If you’re like many lawyers today, you’re most likely losing out on many potential clients by not getting online.
When lawyers first start to develop an online lead generation strategy, they need to understand the definitions behind each keyword. Afterward, they can work on attracting potential clients to their website with the help of a Google ads agency.
But first, more on local SEO.
Understanding Localized SEO
Marketing your law firm? Want to reach people in your geographic area, not the rest of the world? Well, Google understands this. The search engine uses user intent to rank local firms high in the search results, and if you have a local firm, you can use that to your advantage.
Let’s break down legal SEO ranking factors into the following categories your hired Google ads agency must ensure:
- Backlinks and Other Citations: These pertain to the number of external sites, such as consumer review sites, that send traffic to your website. These are potential clients for your firm, and their opinion about your firm’s credibility is valuable to your firm in marketing and sales.
- Content: These are words and images you see on your law firm’s website pages. If you have high-quality content, it will improve the experience your website offers to its users. This makes your website rank higher in the major search engines, mainly if your content is likely to fulfill user intent.
- Technicals: Google uses user experience as a significant ranking factor to determine your website’s ranking. Considering page speed, title tags, and site structure are long-term goals you should try to achieve.
Understanding Why Lawyers Need Localized SEO
Organic search traffic is an important marketing platform many companies often overlook if you’re a law firm looking to grow your business. Research suggests that online search is a significant channel for law firms to run their law firm SEO. To elaborate, 74 percent of legal consumers who looked for a lawyer via online search contacted the law office through their telephone numbers! That’s a massive number of leads if you think about it!
SEO can seem challenging to understand, significantly if your law firm has never invested in this type of marketing. Still, SEO is a core component of most marketing strategies for law firms. Businesses should invest in local SEO; this is particularly true for law firms, which should look to attract clientele from the area around their offices.
Today’s Customers Will Look Online
Customers who need legal services search for a lawyer’s website first before picking up the phone. The National Law Review reports that 96 percent of people use search engines when seeking legal advice, and a lawyer’s website needs to be among those they see. No matter where the customer is on the path to choosing a lawyer, the site needs to stand out from the competition.
The Legal Customer Track
To better grasp the importance of local Google search results with the help of a Google ad agency, imagine the search journey of a potential client, which could look like this below:
- In Google’s search results page (or SERP), paid advertisements typically appear at the top above organic results, including any other results that have not been paid for. However, many searchers tend to ignore ads.
- The next category of results is called the local pack. These local results include three law firms near the searcher’s location, placed between the Google Maps pin marking their location and the organic results beneath.
- Finally, organic results appear on a different part of the SERP than paid ads or local packs. Instead, organic results are intermingled with non-paid-for ads, usually in a blend of local and national attorneys.
- If the searcher is not satisfied with what they see by scrolling past these ads, they may research using location-specific search terms like “personal injury attorney Toronto” to find a law firm that will better match their search.
In all SERP features detailed above, location is critical. It allows local firms to show up in the local pack, and it determines the order in which firms are listed on page one of the SERP. Local SEO becomes even more critical if a prospective client has narrowed down the search terms to a specific geographic location.
Achieving Organic Reach
Lastly, if you have a solid online presence in your local demographic, you need to pay close attention to your practice’s geography as part of your SEO campaign.
We all know what it’s like to be at work and hear two coworkers talking outside your cube or office. You hear your name mentioned, you want to listen in and listen to what they are saying about you, but you don’t want them to know you can hear them talking. It’s human nature. But what determines how we approach these types of situations?
Factors That Affect Localized SEO
Local business SEO is a complex process that involves many different factors. Algorithms are tricky, and as such, many businesses will choose to hire a professional firm like a Google ads agency to help them with their local SEO tactics. Whether you try to apply the process by yourself or rely on a Google ads agency in Toronto, here are factors that impact your law firm’s local SEO:
- Content: Local search results are influenced by the geographic information in your website’s content. If your law firm’s website includes a blog, occasionally write articles on local issues.
Say a car accident law firm in Toronto could write an article about the city’s most dangerous intersections. This article would use the names of nearby streets and would include many geographic references. This article would increase the page’s ranking for local search results.
- Location: As you might expect, your law firm’s area impacts how Google ranks your firm in local search results. Google prioritizes proximity to the searcher as one of the factors in determining which sites to show on the first page and in matches with local searches.
You can place your exact location on Google in several ways. Your address is the most important, and it’s the easiest to change, provided you have your business listed on Google already. Local terminology, such as references to local attractions or roads, also helps.
- Your Google My Business (GMB) Information: GMB is a Google listing specific to your business. Claiming your business on GMB is not tricky, but it does take time. Just claim your business on Google and then wait for a postcard it will send.
Use the information on the postcard to verify your business, and you are ready to start building pages for your business. Pages need several specific features to be optimized for GMB, so ensure it has the following details listed:
– Your business name and address are displayed to users in Google Maps.
– Your phone number is shown to users who click on your listing.
– Your hours of operation, photos of your business location.
– And other information relevant on your Maps page.
- Reviews: Ensure your Google My Business page is a good representation of your law firm by encouraging clients to leave positive reviews on the listing to build trust and legitimacy.
Negative thoughts can also help improve your reputation because it shows you can maintain satisfying relationships with clients. Just be sure you address those concerns appropriately.
Improve Your Law Firm’s Local SEO through a Google Ads Agency
Increasing your local SEO ranking factors will also increase your overall ranking because of Google’s focus on searcher intent. Google will display local results more often than national results when searching for legal services, so focusing on local ranking can improve your search engine performance.
Improve your law firm’s local SEO with the help of New Digital Marketing Agency! We’re a Google ads agency in Toronto that works directly with your team to create professional, targeted content to help your customers find their way to your products and services. We’re with you every step of the way to find the end-to-end optimization solutions you’ve been searching for. Get in touch with us today!
