Law firms strive to have a bigger online presence, which means more websites competing for the same keywords. Thanks to high-quality search results delivered by search engines like Google, people tend to make a lot of their decisions regarding buying a product or hiring a service online. That’s why it’s important to use local SEO for law firms, because simply owning a website is not enough to compete for space online.
There are many reasons why more law firms are going for local SEO.
- – Around 20% of all business queries online relate to local businesses.
- – 40% of all mobile searches include local businesses.
- – Half of these mobile searches are followed by the search for contact information to get the
- services from the local businesses.
Tips to Focus on When Optimizing Local SEO for Law Firms
Here are some time-tested tips to help you with your local SEO for law firms.
Choose Your Legal Keywords Carefully
Searches are mostly divided into two types, “information intent queries” and “product buying or service hiring intent queries”. As a law firm, you need to try and get your website ranked for both types of queries. This approach will help you authenticate your law firm’s online presence and also win you clients in the long term.
Try using local and specialty focused keywords to optimize your website. For example, instead of “legal services in Canada”, you can try “personal injury lawyer in Mississauga.” This will narrow down the focus and help you attract the customers genuinely interested in the specialty in which you have expertise while also providing them with a lawyer in their own locality.
Publish Fresh Content Related to Clients’ Legal Problems
Clients tend to trust someone who knows what they are talking about. There are many capable lawyers and attorneys. Yet not everyone takes interest in establishing their authority online in the legal matters within the chosen domain of expertise.
One of the tips for local SEO for law firms is to publish content that helps potential clients with their most common questions. For example, a lawyer specialized in driving under-influence cases in Toronto may regularly publish any changes to the relevant laws that govern the DUI cases in the future to keep their website visitors informed.
Optimize Your Law Firm’s Onsite SEO
Make sure that you do not leave any loopholes when it comes to onsite search engine optimization. You need to take care of the onsite content including the title, meta tag description, placement of keywords, appropriate use of headings, and the titles of each separate page.
Onsite SEO optimization does not mean that you should just stuff keywords in. Instead try to find a balance for content that is optimized, not just for the search engines but also for the users. Thus, users can find the information and search engine bots can categorize your blog posts in a way where they show up against relevant legal queries for which you intend to provide services.
Good Quality Relevant Backlinks from Other Sources Can Help
Do not underestimate the power of offsite SEO. Just publishing content on your website is not going to help in the long term. You need to make sure that as a lawyer you are able to spread the word about your expertise.
Publish press releases for any new services that you are about to introduce to your clients. PR may include news about a merger with another law firm.
Join legal forums online and help answer questions of the users there. This will help you connect with more individuals and you will be able to build a greater audience on such online forums. Some forums also allow you to build signatures to help you attract more visitors directly to your website.
Lastly, you can join an online blog where you can write as a contributor. In the author bio, you can add information about your expertise and give some details about yourself, including links to your social media pages and URL to your law firm’s website.
These are some of the ways of doing offsite local SEO for law firms. Find any online website that recognizes you with a backlink to contribute useful information and your website will gain greater SERPs and authenticity.
Satisfied Customers of a Law Firm Can Do SEO Wonders
If you have created business listings on well-recognized websites, you can ask your satisfied customers to give positive reviews of your legal services. Examples of that are positive customer reviews on your Facebook page, Google business listing, Bing places, and Yelp among others.
