How to do SEO for Law Firm?

How to do SEO for Law Firm?

30-step guide to help you optimize your Law Firm’s website for better search engine visibility

1. Website Audit: Begin with a thorough audit of your website to identify current SEO strengths and weaknesses.

2. Keyword Research: Conduct detailed keyword research to find terms relevant to your legal services.

3. Competitive Analysis: Analyze your competitors’ websites to understand their SEO strategies.

4. Optimize URL Structure: Ensure URLs are concise, readable, and include relevant keywords.

5. Title Tags Optimization: Create unique and descriptive title tags for each page, including relevant keywords.

6. Meta Descriptions: Write compelling meta descriptions that include targeted keywords.

7. Header Tags: Use header tags (H1, H2, H3) effectively to structure content and include keywords.

8. Content Quality: Produce high-quality, informative content that addresses your target audience’s legal queries.

9. Keyword Optimization: Strategically place keywords in your content without overstuffing.

10. Internal Linking: Implement a robust internal linking structure to help users navigate your site.

11. External Linking: Link to authoritative external sources to enhance content credibility.

12. Mobile Optimization: Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, as most users access the internet via mobile devices.

13. Loading Speed: Improve your website’s loading speed, as slow sites rank lower in search results.

14. SSL Certificate: Secure your website with an SSL certificate for better rankings and user trust.

15. XML Sitemaps: Create and submit XML sitemaps to search engines for better indexing.

16. Robots.txt File: Use a robots.txt file to control which pages search engines can crawl.

17. Structured Data Markup: Implement structured data (schema) to help search engines understand your site’s content.

18. Image Optimization: Optimize images with descriptive file names and alt tags.

19. 404 Error Pages: Fix or redirect 404 error pages to improve user experience.

20. Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags to prevent duplicate content issues.

21. Social Media Integration: Integrate social media on your website for better engagement.

22. Blog Regularly: Regularly publish blog posts on legal topics to attract more visitors.

23. Local SEO: Optimize for local SEO by listing your firm on Google My Business and local directories.

24. User Experience (UX): Improve the overall UX of your website for better engagement and lower bounce rates.

25. Backlink Strategy: Develop a strategy to acquire high-quality backlinks from reputable sites.

26. Monitor Analytics: Regularly monitor your site’s analytics to understand user behavior and make necessary adjustments.

27. Regular Updates: Keep your website’s content updated to remain relevant and authoritative.

28. Compliance with ADA: Ensure your website complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for accessibility.

29. Voice Search Optimization: Optimize for voice search as its usage is on the rise.

30. Continuous Learning: Stay updated with the latest SEO trends and algorithm updates.

Implementing these steps will help your law firm’s website rank higher in search engine results, ultimately leading to increased visibility and potential client engagement. Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, and staying updated with the latest practices is crucial for long-term success.

Let’s delve deeper into each of the 30 steps for optimizing a law firm’s website for SEO:

Website Audit: Start by evaluating your website’s current performance. Check for technical issues, broken links, loading speeds, mobile responsiveness, and existing search engine rankings. Tools like Google Analytics and SEMrush can be helpful.

Keyword Research: Identify keywords relevant to your legal services. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find terms your potential clients are searching for. Include both short-tail and long-tail keywords.

Competitive Analysis: Study the SEO strategies of competing law firms. Analyze their website structure, content, keyword usage, and backlink profile. Tools like Ahrefs or Moz can provide insights.

Optimize URL Structure: Ensure your URLs are simple and readable. Use hyphens to separate words and include primary keywords. Avoid long URLs and unnecessary parameters.

Title Tags Optimization: Create unique title tags for each page, using targeted keywords. Keep them under 60 characters to ensure they display properly in search results.

Meta Descriptions: Write meta descriptions that accurately summarize the page content and include keywords. Keep them under 160 characters.

Header Tags: Use H1 tags for main titles and H2, H3 for subheadings. Incorporate keywords naturally.

Content Quality: Create high-quality, informative content that addresses your audience’s needs. Focus on providing value and showcasing your expertise in law.

Keyword Optimization: Integrate keywords naturally into your content, including in the first 100 words of your pages. Avoid keyword stuffing.

Internal Linking: Use internal links to guide users to relevant pages within your site, which helps distribute page authority and improve user experience.

External Linking: Link to authoritative external sites to provide additional value to your readers and build credibility.

Mobile Optimization: Ensure your website is responsive and provides a good user experience on mobile devices.

Loading Speed: Improve your website’s loading speed by optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minimizing redirects. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is a useful tool for this.

SSL Certificate: Secure your website with HTTPS. This is a ranking factor for Google and also builds trust with visitors.

XML Sitemaps: Create an XML sitemap and submit it to search engines to help them index your website more effectively.

