Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the number one marketing strategy for all businesses in the world today, including law firms. People have realized that potential clients are online, and they have to find new innovative ways to reach these people before their competition does.
SEO doesn’t involve paying for ads to rank higher on search engines. On the contrary, the reach achieved from SEO is completely organic, which is good because they are likely to become future clients.
Some facts, according to research, are that a staggering 96% of people looking for law services will use search engines to find a lawyer. About 74% of people who click on a law website will contact the law firm. An impressive 87% of clients that contact a law firm will eventually hire a lawyer. These are just some factors that make SEO important for any serious law firm out there.
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5 Essential Elements of Successful SEO
- Content
You have heard the quote, “Content is King,” a lot before, and it is true. The content on your website should be our priority as it will let potential clients know what your firm is all about.
Search engine algorithms use the content on your website to determine if you are an authority on a particular subject. If it determines that your content provides valuable information, then it will rank your website higher. It does this if visitors on your page stay for a long time looking through your website.
Since content is the most important element of SEO success, even small law firms with tight budgets have a chance to get clients. Hiring SEO firms like ApricotLaw to help you with the content on your website to help boost visibility on search engines.
- Website Design
When making your website, the design must enhance the user experience. Many people go through websites with simple and easy-to-navigate designs. The user of eye-catchy website designs helps with your law firm’s branding.
The navigation should be smooth without a person having to ask for help when using your website. The content should be readable to everyone in terms of font style, colour, and size. Use menus to categorize different topics and forms to collect visitors’ information.
- Website Structure
Your website’s core functionality should complement the website design and content to maximize user experience. Your website should work on any device people can access using responsive designs.
The research shows that even though 69% of people use both their phones and PCs to look for lawyers, there is 31% that exclusively use mobile searches. The whole website should be secure with valid, up-to-date security certificates. Nobody wants to access a site that will lead to attacks from viruses and black hat hackers.
The website should be fast to prevent potential visitors from clicking away before the website loads.
- Compliance with Google’s Guidelines
Google’s rules and regulations should be adhered to avoid penalties such as removing your website from the first page. Using underhanded tactics such as buying links is prohibited and will be detected by the search engine algorithms. When in doubt, working with an SEO company will ensure your website remains compliant.
- Authority
There are three ways Google determine whether your site has authority:
- Helpful content
- The user experience on your website
- Links from external sources are called inbound links.
Inbound links should be earned by other websites linking the content on your site without monetary compensation or supplication. You can still rank high on search engines with or without inbound links because very few law websites have earned their inbound links, and those that try to cheat have been caught.
Using SEO for Your Law Website
SEO is a simple tool that assists law firms, despite their budgets, to market their services globally. Since it might be hard to try and improve the SEO on your website alone, you might want to set aside a budget to hire a good SEO firm to help you start.
