In the competitive world of legal services, law firms must stay ahead of the game to dominate Google and attract more clients.
As we get well underway in 2023 and with the advancement of AI, it’s time to adopt innovative strategies and techniques to optimize your law firm for search engine success.
This comprehensive guide will provide you with the knowledge and tools necessary to make your law firm stand out, ensuring you stay on top in this ever-evolving digital landscape. By working with a lawyer SEO expert, you can adopt innovative strategies and techniques to dominate Google and attract more clients.
Law firm SEO is essential in 2023 to remain competitive and generate leads.
Partner with an experienced agency for tailored strategies, proven results, and customized plans.
Ensure success by focusing on organic traffic growth, keyword rankings & conversion rates while avoiding black hat techniques & unrealistic promises.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for law firms in 2023, as it is necessary to stay abreast of the latest search engine algorithms, local SEO and maps rankings, and mobile optimization. With an estimated 93% of online experiences beginning with a search engine, a prominent position in search results is crucial for attracting potential clients and showcasing your legal expertise.
Moreover, law firms that invest in SEO are better positioned to compete in saturated markets. By optimizing your website for search engines, you can increase your visibility, establish your credibility, and ultimately, generate more leads and clients.
In the following sections, we will delve deeper into the essential aspects of law firm SEO and how you can stay ahead of your competition.
Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, making it crucial for law firms to stay up to date with the latest trends and best practices. These algorithms determine how websites are ranked in search engine results, directly affecting the visibility and traffic of your law firm’s website. By staying informed and adapting your SEO strategy, you can ensure your website remains compliant and ranks higher in search results.
Law firm SEO experts and agencies play a vital role in keeping up with these changes, as they have the knowledge and experience to navigate the complex world of search engine algorithms. By partnering with an SEO agency that specializes in legal marketing, you can rest assured that your website will be optimized to adhere to the latest algorithm updates and maintain its competitive edge.
At Juris Digital our philosophy here is pretty simple. We practice great and holistic SEO that help future proof you from Google updates.
Local SEO and maps rankings are critical for law firms as they appear prominently in search results, leading to increased engagement and, consequently, revenue for Google. By focusing on local SEO, law firms can boost their visibility in their local regions, making it easier for potential clients to find and access their legal services.
To achieve higher local SEO rankings, optimize your Google Business Profile, gather positive online reviews, and create location-specific content for your website.
Additionally, consider partnering with an SEO agency specializing in local SEO to ensure your law firm remains at the forefront of your target audience’s search results.
In today’s digital world, mobile optimization and user experience are key components of SEO success. With the majority of searches now conducted on mobile devices, it’s essential that your law firm’s website is optimized for a seamless mobile browsing experience. Factors such as page load speed and mobile-friendly design can greatly influence user experience and, in turn, your search engine rankings.
By focusing on mobile optimization and prioritizing user experience, your law firm can ensure higher search engine rankings and attract more potential clients. More importantly… this will help lead to more clients.
Selecting the right law firm SEO expert is crucial for dominating Google and achieving your marketing goals. An experienced SEO expert will have industry-specific expertise, proven results, client testimonials, and offer customized marketing plans tailored to your law firm’s needs.
However, finding the perfect fit can be challenging, as not all SEO agencies are created equal. In the following sections, we will provide insights on what to look for when choosing a law firm SEO expert, helping you make an informed decision and ensure the success of your SEO campaign.
Hiring an SEO expert with industry-specific expertise can provide significant benefits for your law firm. A specialist in legal SEO will have a deep understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within the legal industry, enabling them to develop tailored strategies that drive results.
Partnering with an industry-specific expert ensures that your law firm receives the specialized attention it deserves, ultimately leading to enhanced efficiency, superior client service, and advanced marketing tactics. By choosing an expert with a proven track record in legal SEO, you can rest assured that your law firm’s online presence is in capable hands.
When choosing a law firm SEO expert, it’s essential to consider their track record of success and client testimonials. Proven results and positive reviews can boost your confidence in the agency’s ability to deliver tangible outcomes and help you make an informed decision.