Robots.txt File: Use the robots.txt file to guide search engine crawlers on which pages to index and which to ignore.

Structured Data Markup: Implement schema markup to help search engines understand the context of your content, potentially leading to rich snippets in search results.

Image Optimization: Compress images for faster loading and use descriptive file names and alt tags containing relevant keywords.

404 Error Pages: Fix or redirect broken links to improve user experience and maintain link equity.

Canonical Tags: Use canonical tags to prevent issues with duplicate content, especially if you have similar or identical content across multiple URLs.

Social Media Integration: Include social media sharing buttons and links to your profiles to enhance engagement and traffic.

Blog Regularly: Publish regular blog posts on legal topics, industry news, or case studies to attract and engage your audience.

Local SEO: Optimize for local searches by claiming your Google My Business listing, managing local citations, and including location-specific keywords in your content.

User Experience (UX): Focus on creating an intuitive navigation structure, using engaging visuals, and providing clear calls-to-action.

Backlink Strategy: Develop a plan to acquire quality backlinks through guest blogging, partnerships, and legal directories.

Monitor Analytics: Use Google Analytics to track visitor behavior, traffic sources, and engagement metrics. Use these insights to refine your SEO strategy.

Regular Updates: Regularly update your website’s content to keep it fresh and relevant. This could include updating blog posts, revising service pages, and posting new legal insights.

Compliance with ADA: Ensure your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, by following ADA guidelines.

Voice Search Optimization: Optimize for voice search by including conversational keywords and FAQs on your website.

Continuous Learning: Stay updated with SEO trends and Google’s algorithm updates. Regularly educate yourself and adapt your strategies accordingly.

Implementing these steps requires time and effort, but it’s crucial for enhancing your law firm’s online visibility and attracting more potential clients.

Want an SEO expert to do the work for you? Call or text Top SEO Expert, Sandy Rowley at 775-870-0488.

Lawyer Marketing Company (UPDATED)

Internet marketing is the most important marketing strategy a law firm will invest in. Having a well thought out website design, internet marketing and email marketing strategy can make a huge difference in the amount of new clients signing up with your law firm.

Thousands of potential clients are searching for keywords in Google every day. Most are looking for a specific type of legal service. The goal of your website is to be highly optimized for these specific keywords. SEO or search engine optimization is the science and art of ranking a web page on your website for a certain keyword or keyword phrase.

Legal internet marketing can be very competitive and costly for most law firms. Attorney marketing is a specialized segment of SEO and requires expert level strategy and ongoing maintenance. My SEO services include integrated law firm web design along side of  legal SEO and PPC marketing services. Providing seo for lawyers requires a dedicated marketer with the experience and drive to always be on top of the latest Google algorithmic updates, in order to succeed.

Most small town attorneys are looking to just do a quick update and hopefully rank at the top of Google search for ever. This is an unreasonable fantasy. Marketing for lawyers or legal related industries like bail bonds, legal aid centers, law schools and similar are ideal positions for those looking to cash in on SEO rankings. Even if you are the only lawyer in your city that specializes in workman comp or divorce, I promise you that larger legal directories and review sites will come and out rank you. Often what happens is that a large legal directory with hundreds or thousands of law firms in the next closest, larger city, will start to out rank you in your small town.

top seo firms


Call Sandy @   +1 (775) 870-0488  for a free consultation of your website, social sites and marketing.

Currently (2020) there are over 19,000 legal directories online.

Some of the top legal directories that tend to rank in large and small cities are:

Lawyer
Directories
Domain
Rating
Price Domain
URL
Cornell 76 Free Lawyers.law.cornell.edu
FindLaw 73 Quote Findlaw.com
Avvo 73 free Avvo.com
Martindale 70 Quote Martindale.com
Justia 70 free. requires fax with bar number Justia.com
Nolo 68 Quote Nolo.com
Lawyers.com 66 Quote Lawyers.com

These large directory sites have tens of thousands of pages of long post content, thousands of quality back links and press coverage. Their huge online marketing budgets will beat out most small law firms every time.

legal-marketing-firm

The best SEO for lawyers, especially in small towns, are to get ahead of this trend and establish your law firm as the local go to guide for your given keywords.

Although these directories can be seen as a competitor, I highly recommend securing your law profile on these directories.

Lawyer SEO, will yield the highest return on marketing investment dollars. Working with a trusted and respected law firm SEO expert will set your firm above and beyond local and national competitors for years to come.

