The success of any business — even your law firm — depends on how easily potential clients can find you. And most people are looking on search engines.

As more potential clients begin searching for legal help on Google, it’s become even more important to get yourself ranking high.

After all, the #1 result in Google gets 32% of all clicks.

But thousands of law firms are competing for that coveted top spot. Getting there requires a mastery of lawyer SEO that most don’t have.

In this article, we’ll go over the importance of SEO services for lawyers, what it entails, and how to choose the right SEO expert for your business.

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What is lawyer SEO?

Lawyer search engine optimization (SEO) involves driving more organic traffic to your law firm’s website from search engines like Google by increasing your rankings.

If your website is optimized, it will appear higher up in Google when someone searches for a phrase you’re ranking for.

It’s different from paid search traffic in that ranking organically is free, although you may pay for content production.

By focusing on creating valuable content, you’ll naturally increase your rankings. You’ll be easier to find online, helping you attract more prospective clients.

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Understanding keyword research

One crucial factor in improving your rankings is keyword optimization.

You want to rank highly for targeted keywords, ideally those with a respectable amount of traffic. How do you tell?

A keyword research tool like SEMrush or even Google’s Keyword Planner can give you an estimated search volume and tell you how hard it’ll be to rank for that keyword.

Research is important, as 92.42% of keywords get ten monthly searches or less. While ranking for these low-volume keywords isn’t bad, we don’t recommend prioritizing them over more valuable key phrases.

When someone searches Google for “lawyer,” they’ll get millions of search results.

From there, they’ll get more specific and search for something like “family lawyer,” and so on. Ultimately, they’ll end up searching for a location-specific keyphrase like “family lawyer in Chicago.”

A digital marketing agency specializing in law firms can help you rank at the top of Google for valuable, geo-specific keywords. These are the keywords you want to rank for, as they’re highly targeted and will likely lead to more conversions.

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Why are attorney SEO services crucial for law firms?

Competition is fierce among lawyers.

There are likely plenty of local lawyers in the same practice area as you. And while referrals are still valuable, many people validate referrals with searches of their own.

It’s one thing to get a referral, but another to back it up with hundreds of five-star reviews on Google.

You may be able to find success without investing in SEO and digital marketing for law firms if you’ve been practicing for a while. But if you’re a newer attorney, or are eager to keep up with younger lawyers, you’ll need to invest in SEO.

People will always look online for the best anything, including law firms. And they’re making specific searches — queries that you may not be targeting. With SEO, you can make sure you rank for all of the search queries your potential clients are typing into Google.

For example, your clients are likely searching for specific things. Take a look at these popular search queries related to personal injury.

By optimizing your website, you’re making sure you pop up when someone is looking for a personal injury lawyer in your area.

And a byproduct of SEO is a killer website. Your website will be home to reviews, testimonials, practice area power pages, your contact information, and more. The right SEO services can help you capitalize on these aspects of your website.

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What a law firm SEO company can do for you

A lot goes into SEO. It’s complex, with many different services available to you.

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Site audit

A site audit involves evaluating websites to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Essentially, it’s a comprehensive look at a website’s performance and SEO.

By doing a site audit, you can see what should be prioritized to improve SEO positioning.

It’s something an SEO service for lawyers will do off the bat to see what optimizations will produce the best returns.

If you’ve never done a site audit, it should be prioritized as a means to generate higher search visibility, solve any existing SEO issues, and improve user experience.

If you want to give it a try yourself, tools like SEMrush have site audit features.

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SEO strategy

A law firm SEO service will help map out a strategy to get your law firm to the top of Google’s search results.

Your strategy helps you organize the content on your website to improve your overall SEO and your chances of ranking highly. A strategy keeps you on track, making sure you’re producing content that you know people want.

Ultimately, the goal is to increase your organic traffic by producing high-quality, thoughtful content.

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Local SEO

Most law firms will want to prioritize local SEO above all else.

Why?

The majority of your clients are likely local, so it pays to be hyper-specific with who you’re targeting.

We already mentioned the importance of targeting location-specific keywords like “divorce lawyer in Calgary,” but there’s more to local SEO than keywords,

An expert SEO service for lawyers can help you set up and optimize a Google My Business page, which is arguably the most important element of local SEO. A few things that go into your GMB listing include client reviews, contact information, and images.

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Technical SEO

Technical SEO is better left to the experts, as it involves getting into the nitty-gritty of your website.

The goal of technical SEO is to make your website more “Google-friendly.” Making sure your website follows Google’s guidelines, is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and is easy to navigate are just a few items on the list.

