
Attorney SEO is the practice of optimizing a law firm’s website and online content so the firm ranks higher in search engine results, which drives more traffic from potential clients and increases revenue.
How do law firms build backlinks for SEO?
Law firms build backlinks by creating directory profiles on sites like Justia, contacting local business owners for links, and guest posting on high-traffic blogs in their niche. These tactics grow the number of quality backlinks pointing to the firm’s site.
Why should a law firm hire an SEO professional?
An SEO professional brings in-depth knowledge of the digital environment and can build a marketing strategy that includes keyword research, content creation, on-page and off-page optimization, and review management. This frees the firm to focus on practicing law while improving search rankings.
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