Are running a law firm and wondering how you can make your website rank in Google? Working with a digital agency experienced in search engine optimization or SEO may be the answer. Although there is no one quick way to get you to that #1 spot in search engine result pages (SERP), there are several factors you can focus on to improve your webpage ranking.
Why Is It Important to Rank in Google?
Given the multiple changes happening across different law firms, maintaining your law practice’s online presence is necessary to remain in the competition. Among the multiple search engines used by digital natives, Google is one of the biggest players along with Yahoo, Bing, and YouTube.
If you’ve done your research on technical search engine optimization techniques before, you’ve probably heard about increasing your domain authority to rank better in organic search (as well as paid search). Although authoritativeness is a factor, it is not the only factor in Google’s running algorithm. Your site should be trusted by Google first before it can get a better ranking potential.
What SEO Best Practices Help Improve Search Results Ranking?
Below are several “trust factors” that SEO experts would recommend you to focus on to improve your organic traffic and web-presence. The more Google trusts your webpage, the greater its ability to rank.
- Provide relevant and quality content. There are guidelines followed to determine your Google Search Quality which includes an analysis of your expertise, authoritativeness, and trust based on the content you provide. High-quality content SEO is not about having the most number of keywords stuffed in a single page site or having duplicate content.
When internet users enter a search phrase, Google crawls the web for pages that have semantically related or relevant words. This means that if someone searched for “SEO for law firms”, Google will not only look for “law firm” but other related words such as legal business or lawyers.
- Include inbound links. An inbound link is a link from another website pointing to your landing page. Building backlinks from other websites to improve your page ranking should not use aggressive anchor text because it may appear that you are manipulating the Google algorithm. For instance, if you keep on linking back to your homepage using the anchor “best law firm”, a red flag could be created in Google leading to a lower score for PageRank.
- Check that your brand name is mentioned online. Brand mentions refer to instances where your business name is specifically mentioned in social media sites, websites, blog posts,
If your attorney’s office is being mentioned for a long time, you have a higher ability to rank than your competitors. But this can also work the other way around. When negative reviews or testimonials repeatedly mention your branding, your Google page rank is negatively affected. To bounce back from this, you may need to review your content, work on on-page optimization, or continue implementing other search engine optimization services or tactics.
- Grow your organic keywords. Instead of spending a lot on Adwords, pay-per-click advertising, or other SEO services, you can get measurable results by focusing on your organic keyword list. You need to be aware of which targeted search terms you currently rank in search results. Keyword research is a service often provided by marketing experts. However, keep in mind that slowly building your credentials and trust in Google is better than taking aggressive SEO strategies which can damage your domain name. This is why it is important to work only with a trusted digital marketing agent or marketing company that has served similar clients.
- Know your competitor. If you have strong competitors, then getting that no. 1 spot would require more effort. You will need to have a higher score for search queries that relate to your practice area such as “California personal injury lawyer” or “Arizona bankruptcy attorney”.
- Understand Crawling and Indexation. These two processes take time. When you add new content in your site as part of your SEO tactic, this will not be instantly processed by Google. The search engine must first discover the site using Googlebot, its web crawler. Then, it will need to analyze your text, images, audio, videos before the page is indexed.
Indeed, the waiting part can be the most challenging aspect of search engine optimizations. But once you’ve put in your work into content creation, link building, social media advertising, and even paid advertising, waiting for some time to see the results is the one thing you should do.
So don’t get tricked into working with SEO companies that offer instant ranking without specifying how they do it. There is a right way of building your site’s trust and making your way to the top of Google search engine results. Choose the right law firm marketing that has produced quality results in the past.
If you need help in improving your page visibility and online rankings, Advantage Attorney Marketing & Cloud Solutions offers a free website analysis and audit. Attorneys and legal experts from our SEO firm can address your online-marketing needs and provide you with valuable SEO tools and services to improve your return on investment.
Start generating more leads and getting higher client bookings. Ask about our method today.
