Law Firm SEO – The Ultimate Guide for Law Firms

Law Firm SEO Basics

Let’s start with a quick Law Firm SEO Primer. What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of getting your website, and specific pages on it, to rank, or show up, in a Google search. That could be your law firm’s home page, a particular practice area page, or a specific blog or article on your website. (In fact, the term Search Engine Optimization is somewhat of a misnomer (or at least, misses much of the bigger picture), as optimizing your firm’s website is only one part of the puzzle… more on this later.)

Let’s take another step back, and remind ourselves of the purpose of the Google search engine, which is to help users find useful, relevant information. Google indexes the bulk of the public Internet, and ranks every page against potential search phrases.

So when someone performs a google search for “New Jersey Family Lawyer,” Google decides which, of the billions of pages on the Internet, are the pages most likely to be what the user is looking for… and in what order.

Ranking Factors

So how, exactly, goes Google do that?

Well, they don’t tell anyone. At least, not exactly.

The exact formula for this, generally referred to as the Google algorithm, is an every-changing, closely-guarded secret.

But Google does provide some high-level intel on ranking factors, a general guideline that website developers and content publishers can (and should) take into account. And there are many, including:

• Ease of site navigation
• Quality of content
• Number of other sites that link to that page
• Website tags
• Sitemaps
• Website speed

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

If all of this sounds terribly complex and technical… fear not. We don’t need to know every nuance to Google’s secret algorithm to understand the basics of how it works, and what it’s purpose is, which, again, is to help users find useful, relevant information.

In this article, you’ll learn how to make a website, content and execute a law firm SEO campaign that will attract Google and the thousands of people in your area searching for an attorney.

Sidebar: Of course, Google isn’t the only search engine. But Google and its subsidiary, YouTube, collectively represent over 85% of all searches performed on the internet. So it’s natural that we focus our law firm SEO efforts where the bulk of the market is.

Basic Elements of SEO

There are a handful of key elements to running a successful law firm SEO campaign. Each of these are important, and many of them play off one another to yield the best possible SEO results. The key ingredients to law firm SEO are:

Website Optimization

First, your site itself (and your website pages) must be optimized. This includes technical elements, such as page titles, H1 and H2 tags, image alt tags, and URL structure. Google relies on these technical indicators to get a sense of what information your website has, and how the information is organized. Because much of website optimization, often called on-site optimization, is behind-the-scenes, its imperative that your web designer has a solid grasp on technical SEO techniques, and not just on making a pretty website.

Some people make the mistake that website optimization is all there is to SEO. This is not the case; rather optimizing your website is the firs step towards SEO. That is: Doing this process makes your website “SEO ready“, but alone is unlikely to make your website rank in a Google search. To complete the picture, you must perform the following additinal law firm SEO strategies.

Navigation & Structure

Related to website optimization, but worth it’s own mention is the navigation and structure of your website. Your website’s navigation should be clear and easy to find what a visitor is looking for–for both your potential clients and for Google.

Your website should have an easy-to-understand navigation (“Top Nav”), most likely a menu for Attorneys, Practice Areas, Contact Us and more. Similarly, your site should have a Sitemap.xml file, which informs Google on the structure of your site and location of your content.

Content

Potentially the most important element of effective SEO is: Content. Google favors websites that produce regular, fresh, relevant content on a particular subject. As a result, a key tenant of your law firm SEO strategy must include a content schedule, where your firm produces regular, authoritative content on your areas of expertise. The best places for content for a law firm website include:

• Practice Area Pages – You should exhaustively cover and descriptive each practice area, the nuances, and how your firm excels in this area. The more meaty and substantive, the better for SEO (and for your visitors).
• Blogs (Articles) – You (or your marketing agency) should regularly publish blogs covering subjects within your practice areas. Again, the more authoritative and expansive, the better for SEO.

We’ll cover content marketing, as it pertains to SEO, in more detail later in this article.

Backlinks

Finally: Backlinks. One of the key ways that Google decides how important your page is (or isn’t) is: How many other important sites are linking to it? That link is called a backlink (so-called because it’s a link back to you site). Part of the SEO process is spending time getting other, high-authority websites to link to your website, pages and articles. And in general, the more authoritative a referring domain is (such as the ABA or an EDU site), the more punch that backlink packs.