Before engaging an SEO agency, research their past successes and client testimonials on review sites such as Clutch, Facebook, and Google. Look for evidence of successful campaigns, satisfied clients, and a history of generating leads and cases for law firms in your practice area and geographic market.
This due diligence can greatly impact the success of your SEO campaign and ensure you choose the right partner for your law firm.
A customized marketing plan is essential for law firm SEO success. The right SEO agency will take the time to understand your law firm’s unique needs, target audience, and marketing objectives, and create a tailored plan that aligns with your goals.
Customized marketing plans offer many advantages, such as enhancing customer experience, amplifying brand recognition, fostering better client relationships, and resulting in higher conversion rates. By choosing an SEO agency that provides tailored marketing plans, you can ensure that your law firm receives the specialized attention it needs to succeed in the competitive legal landscape.
To achieve success in law firm SEO, you must focus on the essential components of SEO services, which include on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and technical SEO.
These components work together to create a comprehensive and effective SEO strategy for your law firm, ensuring that your website ranks higher in search engine results and attracts more potential clients.
In the following sections, we will delve deeper into each of these essential components, providing you with a better understanding of their importance and how they contribute to the overall success of your law firm’s SEO campaign.
On-page optimization is a critical aspect of law firm SEO services, focusing on optimizing the content and structure of your website to maximize its visibility in search engine results. This includes optimizing titles, meta descriptions, headings, content, and images on your law firm’s website.
Proper website interlinking is also essential, as it helps search engines understand the structure of your site and how pages are related to one another. By focusing on on-page optimization, you can improve your website’s search engine rankings and increase its visibility to potential clients.
Off-page optimization is another essential component of law firm SEO services, involving strategies implemented outside of your website to enhance its visibility in search engine results. These strategies include link-building, content marketing, social media marketing, guest posts, podcasting, and video marketing.
By engaging in off-page optimization tactics, you can increase your law firm’s online presence, credibility, and authority, ultimately leading to higher search engine rankings and more organic traffic. Partnering with an SEO agency that specializes in off-page optimization can help ensure your law firm’s website receives the attention it deserves.
Technical SEO is a fundamental component of law firm SEO services, focusing on the optimization of your website’s underlying code and structure to enhance its visibility in search engine results. This includes submitting a sitemap to Google, constructing an SEO-friendly site structure, and ensuring your website is accessible, fast-loading, and mobile-friendly.
By addressing technical SEO issues, you can ensure that search engines can accurately crawl, index, and render your webpages, ultimately leading to higher search engine rankings and increased visibility for your law firm. An experienced law firm SEO agency can help identify and resolve any technical SEO issues your website may have, ensuring optimal performance and search engine visibility.
To measure the success of your law firm’s SEO campaign, it’s essential to track organic traffic growth, keyword rankings, and conversion rates. Monitoring these metrics can help you assess the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.
In the following sections, we will explore each of these metrics in more detail, providing you with the tools and knowledge needed to effectively measure the success of your law firm’s SEO campaign.
Organic traffic growth refers to the increase in the number of visitors to your website through search engines without paid advertising over time. A monthly growth rate of 10-20% is typically regarded as a desirable benchmark. Organic traffic growth is essential, as it serves as a reliable source of website visitors that can be sustained over time, ultimately leading to increased visibility and more potential clients.
To facilitate organic traffic growth, focus on optimizing your website’s content, structure, and backlinks to adhere to search engine algorithms and enhance website usability. Regularly monitoring your organic traffic growth can help you evaluate the success of your SEO efforts and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.
Keyword rankings in SEO refer to the position of your website or webpage in search engine results pages for a particular search query. Higher keyword rankings result in increased visibility, leading to more web traffic, leads, and conversions. Monitoring your keyword rankings can help you assess the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and identify areas for improvement.
To improve your keyword rankings, focus on developing high-quality content, optimizing meta tags and titles, building backlinks, and optimizing website loading speed. By tracking your keyword rankings, you can evaluate the success of your SEO efforts and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.
Conversion rates and lead generation are crucial metrics to track when measuring the success of your law firm SEO campaign. Conversion rates quantify the number of users who completed a desired action on your website, such as filling out a contact form or signing up for a newsletter, as a proportion of the total number of users that visited your site.
