Whether you’re at an established law firm or are new to the world of being a legal services professional, there are a number of important things to keep in mind.
For starters, competition isn’t just fierce – it’s probably much more significant than you realize. Just because you have a physical office in a certain area doesn’t mean that the only competitors are those you can see from your front door. Lawyers are licensed to practice in a state – meaning that every other legal services professional in the state is competing for the same type of work you are.
The vast majority of the time, a new client will find you through a search engine like Google. When they do, know that approximately 75% of all users will never scroll past the first page of search results. If your law firm is towards the bottom of the first page of results, you’ll have a hard time standing out. If you’re on the second page of results (or beyond), you may as well not have an Internet presence at all.
That’s part of the reason why having an established Google Business Profile that you are in complete control of is so important. This is your listing that appears for your business alongside the organic search results. It helps you stand out not only in Google Search, but on Google Maps as well. You can respond to reviews, send direct messages to people, create posts, and more – all while also acting as a listing for your legal services.
But your Google Business Profile is more than just a virtual business card, especially for an organization that depends on word-of-mouth like a law firm. If you truly want to make sure that your Google Business Profile is optimized and that you’re putting forward the right kind of impression, there are a number of best practices you’ll want to follow.
Claim, Verify, and Fill Out Your Google Business Profile
One of the most important things that you can do when it comes to turning your Google Business Profile into a legitimate resource for your firm involves claiming it, verifying that you are who you say you are, and filling it out to the best of your ability.
Note that because you’re operating a business that likely has some type of online presence elsewhere, it’s likely that a Google Business Profile already exists for your firm. It will come up whenever someone searches for your firm, but it will likely be filled with generic information. Not only do you want to make sure everything is accurate and up-to-date, but you want to claim it before anyone else can, too.
When you do, Google will send a verification code to your business address, or offer other verification methods, to ensure you’re the rightful owner of the listing. This process is crucial to gaining control over your profile and the data shown to potential clients.
Then, go through and fill in every section with as much detail as you can. Use your official business name as it appears on your website and legal documents. The absolute last thing that you want to do is cause confusion with a prospective new client by having a name that doesn’t quite match what is on your website, or what they may have seen on something like a billboard or TV commercial.
If you operate from a physical office, list the address. If you serve clients remotely or from various locations, indicate the service areas instead. Make sure this is a local, direct number that clients can reach you at during business hours.
Finally, include accurate business hours, and if you have special hours for holidays or events, make sure those are updated as well.
You’ll also want to write a compelling business description, which is another way to instantly grab someone’s attention and help you stand out in a crowd. What makes your legal services business different from every other one that operates in your area? Why should someone choose you over someone else? Try to take that essence and distill it down into something that can be conveyed quickly.
Highlight your experience, areas of practice, and commitment to client success. Be sure to include relevant keywords naturally, such as “personal injury lawyer in [City]” or “family law attorney near me.” All this will help enormously with local SEO, which is pivotal these days. Keep in mind that approximately 42% of local searches involve clicks on the Google Map Pack – which means that people are actively looking for a way to get in touch with you and visit your location.
Pay Attention to Those Categories
As you fill out your Google Business Profile, you’ll also be asked to select the categories in which you operate. You’ll want to be as specific as possible, as this is another way to differentiate yourself from your competitors.
For example, your primary category might be “Lawyer” or “Attorney,” and secondary categories could include “Criminal Lawyer,” “Family Law Attorney,” or “Personal Injury Lawyer,” depending on your practice areas. Accurate category selection helps ensure your profile appears in relevant local searches.
Lean Into Visual Storytelling
Many people don’t realize that a Google Business Profile is also a great opportunity to use the power of visual storytelling to their advantage. Case in point: photos.
Yes, it’s difficult to capture the essence of what makes legal services great in a photo. But what you can do is upload high-quality photos of your office, team, or any awards you’ve received. A photo of the exterior of your office or a headshot of attorneys can also make a professional impression. Google’s algorithm also takes photos into consideration when ranking businesses, so keep your photo gallery fresh and up-to-date.
It’s All About Those Client Reviews
Your Google Business Profile is also a great place to showcase the social proof that you’ve amassed over the years. That is to say, whenever you see a case through to a satisfying conclusion and secure a victory for a satisfied client, encourage them to share their story so that you can share it on your Google Business Profile for others to see.
According to one recent study, approximately 95% of consumers say they actively read online reviews before making any type of purchase – and that includes law firms. Many people even trust these reviews more than they trust recommendations from their own friends and family members.
Encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews by making it easy for them to do so, and don’t forget to respond to both positive and negative feedback. Show appreciation for positive reviews and offer solutions to resolve any issues that arise in negative reviews.
One Small Part of a Much Larger Story
Finally, you need to acknowledge that while optimizing your Google Business Profile is a great way to start optimizing your online presence, it’s far from the only thing you need to do to guarantee that your firm stands out in a crowd.
Obviously, you’ll need to make sure that your profile is updated on a regular basis. If you so much as change your firm’s phone number, you need to make an update. If new reviews come in, you need to respond to them.
You’ll also need to focus your efforts elsewhere on the Internet, too. Paid search marketing will likely be in your future, as will a healthy social media outreach campaign. You’ll want to create high-quality, relevant content for your firm’s website, and you’ll want to make sure you practice on-page SEO and have location-specific pages for literally every area that you operate in.
If all this sounds like a tremendous amount of work, that’s because it is – which is an issue, as being a legal services professional is likely monopolizing a lot of your time in the first place.
Surefire Local is a powerful all-in-one marketing platform that was designed to help relieve many of the pain points outlined above. Rather than going to one tool to schedule social media posts, another for directory management, another for content creation, and more, everything is all condensed in one easy-to-use space.
What you get with that is a one-stop shop for all your legal services online marketing needs. It’s a way to make sure that when a prospective new client goes looking for a set of legal services like yours, your firm is the first one they find. That dramatically increases the chances that they pick up the phone and give you a call, which keeps a steady stream of new clients coming right through your door.
But the biggest benefit of all is that this frees up as much of your valuable time as possible so that you can focus on providing the best legal services that you can. The importance of that cannot be overstated, which is why this is one opportunity that is far too critical to overlook.
If you’d like to find out more information about how to optimize your Google Business Profile to make the right type of impact, or if you’d just like to learn more about SEO for lawyers in general, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. You can also click here to schedule a Surefire Local demo so that you can see how much time you’ll save with the power of an all-in-one marketing platform at your disposal.