SEO for Lawyers

As you are probably aware, most law firms today are smaller in size, serving their local communities. SEO for these types of practices is very "local" in nature. In addition, attorney firms with a local focus often service clients in the midst of some type of legal crisis: criminal arrests, domestic violence, child custody battles, divorce proceedings, contested wills and estate battles, elder abuse cases.

For these law firms, the primary challenge is outranking competing legal firms that might also be located in the same service area. This requires the use of local SEO tactics. Just as your plumber or electrician business, attorneys and law firms can be featured in search engines in map-pinpointed "local packs" - and those sites found there can get 60-70% or even greater customer inquiries than law firms not featured there.

But other law firms are different… some are regional or even national in their coverage. These are firms operating multiple offices, in multiple physical locations, or who have sub-contracting arrangements in place with other local offices.

These are usually the "big boys" and often specialize in a certain type of legal work: product safety, class-action lawsuits, trademark infringement, corporate bankruptcies, etc. The SEO environment here can be hugely intense and only well-coordinated, comprehensively developed, aggressively deployed SEO campaigns will be effective.

Regardless of your firm's size or focus - or budget - Posirank has been providing SEO for lawyers since the founding of our company, including specialized SEO agencies who focus on acquiring clients in this niche.

Why Does My Law Practice Need SEO? Why Not Just Rely on Paid Ads?

Yes, paid advertising is an option in the legal niche. And by the way, Posirank can handle management of your PPC.

And while PPC and similar advertising can be a part of your marketing strategy - especially if you are a new firm or just beginning to focus on organic SEO improvements - traditional SEO has huge upsides for law firms:

Increased ROI: Your spend for paid insertion is either continual or even increasing. However, organic SEO tactics front-load your spend, and once rankings are achieved, it is typically much cheaper to maintain rankings. Over time, your ROI actually increases, because your costs are decreasing from initial levels, unlike PPC costs which are constantly on the rise.

Long-Term Impact: While PPC and other forms of direct advertising can provide immediate traffic, if that ad spend terminates, so will your traffic and visibility. Once organic SEO rankings have been achieved, however, your visibility continues even during periods when no further campaigns are being executed.

SEO for Lawyers and Reputation Management

While many law firms today rely heavily on traditional media (TV, radio, print) to market their business, and while such advertising can generate interest, it is undoubtedly true that when people begin to actively search for a law firm, they do so online.

And online means people searching online. The beginning of the process is usually with web searches such as "xyz (insert type of practice) law firms near me," or "best xyz attorneys."

Reading and researching, comparing and contrasting comes next - and a big part of that may be to check up on an attorney's reputation, or the track record of an entire law practice. Law firms that have a solid history of servicing their clients well - especially in the form of testimonials and positive reviews - stand a much higher chance of getting that all-important phone call, email, or web lead form submission.

So Reputation Management is a critical aspect of SEO for lawyers. Let's face it, there's lots of law firms competing for the same digital real estate - a few precious lines at the top of the search results pages.

A law firm with a lack of good reviews, or even worse, significant complaints, are at a disadvantage. At Posirank we understand how crucial it is to establish a positive online reputation - and maintain it. And if your firm is suffering from negative publicity you need SEO experts who know how to mitigate the threat and reduce its impact to your business.

Content: We Know the Legal Rules-of-the-Road

Another critical aspect of SEO for lawyers is the content on your site. And at Posirank we specialize in professional-level writing that will not create problems.

As an attorney you know what can - and cannot - be said in content on your site. What might surprise you, however, is that Posirank does too. You see, we've been writing legal-oriented content for years, and this content has been posted on hundreds of legal sites. Our writing team is experienced in avoiding claims or making statements that could cause problems with your bar association or local/state/federal laws.

And if you are reselling SEO to law firms, rest assured that we are skilled in following your most demanding client's instructions - to the letter. It's content that you'll be proud to show off:

How to find an attorney when incarcerated
Signs of elder/nursing home abuse - and what to do about it
Property disputes and how to resolve them
How an attorney can help if you are injured due to product malfunctions
Why do-it-yourself divorces are a bad idea

Of course, as a qualified attorney you could write your site content yourself - but do you really have the time? There are only so many hours in the day - why not use them to seek out new clients, prepare casework and present in court instead?

Your Website: Does it Pass Inspection?

Have you ever taken a look - a good look - at your firm's law site? Be honest now… how useful is it, really, to visitors? Do you provide real help, or is it just fluff and filler - an extended sales pitch?

What about its appearance? Is it insipid and uninspiring or does it stand out from your competitors? Is it easy to navigate, or do site visitors get lost in a maze of links and dropdown menus? Is it mobile-friendly? Does it take forever to load in a web browser? Are the links working or are they out-of-date and lead to nowhere (broken links)?

