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May, 2022
SEO and content marketing for law firms are two critical components of successful online marketing campaigns.
We’ll admit, digital marketing can be confusing. There are so many channels, tactics, strategies, methods, platforms, and opinions to consider. With all these options, it’s easy for your efforts to become divided and ineffective.
However, any agency worth their salt will tell you that SEO and content marketing are the foundations of an effective law firm marketing campaign.
Luckily for you, OppGen Marketing is that agency. Don’t believe us? Schedule a free consultation with us today.
Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing relevant, valuable, and engaging content on your website and other digital channels (social media, YouTube, features on other websites, etc.).
Content marketing includes all types of media:
Great. But why is content marketing for law firms so valuable?
The goals of content marketing are simple and straightforward:
What does it take to create great content?
Quality, strategic content should provide answers to your target audiences’ questions and solutions to their problems.
Content assets should…
Content marketing is a fairly simple concept but is far more complex in execution. In fact, law firm content marketing happens to be particularly competitive. It takes skilled SEO technicians, writers, marketers, and creators to put your law firm on the map.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of optimizing various assets on and off of your website to rank higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs), for searches related to your practice.
This can include…
You can begin to see why SEO and content marketing are critical for the digital success of your law firm.
SEO and content marketing for law firms should be synergistic. Not mutually exclusive.
SEO guides, informs, and enhances your content. SEO knowledge and tools give us the ability to research, analyze, and strategically incorporate valuable information and keywords into your content.
These are the exact keywords, questions, and phrases your target audience is using to look for your firm on Google and other search engines.
Content marketing works to boost your SEO and SERP (search engine results page) standings. Creating strategic, search-oriented content can increase your ranking on SERPs — producing more visibility, traffic, leads, and clients for your firm.
Using one without the other doesn’t really work.
Consider this: If you have superb website content but a slow, underperforming website — visitors won’t stay on your site. Additionally, Google will see your site has performance deficiencies and penalize you because of it.
Conversely, if you have a high-performing, user-friendly, easy-to-navigate website but inadequate website content, it may be impossible to rank.
Great content can’t compensate for bad SEO.
The best SEO strategy can’t make up for poor or subpar content.
Your SEO and law firm content marketing should be used concurrently. When they are, they can produce results greater than the sum of their parts.
Here is a quick breakdown and some highlights of the collaborative relationship between SEO and content marketing:
Content marketing for law firms and an informed SEO strategy are key to your firm’s digital success. What about the other aspects of digital marketing?
As with SEO and content, every aspect of your digital marketing efforts can work synergistically to grow your firm’s business.
There’s a good chance that the majority of your firm’s new, non-referral leads come from Google and other search engines. However, that’s not the online place they’re studying your online presence.
Your ideal clients are also searching for and validating your firm in other areas of the web, like:
Bottom line: The best way to get discovered by new clients online is by consistently and strategically expanding your digital presence, across platforms.
Results-driven content marketing strategies utilize a mix of different channels and types of media to get in front of your target audience, on the digital platforms they use the most.
Our team at OppGen uses industry-leading SEO tools, marketing best practices, and personalized, high-caliber content to produce winning law firm content marketing and SEO campaigns
If your business needs an SEO and content marketing strategy to put your law firm on the map and get you more visibility with your target audience, contact our team at OppGen today for a complimentary strategy session.
Do you want to rank higher on search engine results pages? If so, then OppGen Marketing’s SEO audit service is a great way to find the issues that are holding your website back from success. If you have any questions about our SEO audit, free to contact us.
An SEO audit looks at all aspects of a website to determine what needs improvement in order to increase your visibility, reputation, and digital footprint online.
In this blog post, we will discuss SEO audits, how they work, and how they can help increase your rankings.
Imagine going to a personal trainer at your local gym. Sure, you might be in good shape, but a trainer can help you find your weaknesses and help you build strength. You might not realize how many weak points you have until your trainer helps you spot them.
An SEO audit service is like going to a personal trainer. SEO experts who offer SEO audit services will analyze your website to show you how you can improve your rank on search engine results pages.
You may find your website easy to navigate, but that may not be the case for your website visitors.
A high-quality SEO audit should include suggestions on how to make your website easier to navigate. It may also include design recommendations that provide for an overall smoother user experience.
An easy-to-navigate website does more than help prospects find what they’re looking for; it also makes it easier for search engines to crawl and understand your website.
SEO audits are more than user experience or website design recommendations. They also take into consideration the technical aspects of a website. This can include important factors like site speed, page speed, load times, and usability on different types of devices.
