Google is one of the first places people go when they need legal advice. And studies show that over 60% of inbound calls come from Organic Search.
One of the easiest ways to win new clients for your law firm is to leverage Google in your favor.
But local SEO for lawyers is different from other business types. Law firms have unique marketing challenges such as regulations and client confidentiality that other businesses don’t.
In this article, I’ll discuss how lawyers can use local SEO to win new clients and how to navigate some of these unique challenges.
How can lawyers use local SEO to win new clients?
You might be wondering how exactly local SEO can help you gain clients. After all, SEOs do have a reputation for making wild claims so I don’t blame you.
Here are a few examples of how local SEO can grow your client base:
It Provides Greater Visibility
Local SEO helps your law firm gain visibility in local search results and thus receive more inbound calls. As I’ve mentioned before, more and more people are using online searches to find legal help so there is lots of opportunity here.
Think of it like airing a commercial on prime time television except your audience actually wants your help.
It Proves Your Credibility
Legal services is a competitive space so it’s important to build trust from the very beginning. Imagine a potential client landing on your Google Business Profile and finding photos of your staff, images of your office space, and tons of five star reviews by happy clients.
The chances of them taking the next step and making the phone call are much higher than if you didn’t have a Google Business Profile for your law office at all.
It Makes It Easy To Reach Out
Local SEO makes it easy for potential clients to reach out. Your Google Business Profile will display your contact info clearly right there on the search results page without having to click through to your website.
That means they will spend less time searching and potentially landing on a competing firm’s website.
How is local SEO for lawyers different?
Local SEO strategies for lawyers can differ from other business types due to the unique challenges involved in marketing legal services and the specific needs of your clients.
You need to work with a partner who understands these challenges and is willing to work around them. Otherwise, you may end up creating a whole new set of headaches for yourself.
Here are some of the main challenges that I’ve picked up on over the years when working on local SEO for law firms:
- Legal services are often specialized, with lawyers focusing on specific practice areas such as personal injury, family law, or real estate. This specialization creates an added layer of nuance for keyword targeting and content writing.
- Legal queries are often more complex and nuanced than other types of local searches. Potential clients may use specific legal terms or phrases when searching online.
- Lawyers are subject to strict regulations and ethical guidelines when marketing their services. This means we have to be careful about aggressive advertising or misleading claims.
- Lawyers must take care to protect client confidentiality and privacy in their marketing activities. You may want to avoid using client testimonials or case studies without permission and ensure that sensitive information is not used inadvertently.
- Lawyers may also prioritize listings on legal-specific sites such as Avvo, FindLaw, or Lawyers.com over generic listing sites like Yelp or Yellow Pages.
Law firms who invest in local SEO need to make sure that whoever they hire understands these unique marketing challenges. Generic or unskilled SEO partners may only create headaches that you shouldn’t have to deal with.
Key Local SEO Strategies for Lawyers
Local SEO is not a formulaic approach. There are many variables that will affect what steps need to be taken and how much importance needs to be given to each aspect of your strategy.
That being said, here is a generic step-by-step you can use to wrap your head around all this:
Step 1: Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing to ensure that your law firm appears in Google Maps and local search results. Make sure your listing includes accurate contact information, business hours, and a description of your legal services.
Step 2: Ensure that your law firm is listed accurately on local directories and citation sites. Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) information across these platforms reinforces your location authority and improves your local search visibility.
Step 3: Perform a technical SEO audit on your website and fix any technical errors that may be holding you back.
Step 4: Perform localized keyword research to identify terms that potential clients are using to find legal services in your area.
Step 5: Optimize Your Website for local search by Incorporating local keywords into your website content, meta tags, and headings.
Step 6: Check your schema markup to ensure your website can be crawled by search engines.
Step 7: Develop content that is tailored to your local audience. By addressing local issues and concerns, you demonstrate your expertise and attract local clients who are seeking legal assistance.
Step 8: Encourage your loyal clients to leave positive reviews on your Google Business Profile and other review sites.
Step 9: Make sure to install tracking code on your website so that data pulls into Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Monitor this data and use it to identify areas of improvement.
Step 10: Make improvements to your local SEO strategy based on the data you have collected.
Check out my 10-point local SEO checklist for more details about these individual steps.
Leverage Google To Win New Clients
Local SEO is a cost-effective way to market your law firm and build trust with potential clients. But without sufficient knowledge and a proper strategy in place, you will be going nowhere fast.
If you’re serious about growing your law firm and using Google to win new clients, you need to do local SEO right. Get in touch with me today and let’s discuss the path forward!
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