Backlinks come in a variety of formats, and we’ll cover them (and how to get them) later in this guide.

SEO vs. PPC

Next, let’s discuss the differences of law firm SEO vs. PPC. You may have heard both terms before, and both can be very viable methods to market and grow your law firm.

SEO and PPC are fundamentally different, and each have their unique benefits and potential drawbacks. (Some law firms confuse them as one in the same.) To draw a distinction, we’ll explore the differences between SEO and PPC for law firms.

SEO for Law Firms

SEO, as described is the process of getting your website and specific web pages (including articles and blog posts) to show up in the organic section of the Google Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This is called “organic” because your firm’s website is organically, or naturally, showing up in a search.

Upside of SEO

The Benefits of SEO include:

• Lasting results: One you obtain a particular ranking (such as a page-one rank), you’re likely to keep it for a while, or indefinitely.
• No pay-per-click: Once your site ranks on page one of the Google SERP, you don’t pay anything each time someone clicks to your website

Downside of SEO

The drawbacks or limitations of SEO include:

• It takes time. It can take three, up to six months before you see real results from an SEO campaign.
• It takes effort. An ongoing SEO campaign, including content generation and backlink generation, is very time consuming.

PPC for Law Firms

If SEO is the long-game, PPC is closer to instant gratification. PPC (which stands for Pay-Per-Click) is advertising on the Internet. When most people say PPC, they’re usually referring to advertising via the Google Ads program, which allows advertisers (such as law firms) to show ads when people perform a search for a specific phrase.

When you advertise via Google Ads, you tell Google what keywords you want to bid on (advertise for). Then, when someone searches for that term, your ad may show up, ad the top of the Google SERP. And you pay only when someone clicks on your ad (and goes to your website).

The ad itself looks very similar to a regular (organic) search result. Typically when you perform a Google search for something, the first three results are sponsored ads, which you can identify by the discreet ‘Ad’ label to the left of the ad.

Upside of PPC

Benefits of PPC for law firms include:

• Nearly instant gratification: You can create a Google Ads campaign today and start receiving new clients tomorrow.
• Highly-Targeted: You can target counties, cities, down to specific zip codes.

Downside of PPC

Drawbacks or limitations of PPC for law firms include:

• Ongoing Cost: PPC is fundamentally advertising, which means you pay for each time someone clicks on your ad.
• Competitive: Law is one of the most competitive spaces within PPC; depending on your practice area and city, you may have to spend $2000, $5000, or even $10,000 / month to show up alongside each market’s biggest advertisers.

SEO or PPC–Which is Best for My Law Firm?

Whet it comes to law firm SEO or PPC, which should your firm employ?

The answer, budget permitting, is both.

PPC ads show up at the top of a search result, and therefor can deliver immediate results to a new law firm online marketing campaign. PPC, generally speaking, captures the segment of your audience that is looking to talk to someone right now.

SEO, on the other hand, is the long game. It builds significant search traffic to your site over time, and traffic that you don’t pay for each click. Law firm SEO, in general, captures the segment of your audience that may be more likely to do research (and read your articles).

Your Website – The Epicenter of Your SEO

When it comes to law firm SEO, Everything begins with your website. It’s the foundation that your SEO is built on. If you’re building on a weak foundation, your SEO will suffer no matter the time, labor, and money invested.

While generating content and back links are a crucial part of building lasting SEO for your law firm, there is much that needs to be optimized on your website itself.

We’re not going to get hyper-technical here. Rather, we’re going to talk broad strokes of the website and how to set up the right foundation. This way, you’ll have the requisite basic knowledge needed to either set up your own SEO or be confident when hiring help so you can properly manage the project.

Our professional recommendation is building your site on WordPress. You’ve probably heard of it. Its open-source platform powers 30% of the top million websites. Having familiarity with different website platforms, we strongly advise towards WordPress. Other platforms (Squarespace, Wix, etc.), we’ve found are not as robust and have more of a challenge getting better search engine visibility.

