In today’s digital marketing landscape — particularly that which targets queries on various search engines, like Google — the value of local search engine optimization performance is particularly relevant, given that nearly 50 percent of all search queries have a local intent behind them. Further, search engines will even prioritize showing users local results, as it can lead to better engagement and clickthrough.
Simply put, law firms can market more effectively — and in fact, thrive — by attacking niche, local queries and ranking high in the search results. At a fundamental level, local SEO practices are not entirely different than standard SEO practices that don’t involve a geographical niche. However, local search engine marketing involves specific strategies tailored to improve visibility in local search results. There are a number of local SEO optimization practices that are worth considering (and remembering) as you move forward. Today, we’ll be providing a checklist that you can use to ensure that your local SEO efforts are up-to-snuff.
If you’d like to learn more about online legal marketing and how it can help you to grow your law firm’s client base, we encourage you to contact us here at Walker Advertising. We’ll connect you to a member of our team who can explain what the current digital marketing landscape looks like, and how to take advantage of the opportunities therein. They’ll also provide some information on our services, which includes access to pre-qualified inbound leads in relevant legal practice areas. Call us to get started.
That being said if you’d prefer to gain a clearer understanding of local SEO and what it entails, keep reading! We’ll cover the basics, and provide a checklist for maximizing it.
How does local SEO actually work?
Though Google’s search engine is already the market leader when it comes to more standard searches, it is even more dominant when it comes to local searches (thanks to integrations with Google Maps and other software products, such as Google Business Profiles). Thus, much of the advice relevant to local SEO will necessarily be contextualized within the Google ecosystem.
Within this Google search ecosystem, local SERPs (search engine results page) tend to prioritize the ranking of online legal content that engages the following local search ranking factors:
- Proximity
- Relevance
- Prominence
These factors are weighted and assigned in order to help “rank” your content in local search results, enhancing your local search visibility so that users are able to (quickly) access quality results.
Proximity
Firstly, a search query will consider the physical proximity of your business (here, your law firm) to the location of the user who has conducted the search query. The closer your law firm is to the user’s location, the more weight your content will be given when ranking in the SERP. This highlights the importance of local search optimization in ensuring your business appears prominently for nearby users.
Relevance
Secondly, a search query will consider how relevant your law firm’s services are to the user’s intent. If your law firm doesn’t provide representation in divorce-related or other family law matters, for example, then you won’t be given high weighting in SERPs for queries requesting assistance with a divorce. This highlights the importance of local search marketing in ensuring your services match the needs of potential clients.
Prominence
Thirdly, a search query will consider your law firm’s authority/prominence in the local legal industry. By evaluating a number of factors, such as mentions in legitimate news media articles, the search engine will be able to assess your firm’s authority and will rank your content higher in SERPs if you have more authority/prominence.
Proximity, relevance, prominence/authority, and other factors are evaluated by search algorithms, and the weighted value is assigned to your content, which will then rank the content accordingly. Local SEO is therefore not murky or confusing but leans heavily on explicit processes. Optimizing the various factors that are relevant to local SEO will almost certainly push your content up in the rankings on various SERPs, improving your visibility in local search engine results.
Why bother with local SEO?
Local SEO allows businesses to optimize their website and online profiles for search queries that have a geographical bent — for example if a user is searching for personal injury lawyers in Los Angeles, then the strength of your “local SEO” will determine how high your pages rank in their SERPs.
Notably, intent is sometimes appended to a search query even if the user hasn’t specifically searched a geographically related matter. For example, if a user is located in San Jose, CA, and they are searching generically for personal injury lawyers, Google (and other search engines) will show them local law firms that handle personal injury claims — even if they haven’t asked for San Jose results. This highlights the benefits of local SEO and the importance of implementing effective local search engine marketing strategies.
The Primary Advantage of a Local SEO Strategy
The primary advantage of implementing a local SEO strategy is that you can avoid competing with other law firms at the national level, as the keywords are extremely competitive and so it is quite difficult for a “newcomer” to rank high in SERPs. Instead, by focusing on locally-coded keywords, you can compete with a much smaller group of law firms — with smart, well-written content that is SEO optimized, you’ll be able to rank high in SERPs with less effort and resources committed to your marketing strategy.
Further, local users are more likely to “convert” (i.e., call your firm for a consultation) than potential clients. This means that your marketing efforts aren’t being wasted on pushing out your law firm website’s content to an audience that isn’t necessarily even capable of accessing your services (if they’re located out of state, for example). By leveraging local search engine optimization strategies, you can ensure that your content reaches the right audience, maximizing the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.
What to do to maximize your local SEO: A checklist
Okay, so you know how local SEO works at a glance — but what should you do to maximize and optimize your content so that you rank high in a variety of local SERPs? Let’s consider some important items in our local search engine optimization checklist that you can run through to ensure that you’re doing everything you can (at a basic level) to keep your content on top of the local search rankings.
Make sure that your Google Business Profile information is correct and comprehensive
Incorrect information in your Google Business Profile can negatively impact your ability to rank for local searches in organic search results, as your firm will potentially be listed in a different location. Even if your general location is correct, the wrong phone number or address can result in hundreds of missed inbound leads over time.
Worth noting: if you have multiple physical offices for your law firm in different locations, then you will need to register them separately as different Google Business Profiles (each location needs its own unique address and phone number). Name, address, and phone number information should be checked and confirmed on a regular basis. That’s because incorrect name, address, and phone number information can lead to negative ranking effects on various search engines.
