Over 30% of all searches made through Google are for local businesses, and around 75% of these searchers visit the businesses within five miles of their location within the same day. This clearly demonstrates the importance of local SEO for businesses, especially those in service industries like the legal sector.
But before we dig any deeper into how local SEO can benefit your law firm, let’s first take a step back and understand what local SEO is.
Local SEO
It is the process of optimizing your online presence to attract more business from relevant local searches. This means making sure your website, social media profiles, and local directory listings are all up-to-date and accurate and include the right keywords (more on this later).
It is also important to note that local SEO is different from your standard SEO efforts. While regular SEO is about ranking for keywords relevant to your business on a national or global scale, local SEO is all about getting found by people searching for your specific product or service in your local area.
This is why SEO for lawyers must be approached differently than SEO for, say, an online store that ships worldwide.
Why Is SEO Important for Lawyers?
The legal industry is one of the most competitive industries out there, which makes SEO all the more important for lawyers and law firms.
Your law firm might have the best lawyers and the most experience, but if potential clients can’t find you online, they’ll never know about your business.
This is where SEO comes in. By optimizing your website and local listings for relevant keywords, you can ensure that your law firm comes up first when potential clients are searching for a lawyer in your area.
This will help you attract more clients, but it will also help you build trust and credibility with potential clients. After all, if you’re ranking at the top of Google, that must mean you’re good at what you do, right?
For instance, if you type in “best lawyers in colorado springs,” this is what you’ll see.
You’ll see that these three law firms are ranking organically. This is the result of SEO. If you’re not ranking organically, potential clients might never find you.
How Can Local SEO Help You Boost Your Legal Practice?
Now that we’ve gone over what local SEO is and why it’s important for lawyers, let’s take a look at how it can benefit your legal practice.
Local SEO can help you boost your legal practice in a number of ways, including:
Enhance Your Brand Visibility
One of the most important benefits of SEO is that it can help you enhance your brand visibility. By optimizing your website and local listings for relevant keywords, you can ensure that your law firm comes up first when potential clients are searching for a lawyer in your area.
This is especially important for new lawyers or law firms who are just starting out. SEO can help you get your name out there and attract potential clients who might not have heard of your business.
Increase Website and Foot Traffic
Another benefit of SEO is that it can help you increase website and foot traffic. By ranking higher in local search results, you can encourage potential clients to visit your website or even come into your office.
Most law firms rely on foot traffic for new clients, so this can be a great way to attract new business.
Remember, to choose your firm, potential clients have to be able to find you first. SEO can help make sure that your law firm comes up first in local search results, which will increase website and foot traffic.
Stay Ahead of Competitors
Competition is fierce in the legal industry, so it’s important to stay ahead of your competitors. SEO can help you do just that.
By optimizing your website and local listings for relevant keywords, you can ensure that your law firm comes up before your competitors in local search results. This will give you a leg up on the competition and help you attract more clients.
Build Trust and Loyalty
Local SEO can help you build trust and loyalty with potential clients. By ranking at the top of local search results, you’ll be able to show potential clients that you’re a credible and trustworthy law firm. Building trust with potential clients is essential for attracting new business. This brand trust can turn into brand loyalty with time, which is even more important.
A one-time client might come back with a different concern. For example, you might help them with a personal injury case, then later help draft their will.
Generating loyal clients can help improve your ROI. Then, you can grow your firm to continue helping more clients in the future.
Book More Appointments
With the increased popularity of Google maps, ‘near me’ searches now account for 50% of Google searches that have a local search intent. The average conversion rate for local searches is 80%.
If you’re ranking in the top three results for a local search, you have a good chance of booking an appointment with a potential client.
Get Feedback From Audience
One benefit of working with an SEO agency that specializes in SEO for lawyers is that they can help you track your SEO progress and get feedback from your audience. This is important because it can help you adjust your SEO strategy to better suit your needs and the needs of your potential clients.
SEO for lawyers is a complex process, but it’s worth it to invest in SEO for your law firm.