Ideally, these audits should go beyond the website itself. They should also include reviews of social media accounts, your Google Business Page listings, other key directories, and customer reviews.
Your business’s online reputation (quality and quantity of reviews) plays a major role in SEO.
SEO audits should include keyword reporting, recommendations, and suggestions for keywords and phrases to incorporate on your website. Keywords that make sense for your business, and that you have a good chance to rank for.
Following these recommendations allows you to make improvements to your website that will increase the likelihood of ranking high on search engines, for the exact keywords, phrases, and questions that your ideal customers are using to find you.
Improving your website’s strategic use of these keywords should increase your business’s visibility for these relevant searches, on search engine results pages.
This will ultimately lead to driving more visitors, traffic, leads, and customers or clients, to your website, and you’ll begin to see more traffic that will eventually convert to sales or appointments.
An SEO audit can take anywhere from two hours to two weeks. How long an SEO audit takes to complete depends on two key factors:
One of the most important factors that determines how long an SEO audit takes is the size of the website.
It’s much easier and faster to audit a small website with10-20 pages compared to a website with hundreds of pages.
Another key factor is the depth of the audit.
An audit with a brief overview of keyword rankings or website design recommendations should not take as long to complete as an audit that goes deeper into on-page, off-page, and complex technical SEO issues and improvement recommendations.
SEO audits can cost anywhere from $500 to $30,000 depending on the agency and the level of complexity and size of the website.
At OppGen, we actually offer a free SEO audit.
We feel the information SEO audits provide is too important to be hidden behind a paywall. That’s why we keep our comprehensive SEO audit free for our prospective clients.
OppGen’s free SEO audit covers all four aspects of SEO (technical, local, on-page, and off-page) while explaining the importance of each one.
Our SEO assigns a letter grade to your organic presence, so you can see exactly how your website stacks up against Google and the competition in your market.
Most importantly, our SEO audit process provides recommendations for improving your site.
Our SEO audit process gives you comprehensive recommendations and feedback in the following areas:
If you’re ready to improve your website’s SEO, then fill out our free SEO audit today.
Law firms that aren’t using search engine optimization (SEO) as part of their digital marketing strategy are missing out.
SEO helps your law firm’s website rank higher on search engines, increases your visibility with your target audience, and brings your firm more clients through organic searches.
Our law firm SEO checklist will help your firm get started with optimizing your website and kick off your SEO strategy to help increase your organic visibility and traffic from Google and other search engines.
For even more SEO optimization advice for your law firm, contact us today.
SEO is the strategic work done on, off, and behind the scenes of your website to help you rank higher on Google. The goal of SEO is to increase the quality and quantity of organic traffic your firm brings to your website.
SEO involves everything from improving the speed, responsiveness, and user-friendliness of your website to targeting the keywords and phrases your ideal clients are searching for on Google, and more.
Why is this so important for law firms?
Because when your potential clients need an attorney, they go to Google first.
Let’s say run a personal injury firm in your area. When potential clients need an attorney, they’ll go to Google first, even before they’ll reach out for personal recommendations.
They’ll look for attorneys by searching for terms and phrases like “personal injury attorney near me” or “car accident lawyer in my area.”
The better your SEO, the higher you’re going to rank for searches like these and others related to your practice area and services. The better you rank, the greater the odds that these clients will come to your website, vs. your competitors.
Your law firm SEO strategy needs to cover the three key pillars of SEO in order to be successful.
Is your website fast and user-friendly? Does it work well on mobile devices? Is it easy for Google to crawl and index?
If SEO work was described as a car, your technical SEO would be everything under the hood that makes your car fast, smooth, efficient, responsive, and fun to drive.
Your law firm’s on-page SEO addresses the visible content on your website.
On-page SEO involves optimizing your practice’s website content for relevant keywords that your target audience is searching for. Effective on-page SEO strategies naturally incorporate keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for to find an attorney, directly into your website copy and text.
Quality on-page SEO content starts with…
This aspect of SEO addresses other websites on the internet that link to or reference your firm’s site. The more authoritative and relevant websites you have linking back to your website, the more credibility you build with Google and your audience.
You can build your own off-page links by creating business profiles on helpful directories such as:
Now that we have the pillars of SEO covered, let’s jump into setting up with your law firm SEO checklist…
This section focuses on getting the most important tools, accounts, and profiles you’ll need for analyzing and improving your SEO.
