Local SEO for Law Firms : How To Attract Local Legal clients?
Mar 12, 2021
10 min read
The prime motive of implementing Local SEO strategies to your law firm’s website is to enhance your search visibility in the local search results. Consequently, you get to book more appointments with your clients within your geographical area. Your online clients would also prefer seeking legal aid from a lawyer that comes from the same location because most of their cases would come from a specific jurisdiction. A study that was published in 2016 showed that almost 78% of legal clients feel that it's important to have a local attorney It's quite evident how the internet has taken over those traditional directories and phonebooks.
According to a survey made by an organization, less than 2% of their sample population would prefer using a phonebook to hire a lawyer. According to a report published by American Bar Association, almost 87% of the law firms have a website as of 2020. There’s a reason why such a large portion of law firms are focusing on building their websites. The reason is simple - to attract more local clients because most of the searches for clients who are seeking legal services start with the internet. 
Most of the legal searches are 'non-branded, what do we mean by that? It means that most of the legal searches don't have a specific name of a lawyer or a law firm. 62% of the online legal searches don't include a specific name of an attorney or a law firm.
They simply search 'Real Estate Lawyers Texas'. Therefore, a law firm must have an established online reputation and high local search visibility to gain the trust of your local clients. For that, you have to rank higher in the local search engine results. To show up on local search results you need a set of robust legal SEO marketing strategies that can help you in optimizing your website so that it can attract local clients as well. Although running an online website pushes you into a furiously competitive space, but the Google search engine has laid down some pretty straightforward measures through which you can easily build a strong SEO strategy for your law firm. We have mentioned these segments below -
1. Setting Up Your “Google My Business” Account
The first step towards building an SEO-friendly strategy starts with the ‘Google My Business’ Page of your law firm. Why setting up a Google My Business Page is important for a law firm? Here’s the thing, open your search engine and search ‘Bakery shops near me'. What do you see? Do you see a list of local bakery shops near you in the search results? Yes! You can now check their shop’s address, phone number, location, website, and more. These are businesses that are located within your geographical area, so it’ll be quite obvious for you to contact a bakery shop that is situated nearby.
You are likely to contact these shops first. That’s what you want for your business as well. You want to grab the attention of your local clients as quickly as possible because most of them are searching the internet to find a suitable attorney from their area who can help them with their cases. How can you get listed? By creating a Google My Business page! Although it will complement your efforts made on local SEO, if you want to squeeze out the maximum benefits from your Google My Business Page, you have to optimize it.
- Make sure you add a description of your law firm and include rich-keywords.
- Make sure to upload as many pictures of your law firm/attorneys as possible.
- Make sure you select your specialization from the categories mentioned.
- Add your local phone number through which your clients can contact you.
- Make sure to add your firm’s website link.
- Make sure you add the same office address as mentioned on your website.
- Make sure all the details are accurate. Keep updating these details.
After adding these details to your Google listing, you’ll get useful statistics about your website like how many clicks did your website received or how many calls did your legal firm get after listing on Google. Once you improve other SEO aspects as well, you’ll start receiving more local clients.
2. Focus On Local Keywords While Optimizing Your Website
To make your website local SEO-friendly with a motive to attract local clients, you need to focus on local keywords. You must add local keywords on each webpage of yours. That’ll help Google in understanding that your law firm is a local business from a specific location.
For instance, if your law firm is situated in California, then you must look for keywords like ‘California real estate lawyer’ and use them on your website. These technicalities are a bit specific, we would suggest that you should hire a Local SEO expert for the same. But there are some key optimizations that you can easily perform on your own, these are -
- Adding the city/place of your firm on your website’s title. Eg. California real estate lawyer
- Adding your primary headings (H1 tag) must include your local keywords.
- Using your local keywords multiple times on your pages.
- Adding your location in your URL. Eg. ‘www.californiaestatelawyer.com’ if possible.
- Adding local keywords to your alt tags. Eg. ‘californiarealestatelawyer.jpg’.
- Adding your Google Maps location on your law firm’s contact page.
