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Originally Posted On: https://www.dangilroy.com/law-firm-search-engine-optimization-guide/

 

There are around 1,327,910 lawyers in the United States as of 2021. If your law firm has a website, you know how important search engine optimization (SEO) is. The problem is that many people don’t know how to improve their website’s SEO.

If you don’t use basic SEO practices, it will be hard for people to find your website. This would make it difficult to get new clients. But what can you do to give your law firm search engine optimization a boost?

Keep reading and learn more about how you can better target search engines with your website.

Why Is Search Engine Optimization Important for Law Firms?

SEO is one of the most important factors in the world of online marketing. Every successful website on the internet uses SEO. This is because it is impossible to make your website a success without it.

SEO helps you target what the Google algorithm wants. The algorithm wants to promote websites that are informative, trustworthy, and authoritative. You need to show that your website is all of these things.

But if you’re not employing basic SEO practices, that isn’t going to work out. SEO determines where your website will rank according to Google. You should ideally aim to rank on Google’s first page.

The first page always gets the most attention. The websites there will get the most clicks and conversions from internet users. Very few people bother to click on Google’s second page.

Imagine what would happen if your website ranked on the 10th or 20th page. No one would ever find your content and your website would fall into obscurity. This is not the way you want your law firm website to go.

SEO is also important for turning traffic into paying customers. The first step is getting people aware of your law firm’s website. As long as people know that it exists, this is a good start.

Using SEO to Attract More Traffic

The next step is getting people interested in what your website has to offer. If these internet users already have an interest in legal services, it will be easier to target them. The next step is turning that interest into a payment.

This is often the last and hardest step. But SEO can help you accomplish it. Understanding SEO is often hard for people at first.

But when you learn more about it, you will find that it isn’t as complicated as you first thought. Once you start implementing more SEO aspects into your website, you will notice several changes. You may notice that your website is getting much more traffic than before.

You may also notice that your website ranks higher on Google when you search for it. Your website may be better at converting internet users into paying clients as well. SEO strategies may take some time to work, but it is important to have patience.

After a few months of refining the SEO on your website, you will start reaping the results.

How to Optimize Your Content With Keywords

Keywords are the foundation of most SEO strategies. Keywords help target your content. They also help make it clear to the Google algorithm what your content is about.

Keywords come in many different forms. Without them, it would be very difficult to find your content. Keywords are what an internet user would type into Google to search for something.

“Best law firms” is a very popular keyword. If you type this into Google, millions of results will pop up. A small handful will land on Google’s first page while others will land on the second, third, and 20th pages.

Using keywords like these can help promote your website’s content. But you have to be careful with keywords that are too popular. Keywords that have millions of results will be difficult to compete with.

This is because there are millions of other law firm websites using this same keyword. They will be more likely to rank for that keyword than your website. This is why it may sometimes be beneficial to use more niche and specific keywords.

Using keywords with fewer search results will give you more of a chance. This is because you won’t have to compete with so many other websites using the same keyword. A long-tail keyword is a good example of a niche keyword.

These keywords consist of three or more words. “Best law firms near me” is a good example of this. The more specific your keyword is, the easier it will be to rank well for that keyword.

How Keywords Work

Your keywords also need to address what your audience is looking for. Whatever your audience searches for on Google, you need to make sure that your content satisfies those queries. This will make it far more likely for people to find your content.

It will also make your content more relevant and more interesting to your audience. It is important to know where to put your keywords, too. Many people make the mistake of thinking that more keywords are always better, but this isn’t true.

Using too many keywords can be detrimental to your website’s success. This is known as keyword stuffing and the Google algorithm doesn’t like it. This is because keyword stuffing diminishes the value of your content and makes it less informative.

It instead turns your content into spam. The Google algorithm will rank your content lower as a result. It is important to instead spread your keywords around your content.

Create a list of keywords that you want to target. Then spread those keywords throughout your content without grouping too many together. This will allow you to reap the benefits of these keywords without keyword stuffing.

