Law Firm SEO That Sets You Apart

The right to legal counsel is a cornerstone of American democracy. The services that attorneys provide ensure that justice is served, rights are upheld and compliance is met. What they do and how they do it is extremely important.

And, fortunately, no matter what type of law you practice, there will never be a shortage of work. Individuals and businesses in the U.S. will always require legal services. In fact, there are more lawyers in the U.S. than any other country in the world, 1.35 million, to be exact. That puts us at about one lawyer for every 246 Americans.

And while that means there’s a lot of work available, there’s also a lot of competition, which raises the question, how do you bring in the lion’s share of that available business? The answer is search engine optimization (SEO).

What is SEO?

SEO is the most effective way to ensure your business can easily be discovered online. All your digital assets, including your website, your Google My Business (GMB) listing and your social media accounts are presented to users based on how well you’ve leveraged SEO.

The number of times your firm appears to clients searching for an attorney online is based on the effectiveness of your lawyer SEO. The better your SEO, the more frequently people will be exposed to your law firm online. Simply put, SEO drives users to your business by way of search engines.

More specifically, SEO for law firms involves optimizing your website and other digital assets so they meet the requirements laid out by search engine ranking factors, criteria that Google and other search engines use to determine a website’s position on the search engine results pages (SERP).

With every SEO strategy, the goal is to be in one of the top three spots on SERPs because 75 percent of consumers do business with one of the company’s in the top-three results. Not only that, very few users even bother looking at the second page of search results; search results on the first page earn 95 percent of clicks.

So, what pops up when you Google “attorneys” in your area? If you aren’t actively improving your law firm SEO, your business probably isn’t making it to the top three on SERPs. And that’s a problem.

Prospective clients are looking for you online. And if they can’t find you, they’re going to go with an attorney they do find. Here’s why you need to start working with an experienced agency that understands SEO for law firms and can help increase your leads and grow your practice.

Whether you realize it or not, people are looking for legal services online. According to the National Law Review, 96 percent of clients use a search engine to find a lawyer. How easy it is to find you online and what prospective clients see when they visit your website and see your other digital assets is all driven by SEO.

That being said, you have to invest in the right SEO strategy to get meaningful results. And that means working with the right SEO agency. By doing so, you can dramatically increase your caseload. Here’s how:

When you’re looking for a local product or service, how do you find it? Most people start with a Google search. Finding legal services is no different. In fact, 46 percent of Google searches are for local products and services.

Even though most people think of legal services as big business, it’s also very local, and local traffic is easily captured and converted with the right SEO strategy. Ignore attorney SEO, and you’ll miss out on a huge opportunity for people to discover your business.

As a service-based business, it’s not enough to gain new clients; you also need to retain your existing ones. SEO can help you do both.

Implementing a law firm SEO strategy ensures people looking for legal services can find your business on Google. But discovering your business is only the first step. In order to convert users into clients, you need to engage them and help them learn about the amazing services you offer. This is where your website comes into play, and a comprehensive SEO strategy will help not only get prospects to your site; it will also sell them on your services once they get there.

And if you’re wondering whether or not SEO has the same impact on current customers, the answer is yes. It absolutely does. Consider this: a client who’s interested in hiring you to do more work form them goes to your website to find out if you offer a particular service. Based on what’s there, it looks like you don’t, but that’s only because you haven’t given your website the attention it deserves. But it’s too late. At this point, your client will start looking elsewhere for that service, and, next thing you know, they’re on your competition’s flashy website wondering why they don’t just take all their business there? Not good.

Neglecting your SEO is a perilous proposition that’s simply not worth the risk.

The competition in the legal industry, especially in the U.S., is intense — we already mentioned the U.S. has more attorneys than any other country. What’s worse, your competition may be tracking what you’re doing online to get more users to your site. But it goes both ways.

Do a few Google searches for terms related to “legal services.” Look at some of the top-ranked pages. Those pages will tell you all about your law firm SEO competitors. And when you work with an expert SEO agency, that information is invaluable to building an effective SEO strategy. But you have to know what to look for.

If you’re already at the top of the SERPs, great! Keep investing in your SEO and don’t use your success as an excuse to slack off. In fact, it should encourage you to protect the investment you’ve already made and continue to pursue lawyer SEO excellence!

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula for impactful SEO. Every SEO strategy requires analyzing your law firm’s entire online presence — your website, social media profiles and business directories — in order to determine what’s going to provide the most value.

At Sure Oak, we understand the legal industry and together, our team has successfully executed countless law firm SEO strategies. We know how to get your website to the top of the SERPs, and we offer flexible engagement options for law firms of all sizes or may only require specific services.

Are you ready to transform your practice by implementing an effective law firm SEO strategy? Sure Oak wants to help make it happen. Our proprietary SEO process delivers proven results and has the power to significantly grow your caseload and transform your practice.

We are dedicated to your success and tenaciously pursue excellence in every aspect of our attorney SEO services. Let us prove it to you. Contact us today for a free SEO strategy review to learn about our process and start delivering on our promise.