SEO For Divorce Lawyers: The SEO Mistakes Law Firms Make

LawFirmSEOExpert goes the extra mile for SEO for divorce lawyers because clients are challenging to get. Divorce lawyers need a steady stream of clients to succeed. A law firm that fails to get clients won’t generate reasonable revenue to sustain the business. 

SEO (search engine optimization) can help your law firm grow. The major thing is to implement an effective SEO strategy and be consistent. Your website will rank high in no time, and you’ll start getting more organic traffic. 

Here, we will discuss why divorce lawyers need SEO, optimization mistakes law firms make, and solutions law firms can implement to succeed online. Read on!

Why Does SEO For Divorce Lawyers Matter?

A client I interacted with some years ago told me he spent hundreds of dollars on his website design project and expected Google to place (rank) his site above the others in his legal practice. He’s a divorce lawyer and has a low interest in digital marketing. He treasured referrals and word-of-mouth as a means of getting clients. 

Well, I understand he’s not a digital marketer. I am. So, I don’t expect him to know much about SEO or search engine optimization. I made him understand that Google doesn’t consider how fancy a website looks to rank it. 

Furthermore, Google does not focus on the status of the person who owns the law firm or how much the firm generates. Then he said, “What does Google consider to rank websites?”

I made him understand that Google has hundreds of ranking factors and could add more in the future. Google’s algorithm is also very complex. The best way to make a website search engine-friendly and rank high in search engine result pages is via SEO (Search engine optimization).

When you optimize a website, you take care of its structure, links, and content. You ensure the site is a breeze for visitors to grab information that brought them to the site. In addition, an optimized website makes it easy for search engines to crawl and find pages. 

A well-designed website should be a website with the following characteristics or features:

• A well-optimized website. In other words, the on-page and technical SEO have been fixed appropriately. The website SEO foundation is solid.
• The website should load super fast. Your website load speed should be 1-2 seconds. However, Google’s preferred load speed is half a second. So, the faster your site loading time is, the better the user experience. 

A Handy Tip: The statistics regarding website load speed and how it impacts abandonment rate are scary. Studies show that 53% of visitors will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. Furthermore, a 2-second delay in load time leads to an 87% abandonment rate. 

Let’s continue on the features of a well-designed and professional-looking website.

• The website should be a breeze to navigate. Visitors should find the information that brought them to your website with ease. 
• The website should be mobile-adaptive. Mobile friendly, mobile adaptive, and mobile responsive are the same. The meaning is for visitors to access the website on their mobile devices (any mobile device) the same way they access it on desktops conveniently.     

Here are the characteristics of a mobile adaptive website and why divorce lawyers need to care about their site’s mobile responsiveness.

Over 7 out of 10 persons in the United States of America use smartphones. In 2023, the world witnessed massive growth in the number of smartphone users. 

The number of smartphone users in 2023 was 6.84 billion, while there were 16.8 billion smartphones. In 2024, the projection is 7.07 billion smartphone users and 17.72 billion smartphones. 

A study conducted in 2020 on the number of legal consumers seeking lawyers via their smartphone shows that mobile search is gaining ground. The study showed that 68% of people searched for divorce lawyers via mobile devices in the second quarter of 2020. 

So, divorce lawyers must optimize their websites for mobile search. It will benefit the website’s SEO and boost organic traffic, including website ranking. 

Legal consumers searching online for divorce lawyers via their mobile phones can only find you if your website is optimized for mobile search. Law firms whose websites aren’t optimized for mobile search will miss out on legal consumers searching for divorce lawyers online, using their phones. 

Here are the characteristics of mobile responsive websites. 

1: The website is readable:

When a website is mobile-friendly, visitors can access the site on their mobile devices (any mobile device) and read the content without zooming on the screen to access the information. 

2: Offers a usable website experience:

A law firm website with a usable experience is one that visitors find easy to navigate. Visitors can navigate the site how they want and do so quickly without any obstruction. A usable website offers a pleasurable user experience that entices visitors to spend more time there. 

When more visitors spend more time on your website, it signals to Google that your content is valuable and high-quality, encouraging the search engine to show your site to more searchers. It means the Google algorithm will push your site’s ranking higher, ensuring it appears in users’ search engine result pages. 

