SEO for Lawyers: A Guide to Law Firm SEO

Is your law firm struggling to get noticed online? It’s no wonder. There are over 430,000 legal firms and 1.3 million active lawyers in the U.S. alone.

With so many lawyers competing, standing out online isn’t easy. But with the right SEO strategy, you can attract more clients—without relying on paid ads.

That’s why you need law firm SEO. 

When done correctly, it can help you rank higher in search, draw more queries, and attract more clients.

Let’s break down why SEO is a game-changer for law firms like yours.

Key Takeaways

• The legal sector is highly competitive, with more than 430,000 legal firms and over 1.3 million active lawyers in the United States.
•  Law firm SEO helps to improve your rank on search engines, builds authority, attracts more leads and clients, and helps you to stand out in a highly competitive industry.
• Optimizing your Google Business Profile using location-specific keywords and maintaining consistent citations across online directories to rank in the local search results is one of the best ways to start with local SEO.
• Google’s E-E-A-T concept affects rank, so you should demonstrate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness by showcasing qualifications, reviews, accolades, testimonials, and thought leadership on your site.
• Technical SEO supports visibility and helps ensure faster page loading speed, mobile friendliness, and error-free pages to enhance your viewers’ user experience.

Table of Contents

• Key Takeaways
• Why SEO For Law Firms Matters
• What Makes Law Firm SEO Unique?
• SEO Best Practices For Law Firms
  • Make Sure Your Keyword Choices Align With Search Intent
  • Build a Local-First SEO Strategy
  • Use E-E-A-T To Build Your Comprehensive Content
  • Build High-Quality Backlinks
  • Take Advantage of Social Media for Branding and Engagement To Support Your Efforts
  • Don’t Neglect Technical SEO
  • Try To Build Up Your Reviews
  • Have A Plan To Monitor and Track Your Results
• FAQs
• Conclusion

Why SEO For Law Firms Matters

As mentioned in the intro, competition in the legal industry is intense, and investing in SEO is no longer optional—it’s essential for firms looking to grow their client base at no or low cost.

The main benefit of SEO for law firms is organic traffic that attracts prospects. By using the right keywords, writing quality content, and optimizing your website, you can keep a steady flow of leads coming directly to your website.

A strong SEO strategy boosts your online presence while also building trust and credibility. That’s because when your website appears higher in the rankings, it signals authority to potential clients.

Below are two examples. They use keywords, detail their specialties, and highlight their authority to attract their target clients.

The Ben Crump site is a strong example of SEO for law firms due to: 

• The use of targeted niche-specific keywords, such as ‘civil rights attorney’ and ‘personal injury lawyer’ to attract relevant organic traffic. 
• Featuring links to comprehensive service pages, making it easier for potential clients to find what they need easily. 
• Providing high-quality, valuable, and informative content that addresses client concerns, building trust and engagement. 
• User-friendly web design with intuitive navigation and layout to enhance the user experience.
• Ranking high in search engine results, which signals expertise, reliability, authority, and credibility to potential clients. 

The Scott Callahan website also demonstrates great SEO optimization, but in a different way than Ben Crump’s. Note the following:

• Clear, strategically placed calls to action (CTA) offering a ‘Free Case Evaluation’
• The focus on localized SEO with an emphasis on location-specific keywords across the service pages. 
• The website also features client reviews and testimonials, which build trust and social proof, showcasing the firm’s success and credibility. 

What Makes Law Firm SEO Unique?

Law firm SEO must navigate strict legal advertising rules while competing for high-intent, competitive keywords.

Here’s why law firm SEO stands apart from other industries:

• High local competition: A typical lead is looking for a law firm nearby. Focusing on local SEO means you can rank in the local search results, positioning your company in front of the right people at the right time. You can do this by signing up for local directories, optimizing your Google Business Profile, gaining/responding to reviews, and targeting local keywords.
• Niche focus: Another unique aspect is the emphasis on high-intent keywords. People searching for legal services often need immediate support. Keywords like “divorce lawyer near me” or “best criminal defense attorney” appeal to users ready to take action, making conversions more likely. 
• Ethical compliance is also critical—law firms must follow advertising regulations set by organizations like the American Bar Association (ABA). 

Additionally, law firm SEO needs trust and authority. Google’s algorithm favors authoritative websites (more about this later).

SEO Best Practices For Law Firms

Ready to start building a strong lawyer SEO strategy?

Local SEO tactics, technical SEO for faster loading speeds, mobile compatibility, and building authoritative backlinks all help you to get noticed.

