How Lawyers SEO Agencies Help You Grow Your Practice Online
Rahul Vij
Updated: November 8
Over 96% of people that seek legal advice turn to a search engine. This statistic makes it the foremost reason why you need to invest in SEO for your practice.
Have you ever gone through this situation?
Your colleagues and mentors tell you how important it is for your practice to have an online presence. So, maybe you start with social media. After all, it is less daunting. And statistics confirm that 81% of all law firms own and maintain a presence on at least one social media platform.
But, you realize the importance of having a digital presence in today’s age. And so, you’ve bought yourself a domain name and set up your website. Now comes the intimidating task of getting your website to rank higher and gain more visitors.
Ultimately, you’re investing your dollars in competing with the other 87% of law firms that have a website. Your goal is to outrank your competition and gain more clients. You can achieve this by investing in law firms SEO.
What is SEO for lawyers, and why does it matter to my website?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy that helps your law firm’s website rank higher on search engines like Google. This way, you get more visitors to your website.
Just like you tend to click on the first result for your query over the results that follow, so do your potential clients searching for your services. According to recent research, 31.7% of all clicks go to the first organic result on search engines (organic results show up after paid ads). Moreover, the first result on search engines garners 10x more clicks than the tenth result.
The more people click through, the more your chances of getting a potential client. And while there are various digital marketing strategies you can deploy to create an all-encompassing marketing game plan, lawyer’s SEO should undoubtedly be your priority. After all, it drives about 100% more traffic than paid traffic.
Lawyer SEO: What does it include?
1. Keyword Research
Users bombard Google with a ton of queries throughout the day. Keyword research is a process where your law firm SEO expert identifies terms and phrases relevant to your business in Google’s local and organic search results.
2. Content Marketing
Investing in an expert SEO agency for lawyers can help you build a repository of various types of content (blogs, images, infographics, videos, etc.) for your website. This useful content can help increase your Google rankings.
3. On-page Optimizations
Google has over 200 factors its algorithm considers while ranking your website as a result to its user’s query. Thus, onsite optimizations done by an SEO agency for law firms involve optimizing your website elements to attract the right traffic from search engines.
4. Local SEO
When partnering with an agency that provides SEO services for lawyers, ensure you check in on whether they optimize your firm’s contact information so you can rank higher on Google maps and local search results.
5. Reputation Management
SEO agencies for lawyers worth their salt will solicit positive reviews on the best review platforms while mitigating the negative review’s impact. This way, you build authority and trust among your potential clients.
6. Performance Metrics & KPIs
The best SEO companies for lawyers know how invaluable it is to configure a reporting software and interpret the data received to find actionable insights. This focus on data further shapes your SEO strategy.
Now that you understand SEO basics, let’s understand how investing in local law agency SEO can help your law firm’s website perform better on search engines. Local SEO can not only help you rank higher on search engines but can connect you with more potential clients that are eagerly seeking your services. We’ve listed the following local SEO strategies you need to note when partnering with an SEO company for lawyers, word-of-mouth, so your website ranks higher.
Local Lawyers SEO: Strategies We Use At WebSpero
Did you know that 46.5% of your potential clients search for your services on Google before reaching out to you?
In fact, in 2017, over 37% of legal clients used search engines to find their lawyers.
Moreover, even Google notes searches with the phrase “near me” (local searches) have risen over 150% in the past two years.
Take a look at the following chart to understand how your potential clients search for your services:
Understanding Google’s Local Search Pack
If you’ve ever tried searching for “family lawyers in Montreal,” you would have seen a result as shown in the image:
A local search (Montreal) triggers a local search pack. This pack is triggered every time you include words like “near me,” “..in XYZ city,” etc.
Google uses the proximity to your users’ location, reviews, and website relevance to serve results to your users’ queries. An expert lawyer SEO company can help you:
- Optimize your website for local searches.
- Ensure your web presence across relevant local websites or directories is cohesive.
- Focus on relevant websites that have a presence for your practice in the specific area/ location.
This way, you begin to outrank your competitors, and with time, your website starts showing up as the first result for your customer’s queries. Some law firm SEO services provided by expert agencies include:
1. Google My Business & Google’s Local Pack
GMB (Google My Business) is the primary tool for local businesses to outline their information to Google. This way, they get featured in Google searches and Google Maps.
Your law firm SEO expert will optimize your GMB listing to include your business name, phone number, and address. That way, Google shows your information to everyone who searches for your services in your locality.
Additionally, the best SEO company for lawyers ensures they highlight all the positive reviews your practice acquires. They ensure that these reviews are relevant across all web directories, articles, or even offline.
In doing so, Google rewards your website by propelling it upwards on the results page.
2. Review Sourcing
In today’s time, you know how important reviews can be for your business. What was once a word of mouth testimonial is now an online review. Especially when it comes to law firms, your potential clients want to know if you truly live up to all the bold claims on your website. And as part of your social cred, nothing brings more credibility than others testifying about your expertise.
More reviews = More prominence = Higher rankings
However, sourcing reviews can become quite a daunting task. An SEO agency for lawyers equips you with all the resources you need to get your reviews for your outstanding service. Moreover, if a client leaves a negative review for your practice on Google, you need SEO for lawyers to manage your online reputation.
The best law firm SEO companies can help you generate more authority online. They are experts at establishing your brand as the go-to legal practice for your potential clientele in your locality.
3. Creating More Brand Engagement (social media + GMB posts)
You’re running a successful practice. You are the go-to experts for your present clients as well as any referrals you get. But here’s the catch. You have a wide pool of people seeking your services but don’t know of you yet. That’s where a social media presence and thought-provoking articles on your website’s blog come into play.
Sure, you can get these done internally. But, a law firm SEO expert can help you find out what people online are searching for. Therefore, answering those queries can not only help you rank higher, but you become a thought leader while doing so.
A lawyer SEO company comes ready with a team of expert content writers and social media experts who can create engaging and thought-provoking posts. Moreover, they can improve your brand engagement as they take the time to keep your community engaged.
4. Optimizing Your Website
Law firm SEO services include on-page and off-page search engine optimizations for your website. On-page optimizations include all the details your potential clients search for about your services to help them make an informed decision. This information includes your practice’s name, phone number, address, and the type of service you provide. Additionally, adding details like certifications, specializations, and wins would help establish authority and convert your potential leads into your clients.
Off-page SEO services for lawyers include managing and maintaining your firm’s reputation over all the major legal directories. These services can include business listings (Yellow pages, Yelp, Apple Maps, etc.), guest posting on high domain authority websites, and social media. These techniques can improve your rankings and establish you as the go-to authority for cases within your specialization.
5. Leveraging Google’s Screened Results
A great SEO company for lawyers will ensure your website shows up in organic results on Google. Google’s screened results are a facility to help the visitors receive direct reviews and results for their search for a good lawyer. These results bypass other services like Justia and Avvo. Any lawyer’s SEO agency worth their salt know how vital a tool screened results are in your local SEO campaign. These results help you show up even if you choose not to invest in Google ads at the moment, which is why this process takes more effort and time.
In conclusion
We’ve discussed five major ways local lawyers SEO can help bring your website to the top of search engine results pages. Although SEO has many facets and a good SEO agency for law firms will focus on all elements, including content marketing, keyword research, on-page, and off-page SEO optimizations, local SEO, reputation management, and performance metrics for your campaign. We’ve also provided you with information on how SEO agencies for law firms create a local SEO campaign for your brand. If you’re looking for an award-winning SEO agency for your practice, check out our services for SEO for lawyers here. If you have more questions for us or want to talk to our SEO experts, schedule your call with us today.