How to Kickstart Your Attorney SEO Strategy

Does it feel like your attorney SEO strategy needs a boost? Or, alternatively, has it seemed as if it never really got off the ground? For many, the biggest challenge of SEO is getting started and seeing those first results. Sure, anyone can put up a blog, take a picture and send out an Instagram post, but doing so in such a way as to be able to draw folks to your site can be extremely difficult even for the most educated, experienced lawyers. That’s where we can help. 

The truth is that there are actions you can take to help to improve your SEO right now. These are some of the first actions that we take with new clients. That’s not to say that these will always work, or that you’ll see immediate results, or anything of that measure. Rather, it means that these actions are always part of a successful SEO strategy. Here, we create personalized SEO strategies that incorporate these organically. 

Before You Act, Audit 

When your SEO is stagnant or you want to get started, it’s natural to just want to post as much as possible. You’re used to hard work, so you want to work as hard as possible. However, that can be counterproductive. Indeed, writing and posting content is important, yes. But, you have to make sure that you’re taking the right steps in terms of keyword targeting, SEO strategy, and more. How can you figure that out? An audit. Specifically, at least two audits. 

The first audit should be of your firm. Audit your SEO, your content, your strategy. See how it’s going. Using the proper analytics, you should be able to see what’s working for you and what can be improved. The next step is to audit your competition. 

Find one of the bigger firms that you’re straight-up competing with. Then, audit them. Use the same analytics. See what they’re ranking for and, even more importantly, see what keywords they aren’t ranking for. The latter is key. With that information, you’ll be able to identify their “content gap.” 

This gap should contain the keywords they aren’t ranking for that you can compete with them for. Then, you can make these a big part of your SEO strategy. That way, you’re getting the most out of your SEO and content: you’re taking down your competitors while reaching more prospective clients than ever. 

For the Response You Want, Get Responsive 

We’re often asked, “what’s most important to growing our business online?” It’s a challenging question. There’s so much that goes into it, all of which has to work together, in tandem. If you want to grow your business online, you need a great website, you need a fantastic SEO strategy, engaging content filled with value, and more. 

Instead, we usually reframe the question to “what’s most important to growing our business online that we might not know?” Then, we usually answer “having a responsive website.” Your site has to be as responsive as possible to be able to bring in more prospective clients. 

More of your prospective clients than ever search for attorneys (as well as legal-related matters) on their phones, tablets, laptops, and so forth. We could quote you studies that say this, or you can just think of your own experience. How much more time do you spend searching for information on your phone than on your desktop computer? 

Thus, it’s imperative that your site is fully responsive, optimized for mobile devices. It has to load quickly, completely, and utterly, with full functionality, within seconds on any kind of device. If your site is anything less than that, it’s going to be harder for you to bring in more prospective clients. 

Even if your site is “responsive,” there are usually ways that you can make it even more responsive. You can almost always improve its load speed. Or, alternatively, you could check your site’s internal linking structure, so that it’s as simple, direct, and easy to navigate as possible. That can help with people as well as Google’s web crawlers. 

The Value of Content is in the Value 

Turning out content for your firm can be grinding. Blogs for your site, tweets, Instagram posts, podcasts, the videos, and more – it all adds up. After just a bit of time creating content, it’s natural to feel burned out. One way to supercharge your content, to always be able to create great content, is to make sure that all your content provides value. 

“Value,” in this context, often means “useful information,” something that someone can benefit from. The “opposite” of value, typically means just saying that you’re good at your job, telling of your prowess, and so forth. If you’ve heard the phrase “show don’t tell,” then you have a pretty good idea of what value should be in your content. 

A good exercise: if you’re writing something, saying something, and aren’t sure if it’s providing enough value, ask yourself: “why?” Or, alternatively, “so what?” We’ve found that helps to get our clients more focused on the value that they provide. 

To use an example, a bankruptcy attorney who says: “we provide great bankruptcy services,” can be asked “so what,” which could then lead to them explaining how bankruptcy can help, what the different kinds of bankruptcy are, how their experience can assist their clients, and so forth. The more value, the better. That’s true for all kinds of content. 

Beyond the Attorney SEO Basics 

Those are just some of the ways we can help your content. The truth is that, while each of these can “boost” your attorney SEO, they probably won’t be able to launch your firm up the Google Rankings overnight. Indeed, it takes time, months usually, to be able to begin that ascent.

But, with the right strategy, it will begin. We can help you every step of the way: from the initial “getting off the ground” to scaling as you grow, we can take your firm to the next level. For a free consultation with our attorney SEO pros, you can give us a call at (888) 477-9540.