SEO for Lawyers — The Complete Guide to Law Firm SEO in 2022

Lawyer SEO basi­cal­ly cov­ers the process of increas­ing organ­ic traf­fic to an attorney’s or law firm’s web­site through search engine opti­miza­tion. In most cas­es, this hap­pens by improv­ing rank­ing posi­tions on search engines like Bing or Google.

In this arti­cle, we will try to high­light how legal firms can improve their traf­fic with the help of lawyer SEO experts and dif­fer­ent opti­miza­tion techniques.

When poten­tial clients are look­ing for legal ser­vices, they typ­i­cal­ly use one of the fol­low­ing three meth­ods of hir­ing a lawyer:

• Search engines
• Social media
• Refer­rals (word of mouth)

Need­less to say that using search engines is the most pop­u­lar method. For­tu­nate­ly, it’s also the eas­i­est to assess in terms of effi­cien­cy and ROI (return on investment).

Lawyer SEO in this par­tic­u­lar case means reach­ing peo­ple who are in need of legal help with­out adver­tis­ing on dif­fer­ent online plat­forms (like social media), which has become quite pop­u­lar over the years for law firms, even though most prospect­ing clients will still use Google to find legal services.

While social media and word of mouth play an inte­gral role in get­ting clients, local SEO and online search dom­i­nate the research process.

The Many Aspects of Lawyer SEO

When you take a clos­er look at all dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing chan­nels, it’s clear to see that organ­ic search does a bet­ter job at gen­er­at­ing leads than paid ads and social media.

Fur­ther­more, local SEO and oth­er opti­miza­tion meth­ods enable firms to gain com­pound­ing returns as time progresses.

For exam­ple, con­tent mar­ket­ing can:

• Help the web­site rank high­er for more key­words while dri­ving more traffic.
• High-qual­i­ty con­tent can also open great oppor­tu­ni­ties for nat­ur­al SEO link-build­ing, which improves rank­ing even further.
• Most impor­tant­ly, pro-grade, qual­i­ty con­tent can help build trust in your read­ers, con­vert­ing them into poten­tial clients.

Lawyer SEO by the Numbers

The way your audi­ence research­es and choos­es a law firm is heav­i­ly dom­i­nat­ed by search engines.

• Almost a third of con­sumers use Google and oth­er search engines every day.
• Around 53% of all site traf­fic comes from organ­ic traf­fic, while only 27% comes from paid search.
• Google Images, Google Search, and Google Maps are respon­si­ble for around 93% of all glob­al traffic.
• A lit­tle less than half of mar­ket­ing experts (49%) stat­ed that organ­ic traf­fic is the most prof­itable method for improv­ing lead and con­ver­sion numbers.
• Organ­ic search is respon­si­ble for 66% of all con­ver­sions in the legal sector.

The legal indus­try is high­ly com­pet­i­tive. If you are run­ning a law firm and want to improve your online pres­ence and gain new clients, imple­ment­ing a few law firm SEO tac­tics can def­i­nite­ly help to achieve your goal. 

Why Optimize for Search and Conversions?

This one is sim­ple. Attor­neys usu­al­ly opti­mize their sites for search engines because they want poten­tial clients to find their business.

Once there, the legal firm’s site needs to serve as an out­stand­ing resource for poten­tial client ques­tions, show­cas­ing the fir­m’s exper­tise in legal cas­es and to build trust.

As such, lawyer SEO needs to focus on the web­site from dif­fer­ent aspects. Tech­ni­cal SEO, well-writ­ten, rel­e­vant con­tent are only two fac­tors. Experts also argue that web­site design also plays a cru­cial role in con­vert­ing vis­i­tors into leads, and ulti­mate­ly, clients.

Over­all, law firm SEO should aim to increase aware­ness, build trust, and encour­age peo­ple to reach out.

Why?

• A com­pelling 70% of legal firms get new cas­es via websites.
• Google’s first search result posi­tion has a 31.7% click-through rate. 
• Only 0.78% click on 2nd-page results.

Law Firm SEO Components

Search engine algo­rithms have a myr­i­ad of rank­ing fac­tors that influ­ence where a giv­en site man­ages to rank. Under­stand­ing the key com­po­nents and imple­ment­ing them into your SEO strat­e­gy can help you improve your results.

Researching Keywords

Good key­word research is the bread and but­ter of good SEO after tech SEO. Don’t cre­ate con­tent with­out research­ing the most impor­tant key­words for your niche because you will end up wast­ing your resources and time to reach peo­ple with terms nobody’s search­ing for.

