The internet is a place where a majority of people rely heavily on when making a decision. Whether it’s where to eat next, or what law firm they should visit to handle their situation. As a lawyer or law firm, competition is rough; everyone wants to be on the top at all times. But most law firms have zero knowledge or the time to learn SEO and social media therefore rely heavily on advice from SEO agencies. Often times, these SEO agencies, over promise but do not fully deliver. With the help of this article, you will be able to learn and understand the basic steps to take to build a local SEO campaign.
Step #1: Register on Google “My Business” Page
Start off by registering your business on Google – this should be your first step to starting a local SEO campaign for your law firm. When searching on Google, the nearby businesses usually pop up on the very top of the page. These are probably the first businesses that potential customers will contact, so this is where you want to be.
To make sure you are on top of your game, here are some tips to optimize your law firm’s listing on Google:
Include a long, keyword rich description of your law practice and the types of services you provide.
Upload as many photos as possible
Choose the correct categories for your law practice
Include local phone number, link to your website and a complete address
Make sure the info is accurate and always kept up to date
Step #2: Optimize Your Website with Local Keyword Data
This is very crucial step – you want to add local keyword data to each and every page so that Google knows your website is for a local business. For instance, if you are a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, you should use the words “Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer and similar terms strategically across key areas of your website. Here are some main things you should optimize with local keywords:
The “Title” tag for your website should include your city/region and a keyword, e.g. “Chicago Personal Injury Lawyer”
Have at least one page with an H1 tag that includes your local keywords
Include your local keywords several times throughout the content on all pages, but don’t abuse them
If possible, have your location and keyword in the URL
Include images with “alt” tags that include your local keywords
Step #3: Develop Citations and Links
Citations are listings of your business NAP (name, address, and phone number) in an online directory. Popular options include general national directories such as Facebook and yellowpages.com, general local directories such as your town’s Chamber of Commerce site, and directories that are targeted to your industry.
Links are a great way to improve your SEO. Directories are a great starting point for building links as well as citations.
Step #4: Request Reviews and Ratings
Nowadays, most people rely heavily on online ratings and other’s experiences. Not only does it help convince people to give your company a try but having reviews lets Google know that you have a legitimate business. All reviews are valuable; ask your existing clients to write you a positive review on popular review sites such as Google, Yelp and Avvo.
Step #5: Get Backlinks from Other Local Websites
The final step in our local SEO guide for law firms is to create incoming links to your website, also known as backlinks from other local websites. Backlinks always play a key role in SEO, but they are not quite as prominent of a factor for local search as they are for global search.
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