Did you know that global mobile searches contributed towards 53% of the worldwide internet traffic? According to a survey made on 400 legal clients, 57% of them said that they would prefer using a smartphone to find a lawyer. What does this suggest? Due to a huge hike in mobile search volume, your law firm must make its website mobile-friendly, even Google prefers to push those websites higher in SERPs who are focusing on making their websites mobile-friendly. All these steps would help you to drive a significant amount of local legal clients to your website.
3. Name, Address Phone - NAP Citations
Adding NAP citations is a very crucial element in your SEO strategy. Needless to say, but your citations should be consistent across all webpages! It should be the same on all social media platforms as well, like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. Make sure they have the same format everywhere. Avoid having inconsistencies in your Name, Address Phone citations. Even minor mistakes can affect your website crawling and indexing.
Use Schema (Recommended by Google) that helps you in providing the list of approved properties that can be incorporated in your website’s HTML code. This will help the search engines to understand your NAP details. This would also help you to improve your position in Google search rankings which would, in turn, increase your website traffic for local legal clients.
4. Get Maximum Client Reviews On Google and Yelp.
Your local SEO strategies are incomplete without Google Reviews. You have to generate maximum positive customer reviews from your previous legal clients on your Google My Business page. Do you know how important they are? A recent study shows that 75% of the legal clients who are looking for an attorney/law firm, visit review sites before contacting them. The word-of-mouth culture is here to stay! Online clients treat online reviews as honest recommendations. Google reviews also allow Google to understand what type of business you are and how well you perform in providing services to your clients.
This also helps in improving your Google local search rankings, therefore helping you to make the most out of your local SEO efforts. Just like Google, try getting reviews on other directories like Yelp. Positive reviews deliver a straight statement to your potential clients that your law firm is credible and trustworthy. If your potential ‘local’ clients are looking for legal aid in their location/jurisdiction, then chances are very high that they end up visiting your website after reading your Google or Yelp reviews.
5. Get Quality Backlinks From Different Resources
Any SEO strategy would be incomplete without mentioning the importance of creating incoming links or backlinks from other websites Are backlinks important for Local SEO? Well, getting backlinks is considered to be very important for Global SEO but when it comes to local SEO, it’s not that important.
But, that’s not the end! The websites that link with your law firm’s website must contain a few keywords that are also relevant to your law firm’s website along with NAP citations. We have mentioned a few tips that your law firm can implement while running its local SEO campaign, these are -
- Attending local events for speeches, guest lectures, etc, and asking the organizers to list your website on their website.
- Host your event, conference, or a small meeting in your locality to educate people about the new amendments. This would also help your firm to get more potential clients.
- Give interviews to local news journals, writers, or bloggers. Reach out to them to publish your blogs/articles on their website.
- Take up some philanthropy projects where you can donate something to relief programs. Ask them to add your website link to their donor list on their website.
Local SEO can turn out to be a lethal weapon to beat all your local competitors and shine above all other small law firms located in your area. It’s a very useful way to drive local clients to your website who are looking for a lawyer who belongs to the same location. If you want to enhance your local search engine rankings and want to ace the top positions in the local SERPs then you have to implement these effective strategies to get the most out of your marketing efforts. Make sure you utilize them as they’ll help you in bringing more clients from your local area.
