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SEO for Family Law Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide for 2023
What is SEO for Family Law?
If you’ve ever looked into digital marketing for your Family Law business, you’ve most likely come across the term SEO. But what actually is SEO and what will it do for your business?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the strategy of improving the visibility and relevance of your website in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The simple translation: When potential clients search for family law services in your area, SEO is how you get your website to be among the top results on the first page of the SERPs.
Why is SEO Important?
It’s pretty simple. Users are more likely to click on the top-ranking results, which can lead to more traffic and potential clients for your practice. In addition to increased traffic, there are several other benefits of SEO for family law practices:
1.) Credibility. When potential clients see that your website ranks high on search engine results pages, they're more likely to view your practice as credible and trustworthy.
2.) Brand Awareness. SEO can help increase your brand awareness and visibility online. This is especially important for family law practices, as many potential clients may not be aware of the services you offer until they search for them online.
3.) Long-term Benefits. It's important to note that SEO is a long-term strategy and requires ongoing effort and maintenance. But, once you invest this time and strategy, it will pay off tenfold. Unlike paid advertising, the effects of SEO are longstanding. When you stop paying for advertisements, your results are gone. Once you begin optimizing for SEO and publishing high-quality content, that will bring you longstanding results.
4.) Competitive Advantage. SEO can give your family law practice a competitive advantage over other practices in your area. By ranking higher in the SERPs, you can attract potential clients who may have otherwise gone to your competitors.
How Can I Rank At the Top of Search Results?
Now that it is clear what SEO is and its importance of it, I’m sure you're asking some important questions. When someone searches for ‘family lawyer near me’ or ‘divorce lawyer services’, how can I rank at the top of the results?
First it is essential to understand how search engines work and how they rank results.
How Do Search Engines Work?
When you enter anything into a search engine such as Google, that search engine views your text as a question.
For example, you may have found this guide by searching for “SEO for Family Law Marketing”. When you searched for this, Google’s algorithm might determine that you are thinking “How can I implement SEO for my family law business?” or “What business provides the best SEO services for my family law business?”. The algorithm does this because it wants to ensure that it gives you the best answer to your question.
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This is the same logic for when people are searching for your business. By having relevant, high-quality content on your website relating to your family law business, Google will begin to view your business as a good source of information to answer your potential client’s questions.
This is the power of SEO! Now that you know what search engines are looking for when ranking your content, you can get started. Have any doubts? The proof is in the pudding - these are the exact same techniques we used to rank our content so that our potential clients (you) could find us in their search results.
How to Optimize Your Website for SEO
1.) Build a user-friendly family law attorney website design that displays your core business values.
Imagine your website as a virtual office. If a potential client walked into your law firm today and they had no greeting, they couldn’t figure out what services you provided, the office was cluttered, the doors weren’t working and they didn’t feel safe - it would be difficult to expect them to want to work with you. The exact same is true of your website. It is essential to make sure that from the first click your client can see that you are a professional business, with no broken buttons or links, your website is clean and organized so that they can view your services, and your website is optimized to protect their safety.
2.) Conduct keyword research to ensure your website is ranking for terms your potential clients are searching for.
The first step in conducting keyword research is to identify your target audience. Who are your potential clients? What are their demographics, interests, and pain points? Once you've identified your target audience, the next step is to brainstorm relevant keywords and phrases that they might be using to search for family law services. Start by using your own knowledge of the industry and the services you offer, and then use online tools like Google Keyword Planner. After you've identified a list of potential keywords, the next step is to analyze their difficulty and search volume. Keyword difficulty refers to how difficult it is to rank for a particular keyword, while search volume refers to how many people are searching for that keyword each month. Ideally, you want to target keywords with high search volume and low difficulty.
3.) Write quality content that answers the questions your clients are searching for.
Once you have identified your target keywords, you can create high-quality and relevant content that addresses the needs and concerns of your potential clients. This can include blog posts, articles, guides, and other types of content that provide valuable information and insights on family law topics. It’s important to note that the key here is to provide valuable content. Many law firms have come to us for help after their SEO campaigns have not worked, despite having hundreds of pages of content. Having content that is replicated or copy-pasted from other websites (which is unfortunately what some agencies will do) will not help you rank high. Google will not find this to be valuable or unique information.
4.) Optimize the Technical SEO on your website.
It’s not all about content - there are some technical digital marketing aspects to add to your website programming that will help your website rank higher.
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Title Tags. The title tag is the text that appears in the SERPs as the clickable link to your website. It's important to include your primary keyword in your title tag, as this will improve your website's relevance for that keyword.
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Header Tags. Header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) are used to organize the content on your website into sections and sub-sections. It's important to include your primary keyword in your H1 tag, as this signals to search engines that the content on the page is relevant to that keyword.
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Internal Linking. Internal linking refers to the practice of linking to other pages on your website. By linking to relevant pages on your website, you can improve the user experience and help search engines understand the structure and organization of your website.
5.) Grow your backlinks to establish your credibility as a source of valuable family law information.
What does Google do when there are lots of websites with valuable content about a specific topic? Who gets the highest ranking spot? This is where backlinks come into play. Backlinks are links from other websites that point to your website and are an important signal to search engines that your website is authoritative and trustworthy. For example, if I was writing an article about “Divorce in 2023” I might link to your website if you posted content or statistics about divorce law. This would signal to Google that not only do you have high-quality content, but it is also valuable enough that other individuals would refer to it. You can build backlinks in several ways. Whether it is submitting guest blogs or submitting your website to online directories and listings, these can all help you grow your backlinks.
