SEO for Lawyers – Ways to Attract Clients to Your Law Firm’s Website

It involves different techniques and tactics to attract prospective clients to your law firm's website and is mainly done by obtaining first-page rankings in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The world is progressing, and the internet is becoming the major go-to for most of the needs of people. Word of mouth and social ways still prevail but the millennials tend to trust the online sources more hence the online search almost always dominates the research phase.

Importance of SEO for Law related websites

Before getting into the details, let’s take a peek at the definitive statistics recorded over time. It has been observed that almost 96% of people use search engines whilst hunting for reliable legal assistance. A survey claimed that 51% of the web traffic is based on organic search, 5% on social, and 10% on the paid search.
Also, 87% of smartphone users use the search engine at least once daily. Keeping these statistics and the increasing use of search engines in view, you can safely say that your success as a lawyer and a law firm hinges on your SEO rankings.
Your website acts as the central hub for your business. It provides a front to your company. It is essential to make sure you use the best SEO services and SEO consultancy to level up your rankings on the search page. It can be done mainly through keyword optimization, web designing, and content marketing.

Strategies to improve your attorney SEO rank

The people who have been in this industry for a long "live and breathe" digital marketing. We know the importance of digital marketing and SEO ranking and their use for the success of any kind of business.
Being a lawyer, you might not have had much exposure to the online marketing world but now that it has become a necessity, given the worldwide use of the internet, here are some techniques and SEO marketing tactics that can be used to ensure the leveling up of your website to the first page of the search engine.

1. Onsite technical fixes

The primal way of improving your law firm SEO ranking is through fixing any existing on-site issue present on the website.
All the factors, elements, and components used to improve the SEO rankings of your website that you have direct access to are referred to as on-site elements. These are the issues that can be fixed easily as these elements are directly managed through your website.

2. Mobile optimization

As technology is advancing and people are switching more and more towards mobile phones for their daily use, it is necessary to make sure that your website is optimized for mobile devices. Otherwise, it can be serious damage to the SEO ranking of your website
Now that we have an internet browser on mobile devices, any website that can be reached on your desktop can be accessed through your phone as well. It is crucial to make sure that your mobile website design is equally functional and visually appealing on the mobile set as-is on the desktop setting.

➣ Why is mobile optimization important?

Statistics prove that 60% of online searches take place on mobile devices and around 31% of all the traffic obtained on law firm-related websites come through mobile devices. So, if your website is not optimized then it will not only affect your lawyer SEO ranking but your business in general too.
Mobile optimization is important as it ensures a good user experience on your website. If your customer has an overall good experience on your website, he will end up fulfilling the goal of your website which can either be filling out some lead form on your website or find necessary information about you and your firm through which they can contact you. Either way, it ensures the fulfillment of the purpose for creating your website.

3. Page speed

Page speed is a vital element while deciding the fate of your website. With the world moving fast, people are looking for faster and quicker ways of browsing. No one is going to wait for a website that is taking longer than usual to load and will ultimately deteriorate your website traffic. Not only that, but Google also detects slow loading speed and affects your website SEO ranking.
Slow page speed leads to negative interaction, an example of which is a high bounce rate indicating more people leaving your website earlier than usual. This means either they have had a bad user experience or they had to tackle slow page speed which caused them to leave the page. Either way, it is a red flag for your website as Google does not reward your website if your visitors have had a negative experience.

➣ How slow is too slow?

Now comes the most frequently asked question, how slow is too slow? According to a survey, 40% of the visitors tend to leave the website if it is taking longer than 30 seconds to load. That’s not it. it has been observed that 80% of that 40% refrain from returning to that website ever again if encountered with slow page speed.
Since we are tackling with the law firm SEO, we know that almost all the law cases are of utter urgency. If your website speed is not up to the mark, your clients will end up working with your competitors instead and there is nothing more painful than losing your clients to your competitors and that too, because of a mere technical fault that could be resolved if addressed timely.

➣ How can you check your website speed?

Certain services let you test your website speed for free. They include Pingdom, Uptrends, and GTmetrix, etc.
If you have checked your website speed and it isn’t the issue but your website loading time is still lagging then you need to change your web hosting provider. You can also consult with an SEO company or local SEO services to help you understand the problem and fix it.

4. High-value content

What is the key to a good website with a higher SEO ranking? In my opinion, good quality content that has been updated from time to time is the key to a good, interactive website.
While determining the SEO ranking, Google looks at the bounce rate, time on page, and time on site for a website therefore if you want google rankings, you need to work on the visitor engagement on your website. Your content should be engaging enough to keep them on the site and make them want to come back.
Now you must be wondering, how can you make your content more engaging? One way is to bring in high-quality, informative, and fresh content. It is not as hard as it sounds. Another way to increase visitor engagement is through visuals. It can be through video content, pictures, or infographics depending on your needs and the format of your website.
According to a survey done by Wyzowl, a normal person spends around 16 hours a week, surfing video content on the internet. Moreover, 84% of the people claimed to have been convinced to buy a brand product or service after watching their video content. Another survey shows that while researching legal topics, 25% of people visit YouTube to make a decision. If your firm already has a YouTube channel, you should try to post those videos on your website as well as increase the on-site time hence decreasing the bounce rate and also increasing the viewer engagement because people prefer watching and listen rather than reading.
Videos are one way of producing high-quality engaging content but are only fitting if your firm has an appropriate budget for it. If not, you can also go for infographics as they are cheaper but effective content forms. I know what you must be thinking, "aren't infographics text-based?" The answer is yes but in infographics, the text is presented in a way that increases the chances of being read over simple text by 30 folds. It is also a great source of building backlinks to your website ultimately leading to SEO ranking improvement. It displays all the facts and figures whilst keeping the viewer engaged and interested in the content.
It is noteworthy that while creating your content, try to make it more about your client rather than yourself. People tend to be more interested in content drawn based on their needs than your achievements. Giving your content the personalization touch elevates your situation in this scenario.
People are drawn more towards the content that is authentic and true. Try to add more testimonials from your clients than any extraneous information about your firm. Provide people with the information and affirmation they need to trust you and your firm regarding their legal issues.

