Local SEO For Lawyers

When marketing your law firm, it’s important to be established in the local scene where you are practicing. Even if you are a larger firm with many office locations, clients tend to opt for lawyers who effectively express that they are rooted in the community, whether that is a county, city, or even state. By establishing a locality, you can establish credibility and gain trust.

It wasn’t long ago that most local firms could rely on word of mouth for all their marketing, such as recommendations to friends and family from former satisfied clients. However, in this digital age, that marketing strategy is no longer effective. Even when potential clients have been recommended to your firm’s services by a family member or friend, they will still conduct a Google search, or some other form of online research, to verify your firm’s credibility and compare your website with that of your competitors.

Fortunately, an online presence for big and small law firms can be optimized through local SEO. This can allow a law firm to show up higher on a search list based on keywords characterizing location or service type. Any lawyer trying to compete in the world of legal digital marketing should take advantage of local SEO to attract clients in their locations who need their services. Being aware of local SEO, and understanding the basic concepts and strategies of how to implement it, is critical for any legal professional who is trying to get ahead of the marketing curve.

What Is Local Search Engine Optimization Marketing for Lawyers?

Local search engine optimization, or SEO, marketing is a strategy used by lawyers to show up at the top of a search engine query. SEO can be implemented using a myriad of strategies that are customized to the services, goals, and geographical area of the law firm carrying out the marketing plan.

Local Seo For Lawyers

For a law firm or legal professional to dominate the digital space in their community or geographical area, they can employ different strategies, such as:

  • Having robust backlinks
  • Credible citations
  • Customer reviews with positive feedback
  • Having a Google My Business profile

By drawing in customers from the immediate community where a law firm is practicing, they are more likely to have these potential clients reach out directly for more information or a consultation. This is because legal services can be extremely specific to local court systems, legal precedents, and evolving regulations. Most clients want to be sure that their legal representative is well-versed in local law.

Local SEO Tips for Lawyers

Implementing SEO strategies is not always straightforward, especially because the optimal employment of tactics depends on:

  • The size of the business
  • The services offered
  • The law firm’s capacity to take on new clients
  • The ultimate goals of the firm

However, as a rule, there are some general local SEO tips that can help lawyers optimize the search results for their law firm.
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Location Authority

It’s important to understand that location authority is one of the key components of local SEO. Location authority is basically measuring how strong the location data corresponding to a law firm is on various search platforms. For example, if a law firm has strong location authority in Orange County, CA, then its firm will likely show up at the top of a search results list that includes ‘Orange County’ and other keywords related to law or law-related terms.

For a firm to have a stronger location authority, lawyers need to ensure that they have different profiles and accounts, such as a Google My Business profile, as well as social media accounts, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. They should also have their information in certain directories for local businesses. Across all these accounts, their name, contact information, and address should be exactly consistent to optimize the outcome.

Local Search Engines Optimization

A deeply experienced and well-qualified digital marketing firm, with credibility in the SEO space, can help law firms identify what relevant local keywords they should be targeting in website content, social media posts, and more. These targeted keywords will typically include location-relevant words, such as the city, county, and state of the practicing law firm. Also included will be keywords that clearly identify what services the law firm is offering.

Most of these location-based searches are carried out on mobile devices. Therefore, the law firm’s website should also be optimized for handheld devices. To do this, beyond including strong keywords, the loading time should be fast, and the website should be easy to navigate.

Organic SEO for Organic Search Results

Locally focused SEO marketing is a critical asset to any law firm’s marketing strategy. However, elements of an organic SEO marketing strategy should also be incorporated to draw in more traffic and increase conversion numbers. While local SEO uses more targeted keywords, organic SEO strategies allow law firms to be competitive in broad-based search results.

Organic Seo For Law Firms

To reach the top of the list for organic search results, it’s important to have straightforward, relevant, and compelling content on law firm websites. Additionally, any legal keywords that are relevant to the topic should be targeted, and meta titles and descriptions should be optimized with keywords as well. Finally, having backlinks that reference quality and reliable sources, such as a government site, can help a law firm do well with its organic SEO efforts.

Google Maps SEO Rankings for Lawyers

In addition to showing up at the top of a search engine, such as Google or Bing, it’s important for a law firm to have a strong dominance in Google Maps search results. The law firm should be clearly visible and easy to find on Google Maps.

To ensure this visibility, law firms should take care to build out their Google Maps listing. They can do this by uploading relevant media, such as high-quality photos and videos, to their profile. Additionally, detailed descriptions, including specific services offered, should be included. If the business has any changing details, such as an upcoming holiday or a change in staff, law firms should be sure to update this accordingly.