3: Site load speed:

Search engines understand the importance of site load speed. They know site load speed impacts user experience. 

A website that loads faster and is a breeze to navigate offers better user experience. Search engines appreciate such sites and will ensure they reward them with better ranking and organic traffic. 

So, these are the characteristics or features a mobile-friendly website should have. But the question is, how can divorce lawyers make their websites mobile-friendly? 

Here are tips to follow. 

• Ensure the font you’re using is readable.
• Ensure there is enough room between clickable elements
• Do everything possible to optimize your site’s entire images
• Build the mobile site in a single-column layout
•   Avoid pop-ups
• Simplify touch points
• Conduct mobile testing
• Optimize the site’s navigation menu
• Use effective call-to-actions

How SEO For Family Law Practice Can Make Law Firms Successful

Are you a divorce lawyer? Do you want your family law firm to grow and gain more popularity in your area of specialty and geographical location? SEO (search engine optimization) is the process you must take seriously.

Here are ways search engine optimization can transform your family law business. 

1: SEO helps divorce law firms attract more qualified leads:

Qualified leads imply a prospect ready to communicate with the sales team. It refers to a prospect that will become a customer in the future. Or, you can say a visitor with buying intent. 

How does SEO for family law bring more qualified leads to a law firm’s website? The first step is optimizing your website content with the keyword or phrase you want to rank for. 

For example, let’s say you wrote a blog post and targeted the keyword “New York divorce lawyer” or “divorce lawyer in [your city],” and Google indexes your website, then you’ll likely appear in search results of people searching the internet with the same keyword. 

Google will display your content to them because you targeted the keyword or phrase and optimized the content to make it easier for the search engine giant to understand the page’s context. 

An individual (legal consumer) who types a long-tail keyword (e.g., a divorce lawyer in Texas) into the search engine most likely has an interest in hiring a divorce lawyer in the specified location, “Texas.” Usually, the legal consumer may conduct a more location-specific search using keywords such as “divorce lawyer in Dallas” or “divorce lawyer in Orlando.” 

These are long-tail keywords and are location-specific search terms. Legal consumers using such keywords are seeking divorce lawyers in the specified location. A family law attorney website that targets these keywords will likely appear in the users’ search result pages and get contacted to handle the case. 

A Handy Tip: With pay-per-click (PPC), money leaves your ads account when a visitor clicks on your website link. You must pay for the clicks even if the visitor doesn’t hire you in the end. 

With SEO, you don’t pay for clicks. Additionally, the majority of all the visitors that land on your website are people interested in your service. 

2: SEO improves your family law practice search ranking: 

An effective divorce lawyer SEO strategy will push your website ranking higher. It will help you rank high and make your law firm popular online. 

People often view websites on the first pages of search engines as credible and trustworthy. They believe Google or other search engines that display these websites on the first page did so because they are credible and offer better value. 

Trust is hard to build in today’s digital world. So, building credibility and trust via SEO is a massive boost for your law firm. Divorce legal consumers seek lawyers they can trust to help them secure the desired compensation as they seek to separate from their partners. They are more interested in hiring a proven lawyer to help them win their cases. 

A Handy Tip: Include testimonials on your website and reviews on business directories. Examples of business directories include Google My Business, Yelp, Justia etc. 

You can acquire genuine reviews from people who have hired you in the past. Contact your satisfied clients and ask them for reviews. 

Potential clients that stumble on positive reviews about your legal services will trust you more, and be more than willing to hire you to handle their cases. 

3: SEO for family law attorneys is cost-effective: 

SEO is cost-effective compared to traditional marketing strategies like print and television ads. SEO’s CAC (customer acquisition cost) is much lower than traditional marketing methods, including PPC and cold-calling.

So, you’ll save money when you deploy an effective SEO strategy. It will help your website rank high in search engines for the target keywords and increase organic traffic. That’s what SEO can do. 

4: SEO can help family law attorneys keep up with the competition in the practice area:

Whether you’re a startup or an established divorce lawyer, or family law firm, SEO can help your business succeed. Search engine optimization offers startups and established law firms a level playing field. That’s why small law firms can outrank their competitors who are bigger, generate more revenue and have been in the game for years. 