To improve your conversion rates, optimize your website for mobile devices, produce engaging content, perform A/B testing, and leverage social media. Tracking conversion rates and lead generation can help you assess the effectiveness of your SEO efforts and make informed decisions about your marketing strategy.
While investing in law firm SEO can yield significant benefits, it’s essential to be aware of common pitfalls that could hinder your success. These pitfalls include engaging in black hat techniques and falling for unrealistic promises from SEO companies.
In the following sections, we will explore these common pitfalls in more detail, providing you with the knowledge needed to avoid them and ensure the success of your law firm SEO campaign.
Black hat techniques are unethical and manipulative tactics employed to boost search engine rankings, such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, utilizing private link networks, and buying backlinks. These practices violate search engine guidelines and may lead to penalties or even a ban from search engines.
To avoid black hat techniques, focus on creating high-quality content, building natural backlinks, and adhering to search engine guidelines. Partnering with a reputable law firm SEO agency that employs white hat techniques can help ensure your website remains compliant and avoids penalties.
Unrealistic promises from SEO companies can be enticing, but ultimately lead to disappointment and a lack of faith in your marketing efforts. Examples of unrealistic promises include guarantees of top search engine rankings, rapid results, or promises that depend on factors outside of the agency’s control.
To avoid falling for unrealistic promises, thoroughly research potential SEO agencies, their past successes, and client testimonials. By choosing an agency with a proven track record and realistic expectations, you can ensure the success of your law firm’s SEO campaign.
In conclusion, effective law firm SEO in 2023 requires staying ahead of search engine algorithm changes, optimizing for local SEO and mobile devices, and partnering with the right SEO expert. By focusing on essential components such as on-page optimization, off-page optimization, and technical SEO, and tracking your campaign’s success through organic traffic growth, keyword rankings, and conversion rates, you can ensure your law firm remains competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape. Avoid common pitfalls, such as black hat techniques and unrealistic promises, to safeguard your online reputation and achieve long-term SEO success.
For law firms looking to increase their online visibility, the best SEO agency for lawyers is one of the top 10 companies identified in our May 2023 report. These SEO experts specialize in legal marketing and can help drive targeted traffic to your website.
With their proven strategies and tailored approach to success, they are your go-to source for optimizing your search engine rankings.
The right partner is one who understands your goals and can help you reach them. At Juris Digital we care more about helping your firm sign more cases than a daily ranking fluctuation. Talk to us to see if we think we’re a good fit for each other. If not, we’re happy to refer to you to someone we think can help.
As an SEO at a law firm, you are responsible for using tactics to improve the visibility of the website and increase organic traffic from users searching for services related to the firm. Typically in house these are SEO Managers, Strategists or consultants.
This includes optimizing content for search engine queries, building links, monitoring results, and improving on-page factors.
This post was originally published in January 2018. It’s findings remain relevant.
Proximity to the searcher is one of the most important factors in Google’s local pack rankings. The physical location where you are searching still carries a big impact on search results in 2023.
In fact, according to the Whitespark 2023 Local Search Ranking Factors, Proximity of Address to Centroid is one of the top 3 local SEO ranking factors.
Technology has advanced to the point where Google almost always knows exactly where you’re searching from based on GPS and IP data. This means Google can use your location to serve up local businesses that not only match your keyword search, but that are as physically close to you as possible.
This reliance on proximity makes sense for many types of businesses – dry cleaners, coffee shops, liquor stores, pet groomers, etc. – but it doesn’t make nearly as much sense for law firms, attorneys and other legal service providers.
Simply put, if I want a cup of coffee I don’t want to drive across town to get it.
I just want to know if there’s a decent spot close-by. On the flip side, if I’m getting a divorce, the proximity of the attorney I hire makes little difference to me. I want the best possible divorce lawyer, and I’m happy to drive across town if that’s where the best lawyer is.
Nevertheless, Google relies heavily on user proximity to serve up local results for keywords related to lawyers and legal services. The anecdotal case study below paints a clear picture of how fundamental proximity is Google’s ranking of law firms in local search results, and raises new questions as to whether it is still possible for law firms in competitive markets to “dominate” in local search.
