Why You Need A Law Firm SEO Advisor: A Must-Read For Lawyers 

If your law firm isn’t getting clients online, a law firm SEO advisor is who you need. SEO advisors or consultants are like superheroes. They remove the guesses and help you identify effective strategies you can deploy to achieve your SEO goals. 

Reports have shown that law firms focusing on SEO experience 44% more growth. As you know, many people now prefer searching for legal representation online. A person looking for a law firm or lawyer in Los Angeles only needs to type “law firm in Los Angeles” in Google (or other reputable search engines) to find one. 

If the person is looking for a divorce lawyer, they only have to type divorce lawyer in Los Angeles in the search box, and the search engine will display websites of law firms in the specified location. 

As Julhas Alam, an experienced SEO expert for law firms, always says, law firms investing in SEO are setting up their businesses for massive future success. Julhas Alam is an SEO advisor with many years of experience helping law firms to achieve their SEO goals. So, he’s in an excellent position to know how SEO can impact a law firm. 

We will discuss why you need a law firm optimization advisor, what a SEO advisor does, and tips to consider before hiring. Keep reading!

Who Is A Law Firm SEO Advisor?

An SEO advisor or consultant is a professional with a vast knowledge of search engine optimization. To get to this position, one must have gained several years of experience in SEO. 

In other words, an SEO advisor is someone who can and has helped several online businesses thrive amidst the competition in their niches. The person must have helped several companies increase search ranking, traffic, brand awareness, and sales. 

So, you can’t call every SEO professional an SEO advisor. There must be proof to show that the person has earned the name. You can only earn the name or position of SEO advisor by accumulating many years of experience helping businesses achieve their SEO goals. 

Who is a law firm SEO advisor? A legal SEO advisor or consultant is an experienced SEO professional who helps law firms understand why their website isn’t getting traffic or ranking high and fixes the problem. The advisor uses experience and knowledge of SEO to identify effective marketing strategies a law firm can deploy to achieve its search engine optimization goal. 

So, you’ll need many years of experience and a sound knowledge of SEO to operate as an SEO advisor. You must understand how to analyze a website and identify issues hindering the site from growing. 

As a legal SEO advisor, you must have significant experience and knowledge of search engine optimization to make an impact. Law firms operate in a highly competitive industry where every firm wants to rank and get more traffic. The competition is even intense in some legal fields. It will take something special for a legal SEO consultant to help you achieve your search engine optimization goal if your law firm operates in any of those fields. An example is a “personal injury lawyer.” The competition is intense in this niche.  

Search engine optimization is an important marketing strategy any law firm can invest in when looking to generate more traffic, sales, and online opportunities. It can help improve your law firm’s visibility, credibility, and online reputation. 

While many law firms know the benefits of SEO, creating and sticking to a search optimization strategy that yields results is the major challenge. The algorithm Google uses is quite complex. Additionally, the search engine giant also changes its algorithm occasionally. 

Google updates its algorithm 500 times annually, and some major updates could displace several websites from their position in search engine result pages. However, websites affected mainly by Google algorithms are usually the ones who aren’t following SEO best practices. Those who adhere to SEO best practices (white hat SEO) feel little or no impact from Google’s occasional algorithm changes. 

The complex nature of Google’s algorithm makes it challenging for people to create and adhere to SEO plans. Instead, many turn to SEO advisors to give them a clear direction for their websites’ online growth.  

SEO consultants or advisors are experts in creating guidelines, reports, and strategies to help businesses achieve their marketing goals. Their goal is to help increase ranking, traffic, online reputation, brand awareness, and sales. 

We have explained in detail who SEO advisors are. They are one of the professionals you’ll need when struggling to succeed online. You’ll get reports about your website performance and guidelines to help you compete with others in your industry. 

What Does A Lawyer SEO Advisor Do? 

Law firm optimization consultants or advisors are professionals with sound knowledge of how Google algorithm works. As an advisor, some of your duties include planning, creating, and testing SEO campaigns to know which strategy is more effective for your clients. 

