Online MarketingSearch Engine Optimization
When it comes to promoting your law firm, having a website isn’t enough. With the numerous law firm websites currently existing, you must know how to make yours stand from the rest. Doing it the right way will also help you become more attractive to prominent clientele.
With search engine optimization (SEO), potential clients can find your website on the search results’ first page. Here are ten actionable SEO strategies you can practice, which will attract more big clients into your law firm:
#1 Choose Your Target Keywords
Keywords are valuable in SEO, and deciding which ones to use is the first step in optimizing your law firm‘s website. You may think that the most generic set of words can lead you closer to your clients. However, doing the opposite is more effective. By choosing more specific keywords, you’re more likely to attract potential clients and get qualified website traffic.
Think about the kind of searches you want to associate with your law office. Start with your main areas of practice and jot down possible sets of keywords you associate with each one. Also, consider doing some research on Google and typing your selected search terms to observe the results. See if they align with your practice.
#2 Apply Your Keywords to Your Home Page
On your home page, you can see your headline, sub-headers, call to action, as well as your content. Make sure that you apply your keywords to all of these elements. To be more precise, your headline should have the keywords you want to rank the highest. As for the sub-headers, optimize them with the additional keywords you want to rank.
You can also add your keywords into your website’s images, meta description, and title tag, as each has a role in your SEO.
#3 Who is Your Competition
Once you’ve found out what your target keywords are, type them into search engines like Google. See where you’re currently ranked compared to your competition. Scoping them out will let you know who you’re competing against in the search results.
Inspect the highest-ranking results and consider your similarities and differences between your law firm and theirs. Explore their websites and take note of how they structure them to get to the top ranks. Observe how they apply their keywords and content. Doing the following can give you more inspiration on how to improve your visibility and perform some needed adjustments to your keywords.
#4 Customize How Your Website Appears in Search Results
Metadata refers to your website information that appears in search engine result pages and informs search engine algorithms and users what your web page is all about. It involves two parts, which are title tags and meta descriptions. You must include metadata on each page of your law firm’s website.
Title tags explain to the users and search engine algorithms about your page. You should apply your keywords and locations here. Meanwhile, meta descriptions are a summary of what is on a particular page. It also provides you with an opportunity to use your keywords and location.
#5 Your Website Must Be Mobile-Friendly
Along with desktop computers and tablets, many users (including your potential customers) browse the Internet using their smartphones. Since they may also use these devices, your law firm website must be mobile-friendly. It makes it more convenient for them to explore your page and encourage them to do business with you.
Additionally, having a mobile-friendly website can positively affect your rankings on search engine results. Search engines such as Google and Bing use responsive web design as the main component in how they score websites and arrange rankings.
#6 Enhance the Loading Speeds of Your Law Firm Website
The loading speed is just as valuable as mobile-friendliness and keyword usage. Check your website’s speed using Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.
Should your law firm website get a low page speed score, try decreasing your image sizes. They should be around 100KB. When possible, save all of your images as JPGs since these load faster than PNGs. You can also reduce HTTP requests for downloading pictures, graphics, and scripts of your page. Ensure that your plugins are recent and remove the ones you don’t use.
#7 Make Specific Website Pages Related to Keywords
Search engines are looking for websites that offer a relevant and user-friendly experience to visitors. Apart from being mobile-friendly, it’s also necessary to have relevant content on your web pages about a topic. This additional information sets your site as more of an authority to search engines.
Producing keyword-specific pages for your law firm website can help increase your visibility, and at the same time, offer potential clients with more detailed information. Consider dedicating individual pages to each of the legal services you provide. As you make these, make sure that you are giving new content, optimize your title tag, meta description and headlines, and use an SEO-friendly URL.
#8 Follow Your Keyword Rankings
Keyword rankings mean that search engines can rank websites based on a specific keyword. Over half of search engine users only consider those who show up on the first page of the results. If your law firm web page happens to appear only on the third or fourth page, then you’re not getting enough website traffic. Track your keyword rankings so you can figure out how you can improve on this.
You can search your keywords and find where you’re currently ranking. You may also use a free keyword ranking tool to see your rankings over time. Be patient once you’ve applied the appropriate changes since they may not immediately improve upon your checking.
#9 Perform Off-Site SEO
Off-site SEO refers to the practice of optimizing your online presence on other websites. As a lawyer, you may also have profiles on your local state bar association website. Make sure that your profile information is updated, accurate, and constant throughout all these platforms. Doing so can help your website rank higher in the search results since the content on these websites is consistent with yours. It will also help potential clients contact you faster.
As search engines prefer consistency, update your legal profiles regularly and keep them in line with your website.
#10 Have a Google My Business Profile
You can attract more clients and drive more organic traffic to your website with Google My Business. With it, you can improve how your law firm appears in Google Search and Google Maps. Provide customers with crucial information, such as your address, phone number, and client reviews.
Though potential clients can find all of this on your website, a Google My Business profile can place all of this information right where they’re looking. Setting a profile is quick, and it can draw in more attention when you use it well. Update it regularly with accurate information and ask clients to leave Google reviews, so your page stays visible and relevant.
Following these ten strategies can be beneficial, as each can take you a step closer to attracting big clients.
