It’s easy for law firms to get lost among the competition when it comes to online search results. And your SEO performance plays a major role in your digital marketing success. After all, when someone needs a lawyer, the first thing they’re likely to do is Google the type of lawyer they need in their area. The top results they’ll find will be the law firms who have excellent search engine optimization.
A good digital marketing strategy customized for your specific market can make your website stand out, draw in more traffic, and improve your lead-to-client conversion rate, resulting in more revenue for your business. If you follow my tips below, you’re sure to improve your online search ranking and begin bringing more traffic to your website.
1. Use your niche audience as your point of focus
Before you do anything else when planning your digital marketing strategy, take the time to identify your target audience. Start with what you specialize in and zero in on that niche. If you’re a personal injury law firm, your audience is obviously people who have suffered an injury, however you can get more specific and narrowly focused. What’s their age range, where do they live, and what is their income bracket? Ask as many questions as you can to focus on the details of your target audience.
Demographic questions can help you narrow down your target audience significantly, but once you have a basic picture of the kind of people who might be searching for your website, it’s time to zoom in even closer. Consider these questions: Who is your ideal client? What problem do they have, and how can you solve it? What questions do they have? Where do they spend their time online, and where are they likely to look for solutions to their problem? This can give you an idea of where to focus your marketing efforts. If your target audience doesn’t use Instagram, for example, it would be a waste of time and resources to advertise there. Similarly, it helps you understand how to construct your website and messaging to appeal to your ideal clients, so you’re more likely to win their business.
2. Allow what you learn from your competitors to save you money in research
One of the best ways to improve your digital marketing strategy is to find your top competitors—the law firms that are already ranking well for the search terms you want to rank for—and figure out what’s working well for them. You can do this by searching for the keywords you want to rank for and looking at the top two or three results that aren’t ads.
What is it that made their page rank at the top of the search results? Perhaps they have an excellent 5,000-word article about the keywords you searched. Well, all you have to do is beat them by writing an even better article that’s 7,000 words long. You can do this for many aspects of your competitors’ sites. You can use analytics data to discover information about their sites, then consistently beat them in every aspect you can. This is one of the most reliable ways to improve your search ranking.
3. Make your content relevant and interesting
One common mistake many law firms make is to create generic law-related content, articles that have been written a hundred times over, like “What to do if you’re at fault in a car accident.” There are so many of these types of articles out there that it’s very difficult to get them to rank well in search results. That means you need to get a little more creative with your content.
This is where it’s a good idea to go back to the picture you painted of your ideal client. What questions do they have? How can you answer those questions in an interesting way? Think about the narrative you’re telling with your content and the impression it creates of your law firm. Lean into stories, but remember that you’re not the hero—your client is. Whatever challenge they’re facing is the villain in their story, and you’re there to offer yourself up as the sword that can help them vanquish the beast and overcome the challenge they’re facing.
4. Localize your information to better target your niche market
One of the most important aspects of SEO is to localize your content to ensure you’re actually reaching the right audience—people in your area who will hire your law firm. Here are a few tips to help you maximize your local SEO strategy:
- Set up your Google My Business account to claim your business on Google Maps. This plays an important role in SEO and is often at the top of search results pages.
- Create individual and unique pages for each location you service. If your law firm works in multiple locations, you should have a separate page for each of them, and ensure that no content is duplicated across these pages, or the algorithm may penalize you for it.
- Publish localized content to create a stronger association between your website and keywords for that specific location.
- Use local directories and media to create backlinks to your website, which will boost your SEO.
By following these tips to improve your SEO strategy, you’ll have a leg up over other law firms in your area. In a time when people are quick to Google whatever they need, it’s important that your website is at the top of the search results when they’re in need of a law firm. When you carefully target your niche market and build your digital marketing strategy around your ideal clients, you’ll greatly expand your SEO advantage to convert more website traffic to leads and cases.
