Lawyer SEO: An Essential Guide

Whether you help personal injury victims recover compensation, structure custom estate plans, or provide criminal defense, most clients turn to digital search and find you through your website, making it your best resource for driving business. If boosting traffic to your website is a goal, enhancing search engine optimization is a step in the right direction.

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Learn more about lawyer SEO, a tactical approach to SEO implementation, and how to find a marketing team with experience generating leads for law firms.

Understanding Search Engine Optimization & Law Firm SEO

Starting with the basics, consider the concept of increasing search engine rankings and driving organic traffic to your website. The immediate question is how you can effectively offer your services to the people who need legal representation. The simple answer is with attorney search engine optimization best practices.

What Is SEO?

When effective, SEO practices improve your organic online search results. It is an essential element of digital marketing designed to increase the quantity and improve the quality of traffic coming to your website. An organic search is not an ad. Businesses can pay-per-click for their ads to appear at the top of the search engine results page, but organic search results are those below the ads ranked by content relevance.

Quality vs. Quantity

The quantity of visitors to your website is undeniably crucial. Of course, you want more people visiting your website, but quantity without quality is unproductive. For example, Google can drive people searching for motorcycle parts to your website, but most will not stay when you offer legal representation for motorcycle accident victims.

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Methodical lawyer SEO practices drive high-quality traffic to your web pages. It capitalizes on the search engine's ability to pair users with businesses that offer what they need by matching their searches to your online content.

How It Works

Google uses algorithms to comb through web pages and find content related to your search. Algorithms use factors, such as multi-level link features, social metrics, and keyword usage, that evolve to stay in touch with user behavior. Therefore, for a business to earn the coveted top first-page rankings, they need a strategy. Consider some elements of a solid plan:

• It places user experience as the top priority.
• It evolves with the changing behaviors of both the user and the search engine.
• It employs organic ranking tactics not designed to manipulate the search engine or the user.

Developing and implementing an efficient and effective SEO-centric digital marketing strategy can be complex, especially considering the ever-evolving nature of SEO.

What Is SEO for Lawyers?

law firm SEO refers to the practices employed to boost your law firm's online presence and increase search engine rankings, placing your website higher than similar practices in your area. An effective strategy will lead more potential clients to you by connecting their specific searches with your content.

How Much Do Law Firms Spend on SEO?

The cost of attorney search engine optimization services can vary drastically based on several factors. For example, the area of law you practice, the size of your firm, and other details can affect the overall cost. Generally, firms can spend between $2,000 and $10,000 monthly, with smaller markets costing less and firms with multiple locations typically paying more.

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Consider some common factors affecting the cost of law firm SEO services:

Factor 1: Your Practice Area

The area of law you practice can significantly impact the value of law firm SEO in your marketing plan. For example, keyword research tools can measure how competitive keywords for your practice area are and rank them organically based on how often people search a specific keyword, other variations of that keyword, and similar keywords. This measure is commonly known as keyword difficulty.

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The areas of law with high organic competition include personal injury accidents and criminal law, specifically DUI cases. Areas of practice with medium competition for organic ranking include:

• Employment law
• Family law
• Bankruptcy and tax law.
• Immigration law
• Business law, including commercial and corporate areas.

Areas with less competition include full-service practices, estate planning, and real estate or property disclosure law. If your practice is part of a more competitive market, you may need to spend a little more for a more comprehensive SEO strategy.

Factor 2: Your Firm's Market

Consider your location. Are you in or near a large city? Urban areas will have more law firms. Combine that with a more competitive area of law, such as personal injury, and you may significantly increase your marketing needs. For example, car accident attorneys in New York City are part of a bigger market, and many firms in that market have large practices with deeper pockets.

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Ranking high on search engine results pages in dense areas with significantly more competition can mean a dramatic increase in new business for your firm. However, it also means you must keep a watchful eye on your marketing efforts, evolving to adapt to other firms trying to take your spot. You need an experienced marketing consultant or team to help you strategize to take and keep the coveted top spot on the SERP.

Factor 3: The Scope of Your Marketing Efforts

Consider the types of law firm SEO content you can create and what you can contribute. How involved do you want to be in your digital content marketing efforts? Would you prefer to hand it all over to a marketing team while you focus on your area of expertise? In that case, you can anticipate a marketing package at a higher cost.

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You can handle some of the workload for less cost, but you want a thorough understanding of SEO. For example, writing your blogs helps boost your online presence, but do you know how to include keywords efficiently? This is your best opportunity to increase your online content. Contribute to other publications and do interviews. Sponsor events and local groups to get your name out in the community.

