Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of optimizing the written content on a website so that it is more likely to be displayed in online search engines like Google and Bing when users are searching for your company’s goods or services, and is a pillar of digital marketing for attorneys. SEO is a key element to generating legal leads from prospective clients looking for legal representation for auto accident settlements, workers compensation claims and other types of personal injury lawsuits. If your law firm is not using SEO as a key strategy to grow, you are missing out on a huge opportunity.
SEO really boils down to including keywords that people are using when looking for your services into the articles and other content on your website. Google and other search engines crawl billions of web pages around the world every day, looking for pages that best answer their users’ searches. By incorporating keywords like “san diego personal injury attorney” or “new york city auto accident lawyer” into the pages of your website, you have a chance of showing up in search returns for users who could turn into auto accident leads. SEO generates traffic to your website from people who have at least indicated a desire to engage with you by looking online for keywords that are related to the content on your website. These people who reach your site through SEO can then choose to contact you through a contact form on your site or call you and become paying clients.
Hire an SEO Pro or DIY?
If you’ve decided that you want to get into SEO to generate more traffic and leads for your law firm website, the next question is whether you should hire an SEO firm that specializes in digital marketing for attorneys, hire someone to do it in house or try and do it yourself. While it’s not exactly rocket science, SEO is a somewhat complicated practice that requires a high level of technical skill and other techniques that you may not possess. Therefore, in most cases, it’s best to hire a digital marketing agency or an independent contractor to manage your firm’s SEO program. While it’ll cost you more than doing it yourself, hiring an SEO partner generally will provide you with more SEO knowledge while freeing you up to focus on running your law practice. Ultimately, the choice is yours.
Is SEO The Best Form of Digital Marketing for Attorneys?
However, getting your website ranked in Google is not as easy as it may sound. The legal marketing space is very competitive, with thousands of nationwide and local attorneys already vying for the top keywords. It will require a lot of work to beat out other attorney websites who want to attract the same clients as you. In some cases, battling over the most profitable keywords may end up being a futile and expensive project, without producing many results. But with the proper guidance of an SEO pro, your law practice’s website can profit from using SEO to drive more potential clients to your website.