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One of the questions that come up when creating a marketing plan for lawyers is whether SEO works for law firms? This is because SEO or search engine optimisation is more commonly practiced by companies who sell products online, or so people think.
In reality, all companies, regardless of industry will benefit from SEO. The general idea is if you have an online presence and you want to reach out to potential clients online, you need a sound SEO strategy.
In this blog post, we will teach you everything you need to know about digital marketing for family lawyers.
But first, we’ll have to discuss the basics.
How SEO for Law Firms Differs From the Rest
Australia’s Legal Services industry, with a $23.0bn market size in 2021 and an average growth of 0.9% yearly over five years, is more competitive than ever. This growth outpaces the overall professional scientific and technical services sector, posing unique challenges for law firms in the digital marketing realm.
For law firms, generic digital marketing strategies aren’t enough. Specialised SEO services for lawyers are crucial due to unique content creation and optimisation needs, especially when attracting local leads. Law firms require an SEO company with deep industry knowledge to effectively reach potential clients within their legal practice area.
Strong local SEO is essential for law firms. Unlike other industries, law firms target clients in specific regions where they’re licensed to practice. This approach ensures that potential clients find relevant, territory-specific legal services.
Understanding the basics of SEO is key for law firms to assess the effectiveness of their digital marketing agency and ensure a successful SEO campaign.
Content
To optimise a law firm’s content for both readers and search engines, three essential criteria must be met:
1. Content Answers User Questions: Content should directly address the keywords and queries users search for, such as “SEO for attorneys lawyers” or “best SEO for lawyers”. If a user searches for a law firm in Perth, the content must clearly state that your firm operates there, with board-certified lawyers eligible to practise in Perth. This targeted approach fulfils user intent and can prevent potential clients from navigating away due to the lack of clear information about your services and location.
2. Keyword Optimisation: Content must be optimised with relevant keywords to ensure search engines recognise its value to users. Search engines use algorithms to scan content and determine its relevance. Therefore, using specific phrases like “personal injury lawyer in Perth” strategically in title tags, meta descriptions, headings, subheadings, body text, and URLs is crucial. This helps improve the likelihood of your content appearing in relevant search results, especially for local searches.
3. Variety in Keyword Usage: A skilled SEO specialist will not only focus on primary keywords but also on their variations and long-tail phrases. This approach broadens your online reach, catering to users who search with both common and natural language queries. For example, content should cover both “personal injury lawyer Perth” and “Where can I find the best personal injury lawyer in Perth?” This strategy ensures that your content answers a wide range of user questions while maximising opportunities to incorporate different keyword variations.
Backlinks and Off-Page Citations
Creating effective SEO for law firms involves more than just publishing great content. In a crowded digital landscape, distinguishing your law firm’s website requires a strategic approach:
1. The Power of Backlinks:
Backlinks are akin to votes of confidence from other reputable websites. These links signal to search engines like Google that your site is credible and authoritative in the legal field. The more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher the likelihood of ranking well.
2. Importance of Off-Page Citations:
Off-page citations, actions outside your website influencing rankings, are crucial. They include backlinks from business listings, social media profiles, and endorsements from other sites. These citations enhance your site’s credibility and trustworthiness.
3. How to Build Backlinks:
Legal and Local Directories: Listing your firm on platforms like Google My Business and legal directories.
Social Media Presence: Active profiles and content sharing on platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Quality Content: Develop insightful blog posts about your legal expertise, encouraging sharing within your network.
Community Involvement: Engage in local events or provide free legal insights to local media.
Remember, link building is a gradual process essential for SEO success. Quick acquisition of links can be flagged by search engines, so it’s important to build them naturally over time.
Discuss a structured link-building strategy with your digital marketing agency to enhance your law firm’s online presence effectively.
Technical SEO
Technical SEO is perhaps the most important factor in law firm SEO. And because it has the most impact on your SEO performance and success, it’s also the hardest to perfect. Needless to say, when it comes to technical SEO, you’re better off hiring an SEO expert because doing this on your own will surely be too much to handle.
In the simplest terms, technical SEO refers to how Google-friendly your website is. Google-friendly means pretty much the same as user-friendly but with added security and sitemap features. It might feel like you should be doing this on your own since it’s for your website, but the risks of handling this aspect of SEO are far greater than what you think you can accomplish.
Here are some technical SEO tips for lawyers:
Make sure to follow all of Google’s guidelines
Google isn’t a fan of mind games. To take the guesswork out of your technical SEO, Google has made its Webmaster Guidelines easily available to everyone. Reviewing the guidelines will prevent violations and penalties, which will allow you to focus on your strategies instead.
Make sure your website loads fast and is mobile-friendly
Two of the most important technical SEO factors include fast page load speeds (ideally no longer than 2.5 seconds) and the capacity to render across any screen size but most especially in mobile phones.
Remember, from 18.6 million users in 2017, the number of Australian smartphone users in 2021 is expected to reach approximately 20.6 million smartphone users. That’s a lot of opportunity lost if you don’t optimise your website for mobile.
Make it easy for your website visitors to navigate your pages
The logic here is that if a person finds the website easy to navigate, it will also be easy for Google’s robots to investigate all your pages and understand what your law firm is all about. What you can do to make this possible is to create easy-to-use menus and make sure you’re linking important pages on the website often.
If you’re hiring an SEO expert to handle your technical SEO, you can learn their methods and actively participate in the process so you always stay aware of the current status of the strategy.
Set up your technical SEO for success
Although technical SEO isn’t easy to do, the good thing about it is if you set it up properly from the get-go, you should have very minimal issues for the rest of your website’s life.
Implementing Technical SEO for Law Firms
To enhance your law firm’s SEO, you have two main options: DIY SEO or hiring a digital marketing agency. Here’s a brief overview:
Option 1: DIY SEO Implementation
Learn Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: Understand the basics before starting.
Keyword Research: Combine practice areas, services, and cities to create keyword variations.
Content Creation: Use keywords strategically in your content, metadata, and calls-to-action (CTAs).
Technical SEO: Ensure your website is technically sound.
Monitoring and Adjusting: Publish content, track performance, and tweak your strategy accordingly.
Additional Tips: Build links, use social media profiles (especially Google My Business), invest in SEO tools, encourage client feedback, and regularly update your content.
Option 2: Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency
Specialised Expertise: Agencies have skilled SEO experts familiar with the competitive legal market.
Time and Resource Efficient: Saves time and resources compared to DIY, particularly for busy lawyers.
Considerations Before Hiring:
Budget: Balance your budget with marketing needs. Keep in mind that demand for legal services can affect SEO outcomes.
Expert Availability: The best SEO experts often work within agencies, as they’re too busy to maintain their own websites.
Choosing between DIY and hiring an agency depends on your resources, expertise, and time availability. Agencies offer specialised knowledge and can efficiently handle SEO, but DIY can be rewarding if you have the necessary skills and time.
Hiring the Most Qualified Digital Marketing Team With SEO Experts
One of the reasons why we encourage you to learn about SEO basics is so you can gauge a digital marketing agency’s capability before hiring them. When talking to potential companies, make sure they have a solid grasp of the foundations and concepts we mentioned in this article. Ask about their process and if possible, samples of clients they have worked with and the results of their SEO efforts.
A good digital marketing agency must understand the intricacies of the legal service industry and the most common pain points of their client’s clients. If you need help with your digital marketing, SEO Services Australia can help you with your website and provide you with a sound and solid SEO strategy. Call us today to schedule a consultation.