Every law firm needs new clients to thrive, and yours is no different. While there are different digital marketing techniques available that you can use, none comes close to the power of organic search.
Ranking high in search engine results (especially Google’s) is crucial to the growth and development of any law firm, and effective SEO can help rank your law firm website to the top. But increasing your rankings can be challenging as you’re competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other websites with the same goal in mind.
In this blog, we’ll delve into SEO — what it is, its importance to your law firm, and ranking factors you should consider when optimising your website.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization is a digital marketing practice that helps drive more visitors to your law firm website by increasing your ranking in search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. In law firm SEO, data-driven tactics are used to attract more prospective clients.
If your law firm website appears on the first page of search engine results, you’ll have a higher chance of getting more visitors to your websites. Thus, law firm SEO helps Wollongong lawyers and other legal professionals stand out online, to make you the obvious choice for prospective clients and ahead of your competitors.
SEO is organic, so this doesn’t include any ads that appear in the results.
Importance of law firm SEO to your website
Great SEO leads to people discovering your law firm website and increases the chances of them becoming your clients. It is a powerful tool that can help you not only rank higher in search engine results but also boost engagement and generate more leads.
It’s important to know that ranking high doesn’t happen overnight, so it’s great to invest in strategies early on to increase the likelihood of ranking above your local competitors. Here are some of the reasons why you should invest time and attention into SEO:
Benefits of SEO for law firms
There are multiple benefits to using SEO on your law firm website. Law firm SEO can help you:
- Attract more visitors and potential clients to your website
- Increase engagement on your law firm website
- Collect more positive reviews for your law firm to improve online reputation
- Increase your local search visibility
- Rank above your local competitors, improving click-through rate
- Drive more phone calls via Google My Business (GMB) and other listings
- Attract high-quality backlinks to your website
- Convert website visitors into potential clients
- Solidify your law firm as a reputable authority in your practice area/s
The benefits don’t stop there. To attract more clients to your law firm consistently – and improve your digital marketing overall – it’s worth it to get started with SEO.
Ranking factors to consider
Now that we have outlined what SEO is and its importance to law firm websites, let’s explore each of the factors crucial to your ranking.
- Content – When it comes to SEO, good website content boils down to being able to achieve the following:
- Your content should answer the question or search term used by the user.
- Your content should be keyword optimised.
- You should have a variety of content that uses keywords within the same category.
- Backlinks and off-page citations – Think of backlinks and off-page citations as a popularity contest: if your law firm gets plenty of links from other popular websites or websites with high domain authority, this will help boost your reputation and credibility. This sends a signal to search engines that your law firm’s content and services have many referring links from other credible websites, so you’ll be viewed as a trusted and reliable source as well.
Aside from backlinks, you can also utilise off-page citations to improve your local law firm SEO. The contact details of your law firm website appear in different areas on the web; making it visible to search engines and prospective clients. Some areas you can get off-page citations include:- Local directories (e.g., Google My Business)
- Legal directories
- Social platforms
- Reviews and endorsements on other websites (e.g., Google Reviews)
- Technical SEO – Arguably the most complex aspect of SEO, technical SEO requires your law firm website to be “technically sound”, which means looking into your site navigation, page speed, overall structure, etc. No amount of content or backlinks will be enough to maximize your rankings if you don’t have a fast, functional, and user-friendly website.
To achieve a “technically sound” website, your website should:- Be mobile-friendly
- Be indexable by search engines via a sitemap
- Stay secure or have an up-to-date SSL certificate
- Not have broken links or 404 pages
- Be intuitive and have easy navigation
- Have a quick load time (ideally under 3 seconds)
When optimizing your website, it’s best to reach out to technical SEO experts to help you with the technical optimization of your law firm website.
Ask professional help from law firm SEO experts
Law firm SEO can be tricky and overwhelming, especially if you’re not familiar with this type of digital marketing. But with the right strategies, you can improve your SEO over time and set your law firm website for long-term growth.
SEO, while learnable, can be time-consuming and unpredictable and takes your time away from other important, legal areas of focus at your law firm. Hiring a marketing agency that offers SEO services for law firms can be a great solution so you can stay on top of the latest updates in SEO and apply great strategies to grow your website faster and easier.
At Practice Proof, we have a proven track record of ranking law firms #1, #2 and #3. Find out more about our Law Firm SEO or contact us today.