I wanted to understand the extent to which proximity to the searcher impacts how Google ranks law firms in the local pack, so I searched the keyword “car accident lawyers” from 138 zip codes in the Houston-metro area, one of the most competitive markets for personal injury in the United States.
To replicate searches from each zip code I used Bright Local’s local search result checker tool.
I searched “car accident lawyers” from each and every Houston zip code, and documented the three firms in the local pack for each. Here’s an overview of my findings:
For an interactive chart, click here
I want to stress that this is nothing more than an anecdotal case study. The results are highly specific to this particular market (Houston) and keyword (car accident lawyers).
However, I do think it provides an essential truth about ranking in Google’s local results, which is: The closer your firm is to the searcher, the more likely it is that Google will show your business in the local pack.
Here’s my best attempt at a list of takeaways for legal marketers based on this information:
Last Updated: May 25, 2023 by Casey Meraz
Denver, CO, May 9, 2023—Juris Digital has been named to Inc. magazine’s annual Best Workplaces list. Featured in the May/June 2023 issue, which hits newsstands on May 16, 2023, and prominently featured on Inc.com, the list is the result of a comprehensive measurement of American companies that have excelled in creating exceptional workplaces and company culture, whether operating in a physical or a virtual facility. Juris Digital was recognized in several special categories, including:
Juris Digital has succeeded in building a culture in which people come first. Employees are highly engaged and receive recognition for their contributions. Juris Digital fosters a flexible work environment and strives to accommodate each person’s individual needs. Leaders at the company listen to their employees’ feedback, provide them with opportunities to test out new ideas, and reward them for going the extra mile. Goals are clearly defined and employee development remains a top priority.
Here are a few of the anonymous comments provided by employees who participated in the survey:
“I have never worked for a company that is not only dedicated to satisfying clients, but is also dedicated to taking care of their employees, rewarding all the hard work they put in. I am constantly telling my peers how I feel so cared for at my company.”
“This company is truly fantastic. The work they do, their approach to clients, the people that work in the organization, the way the company is structured, the management, and the great attention given to employee welfare.”
“I am able to speak openly to everyone about anything, including the senior leadership team. I feel like my opinions are really taken to heart.”
“Juris Digital is by far the best place I’ve EVER worked. The culture and opportunities are unmatched. 1) Flexibility in where and when you work. 2) I am always recognized for a job well done and encouraged to keep going. 3) I am always heard. If I have a process improvement idea, our leaders encourage me to pursue it, test it, and adopt it.”
This year, Juris Digital is among 591 honorees, which Inc. selected from thousands of submissions. Each company that was nominated took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, which included topics such as management effectiveness, perks, fostering employee growth, and overall company culture. The organization’s benefits were also audited to determine the overall score and ranking.
“Being named to Best Workplaces is an honor that only a small fraction of companies have been able to claim,” says Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. “Proving to the world that you’re a magnet for talent and have a culture that keeps teams engaged, productive, and proud to come to work is a truly remarkable achievement.”
Juris Digital exclusively hires in-house, avoiding the use of staff augmentation experts, to maintain high employee satisfaction and ensure the excellence of their work.
Juris Digital advances its mission of helping lawyers help more people by building, optimizing, and promoting exceptional websites. Juris Digital’s services include search engine optimization (SEO), website design and development, legal content writing, local service ads, and paid search marketing.
Through these services, Juris Digital helps its clients strengthen their reputations and build their online brand presence to attract more clients and better cases. In addition to building great client relationships, Juris Digital is committed to caring for its people. Its core values include fostering a fun work environment, expressing gratitude for team members, and treating everyone with dignity and respect.
The world’s most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States.
The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
30 Actionable Digital Marketing Strategies for Lawyers & Law Firms
Online marketing can be an intimidating task for law firms, especially those that are new to the game.
This article contains 30 online marketing strategies which have been proven to effectively generate new clients for our law firm clientele.
The biggest firms who have the most resources may find themselves investing in most of these areas, but don’t worry, you can still generate new business by identifying what online marketing strategies work best for your firm, and then focusing your limited time in those areas.