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As you can imagine, writing your content and fulfilling other marketing efforts can take time, often requiring a commitment busy lawyers cannot make. Remember, the quality of your legal work is just as important as your marketing efforts. Therefore, investing in a marketing expert to help you strategize is often the best and most lucrative option.

Factor 4: Your Goals

What would you like to accomplish with SEO marketing? Access to more clients is a given, but you need specific goals. Do you want to dominate the market in your area? For smaller firms in a large market, steady, promising growth is a reasonable approach to marketing strategizing. For example, if you have a single location and a team of five legal professionals, signing up 50 new clients per month may seem slightly unreasonable. However, that is an approachable goal for a larger firm with multiple locations.

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Budgetary goals are also a critical part of SEO strategy. Increasing your search engine ranking and maintaining a position high on the SERP can become increasingly difficult. Therefore, expect your budget to increase as your goals change. For example, if you increase your expectations from 10 new clients to 20 new clients monthly, your marketing team needs a bigger budget to accommodate the change in efforts.

Factor 5: The Quality of Work

All SEO marketing efforts are not created equal, and the same is true for marketing firms. SEO has an extensive history, with tactics and algorithms becoming increasingly sophisticated over time. Initially, you could spam online content with keywords and trick Google's algorithm into boosting your web pages on the SERP. Google and other search engines caught on quickly, and today, they continuously update to weed out spammy web pages and keyword dumping.

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Some so-called SEO experts from the early days still try these same old tricks under the guise of modern SEO strategy, and you can typically pinpoint them. Their rates are often substantially lower, but they put their clients at a significantly higher risk for a penalty when the algorithm catches up.

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If you want quality work that capitalizes on the sophistication of Google's algorithm rather than running circles around it, you must invest in it. You get what you pay for, and quality SEO requires knowledgeable planning and strategic execution.

What Can You Expect in a Law Firm SEO Package?

Every marketing company offers its services in different forms. Some offer tiered pricing and various levels of project management, but some essential services you can expect include local SEO, keyword research, on-page SEO, blogging services, and link building.

Local SEO Services and Keyword Research

Local SEO includes focusing on your search engine business listings and local directory citations. Making sure your business name, address, and phone numbers are correct across every possible website is critical.

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Keyword research services include:

• Periodic rank tracking and reporting, typically daily or weekly.
• Ranking your target keywords.
• Including keywords in blogs, web page content, title tags, and meta descriptions.

The pricing for these efforts can vary significantly depending on the amount of content you order and the goals you set for growth.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO refers to the technical components of SEO. This includes website architecture, content quality auditing, HTML best practices, and speed. Optimizing your website's performance is a priority and a step in turning organic traffic into new clients.

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All good SEO marketing agencies will provide some variation of these components, customizing your plan to meet your needs. However, the pricing can change over time. SEO service scales are linear because the work can only get more complex as your goals change and your marketing team needs to adapt new strategies to meet those goals. Most quality SEO providers, worth their expense, will charge more monthly as your need for links, web authority, and content increases.

Accessing How SEO Works for Law Firms

People take to search engines daily to find legal assistance with various issues. SEO is just an avenue to ensure your services appear front and center for them to find you. Consider some ranking factors that contribute to SEO for law firms and why they are essential.

Does SEO Work for Law Firms?

When included in a well-constructed strategy, SEO can work for law firms. The operative word is, of course, "well-constructed." No plan can guarantee an increase in organic website traffic, but there are a substantial number of ways you can better your chances, starting with some of the basic categories of ranking factors:

• Off-page citations and backlinks refer to the number of pages and domains sending search engine users to your page. A more substantial number could create a better impression and make your firm appear as a greater authority in your field of practice.
• Content refers to the written word and imagery used on your website. High-quality content is the key to improving the visitor's experience and optimizing your chance of ranking higher on search engines.
• Technical SEO includes your website structure and whether you use title tags to boost your SEO performance. Page speed is another critical factor.

How you use these elements of SEO can vary among law firms, depending on the size of your firm, the type of law you practice, and how vital online traffic is to your success. However, the key takeaway is that every law firm can potentially increase online traffic using high-quality content and strategic site structuring.

Why Is SEO Important for Lawyers?

