SEO rules change by the week, not by the year. And the world of law firm SEO is no different. The best practices from a year ago may not be 100% what you want to swear by today.
Google is constantly evolving to give the searcher a better experience. They’re also always trying to reward the businesses that market themselves the right way and earn organic traffic, while finding new ways to find the cheaters and spammers.
To make sure your law firm SEO strategy is up to date, we’re going to give you 10 things you can start doing today that will help you earn the top ranking the natural way.
1. Think Local
We’re going to start by giving you something you can do to instantly set yourself apart from literally half of the businesses out there: Make sure your Google My Business information is complete and up-to-date.
You would think this is an insanely easy step to check off, as it’s free and takes 5 minutes to do. But half of the businesses surveyed said that their Google My Business information is likely wrong right now.
So make sure your name, address, phone number, services, and pictures are all complete and up to date.
2. Mobile First
Google recently announced that they are moving towards mobile-first indexing. What does that mean for you? It means your mobile site now has to be just as fluid and optimized as your desktop site.
And if you earn the click onto your mobile site, you have to ensure that the user gets a seamless experience.
A recent survey revealed that over 60% of people will abandon your mobile site if they experience even the slightest delay. Even worse, consider the fact that 40% of those people said they will go right to the competitors’ site.
3. Use Keywords the Right Way
This isn’t 2010, so there’s no need to cling to a number of the keyword practices that were common at the turn of the decade.
This is the future. And in the future, there is no need to worry about exact match keywords. Google isn’t looking for exact match keywords anymore. They’re now allowing for more natural and organic use of keywords.
At the same time, you also don’t really need to worry about keyword density anymore. Again, Google is less worried about the quantity of your keywords. More the quality.
4. Long Tail Keywords
What is a quality keyword? One that people are actually searching for. Today, we’re seeing fewer people Google “best lawyer Gainsville” and more people asking Siri, Alexa or Google “Who is the best lawyer in Gainsville.”
These full sentence queries are known as longtail keywords and are paydirt.
In the world of law firm SEO, those questions may be something like:
- How do I get a restraining order?
- How do I fight a DUI in Texas?
- How much does a divorce cost?
Provide real answers to those questions on your service pages and blogs, and you will shoot right up the SEO rankings.
5. Blog Better
Focus on those longtail keywords for your blog titles, and provide a legitimate answer. And do it right away. Don’t “burry the lead” and put the answer way down at the bottom of your blog. People are likely only going to scan.
Also, always give your blog reader the next step. And when you’re trying to succeed in law firm SEO, that next step is likely going to be to get in touch with you for a meeting or consultation. So tell people what they need to do to make that happen.
Always end your blogs one of 3 ways:
- Instruct them to fill out your lead form.
- A conclusion that explains how you can help them with whatever topic you just wrote about, and a hyperlink at the end that tells them they can find out more here.
- Invite them to comment on the blog. Once they do, you now have their information and a qualified lead you can remarket to.
If you don’t ask your reader to do something when they’re done reading, they will just leave, and you’ve wasted a quality lead.
6. PPC is Not SEO
PPC is a great way to generate leads and traffic, but it’s not going to help your SEO score. That’s not to say you shouldn’t invest in PPC ads, just don’t expect a rankings boost from them.
SEO is traffic you earn. PPC is traffic you buy.
7. Build Smart Links
If you’ve ever used a link farm or other spammy link-building practices, you need to take these links down right now, because the Google Penguin update is punishing you for them as we speak.
The good news is the Penguin is part of their core algorithm, so any changes you make will be reflected in your ranking almost right away.
8. Beware the Hawk
The Hawk is another update that has a particular impact on law firm SEO.
The Google Hawk update was an attempt to curtail the number of businesses trying to cheat their rankings on Maps, by creating duplicate listings for their business slightly different addresses.
It worked, but it had an unfortunate side effect. If you were geographically close to a competitor, Google may only index one of you, and assume the other is spam.
A lot of law firms may share a building with another law firm. If you “fell off the map” a few months ago, that’s why.
9. Use Social Wisely
Let’s keep this simple. Take all of the social links off of your landing pages and service pages. If someone is on your site, keep them there. Don’t send them someplace else.
Your social traffic does not help your SEO ranking.
10. Focus on Speed
Speed matters in law firm SEO.
Half of all internet users won’t stick around for 3 seconds for a page to load.
Keep your site nice and lean and load-friendly.
Learn More About Law Firm SEO
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