Below I’ve organized each strategy into different categories to make it easier to digest:
[juris_cta heading=”Ready for more and better cases from the web?” content=”Juris Digital provides effective, results-focused online marketing to exceptional law firms across the nation. Ready for more and better cases?” button=”Let’s Talk”]
If you want to sign more cases in your local market, Local SEO is essential. A surprising number of people are looking for “lawyers near me” and other local related searches. While we personally don’t think it’s the best way to find an attorney, its happening so you should try to get in front of potential clients here.
Local SEO is Search Engine Optimization that focuses in a specific geographic market, and it’s an especially effective channel when paired with a narrowly focused legal practice.
The more granular you can be, the more authority you can build on a particular subject matter. Let’s face it. It’s easier to be known as The Car Accident Expert vs. the everything personal injury expert.
The 3 pack, or local pack is typically the first set of search results you will see after paid ads and LSA’s. These are displayed when Google believes the searcher is intent on searching for a local law firm.
If you want your business to succeed in the world’s most popular search engine you need to do things in a way that pleases the Google gods.
Here are a few quick tips to help you get ranked in the 3 pack. But keep in mind that local results are heavily influenced by the location of the searcher. If someone searching for an attorney is physically near your office when they’re doing the search on Google you’re more likely to show up.
What are citations in Local SEO? Local SEO citations are mentions of your businesses name, address, phone number, and website on online directories.
For example, a listing on yelp.com or yellowpages.com that matches your Google Business Profile, address, phone number, and website will count as a citation for your business.
See an example of a Yelp Citation below:
Many people use niche specific directories for searches, online yellow pages, and review type websites to locate the best law firm to help them. Being listed on these helps your Local SEO, keeps your data accurate, and increases your visibility to new audiences who may not have seen you otherwise.
I suggest you stay away from automated citation building services like Yext. They will charge you a monthly fee for something that can really be done once.
Plus, from a Local SEO perspective, the effectiveness of citations has been greatly diminished. Instead the primary focus here is to get your law firm listed on directories that will bring you actual clients or act as a decent link source to boost your rankings.
Just like Google, Bing displays local results in their search results. These come from Bing Places For Business. Many people will get started on Google and forget Bing altogether which is a huge mistake.
You can create a free listing here to get listed in Bing’s local results. Make sure you fill it out 100% to get the biggest benefit for your law firm.
With the change in the search landscape and introductions of generative AI more searches are going to Bing than they have seen in the past few years.
Failing to have an online review strategy is one of the biggest mistakes a law firm can make. Your potential customers are likely to research your firm or the attorneys at your firm. Making sure you are putting your best foot forward here will help you sign better cases.
If this is not apart of your process and reviews are not coming in regularly, then you have a problem and it need to be fixed.
The reality is that many people turn to the web for reviews and they research what’s out there. In fact, according to a recent study, “93% of millennial’s say they rely on consumer reviews before making a purchase”. That means that potential clients are likely typing in attorneys or law firm names and adding the word “reviews” at the end.
What comes up when you google your brand + reviews? Do a quick Google search and find out.
To have a proper review strategy you need to identify the places online that are most important for your business.
For law firms, as a general rule of thumb I recommend the following websites in this order:
You can always expand your sources from there but remember that Facebook, Avvo, and Findlaw typically rank for popular “city + lawyer” keywords in the Google.
The only true way to determine which review websites are most important in your market is to understand what ranks when people Google your law firm name or attorney’s names and checking to see which websites rank for “Best [type] lawyer in [city]”. This will vary market to market.
Here is one strategy you can use today to start generating more reviews from your clients:
Since Google likes to make money you can always shortcut the local SEO and pay per click.
Google now shows ads in the local pack and local finder through their pay per click model. This means you will pay per each click unlike Local Services ads where you pay per lead.
I recommend this approach if the cost per clicks are good for your industry and if you already have strong reviews. If you have no reviews or bad reviews you may be paying for no conversions.
Local Services Ads are the new kid on the block. Local Services Ads are a Google Pay Per lead model where you show up above the traditional paid search results. While these are new for personal injury attorneys, they have been around in other industries for some time. We recommend our clients take advantage of LSA’s if they have the budget to do so.