A Handy Tip: You can’t outrank your competitors who have been consistent with their SEO strategies for many years overnight. SEO takes time and requires consistency. But as long as you don’t take your foot off the gas, you’ll benefit from your SEO effort.

With search engine optimization, you don’t have to empty your wallet to rank high or get more organic traffic. Most law firm SEO agencies make lawyers believe the more money they spend on SEO per month, the higher they’ll rank in Google search engines. 

While combining various digital marketing strategies will improve your chances of ranking higher and generating more organic traffic, you don’t have to empty your wallet to achieve that. Find a capable and affordable legal SEO agency if you can’t handle the SEO project yourself. 

Family Law Firms SEO Mistakes To Avoid: The Reasons You Are Struggling To Get More Clients Online 

You must have read several blog posts and eBooks or listened to webinars about SEO best practices and how to implement the best strategy for SEO for divorce Attorneys to yield results. Unfortunately, you aren’t getting clients from your SEO effort. 

There are mistakes people make when trying to implement SEO strategies that are very costly mistakes. You won’t yield massive results from your SEO effort when you make such mistakes. 

Here, we’ll discuss the mistakes law firms make that harm their search ranking and traffic. Let’s dive in!

1: Keyword mistake:

A keyword is the search phrase or term people type into search engines (Google, Bing, etc) to find information, products, or services online. An example of a keyword is “divorce lawyer in [ENTER CITY].”

Having worked with many law firms, I have observed that keyword mistakes are rampant. 

What’s the keyword mistake law firms make? They optimize their websites for a single keyword.

In other words, every page you visit has that single keyword and nothing else. They even try to force that specific keyword in their blog posts. 

Why is optimizing for a single keyword a horrible idea for SEO? I’ll tell you why. 

When you optimize for one keyword, you’re depriving your law firm website of the opportunity to rank for other keywords. Thus, you’ll lose massive traffic opportunities to your competitors. 

Another danger in optimizing a website for one key phrase is “keyword cannibalization.”

What does “keyword cannibalization” mean? It means targeting one specific keyword on multiple pages on your website.”

What makes “keyword cannibalization a terrible idea?” The reason keyword cannibalization is a terrible idea is that you’re competing against yourself. That happens when you have two pages with the exact keyphrase. 

When Google finds both pages, it might rank the less important page, leaving the main one behind. 

The Solution: The solution to this problem is simple: target different key phrases on each page. You’ll boost your chances of ranking for different key phrases when you do. 

Yoast’s plugin can help detect keyword cannibalization. It will notify you that you have used the exact key phrase before and will even direct you to the said key phrases so you can make the necessary adjustments. 

Furthermore, make sure you target keywords with reasonable competition and search volume. Use keyword research tools that provide details about keywords so you can make the best choice. 

There are short and long-tail keywords. The short tail keywords usually boast high competition and can take time to rank for. You’ll spend a lot of money and time ranking for the short-tail keyword. 

An example of a short-tail keyword is “divorce lawyer.” 

You can see that the keyword is generic. When you target such a keyword, someone searching from a different continent might stumble on your page. 

It is advisable to target long-tail keywords. Most of the long-tail keywords have reasonable search volumes and competition, and you can easily rank your website for them. 

Long-tail keywords are more specific than short-tail ones. Additionally, people who use them to search for services or products online are more likely to convert. 

Here are examples of long-tail keywords for divorce lawyers:

• Divorce attorney near me free consultation
• Family law attorney child custody
• Questions to ask divorce attorneys
• Legal aid divorce lawyer
• Low cost family law firms
• Divorce attorneys in Texas
• Divorce attorney in Dallas
• Divorce attorney in Lansing
• Los Angeles family law attorneys 
• Best custody lawyer near me
• Fathers rights attorney
• Mens divorce lawyers in Detroit
• SEO for family law firms
• Family law services

The list goes on and on. You can use premium keyword research tools to find the keyword you need. Get each keyword’s details to know which offers you the best chance to succeed online. 

Here are examples of keyword research tools you can use.

• Semrush
• Ahrefs 
• Topic Ranker
• QuestionDB
• Google Trends
• Keyword Generator
• Answer the Public
• Google Keyword Planner
• Moz Keyword Explorer

There are diverse keyword research tools out there. Most of them are free, while some are paid tools. 

