Most attorneys think that just creating a website for their legal services will open doors to many opportunities and bring in new clients everyday. But soon their bubble bursts when they realize that their law firm website is not getting any traffic, let alone potential leads and prospective clients.
Why are potential clients going to your competition’s site and not yours? The answer is simple: you aren’t an option for them to choose in the search engine results. According to a study, 93% people looking for any type of services start their search online, including legal services. You need to work on your website to ensure it gets ranked on popular search engines and gains the visibility your practice needs for attracting new clients.
This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. The purpose of SEO is to make your website appear in the search results when a person searches for a lawyer offering legal services similar to yours. Here we have shared some important aspects to optimize your website for the search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and others.
Keyword Research
You need to select a few keywords which you think your prospective clients may use when searching for your legal services. For example, if you are family law attorney providing services in Chicago, Illinois, your clients may use search terms, like “divorce attorney in Chicago”, “Chicago child custody lawyer”, “family law attorney IL”, etc. You can use Google Analytics to get an idea of what keywords people use to search for similar law firm. It will help you get a list of targeted keywords.
On-Page SEO
Use the targeted keywords in your web content. This allows the search engine to find out where your law firm is located when their spiders crawl through your website. Make sure you just ‘sprinkle’ those search terms in every page, instead of stuffing them. Moreover, include the complete keyword in your page titles so that search engines can easily identify the information in specific pages of your website.
Local Search Directories
If you want your law firm website to appear in local search results, you should work on establishing your presence of Yahoo Local, Google My Business, and Bing Local. It enhances your chances of getting ranked higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), and improves lead generation and conversion rate. Make sure you put the correct name, address, and phone (NAP) information of your law firm.
Maintain a Blog
Search engines give preference to websites that regularly add fresh, high-quality content. For this purpose, you need to start a blog where you can write posts about different aspects of your practice areas, and provide your clients with answers to important questions and useful tips regarding issues. Don’t forget to include keywords in your blog posts, which will further help in improving your rank, driving more traffic, and converting leads into potential clients.
Do you need help with optimizing your website for search engines? Contact FORWARD Marketing today at (888) 590-9687 to get more information about our SEO services and benefits.