These were expensive propositions and one never got to know what returns they were getting for all the money spent. Also, there was little knowledge about how many people saw your ads, so there was no way to track your potential clients

But with the advent of the internet and subsequently various search engines, especially Google, things have changed completely. Any small company can reach as many people as a big powerful company. This was not even thinkable a few years ago. Law firm internet marketing is no different. If planned and implemented properly, it can open new avenues for potential new clients and earnings. For this, best law firm SEO strategies are needed. A law firm that is proficient in SEO is more successful than those which fail to utilize SEO. Benefits of SEO for law firms are immense. Search engine rankings play an important part in the growth of a law firm. In this article we will discuss some important strategies on law firm SEO services that can considerably increase traffic to your website and generate increased revenue.

Understanding Google’s legal search results

Google search results keep on changing. There are currently 19 types of searches that occupy the top spots. This is true for legal searches as well. Of the 10 organic searches, most of them are aggregator sites, and only 25% are actually available. The competition for those spots is tough and you need to plan your campaign realistically. Apart from ranking, there are other ways to improve your organic exposure. Instead of competing with aggregator sites, it is better to leverage them. They have their own methods to rank profiles. You can also pay for ads and bypass the CPC for legal keywords in Google and get the same traffic.

Selecting keywords based on Intent

How to find and select keywords is well known. We will keep our focus on keyword mapping instead. The process of optimizing pages is called keyword mapping. It is based on keyword intent.

For law firms, there are basically three types of keywords-money, discover and attention.

For money keywords the intent would be looking for the services of a law firm, for Discover keywords the intent is seeking information on the services, and for Attention keyword the intent is to know about your cases. We need to choose and place the keywords very carefully.

Though the main intention is to get good ranking for the money keywords, the other two should also be given the same attention. This approach can potentially give you triple organic exposure.

Altering website structure to optimize for search

For ranking purposes, it is important to have an easy to use site. It means grouping content, navigation, and URL in an organized form. Depending on the structure of your law firm you have to design your website.

Whether it’s a single service, a multiple service or a multiple location law firm, you have to alter the structure of your website to suit the needs of each to optimize the search. Only then the real benefits of SEO for law firms can be achieved.

Optimize for local search

Most searches for legal information are local. Therefore, optimization for local searches can be done through the traditional SEO. However, some additional features need to be incorporated for local search optimization.

• Google My Business or GMB has a big role to play in local SEO .
• Get Verified: after setting up get your Google + Business page. Google sends you a verification code to every page. Otherwise you will not show up in local searches.
• Optimize your page. After you enter the code, follow the instructions to optimize your page.
• Write a review to help your website to rank favourably for local searches in the SERP listings
• Get local citations and directory listings. These are crucial for local SEO. it’s like yellow pages for online businesses.

Create content to attract new interest in your website

The success of your SEO depends largely on the content you create and distribute. Most websites claim to be experts and to put forth their point they start writing blogs in order to add value to their content. However, adding relevant keywords to the content adds greater value and helps in attracting new eyeballs.

Assign Purchase intent keywords to sales and service pages. Use info intent keywords in blogs. Each page should have one main keyword.

Need for high power links

Links are still the most important factor for rankings. The more links a site offers, better the chances of getting good rank. Trust and authority are important factors that Google considers for ranking and it comes with the type and numbers of links there are.

Some important links are:

• Social Media and forum
• Quora-a reputable Q & A site
• Internal Linking
• Link outreach
• Resource pages
• Guest postings

Track results and upgrade efforts

Organic traffic doesn’t come easy. It takes more time,effort and money to go into. We have to track the results of our efforts and investment to understand the benefits of SEO for law firms. For this we need to check the overall search engine visibility, organic traffic, leads generated and phone calls from organic search, etc.

The results don’t show up immediately. It takes almost 6-12 months to reach the top of Google search. We have to constantly monitor our efforts and take necessary corrective actions to upgrade.

Author Bio

Sophia is an expert law firm marketing consultant at Conroy Creative Counsel Ltd -marketing agency in the USA. She is a passionate writer and always looks out for opportunities for sharing her knowledge with the Online Marketing community.