“Sandy with Reno SEO, Marketing and Design is amazing. She handles all of my Website and SEO needs flawlessly. I have seen our numbers grow and page by page. She has earned my trust and gratitude 10 fold. I will be referring everyone that asks.”
Andrew Renshaw Lightning Bail Bonds Las Vegas Nv

A great example of what quality SEO services can do for a small law firm or legal services company is where my legal SEO client, Bail Bonds Unlimited, received some bad reviews in Google, but because of our SEO work and determination to stay on top of Google updates, their bail bond company out ranks local competitors with higher Google review ratings.

These SEO clients are all ranking multiple times on the first page of Google for their relevant keywords. Bail Bonds Unlimited has a poor Google review average, but still out ranks their competitors every time.

legal seo

law firm seo

“Absolutely fantastic. After working with multiple companies, hours and hours of research, and nothing but excuses money and time, all it took was working with the right people. The nightmare that used to be SEO is long gone. Marketing your company should not be a DIY project. Thank you Sandy for your incredible work!! Can not recommend enough.” Travis Moore Bail Bonds Unlimited Reno Nevada

Organic SEO is a cost effective way to reach clients when they are actively seeking your services. Adding a PPC Adwords campaign along side Organic SEO strategies can help your law firm dominate a local city. We can help your law firm website rank in PPC Adwords, in Google Map listing, then in the organic results below these highly sought after positions in Google search results.

Law firm internet marketing includes the top three marketing tactics used by successful law firms today.

  1. SEO (natural or organic rankings in Google search)
  2. PPC (pay per click) with Google Adwords, FaceBook and other large social networks.
  3. Press Coverage that protects branding and sets your law firm as the authority in your area.

As with any successful marketing campaign, research and proper planning make for a cutting edge marketing plan. I have a 4 step process that I follow with each on boarding of a new law firm which are:

  1. Learn about your law firm. What makes you special, amazing, affordable, hard core…. sets you apart from the other thousands of law firms in your state? You might be surprised. Does not mean you have to be sensational or the lawyer who wheres the chicken suit on TV. Your personality, temperament and way of working with your clients can be confident, calm, passionate, quick witted… you get the idea. I would like an hour of your time, in person or over the phone to really get to know about you and your law practice. This, will help me to determine the best marketing and branding style that will work well for your law firm.
  2. Research who are your top 5 competitors in your city. Also the top competitors in the closest city within a 150 mile radius. Why? Most small town citizens look forward to going to the “big” city once or twice a month for groceries, events, shopping etc. If they are looking for an attorney, their immediate thinking could be that in the “big” city are hundreds of lawyers to choose from. Some could also think that these attorneys are more experienced and even more affordable. Our job is to convince them otherwise.
  3. Review your existing website and online social profiles. Your website design is the very foundation of any SEO success your firm will attain. We will analyze the structure, reputation, SEO and link profiles to determine the amount of SEO work needed to set your firm on track to begin a solid internet marketing campaign.
  4. Next, I need to get a strong understanding of your law firms seasonal traffic. Do you find that your law firm signs on more divorce clients in the Winter or Summer months? Knowing what months drive the most clients in a particular area can help me get ahead of the trend with relevant and useful content, press coverage and guest blogging on related blogs. The idea is to have a marketing calendar where we can plan ahead to have related content ready for the rush or busy season.

Although I have 20 years experience in online marketing and web design, I offer reasonable rates for my SEO services.

Most of my custom, legal marketing plans start at $3500 – $15,000 a month retainer 

Law firm SEO services can include web design, website updates, email marketing, PPC (requires a $10,000 per month minimum budget), social media, content creation, quality back linking, press coverage, guest blogging, reputation management, multiple city rankings, monthly reports, advertising online, citations, directories and other white hat or safe internet marketing strategies that fall within Google guidelines.

I offer a CMO level marketing service at an independent contractor rate. I work with a limited amount of legal services and/or law firms within the US. I prefer to know my clients by name and be able to answer the phone when you call or need me via email, text or messaging app.

My SEO clients often refer their friends. When this happens, and if I can take on the new marketing account, I will send a monthly commission fee of 10% cash or credit to your account each month, for the life of the client.

I am open to offer my services for one month at a discounted rate to prove my worth. Then, after I have ranked your website and/or gain leads for your practice, we can discuss a fair monthly retainer based on a 6 month contract.

top seo firms

 

I invite you to connect with me on Linked In and read more about my background and 20+ years experience in designing  web sites, marketing campaigns and SEO plans.

I can be reached at 775 870 0488 to schedule a one on one meeting to review your law firms SEO needs.

 

 

 

 

 

I have can provide SEO and Web Design services to law firms around the world. Most of my clients are in the following cities and states across the country.

Las Vegas Nevada

Reno Nevada

Sparks Nevada

Susanville Ca

Redding Ca

Chico Ca

Plumas County Ca

Lassen County Ca

Memphis Tn

New York City

Atlanta Georgia

San Francisco Ca

L.A California

Oregon