These next sections will discuss different elements of SEO – from the on-site to off-site elements. Some of these tips are general advice, while others are WordPress-specific.

Law Firm Website Essentials

Before we dive into the technical how-to’s of a winning law firm SEO strategy, let’s cover the essentials of any good law firm website. These must-haves are critical for SEO, and generally important for your website visitors.

Navigation & Structure

Structure and navigation matter a lot for law firm SEO. In general, you want the structure of your law firm website to look something like:

• Home Page
• About Us / About the Firm
• Practice Areas
  • Practice Area 1
    • Sub Practice Area / Case Type A
    • Sub Practice Area / Case Type B
  • Practice Area 2
    • Sub Practice Area / Case Type A
    • Sub Practice Area / Case Type B
• Attorneys
  • Bio Page Per Attorney
  • …
• Blog / In the News
  • Individual Articles / Posts
  • …
• Contact Us

Simple and understandable. A few important keys when it comes to law firm website structure:

• Don’t try to cram too much information on your home page
• Don’t try to cram each of your Practice Areas onto a single Practice Area page.
• Create as many “Sub-Practice Area” pages as possible (specific case types)
• For each Practice Area page and Sub-Practice Area page, provide as much substantive content as possible.

Again, this kind of clean yet substantive structure is good for SEO, and good for humans too.

Get the Guide:

For more tips and recommendations on designing (or redesigning) your law firm website, check out our guide on Redesigning Your Law Firm Website.

Website & Hosting Essentials

Other website and hosting-related must-have for law firm SEO include:

A Winning Home Page

It may go without saying, but I’ll say it: You need a killer home page. The top of your law firm home page is the first part of the first impression you’ll make with many potential clients. This section, called the hero bar, needs to be clean, stand out and demonstrate what your firm stands for, in a split second.

Great law firm home pages usually include:

• A striking hero image, of your attorney(s), your firm or practice area.
• A clean, simple navigation.
• An easy-to-spot Call to Action (CTA).
• Optimized for your targeted keywords (such as your practice area).

For a few examples of great, modern and easy-to-read websites, check out our examples below.

The SEO Audit

If you’re looking to drive SEO for an existing website, you should start with an SEO audit.

How is your site doing today? What big-picture issues need fixing first, before we start messing around with your website’s content?

For example – has your site been flagged or penalized by Google’s algorithm? Is your site showing up in any search results? Where do you stand?

Aside from being important for the technical, it’s also important for benchmarking. This way, you can see how your SEO is improving over time due to your SEO efforts.

Regardless of whether you use WordPress or any other platform, you’ll want to have an SEO audit performed on your website. An audit will help you find areas on your site that needs to be improved. If you are just embarking on a new SEO campaign, the SEO audit should be done at the outset, so you can see the technical issues that need fixing, before you move on to your regular on-page and off-page SEO rhythms.

First, before we get into it, a quick word on SEO site audits.

SEO audits can be very superficial or very deep, and the term can be used… liberally. I have come across SEO audits that barely skim the surface, and only look at the on-site SEO basics. I have also seen SEO audits that are incredibly comprehensive, looking at everything from the site’s content to its technical properties, to its link profile to comparisons with competitors and more.

When it comes to SEO audits, here are some of the basic elements:

• Ensuring your site is getting indexed and crawled
• Checking for manual penalties in Google Search Console
• Testing out the site and its structure
• Backlink analysis
• Competitor analysis
• Error and redirect checking
• On-page tag audit

There is a lot of technical that goes into the audit, but there are tools that can help out. Google’s Search Console is a free tool for checking for errors on your website. Beyond that though, you will need tools to help you get an in-depth look at your site’s SEO as well as the competitive landscape your site is in. For this, paid tools like SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Screaming Frog are particularly useful.

On-Site SEO for Law Firms

Also known as On-Page SEO, on-site SEO involves editing done to the website itself (not just text content, but the site tags and technology) to help it gain a better organic rank in the search engines.

The basic on-site SEO elements for law firms include: page titles, meta descriptions, Heading (H1,H2, etc.) tags, Yoast (if you’re using WordPress), and alt tags for images.