A solid marketing strategy takes a multi-channel approach to client conversion. Attorneys know the value of referrals, but organic search engine traffic is a critical marketing tool for reaching your target market. In 2021, Ruler Analytics published an analysis of conversion rates based on marketing channels in the legal sector and found:

• That 66% of call conversions came from organic online searches through Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
• The conversion rate was 4.28% for calls coming from online searches, significantly more significant than the combined 2.4% conversion rate of several other channels.
• Only email surpassed organic search with a conversion rate of 4.47%.

What does this tell you about SEO? It says that when developed efficiently, search engines are an asset in your efforts to attract more inquiries about your law firm and convert more interests into active clients. If you have never invested in SEO marketing, the concept can seem confusing, particularly when you get into the specifics, such as Google Analytics. Dive in by understanding ranking factors, the foundation of SEO.

Defining Search Engine Ranking Factors

Google is undeniably the largest market share owner among search engines. Roughly 89% of all online searches happen on Google, with Bing coming in second at just over 6%. Therefore, you benefit best from understanding the factors contributing to Google's ranking system.

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To understand Google's ranking system relative to the search engine's ranking factors, take a more in-depth look at content, backlinks, and technical SEO and consider how the user experience impacts your ranking on the SERP.

What Does Good Content Look Like?

Creating content that boosts your Google ranking is about displaying what your law firm offers and what potential clients may search for to find it online. It should use keywords users often include in their searches, answer the questions they commonly ask about your area of law, and provide a variety of content about the same category of your practice.

Answering the Search Question

A common practice in creating SEO content for a law firm's website is approaching blogs and landing pages from the potential client's perspective. For example, suppose the user suffered an injury in a slip-and-fall accident on someone else's property in Ohio. If they turn to Google to search for legal assistance in recovering compensation for their losses, what answers might they need?

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You can draft your content by asking and answering the potential client's hypothetical questions:

• What type of law does this firm handle?
• Does this firm handle slip-and-fall cases or other personal injury claims?
• Is this law firm located in Ohio?
• How does this practice structure legal fees?
• Why would I want to do business with this law firm?

Your content should answer questions preemptively. Make a list of questions clients often ask and some that may drive a new demographic of clients to your practice. For example, suppose you work in family law and want to shift your focus from child custody to high-asset divorces. In that case, start considering the specific questions someone seeking representation may ask. That is the first step in building variety in your content.

Optimizing With Keywords

You have content ideas your target audience can use, but how do you get Google to show them your answers? The most straightforward answer is to optimize your content with keywords and place them in the right areas. Title tags, descriptions, headings, and the web page address are critical, but you should also distribute them evenly throughout the content. Be mindful of excessive keyword usage. Google's sophisticated algorithm flags pages with apparent keyword dumping, sometimes burying those websites several pages deep in the SERP.

Creating Variety

If you know anything about keywords, you should know they come in multiple variations. For example, "car accident lawyer in Michigan" can be the foundation for several other variations:

• Cost of a car accident lawyer in Michigan.
• Hiring a car accident lawyer in Michigan.
• Duties of a car accident lawyer in Michigan.

Google's algorithm can take questions asked in natural language and assess how well your web pages answer those questions based on your keyword usage. Creating an online portfolio of SEO content is not about jamming as many keywords into a web page as possible. It is about creating a body of different content containing keyword variations to show Google and the user that you are an expert in that field.

How Can You Implement Local Law Firm SEO?

If you are a small practice wanting to boost your search engine ratings, you likely need a local approach. In a few simple steps, you can implement your basic SEO strategy with a few simple steps:

1. Update Your Google Business Profile

Google uses the information in your business profile to inform rankings for local searches. Of course, distance is a primary factor, and there is relatively nothing you can do about how close your physical location is to the user. However, it also considers your prominence and relevance to the search.

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You can make your law firm relevant with a detailed description. For example, if you practice criminal law, include "criminal defense lawyer" in your description. In addition to basic contact information, you can have your website and reviews.

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Positive reviews are a crucial marketing tool for small law firms seeking local clients and an effective tool for displaying prominence in a Google Business Profile. This includes reviews from your website and other directories. Google gathers reviews from other websites and can use them to form your ranking.

2. Seek Reviews From Satisfied Clients

A common misconception in SEO is that you must wait for reviews. Realistically, every interaction with a client is a chance to score a good review. Ask satisfied clients directly or offer them a tangible reminder, such as a card with simple directions for providing a review. Building an extensive catalog of reviews takes time, and most law firms go through a trial-and-error process. However, many develop strong relationships with clients who can leave meaningful and detailed reviews.

