Law firms operate within a heavily saturated market, and differentiating yourself from your competitors can be a struggle. After all, attorneys all do the same thing, and the only difference is found in their fees, right? This is the impression that many people, your potential clients included, may have of you and your line of work. A solid SEO strategy, that our attorney SEO experts take on, not only helps boost your online visibility, it can help you stand out in a red ocean by affirming your brand and communicating in the right ways to the right audience.
Blogging
Blogs are one of the easiest ways to establish identity, credibility, intention, and to introduce your brand to the digital world. Using the right keywords in the right places can also put you on Google’s radar. The right keywords not only drive traffic to your site, but they also hook a reader’s attention and incentivize them to stay and peruse. The more time they spend on your site and the more content they interact with, the better your site will perform. Google takes note of which sites not only capture but keep a visitor’s attention and rewards them accordingly. As an attorney, you will want to share blogs which are educational without being preachy and overbearing, and will help people make informed decisions when they are facing a legal crisis. That decision is, of course, to contact you.
Post Relevant Content
There is more to good content than blog posts. Longform content, downloadable ebooks, case studies, and white papers provide complementary material and add plenty of value to your site. They further establish your credibility in the field and boost your image. Even if your visitors do not always interact with these types of content, the fact that you have it, to begin with, will always leave a good impression.
The visuals and graphics on your site can also be incorporated into your SEO strategy. Infographics are useful for readers in a rush or people looking for a simple explanation. Video content is highly recommended as video marketing is proving to be the way of the future. Of course, you need to be careful when selecting your graphics and other visual content. If you are too hasty or go overboard with it, you can harm your SEO performance. How?
User Experience and Website Optimization
Too many graphics negatively impact your load time, which in turn will affect your bounce rate. A high bounce rate tells Google that visitors do not want to be on your page or you have little to offer, and placing you higher up is not benefitting Google itself in any way. Graphics must be simple, minimal, and high quality. Graphics that make your page look like something from the early 2000s not only looks unprofessional, it’s unattractive. Aesthetics is not something to highly prioritize, but the appearance of your site is something that should not be neglected.
Your site structure in general plays a huge role in creating a positive user experience, and that positive user experience translates into higher rankings. Your site should be simple, straightforward, and easy to navigate. The more intuitive, the better.
You do not need to go overboard with explaining who you are and what you do. Your visitors already know that it is the reason they came to your site in the first place. This means that your ‘About’ page should be concise, and pages dedicated to the services that you offer are not overly informative – that’s what the blog is for.
Backlinking and Off-Page Citations
In addition to the time that your users spend on your site and how much of your content they do or don’t interact with, Google also looks at any affiliations you may have. Backlinking is an extremely important part of your SEO strategy, especially for SEO for law firms. Both your digital and your real life reputation can be impacted by backlinking and off-page citations.
Backlinking occurs when a link to your site appears on another site. This is often seen with guest bloggers, who include a link in their author biography section, or content that is reposted to credible sources of information such as Forbes or Psychology Today. Should any backlinks appear in too many irrelevant places or unsavory sites, such as directories which exist solely for the sake of backlinking, Google assumes that you are just as unsavory as those who are creating an unwanted digital connection to you.
Quality backlinks are easy to create and require connections with a diverse set of relevant websites, such as other law firms and online publications offering legal information. Removing toxic backlinks is possible and relatively easy. When requests are ignored or denied you need to appeal to Google, and an SEO consultant can save you the headache of handling the process for you so you can focus on growing your business.
Social Media Presence
Social media can be a fickle thing, and each platform requires a different strategy. Businesses looking to connect with Gen Z, for example, will have more success using TikTok than they would Facebook. Further, social media is not the most effective way to gather a new audience, but instead to maintain your existing one.
Rather than using social media to promote your site, you can use it to promote your brand and improve your reputation amongst clients and prospects alike. Social media is a goldmine of opportunities for interacting with people. Doing so in a public setting always leaves a good impression, and people are more inclined to contact your law firm if they see you take the time to respond to comments or inquiries, as well as resolve disputes. A simple message such as ‘We’re sorry to hear you are having that problem, can you email us to tell us more about it so we can help you?’ can go a long way.
In Conclusion
Contact us if you want to boost your presence to the top of the SERP using efficient, specialized attorney SEO strategies. Our high quality services are results-backed and data-driven.