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Want to grow your practice? SEO for law firms will do it. In this post, you’ll learn what SEO is and how to implement a winning law firm SEO strategy in 10 steps. The result? Leads that can convert 14x better on average than leads from print ads.
In 1976, John Bates and Van O’Steen had a problem—their phone wasn’t ringing enough to keep their law firm afloat. The solution, they knew, was advertising.
Plenty of lessons can be learned from the landmark case Bates v. State Bar of Arizona, but the one that matters here is the basic assumption that most law firms cannot grow—or even survive—without advertising.
It used to be pretty easy. Create a commercial, take out Yellow Book ads, throw up a billboard, and BOOM—more clients.
Here’s your new reality: consumers now spend at least 8 hours consuming digital content a day, and when they need legal services, 97 percent of them head to Google instead of the Yellow Pages. More than 70 percent of them prefer to get their questions answered and learn about your law firm via online articles rather than ads, and they frequently do their research on a mobile device.
Even referrals—the more reliable source of leads for lawyers—have moved to online review platforms like Google, Facebook, and Nextdoor.
The legal industry has traditionally been slow to adapt to new technology, but you can’t afford to fall behind the times. That’s why we created the guide below to the best lawyer marketing strategy out there—one that’s implemented in 10 steps and produces leads that convert 14x better than print ads: search engine optimization (SEO).
We used the same 10 steps to increase one law firm’s leads by 220 percent, so you know they work. Keep reading to see the 10 steps to SEO success.
Why SEO Is One of the Best Client Acquisition Strategies for Law Firms
Search engine optimization is the process of grooming your online presence so your website ranks higher in search engines for certain keywords. SEO for law firms is so valuable because it puts your practice in front of someone at the exact moment they’re searching for your services. That’s the reason SEO leads have a 14.6 percent close rate, compared to only 1.7 percent for outbound leads like print ads.
How SEO Works
Here’s how it works: Google and other search engines crawl pages on the web, categorizing them and indexing them in what would be the universe’s biggest library. When you search for something, you’re putting in a request to the library. Google uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to decipher your search term and spit out web pages you’ll find useful.
Here’s where SEO comes in. Search crawlers speak a different language than we do—HTML. So, they need some extra help to determine what a web page is about so they can correctly index it.
Think of it like this: you’ve gone to the world’s biggest library, but the librarian speaks Russian, and all the books are in English. By optimizing your website for search, you’re using specific tactics—like adding in extra bits of code and structuring your website a specific way—that act like subtitles and make it easier for crawlers to understand, categorize, and index each web page.
Proof SEO Is Effective for Attorneys (with the Right Marketing Partner)
Here at Blue Corona, we’ve worked with several local law firms, all of which have seen tremendous success after investing in SEO for lawyers. For example, this client, a law firm in Northern Virginia, has a team of experienced attorneys specializing in divorce mediation and family law and has seen massive growth in 18 months.
- 1,916 new keyword rankings on Google.
- 197 number 1 keyword rankings on Google.
- 766 top 10 keyword rankings on Google.
Compared to the first month, a local SEO campaign helped this lawyer increase organic visits by:
- 439 percent (percent change over 12 months of local SEO for law firms).
- 869 percent (percent change over 18 months of local SEO for law firms).
Throughout the lifespan of this client, organic search (orange) has accounted for nearly 80 percent of all web form submissions from prospective clients:
SEO is arguably the most reliable and profitable law firm marketing tactic. But, before you ditch all your other advertising methods, understand that SEO is a lot like the stock market. You pick stocks—your keywords—based on information available at the time. Then, you wait for the returns, occasionally tweaking your strategy. Depending on how well-optimized your presence is, it can take anywhere from three months to a year to gather steam.
Like the stock market, results fluctuate—often due to factors like seasonal or yearly consumer behavior, Google algorithm tweaks, and advances in digital technology. That’s why we recommend diversifying your online marketing portfolio with these other law firm marketing strategies.
Also like the stock market, one thing is certain: if you play your cards right with SEO, you’ll get accelerated returns as time goes on.