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Youtube SEO: Give your videos a ranking boost by optimizing for these On-page factors
Are you actively trying to market your services on the second-most traffic website (after Facebook) on the internet with nearly 2 billion monthly active users?If your answer is yes, then this post is just for you! Youtube is, unarguably, the best social media platform out there to showcase your videos and if you still aren’t using it to market your videos, you really are missing out on scoring a lot of engagement and raving fans for your business. And since it’s bought by Google, your videos can secure a prominent place on the web search as well and gain some extra exposure. But a lot of videos gets uploaded and seen on Youtube on a daily basis as it continues to gain popularity worldwide. So, standing out and getting noticed on the platform becomes a bit difficult.Yes, strategizing and selecting high-search keywords to base your videos on surely helps with capturing a lot of attention for your videos. But did you know the Youtube algorithm takes into account certain on-page factors as well to rank videos on the platform?While Google Trendz and Google Keyword Planner can certainly help you with finding the best keywords for your videos to get you on the top, here are some of the prominent on-page factors the Youtube algorithm relies on as well to rank videos on the platform.Before we begin, just make sure that your Youtube channel is as optimized as it can get. Which includes adding a nice description of your channel that summarizes to your audience what your channel is all about, placing your website or blog link in the description itself, adding a nice channel banner, placing your best videos on the homepage of your channel, choosing your target county and targeting the most appropriate keywords for your channel that describe what you do in the best light possible to your audience. The increased views on your videos will only be fruitful if you have a welcoming channel that tells users what you do in an instant and convert them into your loyal subscribers. When you have done all that and have indulged in some promotional efforts for your channel on Social Media and the web, work on optimizing all your videos for the below-ranking factors to get in front of more users on the platform and increase your viewership - Place keywords in the meta-data Like Google, the Youtube algorithm also relies heavily on figuring out the relevance of a video with the help of keywords present in its meta-structure. But mind you, the keywords are only as good as getting your video in front of viewers searching for the exact same or related keywords, the algorithm relies heavily on user engagement signals which we’ll get to in a while.When it comes to adding a specific keyword in your video’s meta-structure, you have to add it in your video title, its description and the tag section for them to make a difference for your videos. You’ll have to go as far as adding the keyword in the file name of your Youtube video so that the crawlers can make sense of it right from the beginning. Take care of the quality of your video Youtube cares about the user experience your video provides to their users. And If your video is of sub-par quality, forget about getting on the top of Youtube for your targeted keyword.When it comes to Youtube, HD videos will always rank higher than low-quality videos because who’d seriously want to look at a blurry 144p video. Your viewers will abandon your video mid-way in search of a better video and possibly will never see a video uploaded on your channel again.And believe me, you don’t want users doing that, which bring us to the most important on-page ranking factor for ranking videos on Youtube… Work on generating user engagement and social signals The way a user interacts with your video is the top-most ranking signal for the Youtube algorithm. That includes a viewer clicking your video, liking it, commenting on it, sharing it with their friends (which creates natural backlinks for the video as well), watching it till the end, the links it acquires over time and the likes.Youtube gives importance to these user engagement and social signals and ranks all their videos according to them. So, it makes sense to promote your videos on your social media profiles and ask people to share, like and comment on it to gain traction on the platform.Now you know why so many Youtube creators ask you explicitly to like, comment and share their videos.Because it gives them the exposure they need to gain traction on the platform. Upload a catchy thumbnail In the simplest of words, a thumbnail on Youtube is like the banner image of your blog, but for videos.Along with the title and your channel name, a video thumbnail is what a person sees first about your video. So, optimizing them for the best can matter a lot for your videos when it comes to getting it clicked.Focus on uploading a catchy email that subtly tells what your video is all about so users can quickly figure out what’s in it for them if they click on the video. Because of it’s visual nature, your thumbnails can be the reason why your awesome video is not getting clicked at all or is attracting a lot of attention from viewers. Consider adding subtitles, closed captions and cards Since, Youtube crawlers can not view your videos, adding subtitles and closed captions to all your videos help crawlers get a better idea of what your content is about, and they help users too to better grasp your content. Moreover, with the help of cards, you can display your older videos, website links and other types of content to foster clicks for your other videos as well. A great way to get some additional clicks on your videos and increase their rankings. Use the above mentioned tips to make your videos perform better under the Youtube algorithm and gain a lot of exposure for your Youtube videos and your channel in general. If you know of any other on-page factor that the Youtube algorithms take seriously, do let us know about them in the comments. ...