Keywords that are specific to your law firm are important too. Consider creating keywords that use your law firm’s name. This would make your law firm a more prominent power online and would make it easier for people to find the firm when searching for it.

How to Create a Linking Strategy

While keywords are important, they aren’t the only thing you can use to give your website a boost. Links are also important for boosting your website’s SEO. There are several types of links you can use to make your website more appealing.

The two main types are external links and internal links. Internal links help connect your website’s content to itself. You might have several blog posts that are not connected.

This makes it difficult for the Google algorithm to see that they are connected. This may make some posts fall into obscurity while others get more traffic. You can fix this problem with internal links.

You can link together different website pages so that they are more connected. Once the Google algorithm sees this, it will promote your content in a more balanced manner. Using internal links also helps your website seem more authoritative.

This is important because the algorithm is more likely to promote more authoritative sites. This shows that your website’s content has valuable information and is worth checking out. External links instead connect your content with other websites.

Many people wonder what the point of this is. Similar to internal linking, external linking is important for authority. But it is also important for showing that your content is trustworthy and updated.

Having a connection with another high-quality site will make your website seem far more reputable.

Different Types of Links

Backlinks are also important. This is when another website has a link to your site.

These links are harder to obtain since you can’t do them yourself. You instead have to convince another website to put links to your website in their content. But backlinks are extremely important.

Almost every successful website has one or more backlinks. These links are important because they help bring more traffic to your website. Backlinks are usually placed on websites that are larger than yours.

This makes it easier for a larger influx of traffic to come from those links. The Google algorithm is also very fond of those links. High-quality backlinks show that your website is very professional and trustworthy.

This will make the algorithm more likely to promote your website and rank it higher. Having more than one backlink is ideal. This makes it more likely for people to find your website from those different links.

The main way to get backlinks is to ask website owners. You can show off some of your content to get them interested. If they think that your content would be good enough to link to on their website, they will likely give you a backlink.

You can also write guest posts for them and see if you can convince the website owners to give you backlinks after they see your work. Building these different links can take a while, but it’s worth it.

These links will soon help your website gain more traffic and authority. This will help it rank higher and reap more success.

The Importance of Technical SEO and User Experience

What should you do if you follow all these tips but still are not making any progress with your website? It may be a problem with your technical SEO, which involves how easily search engines recognize your content.

If your content is too difficult to recognize, it might not be possible for Google to rank your content correctly. This would cause your content to rank low on Google despite the use of good keywords and links. Every page on your website needs to be recognizable and easy to understand for search engines and people.

This involves refining your titles, headers, paragraphs, and sentences. You may also have to refine the alt text for any photos, links, and the architecture of your site. Your titles are especially important.

They will be the first things that people see when searching for your content. This is why you need your titles to be as catchy as possible. You need to have your titles stand out from the competition.

This can be difficult, but you can improve your chances by using more descriptive words. It is also important to use one or two keywords in the title to make your content more relevant.

How to Structure Your Content

The structure of your content is important too. If you often use long sentences or paragraphs, it’s time to break them up. Very long sentences are hard for search engines and people to understand.

Breaking them into smaller sentences will make them far more accessible. Breaking up large paragraphs will also make your content easier to follow. Smaller paragraphs are also far less intimidating compared to large blocks of text.

Don’t forget about using headers, either. These are great for breaking up large blocks of text. They can also organize your content so that it is easier to follow.

You can use keywords in your headers as well. This will further optimize your content. Consider the alt text you use for any pictures.

Adding brief descriptions and keywords in the alt text can give your content an extra boost. This will ensure that your technical SEO is well-rounded.

All About Search Engine Optimization for Law Firms

You can’t have a successful law firm website without search engine optimization. Keywords will help your website be more visible to search engines and internet users. Internal and external links as well as backlinks will help your website be more authoritative and trustworthy.

Technical SEO will also make your website more visible and understandable. To learn more about law firm SEO, check out our services.