Any effective client located in your area who requires a lawyer is more likely to search for the Internet for law firms in their city. An estimated 30% of mobile users search for businesses in their location. But, 75% of the users will never navigate past page one of the search results. It is where local SEO for law firms comes into action.
Around 46.5% of prospective clients use Google search whenever they research the law firm to pick, as noted by the 2019 research of Martindale-Avvo.
Some of the law firm stats are given below:
If your site is not yet created for local search engine optimization or SEO, you will most likely miss out on the larger pool of clientele in the backyard. Law firm SEO services can assist you in finding these customers.
However, what are we speaking about when we mention local SEO for the lawyers? How would the lawyers make better returns from local SEO to gain new clients and ensure their existing local prospects and clientele gain the ideal experience possible?
Today’s guide for the local SEO for lawyers will offer you the ideal answers.
What is Local SEO?
Local SEO is a form of search engine optimization or SEO tactic that helps your business to become highly visible in the local search results. It is the category of SEO targeting specific locations allowing businesses to rank in the area.
The highly effective local SEO strategy allows the site to appear on top of the local search results or whenever the user expects better outcomes through that area.
What is Local SEO for Lawyers?
SEO refers to building and maintaining an online presence making your website appear higher in search engines. The local SEO for the law firms is almost identical; however, it involves techniques that are specifically designed to work for the search users in the local area. This is effective as clients want to meet their attorneys and get consultations from them.
Google’s algorithm measures three factors to determine whether a local search result is valid and should be listed for a search. Together, they help Google identify and rank websites, and these three factors are proximity, relevance, and authority.
The algorithm of Google starts measuring three factors to determine whether the local search results are valid, as they should get listed for a search. A Law Firm SEO Agency would help Google identify and rank the websites.
The following are the three factors involved in local SEO for lawyers:
Proximity
It is the highly vital ranking factor of all three. It would refer to the location of your firm related to search users. Google still depends on IP addresses and geographical location services for ranking websites for search results even when the potential client is not searching for a location-specific lawyer with the help of a law firm SEO company.
The primary component for establishing proximity is your physical address(map location) and NAP (name, address, and phone number). Always ensure that each listing is updated and presents similar information as your website; otherwise, your website can start ranking low in searches. Try listing your website on the lawyer directory to increase visibility across the SERPs.
Relevance
Google is always searching for cues that the site is relevant to the search results. Adding your location to the website and including the local keywords is one way to start establishing your site as relevant to the search. To enhance your local SEO for lawyers, add phrases like “real estate lawyers in New York,” on your website.
Authority
Google and other search engines need to establish your site as a credible resource to rank high in local searches. The authority is established through reviews, ratings, social mentions, backlinks, and the overall domain authority.
Why Should Law Firms Invest in Local SEO?
Attorney SEO is important for your business to start grabbing the attention of your targeted customers in the best possible way whenever you think beyond brand awareness. Organic traffic is considered the preferable and most effective way compared to PPC ads and social media marketing applied by the law firm SEO expert.
Around 17% of legal customers had searched for an independent lawyer online, according to the Legal Trends report. People are mainly using Google and Bing to find answers to their questions.
Anyone who is in search of some legal bits of advice should go to Google to learn about employment law. They will search for local law firms representing them or helping them resolve their problems. If you have a solid SEO strategy in place, the potential client can locate the right website on the first page of Google.
They would then check out your GMB or Google My Business profile or might even find a blog post you have written about estate law and the services you render.
Therefore, the reason why attorneys, law firms, and lawyers might need SEO for the Law Firm site is the same way they would require an official site. Keep in mind that whenever a potential customer finds your website helpful, you will start making a robust connection with them, converting them into your potential leads with a law firm local SEO.
7 Local SEO Tips for Your Law Firm
1. Management of the Practitioner & Google Business Profile(GBP)
Optimizing the Google Business Profile of the client is the ideal way to start the implementation of local SEO for law firms. The profile enhances the discoverability of the business of the client.
GBP will even help enhance client engagement while allowing your clients to reach out to broader audiences through maps and location searches. Furthermore, creating a Google Business Profile will help you manage the law firm’s online reputation by responding to the reviews.
Allowing GBP features like messaging and call will make things easier for prospective customers to get in touch with the business and the client. You can check the SEO results through the maximized impressions on Google Maps and the highly rich Google search results. You should respond to the messages and queries. This will help bring actual business.
Whenever you optimize your client’s Google Business Profile listing, make sure to add the right business categories. You should even avoid keyword stuffing in the title and descriptions.
2. Gain More Reviews
The review signals make up around 17% of Google’s local search ranking factors. Consequently, you should collect several possible customer reviews to enhance your client’s local SEO campaign. It is never about quantity, and the law firm SEO specialists will help you get in-depth reviews for ranking above the competitor law firms. You can share the QR codes and review links with them over chats and get the reviews in no time. A good SEO agency can help you get this done in a better way.
