Local SEO or local search engine optimization is a digital marketing tactic to increase the traffic to your website through organic local search results. It not only increases the quantity, but also the quality of your website's traffic. In simple terms, it is how your customers find your website on the Internet.
When we look at SEO in more detail, there are three distinct parts to it. These parts are:
SEO works because search engines use crawlers that gather information about all the websites on theInternet. These crawlers then build an index of these websites and an algorithm then tries to match all that data with your query.
The key to remember is, if you want to rank well in the search results, your SEO needs to be optimized.
Now the first question is, why you should optimize your local SEO for law firms. The simple answer is that it lets you rank higher on Google, Yahoo, or Bing. It also lets you standout from your competitors in your area.
To illustrate why it is important, let us look at some local SEO stats:
Now, let's put those statistics into practice. As a law firm, chances are that most of your clients are local and they live in the same area or community as you. So, when they search for a lawyer online, they will obviously look for one nearby.
This means, if you rank higher in the local search results, more clients will contact you when they are looking for a local lawyer. In contrast, if you only optimize your SEO generally, this likely will not happen.
Now you know what local SEO for law firms is and how important it is for your law firm. Let us take a look at how we can optimize your local SEO for law firms strategy.
Any successful local SEO for law firms strategy starts with planning and research. Here, we begin the process with comprehensive initial analysis reports. These lay the foundation for the strongest SEO strategy possible for your firm. In turn, it helps us to determine the best way for your firm to achieve a return on investment.
During this analysis we gather all the information we need to see where we can improve your local SEO for law firms strategy.
These initial reports include:
Once we know how your website performs on SEO, we know where to improve. In general, our local SEO for law firms method relies on several things. These all work together to make your website as optimized as possible. These are:
After looking at and optimizing your SEO in general, we optimize it for local SEO. The first step to creating a local SEO strategy for your law firm for is to create a Google MyBusiness page.
If you have searchedGoogle for a local business before, you have seen the results at the very top of the page. These results contain business' information and contact details. It also gives you their website and their locations on a map.
This means, when a client looks for legal services or a law firm, these are the first businesses they will see and, ultimately, who they will contact.
The data on these results comes from your Google My Business page. So, it is easy to see why it is vital that we optimize your Google My Business Listings.
Some of the things we do to optimize this listing are:
Once we have created this listing, we are able to see statistics on how many visits and views you get from it. We can also see how many people call you directly by clicking the phone number you listed.
With your Google MyBusiness listing sorted, the next thing we focus on is optimizing your firm's website.
Here, we will optimize every page for local keywords so that Google knows your website is a local business. For example, we use your keyword and your location to optimize these. We also use similar related terms on your site to further strengthen your SEO.
To do this, we make sure:
We also make sure that we optimize your website for mobile. As you have seen before in the stats, the majority of local searches come from mobile devices. This means Google ranks websites which are optimized for mobile higher than websites which are not.Besides, by searching on their mobiles, clients will find you easier.
When businesses market online, brand consistency is vital. It is simple, it helps your audience to recognize and trust your brand. When marketing online, though, you also need to focus on NAP consistency because it is crucial for local SEO for law firms.
NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. To optimize this, we make sure that your law firm’s NAP is consistent across the Internet.
In this way you provide search engines with consistent information across the web. Because their intention is to provide users with the most valuable and relevant information, this will make you rank higher in the search results.
One of the last things we do, and probably the most difficult is creating backlinks to your website from other local websites.
Backlinks are always vital in SEO, but because they are not so prominent a factor for local search, it makes things a bit easier.
When we create backlinks, we make sure that all the other websites have some keywords relating to your law firm. It is also important they contain consistent NAP citations along with the link.
Now, there are a multitude of strategies for building backlinks, with some more effective than others. Some of these include publishing articles for a local blog or news outlet and participating in press outreaches about legal topics.
You can even try to get backlinks on your own by sponsoring local events, creating local events for your firm, or donating money to local charities.
Keep in mind, though, that the these are just a few options and that there are many more. The key, however, is the more local websites we can get to list your NAP and backlink, the higher your Google rank will be.
There you go, now you know how important local SEO for law firms is to your law firm. It will give you both the quality and quantity you need to take your law firm to the next level.
If you want to know more about local SEO for law firms or how to implement your strategy, contact us today. We are a full-service digital marketing agency that can help you rank higher, increase your website traffic, and convert more leads and we offer a full range of services from PPC management toSocial Media marketing, SEO, and email marketing.
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