Every law firm needs new
clients to survive and grow, and yours is no different. While there are
plenty of online marketing methods available, none of them come close to the
power of organic search. 

Ranking high in Google's
search rankings is vital to the growth and development of any modern law firm,
and effective SEO is the only tool that can make that happen. In this article,
we’ll go over five reasons why SEO is crucial for your law firm, along with
some tips to get your SEO efforts started. 

SEO for Lawyers – 5 Reasons Why It's Important

According to the National Law Review, 96 percent of people used online search engines when looking for legal advice. Most of those people aren't looking for a particular attorney—they simply need some help with a legal issue and want to find the best local legal service for their needs. This is evidenced by the fact that these legal searches are overwhelmingly non-branded. Typical examples might include "Chicago personal injury attorney" or "New York divorce attorney." 

Here are some other statistics that demonstrate the importance of SEO:

• 92 percent of searchers chose businesses that appeared on
  the first page of search results.
• 70-80 percent of search engine users ignore paid ads.
• SEO’s conversion rate is a staggering 14.6 percent, compared to the 1.7 percent rate of traditional advertising methods.

Good SEO will help people
discover your practice and increase the likelihood that they’ll become clients.
Let’s take a more detailed look at five reasons why you should invest more time
and attention into SEO:

1. More Website Traffic Means More Clients. 

In a nutshell, SEO will bring
more traffic to your website. This translates to more phone calls to your
office and higher conversion rates. According to Google's Legal Services Study,
74 percent of people that visit a law firm's website are willing to take some
action. SEO can get more of these people on your page and boost your firm's
bottom-line results. 

2. Your Competitors Are Doing It. 

Even if you’re not investing in SEO, it's a virtual guarantee that your competitor down the street is. By default, there are ten organic search results on the first page of Google. The clicks for the firm occupying the first position are roughly double those for the firm in the second position. 

75 percent of searchers never
click beyond the first page. This means that if you aren’t in the top ten, you
have a 25 percent (or lower) chance of getting seen by potential clients.

3. Your Website Will Be More Engaging.

Your website's bounce rate
(the percentage of visitors to your site who leave after seeing only one page)
could be through the roof. If you aren't using proper SEO tactics, you might be
showing up in search results for the wrong terms or not giving potential
clients the information they need when they reach your website. 

4. It Gives You Credibility. 

One of the biggest components
of SEO is determining the need of your target audience and then designing your
website and content to match that need. This not only gives you credibility
with search engines (read: better rankings), but also with your current and
prospective clients. 

5. More Return on Your Investment. 

Competition will always be
fierce in the legal space, but a commitment to SEO can help you get ahead of
your competitors without breaking the bank. When compared to other forms of
digital marketing, such as paid ads and email campaigns, SEO gives you a high
return on your investment. 

Law Firm SEO – Where Should You Start? 

Maybe you're aware that SEO
has the power to transform your law practice, but have no idea where to begin.
In the following section, we’ll name a few effective SEO tips. You’ll likely be
able to tackle some of these yourself, but you may want to hire professionals
to implement some of the more advanced strategies. 

Local SEO for Law Firms

Since lawyers draw most of
their business from targeted geographical areas, optimizing for local search is
essential. In other words, if you're an "Atlanta attorney," that term
should be used on your website and social media posts along with your name and
practice areas. 

Your Google My
Business listing and other online legal
directories are foundational to good local SEO. Claim every listing and
complete them thoroughly with your practice’s information (name, address, phone
number, email, etc.), making sure that it matches exactly across all
platforms. 

Optimizing Your Law Firm Website for Search

Your law firm website should
be optimized so that it's simple for search engines to understand and easy for
your visitors to navigate. Some of the areas you might want to get help
addressing include:

On-page Optimization

Your law firm’s website must
have the appropriate header, title tag, image, URL, and meta attributions for
search engines to index your content. Google uses this information to help sort
your site and help searchers find it more easily. Make sure that any keywords
you use are relevant to the content you provide. If they aren’t, your search
engine rankings will suffer, and fewer people will see your site.

Your website should also be
optimized so that visitors can quickly find what they need. Intuitive
navigation is vital, as is a site layout that is well-designed and
user-friendly.

Image and Video Optimization

One component of SEO that is
too often ignored is optimizing the images and videos on your site. For
example, you can add descriptions to your images via alt text, which tells
search engines what their function is. You may also wish to set a max image
size or use a tool that compresses images without significantly compromising
their quality.

Mobile-Friendliness

Consumers now spend nearly
four hours on their smartphones every day, and over half of all searches for
legal services come from mobile devices. When a visitor reaches your site, they
shouldn't have to struggle with content that isn't mobile-friendly. Every law
firm website should be responsive, with click-to-call phone numbers for
smartphone users.

Internal Linking

Linking pages internally on
your site improves your search engine rankings and heightens the user
experience. You can use this technique to increase the performance of
lower-ranking pages.

Search engines love websites
that are well-organized. You can "silo" your website by creating
content groupings around different subject areas. For example, your main page
can be a "DUI Defense" page, with many different supporting pages
that link to it, all relating to DUI cases.

Security

Every 39 seconds, there is a new cyber-attack, and 43 percent of these attacks target small businesses. Hypertext transfer protocol secure, or HTTPS, became a ranking signal for Google back in 2014.

In fact, 82 percent of consumers in a Hubspot Research Survey reported that they wouldn’t browse a site that wasn’t secure. If your website isn’t secure, you’re risking dangerous data leaks and needlessly reducing your website traffic.

Off-page SEO

Having a strong off-page SEO
strategy plays an important role in the ranking of your website. Law firms that
focus on off-site factors such as directories, high-quality backlinks, and
social media marketing often outperform their competitors.

Content Marketing

Your website's content is vital for SEO. It should include appropriate keywords for the demographics you want to target. Keywords help search engines match their searchers’ queries with relevant results. You can use Google Keyword Tool, Google Trends, and Google Insights for Search to identify and target popular keywords and phrases in your content.

In addition to optimizing for
search engines, you should frequently post relevant and valuable content to
your website that will help visitors understand the value of your services.
Your site's visitors come to you with questions and problems. Make sure you are
giving them answers and solutions.

SEO can be complex, and most
lawyers didn't get into the business to spend their time on it. While there are
several steps you can take on your own, such as updating your online
directories or posting to social media, you should consider enlisting the services
of a professional for the rest. That said, having a rudimentary knowledge of
legal SEO can help you make sense of the various services offered, as well as
give you an idea of what you should be getting from your online marketing
team.