We’ll be covering how to…
The set up of a solid SEO strategy can be complicated and overwhelming. Especially if you haven’t done this before.
If you need professional assistance and support with your law firm’s SEO strategy, schedule a strategy call with our SEO team at OppGen today.
Google Analytics gives your firm the ability to track key data that’s tied to your SEO and website performance. These tools help us track valuable data like:
To track this valuable data, you need to have a Google Analytics account.
Start by going to google.com/analytics and either create an account by clicking “Start for free” or sign in to your Google account by clicking “Sign in to Analytics.”
Once you’ve finished setting up your law firm’s Google Analytics account, it’s time to set up Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is another free Google service that allows you to monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance and performance. You can use it to find and fix technical errors, submit sitemaps, see backlinks, view queries people are using to search for your law firm, and much more.
After setting it up, be sure to link your Google Search Console and Google Analytics account for advanced tracking and deeper insights into your law firm’s website data and performance.
Another quick, easy, and free SEO win for your law firm is installing an SEO plugin on your website.
Our preferred website creation platform is WordPress, which powers around 40% of all websites on the web. They have some of the industry’s best free and paid SEO plugins for websites.
The most popular, widely-used, and highest-rated SEO plugins on WordPress include:
Only download and activate one of these plugins to use on your law firm’s website. There are tons of great training resources for each of them you can find online so that you can start improving your law firm’s SEO.
As we mentioned, technical SEO focuses on the technical aspects of your website, like site speed, design, responsiveness, user-friendliness, and mobile performance. These are all ranking factors search engines consider when ranking websites.
Two core aspects of technical SEO are:
Your ideal clients use search engines on their phones more than any other device.
In fact, 54.4% of all website traffic in Q4 of 2021 came from mobile.
Your law firm’s website has to be mobile-friendly. This is one of the first things Google takes into consideration when crawling your website and configuring how to rank it.
A mobile-friendly site is one that loads quickly and is easy to navigate on any mobile device. Keeping a simple, uncluttered, straightforward website design makes a huge difference in increasing site speed and creating a better user experience on mobile devices.
How can you see if your website is mobile responsive?
Start with running your website through Google’s Test My Site Tool. This will give you direct feedback from Google on how your website is performing on mobile, and what you can improve.
Next, you can use Google Chrome’s free inspection tool to see what your website looks like on a variety of mobile devices.
All you need to do is…
Google will reload the page in its Inspect view.
At the top of the page, you’ll see a thin white bar that says “Dimensions” along with the name of a mobile device that your browser is simulating (such as an iPhone X). This means you are looking at your website as it would appear on the mobile device you’ve selected.
Next to the name of the mobile device, there is a small triangle. Click it for a dropdown list of other mobile devices. You can test different types of mobile devices and their different dimensions (your website will look different on an iPad Pro vs a Galaxy Fold phone).
The Inspect tool makes it easy for you to see what your website looks like on mobile devices and if there are any issues with your website’s mobile version.
Speed is another critical website ranking factor for Google. Your law firm needs to be fast and load quickly to rank. The slower your website, the bigger of a detriment it is to your SEO.
In fact, mobile responsiveness and speed alone can be the difference between ranking on page one for your target keywords and phrases, to not ranking at all.
To check your site’s speed, go to Google’s Page Speed Insights tool and enter your website’s URL and click “Analyze.”
Google’s Page Speed Insights tool will rate your website’s speed, and give you detailed notes and steps on how to improve it.
Keep in mind that the Page Speed Insights tool inspects a single page at a time, so you will want to eventually run speed tests on all pages on your website.
Pro Tip: Use your Google Analytics to uncover what pages on your website generate the most traffic. Run a speed test on those first to see what you can improve to help them rank better.
Need help improving your law firm’s site speed and mobile-friendliness?
Contact our SEO team at OppGen today for a free SEO audit of your law firm’s website.
Google (and your website visitors) need to see that your website is secure.
If your website URLs are still using HTTP, you need to make the switch to HTTPS.
HTTP URLs are a sign to Google and your audience that your site pages are not secure.
This puts your firm at a major disadvantage for ranking. It also makes your website more hackable, so it’s a security breach waiting to happen. If your law firm’s website may contain highly sensitive firm or client information, you need to secure your website.
If you’ve made the switch over to HTTPS from an HTTP site, be sure that you set up 301 redirects that forward your website visitors from your HTTP pages, to the HTTPS address.
Like we mentioned earlier, on-page SEO is all about your website’s content. Out of all of the different pieces of SEO, you have the most control over on-page SEO.
