If you already know a thing or two about digital marketing, you’ll probably know all about search engine optimisation (SEO). But, if not, there’s no time like the present to get to grips with it!
The importance of SEO for law firms cannot be underestimated. Google (other search engines are available) is an unforgiving wilderness and if your website isn’t full of SEO-rich content, you run the risk of falling well behind your competitors.
While good law firm SEO isn’t exactly rocket science, it is much more nuanced than simply cramming as many keywords as you can within a single page.
In this post, we’ll be taking a closer look at the various benefits SEO can have for your law firm, the strategies you can deploy, and how you can get started.
So, to find out more about how you can boost your national or local SEO for your law firm, be sure to read on below!
What is SEO?
Also known as search engine optimisation, SEO refers to the process of improving your website to increase its visibility when people use Google and other search engines.
The better visibility you have, the better your chances of attracting potential clients. Sounds good right?
What are the benefits of SEO for law firms?
Increase Traffic – Increase Enquiries!
Let’s get the obvious benefit out of the way first, shall we? The overarching goal of any successful SEO project or campaign will be to increase the traffic on your law firm’s website and, by extension, to increase the number of quality enquiries you are receiving.
SEO is designed to help you achieve this simple goal. By improving the content on your website, making improvements to the user experience on your website, and increasing your domain rating (DR) which is scored out of 100 on Ahrefs, and is influenced by the number of backlinks your website has, you’ll be giving yourself the best possible chance of achieving high rankings on Google. Find out more about how to improve your DR.
No Additional Spend Necessary
Working with a tight marketing budget? No problem. So long as you have the right knowledge and expertise, SEO doesn’t necessarily have to require any additional spend. Plenty of the SEO strategies we discuss further down in this very blog can be done without having to spend your budget if you know what you’re doing, which serves to illustrate just how effective SEO can be. That being said, the more technical elements of SEO are best left to an expert in the field who will likely be able to do the work to a higher standard and more quickly meaning your content can be getting traffic, and the right traffic, faster. Additionally, agencies stay up to date with industry updates and changes so will know whether it’s worth amending your strategy in any way.
Of course, incorporating effective SEO on your site will take some time, so you’ll have to put in plenty of work for it to be a success, but you certainly won’t have to pay your way to the top if you know what you’re doing.
Success Can Be Easily Measured
Measuring the success of any SEO project is very simple. With the right tools, you will be able to track exactly how many people are viewing the pages on your website, how much time they spend on each page, and whether they are making any conversions (such as clicking a link to an enquiry form, filling in a form, calling a phone number).
This can be a huge benefit to your digital marketing efforts, as it will allow you to identify exactly what is working and where you need to improve. It can also provide you with valuable insight into what legal services are trending and where you may need to focus your efforts moving forwards.
Good SEO is Tied to User-Friendly Content
It’s important to realise that good SEO tends to be closely linked with user-friendly content. When you’re writing with SEO in mind, many of the techniques you’ll incorporate will help to ensure that your content is clear, concise and provides genuine value to your audience.
Simple SEO practices such as breaking up content with headings, having internal links to other pages and establishing a coherent structure will all combine to make your content extremely user-friendly. And how can you expect to convert your audience into clients without having user-friendly content?
What SEO strategies for law firms are there?
SEO content writing
First things first, if you want your website to begin its ascent up the rankings, you’ll need to start by writing effective SEO copy. That might sound simple at first, but it will likely take quite a bit of practice, as well as some good old trial and error before you are able to fully get the hang of it.
Writing effective SEO content will involve researching and implementing keywords (the words or phrases you want to rank for on Google), creating a clear structure, providing internal and external links and hitting a specific word count. Oh, and that’s not forgetting the fact that you’ll want to make sure your content provides value and is relevant.
If you’re looking for some insight into how you can write effective law firm SEO copy, our Search Marketing Manager Matt Nicholls wrote a helpful guide on that very subject.
Usability
What many people fail to realise is that SEO isn’t just concerned with words on a page. It’s also about making sure your content is easily accessible and your website is as user-friendly as possible.
Don’t know how to structure your URLs, index your website, measure site speed, or change the meta title of a page? If you want to implement effective SEO, you’ll need to learn all this and more! If your website is hard to use, it could be a sign that it’s time to redesign your law firm’s website.
Digital PR and outreach
Digital PR is a specific strategy you can use to increase brand awareness, offering you the chance of reaching a wider audience that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach with more traditional offline tactics.
One of the primary goals of any digital PR campaign is to improve your Google rankings by building your website’s domain rating. You can do this by obtaining good quality backlinks (other sites linking to your site), which should increase your website’s validity in the eyes of Google.
You can find out more about the importance of digital PR for law firms in a post from our Digital PR & Outreach Executive Megan Gibbs!
How do you get started with law firm SEO?
If you’ve reached the end of this blog, you should have a better understanding of why law firm SEO should form an essential part of your marketing endeavours. But, I hear you ask, where do I even start?
I’m glad you asked! That’s something we can help you with. At Conscious, we provide SEO services for law firms, working on both local and national projects. Whether your firm is big, small, or something in between, our Marketing Services team has the expertise to support you.
If you want to find out more about our SEO services, 0117 325 0200 or email sales@conscious.co.uk.