As a law firm, your organization is charged with continually trying to find new clients who can contribute to your bottom line. While outreach and networking are great ways to attract interest, isn’t it so much easier when your clients find you instead of the other way around? Sure, you’ll still want to engage in traditional and digital forms of advertising to ensure you’re top-of-mind when people are looking for attorneys who specialize in the type of law you practice, but if you can build your presence online in a way that brings people knocking at your door with very little effort from you and your staff, everybody wins, right?
This is why Google My Business is great for law firms. By nature, you probably spend much of your energy targeting your local market, so it only makes sense to utilize Google My Business to get your brand out into the universe in the most efficient, user-friendly way possible.
Why Would Your Law Firm Use Google My Business?
That’s a great question. For starters, it contains that ever-present brand Google. As such, it’s intimately tied to the most used search engine on the planet. That, alone, should be enough reason for you to use it, but, of course, that doesn’t really explain why you need Google My Business in your life.
Consider your current search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Hopefully, by now, you’ve got a website that was carefully designed to provide users with easy navigation and the search engines with well-crafted keywords that help them understand who your law firm is and what your practice is all about. You should have blogs, ongoing social posts, and maybe even video content that helps your target audience get to know your law firm better so your potential clients can make highly informed decisions when they choose to work with your attorneys. But is that enough to satisfy Google’s algorithm and get you in those coveted top spots of the search engine results pages (SERPs)? Once upon a time, absolutely. But today, you’re competing with every other law firm in your area, and they’re likely all practicing the same SEO efforts that you are, so you need to find a way to stand out above the clutter.
Google My Business is an integral part of your local targeting efforts and overall marketing strategy. Plus, it’s free, so why wouldn’t you want to embrace the power it offers you? Once you understand how Google My Business impacts your law practice’s digital footprint and online visibility, you’ll wonder how you ever survived without it.
What Exactly is Google My Business?
Perhaps we should back up just a bit and explain. Google My Business is a free service that’s designed to make it simple for local companies to manage their online listings. Whenever your potential clients search for local services in their area, they’re likely seeing Google My Business at work. It displays results on a map and provides other important information about the businesses, including their contact information, website, and reviews.
Optimizing your ability to be found in local searches all starts with entering your law firm’s name, address, and contact information into your Google My Business profile. This is what Google will use when people search for relevant keywords that are tied to your organization’s Google My Business profile information. The Google My Business (or GMB) listings appear at the top of local search results and are much more prominent than results that are not displayed on the map, as well as those that appear lower down on the page.
Once you’ve filled out your GMB account, your listing will automatically be displayed with prominent links to your website and directions to your law firm via Google Maps. Since you’re likely trying to attract new clients in your local region, this is a great way to show people how conveniently located you are to their homes or workplaces. This encourages them to reach out to you to learn more, thereby improving your lead generation tactics.
How Does Google My Business Facilitate SEO Best Practices?
The truth is, Google’s algorithms are well-kept secrets that even the greatest of marketing gurus don’t really understand for certain. With that said, some SEO experts have identified a few methods that can help your law firm improve your rankings. For local search, there are three elements you need to pay attention to if you want to get on the good side of Google: Relevance, location, and authority.
Relevance
Relevance measures how well your keywords match up with searchers’ intents when they plug in certain terms and phrases. When you fill out your GMB profile, be sure to choose keywords that are similar to your business category on the platform. This is a great way to leverage your SEO efforts and make sure you’re appearing as high on the list as possible.
Location
Location is a pretty obvious metric. As a local law firm that’s serving your surrounding community, your content should highlight that fact with accurate information across all of your online profiles, as well as your own website. The GMB admin area enables you to verify your geographic information and make any necessary corrections, such as how your law firm shows up on the map.
Authority
Authority is an SEO term that revolves around which links generate a lot of interest and are considered to be high-quality. Generally speaking, websites gain authority in SEO by having other sites link to them, although it’s important to remember that this is just one of many factors Google considers when it’s deciding with businesses to highlight in those desirable first positions on the SERPs.
When you achieve high authority, it means your website is likely to be the best place for people to find information related to the content you’re offering the world.
Using Google My Business to Increase Your Law Firm’s Local Reach on Google Search and Maps: Google My Business Tips for Attorneys
Now that you understand a little more about why Google My Business is important to helping your law firm be found by future clients, let’s talk about how to use it so you can take full advantage of the powers GMB possesses. There are a lot of features on this platform, as it’s quite robust, particularly for a tool that’s completely free. You’ll have plenty of time to play around with the various functions and gadgets offered by GMB, but here are four you’ll definitely want to become acquainted with:
1. Business Information
GMB provides you with a channel through which you can easily display all information that’s pertinent to your law firm on a trusted source (Google). Here, you should be sure to include the obvious information, such as your law firm’s name, address, and phone number, but also add any other details that can help people find you, such as your:
- Office hours
- Contact details
- Website link
Also, be sure to show off your practice areas. Google My Business has categories for attorneys in which you can list both primary and secondary areas of practice. Be specific and choose all applicable categories to get the best results possible.
2. Google Reviews
Ask for reviews and manage your online reputation through GMB. Google My Business features reviews when people search for the terms that ultimately showcase your law firm in the SERPs. Potential clients can then review the personal recommendations provided by your existing and past clients, gathering vital information that can help them make their final decisions about the attorneys with which they want to work.
3. Questions & Answers
Some people may use the private message feature of GMB (another great asset) to ask questions about your law firm, but with the Q&A section, you can answer many questions to the public at large. Plus, the Q&A section gives you the ability to add vital keywords your Google My Business profile needs to be as search engine optimized as possible.
4. Google Posts
You can use GMB to create Google-owned content that can go right alongside your listing. This is important because Google really wants to keep searchers on its platform; it doesn’t want to redirect people to an outside website. As such, the search engine will reward you for creating Google Post content that can be showcased with your SERP details. You might even find yourself featured in the local three-pack where your law firm will get lots of attention and attract new audience members.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
If you’re ready to discover a local marketing strategy that can help your law firm become easily accessible on Google and anywhere else potential clients are looking for you, our Surefire Local experts are ready to guide you through the process! Schedule a demo with us today, and let us show you how our local marketing platform can change the way your firm interacts with the internet forever!