2: Neglecting specialized keywords:

When you conduct keyword research, you’ll discover that some keywords have more search volumes than others. As a matter of fact, the more generic a keyword is, the higher its search volume. Generic keywords are also highly competitive. 

A family law attorney looking for clients online will be tempted to target generic keywords with high search volumes. 

But here is what happens when you target generic keywords with high search volumes. First, it will take time for your website to rank, and you’ll spend a lot of money and waste precious time. Secondly, the conversion rate could be lower even when you start ranking. 

Targeting specialized keywords is a wise step toward online success. It lowers the competition and improves the conversion rate. 

How do specialized keywords improve conversion rate? With such key phrases, your website is more likely to appear in relevant searches. For instance, an individual who types “divorce lawyer in Los Angeles” is looking for a lawyer based in Los Angeles. The person isn’t seeking a divorce lawyer anywhere in the United States but in a specific location, LA. 

There are 57,943 family and divorce lawyers in the United States of America, in the year 2022. Thus, when you target a generic keyword, you’ll compete against thousands of divorce lawyers. However, when you target specialized or location-based keywords, you’ll compete against a small pool of law firms in your area. In other words, your competition for space in SERPs will reduce. Why? You’re not competing with all the family law firms in the USA, California, or the rest of the world. Your focus is on Los Angeles, where you’re doing your legal practice.  

A Handy Tip: The most effective local SEO strategy involves optimizing your web pages for local terms (keywords or key phrases) that potential legal consumers are searching for the most. It involves conducting in-depth keyword research to find the correct terms or keywords for your local market. 

When you find the keywords, ensure you incorporate them in your Meta tag, headers, and the body of the content strategically. Ensure the keywords blend naturally within the content and sentences they are added to. 

Avoid keyword overstuffing. Google’s search engine revolves around keywords. Keywords are also essential for optimizing web pages and ranking high in search engine result pages. Unfortunately, when you use keywords incorrectly or too much in your content, you risk hurting your readability, user experience, and credibility. 

Using too many keywords in an article is called “keyword stuffing.” It’s an outdated SEO strategy that can negatively impact your website and audience. 

Does Google penalize for keyword stuffing? Let’s answer this question before moving to the next point. 

Understand that Google is super smart and can detect a website trying to stuff keywords. And when Google does detect such a website, it “de-prioritizes” its content. Forcing Google to de-prioritize content is the worst punishment a website owner can expect. It would have been better if you didn’t write the content in the first place, because you have wasted your effort. 

Let’s round up this point quickly. What does “specialized keywords” include?

• Location-based keywords. E.g., “divorce lawyer in Dallas.” People seeking divorce law firms near them use location-based keywords a lot. 
• Another specialized keyword is the one that focuses on the specialty of one’s legal practice. For instance, “Family law attorney in Los Angeles.” 
• You can also use specialized keywords to highlight the specialized services you render. For instance, someone who does “contract review or estate planning.”

3: Using a keyword in your Google Business Profile Name:

Any SEO expert will advise you to add keywords wherever you can. Why? Google search engine runs on keywords. In other words, keywords are necessary for search engines to comprehend your content. 

Here’s something you should know: Google hates when people add keywords to the business name of their GMB profile. It is against their guidelines. So, refrain from doing such. 

No one says you shouldn’t add keywords to your Google My Business profile or can’t do so. You can add keywords to your GMB profile to boost your profile’s chance of appearing in local searches. 

Where should you add keywords to your Google My Business profile? Add keywords in your business description. Adding keywords in the service description of your profile doesn’t go against Google’s guidelines. Google won’t penalize or suspend your profile. Instead, you’ll start appearing in the right searches.  

4: Not paying attention to schema markup:

Have you discovered that not all search results are the same? Some look different from others. Why? The reason is the code snippet known as “schema markup.” Another word for it is “structured data.”

What’s schema markup? It refers to structured data that communicates a page’s meaning, elements, and how users should see the page to the search tool and in a language the search tool understands. 

Schema markup is essential for SEO. Thus, website owners should consider adding it to their web pages. When you do, it enables search engines to understand your content quickly and make your web pages visible in organic searches. You’ll witness increased click-through rates and higher organic traffic to your website. 

