In order for your legal website to be a successful tool to attract new clients, it is critical to apply a cohesive, detailed strategy focused on Search Engine Optimization, more often simply referred to as SEO. The goal of SEO is to ensure that your website adheres to the various requirements and preferences of search engine algorithms, which in turn enables your site to rank highly on search engine results. Research has shown that the most common method used by people currently without legal counsel to find a lawyer is via searches on the Internet via Google. To grow your firm, improving your SEO is absolutely necessary.
Rather than one simple, straightforward variable, however, there multiple factors that are considered and evaluated in the process of assessing how your website is listed. This often results in a lot of confusion and misunderstandings, which can lead to inefficient strategies that can actually hurt your SEO. That’s why it’s critical to outline said factors and take them into consideration when crafting a digital marketing plan for your law firm. Seeking out SEO services can go a long way towards helping your legal website get to where it needs to be.
One of the most well-known factors that contribute to the success of your SEO is the use of relevant, quality keywords. Google aims to pair search results to user queries as closely as possible, and keywords are a convenient way to do so. The websites that include the keywords contained within the query in a sizable amount are, after all, likely to be more relevant. The key is not only to ensure that you include query keywords on your legal website but that you include popular high-quality keywords. After all, if your website perfectly aligns with a set of keywords that are only used in searches 0.05% of the time, then you’re unlikely to attract many new clients. However, if you are able to identify keywords used by a substantial number of online users to find lawyers in the area, you could substantially increase your customer base.
Of course, mere keyword inclusion is just a start, not an ultimate solution, and simply including a giant wall of text composed of nothing but keywords will not be effective for SEO purposes. Your content needs to fit into Google’s idea of high quality as well. While it would be helpful to have a simple formula that easily quantifies your legal website’s quality, there’s no magical rubric. However, certain general recommendations for things like word counts depend on the type of content on the page.
More impactful aspects of content quality for SEO include the accuracy, relevance, readability, and uniqueness of any text displayed on your legal site. The purpose of this factor is to ensure that users are paired with results that will satisfactorily answer their questions, so consider the actual purpose of keywords you’ve opted to include when creating your content.
The longer it takes for a page to load, the more likely it is that a user will navigate away in search of better options. Mere seconds of loading time can make a substantial difference in how professional a website appears and in what regard it’s held by online viewers. Fortunately, there are multiple tactics that can be applied to assist in this area. Making changes to your code, minimizing the amount of redirection, and applying optimized sizing for any images displayed on your site are just some of the ways to reduce the loading time of your legal website.
As advances in technology continue to improve from year to year, the number of users accessing the Internet via mobile devices continues to increase as well. This makes it critical that your legal site appear just as accessible and readable when displayed on a mobile screen as when viewed on a home computer. Mobile responsiveness refers to the practice of making changes to your website so that it is automatically optimized to be viewed on any device.
Mobile responsiveness isn’t just about increasing the size of the text and images to make them large enough for easy viewing on small devices. A legal website with quality mobile responsiveness will involve changes to the layout to avoid any unnecessary visual clutter while adjusting any drop-down menus or panels so that they remain functional.
Most of these changes are very geared towards the outward appearance and perception of your legal website. However, the internal elements of your website can affect SEO as well. In addition, focusing on improving the efficiency of your code can also help with other factors, such as reducing the load time of your page. A good place to start when seeking to improve code efficiency is by removing any unnecessary sections of code. Code should also be easily readable, ensuring that search engine algorithms have no trouble sifting through it.
At first, this might seem like a peculiar thing to include. However, website security can actually have a significant impact on your SEO strength. Even if you’re putting in the effort to optimize all the other factors mentioned thus far but fail to allocate resources to handle website security, you could find your rankings to be far lower than expected. Google places a high priority on user safety and privacy, as individuals navigating the Internet are very unlikely to spend much time in a website perceived to be unsecured.
There are a plethora of ways to increase the level of security on your legal website. Installing simple security plugins is a fairly straightforward method, as is the application of complex passwords in password protection. A more visible strategy involves the installation of an SSL certificate, altering your URL in the process to showcase the increased security and usage of encryption to your visitors. Finally, regular website maintenance and updates to your code cannot be overlooked.
Focusing on these factors is an excellent start. But as it stands, Google employs over 200 ranking factors in their algorithm. Even with a firm grasp on some of the more notable items on the last, it can be difficult to develop a comprehensive plan that utilizes your resources in the most effective fashion, especially when working within a strict budget. That’s where RizeUp Media can help. RizeUp Media offers quality SEO services delivered by a team of digital marketing experts with years of experience. Not only do we help our clients achieve top rankings on search results through powerful SEO strategies, but we also assist in the maintenance of those rankings, ensuring that your website remains at the top of the list. For more information on our services, contact us via our online form, or call us at 949-424-7493 today.
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