By following SEO best practices, law firms can enhance their online visibility, build trust, and convert more visitors into clients. 

Use these tips to get started in your online journey.

Make Sure Your Keyword Choices Align With Search Intent

Search intent refers to the reason behind a search query. Google ranks pages based on how well they match user intent

 There are four types:

• Navigational: Where searchers are looking for a brand, a specific website, a page, or a location. They use search terms like “near me” or “Chicago law firm.”
• Transactional: Where searchers are ready to weigh up their legal options. They use keywords like “hire a divorce lawyer” or “schedule a legal appointment.”
• Commercial: Where searchers are at the commercial or comparison stage. They often use phrases like “best New York lawyer…” or “top law firms.”
• Informational: Where a searcher wants more details about a product or service. For example, “How to find the lawyer for your case” or “Legal rights after a work injury.”

Create pages tailored to different search intents. Service pages should target transactional searches, while blog posts can address informational queries. It’s also a good idea to look at competitor posts to see what type of content is at the top of the search engine results page (SERPs) and review the format, type, and angles used. Check out Google’s “People also ask” feature, too.

Build a Local-First SEO Strategy

Local SEO is vital to the legal niche. Fortunately, there are a few steps that every legal firm can take to boost their SEO. Here are some to get started with.

• Create a solid Google Business Profile (GBP): Ensure it has reviews, up-to-date details, practice areas, and photos of staff and the practice. Do the same for all of your offices. If your profile is new, verify it, and remember to keep contact information and opening hours updated. 

• Keep local citations updated and consistent: Check that your name, address, and phone number are correct in legal directory listings.
• Create local content: Use your blog or local page for case studies, local legal news, general legal guidance, and issues that could affect local people’s legal rights.
• Add your keywords: As I mentioned, searchers with navigational intent often use location-based keywords, such as “Manhattan personal injury lawyer.” Be sure to include these keywords in optimizations.

Use E-E-A-T To Build Your Comprehensive Content

E-E-A-T refers to experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. Google prioritizes content from experienced, authoritative, and trustworthy sources. Here’s how to establish E-E-A-T for your firm.

Additionally, the legal sector falls in the “Money Or Your Life” niche (subjects that impact your finances or life). Google has stricter guidelines for this content, so ensure you follow them.

Fortunately, E-E-A-T is easy enough to infuse into your content. Here’s how:

• Show your experience by highlighting qualifications, awards, accolades, case studies, and statistics about clients helped, years in practice, etc.
• Demonstrate expertise with thought leadership content that’s relevant and educational for your target audience. For example, a video explaining a legal process or changes to the law.
• Showing trustworthiness with team photos, contact addresses, testimonials and reviews, and licenses and accreditations.
• Highlighting authority with links to media articles and quotes, authority links from blogs, etc.

You should also ensure your content is up-to-date, well-formated, user-friendly, and accurate. 

Simplify legal terminology where possible and use relevant images to break up large text sections. You can also use bullet points to make the content more digestible, too.

Think about how people will engage with your content. The goal is to make the experience as engaging and accessible as possible. 

Build High-Quality Backlinks

Building high-quality backlinks boosts authority and improves rankings. Here’s how to do it:

• Focus on local listings: Use local directories for link-building, like Yellow Pages, Manta, Yelp!, Bing Places, Facebook Business Pages, and Google Business Profile.
• Do some local PR: Sites like PRlog and Open PR let you send press releases and promote your site. Consider using sites like Connectively, too. You’ll get a backlink if your quote gets featured in an online article.
• Write guest blog posts: There are plenty of legal blogs you could write for. Here’s a lengthy list to get you started.
• Keep posting high-quality content: Think blogs, case studies, white papers, eBooks, and legal guides.
• Sign up for legal directories: Your best approach is to find legal directories in your location. 
• Get posting on social media: Your competitors are likely using it, so you need to be on there.
• Build connections: There are many ways to network with other legal businesses, such as local MeetUp groups, the local Chamber of Commerce, and Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

Finally, measure your backlinks using Google Search Console and always look for new backlinking opportunities. If you want to know how you measure up against your competitors, use my free backlink checker tool.

Take Advantage of Social Media for Branding and Engagement To Support Your Efforts

I’ve mentioned social media above, but let’s dive deeper. 

To build your brand, generate leads, and engage with clients, you have to get social. 

Which platform works best for you depends on your audience, but consider:

• Instagram (for visual storytelling).
• Facebook (for audience reach and local awareness).
• LinkedIn for showcasing your expertise and qualified leads).
• TikTok (for firms looking to simplify legal concepts through short, engaging videos).

