There are some lawyers who still market legal services through traditional marketing methods, such as newspaper and television ads. However, there are many benefits and results that come from search engine optimization. SEO for attorneys is important since 96% of people use online search engines when searching for legal advice. Most people aren’t just looking for a specific attorney but need help with legal issues and want to find the best fit for their needs. Good SEO helps people discover your law firm and then increases the likelihood that they will become clients.
Your Website Will Be More Engaging
SEO is effective for lawyers because it helps make the website more engaging and a more engaged website means more clients. Your website’s bounce rate is important. If you aren’t using the right SEO tactics then you could be showing up in search results for the wrong search terms and this won’t give potential clients the information they need when they get to your website. Your website is the first impression so a strong website that is easy to navigate can benefit SEO, as well as the user experience.
It Helps Give You Credibility
One of the biggest parts of SEO is determining your target audience and their needs and then designing the website and content to match. This will help give you credibility with the search engines and better rankings and help with prospective and current clients. Another important benefit of SEO is the ability to publish legal content and this allows the firm to become easily discoverable within your results. Well-researched legal content is not only helpful to search engines, but it will also help build up your credibility with your potential clients. Another component of SEO is online reviews and these reviews can also help you establish credibility. Search engines, especially Google, have built-in review systems that allow past clients to give information about your firm. This shows your potential clients that others have been trusting of your legal services and recommends you. Even a negative review can still be beneficial if you have a quick response to show that you care about the opinions of your clients. You are also able to publish testimonials to your website in order to have engaging content and build this credibility outside of a search engine.
It Gets More Qualified Leads
SEO on your website is known to attract more potential clients. However, just getting the information to the clients isn’t enough to convert them. SEO is effective when it includes calls to action on the site to encourage your visitors to take the next steps required to contact you or sign up for information. More website traffic means more clients. SEO will bring you traffic to your website, which can help translate to more phone calls to your office. According to Google’s Legal Services study, three-quarters of people who visit a website for a law firm are willing to take some action as long as you provide a way to do so by including your phone number or contact information on each page. SEO is effective at boosting your bottom line.
There Is More Return on Your Investment
SEO is effective because you get a better return on your investment. Competition is always going to be strong in the legal space and a commitment to SEO will help you get ahead of your competitors without blowing your entire marketing budget. When compared to other forms of marketing, SEO can give you a high return on your investment. When done correctly, SEO can pay off for years to come. Unlike other advertisements that go away when you stop paying for them, search engine results will stay as long as you are updating your website and following algorithm changes. Even if you aren’t going to be investing in SEO, your competitors are going to. There are only 10 organic search result positions on the first page of Google. Most people aren’t going to be clicking beyond the first page. If you aren’t in that top 10 then you have a much lower chance of being seen by any potential clients.
It can seem easy to do your own SEO for your law firm, but it can be hard without the proper research and tools. You are already busy running your law firm so you may not have time to work on implementing SEO strategies on your own. Working with a law firm SEO expert, such as Gladiator Law Marketing, will help you come up with a plan for your needs.