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4 Ways To Feed Your Content Marketing Campaigns With The Right Content
Getting the content your marketing campaign needs is often a difficult proposition. This is because there often are a dozen or more categories of documents that are needed to be prepared and each must be geared to the particular needs of your specific campaign. --> There is a way to get it all done! We are going to show you 5 ways to get the content you need in the quantity you must have in order if your campaign is to succeed. Inbound marketing uses many techniques that are not in the ordinary bag of tricks of markets if you notice the plethora of the get-rich-quick schemes you see advertised on the net today. Many of them use Direct Mailing, where you are taught to locate a market and saturate it with emails, flyers, and brochures. Cold calling is another example that has worn out its usefulness as well. Instead, we are going to use 5 other methods that are much better suited as they permit the customer to come to you instead. This way they do not feel pressure or that they are being stalked. So let’s start with our first and one of our favorites. 1. Inbound Marketing Strategy Set up a Weblog and it will bring people to you in your particular niche quicker than anything else can on the web. We know it sounds like you're giving the horse and the cart away for free. But, there is a method to this madness. People in your niche want to socialize with their own kind and if you provide that with a blog and you salt it with enough good information people will start to look for you for the answers. Once you are established, as the expert in a particular niche the rest is simple as people like to talk about things. But when they want it done, they are reluctant to do it themselves. This gives you the opening you need to promote your product or service as long as it is done tastefully no one complains and the people you've helped will write you up and you can then post that as well. This brings us to our second secret strategy for Inbound Marketing. 2. E-Books Everyone likes a Freebie. Giveaway e-Books are one of the best ways to bring 'em back for more. So once you have your blog up for a bit you'll actually find you have sufficient material to compile in an e-Book form. Singing packages live Scrivener this becomes child's play and what is even better besides having it on your blog or website as a freebie. You can publish it on Amazon as well and you can make a profit from it along with attracting people to your Blog and your core business as well. But an E-Book can spawn yet another Inbound Marketing tool. 3. Podcasts Once the material you had on your Blog is in E-book form it can easily morph into a Podcast as well. Now you can reach those who prefer to listen to read and this is a great way to make your Blog posts earn their keep. First by having, your Blog turned into E-Books and now by changing the E-Books into Podcasts as well. But let’s look at another way that again your original material can be re-purposed yet again. 4. How-to Videos You see how the natural progression that the written content goes through as it evolves. The next step up the evolutionary ladder is in the form of "How to Videos" that put into practice what your niche Blog talks about and this will further endear you to your audience as many now want to use their smartphones as their window to the world and videos are the way into that world. But let’s take a few steps back before we take you to the final strategy. How does one generate the amount of content required to create such an empire of words? This is easier than you might think. One method is to learn the secrets of the art and science of Speedwriting. Various teachers have been teaching it for years and Alan & Ellie Devers are the Pros at teaching it and implementing it. The other method is to have a staff of writers churning out the content you need. That way you hire the people that already have this amazing skill and now we come to our final Strategy to get the massive amount of content that your Inbound Market strategy requires. ...
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How to Optimize Your Walmart Marketplace Listing?
The concept of Walmart SEO can be applied to any online marketplace, including Walmart! Based on the phrase or search term a user provides, each major online marketplace uses its algorithm to determine which products should be displayed at the top and which ones should appear below them. Every seller seems to aim for the top rank, but only one will succeed. Ever questioned why? The algorithm decides that listing, in particular, is appropriate enough to be placed there. Yet how? Because a huge company like Walmart, or any other platform for that matter, will never disclose how its algorithm works, it remains a mystery. If everyone had access to such information, there wouldn't be any competition because everyone would follow the same rules. So what does "Algorithm" literally mean? Any eCommerce platform's algorithm holds the secret to its success; hence it is always kept private. However, some vendors try to express their ideas on social media via videos or blogs when they optimize their listings and try out various tactics. On the other side, a few professionals might also offer their advice. This is how the strategies spread: More people devote additional time to writing about them. Some people use them and produce videos to advertise them. Sellers implement the proposals in light of that. Nevertheless, before you publish your ad, Walmart formally provides you with a few key instructions. These make sense and shouldn't ever be disregarded because they have a big impact on organic