Search engine optimization is an important part of building up a successful website. The more optimized the site, the higher it will rank on search engines. And when a site ranks highly, it means more people will visit the site and potentially become a customer. Good SEO can separate your business from your competition and help you stand out in your industry.
This is especially true for lawyers and law firms. Most cities are full of lawyers and firms for the public to choose from, and most offer fairly similar services. As a result, a high-quality and optimized website can often give you a leg up on the competition.
But what can you do to improve the SEO of your law firm website? While you can click here to learn all you need to know about law firm SEO, there are a couple of helpful tips to help you get started.
Find the Right Keywords to Target
According to DagmarMarketing, one of the first things to think about to improve your SEO is to target the right keywords. You need to think of the exact searches that you want your law firm to rank highly for. It could be something general like “family law” or something related to your location like “law firm in Atlanta”.
You should aim to target a couple different keywords, but take some time to ensure they are truly the best option. If you rank highly in a term no one searches for, it may not provide you with a whole lot of value.
But in addition to different keywords themselves, there are also different types of keywords to consider. For example, there are both long and short tail keywords, and you need to decide whether you want to rank for one, the other or both.
If you take time to rank for the right keywords, you will appear in the searches that you want, and less that you don’t. Also, just because the search volume of a term may be a little lower, that doesn’t mean it is bad. Sometimes, these will have less competition and may be easier to rank well for.
While keywords are great, you want to avoid keyword stuffing. That is where you add a ton of keywords into your content in the hopes of having it help you rank higher. In most cases, this stuffing can actually hurt you more than help you as it can come off incredibly spammy.
Ensure Your Site Loads Quickly
Another tip for optimizing your site is to make sure it loads quickly. Today, the attention spans of people are shorter than ever. We are constantly bombarded with media and ads that it can be hard for people to dedicate too much time to one thing. If your site doesn’t load incredibly quickly, potential visitors will simply go somewhere else that will.
Other parts of your user experience should also be high-quality, such as your navigation, the colors you use and how the webpage looks as a whole. You want to do all you can to keep people on your site for as long as possible, to increase the chances of them reaching out with their legal needs.
The site should not only load quickly and perform well on desktop, but should also work well for mobile devices. More and more web traffic is mobile, and you need to ensure even those on their phones can easily and simply browse your site.
Consider Using Videos
Perhaps the most important thing when it comes to improving your SEO is to provide valuable content. People may visit your site to check out your contact info or see your services, but it is often your content that helps them stick around or entices them to become a customer.
Your content should provide value to the visitor in some way. It could entertain them, teach them something, inspire them or help to answer a question or problem they have.
While articles are great, people often prefer visual content like videos. Videos often convert better than text, and can keep people around for longer. Search engines also like valuable video on a website, and having videos can improve your chances of appearing higher in rankings.
These videos can be Q&A videos, how-to videos, behind-the-scenes videos, interviews and anything in between. Feel free to experiment, but always make sure to put time and effort into your videos to ensure they look good. Things like the lighting, the sound and even the script or subject matter should be deliberate in nature.
Check out Your Competition
You aren’t the first law firm to build and optimize a website, and you certainly won’t be the last. As a result, it is a good idea to check out the websites of some of your local competition. You want to see what they are doing in terms of design, navigation, performance and even content. This can be very valuable information and can help you on your quest to improve your own rankings.
Of course, never steal anything directly from another business, but taking inspiration from things they do or how they organize content can often be fair game. ALways be sure to add your own spin, personality, flair or brand to keep things authentic.
Also, in addition to checking out the site of your legal competition, check out the competition for the keywords you are ranking for. Try and see what the sites ahead of you are doing well, and how you could improve the way you do things to surpass them. Check out where they use keywords, how they keep them natural, and how often they are updating their blog or video library.
In conclusion, these are a few of the many different tips that can take your law firm’s website to the next level in terms of SEO. Improving your ranks isn’t always easy, but can have some incredible results if you keep at it and use the right strategies and tactics.
