How Does SEO Help Law Firms?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective marketing strategies for law firms. Think about it: what better way to reach potential customers than Google?
After all, people use Google to search for lawyers and legal service providers in their area – more than any other platform. SEO allows law firms to rank high in search results and attract clients who are already looking for services like theirs.
But SEO doesn’t just help law firms attract new clients. There are many benefits to adopting a law firm SEO strategy.
1. Organic traffic
SEO is all about improving a website’s Google ranking and driving organic traffic. More often than not, the goal is to consistently achieve high search rankings and gain long-term organic visitors.
Lawyers can optimize their website for search terms (“keywords”) that people use to search for their services. For example, if you are a family lawyer in Denver, you can try to rank for “family lawyer in Denver”, “family lawyer in Denver”, “family lawyer in Denver”, etc
Organic (unpaid) marketing is great because it doesn’t require large ad spend to deliver results. You can adopt your own SEO strategies to rank your website or choose to hire an SEO professional to help you with the process.
2. Improved user experience
Believe it or not, SEO isn’t just about pleasing the gods of Google. In reality, your goal should be to provide the best experience, content, and information to your potential visitors. Google’s algorithm is used to rank content that best matches what users are looking for.
SEO necessarily improves user experience (UX) because UX is included in the ranking factors known to Google. The speed, interactivity, and accessibility of your website are all important in keeping visitors happy and letting Google know that your website is optimized.
Great UX keeps users on your website longer and encourages them to “sign up” (contact you) rather than going to your competitors.
3. Faster Website Speed
Google evaluates a website’s Core Web Vitals to determine that a website is fast and its content renders easily to users. In other words, he wants to make sure that when users land on your site, it doesn’t take decades for your content to load.
Slow website speed can be a huge deterrent to potential customers. If your website takes too long, they’ll probably go elsewhere. Additionally, slow website speed often means that you have “heavy” images and code on your site, which can essentially crash or not load when users interact with them.
An effective SEO strategy aims to improve your website’s Core Web Vitals at all levels so that you are sure to provide a fast and user-friendly website experience to your visitors.
4. Better Content Marketing
The success of your SEO is largely based on the content. Content on your web pages and blog posts helps attract the right kinds of users to your site, improve your site authority, and more.
When you care about SEO, you care about your content, and in turn, create better content for users and for search engines. Better content not only ranks higher in search, but is more easily shared by users. Plus, your written content is often what ultimately convinces people to hire you.
5. Earned links and authority
Backlinks (links from other websites) are basically votes of confidence from outside sites that your website is informative, factual and valuable to users. Every SEO strategy is all about earning those authority-building links to show Google that your website is legitimate.
Gained authority can improve your website’s appearance in searches. At the same time, links from other websites can drive additional traffic to your website. Blogging, content marketing, and outreach are just a few of the ways law firms can earn backlinks for SEO.
6. Reference traffic
Referral traffic is traffic that arrives via external links or from other websites. SEO can help drive referral traffic to your site as other sites start noticing your content and want to link to it.
At the same time, most law firms adopt a localized SEO strategy which involves submitting their business information to local directories. These directories can then send more visitors (and leads) to your website.
Additionally, posting expert-level content can attract the attention of other blogs and publications, who may then choose to feature you. Then you can get that referral traffic through interviews, podcasts, and guest posts.
7. No more phone calls
SEO for law firms often requires a localized strategy in order to target users in a specific service area. To do this, law firms can produce geo-specific content on their websites, submit it to local directories, and even create a Google My Business listing.
Local SEO helps law firms get noticed in local search. With local listings, law firms can share their business contact information to generate more phone calls and leads.
In short, visitors don’t even have to visit your website if they can find your phone number directly from Google!
8. Improving customer intake
Website optimization makes it much easier to collect prospect information and rank it for better customer support. By including contact forms and contact information on your website, you can generate more digital leads and record this information in your customer management system.
If you rely strictly on phone calls, you’re probably missing out on a ton of potential leads. Contact forms, chat bots, and opt-ins make it easier than ever to gather real-time prospect information. You can even automate text messaging or email follow-up to reach potential customers faster.
9. Local and pedestrian traffic
Local SEO also makes it easier for potential customers to find your physical office. You can post your address and other business information so people can visit you in person, without ever having to visit your website.
Location also sends geo-specific “hints” to Google telling it where your business is located and the areas it serves. If you have this information, you’re more likely to show up in the right local search results for the right audience. This is especially true if you’re working in a competitive market, but your competitors haven’t implemented SEO.
10. Reviews and Ratings
Reviews and SEO present a “chicken and egg” situation; good reviews influence SEO, and SEO helps law firms get reviews. There’s no way to go wrong!
Positive client reviews tell Google (and users) that your law firm is trustworthy, real (important!), and highly respected. SEO, in turn, encourages law firms to reach out and generate more positive reviews so they can improve their rankings.
Think those 5 stars don’t matter for search? Think again ! Not only do potential customers want to see those glowing reviews, but Google values your business’s reputation as well. So don’t forget reviews when it comes to your SEO.
SEO helps put your law firm on the map
SEO helps law firms beyond just generating traffic and leads; it provides a comprehensive marketing strategy that improves your company’s overall digital presence. And a better digital presence means more opportunities to attract new legal clients!
Every law firm should embrace SEO to improve user experience, website speed, content, and local visibility. This is one of the best ways to generate sustainable organic traffic and put your website on the (Google) map.