Law Firm SEO: 10 Search Engine Optimization Steps to More Clients
Below are the 10 steps you should take to make your online presence optimized for search engines. Before you dive in, understand that SEO is also like the stock market in that it can go south real quick if you don’t know what you’re doing. Just like hiring a financial manager if you’re not a stock expert, I highly recommend you reach out to a law firm SEO expert (like Blue Corona) if you’re uncertain about any of the steps below.
Law Firm SEO Step 1: Pick the Right SEO Keywords
SEO is built on keywords, and picking the right keywords is like picking the right stocks. It’s a double-edged sword, though—pick the wrong keywords, and your SEO strategy will deflate like a jury that missed lunch.
Also, like stocks, the bigger, better, lead-enhancing keywords tend to have more competition and a higher cost, so you need to pick your keywords and phrases carefully.
You should pick your keywords based on:
- Your target audience – This comes from experience. What does your target audience search for? How do they speak?
- The keywords’ volume – You can use a tool like Google’s Keyword Planner and the free tool Keywords Everywhere to find out a keyword’s monthly search volume
- The keywords’ implicated search intent – “lawyer reviews” implies much more commercial intent than “do I need a lawyer?” For the highest impact, choose commercially-inclined keywords that indicate the consumer is ready to start a conversation.
- The keywords’ competition – The more people that choose to optimize for a keyword the harder it is to rank for it. That’s why you’re going to have a LOT more trouble ranking for “divorce lawyer” than “family law attorney near 20886”. Google Keyword Planner will be your best bet. Most tools that find how much competition you have are paid tools, but we use Moz and SEMRush (to name a few) the most often.
Sound overwhelming? I did some basic legwork for you. Below are the top 100 general lawyer keywords, their competition, and their search volume:
Dive deeper into this topic by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 2: Discover How You Stack Up to Your Competitors
Once you’ve got your keywords, you need to find out how you’re currently performing in the search engines compared to your competitors. While there are more than 200 factors that affect a page’s search rankings, the ones that matter the most are:
- Whether or not your website is secure (HTTPS vs. HTTP)
- Whether or not your website is mobile-friendly
- How fast web pages load on your site
- Whether a web page has the correct schema markup (a type of website code)
- The quality of your web pages’ content
- The length of your web pages’ content
- Presence of social signals that point back to your website
- Presence of quality backlinks that point back to your website
- Whether or not you have optimized images on your web pages
List all the above factors in an Excel document, then make columns for yourself and each of your top competitors. Then, compare yourself. You might find that you’re performing much better or much worse in some categories, but that will give you a good view of the playing field (or, we can do an SEO analysis for you).
Dive deeper into the topic above by catching up on the following blog:
Law Firm SEO Step 3: Make Technical SEO Improvements to Your Website
Once you’ve got the results of your SEO analysis, move on to fixing your website’s technical issues. If I could give you one law firm SEO tip and that’s it, it would be to clean up your website. This includes:
- Security – There is a cyber-attack every 39 seconds, and 43 percent of cyber-attacks target small businesses. Not only that, but 82 percent of people won’t browse an unsecured site.
- Speed – Half of US consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less and will leave if it takes longer. Test your site speed here.
- Mobile-friendliness – Consumers now spend more than five hours a day on their smartphones, and 57.6 percent of searches for lawyer keywords happen on a mobile device.
- Schema – Schema markup is a type of HTML markup that is universally understood by search engines. Schema removes any guessing games, allowing you to tell Google EXACTLY what the content on your web page is about, increasing your chances of ranking higher and lessening your chances of Google misunderstanding what your page is about. Law firms should use schema for local business.
Warning: some lawyers will dump tens of thousands of dollars into a pretty website that ends up hurting their overall web presence because it doesn’t function properly. Yes, your law firm’s website design matters, but it still has to operate smoothly. The best SEO services for attorneys (like ours) always include cleaning up your website. If your SEO company doesn’t include website cleanup, find a better SEO company.
Dive deeper into the topics above by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 4: Optimize Your Existing Web Pages for Search Engines
Once you’ve got your keywords and your website is cleaned up, you need to optimize your current website pages.
