So your law firm has a website, but it isn’t generating significant Internet traffic or potential leads. What gives? Well, Google might not be displaying your webpage very high on their search results. Since the average Internet user doesn’t click past the first page of search results, many potential clients might not even be seeing your web page! Now you’re asking yourself, how do I address this problem? Many people will tell you to advertise on Google using pay-per-click, ensuring you’re at least listed as an advertisement when someone searches for a lawyer in your area. However, this is really just throwing money at the problem, something that isn’t ideal for smaller law firms. So, what else can you do to address this problem?
The answer lies in Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. SEO can dramatically improve how high up the search results your website will show, simply by making your site more visible to the “bots” which crawl the web and index your site. The better these bots understand your site and what search terms should link to your site, the better off your PageRank and placement will be in relevant search results.
Top 5 SEO tips for Lawyers:
- Make a list of relevant search terms you want to target. Start with a list of about 20 search terms. Think of the services you offer, the location you’re in, and obviously don’t forget the fact that you’re a lawyer or law firm.
- Narrow down these search terms. Use Google Analytics to discover the most widely used of your search terms, and focus on the top two or three. A targeted keyword will likely be longer and specific, such as “Bankruptcy Lawyer in Miami, FL.”
- Ensure that your web pages include these terms. Use them in the title and occasionally in the content. If you have images posted on your site, make sure that the image name and description is also relevant.
- Have “good” backlinks. The more your site is linked to from “good” websites, the better your web page will rank. These backlinks include reviews, so be sure to ask satisfied clients to leave a review on your preferred review service. Yelp is the most obvious review site, but there are other sites, some of which are only for lawyers. Do some research to see where both you and your competitors are being reviewed the most.
- Don’t generate negative SEO. You may have heard the saying, negative PR is still good PR! Well, this isn’t like that. Google will down rank your results, and possibly even temporarily remove you from their results for grievous offenses. Examples of negative SEO are duplicate content from other websites, duplicate web pages on your own site, and backlinks from “bad” sites. Don’t try to write your keywords 50 times on your page, because Google will notice you trying to game the system, and will punish you for this.
Hopefully, these SEO tips for lawyers will help improve your website, leading to increased traffic and lead generation. Have any more tips for all the lawyers out there? Leave your own SEO tips for lawyers in the comments below.
