How to Rank Attorney Websites on Google
Here are some SEO strategies that are specifically tailored for personal injury attorneys, criminal defense attorneys, family law attorneys, immigration attorneys, employment attorneys, bankruptcy attorneys, tax attorneys, intellectual property attorneys, real estate attorneys, environmental attorneys, civil rights attorneys, corporate attorneys, maritime attorneys, and other attorneys.
We've grouped them into technical, on-page, and off-page suggestions.
1.) Technical SEO Tips for Attorneys
Technical SEO refers to optimizing your law firm website's infrastructure so it can be properly crawled and indexed by search engines, which includes aspects like site speed, mobile optimization, XML sitemaps, and structured data markup. This ensures search engines can easily access, understand, and rank the website's content.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Ensure that your attorney website has a responsive design that works well desktop, small laptop, tablet, and mobile devices. There are a lot of screen sizes out there to accomodate. On a desktop computer, you can resize your browser window from large to small to see how different layout elements adjust for smaller screen sizes.
- Check your attorney website's speed using a tool like Google PageSpeed Insights. Don't get caught up trying to pass Core Web Vitals. It isn't always possible on complex websites and might not be worth the investment. Instead, try to fix simple things to get a score of 60+.
- Use HTTPS encryption to secure your attorney website. Most hosting companies offer free SSL certificates that you can use.
- Create an XML sitemap for your attorney website and submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to help search engines crawl and index your website better.
- Implement local business schema markup to help search engines understand the content on your website.
- Use canonical tags to avoid duplicate content issues if you have the same content available on multiple URLs of your attorney website.
- Regularly monitor your attorney website's crawl errors and fix them promptly. You can find such errors in Google Search Console.
2.) On-Page SEO Tips for Attorneys
On-page SEO involves optimizing each page of your attorney website to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. This often focuses on elements like keyword presence, meta tags, quality of content, user experience, page organization, and internal linking.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Create high-quality, original law-related content that targets your audience's search intent. While ChatGTP is a popular content writing tool, don't rely solely on AI content. It is often generic, repetitive, and/or inaccurate. Be sure to proofread content before you post it.
- Include relevant law-related keywords in your attorney website's page titles and meta descriptions.
- Optimize the headings and subheadings on your attorney website with relevant target keywords.
- Use law-related target keywords in image alt tags to provide context for your attorney website's images.
- Use internal linking to help search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of your attorney website.
- Use descriptive URLs that contain relevant law-related keywords on your attorney website.
- Display client reviews and testimonials prominently on your attorney website to build trust and credibility.
- Scan your attorney website for broken links and fix them immediately. You can use this free tool from Ahrefs to scan for broken links.
3.) Off-Page SEO Tips for Attorneys
Off-page SEO involves all the actions taken outside of your law firm website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes strategies like link building, social media marketing, and reputation management. Such efforts help increase your website's reputation, authority, and visibility online.
We can help out with all of these items and more, or you can handle them on your own:
- Build high-quality backlinks from relevant law-related websites, such as legal blogs or law directories.
- Create and maintain a strong presence on social media to engage with clients and build brand awareness.
- Encourage satisfied attorney clients to leave reviews on Google My Business and other relevant review sites.
- Collaborate with other local businesses to cross-promote services and build backlinks.
- Create listings in local business directories and citation sites that are relevant to attorneys to increase your website's visibility.
- Create informative and shareable law-related content that your attorney clients and potential clients would find interesting, such as legal news or updates on new laws and regulations.
- Make videos to showcase your legal practice and build engagement with clients. Be sure to optimize the video content with relevant law-related keywords.
- Monitor your attorney firm's online reputation and respond promptly to client feedback and reviews. Even negative reviews should be responded to appropriately.
We can review your website and rankings, then provide a recommendation on which areas of technical, on-page, and off-page search engine optimization need the most attention. This will help establish a budget and scope for ranking you higher in search results!
Alternatively, if you don't need help improving your rankings, check out this guide on DIY SEO!
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Top Keywords for Attorney SEO
Looking for suggested keywords to target within the SEO campaign for your law firm? Whether you plan to hire us, or optimize the site yourself, we've got you covered!
Before starting an SEO service for a law firm, we like to scan the website and see what you've got to work with for content and link authority.
From there, we'll check to see what types of law your firm specializes in. Maybe you focus on personal injury, criminal defense, or family law.
Having this information helps us determine what types of keywords to focus on for content writing and link building.
Focus Keywords for Law Firms
- Personal injury lawyer [city/area]
- Criminal defense attorney [city/area]
- Family law attorney [city/area]
- Divorce lawyer [city/area]
- Estate planning attorney [city/area]
- Business lawyer [city/area]
- Real estate attorney [city/area]
- Immigration lawyer [city/area]
- Bankruptcy attorney [city/area]
- Tax attorney [city/area]
- Employment lawyer [city/area]
- Intellectual property attorney [city/area]
- Workers' compensation lawyer [city/area]
- Civil litigation attorney [city/area]
- Medical malpractice attorney [city/area]
- Social security disability lawyer [city/area]
Keyword Tip #1: Law firms often target keywords related to the types of law they specialize in and their location. This helps you attract local clients who are searching for legal services nearby.
Keyword Tip #2: You should consider targeting long-tail keywords, which are more specific and less competitive. For example, "child custody lawyer in Los Angeles" may be easier to rank for than just "family law attorney".
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