Lawyer SEO: The Complete Guide

It's no secret that law firms need to be visible online if they want to grow their practices. Though all marketing tactics are useful for Lawyers, law firm SEO is the most impactful. Doing effective lawyer SEO can be confusing, especially for those who are new to the game. In this comprehensive guide, we'll take you through everything you need to know about how to optimize your website and content for search engines, so that you can start seeing results. Law firm SEO isn't just about putting your law firm's website at the top of search engine results pages (SERPs). It's also about creating useful, informative content that will attract visitors and help you stand out from competing law firms. So whether you're just starting out or you've been trying to boost your traffic for a while now, this guide is for you. We'll teach you how to:

Choose the right keywords
Optimize your website and on-page elements
Create valuable content
Use social media to increase visibility

and more! So what are you waiting for? Start optimizing your law firm today!

Why SEO?

SEO is the best option for lawyers when it comes to appearing on Google. Why? If you've ran a paid search campaign on Google (I'm sure you have otherwise why would you be here) you know how expensive each click can be for a law firm. We're talking 100's of dollars per click sometimes. Do the math on what you're paying per customer and you'll find out you're paying 1000's and 1000's of dollars per customer. Not only are you paying for each click but you're paying an SEO agency or professional to run these ads for you. If you're a personal injury law firm whose cases can range to the millions of dollars that doesn't sound so bad but at the same time if you're not closing those cases you will be upside down.

Why Are Paid Social Ads Bad For Lawyers?

Let's talk about paid social a bit like Facebook or Instagram ads. No one is on Facebook or Instagram looking for their attorney... instead they go to Google and search for an attorney WHEN THEY NEED ONE. This is why paid social doesn't convert because you're targeting people who don't need an attorney at that moment. If I get injured I'm not sitting in my chair at home scrolling through my feed to find an attorney, I'm going to Google and finding one!

Paid social also take a lot of time and energy. If you outsource the work to an SEO agency they will be billing you for those hours and they will still require you to put in an element of work. When compared to search engine optimization this makes SEO services an even clearer choice for your law firm, since you don't have to put in any work if outsourced to the right agency.

All this for something that doesn't convert at the end of the day will be a big hole in your pocket.

Why Is SEO Impactful For Lawyers?

What's great about organic traffic is that it grows in perpetuity. If you compare this to paid ads where you have to spend more to make more it seems like a no brainer for which to choose. With law firm SEO your online marketing spend will stay the same but your results will grow almost vertically.

Search engine optimization takes 0% of your time. As an attorney your time is best spent in the courtroom closing deals. If you need an agency to handle this for you please hit the orange button on the side of this blog titled 'GET YOUR FREE PROPOSAL'. Do what you do best and close cases.

Organic search results convert higher than any other channel. People are conditioned nowadays to just skip over the paid ad results on Google. When was the last time you clicked an ad? I'm sure it's been a long time!

The Lawyer SEO Process

Hopefully I've convinced you that search engine optimization for law firms is the best place to put your money for online marketing. Let's get into our very simple four part law firm SEO strategy:

Local SEO

First things first you want to optimize your Google My Business (GMB) profile. Your Google business profile is what allows you to rank inside the "maps pack". The Google maps pack is what draws the most visibility for localized searches so getting visibility here will increase your traffic dramatically.

Make sure to include your law firm's website address, as well as your law firm's name, address, and phone number. You can also include photos, a description of your practice, FAQs, and hours of operation.

It's very important to get reviews from your clients as well. Something you can do is use a Net Promoter Score (NPS) email to all your previous clients asking them to rate you from 1-10. If they rate you anything above an 8 then send them an email back asking them to leave your business a review. Respond to every review you get and keep in mind you can't delete reviews so it's important you respond to the negative reviews and do some outreach to get them cleaned up.

There are 100's of other lawyer directories like FindLaw, Expertise, and Justia that you need to have active profiles on as well. Google will take into account if you're on these other directories so this is a strong signal. This is an incredibly time consuming process so I can't go over all of this in this blog but get yourself listed on every single one and know that you need it.

Website

Make sure your website is built properly and that will depend on how your law firm is setup. Are you a single practice area in a single market or a multi practice area in a multi market? Here are the minimum pages your site needs to increase search engine rankings on Google:

Home Page
Practice Areas
About Us / Attorneys
Contact Us
Results / Testimonials

Let's talk about 3 pages that are nice to have to help you rank and save you time:

FAQ's
Scholarships
Translated pages (at least Spanish)

Content

Content is something that's always misunderstood especially by most agencies. This is where most of your traffic is going to come from. You can't make people search more for 'New York Personal Injury Lawyers' but the information you create around it will pick up a ton of traffic. This will spread your footprint and take your growth to another level.

Inform your readers about the legal process so they know what to expect. Many people are not ready to hire a lawyer just yet, but by providing them with information, you may be able to convert some into clients down the road.

