SEO for Attorneys: 10 Tips to Increase Traffic to Your Website

SEO has become a huge priority for digital marketers over the past decade. It’s easy to see why: most people search for solutions to their problems online, and you don’t have a chance of winning clients if they can’t find you there. SEO is crucial for discoverability, credibility, and lead generation. It’s important not to discount the biggest benefit that strong SEO provides: increased traffic. Remember that SEO is an ongoing process. It takes time to see significant results, and search engine algorithms can change, so it’s important to stay updated with the latest best practices and adapt your strategy accordingly. In this post, we give tips on SEO for attorneys who want to increase web traffic and generate leads.

Related: SEO Basics in an Hour

Don’t Underestimate the Power of SERPs

In fact, according to an analysis of 4 million Google search results, just 0.63% of people click on the second page of Google search results. That means if your firm’s site is buried in search results, which requires the searcher to hit “next” a few times, it’s unlikely to be viewed at all. The truth is that your services might be exactly what that particular searcher is looking for – but if they can’t find you online, they’ll never know it. This is one of the reasons SEO should be an ongoing, prioritized initiative. It takes consistent effort and activity over time to build strong SEO. The reward for doing so is placing higher in search results where more people will find you. The better your SEO strategy, the higher you’ll rank in search results, where more people can find you. Additionally, your keyword research is essential. You want lots of traffic, but not just any traffic. The more you understand what your audience is looking for and align your content with those keywords, the more qualified your website traffic will be. 

10 SEO Tips for Boosting Traffic

No matter the size of your firm, you can create a website that operates as a powerful lead generation tool. Make sure to adhere to SEO best practices so that people can find your website and know what to do once they’ve reached it. Use these 10 tips on how to improve SEO for attorneys in order to increase traffic:

1. Build a Well-Designed Sitemap

An XML sitemap is a machine-readable format that search engines like Google can easily process. In addition to the XML sitemap for search engines, consider creating an HTML sitemap for human visitors. This can be a simple, user-friendly page that lists all the main sections and pages on your site. It’s a valuable navigation tool and can also improve user experience.

This is particularly important if your site is new, large, or contains several multimedia files. If you haven’t reviewed your sitemap in a while, take a look at it and make sure it’s accurate. You can even use a Sitemap Generator Tool for help. This will provide search engines with the information they need to swiftly crawl and index site pages, video, and audio.

2. Attractiveness Matters

When people are searching, they are looking for signals of professionalism, credibility, and expertise. If they don’t see these signals, they’ll exit the site and keep looking. A high bounce rate is a red flag to search engines. To get that professional design, invest in a clean and user-friendly website design. Ensure that your site is easy to navigate and is accessible on various devices. Maintain consistent and professional branding across your website. This includes the use of a logo, color scheme, and typography. A cohesive brand image can make your site more attractive and memorable.

3. Specificity is Important

Search engines want to direct people to the most authoritative source for their inquiries. That’s why it’s important that you narrow down the services you are best in, and highlight those in your content. You probably can’t drive organic traffic for every area of your firm – so focus keyword strategies on the ones that you’re best at. By focusing on your core competencies and creating specialized, authoritative content in those areas, you increase your chances of ranking well in search engine results. This strategy not only drives organic traffic but also helps establish your brand as a trusted source in your field.

4. Conduct Proper Keyword Research

Keywords are the cornerstone of an effective SEO strategy. The ones you focus on should be those that drive people to your site. You can’t just choose them based on gut feeling, though. A good place to start is Google’s Keyword Planner tool. Google Keyword Planner is a free resource you can use to research keywords, generate keyword ideas, and help you with your pay-per-click strategy. Remember to choose a mix of short and long-tail keywords to be more competitive. 

5. Create High-Quality Content

The validity of content matters a lot to search engines. The material you post should answer questions or provide new insights into your particular niche. When possible, dive deep with information-packed articles focused on your prioritized topics and researched keywords. Furthermore, search engines favor websites with fresh and updated content. Content creation is not a one-time project, but something you’ll need to do consistently on an ongoing basis. 

6. Understand Page Titles and Headlines

A page title and headline are similar but serve two different purposes. A page title is keyword-centric and should be tailored to search engines, while a headline is designed for people who will visit the page. When it comes to headlines, you want to be sure that they mirror what the title says but with a bit more detail. Headlines should encourage reading and sharing. Your titles and headlines should be appealing to users, accurately represent your content, and include relevant keywords to rank well in search engine results. It’s important for the headline and the page title to accurately reflect what’s in the content. 

7. Optimize Images

Graphics and photos are very important to the user experience and in order to boost SEO for attorneys. They make your website more inviting, help highlight your staff and services, and break up text to keep readers more engaged. Make sure they’re optimized for search by shrinking them down to a manageable size. A best practice is to resize images to a maximum of 1920 by 1080-pixel resolution and use JPG or WEBP formats. Make sure they have proper Alt attributes (of no more than 125 characters) as well. 

8. Improve Your Site’s Load Time

People are impatient and will leave a website that is taking too long to load. Google reported that it takes an average time of 15.3 seconds for a page to load, but pages with 0-4 second load time have the highest conversion rates. Most people will give a page only a second or two before exiting. You can check your site’s load times with the PageSpeed Insights tool. From there you can find more detailed information about how to reduce load times. Optimizing your site’s load time is an ongoing process. Regularly analyze your website’s performance and make necessary adjustments to ensure that your visitors have a fast and smooth experience while browsing your site.

9. Write Robust Meta-descriptions

Meta descriptions are the brief snippets of text that appear in search engine results below the page title. They should be compelling and concise, encouraging users to click on your link. Here are some tips for writing effective meta descriptions. Their purpose is to explain what is on the page in more depth. Instead of keyword stuffing, just write in simple language what is on the webpage and the value that the information provides. 

10. Optimize URLs

Search engines look at the keywords in your URL just as they do the keywords on the page. Include relevant keywords in your URLs that reflect the content of the page. This helps search engines understand the page’s topic. If your website creator uses numbered pages in the address, replace them with static URLs. Also, keep in mind that shorter URLs are easier to read and remember. Avoid long, convoluted URLs with unnecessary parameters or query strings Remember that brevity is key, and you want to break up words with hyphens for faster and easier reading. 

Takeaway: 

These tips on SEO for attorneys who want to drive more traffic to their website are helpful, but they’re just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to rank higher in search results, you need to execute a comprehensive strategy. If that sounds overwhelming, contact us today for a free SEO audit, where we will conduct an analysis of your website to help give some insight into areas of improvement.