- Make sure each page has a Title Tag and Meta Description that includes your keywords. Most websites you’ll see include an SEO plugin in the backend where you can enter in your page’s title and meta description. Here’s an example:
- Make sure each page THOROUGHLY addresses the page subject. If someone would have ANY additional questions after they’re done reading, it’s not thorough enough.
- Make sure to use heading tags, which give search engines more clues as to the structure and topic of your page. Do not use heading tags for emphasis. Each page should have ONE H1 tag, multiple H2 tags, and if you need them, a few H3 tags.
- Ensure your key phrase—and variations of your key phrase—are used throughout your landing pages. That being said, DO NOT KEYWORD STUFF. If you’re looking for places to slide in keywords, you’re not doing it right. Here’s a tip: enter your key phrase into an incognito Google Search (don’t know what an incognito search is? A regular Google search will work almost as well). Once the search results have popped up, look for the following sections: “People also ask” and “Searches related to”. Make sure to answer those questions and include information on searches related to your main key phrase.
- Optimize every 👏 single 👏 webpage 👏 for these attributes.
Dive deeper into the topic above by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 5: Optimize Your Local SEO Properties, Including Social Media and Google My Business
Local SEO for law firms gets your company at the top of search results for a local service area. It’s different than normal SEO because of the emphasis on the local pack in Google’s search results. The local pack is the box of Google Map results in the search results page, under the paid ads, and above the organic search results.
The information in the local pack is pulled from your Google My Business Account, which is why your GMB account needs to be claimed and optimized for local SEO.
How to Optimize Your Google My Business Account
Google My Business (GMB) is the fastest way to list your firm on Google Maps and (potentially) gain exposure in the Google local pack, depending on your location and the competitive landscape on Google. Google uses the data on your Google My Business page to display your firm’s:
- Phone number
- Address
- Business hours
- Average reviews
- Specials, coupons, and updates (Google Posts)
To optimize your Google My Business page, follow these steps:
- Choose the appropriate business categories on GMB.
- Write a long (200–300 words), keyword rich description for your business.
- Include the correct NAP information (Name, Address, Phone number).
- Add a link to your website
- Connect your social media and online review profiles
- Add photos. Lots and lots of photos.
Reviews are part of optimizing your local presence—88 percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, so having a negative reputation online may deter potential clients from contacting your firm to represent them. Getting more Google reviews and reviews on other online business directories can help increase your exposure on page one of Google.
In addition to listing your firm’s NAP information on Google My Business, generating local SEO citations on nationally syndicated online business directories as well as niche legal directories will increase off-site SEO factors.
Make sure you claim your business in the top legal citation sources:
- FindLaw websites
- Nolo
- Lawyers.com
- Superlawyers
- Avvo
- Justia
- Best Lawyers
- Law Guru
- Law Info
- Lawyers US Legal
(Read the entire list of best local SEO citations sources for attorneys here.)
Dive deeper into the topic above by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 6: Build Out Missing Website Pages
Now that you’ve taken care of the most important SEO factors, it’s time to amp up your law firm SEO efforts. Look through your website pages and make sure you have a dedicated web page for each service you provide. Think you’ve got them all? Browse through all of your competitors’ websites. Do they have any you’re missing?
Don’t forget FAQs, About, News and Media, and other authority-building pages. Since you’re a lawyer, your FAQ pages will be gold—it took you three years (plus whatever time you spent getting your LL.M. or similar) to get comfortable with the law. Your clients are trying to get their heads around it in a fraction of that time.
People have nothing BUT questions when they begin a legal process, so preemptively answer every single question they might have with helpful (and understandable) FAQs. Bonus points for making the process visual with videos and infographics.
Dive deeper into the topic above by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 7: Create SEO-Friendly Content, Including a Blog
You need a blog. It’s doesn’t have to be fancy, and you don’t need to add a new entry every day, but you do need one.
Not only does having a blog increase your chances of ranking on search engines by 434 percent, but it also builds trust in your law firm. Modern consumers like to do their own research, which is why it’s so important (for lawyers, especially) to have digestible content that answers questions someone might have.
