Every business with a website arguably needs to use SEO. The owner might not know it, but without SEO, they may not get any business, or they’ll attract much less than they otherwise would.
Lawyers need SEO even more than a lot of other business entities. We will talk about why in the following article.
What Exactly is SEO?
SEO is a term you’ll hear a lot in IT circles. It means search engine optimization. Google is the world’s most popular search engine, though others exist, like Bing.
SEO means you’re trying to change or adjust your website so that it appears higher in the SERPs, or search engine ranking positions. You can do that in many different ways.
Law firm SEO matters because if an attorney doesn’t bother to use it, they will often lose business to competing firms and websites.
Why Do Attorneys Particularly Need SEO?
You could argue that every business with a website will perform better with SEO, but with lawyers, a special need for it exists. Look at it this way. As a lawyer, you’re probably facing great competition for every client.
Many lawyers practice law, always trying to generate interest and name recognition. You’ll see law offices and lawyer commercials every time you turn on the TV, especially if you’re watching local channels. You might hear radio spots for them on the way to work. You may see their smiling faces on billboards when driving around town.
Lawyers need to market their services because if you don’t go with one attorney, you’ll go with another, probably one from that same geographic region. Lawyers serve their local communities more times than not. They’re almost local celebrities, though someone across the country might not know them at all.
As a lawyer, you can certainly use proven advertising methods like radio spots, TV commercials, and billboards. You can also do targeted marketing on social media. SEO gives your business another dimension, though, and it’s one that you absolutely need.
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How SEO Works
If you’re a lawyer, you need a website. It’s that simple. You know that if someone looks for you online, you need a site where they can go to learn about your services and background. You need a phone number and email address, but your potential clients should go to your website to find them.
Getting a new client often starts with someone visiting your website. Even if you advertise your phone number on a billboard, it’s likely a potential client will visit your website before they decide whether to call. That’s why you need to get people to visit your site since that’s one step close to conversion.
Basic SEO usually involves hiring someone to look at your site and then doing some research into how people interact with it. They can do that using SEO tools. You don’t need to know much about those. The point is that you need to hire someone who can use them and then tweak your site to get more people to come there.
Many Different SEO Elements Exist
You can hire an SEO expert through an agency or hire a freelancer. You might even think about hiring an SEO specialist full-time to work for your law firm. You can do that if you have a thriving firm with a large, complex website.
However you get an SEO specialist on your team, they can change your site using many different subtle techniques, or more significant ones, in some instances. For example, they might say that you need some more visual elements if your site has mostly or exclusively text. Everyone wants to see visual elements. Humans crave them.
Your SEO specialist can add some pictures and videos that should get your site a higher ranking when someone looks for particular keywords and keyword phrases using Google. They might search for something like “the best lawyers near me” or “the best lawyer in Kansas City.” You can see why you’d want your site to appear at the top of the page if someone searched like that within your geographic region.
They might ask you to take some pictures of your staff members interacting with the local community or defending someone in a courtroom. They might also want you to shoot some videos with the same themes. You want dynamic images that will galvanize a potential customer into contacting you.
Your SEO specialist might also ask you to add some social media elements so people can easily follow you on popular platforms, like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, etc. They might want you to add a blog for the site, or maybe you need to add some questions to your FAQ section. They may ask you to add a compelling “about us” section that tells the firm’s story in a relatable way.
How Can SEO Change Your Fortunes as an Attorney?
If you’re an attorney and want more people to come to your website because you need more customers, SEO can start that process. Even if you’ve never heard of it till now, you need to understand its importance. It’s necessary these days if you want to compete with other lawyers and poach some of their potential clients.
You can rocket to the top of the Google rankings in your area for certain specific keywords and phrases that people use. You should also understand that an SEO specialist will not just guess about those keywords and phrases. Instead, they will use the latest tools to determine what terms people in your area use when they look for lawyers.
Once you have your new website ready and waiting, you’ll see more client interactions and hear from more potential customers who easily found your site. The money you pay the SEO specialist to improve your website will seem worth it when you see business pick up for you.
SEO can change your fortunes dramatically if you give it a chance.