rankings. On that point, let's examine Walmart’s SEO strategy and discuss what you can do to improve the ranking of your product listings there. What is Walmart's SEO Strategy? The term SEO is used wherever an algorithm is present. In other words, you are making your listing more appealing to the algorithm. Your listing improves over time due to everything you do, including coming up with a catchy title, choosing a stunning image, and organizing the qualities into bullet points. These elements help Walmart's algorithm recognize your offer; if it thinks it's appropriate, it gives it a priority and places it in the coveted Buy Box. Your optimization efforts were effective if you appeared at the top of the search results for the term you chose, provided you also included a few other selling points. Advantages of Joining Walmart's Marketplace Well-known eCommerce site The Walmart Marketplace is run and owned by Walmart. Walmart permits and provides its customers with millions of brands, goods, and options through partnerships with various Marketplace Sellers. The Walmart Marketplace enables independent sellers to offer their products on Walmart.com like you would on eBay or Amazon. One of the simplest methods to make your products more well-known is to sell them on Walmart's online marketplace because they have such a large customer base. Alongside the other things on the platform, the products from the market are listed in Walmart.com's search results. Walmart periodically adds to its marketplace sellers, expanding the range of available goods. With the fresh prospects, this is a big boost for sellers. Walmart Marketplace Perks We have listed a few of the advantages Walmart offers vendors, including great client visibility and less rivalry. Increase Brand Visibility: Walmart is a well-known company with millions of unique visitors each month. Being a Walmart Marketplace dealer allows you to benefit from the company's strong brand. You may immediately increase sales by adding products to Walmart Marketplace, putting your brand in front of more customers, and increasing brand visibility. No Monthly Fees: Walmart Marketplace has a simple pricing structure with no setup costs and monthly or transaction fees for individual orders. You will be required to pay a referral fee for each successful order. This direct cost changes depending on the products and is typically 15%, relying on what you sell.You must pay monthly referral fees and varying closing costs on other eCommerce websites. This is done to keep your products prominently displayed on their website. The organizational structure of Walmart enables you to raise business profits. Secure and Quick Transactions - Walmart safely processes every order transaction. Walmart Marketplace has a simple pricing structure with no setup costs and monthly or transaction fees for individual orders. Every order is processed free of charge, and payments are made every other week. Your referral fees are automatically deducted from your net income following a buyer's purchase of your goods. Low Competition: Keep in mind that the community of sellers on Walmart Marketplace is hand-picked. You must sell premium products at fair prices and deliver exceptional customer service to be accepted. Your listings will be more visible because there is less competition, and you will sell alongside other seasoned merchants and first-party goods from Walmart. No Inventory Restrictions: Products available as a limited special inventory can also be listed and managed by establishing a predetermined threshold. On their website, Walmart allows a huge variety of products. This indicates that their website will be able to display your entire inventory of eligible products. TwoDay Delivery Service: Sellers know that quick shipping can make all the difference in sales since online customers have learned to expect it. The quicker you ship, the more you sell. With the Walmart Marketplace TwoDay delivery service, you can increase the visibility of your products in browse and search results, increase sales, and surprise customers with accelerated shipment alternatives. Customers of Walmart can get free TwoDay shipping without making a minimum purchase or joining a club. This tactic helps Walmart's Marketplace businesses increase conversions, exposure, and positive ratings. To maximize the growth and success of your online store, you must take control of your Walmart Marketplace listing. However, you must first obtain Walmart's platform permission. Optimizing Your Listing on the Walmart Marketplace Due to many vendors on the platform, you must carefully optimize your live Walmart Marketplace listings to draw in the right customers. For your brand's success on the site, Walmart Marketplace offers various services, such as their Listing Quality Dashboard. Using this tool, you can learn more about your listing to help you further optimize it by carrying out the following actions: Here are some optimization suggestions for the Walmart Marketplace: 1. Use a Precise Product Name Keep your product's name concise and authentic. Product names must be at least 50 characters long and no more than 75 characters. When crafting the name of your product, use this formula: Brand + Size of Item (If required)+ Identifying Characteristics + Item Name, Style (If required), and Pack Count Consider the following advice when you draught your product title: Refrain from using special characters like +, @, #, etc. Don't include any company information outside the product brand. Add product attributes. Stay away from retailer-specific information, such as advertising offers. Avoid using marketing buzzwords like "best," "top-selling," or "inexpensive." Avoid mentioning other marketplaces. 