Additionally, ensure that your law firm’s information is consistent across all local directories to enhance your local SEO efforts. For more effective optimization, consider following local search engine optimization tips to improve your Google Business Profile.
Verifying your Google Business Profile
Do be sure to verify your Google Business Profile as well. You may need a physical address to receive the verification documents at the location (even if your firm is virtual). Without verification, however, your local rankings could be suppressed as compared to verified law firms in your area.
Google Business Profiles asks for a great deal of information that many businesses choose to ignore. We encourage you to add as much information as you can, as doing so will benefit you when it comes to local SEO. For example, upload photos of your firm, add a detailed description about your firm, choose the correct business category (law), and utilize the Q&A section to provide a search-friendly FAQ about your law firm for local users. You can also post on a regular basis using your Google Business Profile, which will let their algorithms know that you are an “active” business user. Implementing local search engine optimization techniques will further enhance your profile’s effectiveness.
Conduct local keyword research and ranking assessments
Keyword research can make use of various SEO tools “search grids” for identifying how highly ranked your pages will be for users in different area codes. Understanding the needs and interests of your local community can help you tailor your content to resonate better with local audiences. After all, proximity is a key ranking factor for local SEO. Don’t just make assumptions about how your content will perform based on general keyword research — use local keyword research filters and local search engine optimization tools to ensure that you are planning out content that will perform well with the intended local audience.
Ask your clients to provide testimonials and reviews
Reviews matter a great deal for local SEO — not just because Google Business Profiles feature reviews prominently, but also because reviews are a major tipping point when it comes to earning the clickthrough on your page link in local SERPs. Appearing in the local pack can significantly enhance your visibility and attract more client inquiries. If your firm has low reviews compared to a competitor firm in your city, then a user is much likelier to click through to a page on your competitor’s website. This could have downstream effects on your marketing funnel, so don’t deprioritize local search engine optimization reviews!
Add location pages to your law firm’s website for each discrete geographic location or city that you are able to serve
For every major city or county that your firm is able to serve, you should create a distinct landing page on your law firm’s website. Doing so will help search engines “connect the dots” between your firm and users who are in close proximity to your firm and have a particular legal issue that you can handle. Additionally, incorporating local search engine optimization content on these pages is crucial for improving your visibility in local searches.
Add services pages for your legal services (i.e., each practice area that you handle)
Every legal practice area that you handle deserves its own content page on your site. This not only helps you to answer prospective clients’ questions regarding their issues in that practice area, but it also gives you further authority in that practice area (which can help your site rank higher on SERPs). Implementing local search engine optimization strategies for these service pages can significantly enhance your visibility and attract more local clients.
Don’t forget to optimize for general SEO, too
Though your focus may be on local SEO for lawyers, there are still general aspects of SEO to consider as you move forward with your ranking strategy. Consider utilizing local service ads to enhance your visibility and attract more qualified leads. For example, you should be optimizing your keyword sets, your title tags, your meta descriptions, your URLs, your images, and even the technical side (i.e., page load speed). If your general SEO is poorly implemented, then this could also affect your ability to rank locally. Incorporating local search engine optimization practices can further enhance your overall SEO strategy.
Your content should serve the needs of potential clients
Law firms that are focusing on promoting their legal services often fail to consider the actual search intent or query needs of potential clients. As a general rule, it’s important to “meet your audience where they are.” Your content should not simply be informative or entertaining in a vacuum – it should be created in such a way that it is responsive to the needs of the audience, and is informative and/or entertaining in that context.
For example, if you know that the potential clients in your audience are interested in learning about how much compensation they could get in a payout, it’s important to answer their questions directly and comprehensively. Don’t just write the article that “you” think is important – though you may be the expert, the audience is still looking for an answer to their particular query, no matter how relevant or non-relevant it is to real-world litigation. Law firms often fail to create local search engine optimization content that is positioned in this audience-friendly manner.
Contact Walker Advertising for Helping Growing Your Firm’s Client Base
Whether you’re a solo lawyer or are part of a larger firm with plans for expansion, it’s important to grow your client base in order to hit your revenue and client growth goals. Here at Walker Advertising, we can help. We operate a number of popular attorney networks — including our Los Defensores and 1-800-THE-LAW2 brands — through which firms are able to access leads for various legal claims.
The leads we acquire through our various online marketing efforts — from social media marketing to targeted web ads — have been pre-qualified by our team so that you aren’t hassled by a flood of leads that are simply not relevant or actionable for your purposes as a law firm. By accessing these quality leads, you’ll be well-equipped to select the best ones to grow your firm business.
Best of all, you won’t have to spend your valuable time and effort on building out your online marketing efforts. Don’t worry about SEO optimization, trend analysis, or any other complex marketing issues. Instead, use us to access pre-qualified inbound leads, and focus your limited internal resources on providing quality representation to your existing (and new) client base.
Contact Walker Advertising today to connect to a member of our team who can explain how our legal networks can help your firm business thrive in this ever-changing digital marketing landscape.
SEO for lawyers is increasingly important these days, but it can also be quite confusing to understand how to manage all the complexity, from maximizing your local keywords to understanding the local SEO services you can take advantage of as a law firm. We look forward to assisting you in improving the visibility of your law firm online.
Contact Walker Advertising today to connect to a member of our team who can explain how our legal networks and local search engine optimization services can help your firm business thrive in this ever-changing digital marketing landscape.