3. Increase Your Online Engagement

Online engagement is an effective way to bring more awareness to your business. For example, social media is a powerful marketing tool, even if it does not directly affect your Google search rankings. You can still boost your local rankings by positively impacting your prominence. Additionally, adding your blog content to your Google business listing encourages more engagement with your website and can increase your local rankings.

4. Build Your Website

Not all clients will click for local search results, but even a small firm can still rank high in non-local results. SEO best practices include keyword-optimized content regardless of your practice's size. Including your location and practice areas in all content can help move you up the ranks. Consider addressing the type of law you practice and your location somewhere on every page, including your homepage. You can then create landing pages for every topic and specify a location to create more diversity in your content while still using variations of relevant keywords.

5. Monitor Other Business Directories

While Google is the focus of any SEO-based digital marketing campaign, it does not hurt to consider other directories, such as Yelp or the Yellow Pages. Keep business listings on all relevant pages up to date with your law firm's contact information to maintain a consistent, reliable online presence. Search engines favor businesses with updated information across the internet. Check general directories, including Bing Place for Business and Apple Maps, but also look for legal-specific websites, such as Nolo, Avvo, LegalZoom, and Justia.

How Do Backlinks Affect SEO Ranking?

Relevant, keyword-optimized content is an excellent first step in boosting your ranking, but the internet is a seemingly endless pool of content. So how else can you make your web pages stand out? Backlinks can be a deciding factor in Google ranking. When other websites link to one or more of your web pages, it indicates to Google's algorithm that you are a credible source in your field, boosting the authority and quality of your website.

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More backlinks alone are not enough to boost credibility. You need quality backlinks from authoritative websites. A backlink for a page with high-quality content is more valuable than a backlink from low-quality sites producing spam content. You know the value of these connections, but how do you get them?

How To Attract Backlinks to Your Website

As with most SEO best practices, there is no guaranteed way to build backlinks naturally, but there are several ways to increase your attraction for other websites in your field. You already know the value of submitting your business to relevant directories. For example, you can join the Better Business Bureau, explore your college alum lists, and join other legal reference sites. Help a Reporter Out is a platform connecting professional journalists to sources, allowing your content to potentially gain media coverage.

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Other powerful ways to connect other content creators in need of legal resources include the following:

• Self-promotion through content marketing. Increasing your outreach, email and social media are vital ways to promote your law firm as an authority in your practice.
• Creating how-to or step-by-step guides. Attorneys have a wealth of information to share with many topics that fit perfectly into a guide format. Consider relevant questions for your practice, such as "How to file for child custody modification" or "How to protect your claim after a truck accident."
• Attend legal conferences and speaking events. Guest speaking at events and networking with professionals in and adjacent to your field can lead to organic backlinks.
• Create more evergreen content. The evergreen approach means your content will always be relevant. For example, if you primarily write about motorcycle accident cases in New York, your content could become only seasonally advantageous, given the long winters in New England.
• Seek publication in legal mediums. Establish your law firm as a leading expert by searching for legal websites that seek guest contributions, curate resource pages, and offer interviews. Secure a feature where you can showcase your expertise.

Attracting backlinks can take time. The critical thing to remember is that quality is more important than quantity. Take the time to produce high-quality content people can use as a resource rather than overproducing fluff pieces that will not perform as well or boost your credibility.

How Do Off-Page Citations Affect SEO Rankings?

Off-page citations are another local SEO asset for law firms. They are backlinks from websites that list your company's address, email, phone number, and any other contact information. The more your practice appears on the internet, the more noticeable it is to search engines. Your Google Business Profile is an off-page citation, as is any other business listing from local or nationwide directories. Review websites, such as FindLaw and LegalMatch, also provide contact information.

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Building links requires patience, but it can yield substantial results. Therefore, commit to creating a significant online presence for your firm and prepare to put forth those efforts for an extended period.

Off-Page Ranking Factors To Consider for a Successful SEO Strategy

Citations are not the only off-page activities that can affect your search engine ranking. As with most SEO tactics, off-site presence online aims to improve the search engine's perception of your relevance and trustworthiness. Every high-quality backlink and well-constructed off-page citation is another positive affirmation. It is the digital equivalent of a peer-to-peer referral.

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Backlinks are the most productive and valuable off-page SEO tool, but your reputation and social media activity are also critical. Reputation is a relatively new ranking factor. Google E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trust, introduced reputation as a part of SEO. Creating your online reputation means:

• Keeping open lines of communication with existing and potential clients through all available channels.
• Addressing concerns of clients or online visitors discussed in reviews, chats, and other channels.
• Being an accredited Better Business Bureau member.

