What Is SEO and Content Marketing and How Can It Work For Your Law Firm?

If you’ve been looking to maximize the online presence of your law firm, chances are that you’ve already come across these two terms. SEO and content marketing work like two halves of a whole when it comes to your digital marketability. That is, you must apply SEO techniques to content marketing tactics for those strategies to perform better - resulting in more online traffic and business opportunities. Here's a look at the two concepts and how they can work for your law firm.

SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization refers to a set of techniques that make sure that web pages and content reach your identified target audience through web search engines such as Google. Simply put, it helps match your web page to your target's search query. SEO seeks to get the right audience matched to the right content. By understanding how search engine algorithms work, an SEO professional helps make a website more likely to attract its target audience.

SEO Elements

Keywords

This element centers on researching and determining pertinent keywords and incorporating them into your content for higher rankings on search engine result pages. To do this effectively, you’ll need to understand the search queries your potential clients will make before they land on your doorstep. You must use keywords appropriately and adopt a strategic approach. You should also avoid keyword stuffing and over-optimizing. Instead, strike a balance between content and SEO. After all, keyword strategies are vital for search engine marketing. You need to embed target keywords to rank well and increase traffic. Just make sure you adopt a strategy and don't repeat keywords because it has a negative SEO effect.

Quality Content

Content marketing and SEO need consistency. Fresh, creative, and distinct content typically gets indexed fast and ranks higher than repetitive, low-value content. Your content should lure the audience while at the same time, solve a certain issue. You can develop impactful content by targeting visitors and embedding significant keywords. Google uses this important factor to determine a page's relevance and rank content.

Traffic

Inbound linking or link-building is an important SEO factor. Connecting your links with credible and high-domain authority websites such as .org and .edu increase traffic drastically. While link development is possible through link-building agencies, the best approach involves the development of expert content. It's worth developing great content to boost traffic and get linkbacks - while simultaneously creating real value for your audience.

How to Incorporate SEO in Your Law Firm

Determine Keywords for Your Law Firm

SEO for law firms begins with establishing the keywords you want to be ranked on search engines. Begin with the main practice areas and broaden your keywords to associated terms. It's recommended you use an SEO tool to help you recognize, optimize, and track your keywords. While keywords are important, remember to use them with restraint. Search engines get increasingly proficient at flagging 'keyword stuffing' over time - this will negatively affect your search engine rankings.

Develop Useful Content

Developing blog content helps boost SEO in various ways. To begin with, including consistent, relevant, and fresh content helps boost rankings. You'll enhance the user experience by offering prospective clients beneficial information that demonstrates your proficiency in your practice areas. This means that if you have experience in a particular field, write or commission articles that help solve common issues. This will help drive more traffic, increase linkbacks on other websites, and establish you as a field expert.

How Does SEO Boost Law Firms?

Market Positioning

The higher the search rankings, the more established a law firm becomes in its market. The reason behind this is that people frequently perceive higher-ranked firms as more trustworthy, professional, and reliable. Increased Conversions The more potential clients reach out, the higher your chances of converting them into paying customers. Furthermore, as SEO endeavors draw more clients, you can dedicate your focus away from chasing clients and towards other key business aspects. This implies more face-to-face time with more clients - without unnecessary distractions.

Targeted Traffic

When users visit search engines, there's a chance they know precisely what they want. Optimizing your firm's website for targeted keywords will make you widely available for this type of traffic. You'll discover this strategy is more effective than social media advertisements, as the audiences that view these ads seldom require your services.

Content Marketing

This term refers to the process of developing and sharing consistent, valuable content to draw a target audience. Unlike conventional advertising, content marketing entails conveying a clear message to your target audience without selling. The focus here is on developing client-centered content that helps solve your audience's problems. Effective content marketing for law firms builds authority and trust in your practice. Subsequently, clients will turn to you for legal assistance because you already present solutions in a proactive, genuinely useful manner.

Content Marketing Strategies for Your Law Firm

Generate Authority-based Content

With keywords and topics in your marketing arsenal, you need to develop content. The content you develop, whether for a website or blog, must be valuable to your audience and authoritative for your law practice. It's equally important that you experiment with a broad range of content and determine what resonates best with your audience.

Prioritize Quality

While it's a significant consideration, quality content isn't dependent on word count or the number of pages or posts you churn out monthly. You're better off producing one quality and informative post than several fluff-filled ones. The key is focusing on offering quality - this is what leads to true long-term success. To ensure these standards, it’s best to make your content:

• Easily digestible

Maintain paragraphs to 3-4 sentences with 20 or fewer words for easy readability. Use free tools to examine your content's readability scores, or simply proofread them from the point of view of a layman.

• Accurate

Whichever sources or quotes you use must be accurate. When developing legal content, ensure you offer clients safe and accurate advice - nothing that you would not suggest to an actual paying client.

• Proofread and Edited

Make sure you edit your content and proofread for missing punctuation and typos. You must consider grammar if you want your content to demonstrate authority - note that typos affect SEO ratings too.

Promote & Distribute Content

Content helps drive prospective clients to the core of your marketing strategy - your contact details. To drive website traffic, you must distribute content to suitable channels and promote it to the right people, who will then seek your details out to set up a phone call or digital interaction. It's worth noting that promotion and distribution are different concepts. Distribution entails sending content into channels, for instance, email and social media to share with others. Meanwhile, promotion involves your strategy's paid elements, for instance, investing some money into a Facebook ad. Various options exist when it comes to content distribution, so you want to choose the best based on different factors.

Perform Keyword Research

Market research offers a glance into what an audience is struggling with and what they're seeking while keyword research informs you of what terms they're using to discover firms such as yours on search engines. Keyword tools offer useful data around the keywords your target audience is using, the competition level, and the frequency of the keyword searches. These tools can help you find localized words that match your service area and the legal services you provide. This can be as simple as performing a Google search from the point of view of your audience and then noting down common aspects between the top ten results.

How Content Marketing Can Boost Your Law Firm

Brand Awareness

You can boost brand awareness through content marketing. By publishing valuable content and using it to inform and engage your target audience, especially through social media, your law firm can market itself through word of mouth.

SEO Benefits

Investing in content marketing offers law firms the chance to write and publish distinct content, whether on their website or other avenues. In turn, this helps them secure high rankings in search engine results. The higher a law firm ranks in search engines, the more inquiries and traffic they're likely to obtain. You'll create a list of target keywords and establish whether they're a good match for blog posts, web pages, or other content assets.

Conclusion

The first thing most people need to feel before they sign on a lawyer is, generally speaking, trust. Fortunately, this quick primer is a great way to get started on developing that trust - guiding potential clients to you and giving them a taste of your skill and experience. Through solid SEO practices and content marketing efforts, you can help draw in the right people and convince them that you’re the right firm for the job - long before you even start talking shop!