Using Search Engine Optimization to Scale Your Law Firm

Google also rewards websites that signal exactly what the pages provide – for example, title tags and meta descriptions. Title tags and meta descriptions are nothing new, but those fundamentals should not be ignored and should be leveraged to a business’s advantage. The law firm that uses a title tag to list its firm or company name is squandering an invaluable piece of digital real estate. Instead of a firm name, which Google already knows by crawling the site, a title tag should show Google specific information it needs to know about a given webpage. With this, a lawyer can help the Google bots identify precisely what information is on a page, which Google will then match to the relevant questions being searched.Moreover, by using schema markup, a site can give important data to Google through the code including locations, reviews, and other identifying information. This data is useful to Google and further helps search results.

Finally, proper coding together with high-quality content can lead to rich snippets. Rich snippets are the information Google provides in a boxed outline within the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) that directly answers a searcher’s question. Google prefers to provide rich snippets as it gives the user an answer without the person needing to leave the page. As Google moves more and more into the arena of wanting people to stay on its pages, marking a site and having web content shown within a rich snippet as the authoritative answer on Google’s SERP is, right now, as good as it gets.

Essentially, as the number of sites endorsing a website via backlinks increases, Google attributes greater authority to the site resulting in higher rankings and greater visibility on the SERP.

Over the years, Google has cracked down on digital marketing methods that trick the system by penalizing those who use shortcuts, and instead encourages and enforces the use of white-hat techniques. These techniques allow Google to see votes in the form of link equity to determine which site is the leading authority for a given search query.

Through demonstrating offline gravitas online with inbound links, a law firm is able to show Google that its site deserves to be placed higher up in the search rankings leading to greater traffic, conversions, and ultimately increased revenue.

The most visible and profitable placement a law firm may achieve through organic SEO is being ranked in the Google Local 3-pack. This is where Google suggests to its searcher the best three options in a specific location based on a specific algorithm. This is where you want to be. How can you achieve a prized placement in the Google Local 3-pack?

Local Search Engine Optimization Marketing is a whole different ball game with a separate set of ranking factors and rules, many of which are centered around a law firm’s Google My Business profile, sometimes referred to as a Google My Business knowledge card.

The algorithm combines the Google My Business listing with local search factors including local citation consistency, local links, and local content. These factors, when appropriately optimized, demonstrate to Google that a webpage has the best answer for somebody in the specific location they are searching. Within the local Google My Business arena — name, address, and phone number otherwise known as a citation or NAP – consistency is extremely important. By optimizing citation listings that match a law firm’s Google My Business exactly, gaining backlinks from organizations and businesses in your local community, and building localized content with location specific keywords, Google is able to rank a business as one of the three best in the local community.

In addition, reviews, while currently not impacting rankings, also allow users to assess a law firm’s trustworthiness when considering options in the three-pack.

Local search results allow a growing smaller-scale law firm to compete even in a highly competitive market within their immediate area. Google is giving smaller players an opportunity by opting to show their website high on the SERP when their location is closer to a searcher than perhaps a larger more authoritative player.

A good SEO content strategy for attorneys is focusing on creating webpages that include informative answers to questions users are searching for based on the owner’s practice. That content must also include an appropriate level of keywords that does not spam the page but tells Google the webpage’s focus. A legal keyword can either be what is known as short-tail or long-tail, and in local search would typically include the location business is targeting plus its practice area.For example, a short-tail keyword could be “DC car accident lawyer” and a long-tail keyword could be “filing a car accident claim in DC.” Each of these key terms would be the focus of their own webpage with that keyword and variants mentioned a few times with high-quality relevant content written throughout. While traditionally short-tail keywords were more likely searched, now with the serge of voice search, users are searching in Google with sentences and questions, raising the importance of optimizing and ranking for long-tail key terms as well.

It is good SEO practice for law firms to continuously add new content to a site based on different practice areas and locations. It is important to note, however, that Google recognizes when the same exact content is duplicated – or used across various webpages – and penalizes a site for this. Unique, informative, and sophisticated content that appropriately utilizes key terms is crucial when building webpages.

Knowing the importance that Google places on content, a business can and should leverage its own experts and focus on high-quality, substantive written webpages that utilize specific keywords to demonstrate to Google that it is an authority on the matter and answers the questions Google’s users are asking. It is important to provide answers and informational content more than straight sales content.

Publicly available information on the Google algorithm and its patents make it abundantly clear that Google has focused on understanding semantics and how language is written to determine the level of sophistication in writing. For example, Google’s algorithm can decipher international or non-native language from native language in a given location. It can determine the grade level of writing. Content that will rank will be that which Google recognizes as sophisticated, valuable, and trustworthy.