SEO involves different strategies. Furthermore, what works for law firm “X” might not work for a law firm “Y.” So, there’s a need to test different SEO strategies to determine the best for your clients’ websites. But you must adhere to SEO best practices so your optimization effort won’t be in vain.  

Here are the responsibilities of an SEO advisor for law firms.

1: Fix law firms’ technical SEO issues:

Technical SEO involves the structure and performance of a website. Fixing a website’s technical SEO helps to improve user experience, which can contribute positively to the site’s search ranking and organic traffic. 

User experience is essential to search engines like Google. It is even a crucial ranking factor. Search engines are always focused on displaying the best results in users’ search queries, so user experience is a top priority. 

When visitors have a positive user experience on your website, they’ll visit more pages, engage with your content, and spend more time on your website, increasing your bounce rate. A high bounce rate or dwell time is good for your website. Why? It indicates that people are enjoying your content. 

A Handy Tip: Dwell time is the length of time that goes by, from when visitors click on your link to visiting your website and returns to SERPs (search engine result pages). A high dwell time signals Google that your content is valuable and needs to be shown to more people. 

How do you fix technical SEO issues in law firm websites? 

The first step is to conduct a thorough SEO audit. Through the audit, an experienced SEO advisor for attorneys can identify issues that need fixing to improve user experience and bounce rate. A higher bounce rate or dwell time will positively impact your law firm’s website. But it would only be possible to tell where the issues lie via a thorough website audit. 

In most cases, the SEO consultant auditing the website will make technical alterations like fixing broken links and improving the site load speed to improve user experience. These changes can help your law firm website rank high and increase conversion rate. 

A 2-3 seconds or less site load speed can improve the conversion rate. Google treasures websites that load fast and would even appreciate it if your website could load in under half a second. The search engine giant understands that site load speed influences user experience. 

A website that loads fast will likely deliver a positive user experience, as visitors can gain quick and easy access to the content on the website. Additionally, visitors can easily navigate from one page to another on such websites. 

Furthermore, an SEO consultant can determine if a website is mobile-friendly through the audit. As you may already know, most of your law firm’s organic traffic will come from mobile searches. Mobile-friendliness is also a ranking factor. So, if your law firm’s website isn’t mobile-friendly, fix it immediately. 

2: Conduct keyword research:

One of the mistakes some website owners make is writing content without having a focus keyword in mind. In other words, they publish content without a target keyword. The ones that care enough to use keywords do so without proper keyword research. 

Keyword research is vital in search engine optimization. Targeting the wrong keyword is a waste of time and effort. You won’t get visitors or grow online. You’ll only have a website populated with content that isn’t increasing your client base. 

If your law firm website isn’t getting many visitors, hiring a law firm SEO consulting agency would be a good decision. The professional will help you conduct thorough keyword research and identify keywords you should be targeting. 

From the search volume, keyword difficulty, and cost per click, an SEO advisor can tell you the best keyword to target.

You can perform keyword research using diverse tools. Both free and paid keyword research tools are available. However, there are other approaches to take before conducting the keyword research. 

Firstly, you must analyze your competitors. Learn about the keywords they are targeting and ranking for. Then, you can use tools like SEMrush, Ahref, or others to find keywords to target. 

Tips to conduct adequate keyword research:

• Brainstorm to get potential keywords: A law firm whose area of specialization is “divorce” can use keywords like divorce lawyer, divorce attorney, divorce law firm, etc. You can brainstorm and come up with keyword ideas to target. 
• Check your competitors: It is essential to research your competitors’ keywords. Learn about the keywords they are targeting. Your competitors imply law firms offering the same legal services as you. 
•  Create a list of valuable keywords: Valuable keywords in this context refer to keywords you can target. It is advisable to target long-tail keywords, too. Short-tail keywords should be more generic and highly competitive. They consist of keywords that are 1-2 words long. Long-tail keywords are around 3-5 words long and might boast lower competition but a higher conversion rate. So, target long-tail keywords.