You've probably not spent much time interacting with your site. But your prospective clients have. And if their experience is not a good one - if the site is confusing to navigate, or they have to wait forever for content to load, or encounter broken links, you know what will happen: they will quickly leave and go somewhere else - to your competition.

That's why, at Posirank, we begin with dissecting your website. We look at everything. Page load speeds. Broken links. Stale content. Badly written page tags. Missing meta-descriptions. Hard-to-find contact us information. Usefulness of the content.

We'll crawl every single page of your site, note any problems that need fixing, and then work with you (or your web developers) to get those issues fixed. Because there is no point in driving traffic to a website that is not SEO optimized or which results in a poor or confusing user experience (UX).

Yes, Backlink Acquisition is a Part of SEO for Lawyers

You know what a backlink is, right? A backlink is created when a site - any site - places content on their page and links out to your site. It is a link that links BACK to your site. Sometimes, human beings see those links and click on them. So backlinks can be a good source of incoming traffic to your site, and it will be well-qualified traffic if it is coming from the right type of site.

But search engines also take note of backlinks. And it is understood (although the details are not known but to them) that when search engines see links from high-quality sites coming to your site, that can influence how your site is ranked in the SERP's.

You see, your visibility (or lack of it) in search engine results is a direct consequence of how valuable or important your site is, how useful it might be, for the search query being used. Search engines try to list sites that they believe are going to be the most helpful to the searcher towards the top. Less valuable (in their judgment) sites will be pushed to the bottom.

And ho-hum sites - sites with the same old stuff? They will end up buried waaaaay down in the listings, where no one will ever see it. And that's not a good place to be.

But not just any backlink will do. Smart site owners today are staying away from junk, mass-linking strategies, as search engines just simply ignore links from low- and no-value sites, as far as rankings are concerned. You have a professional reputation to maintain, so you want to stay away from spammy, low-quality sites that add absolutely no value to your site's backlink portfolio.

At Posirank, we go to great lengths to secure the best-quality backlinks that your budget will permit:

Strong DA metrics
Verified traffic
Real owners
Active on social media (when appropriate)
Sites with useful, fresh content updates

You can only get these types of links through manual outreach - high-quality sites simply ignore spam and mass-email appeals. And these sites feature DOFOLLOW links and do NOT advertise that they take paid or "sponsored" content, as that is a red flag for search engines.

It takes time - a lot of time - to FIND these sites. Still more time is needed to reach out to them and forge a strong relationship with the site owner. We have worked with many of them for years now, and they trust the content that we provide them (and yes, we provide the content to ensure it is properly written and is of high value to their site - so they will come back and ask for more.) They get great content and you get a great link. Everyone wins.

I Don't Have Time to Do All This Stuff - Can You Help?

Sure we can! We know that SEO for lawyers has a lot of moving parts, and we don't expect you to learn how to do it - or take the time.

When you onboard with us we will set you up with a team of SEO experts who will do a deep-dive into all aspects of your SEO situation. We'll discuss your goals - as well as your challenges. We'll discover what is working for you, and what is not. We'll pinpoint areas where improvement can be made, and help craft a personalized action plan that will get you to the top of the SERP's as quickly as possible.

Analytics and SEO for Lawyers

One of the most daunting aspects of website operation in the legal niche is the monitoring of your site analytics and metrics --

Is your site traffic increasing or decreasing?
Where are your site visitors coming from?
How long do they stay on your site?
What website pages are they visiting?
When they leave, where are they going?

Information like this is must-know. Unfortunately lead generation and site analytics packages are notoriously difficult to install, and manage.

And interpreting those reports requires experience and skill.

At Posirank, our staff look at analytics every day. It is their bread-and-butter. And when you work with us you will be assured that your analytics are working properly, and reporting on those aspects of your site that are the most critical. Because you can't manage what you are not monitoring.

So What's the Bottom Line?

With every dollar you spend at Posirank, your legal practice will, over time, strongly grow your online presence.

What does that mean to you? Increased site visibility in search engines.

This translates into:

More lead form submissions
More telephone calls
More requests for initial consultations
A higher new-client close rate
And a subsequent increase in revenue

And as you successfully conclude cases for your clients, published testimonials and reviews create a positive feedback loop for you online - positive reviews increase consumer confidence, which results in acquiring more clients, which leads to even more positive feedback about your quality of service.

This means that, over time, your practice becomes a trusted one in the community. You are now standing out from the crowd and are a recognized player in your niche.

Are you ready to take the first step? All it takes is a 15-minute telephone call to get started. Or, if you really want to get a jump on it, you can register for your dashboard account and take a look at all your options.

You are a busy legal professional. Take action TODAY and get started now, while you are thinking about it. We're waiting to hear from you!