On-page SEO encompasses the content and pages you create and publish to your law firm’s website.
It involves optimizing the pages of your website by strategically incorporating keywords and phrases your target audience is using to search for your law firm on Google.
These are the exact terms your target audience is using when searching for a law firm or attorney in their area. This is why keyword strategy is a critical piece of law firm SEO.
Thankfully, there are a plethora of tools you can use to aid you in keyword research. We recommend investing in an industry-leading SEO and keyword tool like ahrefs or SEMrush.
These pieces of software not only help you identify what keywords your target audience is searching for, but also have a full suite of tools for helping your firm with on-page, off-page, and technical SEO as well.
Off-page SEO has a few major components:
These steps work to increase your firm’s online visibility and reputation, both of which are critical to ranking on search engines.
Some important steps for getting started with off-page SEO for law firms are:
A Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) is a must for any business. These free listings allow you to respond to client reviews, post updates, and put your law firm’s location on the (Google) map.
Google has some simple steps you can follow to set up or claim your law firm’s Google Business profile.
One important off-page SEO ranking factor is link building. Link building is when other websites have links that send users to your website.
Google and other search engines delineate between trusted websites and resources vs. ones lacking credibility. You want sites with credibility and authority to link back to your website.
The more credible sites you have linking back to your law firm’s website, the greater credibility you build with search engines.
The challenging part is that it’s difficult to ensure high-domain authority sites will link to you.
That’s where legal directories come in.
Many online legal directories have established domain authority and credibility, which is why it’s important to create a business profile for your firm on these directories (Avvo, Findlaw, etc.). Plus it makes your law firm easier for prospective clients to find.
Along with creating listings on legal directories, you can also start building up more backlinks by posting content to your law firm’s social media pages on a regular basis.
Now that your law firm has a Google Business Profile, legal directory listings, and social media pages ready to go, all that’s left for you to do is ask your happy clients for reviews.
Getting as many glowing 5-star reviews as possible tells search engines your firm does great work. In turn, they’ll reward you with better visibility on search engines results pages, and in the maps section of local search results.
Law firm SEO is an ongoing process and a full-time job. It requires staying up-to-date on the latest Google algorithm updates and SEO best practices. It’s a responsibility that requires the expertise of a skilled law firm marketing partner.
At OppGen Marketing, we have a dedicated SEO team with years of experience in law firm SEO.
Schedule a strategy call with our team today so we can help you improve the digital footprint and online visibility of your firm.
On November 4, 2021, Google announced that it was going to rename Google My Business to Google Business Profile. This announcement coincided with other updates to its business listing service as well.
While Facebook’s recent decision to rename its parent company to Meta raised some eyebrows in the media, Google’s reason for renaming Google My Business is far less controversial.
Google is renaming the platform to more adequately describe its existing services as well as the updates and new features it’s making to the business profile management system.
Other than the fact Google My Business is going to be called Google Business Profile, Google intends to retire the Google My Business app in 2022.
Even though the Google My Business app will no longer be necessary in 2022, you still have options for managing your business’s listing on the web. The console you’ll use is pretty much the same as the Google My Business listing manager, except it’ll be renamed and rebranded as Business Profile Manager. There will be a redirect set up, so even if you are in the habit of using the Google My Business URL, you’ll still end up right where you need to be to manage your listing.
Google has mentioned it prefers businesses with single listings to manage their businesses in Google Search or Maps. This is an option that’s been around for quite some time. Conversely, Google encourages larger businesses with multiple locations to use the Business Profile Manager console.
However, there is a new feature for claiming and verifying your business directly from Google Search and Google Maps.
This is not necessarily a Google Business Profile-related update, but it’s important to know about local search ad campaigns that can impact your Google Business Profile.
The Google Ads’ Performance Planner tool will now allow you to create plans for your local campaigns’ advertising spend, as well as see how changes to your local search ad campaigns could affect metrics and overall performance.
We will likely see more updates to the Business Profile Manager throughout the coming months. Here are some new features you can expect to see very soon:
The web interface is not changing much when it comes to the Google Business Profile, but the biggest changes will be the push for smaller single-location businesses to edit their Google Business Profile directly on Google Search and/or Maps and the retirement of the Google My Business app.
If you have any questions about these changes, don’t hesitate to contact OppGen today. We’ll be more than happy to talk you through these changes and how you can adapt to them as quickly and effectively as possible.
Featured image © tecmark UK via Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0