2. Utilize High-quality Photographs Use clear, well-lit product photos. The best-case scenario would be to offer zoomable, high-resolution product images. Here are a few suggestions: Make the front view of the item the main product image. Make sure the background is white (RGB values 255, 255, and 255). Crop the image to remove extra background space. Include backdrop photographs showing the goods from various viewpoints. Offer in-depth content, such as product reviews and interactive tours. Avoid using offensive or obscene images as placeholders. 3. Highlight Important Product Characteristics To draw customers, highlight particular product specifics. Pay special attention to the product shelf and short and long descriptions to increase searchability and product relevance. A. Shelf Description: You can showcase the key benefits of your items in this section. When writing your product shelf descriptions, be sure to bear the following advice in mind to maximize your Walmart Marketplace listing: List three to five of your product's biggest benefits in bullet points. Avoid spelling and language errors. Use unique product descriptions only. Be sure to include keywords in your text. Provide useful product information. Eliminate unnecessary keywords. B. Brief Description: You must use all 500–1,000 characters to maximize your Walmart Marketplace SEO strategy. Here are some guidelines for generating concise product descriptions: Maximize the number of characters per paragraph. Write concise and accurate product descriptions. Include keywords like the product name, brand, and style that shoppers are likely to use in their search queries. Make your descriptions intriguing and full of keywords. Avoid duplication and generic material. C. Long Description: This is the largest section on the Walmart Marketplace site. Use the following advice to improve your Walmart Marketplace optimization strategy: Ensure your lengthy descriptions contain 1,000–4,000 characters or 250–300 words. List 10–30 features and advantages of the product. Produce distinctive product descriptions. Avoid plagiarizing descriptions from other websites and online shops. To demonstrate your knowledge, incorporate facts and advice in your article. Make the copy understandable by speaking in a conversational tone. 4. Select Pertinent Product Characteristics On the left side of the Walmart Marketplace listing are the product attributes. These product informational elements classify your products and enable customers to view restricted or filtered results. You can define your product qualities by selecting one of 24 product categories. Here are some pointers to help you choose the appropriate classification: Complete the appropriate fields for your product's qualities. To make your goods more visible, avoid choosing the category "Other." Give complete product information to improve your position on the results page. 5. Provide competitive price Pricing is essential to achieving the Buy Box. On a single page, Walmart displays all the vendor listings. These listings include each item from every vendor, with pricing changing. Customers are now more prone to be enticed to things with low prices. The winners of the Buy Box are the sellers whose products customers add to their shopping carts. Your odds of getting a Buy Box must be increased by: Provide affordable prices. Keep supplies available. Keep an eye on your rivals' pricing strategies. Make shipping on Walmart free or keep the cost as low as possible. Provide products to customers on schedule. Request favorable testimonials from your consumers for your page. 6. Provide Prompt Client Support Customers desire quick and secure service. Be sure to include Walmart's fast shipping symbol in your product listings to attract customers and increase brand loyalty. Additionally, keep your customer service line open at all times. 7. Maintain Favorable Consumer Feedback In your Walmart Marketplace listing, reviews are essential. Streamline your Walmart SEO strategy by concentrating on offering unmatched customer service. To improve your chances of receiving favorable ratings on Walmart, use the following advice: Respond to emails from customers within a day. Continue to have good relations with your clients. Make use of a reputable fulfillment company. Offer up reliable tracking data. Ship items on schedule or earlier than promised. Improve your product listing and SEO on Walmart. By implementing the proper Walmart Marketplace SEO strategy, you may increase your chances of showing up higher on pertinent product searches. Choose a digital marketing company that can meet all of your Walmart SEO marketing requirements. Grow Your Business in the Walmart Marketplace! Utilize Saffron Edge's optimization services for the Walmart Marketplace to improve and grow your online store. We have covered everything from account setup and branding to keyword optimization and analytics reporting. Using our cutting-edge strategies, you may increase the traffic to slow-selling products on Walmart by optimizing your product pages with pertinent keywords, enticing titles, appealing descriptions, and improved aesthetics. We also work on backend search terms that will help you rank for all the associated terms that users search for so you can get the money you have always desired. With the assistance of our SEO professionals, find out more about how to sell on Walmart and other eCommerce platforms. Join forces with us, and let's collaborate to increase the ROI for your company. Along with other eCommerce optimization services, we provide optimization for the Walmart Marketplace. Contact one of our digital marketing specialists right away! ...
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