National Law Review research shows that more than nine out of 10 people (96%) "use a search engine to seek legal advice.” With evidence like that, it’s clear your customers are already finding legal services online. So how do you make sure your customers are finding you? That’s where a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy comes in.
With the right legal marketing know-how from the experts at Digital Media Stream, SEO planning will become simple and efficient. Sure, it’s competitive out there, but with our five SEO marketing tips, your business can:
Let’s become visible!
We’ll reveal our list of five tips for creating an effective SEO strategy for your law firm shortly. But before we dig deep on SEO, we need to make sure you understand the audience you’re trying to target.
To understand who your audience consists of, you need to create your ‘Buyer Personas’. Buyer personas are fictional representations of the ideal customers for your business, based on real-world data.
If you have not already you can jump onto our free Buyer Persona Template to make sure you are getting the most out of this article.
For context, let’s explore what keyword research is. At its core, keyword research involves the study of the actual search terms that people enter into search engines.
For law firms, keyword research should help you understand which terms your customers would use to find your business or those of your competitors. If you know who you’re up against and the keywords they target, you’ll know WHAT you’re up against.
The crucial search terms you want to understand for your business are two-fold:
Both short- and long-tail keywords need to be interconnected in your strategy. Short-tail is meant to play the long game. It will be able to do that when you create related long-tail keywords that reinforce it. Think of long-tail keywords as the bricks, and short-tail keywords as the overall wall.
When you earn immediate advances toward page 1 of Google for an optimised long-tail term, your linked short-tail term is in a stronger position to advance as well.
To see SEO results more quickly you need your keyword and content strategy to focus on long-tail keywords. When building these keywords, they should sound organic and related to a spoken-word search. They’ll add elements like a location or positive/negative tone (such as the terms “best” and “manchester” that we used above). A good rule of three for developing your long-tail keywords should be specific, targeted, and clear.
One method for doing this is the Pillar & Cluster method. This is the very latest in SEO principles and it is available as a Beta stage tool from HubSpot:
This tool allows you to lay out your pillar - the short-tail keyword - in the middle. The bubbles that surround this pillar are clusters, with each one representing a specific topic addressing a long-tail keyword.
With the Content Strategy tool, you're able to effectively plan your keywords. Now, we'll show you how it can influence your content strategy.
Great content is critical for driving visits to your website. In a HubSpot survey, 72% said relevant content is the most effective SEO tactic. The HubSpot Content Strategy tool from Tip #1 is great for determining relevant content topics based on your keyword research.
Look at your clusters in your Content Strategy. These are the topics to produce content for - each one of them can become a blog, web page, infographic, or video.
If you are writing a blog, you should ensure that you have optimised the title, URL, and meta descriptions (a professional marketing specialist will always ensure these are optimised). Google loves original and authoritative content so make sure that any content is educational and engaging.
Do this for each cluster, and you’ve got a content strategy built for SEO around your long-tail and short-tail keywords.
To really boost your ‘central’ keyword topic you should create a dedicated page with optimised content around that particular word or phrase. Link the content you have produced as part of the cluster back to the main web page based on the central term and you will be flying up the Google rankings in no time.
Local SEO refers to optimisation based on the specific geographic locations of your law firm. 30% of mobile searches are related to location, so it’s imperative that you specify in your keyword plan the local terms you want to optimise.
Here are some of the ways you can create local SEO for your law firm:
Here are some other ways to expand your local profile.
By employing the right local SEO tactics you can put your law firm in a better position to become an authority in your location.
Two out of three smartphone users (65%) look for the most relevant information when conducting a search. So there’s no getting around it: your website needs to be optimised for mobile and tablet platforms.
Google algorithms are constantly updating to ensure that mobile-friendly sites have more visibility in the rankings. With each update, Google wants to make sure that websites offer a seamless and responsive transition from desktop to mobile.
To be mobile friendly, remember:
The statistics bear out the reality of a mobile-led world across all industries, including law firms. 31% of all law firm related website traffic comes through mobile search. Despite that, just one in three law firm websites are mobile optimised.
With this shift in browsing behaviour, the time is now for making sure your website is responsive, fast and agile.
You probably noticed earlier my mentioning the relevance of Google+ for local SEO. Social marketing actually plays a big role in your SEO strategy.
That’s because social media platforms are search engines to be reckoned with in their own right. In 2015, a quarter of all search on legal topics resulted in a visit to YouTube.
So how does social media help you optimise your SEO?
Here’s another remarkable fact: the average law firm client spends up to 16 minutes per hour on social media platforms. And the majority of law firms that ramped up their engagement on social media say they have grown their client base grow as a result.
With Digital Media Stream's five tips on effective SEO marketing, you can create the optimum SEO strategy for your law firm that generates the results you need. Be sure to review your strategy regularly, keep up to date with Google’s ever-changing algorithms, and follow our blog. You will soon reap the benefits in your lead generation.
For more inbound marketing tips, download our eBook, Future-Proof Your Marketing, to stay ahead of the curve.