According to one recent study, there were approximately 1.3 million lawyers in the United States as of January 1, 2024. That breaks down to roughly four lawyers for every 1,000 residents.
Based on that, saying that “the legal services field is a competitive one” is probably a bit of an understatement.
When the field is that naturally stacked against you, one must do anything they can to stand out in a crowd. If someone is looking for a personal injury attorney in your area, they probably have more than a few firms to choose from. Why should they pick you? What can you do for them that other people can’t? How do you make an impact when someone goes to Google to search for something as inherently vague as “personal injury attorney near me”?
The truth is that getting noticed on Google as a legal services professional is all about local search engine optimization. It’s a way to use the various factors that Google employs to determine search engine results page rankings to your advantage. But it’s less the product of any one major decision you’re making and is more about a series of smaller and more strategic ones. They might not seem like much on their own, but together they add up to the digital equivalent of a spotlight shining directly on your law firm’s door.
Capitalizing on local SEO for lawyers isn’t necessarily difficult – but it does require you to keep a few key things in mind to help guarantee that you’ll attract the right type of attention from the right type of people at exactly the right moment.
Local, Local, Local
By far, the most important step you can take to get noticed on Google as a legal services professional involves optimizing not just for search engine optimization (SEO), but local SEO, whenever and wherever you can.
According to Google, 4 in 5 people conduct searches with local intent. They’re not just looking for a law firm. They’re looking for a law firm that is physically located close to where they live and work. Based on that, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that 76% of consumers who search for “near me” tend to visit a business within just one day.
If you’re going out of your way to search for local businesses, you’re probably past the “information finding” stage. You have a high intent to take action. There’s an urgency there. Because of that, lawyers in particular need to focus not just on getting noticed, but on getting noticed by the right people at the right time.
When designing your law firm’s website, for example, include city-specific and region-specific keywords in your content, meta descriptions, and titles (like using “Chicago criminal defense attorney” instead of just “defense attorney”).
You also shouldn’t neglect a lot of the great resources available to you, like your Google Business Profile. This is the sidebar that opens on Google after someone has conducted a search but before they’ve had a chance to visit your website. Ensure all information is accurate, such as the business name, address, phone number (NAP), website, and hours of operation.
Laying the Foundation of On-Page SEO
On the subject of your law firm’s website, you should also take every opportunity to focus on on-page SEO – meaning the things you can do when building the site that will make a big impact later on.
Use relevant keywords throughout your website’s content, including headers, meta tags, and image alt text. Image alt text is what appears if an image can’t load properly for whatever reason. Just because most users will never see it doesn’t mean that Google won’t.
When creating content for your law firm’s website, make sure that it is informative, useful, and answers the most common legal questions clients may have. Use a variety of content formats, such as blog posts, FAQs, and case studies.
There are even steps that you can take, like focusing on a mobile-friendly design that will make a much bigger impact than people realize. Make sure that your website is responsive and works well on mobile devices, as Google uses mobile-first indexing. Most of the people who are conducting those “near me” searches will be doing so from a smartphone, tablet, or other type of mobile device.
Finally, never neglect your site’s speed – that is to say, resist the urge to front load the experience with a lot of large video files or other rich media that could slow things down. Optimize loading speeds for your website by compressing images, using browser caching, and ensuring a clean, efficient code.
Content is King
In terms of the content you create for your audience, legal services professionals are in a unique position in that there is essentially no shortage of things to write about. You have a unique perspective and a high level of expertise. Show it off absolutely anywhere you can and your Google ranking will benefit from it.
Publish regular blog posts on legal topics relevant to your practice area. Include long-tail keywords to capture more specific searches. You could open the newspaper on your average morning and probably find a laundry list of topics that would be perfect for writing about for your target audience.
Develop informative resources like eBooks, white papers, or guides that demonstrate your expertise in the legal field. Create content around common questions clients ask. This helps with featured snippets, which can drive more traffic to your website.
If you take this approach, a few key things will happen next. First, you’ll start to amass high-quality backlinks – another factor that Google uses when determining search engine rankings. The more people link to your content, the more authority you have – and you’re rewarded as a result. Therefore, the more high-quality content you create, the more chances there are for this to happen.
But people will also start to share your content on social media platforms, too. Maintain active profiles on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram, as Google may take social media activity into consideration when ranking local businesses. You could even share your blog posts, case studies, and legal updates on your social media channels. This can drive traffic and engagement, indirectly benefiting your SEO efforts.
The Ongoing Nature of Local SEO for Lawyers
Finally, understand that search engine optimization for lawyers and getting noticed on Google is not something that you “do once and forget about.” This is an ongoing process and it requires you to be proactive. Just because you manage to claw your way to the top of the Google search results doesn’t mean that you’ll stay there permanently without making a concerted effort to do so.
Regularly audit your website’s SEO to identify areas of improvement (like fixing broken links or improving page load speed). Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing in terms of SEO and adapt your strategy as necessary. You can even use Google Search Console to monitor your site’s performance, track rankings, and identify potential issues that could affect visibility.
By focusing on these best practices, legal services businesses can improve their online visibility, build authority in their niche, and attract more potential clients through Google. That is a very exciting position to be in, especially in a field as competitive as this one.
Of course, these are just a few of the best practices for getting noticed on Google that you should be following on a regular basis. As you can see, they quickly add up to a major commitment in terms of time and effort. Every minute that you spend in front of your computer crafting a great blog or managing your social profiles is a minute you’re not serving your clients, which can quickly turn into an issue without the right tools by your side.
The Surefire Local Advantage
Thankfully, Surefire Local was designed as a powerful all-in-one marketing platform that helps relieve as many of these pain points as possible. It’s a platform specifically designed to help businesses, including law firms, enhance their local SEO, manage their online presence, and streamline their marketing efforts.
It includes features like local search optimization, for example, which helps law firms rank higher in local search results, ensuring they’re visible to potential clients searching for services in their geographic area. It also includes management capabilities for more than 80 different directories, including Google Business Profile, in one easy-to-access place. Making sure that your law firm’s business information is accurate, up-to-date, and optimized for search queries can drive more local traffic to your website.
So not only will you be in a better position to get noticed on Google, but the new clients you generate will also get to enjoy the top-tier level of service that you’ve become known for – which in and of itself is the most important benefit of all.
If you’d like to find out more information about how to get found on Google for legal services professionals, or if you have any additional questions about local SEO for lawyers in general that you’d like to discuss in a bit more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact us today. You can also click here to schedule a Surefire Local demo so that you can get a sense of just what an impact such a powerful all-in-one marketing platform can make for your efforts.