It’s not enough to set it up and forget about it either. Google is constantly updating its algorithms, shifting variables related to rankings around. If you want to keep rankings high, you’ve got to stay on top of the algorithm.

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On-site SEO

When creating content, there are a lot of on-site and on-page SEO elements that need to be in place. Excellent on-site SEO makes sure your site structure is easy to navigate so that Google can find it while also allowing readers to more easily find what they’re looking for.

The ultimate goal of on-site SEO is to make sure that users and search engines:

• Understand what a page is about
• Identify whether the page accurately answers a search query
• Figure out if it’s high-quality and worth ranking highly on a search engine result page (SERP)

Some elements of on-site SEO include internal and external links, load speed, URL structure, metadata, as well as elements like keyword usage, tags, and headers.

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Content marketing

At the core of any legal SEO campaign is content creation. Blogs will always have a place in content marketing, but there are also things like videos, infographics, gated content, landing pages, and other resources to consider.

By doing keyword research, you can determine what type of content your target customer persona is interested in and create content to address it.

For example, someone might be looking for an answer to their search query, “how can I beat a DUI?”

If you then create authoritative content in multiple formats answering that question, you can get hundreds of new clients.

For example, Cory Wilson has a comprehensive blog section on his website.

Your content also needs to address the user intent behind the search queries. That is, your content should address what searchers are actually looking for.

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Link building

An essential part of SEO is link building.

Getting links from high-authority websites in your niche can help your website rank higher on Google and build domain authority. It’s definitely something worth doing, as it can help your law firm’s SEO.

One way to build backlinks is through guest blogging. A lot of companies will be happy to let you publish content on their blog in exchange for a small fee or a link in return.

But it’s time-intensive, which is why SEO experts include this in their packages.

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Choosing the right SEO service for lawyers

There are hundreds of SEO companies out there vying for your attention. They all promise to get you to the top of Google, but who can you trust?

Here are some things to consider when choosing an SEO company.

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Experience working specifically with law firms

The best lawyer SEO services are those that specialize in law firm marketing.

Knowing the legal landscape helps marketers know what mediums are worth pursuing for which practice areas, ultimately resulting in more leads and conversions.

While a general digital marketing company could help you get results, it won’t be as targeted as it would be otherwise.

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Clients with high organic rankings for competitive phrases in your market

We mentioned that organic SEO is an ongoing thing. You can’t quite set it and forget it.

The best SEO companies for law firms stay on top of Google’s algorithm updates to get and maintain high organic rankings on Google.

Make sure whoever you hire has case studies and other evidence of what they have achieved for past clients. And it shouldn’t be just one or two examples.

We’ve created case studies highlighting some of the results we’ve helped our clients achieve.

A good agency will have many examples of high-performing clients in competitive practice areas like criminal defence and family law.

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A team of marketers that are experts in all facets of digital marketing

The team you hire should be capable of helping you excel in all facets of web marketing, not only SEO.

A digital marketing team should be composed of PPC and SEO specialists, content strategists, web developers, and graphic designers, at the very least.

Web developers optimize your law firm website loading speed and make sure it’s search engine friendly, while web designers create beautiful websites that convert.

All of these roles come together to help create eye-catching, compelling content that’s SEO optimized and pushed to your target audience.

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A portfolio of beautiful, search engine optimized website designs that convert

You can create the most compelling content, but if your website isn’t well-designed, your rankings will suffer.

The best websites are designed to not only be eye-catching, but also keep users engaged and on the page. They can keep visitors from bouncing, which sends a signal to Google that your website isn’t answering search queries.

Additionally, a skilled web developer can reduce website loading times, another factor in your rankings.

Take a look at the design we made for Evergreen Elder Law’s website for inspiration.

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A customized lawyer marketing solution specifically for you

No two law firms are exactly alike.

The SEO service you choose should tailor a marketing plan to your goals and circumstance. Any agency worth its weight will individualize your marketing plan so that you get the results you want.

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Plenty of reviews and qualifications

Reviews and testimonials are currency in the digital marketing landscape.

A major red flag is when an agency has no reviews, testimonials, or clients listed. They could just be getting started, or they have a bad reputation.

The right person will be well-versed in the industry and be well-connected. They should have clients who will speak to their abilities and be able to talk to you about their qualifications.

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Master search engines with the right SEO expert

Whether you tackle SEO yourself or choose to hire a law firm SEO expert, you have a long road ahead of you. It takes a lot of ongoing work to stay on top of your rankings, which is why we recommend you hire a professional.

The right law firm marketing agency will be able to design a strategy that’s unique to your law firm, getting you the clients you deserve.

If you’re looking for more marketing tips, check out our comprehensive guide to law firm marketing strategies.