You can see in the image above that the website owner uses sitemap schema markup to create different clickable links that give visitors access to the website from different pages. If the user finds the page they want to visit, they’ll be more willing to click on it and visit your website. That’s how schema markup improves click-throughs. 

Different types of schema markup exist. Let me explain them to you. 

• Organization schema markup
• Local business schema markup 
• Breadcrumbs schema markup
• Sitelink schema markup
• Product schema markup
• Review schema markup

Schema markup will make your divorce law firm website more competitive online. Unfortunately, many divorce lawyers neglect it because they find it confusing. 

Here are 7 benefits of schema markup for your divorce law firm website (or any business).

• Enables search engines to have a better understanding of your website
• Schema markup will make your website AI-search-ready
• Dictates how your brand appears in search
• Improves content strategy
• Helps your website standard in search with rich results
• Drive business results

5: Neglecting local SEO: 

You have a professional-looking website that’s well-optimized. It is the basic thing every business should have to succeed online. You need a website for your SEO strategy. However, having a website isn’t enough. You need to invest in local search engine optimization. 

What does this entail? Locals SEO involves adding your divorce law firm to the business directory. You can add it to the Google My Business directory. It is free, popular and gets great attention from online users. 

If you aren’t paying attention to local SEO, you’re certainly losing clients to your competitors who are paying attention to it. Understand that more people prefer to conduct location-based searches. You’ll find them using keywords or key phrases like “near me” and “divorce lawyer in [city].” 

Google responds to location-based searches by displaying law firms’ GMB (Google My Business) pages geographically close to the searchers. Google also utilizes relevance, distance, and prominence as the primary factors for ranking GMB profiles.  

A Handy Tip: Get a well-optimized Google My Business profile for your family law firm business. Additionally, remember to ask for reviews from your satisfied clients. You’re more likely to get positive reviews from them. 

With a full-fledged Google My Business profile and eye-catching reviews about your legal services, you’ll start getting more clicks and cases. 

Note that Google My Business is not the only directory. However, it is free and the most popular. Other directories include Yelp, Yellow Pages, Justia, etc. Some are free, while some have paid options. The paid options offer users more features. If you have the financial capacity, you can go for them.  

6: Neglecting site load speed and mobile-responsiveness

How fast does your website load? Is it fast enough? 

Site load speed directly impacts user experience. Your website should load within 1-2 seconds or lower. Google wants websites to load in less than half a second. 

53% of consumers claim they will abandon a website that takes 3-5 seconds to load. A 2-second delay in website load speed can result in an 87% increase in site abandonment rate. 

Your website should load faster. Otherwise, you’ll lose legal consumers and the opportunity to generate more revenue. 

Another thing to consider is your website’s mobile responsiveness. Does the content of your website display on mobile phones the same way it displays on desktops? If yes, then you’re good to go. 

Potential clients don’t have to zoom in to read the information on your website. If this happens, most of them will miss the information you’re trying to convey, the legal service you render, and your call to action. The user experience of sites that aren’t mobile responsive is relatively poor. 

So, many people will leave the website as soon as they arrive. And they may never return. That’s how terrible websites that aren’t mobile-friendly can be. 

A Handy Tip: How people search for legal services has changed. Now, most people prefer to search for legal services via their mobile devices. 

What does this mean? It means most of your visitors will be via mobile search. So, you have no option but to make your website mobile-friendly. Additionally, keep in mind that mobile responsiveness and site load speed are among Google ranking factors, as they have a direct impact on the website’s user experience (UX)

Conclusion

SEO for divorce attorneys is essential. SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy that can help law firms succeed online. 

You can improve website ranking, traffic, and online credibility with search engine optimization. SEO will put your law firm website in the right position online so potential clients can easily find you. 

We discussed mistakes law firms make when it comes to SEO. Many don’t target the right keywords, set up their business profiles appropriately, and neglect local SEO, schema markup, etc. 

Find a capable legal SEO agency to help fix your law firm’s SEO to boost search ranking, including organic traffic, and create brand awareness. You can contact LawFirmSEOExpert to meet your website’s SEO needs.