Potential clients start their search for a lawyer, law firm, or attorney in their local area by entering terms in a search engine. And the particular search engine shows them only the first few results.
According to Smart Insights,
- 48% of people said they would begin their search online if they needed to hire an attorney.
- Almost 100% of people looking for legal advice start their search online
So, if your law firm doesn’t appear near the top of search engines, you’re far less likely to be noticed – no matter your expertise and knowledge. Since potential clients are looking for the right lawyer nearby, you need to pay attention to local SEO strategies.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website and online presence for local search. This includes claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing, adding local citations, and creating content that is relevant to your city or geographic area.
Why is Local SEO Important for Law Firms?
There are a number of reasons why local SEO is important for law firms. First and foremost, it helps you reach new potential clients who may be searching for a lawyer in your area.
In services based on local laws and where in-office visits are involved, potential clients prefer local options. And so, you need to invest in local SEO.
The investment helps you rank higher in local search results, making it more likely potential clients will find and contact your law firm. Local SEO involve multiple approaches.
Your Clients You See You Online
Local pack is one of the most crucial aspects of local search results. It typically appears with the top 3 organic results:
- Images
- customer ratings
- Business’ address and hours of operation.
Your law firm listed in the local pack is really hard for searchers to miss.
Improve the Performance in Local Searches
Building a complete Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business – GMB) is a must to improve the performance of your law firm in local searches.
List your business information (your address, phone number, business hours, and services offered) on GMB. Get it ranked through Google Maps.
With a complete GMB profile, you have an additional opportunity for visibility. You can gather collect and display reviews from previous clients. Note that people tend to choose a lawyer who has a higher number of positive reviews.
Further, you’ll show off your brand with photos and create posts about special events at your firm.
You’ll Be Easier to Remember
People **** visual content! And SEO specialists add your and team’s photos and videos or images to the website. They also share regular blog posts or articles on other platforms that make your website more engaging and informative.
Plus, adding photos with relevant keywords (known as “alt text”) can help improve your website’s search rankings.
According to Search Engine Journal,
“Reading only words is insufficient for humans. Content with visuals (videos, images, photos) is easier to remember.”
Create Optimize Localized Content
Until or unless people face any problems or students want to learn, they don’t search for a law firm.
For instance,
- An individual with a court case for careless driving searches is more likely to search for a traffic lawyer in Los Angeles.
- A person separated from a spouse is more likely to search for a lawyer or a law firm SEO agency.
In short, it is important to incorporate NAP (Name, Address & Phone) into the content of your law firm website. This will improve your visibility on localize keyword searches.
Make sure that all of the content on your website—including your page titles, heading tags, meta descriptions, image, videos and content helps a visitor to find you easily where you provide your service.
But, avoid overdoing the geographical references or your web copy will sound unnatural and clunky.
Create blog posts based on:
- A local case with interesting implications.
- A new country or city regulations if they affect places where your firm operates.
- A new interpretation of rules.
- A local ordinance that is often ignored.
Including these points in your content indicates ‘search engines’ that your site is an authoritative source and it is helpful to users. This will cause your site to rank high in search results.
In addition, this signals to Google that your website is relevant to people searching for legal services in your city or region.
Update Different Types of Content
Victorious SEO for law firms means your web pages must be keyword rich and the content is informative, well-written, and helpful. The content must correspond to the user search intent for the selected search terms.
For most firms, it essentially means cultivating four types of web content that cover 85-90% of your content marketing needs.
- Attorney biography: Showcase the experience and credentials of attorneys through content. Highlight their specialization.
- Practice area pages: List multiple services that your firm offers, such as consultation for legal advice or the review of documents, legal proceedings; drafting of legal documents, special leave petitions, etc.
- Blog posts: Already mentioned above, use blogs to show off your experience, and knowledge in your practice areas.
- News articles: The purpose is to keep your website updated with the latest news in your practice area.
Get Reviews from Happy Clients
Online reviews are more important than ever before—and they can have a big impact on both potential clients’ perceptions of your firm as well as where your website ranks in search results.
To encourage reviews from happy clients, add links on your website that lead directly to review sites like Google My Business or Avvo, or send automatic follow-up emails after each case is closed asking clients to leave a review.
Bottom Line
Taking all the above points in consideration, we can say that investing in local SEO is critical for law firms and lawyers. It doesn’t just help you rank higher on search engine result pages (SERP), and boost website visibility, but also attracts prospective customers organically.
If you have a law firm, investing in local SEO is necessary. By taking a few simple steps to optimize your website’s local searches, you’ll be able to ensure that potential clients in your area see your business when they’re looking for legal services online.
Don’t wait any longer — start today and improve your chances of being found online!
Also Read: How to Choose Law Firm SEO Agency?
