Getting your law firm to a place where it can be easily found online can be like playing blocks with a toddler. You stack one block on top of another to build the tallest tower possible, but just when you think you’re about to reach the top, the whole tower comes tumbling down with a single move.
And with law firm SEO, the stakes are a lot higher. If you can’t successfully stack your blocks up high enough, potential clients won’t know you’re there.
But don’t worry—this comprehensive guide to law firm SEO is here to help you build digital visibility and ensure your tower stays standing.
Understanding law firm SEO: What it is and why it’s important
Broadly speaking, SEO requires setting your website up in a way that is search-engine friendly. That means it:
Offers information relevant to search queries + Delivers a good user experience + Shows up high in search results (i.e., is visible)
This is important because your potential clients rely on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo to find legal services. 96% of people seeking legal advice use search engines. If your potential clients…
- Can’t find your site OR
- Don’t find useful information on your site OR
- Don’t have a good user experience
… then they won’t make the leap to becoming a paying client.
In other words, your online visibility can make or break your law firm’s success.
The key elements of a successful law firm SEO strategy
SEO isn’t just one activity. It includes several different elements that work together to increase your visibility.
- Keyword research: Identifying and targeting the keywords most relevant to your practice and potential clients to bring organic traffic to your website. These keywords should be put to work through regularly published high-quality content to establish your expertise and authority in the legal field.
- On-page optimization: Ensuring that your website is more easily recognized by search engines through title tags, meta descriptions, and internal linking. It also includes improving user experience through page speed, navigation, and more.
- Link building: Building backlinks from reputable websites to your own website can improve your site’s credibility and authority, bringing your site up higher in search engine rankings.
- Local SEO: For law firms that focus on a specific geographic area, local SEO strategies such as creating listings on Google My Business and obtaining online reviews can lead to greater visibility in your geographic location.
There’s no one way to use SEO for your law firm. Your SEO tactics should reflect your law firm’s specific goals and work in tandem with your other marketing efforts to deliver the best results.
For example, one family law firm might double down on local SEO to increase their visibility in their community while another family law firm might prefer to take on link building as part of a campaign to establish broader reach.
Because there are so many options, a legal-specific SEO agency can help you clarify your goals, understand your options, and set achievable plans in place.
Have questions about your SEO strategy? We can help. Start your SEO strategy with a free audit.
Building blocks of law firm SEO
Keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and local SEO are the building blocks of SEO, but how do you start creating something with them? Let’s take a closer look at what they consist of—and how to get stacking.
Keyword research for law firms
Effective keyword research is one of your biggest building blocks in SEO. It involves identifying the right terms and phrases your potential clients use when searching for legal services. Keywords come in several different shapes:
- Short-tail keywords: These are short, one to three-word phrases that are broad and general. They often have high search volume but also high competition, which means that it may be difficult to rank for them. Examples for law firms include “divorce attorney” or “personal injury lawyer.”
- Long-tail keywords: These are longer, more specific phrases that target a particular niche or need. They may have a lower search volume, but tend to be lower competition, which means they’re easier to rank for. Examples might include “New Jersey child support” or “construction accident settlement attorney.”
- Geo-targeted keywords: Long-tail keywords may also be geographically targeted for a particular location. They may include the city, state, or even neighborhood where your law firm is located. This can help your local target audience find you more easily.
- Branded keywords: These are terms that include your law firm’s name, such as “Smith & Associates Law Firm.” They can be useful for targeting potential clients who are specifically searching for your business.
How to identify relevant keywords
Start by creating a list of core services your law firm offers, such as “business law,” “personal injury,” or “real estate.” Then brainstorm related terms like “contract disputes,” “car accident lawyer,” or “property tax law.” Think in terms of what your clients would type into search engines, and consider the intent behind those queries.
Consider working in high-intent keywords like “divorce attorney for child custody” or “estate planning lawyer near me” to denote a clear intention to seek legal representation.
Tools for keyword research
While you likely can come up with list of keywords by thinking about your practice areas and business goals, you should refine and prioritize that list with keyword research tools. Platforms like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can help you go deeper to understand search volumes, competitiveness, and related keywords that you might not have considered.
The goal is to find a balance between relevance, search volume, and competitiveness to identify the most valuable keywords for your law firm.
Using keywords on your site
High-quality, engaging, and informative content is the bedrock of any effective SEO strategy for law firms.
