If you want your Law Firm to be one of the top three prized slots on the Google search results page (SERP’s), you will have to strategically employ sophisticated Lawyer SEO practices to get you there. Google’s algorithm, which determines placement of webpages on SERPs, has gone through various updates over the last five years with one key focus: ensuring that quality, relevant webpages rank high.

Those webpages that use keyword stuffing or other manipulative SEO techniques are now being severely penalized and relegated to obscurity. The algorithm has evolved to recognize quality content that provides innovative thinking and useful information.

With regard to Local SEO for Lawyers you are rewarded if you produce high-authority websites that are mobile friendly. If you can deliver on this SEO requirement you will rank higher and receive the gift of increased page views, increase in overall traffic, longer visit time and more conversions.

Here are four expert tips to consider in your quest for the top spots.

1. Optimize Your Law Firms Website Based on Keyword Research and a Competitor Analysis

When a potential customer types a series of words into the search engine to find out about a product or service, Google then supplies a list of the best matches for the words supplied. If you want your website to get seen, you have to engage in Keyword Research. Basically, you will have to conduct competitive analysis to uncover the latest keywords that are being used. These keywords are constantly changing and you have to keep up to date or stand to lose traffic. For many businesses, once they have created their website they never relook at the content on their pages again and are missing out on a SEO opportunity. Knowledge about the keywords your site is ranking for will require an adjustment to the content on all of your pages, to ensure those keywords are in your text. Your competitors are certainly doing this and if you fail to keep up, it will have a negative impact on your revenue.

Speaking about the competition –have you spent the time reviewing your competitions strengths and weaknesses online? This is called SEO competitor analysis. This process allows you to find strategic advantages and link opportunities to give you the edge over them. Uncover the keywords they are using to drive traffic to their sites. You can also investigate their site optimization that will reveal if they have an on-site strategy. If their page is ranking really well, you can look at their keyword density. This could show you that you might need to use more keywords throughout your site (without stuffing).

Some other areas you could interrogate on your competitors site include:
  • The construction of their META data. Have they crafted excellent copy? Do they use a strong CTA?
  • Evaluating their internal linking tactics on their site architecture to see if they could be considered as an authoritative website
  • Is their content unique, relevant, researched and completely different to their competitors?
  • How are they using visual support? Are they providing a superior user experience with images and video? And is their overall design of their site attractive to users.
  • Are they making use of outbound links?
  • Look at their Google My Business Page to see if they are getting loads of reviews and follows. Mirror what is working for them or improve your own efforts in this area to leap ahead of them.
  • Visit their social media channels and look at how they are engaging with their customers. What are they posting and how often?

2. Invigorate Your Website Activity Constantly

Your website is not a static directory page, you have to work hard to feed it with traffic. You want to generate valuable content that will satisfy the arriving traffic. This means you have to upload new blog posts, press releases, and videos full of perfect keywords. Every time you energize your site with fresh content you will notice a rise in your SERP’s ranking. But you have to let your target audience know about your efforts through personalized email campaigns and the robust use of social media. You can also re-market to people who have visited your website before but have not resulted in a conversion. Using Pay-per-click and display advertising are other powerful techniques to draw visitors to your site.

3. Create Conversion Paths on Your Website

You are attempting to turn visitors into leads. Having successful conversion paths will increase your average page views and lead to conversions. Create and optimize conversion paths on your website to increase your average page views and convert more visitors. A conversion path is the point of contact between you and your prospect. This could happen on your blog, homepage, social media or response from an email campaign.

SEO for Lawyers requires data, which means you need to make a comprehensive catalog of every piece of your websites content and look at who it serves at what part of the buying funnel. Discover how people are interacting with your website by making use of options like heat mapping software. If you discover any gaps in offering content for your specific customer persona, you can close them with brilliantly crafted content. Double check that there are no errors on your site that are turning people away. Fix any broken navigation elements. Sort out spelling and grammar mistakes and ensure CT links are operational.

4. Create personalized videos on your website.

People are consuming information predominantly through video today, especially on their mobile devices. When someone watches video content on your site, your average visit time is going to increase dramatically and have a positive effect on your Google SERP’s ranking. It will inch you closer to getting to those top spots. A well made custom video doesn’t tell people about your product, it shows them –it’s captivating brand storytelling. Humans retain information learnt visually more than text based knowledge acquisition. This is an opportunity to be entertaining and show your brand personality. It lets your customers get to “know” you which fosters strong relationships. Remember to also post your video on your social media sites and YouTube (Googles favorite) to increase your reach. Who knows –it could even go viral!

The Takeaway

When you actively pursue integrating these four tips into your Law Firm SEO Strategies, Google will start taking notice and your Minneapolis based business will inch its way to the top three spots. There are sadly many Minneapolis companies who are not even utilizing the basics of SEO so you are perfectly positioned to really leap far ahead of your competitors at the moment.

Give us a call if you would like to beef up your website with up to date Attorney SEO practices that will enhance your reach and increase conversions.