A Handy Tip: “Law firm” is a short-tail keyword. However, keywords like “divorce lawyer in New York” are long-tail. Any person who uses such keywords on the internet may likely be seeking a divorce lawyer in the mentioned location to hire. That is why the use of long-tail keywords is advised. 

• Use keyword research tools: Getting keywords from Google search can be time-consuming. Besides, you won’t have much information about the said keywords. So, at this stage, you’ll have to use keyword research tools. Examples include Semrush, Ahref, Google Trends, AnswerThePublic, etc. There are free and paid keyword research tools.  

3: Ensure proper keyword use and placement:

Google operates around keywords. So, keywords are relevant and will continue to be. From your keyword, Google and other search engines can understand your content. Keywords help to ensure your content is displayed to the right people. It also helps to drive traffic to your website. 

So, keyword placement is crucial in search engine optimization. It marks the difference between a well-optimized website and one that isn’t well-optimized. 

So, without much ado, let’s discuss keyword placement. How should you strategically place keywords in your content?

Where to place a keyword in your content: 

• Article title
• Meta description
• Introduction: place your keyword naturally in the content within the first 200 words. 
• Conclusion: put the keyword in the last 200 words
• Headings: Place keywords in your H1s, H2s, and H3s.
• Image Alt Text
• Place keyword strategically in the body of your content
• Place a keyword in your URL

4: On-page optimization: 

 On-page optimization is another responsibility of SEO advisors for attorneys. In this case, the SEO advisor has to edit the content on the web pages, making them more search engine friendly. 

Content editing can involve writing the Alt text and description of images, keyword placement, and structuring of the web pages. The essence is to make the website a breeze for Google crawlers to crawl and index your web pages.

On-page optimization can help improve the website’s user experience, directly impacting search ranking. So, it is a positive step to make your website function effectively. 

After a thorough SEO audit, an advisor will know if the web pages’ on-page optimization strategy requires a review. If it does, the professional will do what is necessary to update the page. 

Poor keyword use and placement hinder web pages from ranking high and getting more organic traffic. Rectifying this issue can help to fix the problem and position your law firm’s website for online success. 

On-page search engine optimization involves everything done within a website to help improve ranking, traffic, credibility, and brand awareness. So, with proper on-page optimization, SEO advisors can help reposition your website for massive growth. 

5: Off-page SEO: 

As the name implies, off-page search engine optimization involves activities outside the website done to improve ranking, traffic, and online reputation. The essence of off-page and on-page optimization is to grow online visibility and secure more business. That is what every law firm is looking for. 

A search engine optimization advisor will help you get your off-page SEO game right. The professional can collaborate with reputable agencies to drive customers to your website. In most cases, the SEO advisor will drive the customers to your law firm. 

An advisor can help you build a strong backlink profile via guest posting, niche editing, and other link-building strategies. You’ll get high-quality and niche-relevant backlinks that will positively impact your website’s ranking, traffic, online reputation, and sales. 

Get an advisor who can help develop robust PR strategies to improve your online reputation and brand awareness. These are positive moves you can make to grow your business. 

6: Monitor website performance:

One of the reasons many people fancy SEO is the ability to monitor the performance of SEO campaigns while the process is ongoing. You can watch the progress of your SEO campaigns in real-time, identify strategies that aren’t yielding positive results, and make the necessary alterations. 

Using SEO analytic tools, you can identify campaigns that aren’t effective and the ones that are. That way, you can take a bold step to end campaigns that aren’t yielding results and focus more energy on the ones that are producing results. 

An SEO consultant can sometimes use the A/B test to monitor performance and advanced SEO reporting tools to monitor the website’s search ranking. If there are changes in ranking, the tool will send a notification. 

