SEO Guide

SEO for Lawyers:
The Essential Guide

When potential clients need a lawyer, many of them go straight to Google.  They type in “car accident lawyer [city],” and they choose among the few that appear on Google’s covetedfirst page.

Ranking high in Google’s search algorithm connotes major authority for a given search term.  Many firms spend tens of thousands of dollars on SEO to get their firm to the first page, and for good reason: when one new client means tens or hundreds of thousands in revenue, the SEO investment pays for itself.

However, many lawyers are unfamiliar with the basics of SEO and don’t what to look for in an SEO services company.  This guide will introduce the four most important aspects of improving your Google search rank, and how to go about doing it.  Let’s get started:

Build a Quality Website

Google cares about the quality of your website and how it looks.  You want to have multiple pages of information that look aesthetically pleasing.  You can organize these pages in the primary menu on your homepage like so:

Every attorney should have his or her own profile page.  Every practice area can have its own page.  Every type of lawsuit within a practice area can have its own page.  Client testimonials, media appearances, and legal authorship can have their own pages.

This is what you’re shooting for in the end.  Start small with the most important pages, and expand from there.  More importantly, you want to ensure that each page is quality.  Have at least 300 words per page (although the more, the better), include images and videos if you can, and use bullet points, numbering, bold font, and sub-headings to keep the pages visually appealing.

Consistent Content Creation

You can’t have a website that sits idle.  Google favors websites that are frequently updating with new and visually appealing content.  Most law firms do this via their blog.  Even if it’s not on the front page of your site, your blog will make your website larger and more authoritative in the eyes of Google.  It’s also the best way to target keywords.

Keywords are the specific terms that potential clients search for.  The keywords “car accident lawyer [city]” and “truck accident lawyer [city]” may produce entirely different websites on the front page.

You’ll want to focus on the keywords that have either the most searches or the greatest search to competition ratio.  All SEO companies (and most content creator companies) will have a keyword search tool to quantify the best and most competitive keywords to target.  When you’ve..

Social Networking and Link Building

Besides content creation, link building is the most important factor for Google’s search ranking.  In fact, even a website with only one simple page can be the first search result if it’s build up enough links.

Link building is when other websites contain a link to your website.  The bigger the website that links to you, the more “link juice” your site receives to boost its Google ranking.  Getting a single link from The New York Times, CNN, or another heavily trafficked website could skyrocket your firm onto the first page, especially if you are in a smaller local market.

It’s best to build as many links as possible.  There are a number of ways to do that:

Technical SEO Tweaks

Websites need to be tweaked “under the hood” so to speak, to make sure everything is optimized for Google search.  This includes having a good spam filter, a sitemap, and optimization for viewing on mobile.  Unless you are going to learn the intricacies of SEO (something most lawyers have no time for), I would recommend hiring an SEO consultant to handle this for you as a one-time service.

As soon as things are set up technically, you should be focusing on content and link building to improve your search ranking.

Every lawyer’s SEO journey is one that starts tough, but it gets easier.  As soon as you get your blog up and running and updating regularly, your ranking will grow without much work on your end.  The worst thing you can do is disregard it entirely or trust that an SEO company will solve everything for you (although it’s possible they might)

SEO Company I Recommend

If you’re looking for a legal SEO company recommendation, please check out my review of BluShark Digital’s SEO services.

If you think I missed something essential, or you think anything I’ve written here is wrong, please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments to any post, or email me directly.  Good luck, and happy ranking!

Heading Goes Here

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit .

Our Blog
Contact Us