SEO refines website searches, directs consumers to the best fit for their searches, and utilizes selected terminology to specify the goods or services offered by the entity behind the website.
SEO is extremely valuable in moving viewers to become active consumers, whether they are buying a home, purchasing a car, or engaging a lawyer.
In assessing the SEO your law firm currently employs, you will want to analyze how many website viewers become your clients.
The answer will suggest whether your SEO is just SEO or whether it produces the specific, desired results needed by your law firm. A law firm isn’t a “one size fits all.” The SEO that resides on your website shouldn’t be, either.
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5 De facto Elements for Law Firm SEO
In the following, you’ll examine the five elements that will turn casual viewers of your website into committed clients of your law firm.
That’s how important targeted SEO is to a law firm.
Before continuing, you’ll want to make a crucial decision. Does your law firm have the staff expertise to build, maintain, analyze, and expand specific SEO for your law firm’s website?
The services of a marketing company that offers specific SEO terminology and strategies for a law firm can build a considerable client base without drawing on the time and effort of in-house staff.
If your firm does not have staff available for this role, the cogent choice will be to engage a marketing company that specializes in SEO services for lawyers. As you consider the need for SEO services that are designed for your law firm, ask your staff the following questions and make decisions accordingly.
- Do we have a marketing strategy for our website?
- How do potential clients find our firm while searching online?
- What draws potential clients to our website over those of our competitors?
- Do we provide dynamic text that effectively includes SEO?
- Do we currently move our target audience to action using SEO?
- How can our SEO-targeted appeals turn website viewers into our clients?How will we know if our marketing strategy is working or not?
Element 1: Use The Discovery Process
The first element of SEO use for your law firm is found in the discovery process.
Much like discovery in a legal setting, asking specific questions and obtaining the facts from various reliable sources will build the frame for SEO on your law firm’s website.
A decade ago, a survey in Forbes magazine indicated, “Many tactics for optimizing websites are applicable across a variety of industries, but SEO strategies need to be tailored to the legal industry to be most effective.”
This is decade-old news within the digital forum, but for many law firms, the realization that SEO makes the difference between a lukewarm website viewer and a targeted new client is just now resonating. With the information gleaned from discovery, the next element presents the possibility of targeted SEO in your law firm.
Element 2: Open The Drawbridge To Traffic
Your competition is alive and well, as you already know. How can your firm become the flash point for viewers and the website where they’ll want to land?
Google is the drawbridge by which most potential clients will stroll into your website. According to the National Law Review, “…many lawyers generate clients directly through local marketing. If clients are looking for customers in their area, Google is often the first place they go to conduct their search.”
These analytics are clear. Your law firm SEO must contain the verbiage that sends viewers across the drawbridge to land at your website.
How to move viewers to first land on your website and then choose the services of your law firm is the key to a successful pattern of SEO use.
If your geographic market is crowded with competitors, moving viewers to your website and keeping them there is especially vital for the well-being of your firm and you’ll want to include geographic SEO terms to further engage with potential clients.
Element 3: Deploy An Ex-Parte Strategy
When considering the results of activity on your law firm website, one of the best actions you can take will be to examine the websites of your direct competitors.
This should be completed in-house, without violating the privacy of other law firms, and without the knowledge of your competitors. Similar to an ex parte proceeding without the oversight of other parties, your competitors can be examined:
- Competitors who operate within the same geographic region as your firm
- Attorneys who offer comparable expertise to that of yours or your staff
- Services offered on your firm’s website versus those of your competitors
- Pathways used for viewers to move from one page to another
- Marketing strategies of your competitors versus those of your firm
One often-ignored aspect of law firm marketing strategies is that websites are heavy on text. Examine your competitors against your website to determine if your site is too word-heavy.
Too much text will exhaust viewers. While viewers will care about the background of a lawyer, they may not care as much about the history of the law firm or the bios of all members on staff.
Viewers are seeking direct information related to their own needs; maximize your marketing strategy effectiveness with this information to invite viewers and keep them engaged.
Element 4: Build Credibility Into SEO Marketing Strategies
If your marketing strategy does not include the placement of resource citations or footnotes, regroup now.
Consumers are aware of a general credibility gap and may hesitate to trust offers from your law firm without credible resources.
Carefully invite potential clients to respond. Include citations or links to encourage consumer trust in the text provided. Cite or quote well-known authors, authority figures, or industry leaders to encourage trust and then build on that trust when responding to the potential client.
Element 5: The 80/20 Mix
Recent marketing studies have suggested that approximately 80% of consumers in 2022 shopped online for their lawyer, while only 20% turned to friends and professionals for suggestions.
For this overwhelming reason, your law firm will want to utilize specific SEO marketing strategies designed to take consumers from the initial search through to answering your website invitation. The best way to reach your target audience is via the website pages your firm presents to the local or regional population.
There are at least five elements that demand specific SEO practices for your law firm.
These will confirm the capabilities of your law firm for viewers who will become clients: Use the discovery practice of SEO marketing strategies. Open your law firm’s drawbridge to traffic.
Deploy an ex parte strategy to study competitors. Build credibility in SEO marketing with references and citations. Remember that eighty percent of those in your target audience are already searching for you.