It seems that Apple maps still pulls data from Yelp.com, but if you’re not listed in Apple Maps you’re missing a huge opportunity. Did you know that Apple Maps now gets over 5 billion requests a week?
If you think about the power of that and Siri it’s a no brainer that you should be listed here and own your listing.
To sign up simply visit mapsconnect.apple.com and sign in with your Apple ID. From here you can create or claim your listing. Make sure you fill it out 100%.
Organic SEO is still the primary traffic driver for law firms and the best source of new business for our clients. As an attorney SEO agency this is our personal bread and butter.
Organic SEO represents the free clicks you get from search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Since Google is the biggest we typically align our efforts to be the most aligned with their requirements.
Below is an example of a search with two standard Google Organic results:
Content is an important piece of the puzzle and the creation of it can be a hassle. One tactical tip to create content easier and better is to identify the subject you’re writing on and think of all of the sub-topics or related questions.
You can write those down and then have someone ask you in an interview format. If you do this you can then get that transcribed & edited and produce content quicker and easier in your own voice.
When we’re talking about organic SEO the importance of website content cannot be overlooked.
The problem I run into most often is that clients want content on their website but they don’t want to put in the effort to make it as good as it should be. If you’re concerned about ranking in Google for important keywords you need to ask yourself “Is my content better than everyone else’s”? If not, you will have a problem.
If you’re creating practice area pages, for example, a potential client does not want to read a 200 word summary of local traffic accident statistics.
On the other hand, they probably do want to know things like, “how long will my case take”, or “how many cases have you won”. That type of information on your website will help connect with potential clients much better. Really they want you to solve their problem. That’s why they’re looking for an attorney.
[ RELATED: How to Create the Best Website for Your Law Firm ]
Think of each page of your website as serving a purpose around a topic and be very thorough when writing it. Put yourself in the client’s shoes and ask if you’re creating content that answers your potential client’s questions in a way that’s easy to read?
If not, you may need to make a change. Start by creating strong FAQ pages to common questions based on actual keyword volumes. Use SEMRush.com to make the keyword research a bit easier and write on topics with recorded search volumes.
Only write content where what you put out is better than everything else out there. If you follow that rule you will never have any issues ranking 🙂
If you’re looking for an exhaustive example of content marketing for attorneys check out this free guide we wrote especially for you.
Remember that producing content is only half of the battle. You must share it with interested parties to get traction.
Do lawyers need to blog? Yes. If you need to know how to start a blog for your law firm check out our law firm blogging guide here.
Blogging is a great way to increase your exposure and create content your audience is interested in. Don’t ever write a blog without a purpose or because “Google likes fresh content”. Write it with a purpose in mind. Solve a problem that your potential clients might find themselves in. This is a great way to build credibility and establish yourself as an expert.
Although I don’t do many press releases anymore they still provide a function and are a great way to increase your exposure in local news. Tying a press release with a community facing campaign and utilizing social media to expand upon this can create a lot of local media pickup and even earning links.
Here is an example of a community event were involved in that got local news pickup (even without the press release).
We will still use press release to this day for many SEO reasons (and many non SEO reasons)
The fact is that I have been able to measure increases from using press releases on occasion while everyone is avoiding them like the plague.
Link building and earning links must still be a major part of your online marketing strategy if you want your website to beat your competition. Google still uses links to judge the authority and relevance of a website. Having links from
Google still uses links to judge the authority and relevance of a website. Having links from high-quality websites going back to your website is still the biggest ranking factor if you have everything else under control. Here are 21 ideas for lawyer link building for you to check out.
In addition of the organic and local SEO benefit, you will get from authoritative links, you can also bring in relevant traffic. If you’re rated as top attorney for example on a local news website and they link back to your website, you will get visitors who found you on the news website and clicked through to yours.
The links that are going to have the most effect on your local and organic rankings are links that fall into one of these categories:
Try to stay away from links such as:
One of the top ways that lawyers get more business is from referrals. Some of the most successful law firms I have spoken with have a strong social media presence.
