Is Your Law Firm SEO Ready for the Autobahn?

Since SEO gets you to the people you want to reach, you can think of your law firm SEO as a car on the Internet highway. Maybe your SEO car has a magnetic sign on the door, a bumper sticker, flashy racing stripes, and a customized horn. Or maybe your law firm SEO car is the same gray color as the road making it almost invisible at dusk. Worst case scenario, your law firm SEO is stalled in your garage.

Law Firm SEO: DIY and Web Developers

If you think of your law firm SEO as a car, it’s easy to see that there are things you can do yourself to draw attention to your car (business, message). There are also things you would either need specialized knowledge or a mechanic (web developer) to handle.

Your web developer will make sure your SEO car runs the same routes as search crawlers with:

• Proper navigational structures
• URLs that increase indexing rank
• XML sitemaps with metadata

If this information is about as interesting as talk about head gaskets and variable-length intake manifolds, then read on because I’m talking to you about things like washing your car, putting gas in it, and replacing the wiper blades.

5 Law Firm SEO Strategies You Can Handle

Once your car is running with a web developer’s help, there is plenty that you can do yourself to get you to your audience, pick them up, bring them to your office, and turn them into clients:

1 Law Firm SEO:  Analyze Your Audience

Drive your law firm’s SEO car where your clients go. Install Google Analytics and see what your clients are searching to get to your page. Then capitalize on that by layering the common keywords people use to find your law firm’s site into your website’s content.

2 Law Firm SEO:  Concentrate on Content

Keep your law firm’s SEO car clean and attractive. Use simple language that your actual clients would use for your page copy, blog content, and social media. Leave the legal jargon for the office or happy hour with your colleagues. Concentrate on writing accessible posts on the subjects your clients, and potential clients, are interested in.

3 Law Firm SEO:  Calculate Your Keywords

Fill your law firm’s SEO car with gas, oil, and fluids. Your law firm SEO runs on keywords, keywords, keywords. Put them wherever you can, but be strategic and natural about it. Too many keywords repeated over and over are a red flag for Google crawlers. Just be sure to include keywords in your title, headers, content, image tags, and hyperlinks.

4 Law Firm SEO:  Vary Your Verbs

For the best SEO results, don’t keep driving the same route. Write about different things. Find new keywords that coincide with the services your law firm offers and write about those subjects. Be unique. Do research on keywords that are related to your subject but are competitive.

5 Law Firm SEO:  Sync Your Social

Don’t let your law firm’s SEO car just sit in the driveway. Get out there. Make a publishing schedule and stick to it. Be strategic about using your website’s blogging function and your social media outlets. If you don’t put your car on the road, no one will see it.

Law Firm SEO to Attract New Clients

The goal is to attract visitors who will become clients. So, target what people want to know by offering:

• Education—Provide legal expertise you’re comfortable with and that you can write about with authority
• Solutions—Produce guides to help people overcome common legal pitfalls and to generate leads
• Conversion—Turn visitors into clients by capitalizing on personality through your writing and team bios

While technical SEO might be as out of reach to you as an engine overhaul, your DIY law firm SEO can turn you into an industry leader. And while we can’t all be SEO or marketing experts, we can all keep our SEO cars running.