To increase your chances of online success, follow these tips:

• Understand your audience: I mean grasping the basic demographics, like income, age group, and location. By getting to know your audience better, you can create content that’s more likely to hit a home run.
• Post regularly: Don’t worry. It doesn’t have to be every day. But it has to be consistent. 
• Branding: Do you want to be memorable? Of course, you do! So, carefully consider your branding and create something professional and cohesive.
• Use some engagement tactics: Don’t just post and run. Respond to comments, answer any DMs, and join in conversations.
• Use video: If you want to stop people in their tracks, throw some video content out there.
• Know what’s hot: You can’t keep posting the same old content—it will eventually become stale. Keep up with social media trends and give people what they want.
• Quality counts: You’re far better off posting high-quality content once a week than low-quality content daily. 
• Track your metrics: Whether it’s increasing engagement rates, boosting followers, or driving traffic to your website, you’ll only know if you’re on course by tracking your metrics.

Don’t Neglect Technical SEO

Technical SEO enhances your website so search engines can discover, crawl, index, and understand your website and its context. It involves working on your site’s foundation and backend structure and a technically sound website enhances security and trust.

The main benefits of technical SEO include:

• Faster page load speeds.
• A better user experience.
• Enables mobile friendliness.
• Boosts internal linking and site architecture. 
• Finds common errors like broken links and fixing crawl errors. 

But there are other ways technical SEO supports your other efforts to build traffic and get more conversions. Like:

• Improved rankings: Technical SEO helps rankings as it improves website accessibility. An efficient, well-structured site free from errors is also likely to get better rankings.
• Better click-through rates: This is because of better visibility, structured data, and faster loading times.
• More conversions: Secure, mobile-friendly sites enhance trust and improve user experience, helping you secure more clients.

Use tools like Google Page Insights and ScreamingFrog for audits as a starting point.

Try To Build Up Your Reviews

Research from BrightLocal shows that:

• Eighty-nine percent of consumers expect businesses to respond to all reviews.
• Seventy-four percent check at least two review sites before purchasing.
• Fifty-three percent want to read positive reviews before buying.

But there’s another reason you need reviews: local SEO. 

Reviews are one of the best ways to get noticed locally, as they act as trust signals to search engines. The more positive reviews you have, the better your chance of appearing in local search results and map listings. 

If you don’t have many reviews, no problem!

• Reach out to past customers with a follow-up email and invite them to leave feedback.
• Encourage reviews on social media, and ask buyers to leave reviews on your GMB profile and website.

• Include a note on your packing notes and dispatch emails.

Additionally, you can use automation tools like Feefo to request reviews or use these review templates.

One more tip: Always respond to reviews. If they’re positive, that’s awesome. Thank the customer and personalize your response. If it’s negative, it’s not the end of the world. Answer their review positively by asking what you could have done better and what you can do to make things right.

Have A Plan To Monitor and Track Your Results

The stats don’t lie.

Track key SEO metrics regularly and adjust strategies based on performance data. Tracking also helps you monitor your competitors and determine how you’re doing in comparison. 

Areas you most want to measure include:

• Keyword rankings
• Organic traffic
• Conversions
• Technical SEO

Review your data regularly, say, once a month, and use your reports to see where your KPIs are climbing or falling. 

FAQs

Why do law firms need SEO?

Law firm SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy that can generate continuous traffic from organic search results It can also serve as a competitive advantage, helping you to rank above competitors in the SERPs. 

This targeted traffic is more likely to convert, as it comes from individuals actively searching for your legal services.

What does law firm SEO include?

It includes several proven strategies, including keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, local SEO, and link building. It also involves content marketing, including blogs and legal guides, user experience improvements, and analytics tracking.

Why is local SEO important for law firms?

Local SEO is vital for law firms as many clients seek legal services nearby. For example, they might use a search term like “personal injury lawyer in New York.” 

Additionally, you’ll get more visibility in local search results and Google Maps when you optimize for local SEO with your Google Business Profile, location-specific keywords, citations, and reviews.

Conclusion

Law firm SEO gives legal websites a competitive edge, enabling them to gain more visitors and leads and secure more conversions. 

Due to the hugely competitive nature of the legal industry, you need a robust digital marketing strategy if you want to rise to the top of the search engine results.
You can do this by focusing on local SEO, optimizing for E-E-A-T, getting active on social media, and tracking results so you can double down on what works.