Creating your website so that it attracts readers and converts them into clients is the number one thing that most law firms spend their resources on when it comes to online marketing. But all that work on your website is useless if you aren’t ranking on the first page of a search engine query. In order to do that, you need to consider search engine optimization (SEO). For attorneys, this means a lot of little things that need to be fine-tuned to beat the competition. Here are some dos and don’ts for your SEO practices.
Search Engine Optimization for Attorneys: Dos
Want to attract more visitors to your website? Here are some things you must do with your SEO efforts:
- Research your keywords and ensure that you are choosing the keywords that your target audience uses the most. For example, is your audience searching for attorney or lawyer more often? In addition to using tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, you should also be polling your clients to learn what they search for.
- Use social media to drive traffic to your blog. Your audience is already on social media; it is far more likely that they will come across your profile there. You can use keywords and hashtags on social media to improve your SEO on those specific sites, and then point users to your website.
SEO Don’ts for Attorneys
Here are a couple of things to avoid with your SEO practices:
- Never host your blog on a third-party service. If you have a self-hosted website, use it for your blog! Don’t create a new WordPress account or blog on a platform like LinkedIn (unless you intend to cross post to your blog). You want your traffic to go to your blog, not boost the third party.
- Don’t try to take shortcuts. There are ways to buy backlinks, which help give you an immediate SEO boost thanks to search engine algorithms. But Google catches on fast, and does not like this practice at all. It will hurt your efforts in the long run. It’s much better to build your links organically, and not try to game the algorithm.
If you want to drive traffic to your website and don’t know where to start, get in touch with us at Forward Lawyer Marketing. We’ll take time to learn your firm’s goals, how you stack up against the competition, and help determine if a search engine optimization program best fits your needs. Call us at (888) 590-9687 to speak with an expert legal marketing consultant.
