There are many acronyms in legal marketing these days. Some are more important than others. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a mainstay of marketing these days and is extremely important to your business. In a world where people start their search with Google, it’s important to optimize your site so they can find you.
At a high level, SEO is a branch of legal marketing that includes many tactics to help you optimize your website for search engines, that is, to help you appear on the first page of Google results. . There are many search engines these days, but Google still dominates, with a 92% market share. For this reason, the tips covered in this guide will focus on optimizing your site for Google.
SEO has so many facets that it can be overwhelming. At the most basic level, it is important to understand the following:
Search engines: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo. These are all search engines. Rankings: When users search for something in a search engine, the results that are presented are displayed in order of ranking.
Search Query: What users enter into search engines. For example, “best legal marketing firm” is a query. Legal Marketing Company are the keywords you would optimize a site for in this case. Keywords: Keywords are words or phrases that you include in your website content in hopes of matching a user’s search query. Optimization: Tactics and strategies used on a website that improve the chances of the site ranking high with search engines.
With these basics in mind, here are five tips to jump start your law firm with SEO.
Contact the LISI team to help with your SEO efforts.
1. CONSIDER USER
Before we get to any strategy or tactics, we believe that search engine optimization starts with a change in mindset. SEO is not for you, the law firm – you know where to look. Consider how users are talking about your business and how search engines currently view your site and competitors. Often, how we see ourselves internally does not match how the end user thinks of us. This is an important step because it will allow you to optimize for the right things (keywords, information architecture, etc.). Like any good project, it’s important to do your research before you start.
To research how users think of you, here are some tactics you can use:
Interview some of your best customers to find out how they became a customer: what they searched for, what on your website sold them to you. Benchmarking: Research your competitors, test a few search queries to get a feel for the keywords they seem to be optimizing for. See where they rank.
2. CONNECT
Like other legal marketing strategies, optimizing your law firm’s website will be a wasted effort if you can’t measure the results. There are many tools you can use to help your SEO efforts, some paid and some free. At a minimum, you should make sure your website is connected to the following tools (all free):
Google Analytics Google Search Console Bing Webmaster Tools
contact with us to help you in this process.
3. SEND YOUR SITEMAP
A sitemap is a map of your website, created specifically for search engines. It helps engines navigate your site more easily, allowing them to index your site faster. Depending on the content management system your website is built on, submitting your website can be a relatively easy task. You may not even need to contact your IT department.
At LISI we love the Yoast SEO plugin. You can find your xml sitemap in Yoast’s features tab.
Once you have a sitemap, be sure to submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
4. CLAIM YOUR LIST OF ATTORNEYS
Have you ever searched for “pizza near me” for a Friday night family dinner? We all have it. Modifiers like “near me” or “[query] rittenhouse square” are known as local modifiers. Local search is more important than ever. According to Nectafy88% of local business searches by consumers from a mobile device call or visit the business within 24 hours.
If you want your business to be found when local users search for things like “car accident attorney near me”, it’s important to claim your business on Google and other directories. Claiming your law firm on Google starts with setting one up Google My Business accountt, from here you fill in the relevant information and you’re ready.
5. PRODUCE VALUABLE CONTENT
Content is the centerpiece around which SEO revolves. Law firms need to be seen as thought leaders. Look to produce quality content that showcases your company’s expertise. If your company is known for a particular practice, make sure you have a set of leadership pieces designed around that practice. These pieces can take many forms:
Articles Legal Alerts or News Updates Webinars Events Downloadable Assets: White Papers, Guides, etc.
Search engine optimization is a long game. It will usually take 6 months to move up the search engine results pages. With these basics in place, you’ll have a good foundation to start using other optimization tactics.
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