These actions boost your reliability and make you appear more trustworthy to search engines and potential clients.

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Everyone knows the importance of social media in a law firm's digital marketing strategy. However, you may not know how your presence on different social media platforms can impact your SEO efforts. Social media is where most off-page activity occurs. Your practice can post regularly to bring attention to important subjects in your field of law or make announcements about your services. It is also a great place to spread awareness and boost backlinks. Having a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter boosts your importance in ranking.

How Does Technical SEO Contribute to Successful SEO?

Technical SEO helps search engines index your law firm website effectively and improves the user experience. Applying technical SEO best practices can significantly impact your website's performance in Google rankings. First, consider how search engine crawlers work:

Understanding Crawlers

Crawling refers to the action of search engines following links through known pages to get to unknown pages. For example, when you publish new blog content on your site, you can add them to your archive page. The next time Google crawlers creep around your website, it has a path to the latest links added, allowing it to discover new posts.

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To ensure search engines can access your content, you first need to build an SEO-friendly site structure, linking pages together in an organized fashion so Google's crawlers can move through it quickly. For example, your website may start with a homepage and branch into category pages that link to individual pages.

Following a Step-by-Step Guide to the Basics of Law Firm SEO

Suppose you are a skilled personal injury attorney in Chicago, and you search for "Chicago personal injury lawyer" on Google to find yourself on the second SERP. With several attorneys ranking ahead of you, what can you do to take action immediately before contacting a lawyer SEO expert to help you build a strong campaign? Remember these three simple steps you can take now to get a head-start on your SEO efforts:

Step One: Google Analytics and Search Console

Installing Google Analytics and ensuring Google Search Console is up and running are the first steps in measuring your SEO efforts. You and your marketing team will use these tools to gather data and inform strategies. If you have a content management system in place, you likely already have the documents you need to set these up. If you worked with a web developer to create your website, you might already have everything set up.

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Some data you will monitor closely include your traffic by source and goal completion. Traffic by source shows you what drives visitors to your website. For example, you can see how many people found you through an organic search on Google. You can even see if people found you on Bing. You can also monitor your marketing goals to see where you need improvement.

Step Two: Local Business Directories

As previously discussed, ensuring all your local directories have the most up-to-date information about your practice is essential. Local SEO is critical to a law firm's success, so optimizing your local business listings is just as vital as SEO for your website. Local directories already have traffic, typically operating off a search function. You can benefit from their existing audience to help drive traffic to your website or generate new communications in person or by phone.

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Once you claim your listing, consider a few essential elements you can update:

• Add keywords to your business name.
• Update your contact information, address, and hours of operation if necessary.
• Upload photographs of your team, office building, and relevant places in your area.
• Provide a brief description focusing on your practice area, and include keywords where it is natural.
• Include reviews from previous clients. 

Check your social media profiles to ensure all information is cohesive with your business listings. This includes Facebook and LinkedIn.

Step Three: Website Optimization

Much of your lawyer SEO is best left to a digital marketing expert who can maximize your efforts. However, if you currently handle any update on your website or have someone who does it for you, you can do a few simple things to improve usability and structure.

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For example, look at the content you already have on your homepage. Visitors are more likely to read what you place highest on the website. Is the content you have before the first scroll enriched with keywords naturally? Does it immediately tell the reader what you do and how you can help them?

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Clarity is critical to website optimization. Look at each page from the perspective of a potential client, and share information in the most effective forms. For example, a personal injury attorney may want the sum of all the settlements they secured to be front and center on the homepage. Review your website carefully from an SEO perspective before meeting with a marketing agency so you can better communicate your goals and expectations.

Tips for Finding a Law Firm SEO Expert

Running a solid SEO campaign often requires more resources and knowledge than someone outside the digital marketing industry inherently has. While you can learn, that would take away valuable time you need to work on your cases. A marketing consultant with experience in law firm SEO services can build a custom campaign to meet your specific needs while you do what you do best.

The digital marketing industry is vast, with many companies advertising fast results. Consider these vetting tips to ensure you find a consultant with the expertise you need to take your website to the next level:

Analyze Their Results

Results tell you everything you need to know about a marketing consultant's ability to create effective campaigns. Typically, you can find results within the company portfolio or front and center on their website. Look for evidence of the following:

• How well do they drive organic traffic to their client's website?
• How many leads do they generate for the average client?
• What are their conversion rates for these leads?
• What methods did they use to get the target audience to a client's website and down the pipeline?