It's critical to produce new content for your blog on a regular basis for every section of your funnel, and we recommend at least one post each week. However, the more the better; there is no such thing as blogging too much. You might consider outsourcing your blogs to a firm, have them write you blogs for the year, and then drip them out over the course of the year every week.

Links

The final piece of the process is LINKS! This is another strategy that is done very poorly. This is all about building domain authority with Google. Links leading to your law firms site are a signal to Google that your site is popular and deserves to be shown to the people searching for your legal services.

A lot of agencies will take your retainer and go buy 1000's of spammy backlinks. Google will penalize you for this and won't do anything for your website. The best way to get links for your site is to do PR outreach to sites within your niche and get high authority blog posts from them. This is not only pricey, but Google will place a higher value on them than the phony illicit backlinks purchased for a low cost off Fiverr.

Below we've shown a chart showing the difference between getting posted on a random blog vs. getting posted on a high authority website within your niche. Not all links are created equal!

Do Lawyers Need SEO?

Of course! Not only do lawyers need SEO but everyone needs SEO for their business if they want to increase their revenue. There are many reasons a business needs SEO, but here are three of the most important ones:

SEO Helps You Compete with Bigger Businesses: If you're a small business, it can be difficult to compete with larger businesses who have more money to spend on marketing. However, with good SEO practices, you can level the playing field and reach your target customers without spending as much money.
SEO Drives More Traffic to Your Site: The more people who visit your website, the more potential customers you have. And with good SEO practices in place, you can attract more qualified traffic from people who are already interested in what you have to offer.
SEO Helps You Convert More Customers: Once you've attracted traffic to your site, it's important to have a plan in place to convert those visitors into paying customers. Good law firm SEO practices will help you do just that, by providing your visitors with the information they need to make a purchase decision.

Does SEO Work For Law Firms?

The answer to this question is a resounding YES!

SEO is one of the best ways to attract potential clients to your law firm and can help you compete with bigger businesses. By implementing good SEO practices, you can drive more traffic to your website and convert more of those visitors into paying customers. So if you're looking for a way to grow your law firm, law firm SEO is definitely the way to go.

Will This Help My Law Firm's Website?

Yes, SEO can help your law firm website in a number of ways. It can help you attract more website traffic from qualified leads, convert more of those website visitors into paying customers, and compete with bigger businesses.

How Much Does SEO Cost for a Law Firm?

Depending on the size and scope of your law firm SEO campaign, you can expect to spend between $4,000 and $20,000 per month. The cost disparity will be largely contingent on the type of links (PR) and level of content you can afford to create. Don't skimp on public relations if you want faster, more durable results. It may require an initial investment, but it will pay off in the long run with a higher ROI.

Is SEO Worth It?

Yes, the numbers will always work out in your favor. Yes, law firm SEO can be quite expensive to start out with and it takes a while to take off. If you can push through the first three months of the campaign then the ROI you will get is INSANE.

The best thing about SEO is it's super easy to measure especially ROI. There are many tools out there that will take data from your analytics and compare them to your competitors. You can now run some growth models and see the expected return on your law firm SEO campaign.

If you're an attorney and would like to get a free estimate on what your ROI might look like we'd be happy to to that for you FREE of charge. Hit the orange button on the side of this blog and get in touch with us today.

How to Choose the Best Lawyer SEO company?

When you're looking for a law firm SEO company to help you with your law firm's website, there are a few things you should keep in mind:

Transparency: The best SEO companies are transparent about their methods and will be happy to answer any questions you have.
Cost: Make sure you get a quote from the SEO company before starting any work so you know what to expect financially.
Communication: The best SEO companies are good at communicating with their clients and will keep you updated on the progress of your campaign.
Support: Make sure the SEO company offers support after the campaign is completed so you can continue to see results long-term.

Law Firm SEO Services We Offer

At our company, we offer a variety of SEO services specifically designed for law firms. Our law firm SEO services include:

Search engine optimization: We can help you optimize your website for Google and other search engines, so you can reach more potential customers.
Link building: We can help you build links to your website from high-quality websites, to improve your Google rankings and drive more traffic to your site.
Content marketing: We can help you create high-quality content that will attract more visitors to your site and convert them into customers.
Social media marketing: We can help you promote your law firm on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, to reach more potential customers.
Web design and development: We can help you design and develop a website that looks professional and stands out from the other law firms.
PPC advertising: We can help you create and manage pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns, to reach more potential customers online.

Why Choose Limelight as Your Lawyer SEO Agency?

Here are some reasons why you should choose Limelight as your law firm SEO agency:

We are transparent about our methods and are happy to answer any questions you have. We offer a variety of law firm SEO services specifically designed for law firms. Our team is efficient in handling customer communication and will provide updates on the status of your campaign as requested. We offer support after the campaign is completed so you can continue to see results long-term. We're not interested in making empty promises - only delivering real results that you can see and feel. If you're interested in our law firm SEO services press the orange button on the side of this blog and get a free proposal today.

Lawyer SEO: The Complete Guide