In WordPress, the page titles and meta descriptions can be set up with Yoast, an SEO plugin that you can work with in your site’s back-end dashboard. The “SEO title” and “meta description” refer to the title and description of a given webpage in search results. For example, when you search for “[your city] lawyer” and you see search results – the title and meta description determines the snippet that people see in their search engine results.

Page Titles

Page meta titles are the titles that show up above page descriptions in search results. SEO titles should mention the keyword you are targeting with the corresponding page. This is important because these meta titles are relevant SEO ranking factors.

Meta Descriptions

Every page has a meta description. A meta description is an HTML tag for the page which is made up of about 155 characters. It is a summary of what is found on the page. Think about the results you saw on page one for the last thing you searched for on Google. The little snippets of text you read under each link is a meta description. Use your keyword or phrase in a way that will appeal to your target audience. It should be noted that the meta description itself does not count as a ranking factor for Google’s search algorithm, but it should be crafted so as to encourage people searching for your main target keyword to click on your site. A higher click-through rate to your page can have a positive effect on SEO.

Using H1 and H2 Tags

The H tags are heading tags. In your webpage copy, you can break up your sections into having section headings and paragraph text. The H tags start at 1 and go up from there. The H1 tag (aka “heading 1”) is generally reserved for the page or post title. H2 and H3 tags are used for section and sub-section headings. If you are editing your page content in WordPress, if you highlight your text and choose the paragraph symbol, you’ll get a drop down that then allows you to choose a title case like heading or body text. Your H1 should definitely include your target keyword or phrase. At least one of your H2 subheadings should also include it. But, for readability sake, you might not want to place those two items extremely close together. These tags are something you’d use on every page.

Alt Tags

Alt tags are used with images. Since search engine algorithms cannot “see” images, they read the alt tags, which are meant to provide descriptions of what is in each corresponding image. Alt tags basically help contribute some SEO benefits to images on your website.

Yoast SEO PlugIn

If we could give you another reason to choose WordPress as your site structure, it would be Yoast. Yoast is an SEO plug-in for WordPress. It’s a valuable tool for SEO for law firms, as well as any website. Once installed, Yoast lets you modify the SEO elements of each page, from the SEO title to meta descriptions and more. Yoast also helps when it comes to optimizing the content on your page, as the Yoast plugin can advise you if your webpage has good SEO for a chosen target keyword. Yoast can recommend to use your focus keyword in more headings and the page text itself, and whether you have enough images or links. Overall, Yoast is an indispensable tool when it comes to editing your on-site SEO.

Website Content

Now let’s talk about content. By content, I mean basically any text pages on your website. Homepage. Practice area pages. Blog posts. Lawyer bios. Etc.

To keep it simple – when it comes to SEO, having content that thoroughly covers the scope of your practice areas helps improve your website’s visibility for those practice areas.

So, what steps should you take when it comes to creating content?

Research. Don’t go into this blind. If you start your content creation from the perspective of guessing what you should be writing about, you are more likely to end up wasting time on efforts that will not provide as big a return on your investment. When it comes to research, start with an analysis of the competitive landscape. Since your SEO efforts are going to be designed to take the hill from other law firms already ranking in Google, you need to see what they are doing right and what the opportunities are. What sort of information are they sharing? You certainly don’t want to copy them word for word, but well ranking competitors can help you figure out a basic content plan. Beyond that, there are several SEO tools available that can assist with research. Most of the best SEO tools are paid tools, however. Tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs cost money to use, but they provide a good analysis of your site as well as the competitive landscape for your target keywords.

Related:

Don’t hire your competitor’s SEO company. Learn how to navigate potential marketing conflicts of interest.

Start With Practice Area Pages, Then Blog Posts. The foundation of your website is going to be the content on your homepage and practice area pages. These pages should be very well-written, thorough, and targeted towards the keywords you want to rank for. Once you have your main practice area pages taken care of, ensure that all your bases are covered with niche practice areas. For example, if you do personal injury law, don’t stop at having a page for “auto accidents.” Have pages on other related topics like “commercial truck accidents,” “Uber accidents,” and “bus accidents.” Having specific practice area pages helps you to own those topics. Then, once you have those topics covered, move on to blog posts. What should you write about? Start with the FAQs…

Create a List of FAQs for Your Target Audience. You want your law firm to be seen as an expert resource in your chosen practice area(s). One simple way to do this is to create a list of FAQs for your target audience. In all of your time as a lawyer, what are the most common questions you’ve been asked during consultations? What are the most common questions that come from people who call or email the firm? What are some associated questions? What sort of FAQs do you see on competitor sites? Remember to keep the copy reader friendly while also using your keywords and phrases.

