According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the employment of lawyers will grow 8% by 2032. This rate is faster than average among all occupations in the United States. Higher growth in the legal industry means there will be more competition to face.

 

If you want to build a successful law firm, improving your online presence is important. This way, you can stand out, attract potential clients to your website, and convert them through scheduled consultations.

 

In this guide, we’ll explain how SEO for lawyers works and how you can get started.

 

Understanding the Basics of SEO for Lawyers

To get started with SEO for lawyers, it’s important first to grasp the concept. Search engine optimization (SEO) improves a website’s ranking on major search engines like Google and Bing.

 

Ideally, the higher your website ranks, the more attention it will receive. Google’s first search results command a 27.6% click-through rate (CTR). For law firms, getting high placements on Google Maps is key.

 

When you search for a law firm on Google, the first thing you’ll see is Google Maps with a few local listings:

 

SEO for lawyers has never been more important than it is now. 97% of people use search engines to find local businesses. And the same percentage of them judge the online presence of a local business before they visit.

 

Now that you know what SEO is and why it’s important for law firms, let’s review some strategies to help you implement your digital marketing strategy.

 

Conducting Keyword Research

Keyword research is the backbone of any SEO strategy. Keywords are search terms that people use to find things online. When you add popular keywords to your website, you’re letting Google know there is a correlation between them and your website’s content.

 

Thus, Google will rank your website pages accordingly whenever someone searches for a keyword. A common example of a legal keyword is “personal injury lawyer near me”.

 

Thousands of people search countless more simple search terms and longer keywords. The goal of keyword research is to find these keywords, analyze them, and figure out how likely you are to rank for them.

 

Keyword research can also help law firms:

 

• Analyze the keywords their most successful competitors are using.
• Build content outlines with selected keywords.
• Understand the work it’ll take to rank for a keyword, such as acquiring backlinks or writing long-form content.

 

SEO for lawyers starts with keyword research. Luckily, tools like Ahrefs and Semrush can help you get started.

 

Optimizing On-Page Elements

A major part of SEO is optimizing your website. This way, search engines can crawl your website and analyze it efficiently. Following an effective SEO strategy will be difficult if your website isn’t optimized properly.

 

With that said, the most important on-page elements are:

 

• Page Speed: Both people and search engines want fast websites. As such, page speed is one of the most important on-page ranking factors.
• Content Quality: Search engines will evaluate the quality of your content, primarily based on search intent. Basically, how relevant is your content for the audience you’re targeting?
• Links: Internal and external links (backlinks) help search engines better understand your website and see if other websites are linking back to it.
• Mobile-Friendliness: Most online traffic comes from mobile devices. Therefore, your law firm needs a mobile-responsive website to have a fighting chance on Google.
• HTML: Finally, you’ll need to create descriptive title tags and meta descriptions for each page so Google can understand what they’re about.

 

If you’re unsure where to start with this, you can perform an SEO audit. This diagnostic report will tell you all the improvements you need to make to your website.

 

Building a Mobile-Friendly Website

Websites are viewed differently across desktop computers and mobile devices (smartphones, smart TVs, and tablets). For one, the screen sizes of both device types are different.

 

Also, both devices have different functionality. You have to swipe and tap on mobile devices instead of using a keyword and mouse on a desktop. Because of this, you’ll need to build a mobile-friendly website to give your audience a pleasant, all-around viewing experience.

 

Fortunately, WordPress, Webflow, and Squarespace provide mobile-friendly templates to design your legal website.

 

Enhancing User Experience

User experience (UX) is often a forgotten aspect of SEO for lawyers. In reality, UX determines how your audience feels about your website. You can evaluate your website’s UX by assessing the following data from Google Analytics:

 

• Dwell Time: This is how long people stay on your website pages. If your dwell time is short, it could mean your users aren’t finding your content helpful.
• Bounce Rate: This ratio determines how quickly a person leaves a website without doing anything. Having a high bounce rate is a telltale sign of a useless website.

 

Enhancing the UX of your website takes time. You’ll need to see how web users respond over time and make strategic adjustments with the help of A/B testing and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

 

Leveraging Local SEO for Lawyers

Local SEO is about improving your firm’s position on Google Maps and local directories like Yelp. A major part of local SEO is setting up an accurate Google Business Profile.

Google Maps feature your profile like this:

 

Google Maps arranges local business listings by prominence. This means you’ll need to acquire legitimate online reviews and a high star rating.

 

The better your star rating and online reviews are, the more effective your local SEO strategy will be.

 

Creating High-Quality Content

SEO and content are like Siamese twins; they’re joined at the hip. One can’t live without another. When creating a content marketing strategy for your law firm, here are some important tips to follow:

 

• Write content for humans instead of search engines. Avoid keyword stuffing and relying too heavily on AI tools (ChatGPT, Jasper AI, etc.).
• Create a content outline that includes all the topics you plan on covering within the article. Also list your primary keywords, word count, and reference links to competitor blogs you want to outrank.
• Use the Skyscraper Technique by browsing the highest-ranking content for your primary keyword and building a better resource to enhance your chances of achieving higher rankings.

Mastering content writing takes time and practice, but it’s arguably the greatest driver of law firm rankings.

 

Implementing Link-Building Strategies

When it comes to SEO for lawyers, link-building refers to the process of gathering backlinks from other prominent websites. Google views a backlink as a “vote of confidence” from one website to another.

 

Generally speaking, if a popular website links back to yours, you must provide helpful content and resources. There are many ways to approach link-building.

 

The white-hat link-building method is performing manual outreach to journalists, content creators, and influencers and asking them to link back to your website.

 

You can offer a link in exchange or some other favor if they’re interested. Be warned – link-building takes a lot of time and sweat equity to see a positive ROI. Still, it’s an effective river of SEO for lawyers.

 

Monitoring and Analyzing SEO Performance

Once your SEO campaign is underway, you can use your keyword research tool to keep tabs on your website’s performance.

 

For example, Semrush offers regular SEO performance insights so you can always know where you stand. Ideally, you should monitor your SEO performance every month.

 

Make sure you’re checking for technical SEO issues (404 errors, broken links, etc.) to avoid any damage to your website’s health.

 

Staying Informed and Adapting to Changes

SEO is always changing. Every once in a while, Google will release updates to their algorithms. If you’re not informed, you could risk getting left behind by your competitors.

 

Subscribing to industry-leading SEO publications like Search Engine Journal (SEJ) and Search Engine Land will help you stay up-to-date about the latest happenings in the SEO industry.

 

Conclusion

Overall, SEO for lawyers isn’t difficult to grasp. Focusing on the key areas we’ve mentioned above will put you on the path to creating an effective SEO strategy for your law firm.

 

Nonetheless, if you’re a beginner to SEO, you may need more guidance to master the fundamentals. Specifically, you may need help understanding how to implement these practices in on and off-page SEO.

 

Do you need examples for more on-page/off-page optimization clarity? Download our handy On-page/Off-page Optimization PDF here.