Remember, driving organic traffic to your website is critical, but it is insufficient to bring your new clients. The right marketing firm can provide results showing how they drive the right traffic to your website and people looking for the services you offer so that you can turn them into clients.

Look for a Portfolio

A portfolio is an excellent way to see a marketing company's work for other clients. Look for legal SEO work to see how they approach marketing for attorneys, including large and small law firms. What if they do not have apparent experience working with a law firm? In that case, look for diversity. Do they have an array of industries within their client base, or do they appear to limit their clients to a specific field?

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A diverse portfolio indicates flexibility and a willingness to learn about lawyer SEO. Beyond just assessing whether you like their work, it tells you whether you would be a compatible team.

Assess Their Company Values

SEO campaigns do not begin and end overnight. When you partner with a marketing company, you spend a substantial period of time working with them, discussing your goals, and creating strategies to meet milestones. Understandably, you want to work with a firm that shares your values and has the same commitment level to results.

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Read through their mission statement and learn more about their experience in digital and especially SEO marketing. What coursework experience do their team members have? Do any team members have relevant certifications? A more knowledgeable SEO company is better equipped to drive results back into your law firm.

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Attorneys understand the value of research and taking your time with a project. You likely will not mesh well with a marketing team prioritizing company time over their client's needs. You want a marketing team that values getting to know your law firm so they can employ lawyer SEO tactics that best suit your needs.

Prepare Questions

The vetting process is not complete without questioning. Consider what you expect from your marketing team, how involved you want to be in the campaign-building process, and what your marketing budget allows. Here are a few crucial questions any law firm should ask:

• How much experience do you have with law firm SEO?
• How would you drive organic traffic to my website, and what methods do you use to ensure that traffic includes my target demographic?
• How well do you and your team adapt to changes in strategy?
• How do you address issues when they arise, and can you give me an example?

Treat your initial meeting like an interview. A qualified marketing consultant will be happy to answer your questions and excited to dig deeper into what they can do for you. Flexibility and honesty are essential qualities you want in your marketing team.

Skills You Want Your SEO Writer To Have

You know what to look for in a marketing agency. Now, what skills should a legal SEO writer have that can help you generate leads and grow your practice?

New Content Creation as a Priority

Your website is online real estate. It communicates your professional position to potential clients. However, when you go months without updating the content, what does that say to a client carefully scanning your web presence to better understand your experience? It does not look as good as a firm with a regular schedule for posting new content.

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A skilled SEO writer can create a monthly schedule and produce new content. They research your practice area to monitor news and relevant topics to keep your content fresh. They communicate with you regularly to gauge your expectations and discuss content ideas. Be clear about the scope of work you want so your relationship has no complications.

A Link Building Strategy for Blogs

As previously discussed, link building is a powerful SEO tool. A skilled writer should understand how to get an authoritative website to link your page and avoid linking to low-quality content that could potentially damage your reputation. They may work with your social media team or build relationships with well-established legal websites in an organic social media strategy.

An Understanding of Long-Tail Keywords

Any writer versed in lawyer SEO strategy should know how to optimize keyword usage, but a good writer understands the importance of using both short and long-tail keywords. Focusing on one type of keyword will not attract all the potential traffic available, causing you to miss leads.

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For example, using "DUI attorney" in all your content does not narrow the search enough to catch all the searches in your area. You want a writer that understands the value of keyword variations. For example, "New York DUI attorney" or "Manhattan DUI attorney" can draw in visitors searching for a specific area.

An Ability To Explain Their Process

Ask as many questions as you want for clarity. A skilled writer can explain their process with transparency, even when they need to cover basic SEO jargon. The better their explanation, the more you can trust that they have a clear idea of what your website needs to generate new leads and grow your practice. Schedule regular meetings to discuss your goals and progress. They should be able to monitor the results of their work and give you a thorough report.

Focus on Fresh, High-Quality Content and Building Organic Traffic

Duplication is unacceptable to a high-quality SEO content creator. When a writer copies content from another legal blog or web page, Google will not index it again. Instead, the algorithm recognizes it as low-quality content and buries it in the search results. A professional legal SEO writer generates new, fresh content regularly, giving search engine crawlers new pages to index and flagging your practice as an authoritative voice in your area of law.

Hiring a Lawyer SEO Consultant

Digital marketing and search engine optimization are critical elements of any strong marketing strategy, and as a law firm, you often need a way to place yourself a step ahead of other practices in your area. Hiring the right marketing team with SEO experience is the first step toward achieving that goal.

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For your SEO analysis and to learn more about lawyer SEO best practices, Contact Us at elk Marketing today!