Writing Quality Is Important. Writing quality is important for a couple of reasons. The first is your target audience. The second is for the search engine. Your target audience comes to your site for a reason. They have a question, a legal problem, or both. They’re looking for information. Talk directly to them. Don’t use legal jargon. Write for your audience, not for other lawyers, not for the court. You’re not writing a brief, you are writing an article intended for someone who needs to hire a lawyer. If there are some legal terms that you just can’t “translate” into plain English, provide a definition for it. Always, always, always keep your audience in mind. For the search engines, the quality of writing directly impacts your organic search rating. You’ll want to use your keywords or phrases appropriately (no keyword stuffing!) and make sure that your content is an appropriate length. Use subheadings to break up the content.

Yoast. Make sure that if you’re using WordPress that you have Yoast installed. I know we mentioned it earlier, but it’s worth bringing up again. Yoast is extremely helpful for SEO for law firms because it can give you a score for keyword use, let you know if you’ve written enough content, and help you edit your meta description. It can also help you determine if you need to work on the readability of the content.

Hemingway App. Readability is an important concept. Basically, how easy (or hard) is it to read the content? The Hemingway App is a great free tool. I use it with every blog post I write. It can help you improve the readability of your content (including giving you a grade level for comprehension). It highlights which sentences are hard to read and very hard to read. It also tells you whether you should consider a simpler explanation for certain portions of the content.

Off-Site SEO

The phrase “off-site SEO” often confuses people because we so often think that optimization only deals with what happens on the website. Off-site SEO for law firms means a couple of things (one of which we mentioned under SEO audits). These couple of things are extremely beneficial when it comes to improving your law firm’s SEO.

Link Building. One of the most important search engine ranking factors is links to your website. Here, quality is more important than quantity. Google ranks websites, and a link from a high-quality website in Google’s estimation is worth significantly more than a link from a low-quality website. For example, a link to your website from a news website like the Times will boost your SEO more significantly than several dozen to several hundred links from low-quality websites (e.g. the kind you can buy links from on Fiverr). Many people assume that all links are created equal, hence, the idea that you get as many links as possible. But, Google has wised up over the years. If you were to buy links in bulk from a site like Fiverr, know that the quality of the links to your website will not be high, and it can result in you getting penalized by Google. Especially if you suddenly, magically accrue a hundred or a thousand links from random sites overnight. So, where can you get links? You can get valuable links are from local community organizations and publications. Sponsor events in your community, and you will likely get a backlink on their event websites. Sponsor a small scholarship at the local high school. Get involved in your community and build your local presence. It may seem odd, but getting outside and building relationships can have a bigger impact on your web presence than by sitting at your computer.

Directories. Directories and websites that cater to the legal industry are a great way to get your link and your name out to people. If the directory is well respected, and they provide what are called “do-follow links”, it can have a positive influence on the law firm website’s organic ranking. I mention “do-follow” links because many directories have “no-follow” links, which prevent any SEO benefit from passing from their site to yours.

Google My Business (GMB). Claim your Google My Business profile if you have not yet. Add your business name, address, and phone number. Make sure the name and address are both exactly the same as your info on your website. For example, if your address is “123 Fake Street,” make sure your Google listing does not say “123 Fake St.” because that may not be counted as the same thing, and you miss out on those SEO points there. Claiming and filling your Google Business page helps you show up in local search results, like the Google Map pack, which is increasingly showing up in most people’s searches. If someone searches for a divorce lawyer in your city, chances are at the top of search results is going to be an embedded Google Map with a few selected law firms. Better SEO and your Google Business profile will help you get higher visibility in those map results.

Advanced Law Firm SEO Strategies

Now that we’ve covered the basics of law firm SEO, let’s dive into the SEO techniques that really move the needle when ranking your law firm.