Off-site Ranking Factors for SEO
Although your website is a large portion of your SEO campaign, there are serveral off-site ranking factors that are essential for growing your family law business.
1.) Optimize your Local SEO by utilizing Google Maps Business Listings.
Local SEO is the process of optimizing your website and online presence for location-based search queries. Family law practices should focus on local SEO to ensure that they show up in the SERPs for location-based queries like "family law attorney near me" or "divorce lawyer in [city]." To improve your local SEO, you can create local business listings on directories like Google My Business, optimize your website for local keywords, and build local backlinks.
2.) List your business on local directories and websites.
One important abbreviation you’ll hear in digital marketing is NAP. This stands for Name, Address, and Phone Number. It is important to have these local citations that include the NAP for your business as they will drive clients looking for services like yours on local directories and will add to your brand presence.
3.) Continue building positive reviews for your business.
Research shows that 77% of people use online reviews as the first step in finding a business. Next to your website, this is an extremely important way to grow your credibility and trust for both potential clients and Google ranking. Make sure you have a strategy for obtaining these reviews and following up on them.
Common SEO Mistakes
While implementing SEO strategies can greatly benefit your family law practice, there are also several common mistakes that you should avoid to ensure that your website doesn't get penalized by search engines or deter potential clients. Here are some common SEO mistakes that family law practices should avoid:
1.) Keyword Stuffing.
Keyword stuffing is the practice of using too many keywords in your content to manipulate search engine rankings. This can result in a penalty from search engines and deter potential clients from engaging with your content. Instead of using too many keywords, focus on creating high-quality, informative content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords.
2.) Duplicate Content.
Duplicate content refers to content that appears on more than one webpage or website. Search engines penalize duplicate content, so it's important to ensure that your website has unique and original content that provides value to potential clients. This is also important when you are working with an agency for your SEO. At AbnerConnect, we never duplicate content for businesses. It’s a bad practice and degrades the quality of any SEO campaign.
3.) Poorly Designed Website.
A poorly designed website can have a negative impact on your website's SEO performance. Ensure that your website is well-designed, easy to navigate, and optimized for mobile devices.
4.) Not Optimizing for Local SEO.
As previously mentioned, local SEO is crucial for family law practices. Not optimizing for local SEO can result in missed opportunities to attract potential clients who are searching for family law services in your local area.
5.) Neglecting to Update Your Website.
Neglecting to update your website with fresh, relevant content can negatively impact your website's SEO performance. Regularly updating your website with new content and ensuring that your website is well-maintained can help improve your website's search engine rankings.
6.) Ignoring Analytics.
Analytics provide valuable insights into your website's performance and can help you identify areas for improvement. Ignoring analytics can prevent you from optimizing your website for better performance.
Measuring and Tracking Your SEO Performance
Once you have implemented on-page optimization, technical optimization, and content optimization strategies, it's important to track and measure the success of your SEO efforts. By tracking your website's performance in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and other key metrics, you can identify areas for improvement and make data-driven decisions about how to optimize your website further.
Here are the key metrics to track and measure for your family law website's SEO success:
1.) Organic Traffic.
Organic traffic refers to the number of visitors to your website who arrived through organic search results (as opposed to paid search ads or other channels). By tracking your website's organic traffic, you can see how well your website is performing in the SERPs.
2.) Keyword Rankings.
Keyword rankings refer to where your website ranks in the search results for specific keywords and phrases. By tracking your keyword rankings, you can see how well your website is ranking for your target keywords and identify areas for improvement.
3.) Click-Through Rates (CTRs).
Click-through rates refer to the percentage of people who click on your website's search result when it appears in the SERPs. By tracking your CTRs, you can see how well your website's title tags and meta descriptions are attracting clicks from potential clients.
4.) Bounce Rates.
Bounce rates refer to the percentage of visitors who leave your website after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate can indicate that your website's content or user experience is not meeting the needs of your potential clients.
5.) Time on Site.
Time on site refers to the amount of time that visitors spend on your website. By tracking time on site, you can see how engaged your visitors are with your content and identify opportunities to improve engagement and reduce bounce rates.
6.) Conversion Rates.
Conversion rates refer to the percentage of visitors who take a specific action on your website, such as filling out a contact form or calling your practice. By tracking conversion rates, you can see how well your website is converting potential clients into actual clients.
7.) Backlinks.
Backlinks refer to the number and quality of other websites that link back to your website. By tracking your backlinks, you can see how well your website is being perceived by other websites and identify opportunities to improve your website's authority and relevance in the SERPs.
The Future of SEO for Family Law
Search engine optimization is an ever-evolving field, and the future of SEO for family law attorneys is an exciting one. As search engines continue to improve their algorithms and user experience, if you are not maintaining your SEO campaigns, new competitors can enter the market at any time. That’s why it's important to stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices in SEO to remain competitive and attract new clients to your family law practice.
We get it. Optimizing your online presence requires a lot of time and a detail-oriented approach with someone who knows what they’re doing.
Your focus should be on what you do best — providing incredible family law services to the clients who need you now. That’s why we’re here. We’ve got the time, research, and a team of experts to handle all aspects of managing your marketing campaigns. From web designers, SEO experts, graphic designers, and copywriters - we’ve got them all.
If you want to learn more, book a call so we can talk about your goals, pricing, and get your family law firm above your competition in no time. We’d love to hear from you.