Although I don’t recommend getting into social media without a strategy, there is a common one I see from successful law firms which involves just being community oriented.
By posting content relevant to your local audience you can stay on the top of your followers minds.
A friend of mine recently got a multi million dollar settlement from just being visible at the right place at the right time. This approach is really about getting you in front of potential clients and staying relevant.
When using Social Media make sure to share your content with relevant and interested parties for more exposure and engagement. Be thoughtful about what you share and why you’re sharing it. Don’t share crap. You should also utilize hashtags which use the # symbol for your content. For example, If I’m sharing a local community event in my hometown of Denver I might add the hashtags #denver or #denverevents. This allows people to easily find content by searching for those hashtags. You should also never just share your own content and self-promote. That’s a great way for people to lose interest unless you’re doing something amazing.
Social media is also a great place to share any community information such as awards, events your sponsoring, or free advice you’re giving.
If you can compile great info at once and you want to automate it I suggest tools like Buffer and Hootsuite which can automate your posting.
Here are the networks I recommend along with simple strategies you can use:
Twitter is where you communicate when you have a message of 140 characters or less. Before starting on Twitter decide if your brand and your attorneys are going to have an account and make a purpose for each. To get started stick with a simple strategy of sharing relevant content to build your audiences.
One way to do this is to think of your own voice. What are you passionate about in your community? It may not be your practice of law. Maybe it’s silly lawyer mistakes. You could research articles related to silly mistakes and regularly post the best ones on your feed. You can tie this into a best of post on your own blog and share that as well.
If you do share something that you have written feel free to reach out to influencers with more followers in your locale or niche and ask them to share it. What’s the worst that can happen?
Also, you can use Twitter to reach influencers who might be willing to share the content you’re writing about. Share it with them and see what they say.
Currently, Facebook is surpassing 1.23 billion active monthly users. Chances are your friends, family, and potential clients are there. If you setup a Facebook business page you’re unlikely to attract followers unless you pay for them or offer very fun and social consistency which makes your page worth following.
Unfortunately for several years now, Facebook’s organic reach has been seriously diluted. The best way to use Facebook in 2023 is to boost posts with paid ads to highly relevant audiences.
Make sure to give the algorithm time to adjust to your targeting preferences. I think we all know FB / IG and other social media platforms follow us around and stalk us with ads based on things we’ve talked about.
LinkedIn is no longer the graveyard it once was. If you’re in B2B then LInkedIn is a great place to be.
Linkedin is a great tool for business to business relationships. If you’re a business lawyer you can use this as a strong tool in many ways.
First, you can import your prior clients and connect with them to make your network bigger.
If they’re in your feed when you make a post they will see it. LinkedIn also has some paid advertising options as well but the bigger goldmines are segmenting your typical clients and connecting with them.
If you can share something of value such as an eBook or tool that will help overcome a common pain point you can get in the door. They also have groups that you can connect with.
You can also take advantage of LinkedIn paid ads and end up directly in your clients inbox if you have a very targeted ad.
Reddit is a website where I spend a lot of my time. That’s because there are over 542 million monthly users on the website speaking about very passionate topics. This is a great place to engage with potential clients, build your expertise, and promote your content.
To do this simply check out Reddit.com and search for relevant subreddits. Here is a couple I found after a quick search:
Start participating in discussions, answer questions, and when the time is appropriate you can share your content with the most appropriate audience. It’s a great way to get shares, links, and comments.
Recently I spoke with a lawyer who had a huge social following that used Periscope to host a live legal broadcast to over 1,000 participants. The results were added trust being built from potential clients which turned into more business.
While I have not heard of anyone else doing this successfully it may be a missed opportunity.
Tik Tock is a place where people like me spend way too much time online. If your target audience spends time here (which chances are they do). It might be worthwhile to create quick and engaging videos.
You will probably have to test the waters and see what becomes sticky. And just like any other social media strategy, don’t get too involved unless you have a plan and a way to measure success (followers, likes, clients, etc.)
When potential clients are looking to hire an attorney they commonly find themselves in a situation they have no experience with. This is a point in their journey where they may turn online for answers.