Local SEO

Law firm pages can also rank on map list­ings for key­words. Fur­ther­more, there are quite a lot of key­words that will help trig­ger local search results improv­ing your rank­ings even more. Get­ting list­ed on direc­to­ry list­ings with cita­tions and good third-par­ty web­site reviews can also help.

On-Page Optimization

Orga­niz­ing site archi­tec­ture prop­er­ly can also influ­ence your rank­ings. Opti­miz­ing your pages for search engines can be a bit dif­fi­cult, and you need to keep an eye on a vari­ety of factors. 

Opti­miz­ing meta descrip­tions, title tags, page head­ings, load­ing speed, inter­nal link­ing, schema markup, review star snip­pets, image opti­miza­tion, and inter­nal link­ing all play a huge part in improv­ing rankings.

SEO Link Building

Build­ing strong back­links is of utter impor­tance as they grant you a “vote of con­fi­dence” from oth­er respectable web­sites on the inter­net. It’s a great way to build trust among your vis­i­tors and an out­stand­ing method for estab­lish­ing your­self as an author­i­ty in your field.

Content Marketing

You may have heard that con­tent is king when it comes to SEO. Well, it’s rather true in the case of law firm SEO as well.

It’s one of the most cost-effec­tive meth­ods for dri­ving qual­i­ty traf­fic to your site. How­ev­er, writ­ing good site con­tent, blog arti­cles, and oth­er con­tent mate­ri­als can be chal­leng­ing. You need to know how to group your con­tent with­in your web­site and adhere to the rules of SEO-friend­ly writing.

Lawyer SEO vs. Other Marketing Channels

How does law firm SEO stack up against oth­er mar­ket­ing meth­ods? Let’s see.

• • Google Ads, PPC vs. SEO: Paid ads are a great way to reach your tar­get audi­ence, how­ev­er, expo­sure ends when you stop pay­ing for ad cam­paigns. SEO, on the oth­er hand, is an invest­ment. The effects of good con­tent and strong back­links will keep your site rank high­er much longer.
  • Social Media vs. SEO: Search engines are smarter than ever. They’re start­ing to under­stand the intent behind our queries and try to find the best results that fit them. Social media has its own set of advan­tages, how­ev­er, social traf­fic is less like­ly to con­vert (accord­ing to mar­keter experience).

Law Firm SEO and Competitiveness

Suc­cess­ful and pres­ti­gious law firms empha­size SEO and use search engines as pri­ma­ry mar­ket­ing channels. 

Strong SEO link build­ing can help your web­site build more trust and cred­i­bil­i­ty not just in the indus­try but among your site vis­i­tors as well. Fur­ther­more, qual­i­ty blog top­ics and site con­tent can show­case your exper­tise in legal mat­ters, and, cou­pled with good key­word research, can improve your rank­ings. At the same time, you are offer­ing val­ue to your vis­i­tors who can become your next poten­tial clients.

As men­tioned before, around 96% of peo­ple who seek legal action use search engines, and around 74% of peo­ple vis­it lawyer sites to take action. 

With such fig­ures, it’s no won­der that many law firms look to improve their SEO strat­e­gy. Sim­ply put, prospects use Google and Bing the most when seek­ing a lawyer. Good con­tent and email mar­ket­ing, a strong social media pres­ence, and PPC can all help you in improv­ing your over­all dig­i­tal ecosys­tem and dri­ve more traf­fic to your web­site. Still, SEO remains the most dom­i­nant method.

Lawyer SEO Efficiency

One of the most impor­tant aspects of any SEO cam­paign is mea­sur­ing the imple­ment­ed tac­tics’ effi­cien­cy and return on invest­ment. Keep­ing a close eye on key met­rics and per­for­mance can enable any law firm to tweak their strate­gies on the fly if need­ed, to even fur­ther improve rank­ings and traffic.

Also, by close­ly mon­i­tor­ing how your vis­i­tors behave on your site, you can decrease site aban­don­ment even fur­ther. Work­ing close­ly togeth­er with web design­ers, devel­op­ers, SEO experts, and con­tent spe­cial­ists can help elim­i­nate any hur­dles in your mar­ket­ing fun­nel. 

Work With Professionals

With­out a doubt, search engine opti­miza­tion takes time, effort, knowl­edge, and patience. Improv­ing all aspects of your site’s SEO requires a lot of skill, insight, and expe­ri­ence. Hir­ing a reli­able dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing agency with sea­soned SEO experts is the best way to reach your desired results.

Feel free to reach out to us, and we will improve your online pres­ence and SEO strat­e­gy, all while you can focus on what you do best: help­ing your clients with legal issues.