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Originally Posted On: https://sagemarketingsolutions.com/essential-seo-tips-for-family-law-firms/
As marketing costs continue to rise, family law firms struggle in many ways to spread the word about their services. 65% of law firms say they spend the majority of their marketing budgets on online marketing, and digital ad costs continue to rise every year.
Fortunately, you can set your law firm for sustainable growth with the right organic marketing strategy. Here’s a helpful family law digital marketing guide to get your SEO campaign off the ground!
What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is how websites optimize their content to rank higher on search engines like Google. We won’t cover all of the complexities of SEO, as it’s a little too complex for one section. However, we do want to identify the basics of SEO and point you in the right direction to learn more.
Let’s break it down into three pillars and use the analogy of building a house. Your website is the foundation, your content marketing is the structure, and your off-page SEO is the finish.
First, your website determines exactly how far you can build your SEO strategy. Google uses over 200 ranking factors dedicated to website quality, so if you’re building on a broken foundation, you already limit how far you can go.
Second, your content marketing strategy (blogs, videos, etc.) is the bread and butter. Creating engaging and useful content is what will drive traffic to your website, engage your users, and keep them coming back. If Google doesn’t believe your content is doing this, you won’t rank.
Finally, your off-page factors, particularly backlinks, are what finish the job and tie everything together. Backlinks serve as a “vote” for your authority on a given topic, which Google uses to determine whether your content is reliable and credible.
Optimize Your Website
Again, this is the foundation of your SEO strategy, so don’t neglect it. Your SEO strategy can only go as far as your website allows it, so don’t rely on a DIY or outdated website. Instead, hire professional web design services and build the strong foundation you need.
Fast loading times, mobile-friendly design, and other user-friendly features are crucial to a successful SEO campaign. If users have a difficult time navigating through your site, they won’t stay long. Google knows this well, which is why they place so much value on optimizing your site.
Offer Valuable Content
Don’t underestimate the value of a solid content marketing strategy, especially for law firms. Most people know little about the law, and they will likely search for legal questions before searching for attorneys.
Moreover, this gives you the perfect opportunity to be the one to answer those questions. From there, you can easily direct users to your services as a solution.
For example, if you have blog articles ranking on Google for keywords like “child custody battles” or “how much does a family attorney cost,” then you will direct highly relevant traffic to your site. Then, you can easily follow up with a call-to-action like “keep reading our blog for our latest legal tips, and contact us if you have any questions about your case”.
Draw them in, offer the information they need, keep them engaged, and position your services as the solution. This is a tried-and-true strategy for organic marketing.
Also, they’re likely to trust your brand more when they find you, instead of the other way around. Often, this leads to far higher conversion rates than paid advertising.
Don’t Forget Off-Page
Heading entirely off your website, it’s important to list your law firm on the appropriate directories and business listings. Google Business Profile, Yelp, and any local directories are great places to start. From there, don’t forget to get on Google Maps and other common GPS systems.
Once you’ve laid this groundwork, you’ll need to start developing a backlink strategy. Backlinks are links from other sites to yours and they help establish your domain authority in Google’s eyes. While their algorithm is powerful, it can’t fact-check everything and know which information is correct across trillions of pages across the web.
Therefore, it relies on other websites to vouch for your authority. The higher that website’s authority, the more “link juice” it will offer you.
While you can’t force other websites to link to your content, some of this is still within your control. Creating high-quality content on a user-friendly site is a great way to start, but don’t stop there. Reach out to affiliates, guest post, and try different link-building strategies until you see the results you need.
Choose SEO Service For Family Law Firms
Finally, if you want to achieve the best results, find specialized services that work for your needs. There are law firm SEO agencies that specialize in web design, content marketing, and other SEO practices for law firms.
Overall, this will give you the best path toward faster and more sustainable results. They’ll know the right keywords, types of content, directory listings, and local SEO practices to help you achieve your organic marketing goals as soon as possible!
Launch Your SEO Campaign Today
Now that you know some tips on SEO for family law firms, use them to your advantage today and start ranking ahead of your competitors. Laying the groundwork now will help you rank faster and build a long-term, sustainable organic marketing strategy. Once it’s up and running, the sky is the limit!
Stay up to date with our latest marketing tips, and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or for help with your strategy!
