[author: Noreen Fishman]
local search engine optimization (SEO) it is important to many businesses, including law firms. In fact, 46% of all Google
searches look for local information, and this number is only likely to be higher for practices that operate regionally. There also tends to be a strong correlation between organic website traffic and local searches. What does this mean for your company? It means that if you can improve your website traffic through local search engine optimization, you are likely to get more traffic and leads in general. Here are some simple tweaks your law firm can make to your local SEO strategy to gain better local visibility.
The benefits of local SEO
Local SEO refers to a search engine optimization strategy that focuses on improving search rankings in local search results. So, if someone searches for “Pennsylvania law firm,” that tells Google that they’re looking for a law firm in a specific location.
With all the information Google should be looked at with web pages, one of the important ranking factors is geolocation.
local seo it’s about marketing your business to those who are specifically looking for your location. If you are a law firm, especially a small or medium-sized firm, local SEO is very important. For law firms that operate regionally, local SEO is essential, allowing businesses to cut the edge of larger national firms that can rank for broader keywords, while getting traffic from a more relevant audience.
15 Local SEO Tips for Law Firms
1. Take a look at overall speed and performance
Before you dive into other tactics, you want to make sure that whatever you’re driving traffic to loads correctly Website performance studies show that for your site to retain visitors, the page load time should not exceed three seconds. Before you focus on driving more people to your site, make sure they don’t bounce once they get there.
2. Make sure you use the right local keywords for your services
It’s important to make sure the descriptions of your services on your website reflect what people are actually searching for in your area. Use a keyword research tool like Semrush or Ahrefs. These allow you to determine the most popular search phrases for law practices like yours, and how difficult it will be to rank locally as well.
Follow these steps:
Choose which relevant, local keywords would you like to sign up You can use one of the tools above and try to type relevant keywords based on the location in Google.
Integrate keywords into your site, including relevant pages and blogs
Optimize your pages for keywords by including them in your titles, body, and URLs
3. Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing
Your law firm profile is activated Google My Business it’s your local listing that appears on Google Maps, local Google Search results, and even the knowledge panel on the right side of Google Search. As with websites and ads, Google ranks business profiles based on their relevance to the search term and overall quality. This means that by optimizing your business profile, you can rank higher in local search, show up for more search terms, differentiate yourself from competitors, and even win more customers.
4. Make sure your location is referenced in key parts of your site
You should make sure that your home page and any other important pages that contain information about your services reference your location in four key places:
Your title tag
Headings
Body copy
Your meta description
Also, it’s worth adding the location to the URL if applicable. For example, if you have offices in three different cities in New York, I would suggest creating three separate pages with three different URLs. Note that each page must have different copy, as Google does not like duplicate content and may penalize it in search results.
5. Use Schema geotagging
This microdataset was created as part of a collaborative effort by the major search engines: Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Schema is a foundation for markup data that allows search engines to better understand structured location-based information, allowing them to produce richer search results. There are different ways to create and display schema markup: see This article for a deeper dive into schema markup.
6. Optimize for voice search
This functionality has been growing up for the past two years, and will continue to do so. It allows people to search faster as well as multitask, which users love. Think about keywords that are commonly used in voice search rather than just search engine queries. For example, it’s important to note that people typically ask a question through voice search, such as “Is there a personal injury attorney in Jackson, Mississippi?” Consider long-tail keywords that use terms like where, when, and how.
7. Submit your site to high quality local directories
Presentation of your company web site to quality local directories can significantly increase your position in search results. Google indexes directory entries, and if the directory has a good reputation, it may return the directory entry in a high search position.
So, even if you struggle to rank highly for a particular keyword phrase, you may still get exposure for your law firm through search results on other directory sites.
8. Make sure your website works well on mobile devices
Whether or not your law firm website is mobile-friendly can significantly affect local SEO. Most searches are now done on mobile devices; and seconds HubSpot, 88% of consumers who search for a local business on their phone call them within a day. This means that if your site doesn’t perform well on mobile, you’re missing out on a lot of potential customers. Google also prioritizes websites that also works well with mobile phones. So if your website doesn’t work well on a smartphone, you’re going to lose out when it comes to local SEO.
9. Integrate local keywords into metadata
In addition to referencing your keywords in titles, body copy, and other relevant places mentioned above, be sure to also integrate your keywords into your metadata, such as meta descriptionsHTML and URL codes.
10. Make a location-specific about us page
Your About page is the perfect place to clarify your location and include local keywords. Focus on including local information like your address, your engagement and commitment to your community, and local news and events.
11. Building local links
Reach out to local organizations in your area and make connections. This is one of the easiest ways to get valuable and credible backlinks that send strong link signals to Google to confirm that your site is credible for this location.
12. Get online reviews
Consider creating an online review campaign. Reach out to customers via email, a social media group, or in person and ask them if they would be comfortable reviewing your business on Google. Consider giving something in return, such as a gift card, to encourage them to leave a review. Or, you can use a service like Bird’s eye what does this do for you
13. Actively manage online reviews
It’s not enough to win reviews. They also need to be actively managed. Be sure to monitor and respond to all reviews, whether good or bad. Pay extra attention to negative reviews, and work to mitigate the issues raised in the review. Hopefully, your efforts will guide the reviewer to delete the review.
14. Use geofencing advertising
With PPC search engine ads, you can control who you target with your ads. Try targeting your audience based on location to drive local traffic.
15. Regularly check your site for issues
Take the 2 minutes for run a free SEO audit of your site so you can see where you stand in the search engines and get a clear picture of on-site issues you can fix to get higher rankings.
Take away
Since law firms often operate on a regional scale, it is critical that they have a local search engine optimization strategy in place. Using some of these tactics can be effective in getting found and driving even more traffic to your business website. Put this list into action to get in front of your local audience, and you might get a few new leads too.
This post has been edited and republished since September 22, 2021.
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