Here’s How Lawyers Offering Services to Private Clients Stand to Benefit from SEO Support

Date: April 14, 2022

Legal team looking at documents on a wood table

When you offer legal services to private clients, it can be challenging to find those clients, or rather, get them to find you. There are countless local law firms, all vying for the first position in internet search results. However, many fall short because they lack the proper SEO support to set their website apart from the competition.

Fortunately, you don’t have to let your website fall to the wayside. A carefully thought-out SEO strategy can drastically improve your search result position. The not-so-great news is that sustaining an SEO strategy requires a lot of time that most attorneys don’t have.

What’s the solution? 

Search marketing firms offer SEO support to help lawyers reach more private clients through popular search engines like Google. In fact, the benefits of outsourcing your SEO strategy to a team of trained professionals are limitless. Read on to learn more about how you can help your law firm with keyword research, SEO content, PPC, and Google Screened.

SEO for Estate Planning Attorneys

In estate planning, you generally have to rely on previous clients’ referrals to gain new clients. However, you don’t have to settle for the traditional method of doing business. Instead, you can work with a dedicated team of SEO specialists who understand your practice and business objectives to develop an effective marketing strategy, which helps your firm reap the following benefits:

Boosting Website Traffic

After you’ve spent time and money creating the perfect website, you want to make sure people will actually see it. Unfortunately, it’s not an “if you build it, they will come” situation. In order to increase your web traffic, you must target specific keywords that users will search for when looking for an estate planner. Your SEO strategist can help you identify these words and ensure that these words are included in your website according to best practices to help boost website traffic.

Reaching Potential Clients

The critical part of SEO isn’t just making sure that your website reaches more people. It specifically needs to reach your target audience in the moment that they’re looking to engage your services. Local SEO can be particularly useful in this case. You can work with an SEO marketing team to reach prospects who are specifically looking for estate planning attorneys in your area.  

Growing Your Client Base 

Once you’ve reached your target audience, you want to convert them into clients. How can you achieve this? Quality website copy, content and calls-to-action (i.e. “Request a Consultation”, downloadable content behind a landing page, etc.), of course! As part of your SEO strategy, you will grow your website with blogs and web pages that turn visitors into clients. Additionally, creating helpful content can encourage visitors to share your website with others, which will also help you build your client base. 

SEO for Family Law Attorneys

With family law SEO, long-tail keywords are critical to your client’s journey in finding your website. These keywords often include phrases or sentences that people search for in relation to your focus keyword. They are great for family lawyers because prospective clients often don’t start out looking for an attorney. Typically, they have questions that they need answered before they decide to move forward with hiring a lawyer.

Having robust, thorough responses to these questions on your website makes for an excellent opportunity to reach people who may be looking for a lawyer in the near future. It’s easy to turn long-tail keywords into blog topics, which will help you answer clients’ queries and direct them to your website from their Google search results.

As we mentioned, most long-tail keywords are generated based on frequently asked questions or searched phrases. Your SEO strategist will help determine the best ones for your law firm. The following are a few examples of long-tail keywords that you can use:

  • What are adoption laws in New Jersey?
  • How to calculate child support Maryland
  • Can I move states if I have shared custody?
  • How to file for divorce in New York
  • What to include in a prenup

SEO for Immigration Law Attorneys

Much like with other areas of practice, immigration law can be broken down into many subcategories and practices (i.e. EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, I-9 Compliance and Enforcement, Requests for Evidence, etc.). These different categories can work to your advantage because SEO is about more than keywords. It also deals with the structure of your website.

While you might like the sleek, basic look of a single-page website, it doesn’t help you rank in search engine results. Instead, you need to work with an SEO specialist who can help you structure your website to build authority and relevance. Doing so will also link to correct pages so that you can rank with what would otherwise be difficult keywords. 

What does it mean to link correctly?

The links and structure of the website need to follow a logical order. You typically begin with the main topic and break it down further through top-level and sub-level pages. You also must ensure that any included links are relevant to the content on the page. Finally, any internal or external links should be helpful and thorough so that you can create a website with authority.

Sidebar: Should Attorneys Use PPC?

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising has long been an effective tool for many businesses, including law firms. While SEO strategies can increase the quantity and quality of your inbound leads, it is a slow process. For that reason, many lawyers can benefit from investing in PPC advertising to supplement their SEO marketing efforts. Not to mention, your SEO keywords can serve as an excellent starting point for your paid campaigns.

What are the other benefits of combining your SEO and paid advertising campaigns? 

  • You can use one company for the job
  • Your vendor will have a better-rounded understanding of your business
  • Your vendor can help maximize and optimize your marketing budget

Google Screened: Low-Hanging Fruit for DIY Attorneys

In 2020, Google announced a program known as Google Screened. It was developed to help establish and highlight legitimate professional service providers. After going through a special process to build your trusted reputation, Google will award a badge that shows that you and your law firm have been vetted. However, you get more than just the little badge next to your website. It also helps you rank higher in their results.

We’re sure you’re wondering what the catch is.

The truth is that getting started with Google Screened can be a tedious process with a lot of hoops to jump through. The application was designed to be daunting to prevent scams and illegitimate law firms from slipping through the cracks. You don’t have to struggle through the process, however. Your SEO marketing team can help you establish your credibility as a trusted attorney with Google Screened.

Contact 9Sail for More Information on SEO for Lawyers

Whether you need to restructure your website or do more keyword research, you don’t have to stumble your way through the world of SEO. At 9Sail, we offer long-term SEO strategy and support for lawyers and other professional services providers. In fact, we’ve spent years specializing in understanding your unique target audience.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you with your SEO, we recommend contacting us right away. You can reach us via phone or email. We also have a simple online form that you can submit to get a free SEO site audit. There are absolutely no obligations, so why not see how your website has been performing? Audit it now!