These techniques aren’t simply optional extras… they’re essential if you truly want your law firm to show up on page one of a Google search. Because:

There’s much more to SEO than simply optimizing your website.

Much more. A common assumption or point of confusion I hear when talking to law firms that are new to online marketing is just that. I’ll often ask a law firm: “Are you doing any SEO right now?”

The answer, sometimes, is something like: “Yes, we had our site SEO-optimized when it was built.”

That alone is, as I described earlier, simply making your site SEO ready. It’s ready for the next step (which I’ll outline next). But the sheer existence of your website, even optimized, won’t drive SEO by itself. You need an ongoing, focused effort to drive SEO rankings for your website.

Here’s what you’ll need to do (or hire an agency to do).

Local SEO

A subset of law firm SEO is what we call local SEO, or local search.

When you perform a Google search from your computer or smartphone for a particular restaurant or store (for instance), you may have noticed three local results in its own section on the SERP, including the business name and (if you’re searching from a phone), buttons to call or get directions to that business.

This portion of the search results is called the Local Search results, or sometimes referred to as the Google Local “3-Pack” Getting your firm listed in these local results is a vital part of law firm SEO. Getting on the 3-Pack is not only vital, its (relatively) low-hanging fruit when it comes to marketing your law firm.

So how do you get your firm listed in the 3-Pack?

You create a Google My Business listing. If you haven’t already, this is something you should do right away. The process is:

1. Create (or claim and update) your law firm’s listing on Google My Business.
2. Fill out your business profile completely.
3. Ensure that all information (address, phone number) matches other directories you may be listed on (this is critical for SEO).
4. Add pictures. Photos you upload here will show up in google searches. Add photos of your team, your office (inside and outside). The more the better.
5. Don’t forget to include your website address.

Having a GMB profile, and keeping it current, will increase your chances of showing up in the Google Local Search.

Backlinks & Citations

As described earlier, a key way Google determines how important your website is (and whether it should show your site on page 1 or or page 15 of a Google search) is how many other website link to yours.

Here’s a quick breakdown:

In determining what is most relevant, these search engines rely on algorithms. Google’s link analysis algorithm is known as PageRank. PageRank (named after Google co-founder Larry Page) relies largely on the “votes” (links) of other websites to determine which website is the most relevant to your keywords. Votes counted for PageRank exist most commonly in the form of links to the particular relevant website. The more links (known as “backlinks”) to your website from other websites, the more relevant Google thinks it is.

Imagine all these circles represent websites and the lines represent links. Site B has the highest PageRank because many sites are linking to it. Site C has the second-highest PageRank here, even though Site E has more links from more sites. The reason C has a higher PageRank is because Site B, which has a high PageRank, provided a link to Site C. Site C has a high PageRank because another site with a high PageRank linked to it. So, you can see that even if your site gets hundreds or even thousands of links from sites with low PageRanks, a few links from sites with high PageRanks can make a huge impact.

There are theoretically endless (and sometimes creative) ways to get backlinks to your website. Here are the most effective, tried-and-true ways to get backlinks to your site.

Directories

Online directories are low-hanging(ish) fruit when it comes to getting links to your website. There are a handful of go-to law firm directories that your firm should be listed on. And getting listed and linked from these directories isn’t just about someone going to NoLo (for instance), clicking a link to your site, then calling you. By virtue of that hyperlink existing, your SEO value increases.

Online legal directories that you’ll want to get your law firm listed on include:

• Avvo
• NoLo
• Justia
• Lawyers.com

Some of these allow free listings, and some allow you to promote your listing to make it appear further at the top of the list. These local directory listing are also sometimes called local citations. Citations show prominence, authenticity and relevance so the search engines like Google can feel confident about leading local searchers to your website and your firm.

Beyond these national online directories, explore your local bar association and chamber of commerce to find additional citation and backlink opportunities. Scouring the web and listing your company is time-consuming (and sometimes tedious), but worth the effort.

Write Great Content

Of course, the best way to get backlinks is for them to happen naturally. Meaning: If you write and publish great content, other websites (blog sites, legal articles and even other law firms) will organically find your content, find it useful and link to it.