Google Maps Law Firm

After a Google Maps listing for a law firm has been adequately established, lawyers should encourage their clients to leave a rating with detailed feedback. Overall, by optimizing their position in a Google Maps search result, local law firms can attract potential customers who are also rooted in the area.

Our Local SEO Services for Attorney Websites

RizeUp Media has years of experience making sure that our clients rise to the top of search engine queries. Our dedicated digital marketing staff knows how to employ SEO tactics that work, helping match you and your services with relevant clients. For local SEO, we bring our experience in SEO and small business, community-based marketing management together to yield optimal results for law firms.

First, RizeUp Media’s marketing professionals are skilled in conducting local keyword research campaigns. This means that we can identify what the keywords are that are linked to your location, or, in other words, what location-specific words people are using to identify your firm’s geographic area. When our clients use these identified words in their content, social media posts, and meta titles and descriptions, they optimize their local search rankings.

Our digital marketing firm can also help strengthen your content by adding citations for law firms to it and managing these citations in directories and other online platforms. By doing so, we help law firms further establish location authority.

Our marketing professionals use data analytics and reports, curated especially for your law firm’s online performance, to provide meaningful feedback and update your marketing strategy accordingly. Our team can tell what keywords and phrases are performing well to optimize your local SEO. We can also find out which words aren’t trending anymore and should not be used. By being able to identify who is using your site, and how, we can help law firms optimize their local SEO strategy.

The knowledgeable professionals at RizeUp Media can aid your law firm by helping build a detailed and credible Google My Business profile that includes evidence and reviews. This can help your local SEO rankings. By actively managing your account, we can work with unsatisfied customers and encourage those who had a positive experience with your firm. We can keep your law firm’s Google My Business profile up to date with current initiatives and relevant changes to laws and regulations.

Website optimization is one of our core areas. We can help you optimize your law firm’s website by not only filling your content with keywords but also streamlining the user experience on your website. For example, we can edit code and optimize large files to help your website load faster, ensuring that the process of navigating the website is straightforward.

What Are the Components of Law Firm SEO?

SEO is a tried and tested marketing strategy that has helped businesses across all industries attract and land new customers, thereby becoming digital key leaders in their domains. However, in SEO for law firms, the strategies commonly employed are different than those used by businesses in retail or consulting.

For law firms to understand how to build an effective marketing plan, with SEO being used as a major tool, it is critical to understand the small pieces that make up the bigger picture. Implementing a successful SEO plan can help law firms draw in clients from their area who are in search of their services.

Lawyer Website Domain Authority

Domain Authority

Domain authority is different than location authority. It not only refers to the ability of a law firm to rank well in location-specific contexts but also measures the general effectiveness of the website. Another way of understanding domain authority is by considering it as the potential for a website to reach a curious end user.

Domain authority is optimized using different tactics, such as having relevant, up-to-date, and meaningful content for potential clients, with keywords optimally placed in the body, meta titles, meta tags, and meta descriptions. Additionally, adding strong and credible backlinks to content on other websites can enrich domain authority. Domain authority can also be boosted by ensuring that:

  • The website runs smoothly.
  • No links are broken or slow to load.
  • Target information can easily be found in another way.

Inbound Link Building for Law Firm SEO

Inbound links are otherwise called backlinks and are not actually located on the target law firm’s website. These links, which refer to pages on the target law firm’s website, are embedded in the content on other websites. For this reason, guest posts and other opportunities to have the target firm featured on other sites can be extremely valuable.

By being referenced on different websites, a law firm can have increased credibility. However, for the results to be valuable, the sites that are referencing the law firm should be credible as well. Having inbound links on a low-ranking site, with low domain authority, will not help increase a law firm’s SEO rankings.

Site Structure for Law Firm SEO

When a potential client lands on your law firm’s website, you want to make sure that they can find the information they are searching for. Their path to procuring this information should be intuitive, whether they want to know:

  • The services you offer
  • More information about your staff
  • How to navigate certain legal processes
  • How to contact you

No matter what page of the website a user is located on, they should be able to:

  • Navigate to other topics they are interested in.
  • Be recommended other content for further reading.
  • Have a prompt to contact the firm directly.

In addition to providing a better experience for the user, a well-organized web page can help the search engine sort through the content and information on your firm’s website more clearly, allowing it to rank higher in SEO results.

Local SEO for Lawyers Ranking Factors

If your law firm is trying to improve the SEO results of your webpage, it is important to understand how the algorithm determines your place in the ranking system. Some factors, such as keyword usage, maybe more obvious, but there are also invisible factors that can affect the success of your website’s SEO rankings.

