Law Firm SEO: 5 Steps to Improved Traffic and Results 

Law firms have a lot on their plates – meeting with clients, attending depositions and preparing for litigation. Worrying about the content on their website can’t be one of them. However, some law firms have websites that are completely broken. When broken links, broken images, broken redirects, etc. pile up, it causes the site to have low visibility. Add duplicate content to the mix and the website will be almost impossible to find through organic search!
Fortunately, there are things you can do to improve SEO and get more qualified traffic to your site. It’s a process that could take weeks or months, depending on how bad your current site is and what needs to be done. The good news is that you can start making changes immediately and reap the benefits sooner.
Here are five steps to improving SEO and enjoying more relevant traffic on your law firm’s website.
1. Perform an SEO Audit
I can already here you groaning. No one particularly enjoys performing an SEO audit, but it tells you what’s going on behind the scenes. When the audit is complete, you’ll have a list of issues to correct.
There are many things that can be going on, but generally, SEO audits uncover these common problems:

• Did not set up Google Search Console, so the site cannot be crawled and indexed
• Bad advice from previous marketing partners
• Too many bad links that haven’t been disavowed
• Too many 301 redirects and broken links
• Slow page speed and site performance
• Not responsive or mobile friendly
• No AMP versions of pages set up
• Images not compressed
• NAP profiles inconsistent
• Multiple pages competing for similar keywords

By fixing the above problems, you can improve organic search visibility and website performance, leading to a huge traffic increase!
2. Create a Content Strategy
The more content you have, the more pages there are for Google to crawl and index. There are three types of pages that help you rank better in the search engines: primary, secondary and tertiary.
Primary content is your main content. It can be found on your homepage, FAQ page, terms and conditions page, etc. These pages are important because they represent your business and serve as a first impression. It generally costs more and takes more time to produce primary content because of its significance.
Secondary content involves articles and blog posts published to your site. This content has the goal of increasing search engine visibility, social buzz and brand awareness. Secondary content isn’t any less important than primary content – it just has a different purpose. You can think of it as the branches coming off the tree (the primary content).
There are also tertiary pages, which contain content regarding your long tail keywords. This content acts similarly to your secondary content and is mostly found in blogs and web articles. The goal is to help you rank for these niche-specific, long tail keywords.
3. Connect YouTube and Your Website
If you’ve started creating helpful videos on YouTube, it’s important to get them in front of the right audience. YouTube is one of the most popular websites with over a billion users each month. Therefore, any link from YouTube is considered valuable.
Make sure that you take the extra step to link your YouTube channel to your website. Go through all of your videos and optimize the description using good SEO keywords. Also in the description, link the most relevant pages on your website to the video.
4. Respond to Your Reviews
Customer reviews are a great thing. People rely on reviews when choosing something simple like a toaster or fishing pole. Why wouldn’t they do the same when selecting the most reputable lawyer
It’s important to respond to all reviews – good, bad, simple, whatever. This shows that you are listening and grateful for the feedback, whatever it may be. Also, if you do receive a bad review and take the time to respond and work through the issue, the person may change their review. That’s worth the response in itself!
Google places a lot of weight on reviews, which is why they are important for SEO purposes. Don’t forget to answer customer comments on other directories such as Yelp or Avvo. Even these pages contribute to your overall rankings.
5. Enhance Your Email Strategy
Email is a great way to share information with subscribers. There are a few types of emails that work well in the law firm industry. One example is to create something of value, such as a podcast or ebook. It should pertain to your specialization and share premium content that can’t be found online. Because this is your industry, it shouldn’t be hard to share some “secrets” with potential clients.
Another basis for email content is case studies. When you finish up a case for a client, summarize the case and how your skill sets led to a favorable outcome. Also ask the client to provide you with a review that can be added to the email for more substance and credibility. The last option is to create a lead follow-up campaign that guides prospects toward the next steps of hiring a lawyer or going to mediation.
In order to grow your law firm, you must have a website that shows up the search results. To improve rankings and visibility, follow the tips above. It all starts with an SEO audit. If you need help, give WSI Net Advantage a call at 510-687-9737 and we’ll help turn your site around!