Each piece of content should focus on a specific keyword or topic, offering value to the reader while naturally integrating relevant keywords. Long-form content, such as practice area pages, blog posts, and case studies allows you to cover topics comprehensively, demonstrating your expertise in the field.
On-page optimization
How well your site works—both for users and for search engines—helps increase the likelihood you’ll show up high in SERP. These SEO tasks can be highly technical, so many law firms find it’s easiest to work with an experienced digital marketing agency to ensure the back end is handled appropriately.
Optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, and URLs
Each page on your website should have a unique title tag, meta description, and URL that includes your target keyword. These elements not only improve your ranking for those keywords but also serve as the first point of contact with your potential clients on search engine results pages.
Navigation
Site navigation is crucial for user experience and helps search engines understand the structure of your website. Use descriptive labels for each menu item and include relevant keywords when possible. Additionally, consider creating a site map that outlines all the pages on your site to further assist with navigation.
Site speed
A slow-loading website can hurt your visibility on search engines and lead to high bounce rates and low user engagement. To improve your site speed, compress site images, reduce unnecessary or bulky code, and use caching.
Internal linking strategy
A strategic internal linking framework enhances the user experience and strengthens your website’s SEO.
By linking to other relevant pages on your site, you guide visitors to additional content they may find useful, keeping them engaged longer. For search engines, internal linking clarifies the hierarchical structure of your site and distributes page authority throughout your domain.
Prioritize linking to pages that are most important for your SEO goals and ensure that anchor texts are descriptive, relevant, and useful for both users and search engines.
Mobile optimization
Google’s algorithm prioritizes mobile-first indexing, meaning it evaluates the mobile version of your site first when determining its ranking. To ensure your site is optimized for mobile, make sure it has a responsive design that adjusts to different screens.
Backlinking
In the legal industry, backlinks from authoritative legal or news websites can greatly improve your law firm’s credibility with search engines. Focus on quality over quantity. A single backlink from a high-authority legal site is more valuable than multiple links from low-quality sources.
One low-hanging fruit for backlinking is legal directories. Legal directories—like Lawyers.com, FindLaw, Nolo, or Justia—are popular resources for potential clients, so when they discover you there, it increases your credibility. Just as importantly, legal directories often have a high domain authority, which is shared with your website when you create a profile.
Another way to obtain backlinks is through content marketing and digital PR. For example, penning a guest post for Above the Law or Attorney at Work can lead to high-value backlinks. (A bonus here: you can get a lot of mileage out of the links by using them as social proof on your website, email content, and social media posts!)
You can also generate backlinks by creating share-worthy content on your website that others can link to, such as whitepapers, legal reference guides, or insightful commentaries on relevant legal topics.
Want to see how you could start building your backlinks? Reach out to get a free SEO audit from FocusWorks Marketing.
Local SEO for law firms
Local SEO helps you be found by potential clients in your area who are looking for legal services. This is particularly important for law firms with physical locations or those that serve specific geographic regions.
Claim and optimize your Google Business Profile listing with accurate information about your law firm, including address, phone number, and hours of operation. Ensure consistency across all online local directories, from Yelp to industry-specific legal listing sites. Encourage clients to leave positive reviews, as these can have a significant impact on your local SEO rankings.
Measuring your SEO success
To gauge the efficacy of your SEO efforts, you need to measure your performance against key performance indicators (KPIs).
Relevant KPIs will depend on your law firm’s specific SEO goals, but some common ones include:
- Keyword rankings: Monitor the rankings of your target keywords on search engines.
- Organic traffic: Measure how many visitors find your website via unpaid search results.
- Bounce rate: Track the percentage of visitors who navigate away from your site after viewing only one page, as low-quality content or a poor user experience can contribute to a high bounce rate.
- Conversion rate: Keep an eye on the percentage of visitors who become clients or at least take a desired action, like contacting your office.
Utilize a suite of SEO tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and SEO platforms like Moz or SEMrush to monitor and analyze these metrics. Regularly reviewing your SEO performance enables you to refine strategies, improve weak areas, and capitalize on successes.
Build a high-ranking SEO strategy with FocusWorks Marketing
Just like a strong structure, a successful SEO strategy for your law firm is built on carefully executed tactics. From optimizing your Google Business listing to measuring key performance indicators to creating expert legal content, each element contributes to your digital marketing plan.
Partnering with FocusWorks Marketing helps you create the visibility you need to achieve your business goals.