The best backlinks we’ve seen crop up for law firms are ones where the firm simply authored great, authoritative content… and over time others found it useful, and linked to it.

We’ll cover how to write great content for SEO shortly.

Publish Guest Blogs

If you’re just getting started with your law firm SEO, another way to get the backlink ball rolling is to write guest blogs on other websites (and include a link back to your website). Doing so has an element of grass-roots, “get your name out there,” along with a bulit-in backlink.

You’ll need to spend time reaching out to publications and other websites, and chances are the best websites get a lot of “can I write a guest blog for you?” inquiries… but keep at it, and build your backlink profile bit by bit.

Content Marketing for SEO

Content is king when it comes to law firm SEO.

You can optimize your site perfectly, secure numerous backlinks and setup a Google My Business profile… but if you’re not regularly generating fresh, new content, you’re unlikely to rank in a Google search.

Content marketing (in the broad sense) and SEO go hand-in-hand.

Apart from your practice area pages, which are largely static, blogs are the #1 way to engage in content marketing that truly drives SEO.

Remember, Google’s basic function is to provide highly-relevant content to people searching for a specific subject or topic. So the best way to rank on Google is to regularly generate quality content about and around your firm’s practice areas. And blog post are the staple of content marketing for law firms.

And by ‘Blog,’ I don’t mean OpEd style editorial. I mean authoritative, educational and comprehensive coverage of a particular subject, issue or practice area. The more informative, high-quality content you have on your website, and create every month, the more likely Google is to rank your site, and the more likely visitors to your site will acknowledge that your firm is an expert in their area (and the more likely they will be to contact you).

Quality wins over quantity when it comes to law firm SEO, but consistency in delivering fresh, new articles is important to law firm Internet marketing overall.

This is important: I see a lot of law firms start strong with a content/blog schedule… then slow down or publish sporadically over time. When you regularly publish quality content, over time your law firm’s website begins to show up in the organic section of the Google search page.

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Blog Articles

A regular flow of new, quality blogs is the bedrock of a law firm SEO strategy.

The more high-quality, relevant articles your firm publishes, generally speaking, the more visitors your website will receive (and the more new clients you’ll ultimately acquire). As such, your website should have a built-in blogging platform, making it easy for you to regularly write new articles. And your marketing plan should call for some schedule for new content (blog articles), as I describe above. And the key here, is to stick with it.

Its important to keep the momentum: If you can’t commit to a publishing cycle, hire an agency to write and publish content for you. (A good law firm marketing agency will have copywriters that are knowledgeable and able to write for your practice areas.)

Coming up with subjects to write about, especially on an ongoing basis, can be tricky. At first.

I recommend that you sit down, and think about:

• What circumstances prompt someone to need a lawyer in the first place?
• Why should someone hire a lawyer in your practice area?
• What are the top factors to consider when selecting a lawyer for this type of case?
• What are the top 5 (or 10) most common questions new clients have during intake?
• What are the potential outcomes for a typical matter in your practice area?
• What key bodies of law should your potential clients know about?
• What questions do new clients tend to ask again and again?

Each of these would make for a great blog article. Jot down everything you can think of. As your writing down a list of potential subjects, write down three to ten bullets for each, giving yourself a rough outline of what will be in each article. What you’ll likely find is: One good idea leads to another.

Some of your articles can be timely, or based on current events. Others can be educational and more academic in nature. The goal is to rank for the keywords that matter to you and to convince readers that your firm is best suited to meet the reader’s needs.

Keep a running list of blog ideas (call this topic ideation around your office if you want to sound cool), and commit to that regular publishing cycle.

We recommend a bare minimum of one new article per month (at least 1000 words each), per practice area.

Do you work in, and want to rank for, both your Personal Injury and your Criminal Defense practices? Each needs its own dedicated content schedule. If your law firm SEO goals are more ambitious, a cadence of one new article per week is even better.

Finally, make sure every blog post has a clear Call-to-Action (CTA), such as a Contact Us form on the blog sidebar. The CTA shouldn’t be obnoxious, but should be easy to spot.