Lawyer Seo Ranking

The SEO ranking process and algorithm are extremely complicated. These factors have an impact, but your firm will not be able to explicitly tell how much you can improve your rankings by making improvements in one of these areas. It’s critical to have the support of a skilled digital marketing team that is well-versed in local SEO for lawyers and knows the evolving features of SEO ranking algorithms.

Google My Business

It is vital that your law firm establish a Google My Business account to increase local authority. From this online tool, you can:

  • Manage details about your profile, such as contact information.
  • Upload relevant media, such as photos and videos.
  • Respond to reviews and feedback.

From this platform, you can see how you rank in a search result in Google’s search engine or Google Maps.

It is critical that your law firm have a detailed and updated Google My Business profile, with compelling and relevant content, so that you can make your way to the top of the search rankings. You can increase your chances of optimizing your local SEO by having:

  • All the fields on your profile completed
  • Multiple reviews
  • A high response rate to reviews

Physical Location

While your firm might not have much choice on this factor, the actual location of your law practice will impact how your firm’s website shows up in SEO rankings. This means that if your practice is located at an address in a certain county or town, you will likely show up in more of the search results for that respective area.

Another factor that will have an effect on your local SEO rankings is how far your office is from the user conducting the Internet search. Therefore, you should always have the exact address of your office or offices updated online. Another thing to consider is that your address should be accurate across all:

  • Websites
  • Local business online directories
  • Social media accounts
  • Online profiles

If the address listed is inconsistent, this can negatively impact your law firm’s SEO search rankings.

Ranking Position and Searcher Intent

As a law firm, you will want to make sure that the content on your website is aligned with the search intent of the potential customers you are trying to land. For example, if you are offering local services in criminal defense law, then you should have multiple pages on your site with keywords related to:

  • Your location
  • Criminal defense law for misdemeanors
  • Relevant keywords related to the topic

Brand Authority

Brand authority can be a difficult concept to grasp because it refers to the soft power that your law firm has in the local community and the community of lawyers and clients at large. This is related to the reputation of your firm based on online reviews and word of mouth, as well as how credible your firm is.

Lawyer Brand Authority

Search engine algorithms will typically prioritize companies that they consider to have a strong or dominant brand. Therefore, if your brand has less authority, it is less likely to perform well in SEO rankings. You can enhance the authority of your brand by:

  • Posting comprehensive and up-to-date content
  • Having links to your site located on other trustworthy websites
  • Having a significant following on social media

Client Reviews

Having existing reviews on your law firm’s website will undoubtedly increase the confidence of a potential customer in your ability to effectively manage their case. In addition to client conversion, having numerous reviews from previous clients, detailing their cases and their outcomes can optimize the SEO rankings for your law firm’s webpage.

A useful tactic for achieving a more competitive search ranking is to encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews. Having your clients recount their experience and how your services helped their situation on an online review platform, such as Google or Yelp, can give your firm a competitive SEO edge.

Link Building

Having both quality links on your website, as well as links that refer to your site from other websites can also improve your local SEO rankings. If you have quality content on your website that keeps the reader engaged, you can place internal links to other pages on your website to increase the time the user spends on your site. More clicks and time spent on your website can lead to a more optimal local SEO ranking.

Additionally, having links that lead the user to your site from another credible, trustworthy website can give your law firm’s branding more dominance and agency. Randomly placing links on another site, however, will not increase your search rankings. You must ensure that the links are relevant to the existing site content.

Setting Up a Google Business Profile for Your Law Firm

If your law firm is trying to step into local cyberspace, creating a Google Business Profile is an absolute must. Creating a profile with accurate information and detailed content can help your local SEO rankings. Furthermore, from this profile, you can manage how your law firm is viewed by digital users on other platforms, such as Google Maps. When creating and updating your law firm’s Google Business Profile, it’s important to be aware of some key marketing tips to get the most results from your digital presence.

Google Business Profile

Create a Keyword Rich Business Name

From the beginning of the account set-up process, your law firm should make sure that the business name used is relevant to your area of practice and includes keywords that commonly come up in search queries.

If, for example, your law firm focuses on immigration law, then you should include this in your business name along with other local keywords. Choosing an optimal business name can help your rankings in search results, which can ultimately help new clients find your practice.

Google My Business Attributes

Google My Business has many different features. You can also add to your law firm’s profile to provide more information for interested clients. You can input key data, such as:

  • Opening and closing hours
  • Address
  • Link to website
  • Telephone number
  • Email

If this information is inaccurate, it can negatively impact your search rankings. In attributes, you can also provide more detailed information about the services your firm provides. The more detailed your law firm’s profile is, the better the search results will be.

