When I first heard the phrase SEO, short for search engine optimisation, I immediately understood how it could help my business but I assumed that it was a highly technical issue that would require specialist support that would beyond my paltry freelance marketing budget. Fortunately, I have been proved wrong. Over the years I’ve been able to put into practice some simple SEO tips that I have picked up along the way. These tips have led to a big increase in enquiries and have helped my business grow.
What is SEO?
In short, it involves improving your website so that when people search for products or services using search engines such as Google, they get visibility of your business. The better visibility you have in search results, the more likely someone is to visit your site and, crucially, become aware of your firm and the services you offer.
This means being somewhere near the top of search results, and ideally on the first page – it’s human nature to take the easiest course and click on what is immediately in front of you!
Search engines collect information about websites using automated “bots” and their algorithms then use hundreds of ranking factors to determine the order pages should appear in the search results for a given query. The more ranking factors you can satisfy, the higher up the rankings your website will rise.
If you do a search for “legal pr” or “legal pr agency” using Google you will see that Welch PR comes up on the first page.
By incorporating some simple SEO tips, I’ve been able to optimise my own SEO which has led to a sharp rise in enquiries at Welch PR. Needless to say, I’ve done this on my own – as a freelancer, I just don’t have the funds to allocate to an SEO strategy!
My top three SEO tips for law firms
1. Identify and incorporate keywords
Keywords are key! Identifying the right keywords is the first step to improving your site’s visibility on search engines. These may be single words, short phrases or longer questions. As a basic rule of thumb think about combining the service you are offering with your location. Think about what prospective clients will be looking for when they are doing an internet search and what questions they need answering?
My primary keywords are “legal pr” and I’m lucky it is is such a niche term, but all law firms should be able to come up with some strong keywords. For example, a medical negligence team with dental expertise could use “dental negligence” as a keyword. A family team based in Chichester could use “divorce lawyer Chichester” as a key term. An employment lawyer might surmise that workers will be asking questions such as: “how much holiday am I entitled to?”
Google Analytics is a helpful tool which can help your firm track which keywords prospective clients are using to find you. Once you have identified some keywords you need to make sure these are incorporated throughout your content, for example in title, subheadings and headlines of pages. You should be using images in your content as well as words and if you add an image title tag this also help with SEO.
2. Content is king: keep it relevant and regular
Search engines want to send users to the best place to get their questions answered, so make sure your blogs, media articles and website answer the questions that users are likely to be asking. You need quality content that is kept up to date, refreshed regularly and which has keyword rich text.
A word of warning however, do not overuse your keywords and stuff your content with them inappropriately – the search engine algorithm may pick this up and penalise your site! It will also become ruin the flow and readability of your content.
Surprisingly, longer pieces (around 1500 words) seem to go down well with search engines, but regular 500 word posts are certainly a good start and may be more popular with busy readers!
Posting a regular blog once or twice a week on social media and linking back to your website is a good way to naturally pump search engines with your keywords.
3. Insert backlinks
You can encourage people to move between your website pages by linking to your own content – the longer people stay on your site, the better it is for your SEO. You can also include links in any social media posts to drive traffic back to your site.
The holy grail however is getting backlinks to your content on other people’s sites. Not only will this increase traffic to your website, but it also really helps with SEO because it demonstrates to the search engine that your site is relevant and authoritative, which will move it up the rankings.
One way to try and start getting backlinks for your website included on other people’s sites is to offer to guest blog for them. Alternatively, offer a link to their site from yours in return.
Further reading
Google is transparent about the things you can do to improve your firm’s SEO. I would recommend looking at their Webmaster Guidelines as a starting point for rising up the rankings.
Need some help with PR? Feel free to drop me an email to arrange a 30 minute complimentary call or take a look at some of the packages I offer law firms, accountancy practices and other b2b businesses.
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