5. Internal and external links

Links play a crucial role in determining the SEO ranking of your law firm. Before getting on with what internal and external links are and how to use them to boost your firm's SEO, your basic concern should be to make sure your site is free from any broken links. You can use online link checking services or can surf all your pages manually to make sure there are no broken links as they are a negative impact on your website SEO. If found, fix it immediately as it will help level up your SEO ranking and also provide you with better UX for the visitors.
Now moving on to the internal links. These hyperlinks, connecting one page to another page on your website provide Google with what category your business belongs to. It ensures the domain bringing in the maximum business for your firm gets the highest traffic.
Talking about the external links, backlinks are the most focused ones. A backlink is when any website links back to your website. Because a backlink act as a "vote of confidence". It is vital to make sure that the website you are getting a backlink from is credible according to Google Algorithm. The catch here is that the backlinking will help to elevate the SEO ranking only if the source website has a higher domain authority than your website. Hence it is important to ensure good quality backlinks for your website.

6. Google Maps Optimization

Are you cognizant of the fact that about 85% of the people in search of legal services opt for Google maps as their primary source? That’s because 71% of the people prefer local attorney over someone far off their reach.
Now when you search for local services, firstly you are presented with Google, then Google's local 3 pack, and then comes the organic results. Your main goal should be to get featured in Google's local 3 pack. Not only because it is easier but also because it takes less time to be ranked highly on Google maps than the organic search results. It's probably because Google Maps does not rely on domain authority.
The question arises, how to make it to Google's local 3 pack? Firstly, make sure to fill in all the essentials about your business on the Google My Business page. Make sure it is categorized properly and is placed in the proper niche to which your firm belongs, and you are good to go.
If executed properly, Google Map Optimization is the quickest and the most effective way of increasing your website traffic ultimately leveling up your SEO ranking. If you think you cannot execute it with accuracy, it is better to seek help from professionals. There are many SEO service companies in Dubai providing you with the best SEO services in Dubai to make sure your business marketing gets what it needs to make it to the top.

7. Google My Business

It is an economical and legitimate way of improving your lawyer SEO as it is free and is provided by Google itself. To benefit from this service to the maximum, it is crucial to keep in mind and follow the following points:

➣ Physical location verification

You can only avail these Google My Business services if your business has a physical location. You can instantly improve your SEO rankings by verifying your business through Google My Business.
now you must be wondering how you can verify your physical location? What are the steps? How it is done? The answer lies in the 4-digit pin that Google sends to your physical location via physical mail or mailbox. You go to the GMB account, fill out the essential, and then they will send in a 4- digit code to your location. You provide the 4- digit code to the link and voila you are verified! Isn't it simple? Doing this verifies the physical existence and legitimacy of your business to Google.

➣ Include as much information about your business as possible

As discussed earlier, try to fill out as many essentials on the form as possible. It's good to do it beforehand while creating the GMB account because otherwise this opportunity is given to the public to fill out the remaining information for the business and that includes your competitors too! Why risk everything over a simple piece of information? Hence make it mandatory for yourself to fill in all the required information of your business yourself. Also, make sure to keep your GMB account updated. Any change in the given information should be updated on your GMB account right away.

➣ Include photos

Photos are a great source of engagement and building trust with the customer. It is encouraged to have a professional or semi-professional picture of your team posted on your GMB account preferably taken from your mobile because mobiles store location data alongside the image. It helps your customers in reaching your premises easily. Moreover, uploading a picture clicked on your phone improves the credibility of your account as it helps Google verify the location of your business.

➣ Get client reviews

Client reviews play a major role when it comes to attracting more customers to your business. The better and more authentic the reviews are, the more improvement in your SEO ranking. Quality of the review is preferred over quantity as stated by Google itself. They have told that the reviews with 200 or more characters are ranked more valuable than the shorter ones.
Encourage your clients to leave elaborate reviews rather than the small one-liners and take time to reply to those reviews as it shows a two-way communication and the importance of the client review for you and your business.
Nowadays, with all the businesses switching to online platforms for driving in more traffic, it has become more challenging than ever to attract prospective clients to your website. If you are new to these online platforms, it is advised to take help from a professional that excels in this field. There are many SEO services in UAE making sure that businesses like you get the maximum support and guidance they need to gain an online presence for their business.
This is all for today’s blog. I hope that you liked reading it. Don’t forget to share your feedback and if you can any comments or queries, write to me and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thank you and Goodbye.