Law firms and legal professionals could benefit by implementing SEO for lawyers

SEO is for all kinds of businesses including professionals like lawyers, physicians, accountants, etc. As a concept, SEO applies in the same way across business segments, but its implementation varies according to the type of industry or business. Thus, we come across terms like local SEO which focuses on small businesses and SEO for lawyers, or attorney SEO which focuses on practising lawyers and attorneys. Attorneys and lawyers have to face intense online competition and often confront the technical barriers related to digital marketing. To stay tuned with the changing consumer shopping behavior it becomes evident that the legal professionals who have their own business have to familiarize themselves with search engine optimization. They could begin by understanding the SEO basics that would help to know how it could be beneficial for their profession.

According to WeAreTG, law firm search engine optimization involves carefully researching what sets your firm apart from the competitors and utilizing those strengths in such a way that potential clients take notice. Having a website for the business is a necessity today that helps to prosper by gaining high visibility. High visibility will not happen on its own because you have to implement SEO to attract search engines. To make websites attractive to search engines, you have to optimize the website elements both on the website and beyond it. This would ensure that the website becomes visible when viewers search for some keyword phrases related to your business. The methods of optimization would vary according to the industry. Implementing SEO for legal professionals needs suitable customization as it has to take into account the rules and regulations laid down by the bar associations of the state.

Legal compliance is a top priority

It might become necessary for attorneys to represent their firms online and they must understand SEO well to ensure that it does not infringe on the laws. The legal professionals have to follow strict guidelines set by the bar associations, and the SEO techniques should comply with them. Violating the guidelines regarding advertising and ethics could result in the imposition of stiff fines and penalties on the erring professionals. In this article, you will find some tested SEO tips that are easy to implement and could help lawyers to earn high ranks while remaining on the first page of search results.

Keyword research

Knowing what optimization of websites would help to understand what to focus on. The process of optimization of websites involves incorporating certain elements into the website features so that it becomes conducive for search engines to identify them. Keywords are one of the most important elements used for optimization. Attorneys and lawyers should concentrate on keywords related to the trade and pick them after considering the intent of the user underlying it. The intent is necessary because it indicates the searcher’s readiness to avail of legal services. The other criterion for choosing keywords is that they should have a fair amount of search volume that would ensure that it could generate good traffic for the website. So, in short, complete Keyword research is required.

The modality of finding the right keywords

When researching for keywords, pay attention to the words and phrases searchers are using and try to discover what they are looking for through the searches. This is possible by understanding user intent. To find out related keywords and phrases focus on the terms closely connected to your practice area and consider the possible variations that point to the focus keyword. Give preference to low-competition keywords and also explore keywords that face moderate competition but are high in search volumes. Do not move far away from the targeted keyword while trying to find keywords related to it. Look at the competitor’s keywords that earn good ranks and create better content to stay ahead.

Get acquainted with legal schema

To make the content understandable to machines, you have to use HTML code or schema. Search engines use the schema markup to make out the relationship between different contents. Every industry has its own set of schema, and you must know the legal schema when optimizing websites so that search engines know that it relates to a law firm or legal professional. The schema helps to create a link between attorney names, phone numbers, addresses, emails, reviews, and attorney biographies. From the text snippets to site links and from breadcrumbs to video thumbnails the footprints of the schema are quite visible.

Organizing the content

To make search engines access the website information by indexing the content, organize the content well so that there is a logical connection between the content that remains spread across. The ideal way to present information related to the lawyer’s practice is to categorize the practice area in a logical sequence and then create separate pages for each practice area. Arranging the information methodically makes it easy for the audience to find the necessary information quickly.

A typical format of website information arrangement would consist of creating the website based on a particular theme that represents the niche, like personal injury law for example. There should be separate pages for subtopics of the central theme, and each page should carry a single topic related to the area.

Engage specializes in content development

Law is not for everyone to understand and you have to hire specialists from legal professionals to create content for the website. Lawyers JDs and paralegals are suited for the job, and you can even outsource the job to some agencies having the expertise and experience in creating similar content. Compliance with the legal guidelines of the state in publishing legal content online is necessary, and you must pay attention to it.

Focus on local SEO

Lawyers usually serve the specific local population and to cut through the intense competition have to take recourse to local SEO. This would ensure high visibility provided you create strong strategies that help to increase visibility. Create your profile on Google My Business, and Bing Business listing, and join traditional and legal directories. Have a location-specific page containing terms related to the location.

Finally, create a healthy link profile by undertaking a strong link-building campaign. Establishing relationships with relevant and high-quality sources helps in acquiring good-quality links that are still very important for earning good ranks in search results.