Getting your law firm found in local search results is starting to become extremely important. Roughly forty percent of all search requests carried out every month have some kind of local purpose (for instance: state or city name, zip code, town, and so forth.). There are certain methods and variables that are important in helping your law firm website perform well for local searches.
1. Categorize Your Law Firm Properly
Selecting the correct categories for your law firm in local listings is extremely important. A lot of firms do not spend sufficient time considering which category names to use. They dismiss this as a trivial step. When your prospective clients are not learning about a specific firm by name, they first search for law firms by type. If you don’t associate your firm with the category they’re searching for, you won’t be found.
2. The Importance of Backlinks and Citiations
Backlinks From Various Sites: Backlinks are the currency of the web. A link to your site is similar to a vote for your site in the eyes of the search engines like google. All things being equal, a lawyer’s website that has more backlinks from local and related sites will gain more presence in local search results.
Citations: Citations are references to your firm name, address, and telephone number on various other web sites. These references do not need to incorporate a hyperlink to your web site. A good example of a citation might be an online attorney directory where your practice is shown, but not linked to. Another would be a local yellow pages website.
3. The Name Of Your Practice
Your firm title (ie: the name of your firm) is an extremely important component for ranking well in the local search engines. You need your title to be consistent across the listings along with having it contain relevant key phrases to your practice. Having consistency helps your practice establish confidence in the eyes of search engines. Including appropriate words and phrases in your title helps your practice receive better positioning when people conduct searches. For instance, The Law Offices of Joe Smith, based in Chicago, could create a title called Law Offices of Joe Smith | Chicago Family Law Firm. Just keep it consistent and simple. Don’t try to stuff too many search phrases into your title.
Our blog focuses on seo for law firms. From the basics to advanced techniques, we provide insight on effective attorney search marketing campaigns. Have questions? Don’t hesitate to contact one of our attorney search marketing specialists.
