Employment in the legal profession is expected to go up by 9 percent in the coming year! This means that if you are a lawyer you have to stay competitive.

Have you been thinking about how you can grow your law practice and bring in new clients? SEO should be a the top of your list of strategies.

However, SEO can be complex and there are a few things you need to bear in mind before you can effectively use SEO to drive traffic to your site.

Here is a look at what you need to know about SEO for lawyers.

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization and it involves using different strategies to get search engines to rank your web pages so that you will receive visitors to your website. The higher you are on the search engine results page the better chance you will have of getting someone to click on your link and go to your website.

Getting on page one means that you are in the top ten results. However, it is even better to get into the top three positions. With Law Firm SEO you have the chance to ensure that you get the best result possible.

Local SEO

To succeed you need to focus on your local SEO strategy. Your local SEO strategy will help you to attract the attention of people in your area who are searching for law firms. To attract the attention of potential clients in your locale, you need to select the right keywords.

The keywords that you select need to be what people are typing into Google to find local law firms. You can find out what keywords people are using to search for lawyers in your area by using a keyword research tool.

There are several keyword research tools on the market and many of them have varying prices. It all depends on what you can afford.

However, you should bear in mind that when it comes to keyword research tools you do get what you pay for. Generally speaking, the more expensive the tool, the more comprehensive the information, although there are some exceptions.

Another important part of local SEO is submitting your website to important website directories such as Google business. This will ensure that you are found for local searches. Always ensure that the name and address of your business are listed correctly, for best results.

Content Creation

Once you know the keywords people are searching for it is time to create content around them.

The key is to create as much legal information as possible so that you can make your website a hub for finding accurate and informative legal content. When selecting keywords you have to bear in mind that popular keywords may be difficult to rank for based on the authority of your domain.

If your website is relatively new then it will not have a lot of authority. You will not be able to rank for content that more established sites are currently ranking for.

This is why you need to select what is known as long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords have four or more words in them. They are usually easier to rank than shorter phrases.

These keywords are perfect for a website that has low authority because they are usually not targeted by sites with higher domain authority.

While long-tail keywords do not carry as much traffic as shorter phrases, if you can rank for several of them you will find that your traffic will increase dramatically.

Your keywords should be sprinkled throughout the content that you are publishing. 

You must place your keywords in your title, URL, and as a header on your content page. You also want to make sure that you use the keyword a few times within the content.

Be sure you don’t overdo it as Google penalizes you for overstuffing your content with keywords.

Backlinks

Backlinks occur when another site finds your content valuable and links back to it. It sends a signal to Google and to search engines that your content is valuable. However, if your website is new it is hard to acquire backlinks for your website, yet they are extremely critical in getting Google to rank your pages higher.

One solution for this is to start doing posts on other websites, when you guest post a link is provided from a site with a higher authority than yours to your website. This will give your website more authority, and help you to rank for more difficult keywords.

Over time if you continue to write valuable content you will get links to your website organically but this can take some time. One thing you can do to speed up the process is to provide original statistical information and even infographics. Providing this information about legal content is a great way to inspire others to link to you.

SEO for Lawyers in 2022

If you’re trying to find the right digital marketing strategy for the next year then the tips presented here will help to take your business to the next level.

SEO for lawyers does not have to be difficult as long as you take the time to choose the right keywords for your business. Selecting the right keywords will help you to get to the top of the search engine results.

However, this is all a part of a larger strategy so make sure that you take the time to create a comprehensive digital marketing plan for your law firm.

If you would like to help with search engine optimization please do not hesitate to contact us.