5 SEO Tips to Improve Your Law Firm Website's Google Ranking

Running a successful law firm has expanded beyond the brick and mortar building where your office is housed. Today’s customers rely more on local online directories to search and choose their next legal representative. When it comes to finding a new attorney, nearly 22 percent of people start their search online. This means a significant amount of potential clients head straight to Google to find their legal representative. Ideally, you should be capitalizing on this massive amount of potential business.

While there are a lot of proven digital marketing methods to attract more customers to your legal practice, nothing comes close to being found online by searchers. According to a survey, almost 98 percent of online searchers choose a law firm that appears within the first two pages of search engine results. This means if you are ranking on the first two pages for relevant keywords, your customer flow increases.

In order to attract more clients, not only do law firms need to rank higher in search engine result pages (SERPs), they also need to stand out from competitors. In a cutthroat market where your competitors are eyeing the same prospects you do, it is a challenging task to make your practice stand apart from the competitors. Law firms are continuously looking for innovative and effective marketing techniques in order to stay ahead of the pack. One of the most effective online marketing strategies is search engine optimization (SEO), which uses techniques to increase the visibility and ranking of your law firm’s website in SERPs. By making SEO a priority, your law firm can stand out from competitors and attract more customers.

Here are some more stats:

• Almost 70 percent to 80 percent of searchers prefer organic search results over paid ads.

• Nearly 93 percent of online experiences begin with a search.

• Almost 75 percent of searchers never scroll past the first two pages of search engine results.

Getting on the first two pages of search engine results is highly beneficial for law firms. Many attorneys spend thousands of dollars every year on paid advertisements, trying to drive more traffic to their law firm website.

How to Improve Your Google Ranking

1. Use relevant keywords: Effectively utilizing industry-specific keywords is the most affordable way for small law firms to boosting online traffic and get on the first page of Google. You should use keywords that your potential clients are likely to search for based on their needs and priorities. When your website is optimized for relevant keywords, your potential customers will be able to locate your website when searching for those specific terms.

2. Educational content: Without informative content, it is difficult to practice effective SEO. You will need to create content that is appealing to your target audience and optimized for keyword search. Relevant content will not only generate leads but will also build a strong brand image, improve your brand image and strengthen your online presence. Although word count does not guarantee more readers, longer content can give you the opportunity to include more keywords and outbound links.

3. Verify NAP: Most potential clients look online for local legal representatives when in need. Make sure your law firm’s name, address and phone numbers (NAP) are correct. Nothing can diminish your chances of a better ranking than incorrect contact information. You must also claim and verify your company listing on Google Maps and Google My Business. It is critical to ensure that your law firm’s NAP information is consistent throughout all legal online directories.

4. Improve website speed and structure: The user experience has a direct impact on your SEO rankings. The structure and speed of your website should help visitors access information as quickly as possible. Visitors are highly likely to quit your website if they have to wait forever for each page to load. Delays or inaccurate results due to lousy website structure or poor content quality can increase your bounce rate and decrease conversion rates, which will affect your SEO ranking. According to studies, nearly 40 percent of visitors will leave a website that takes more than three seconds to load.

5. Optimize for mobile: With mobile search becoming an integral part of the online search, it is critical that you optimize your website for smartphones and other mobile devices. According to a survey, 62 percent of smartphone owners use their mobile devices to browse the Internet. In addition, Google considers mobile-friendliness an essential factor in determining the rank of your website. Therefore, if your law firm website is not mobile-friendly, you could be losing out on traffic.

Implementing effective SEO techniques for your law firm website is not rocket science. While it requires a bit of persistence and diligence, you can expect a consistent flow of online traffic at no extra cost. A good SEO strategy will not only benefit your websites ranking in search engines but also the user experience.