Why Choose SEO Over Other Marketing Channels?
SEO Vs. PPC Advertising
PPC advertising can be a great way to generate leads, but it can be expensive. On the other hand, SEO is a more cost-effective way to generate leads. SEO can help you attract more potential clients to your website, which can lead to more consultation appointments and, ultimately, more clients.
Another advantage of SEO is that it can help you build trust and loyalty with potential clients. With SEO, you can rank higher in local search results, which will build trust with potential clients. PPC can’t provide this same level of trust.
SEO is also a more sustainable way to generate leads. Once you rank higher in search results, you can continue to generate leads without paying for each click. With PPC, on the other hand, you have to keep paying for each click, which can quickly become expensive.
SEO Vs. Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another great way to generate leads, but it can be time-consuming. SEO can help you save time by generating leads through organic search traffic.
SEO can help you rank higher in search results, which will lead to more website visitors. From there, you can use call-to-actions and lead forms to generate leads.
On the other hand, social media marketing requires you to be active on various social media platforms. This can be time-consuming, and it’s not always easy to generate leads through social media.
SEO Vs. Traditional Marketing
Traditional marketing channels can be expensive, such as print advertising and TV commercials. You do not have any control over where your ad will be seen, and you can’t track the results of your advertising campaign. SEO is a more cost-effective and trackable way to generate leads.
What Are Key Components Of SEO for Lawyers?
It takes more than just optimizing your website to rank higher in search results. SEO for lawyers is a complex process that involves many different factors.
Some of the key components of SEO for lawyers include:
Keyword Research
Missing keyword research is like going to a trial without knowing the law. You need to know which keywords potential clients use to find lawyers like you. This requires research and analysis.
Once you’ve identified the right keywords, you need to use them throughout your website, including in your website’s title, header tags, meta tags, and your website content.
Content Marketing
Content is still king when it comes to SEO. You need to create high-quality, keyword-rich content to rank higher in search results.
Your content should be informative and helpful, and it should be designed to answer the questions that potential clients are searching for. In addition to blog posts, you can also create infographics, eBooks, and videos.
On-Page Optimization
In addition to creating great content, you also need to optimize your website for SEO. This includes optimizing your website’s title, header tags, meta tags, and images.
It’s also important to make sure your website is mobile-friendly. With more and more people using mobile devices to search the web, it’s essential that your website is designed for mobile.
Link Building
Link building is one of the most important, but also one of the most challenging, aspects of SEO. To rank higher in search results, you need to have high-quality links from other websites.
There are a number of ways to build links, including guest blogging, directory listings, and social media.
Local SEO
If you want to attract local clients, you need to make sure you’re using local SEO. This includes optimizing your website for local keywords and creating local citations.
A local citation is any mention of your law firm on the internet, such as in a directory listing or on a review site.
For instance, if you’re a personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles, you would want to optimize your website for keywords like “personal injury lawyer Los Angeles” and “Los Angeles personal injury lawyer.”
You would also want to create local citations, such as on directory listings like Yelp and Avvo, and on review sites like Google My Business.
Google My Business
It is a critical component of your law firm’s online marketing strategy. Without it, you won’t be able to rank on the map pack when people are searching for an attorney nearby.
Google My Business is a free listing that allows you to list your law firm’s name, address, phone number, website, hours of operation, and services offered. You can also add photos, videos, and other information to your listing.
To get started, all you need to do is create a free account and verify your law firm’s listing.
Monitoring & Reporting
Finally, you need to monitor your SEO campaign and track your results. This will help you see what’s working and what needs improvement. There are a number of SEO tracking tools, such as Google Analytics, that you can use to track your SEO progress.
SEO is a complex and ever-changing process, but it’s essential for any law firm that wants to attract new clients.
Boost Your Legal Practice: Leverage Local SEO for Lawyers Today
With the right SEO strategy, you can boost your law firm’s rankings and attract new clients. Local SEO is a great way to get started.
Get in touch with us today to learn more about our SEO services for lawyers. We’re here to help you grow your law firm and achieve lasting success.