The client reviews are helpful in varying ways. For beginners, these reviews help Google place the GBP listing of clients higher in the local search results because Google wishes to serve quality results.
Whenever businesses have several positive reviews, it means that they are doing things appropriately. Consequently, Google prioritizes a business over one that does not have any customer reviews.
Therefore, if you wish the law firm to show up higher in local searches, try collecting more positive reviews since higher local rankings would result in qualified leads and traffic.
Customer reviews can even help in pulling more clients. You should think about it while you scroll through local searches on whether you are likely picking a company having more positive reviews or one with a couple or no reviews. You will always choose the former, right?
The same thing would apply to your prospective customers who are in search of local law firms. Consequently, more customer reviews will offer the much-required social proof for pulling prospective customers to your client’s law firm.
You will gain more reviews for the client’s listing by allowing reviews on the Google Business Profile. You should start encouraging existing clients of the law firm to leave reviews.
3. Adding Legal FAQs to Your Site
Google is always searching for relevant content that offers helpful answers to users. The same would go for the local search results. You should start by adding relevant legal FAQs to the site as a part of the website ideas.
Although there is no silver bullet whenever it comes down to the FAQs, these are the general practices to aid you in getting started:
- Regularly update these FAQs to stay relevant to prospective searches and search engine updates.
- Answering common questions allows your potential clients to gain quick answers to their questions without calling into the office of your client and performing additional research.
- Aim at the law firms or the service areas.
4. Using Schema Markup
Schema markup is mainly a code that informs the search engines on what the web pages are about. You can start optimizing for rich results by offering the right information through structured data that crawlers pick to display the prominent SERP positions using schema. These strong results increase brand exposure to help improve the click-through rate by 58%.
Additionally, you can start using the local business schema to assist Google in identifying and showing information about the business of your client in the local packs. For instance, it will start displaying the hours of operation, addresses, ratings, and phone numbers.
5. Optimizing for Multiple-Lawyer Firms
If your law firm has several lawyers, then creating separate pages for each lawyer is recommended. Ensure that these pages consist of important local search engine optimization components, such as local business data like NAP and reviews.
You might even wish to rank several personal injury lawyers for the local SEO services for a law firm to be on the same page. Then you can implement a few ways to ensure that they are getting highlighted individually:
- Try creating a custom title tag for every attorney.
- Create different Meta descriptions for every attorney.
- Write down a blurb regarding each lawyer, including their name and geographical location.
- Have the image of the lawyer, along with their alt text that should contain their geographical location.
Optimizing pages of the law firm with relevant keywords and unique content is important. But, if you are not careful regarding the strategy, the company’s lawyer pages might end up competing for similar local search terms. It would become counterproductive with prospective clients, who might be unclear regarding the page or the person they should contact.
Consequently, ensure targeting specific keywords for each lawyer based on their practices. For instance, you should start optimizing the separate page under the law firm’s website for the “corporate lawyer” or “immigration lawyer.”
6. Citation Signals
Citations mention the client’s business name, address, website, and phone number on other websites, and they would act as a reference to the business of the clients online.
They would still play a vital role in your SEO strategy even if it influences citation signals on the local search results, which waned in recent years. Whenever local searchers search for a few specific terms related to the legal practice of the law firm, local citations can help you show up often on search results.
The citations will never consist of a link, although they would often do so. But, they have to match with other data points listed on the site for greater effectiveness. For instance, the NAP of your client citations should match the site’s indexed page.
The number of citations you have will signal to Google that the law firm is trustworthy and legitimate. It will even get their businesses greater exposure to potential clients in search of online legal services.
7. Try the Legal Directories
The legal directories will help you build trust and authority. They would act as a citation distribution source for the legal practice of your client and the local business data. They are also the most distinctive source of backlinks.
Try getting listed on the relevant directories to get clients into your local areas. Directories use geolocation technology to ensure that your prospective clients easily locate you whenever they search for a lawyer.
There are several local directories where potential clients can start searching for local lawyers practicing the kind of law they would need help with.
These sites allow you to create free profiles with links to the client’s website. They even have premium options to help the law firm gain more attention and exposure. Complete the profile with the firm’s relevant information, including videos and photos.
Looking for Local SEO Services for Your Law Firm?
Local SEO for a law firm is a complex and confusing process; however, our guide will help you get started. You can search from a wide range of SEO agencies and services that can help you work out the ideal approach for your firm.
Conclusion
The local SEO for law firms involves all the techniques discussed in our post today, as it is one of the ideal things for lawyers. Numerous law firms are using local SEO strategies, and you have to stay ahead of the curve with implementing these strategies.