Google Business Profile Optimization

Optimizing the Google Business Profile of your law firm involves many different strategies. Your firm should fill out as much information on the profile as possible and ensure that everything is correct. You should encourage satisfied clients to leave detailed reviews, as this can boost your local SEO rankings as well.

When filling out the details in your profile, be sure to include keywords that are relevant to the location you are trying to target, such as the name of the community, town, or county involved. Having an accurate, complete, and word-specific Google Business Profile can increase your online presence locally.

How to Increase Your Law Firm Website Traffic

Bringing in new traffic to your law firm’s website, as well as keeping existing users scrolling through your page, can lead to even better local SEO results, and ultimately result in interested clients contacting your law firm. It’s important to be aware of strategies to boost this online traffic, as it can increase your firm’s credibility and online authority as well.

Lawyer Website Traffic

New Practices Pages and Posts (blogs)

By continuously creating new content, such as pages that highlight an area of law you are practicing and relevant blogs that can help readers get their questions answered, you can increase the chances of your law firm’s website performing well in a local search engine query. In all your content, it is important to provide keywords, internal links, and a strong call to action, or CTA. Quality, optimized content can help your law firm’s website rise to the top of the search engine results.

Social Media Distribution

After you create and post your content, you want to make sure that it gets as many views as possible. Your firm can do this by sharing new posts on social media accounts, such as Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Sharing your posts on different platforms increases your law firm’s chances of reaching new audiences, and, ultimately, new clients.

Persistence

In local SEO optimization, it’s important to not give up and remember that consistency is key. All these steps to improving local SEO require long-term commitment, such as:

  • Creating new and relevant content
  • Making sure your profiles are updated
  • Changing strategies as user behavior and search engine algorithms change

A way to track the success of your law firm’s website over time is to use tools like Google Analytics, which can inform your marketing strategy going forward.

FAQ Schema

An FAQ schema is an effective strategy to optimize your law firm’s local SEO rankings. It is a section of your content that provides answers to commonly asked questions related to your area of law practice. By adding an FAQ schema, or dedicated FAQ section, to your website, you can steer more traffic to your site and establish credibility as a thought leader in the legal space.

Local SEO for Attorneys FAQs

Why do lawyers need SEO?

It is critical for lawyers to use SEO to ensure that they move to the top of the results of a relevant search query. Individuals who are interested in learning more about certain areas of law in a relevant location can be linked to a relevant lawyer who can ultimately help them with their case. Ultimately, SEO is a marketing strategy that allows lawyers to serve as leaders in the legal field and land new clients that are a sound match for their services.

How much does law firm SEO cost?

Law firm SEO varies drastically in cost and depends on:

  • The scale and size of the firm
  • The different practice areas
  • Whether it has multiple locations
  • How competitive and intensive the SEO marketing campaign will be

Overall, the price of an SEO campaign for a law firm can range from a couple hundred dollars a month to thousands of dollars billed monthly.

Why is my law firm not ranking well in Google?

Understanding exactly why your law firm is struggling to achieve a high SEO ranking can be complex, as the algorithms to determine webpage rankings are based on many factors and are constantly evolving. Some immediate steps your law firm can take are to ensure that:

  • Your profiles are accurately filled out in detail.
  • You are using keywords relevant to your location and practice areas.
  • Your site is being referenced by other credible sources.

Ultimately, working with a dedicated marketing firm can help you get your local SEO for lawyers rankings where you want them to be.

Why is local SEO important for attorneys?

If an attorney is practicing out of a particular geographical area, it is important to establish online dominance in the relevant area to succeed in the competitive legal market. Attorneys can do this by:

  • Having relevant location-specific words in their content
  • Filling out their addresses properly in their profiles
  • Having dedicated location-specific practice areas on their website

Do Google ads work for law firms?

Law firms can most certainly leverage the advantages that come with using Google ads. By using Google ads, law firms can capture the attention of relevant, interested clients and draw them to their websites for conversions. Specifically, these ads can be location-specific to target critical clientele that are located near the practicing law firm.

Get Our Local SEO Services for Law Firms to Grow Your Clients

If your law firm is falling behind on SEO ranking success, RizeUp Media has the experience and knowledge in local SEO for lawyers to help your practice rise to the top of the search results. Our dedicated team can help your firm establish locational dominance and bring in new customers from your area. Contact our local SEO firm today to learn more about optimizing your website for new local conversions. Together, we can take your law firm to the top of the list.

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