Monitoring the performance of your SEO campaigns will help minimize losses and give you a clear idea of strategies that are working for you. That way, you won’t waste money on campaigns that aren’t yielding results. Instead, you’ll channel your resources, time, and energy to more effective campaigns to hit your SEO goals.  

7: SEO reporting: 

SEO reporting is essential for business leaders and stakeholders to track the performance of their SEO campaigns and make informed decisions. These sorts of reports often contain important information, like the most valuable keyword for a brand. 

When you know your most valuable keywords, you can channel more effort to ensure you rank in search engine result pages for the said search term. That is the importance of SEO reporting. Without proper audit and reporting, you won’t know the performance of your keywords. 

SEO reporting can also help to expose important information such as click-through rates, bounce rates, organic traffic, ranking, and other essential metrics. It is a crucial job for SEO consultants and one of the reasons law firms need to hire one. 

8: Research and understanding of competitors: 

No country’s military goes to battle without sufficient information about their opponents. It can only happen if the battle starts impromptu. In many cases, the leaders of both militaries will study their opponents to understand their strengths and weaknesses, including how they can be defeated. 

Search engine optimization isn’t war. But in most niches, the competition is fierce. You’ll have to study your competitors to understand the keywords they are targeting and their strategies. Through research, you’ll know the number of backlinks they have accumulated and more. 

Understanding your competitors before starting an SEO campaign is a wise thing to do. It will help you understand the competition you’re up against and ways to outrank them.

Steps For Hiring An Attorney SEO Advisor

If you want to hire an SEO consultant or advisor, follow the steps below.

Understand your business needs and SEO goals:  

Have a clear picture of your overall business and SEO goals. What do you want to achieve? What SEO strategies or tactics would you like the advisor to implement?  

If you don’t, there is no cause for alarm. As long as you know your SEO goals, you can hire the best SEO consultant for law firms to help you attain those goals. These include improving ranking, organic traffic, click-through rates, website bounce rates, user experience, website speed, mobile-friendliness, and others.

Determine your budget:

How much are you willing to spend on an SEO consultant for attorneys? Have a clear picture in your head. 

Let no one tell you that you can’t find an affordable SEO advisor that can help your law firm thrive online. SEO professionals rendering affordable optimization services understand that search engine optimization can be financially demanding. Thus, most are willing to lower prices and work with you long-term.

So, you don’t have to spend your entire marketing budget to hire an SEO advisor. Find an experienced, and affordable professional ready to go the extra mile to get your desired results. 

Create a detailed description for your project:

Have a detailed description of your project and what you want to achieve. Let the optimization advisor you’re hiring go through the description to prepare their minds and know the project’s demands.

Ask pertinent questions: 

Your questions should help you uncover more truth about the SEO advisor and how suitable the individual is for your project. Ask questions about the strategy the SEO advisor plans to use, how long it will take to get results, and more.

Ask questions to help you uncover if the SEO advisor works for a competitor or brand. Another thing you need to find out is how often reports about the project’s progress will get to you. 

Hire an SEO advisor for your law firm:

Once you have identified the ideal SEO advisor for your law firm, the next step is to sign the contract (NDA) and kick-start your project. 

Conclusion

If you’re a lawyer looking for more clients online, hiring an SEO advisor from a law firm would be one of the best decisions you’ll ever make. SEO advisors are professionals with many years of experience and sound knowledge of SEO. They can help you identify and address problems hindering your law firm’s website from growing. 

These professionals can deploy technical, on-page, and off-page SEO strategies to help improve your law firm website’s user experience, ranking, organic traffic, online reputation, bounce, and click-through rate. You’ll get constant reports of SEO strategies and be able to identify the most effective strategies in your campaigns. 

Julhas Alam is an SEO advisor interested in helping law firms achieve their SEO goals. He has worked with many law firms remotely worldwide, helping them rank high on search engines and improve organic traffic, user experience, click-through rates, and client base. 

He understands the intense competition law firms face and how many laws are struggling to get more clients. He’s willing to go the extra mile to help your law firm thrive online.