The court of public opinion has moved online, and for any attorney that wants to rank in the top listings on the likes of Google, avoiding legal SEO mistakes becomes vital.
For any company in the legal space, reputation forms a key component of how the business functions, represents its clients, and attracts new ones. There are times when such companies focus all their attention on the cases in front of them and forget to shine the light on their own reputation. When it comes to marketing a business, attorneys need to make use of digital marketing to present themselves the same way that they would a client: professional, trustworthy, and successful. This is where search engine optimization, or SEO for law firms, plays a key role. At the same time, there are many SEO mistakes law firms make that should be avoided at all costs.
The same way that SEO professionals are not law experts, attorneys most often don’t have their finger on the ever-evolving SEO pulse. As a result, improving online rankings is often left to the wayside, and a more “old school” marketing approach is adopted. While there is nothing wrong with networking and letting your results do the talking, with the right SEO strategy in play, you can create an online reputation that will not only attract more clients but also the right ones for your specific area of focus.
On the flipside, there are many ways that the wrong type of SEO can chase potential clients away and cost attorneys money. Here are a few of those.
1. Targeting The Wrong Keywords Instead Of Client Intent
There is a place and a time for legal jargon. While it might be authoritative in the courtroom, you need to consider that when someone is in desperate need of legal services, they won’t be searching for the various terms you use behind the scenes. It’s important that when you set your keywords, the words you’ll focus on to attract more traffic to your website, they are the common terms you can expect the general public to use on the likes of Google.
When the pressure is on, people will type more general search terms into their search platform of choice. Examples include “What to do after a crash,” as opposed to “Motor vehicle tort litigation,” or “How to get custody of my child,” instead of “Petition for allocation of parental responsibilities.” It’s all about understanding relevancy and using common phrases in your keyword strategy. With the right keywords, you’ll attract the right type of customer.
What’s important to note is to focus on keywords that align with your specific area of focus. With the vehicle reference above, if you specialize in divorce law, for example, you probably wouldn’t go with that one.
2. Ignoring Local SEO Opportunities
The thing about law is that it’s inherently regional. So, attorneys should place a great deal of focus on their local SEO to attract clients that ideally live near their physical offices. Having a Google Business Profile is a great way to improve this area of SEO, where you’ll list the offerings of your firm or practice, where you’re located, and your contact information.
When someone searches for “Commercial lawyer near me,” if that’s your area of focus and you highlight that in your description, you’ll significantly improve your chances of appearing in their search results. There are many other ways to improve your local SEO, if you know what to look for. The mistake you want to avoid here is forgetting about a Google Business Profile entirely or trying to appeal to an audience that is outside of your usual area of trade.
3. Publishing Thin Or Outdated Website Content
While there was a time and a place for short and punchy online content, like your blog, for example, today search engines are looking for much more. They want comprehensive resources that thoroughly resolve user queries. What we mean by this is that your content answers a question they will enter into a search engine.
This is where informative articles are great, where you can pick a specific topic and then offer insights or guidance into it. Once they start to read the piece and trust is built, there’s a much greater chance of them actually making use of your services. Don’t make the mistake of putting up bland and irrelevant content on your website.
The other thing to watch out for is dated information. This is a big no-no on search engines, as they’re looking for the most current and informative information. If you do run dated content, you’ll risk damaging your credibility. It’s important to remember that detailed content builds real authority.
4. Overlooking Practice Area and Location Pages
When you start to map out your website content, don’t place all your services into one generic page. Rather, break them down into specific areas of focus, where each page can answer a specific question or zero in on a specific subject.
If you take a lazy approach and dump it all onto one page, there’s a good chance that you’ll cripple your search visibility. Find out the common search terms that relate to the nature of your legal business, and break them down into content pillars that you can then run across your website on separate pages. If you then find a reputable SEO company in Florida, for example, they’ll be able to do all the technical behind-the-scenes work to improve the visibility of those pages.
The key message here is to build dedicated pages for each legal service you offer, making sure that each page clearly explains how you help clients in that specific area.
5. Not Optimizing for Mobile Users
We’re not going to throw a whole bunch of data at you to reinforce the message of how many more people are browsing and making decisions using their mobile devices. You probably already know that it’s far more than the year before, which was far more than the year before that. An important legal SEO mistake to avoid is not designing your website to be mobile-friendly.
If you ignore this, you’ll only frustrate potential clients as they try to get the information they are looking for. They’ll simply find an attorney that gives them the info they want exactly how they want it. It’s not only the design to consider, but also the actual content. Make sure it’s relevant and quickly answers any questions they might be looking for answers to. Then, make sure to test, test, test. Don’t only do this on your fancy iPhone, but across a variety of devices.
6. Missing Internal Linking Opportunities
A key component of effective SEO for a legal business is to make sure that you have an internal linking strategy in place. This is built around links within your website that link to other relevant content. For example, you might place a blog that talks about steps to take after a vehicle accident. Within this blog, you might reference cases of liability, which then links to another page on your website that covers this topic in more detail.
This one is all about relevancy and taking advantage of having your content talk to each other. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on distributing ranking authority from high-performing pages to newer content across your site.
Have An Experienced Digital Marketing Team On Your Side
The court of public opinion has moved online, and for any attorney that wants to rank in the top listings on the likes of Google, avoiding legal SEO mistakes becomes vital.
When it comes to digital marketing and SEO for law firms, you want a team that helps you build tailored, comprehensive SEO strategies that stand up to the toughest search algorithms. Additionally, you need a team of SEO experts who will audit your site, get rid of technical defects, target high-intent keywords, and build authentic local authority.
The verdict is in: when you choose the right digital marketing team for your law firm, you can rest your case knowing our team will protect your practice from losing valuable leads to competitors.
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