Videos & Webinars

Law firm SEO is all about showing up in search engines. Do you know what the #2 search engine is?

It’s not Bing.

It’s YouTube. Video is a great medium to educate your audience, build authority and–rank for SEO. Everything we covered in content marketing (blog-writing) doubles for video. Videos, published on YouTube and embedded on your website, add value to your website and help your firm rank for SEO.

Have you ever performed an Internet search and noticed videos mixed in the results? Most of these are YouTube videos.

Over time, your firm should build a library of great educational videos. Just like blogs, think about the kinds of topics that new and prospective clients are wondering about. What do they ask about? When should someone consultant an attorney? What are the need-to-know items for a potential client?

Each of these would make a great, confessional-style video. Some lawyers will spend a little money on a high-quality camera and microphone, and film a video in front of the law library. Others just turn on their webcam, write a short script and spend a few minutes talking about a particular subject. Either is great, and even a few, short, low-budget videos are better than nothing.

Your video production schedule can mirror your blog topics. For instance:

• Writing a blog about the ins and outs of adoption? Embed a 5-minute video of you talking your audience through the same subject.
• Have each attorney in your firm give a short “About Me/” video that goes on their profile or bio page.
• Have a short 101 video for each practice area page on your website, covering the basics of that practice area.

Once you’ve recorded the video, upload it to YouTube and embed it on the most appropriate page on your website. (Be sure your website platform supports this.)

Similarly, webinars make for great content marketing, and serve as video content for your website long after the webinar has been complete. You can use services like GoToWebinar to host, record and manage webinars for your law firm.

Get the Guide:

Learn how to schedule, record, create and share your law firm webinar. Get the Webinar Guide.

Putting it All Together

We’ve covered a lot of ground in this article. Obviously, there’s a lot that goes into law firm SEO. But just remember, getting your law firm to rank involves:

1. Optimizing your website, from structure to tags (Onsite SEO).
2. Generating quality backlinks and citations (Offsite SEO).
3. Regularly creating quality content on your website.

The goal is to make your website a magnet that other websites will want to link to, and people will want to visit. The more this happens, the more Google takes notice, and increases your firm’s rankings.

Which ultimately translates to more visitors, and more new customers.

Developing a System

Consistency is key when it comes to executing an SEO strategy. Remember: Law firm SEO takes time. And if you veer off course or lose momentum… you won’t make it to the finish line.

That’s why it’s important that you, or an agency, develop a comprehensive system to execute on your SEO plan. And that plan should include a cadence, or schedule that you or someone on your behalf dutifully executes, without fail.

That schedule may look something like:

Hiring an Agency

You can certainly do all this yourself. If you do, be sure to carve out time to spend on every element of your law firm SEO strategy, no matter what. Losing steam or putting time into it sporadically will ensure that you never see real results for your efforts.

Hiring an SEO agency can certainly be an effective way to grow your law firm (after all, chances are you didn’t go to law school to become an SEO expert).

When looking for an outside SEO agency, we recommend looking for the following qualities.

1. Exclusive Legal Focus. It takes a professional lifetime to truly master SEO for a single industry. Each law practice area along takes years to learn. That’s why we always recommend an SEO agency that spends 100% of their time working with law firms.
2. Avoid Long-Term Contracts. Some SEO agencies, especially the bigger ones, push for a long term contract, such as a year or more. While a short, initial term may be fair, avoid anything longer than 6 months. If the agency can’t deliver on their promises, you’ll need an out.
3. Full-Spectrum Internet Marketing. Your marketing needs may grow beyond SEO to other marketing avenues, such as PPC and Email marketing. You don’t want to be cobbling together a marketing strategies with multiple vendors. Make sure you go with an agency that provides a full suite of Internet marketing services for you to grow into.

Learn more about SEO services for law firms.

Related:

Learn more about the pros and cons of managing your firm’s marketing in-house, or hiring an agency.

Closing the Loop

There you have it – Everything you wanted to know about law firm SEO. While SEO is a long-game, investing the time and resources has paid dividends for tens of thousands of law firms, large and small.

Ready to get more cases and clients from SEO?

We know law firm SEO. Get in touch with our team to plan a marketing strategy for your law firm.