Bottom line—the better content you have, the higher you’ll rank, and the more leads you’ll get. Here’s why: 82 percent of customers have a more positive outlook on a company after reading custom content, and 70 percent of customers feel closer to a company after reading or watching their content.
Google rewards great content in the search engines, but you can’t just throw up a 500-word blog full of word vomit. The best blogs (the ones that rank number one):
- Are more than 2,000 words
- Completely cover the topic
- Have great images that illustrate the concept
- Have videos accompanying the text
- Are digestible (meaning any average Susan can read and understand it)
- Are optimized for SEO
Dive deeper into the topic above by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 8: Build Links Back to Your Website
Backlinks (links back to your website) are viewed as votes of confidence in your content and have a huge weight in the search engine algorithm. The more links you have back to a web page, the more authoritative Google assumes it is, and the higher you’ll rank in search engines. Building backlinks is not a passive law firm SEO strategy—you need to stay on top of it, keep building more, and monitor the links you do have.
Great sources of backlinks:
- Get interviewed
- Write law journal articles
- Write ABA or other Bar association articles
- Literally, just write more articles and submit them to related publications
- Directly reach out to journalists and bloggers to collaborate
- Promote your content on social media
- Build internal links (link one page of your website to another page on your website)
- Create amazing infographics and videos
- Claim every listing in local and industry directories (like the ones listed above for Local SEO citations)
Dive deeper into the topic above by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 9: Track, Measure, and Analyze
None of the above will work if you don’t measure, track, and analyze that data. Doing so will help you determine which lawyer marketing strategies work and which should be changed or eliminated.
However, don’t make the same mistake many law firms make by looking at metrics when they should be looking at Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
These are metrics:
- Rankings
- Social shares
- Impressions
- Brand mentions
- Website traffic
- Bounce rate
You need to monitor the metrics above because these metrics give context to your KPIs. However, you should NOT make marketing decisions solely based on them. These are the KPIs that should drive your law firm’s digital marketing strategy:
- Total new clients
- Leads
- Revenue
- Return on marketing investment (ROMI)
- Lead-to-sale conversion rate
- Booking rate (from calls)
- Cost per lead (CPL)
Dive deeper into the topic above by catching up on the following blogs:
Law Firm SEO Step 10: Tweak Your SEO Campaign Based on Analysis
The final step is to look at the results you’ve gotten and tweak your strategy based on those results. The best way to do this is to have a year-over-year comparison of your KPIs and another of your competitive analysis. Over time, you should see incremental improvements in all your categories.
You can rinse and repeat everything that’s working, but if you saw a decrease or not much movement in one category, like web traffic, it’s time to switch up your strategy. Here—I’ll make it a little easier for you:
If you saw a decrease in…
- Website traffic – Find out which pages have decreased traffic. Did you alter them in any way? Did they get slower? Are there any broken links? Do you have any alerts from Google? Revert what you did and see if traffic increases.
- Rankings – find out which rankings fell, and optimize the pages as fully as you can.
- Leads – Was it calls or web forms? Are your web forms working? Are there outside factors contributing (like seasonality for tax attorneys)? Analyze where previous leads came from, find the channel that’s lagging, and tweak your strategy.
- New clients – Are leads down? Are you attracting the right kind of leads? Once you find the root cause, you can fix it.
Once you’ve gathered enough data, it’s time to start the process over again for the next quarter! The goal is to have a continual flywheel of tracking, testing, tweaking, and repeating.
It’s Go Time: Need Help with Your Law Firm’s SEO? We’re Standing By
We covered a lot in this law firm SEO guide, and if you feel a bit lost, don’t fret about it. This is hard stuff, which is why there are SEO companies like Blue Corona. I’ve given you enough information to get started on an SEO strategy of your own, but if you need a helping hand or someone to guide you through the process, I’m happy to help.
Contact my team and tell us about your situation. We’ll listen to your frustrations and give you honest feedback and recommendations, and hopefully, we can help you use SEO to turn a dime into a dollar.
About The Author: Betsy is Blue Corona's Digital Content Manager. When she’s not directing Blue Corona's corporate digital content campaigns she’s urban exploring with her wife, diving into the latest marketing trends, or teaching horseback riding lessons. Twitter: @educatedbets
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