Were you aware that Google Business Profile (GBP) offers attorneys advertising space to attract new legal clients from local search results for free? If you are like many attorneys, you need new clients in your community to thrive and expand. Your Google Business Profile can help your law firm promote its brand if used correctly.
But lawyer marketing with your Google Business Profile means more than slapping a few photos up and providing your company name and contact information. Local searchers always look at Google Business Profiles, but you need a complete listing for the best results. The good news is that it is easy to complete your Google Business Listing and get the most benefit out of it.
This article explains how to leverage your law firm’s Google Business Profile to maximum advantage. If you have lawyer marketing questions after reading this article, Forward Lawyer Marketing’s lawyer marketing agency can answer them.
A complete business profile is vital to your law firm’s SEO strategy. Possible clients are seeking law firms like yours in your community right now. They also are looking for how to get in touch with you, when you are open, where your law office is, and how strong your legal reputation is.
If you type your law firm’s name into Google, your Google Business Profile should show on the right side of the page. When your Google Business Profile is optimized, it will appear in searches and Google Maps. If your profile has yet to be optimized, you could miss out on many free traffic and legal leads.
Completing your business profile is free and dramatically boosts your visibility in Google, putting you in a better position to attract your share of legal leads. There is no reason not to complete your profile, unless you are too busy with your legal clients. In that case, Forward Lawyer Marketing’s SEO team can handle it for you.
The benefits of completing your profile are best illustrated with an example. If you search for ‘criminal defense attorneys in Atlanta,’ Google will enter local search mode and show a map with the pinned location and three-pack of featured law firms. At least 40% of local Google searches are estimated to involve clicking on the Map Pack. The search engine wants people doing local searches to locate and contact companies near them as quickly as possible. This is the case whether the consumer searches for a plumber or a personal injury attorney.
Google Business Profiles are shown as part of the map pack instead of just showing website titles and descriptions, such as with a standard search result page. How does the search engine choose which firms to feature?
You might be surprised that map pack listings are not paid advertising. These businesses appear because of numerous steps taken during SEO optimization, and the search engine usually picks firms with completed business profiles that have gotten positive reviews from past clients.
Now that you understand that your Google Business Profile is the ticket to significant free traffic, we will discuss some basics. For example, how do you claim your listing, and what happens if another law firm poached it from you? How do you add basic firm information? When it is all said and done and the profile is complete, your lawyer marketing will improve, and you should receive more leads. Here are a few things to remember about your Google Business Profile:
If another firm claimed your GBP listing, you will have to ask for ownership from the current owner of the profile. Here are Google instructions on what to do to claim your GBP listing from another business.
If your firm does not have a Google Business Profile, go to the main GBP page and sign in. Information that you will need to start setting up your profile includes:
If your legal business mostly comes from your community, specifying your firm’s service area is essential. If you get legal business from across the state or nation, it is less critical.
A vital part of your GBP listing is the business category. This sounds easy, but too many law firms make a mistake here. If you set the major category as ‘attorney’ or ‘law firm,’ you are too general. You are better off choosing your legal specialty, such as divorce lawyer, personal injury attorney, or workers’ comp lawyer. There are thousands of business categories to choose from, so you should not have too much trouble finding a few legal specialties that apply.
Verifying your law firm listing means it will appear in Google search results, and you can see search analytics and user reviews. Google will only make your listing public if you follow the verification process. You can verify your listing in many ways, including phone, text, email, video call, and postcard.
Now that you set up your Google Business Profile listing and added details, you will soon be ready to publish it. But before that, you should make sure that all GBP elements have been optimized so you get the best legal lead generation.
Doing this is easy. You will need to complete certain information in the appropriate fields. Most of the optimization process is simply details about you, what you do for a living, how to reach you, and what others think of your law firm. However, several sections have gained prominence in recent times and could require more work. Following these guidelines will improve your legal marketing because you have a fully optimized GBP listing!
Unsurprisingly, you must have your law firm name and location entered right on the Google Maps; people need to know where you are. But it also is vital to list your law firm name, physical address, and phone number as you would provide them online and offline.
Remember, Google aggregates information about your law firm from everywhere online. So, you must keep business names, addresses, and other details the same so Google can find accurate information about your firm. Suppose that your law firm’s contact information is as follows:
This information should be entered in precisely the above format in your Google Business Profile. Do not add abbreviations, full state name, or change the phone format. If you are not convinced, Google says you should represent your firm as it is consistently represented and recognized online, in print, and all branding. Also, if you mislead consumers, you will be penalized by Google.
Include your main, most authoritative legal website in your Google Business Profile if you have more than one. You want searchers to click on that link, learn more about your law firm, and hopefully, book a consultation.
You are requested to put hours on your listing if you are an entity that meets people in person at your place of business. Most local law firms should include their business hours. If your firm hours vary by day, include hours for each day of the week.
At the top of your GBP, you will notice a brief description of your firm based on your location and main category. Further down, you can add more about your law firm in the ‘from the owner’ section. This section should describe who you are as an attorney, what your law firm does, and how clients benefit from working with you. You have 750 characters, and it is essential to make them count.
If you follow all of these steps, your Google Business Profile will help you get more legal leads. It is an easy win for law firms and one of the simplest marketing methods you can use to increase your business.
Your law firm’s Google Business Profile should be leveraged carefully to improve your lawyer marketing results. If you need help to take your marketing to the next stage of success, the marketing professionals at Forward Lawyer Marketing can help. If you have questions about improving your law firm marketing, please contact us at Forward Lawyer Marketing today at (888) 590-5947.
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