While your website is the best place to answer common questions that your potential clients ask your front desk staff or your attorneys, there is another untapped market. These networks are legal websites such as Avvo and question-based websites where people can ask their question.
By participating in these discussions you can showcase your expertise and get in front of a potential client and showcase your expertise. After all, the more you give the more you get.
Avvo has a few opportunities for this by either creating free legal guides or by answering questions from potential clients. While I would save writing a legal guide or article for after you have already answered the questions on your website, I would say that the Q&A is a good opportunity.
Here is where people submit questions: https://www.avvo.com/ask-a-lawyer. You can answer them by logging into your avvo.com profile.
Avvo does rank for many of these FAQ queries in Google Search Results. The key is to always be where potential clients are clicking. This is just another example.
If you haven’t heard of Quora you must not be one of their 100 million active monthly users. This powerhouse Q&A website has been growing big. Quora is a community where people can ask questions and the best answers are the ones that are usually the most detailed and have the most upvotes. Below is a sample Quora question:
To participate simply create an account on Quora.com and start following relevant threads like this one.
You can respond with your profile and even provide a link back to your website. While the link is a nofollow, it can still generate referral traffic.
Contrary to popular belief, forums are not dead. Forums are still thriving on the internet and people are turning to them for discussions and to get answers to questions. This is where getting creative will really pay off. One option is to monitor legal forums like these:
But another option is to monitor forums where your clients hang out. For example, if you’re a bankruptcy lawyer you may want to hang out on financial advice forums. The options are limitless and you can find them by simply searching Google for a topic you’re interested in + “forum”.
I find that Q&A and social media are easier if you set up alerts for new responses or if you just set a dedicated time to look at them all, like one hour a week.
Paid search is the quickest way to start generating new leads. If you’re willing to pay per click in Google’s ad network you can start generating clicks today. The issue is that you will always pay for these clicks and the prices will go up as the competition gets stiffer.
That being said you can also see higher conversion rates by participating in both organic SEO and pay per click at the same time if you have more search share.
Here are some of the methods and strategies we use for our clients in paid environments.
Retargeting involves setting up a small script on your website that tracks the visitors who have come to your website. Once they leave they will see banner ads for your company on other websites they visit for a set period of time, typically 30 days. You can sign up for this through Google’s ad network.
Have you ever looked at a product or service and then wondered why you started seeing ads for it all over the internet? That’s why.
Google has cracked down on this for some law firms. They are now limiting some attorneys from having ads.
Social retargeting is the same as retargeting but geared towards social networks. We use this through Facebook’s Ad Manager.
If a potential client visits your website you can serve an ad to them when they go back to Facebook.
If you’re looking for website visitors that you don’t already have, Google Adwords is a great way to start paying for clicks. The top search results in any Google Search are ads and they rotate out depending on who’s paying for them.
Each time someone clicks on an ad you will be charged what you agreed upon to pay.
A good adwords campaign involves proper keyword research and regular monitoring to make sure that you’re not paying for clicks that won’t turn into more business. This can be setup through Google’s ad Manager.
The biggest problem with PPC is the cost per click. For personal injury attorneys this can get to hundreds of dollars per click.
Paid social is just like Google Adwords but on social networks like Facebook or Twitter. Facebook is really cool because you can segment audiences on very targeted demographics such as age, location, or interests.
Paid social campaigns should be undertaken on a case by case basis with the content you create and geared towards promoting it towards the most relevant audience.
YouTube.com offers paid video placement for your own video ads which will play before YouTube videos. This is a great way to get your video message across.
YouTube.com is the world’s second largest search engine. They also have some great targeting options which are helpful when narrowing your audience.
I commonly am shocked to hear how many attorneys are not involved in email marketing. Email marketing is a great way to build your audience and stay relevant. A year ago I met with an attorney who used email marketing to generate a multi-million dollar case just off of a monthly newsletter with a low subscriber amount.
The trick to doing good email marketing is to email your list with relevant causes. You can share accident safety tips if you’re a PI Lawyer or common mistakes that lead to bankruptcy if you’re a bankruptcy attorney. You can email your subscribers monthly and give them something to be happy about.
This will also keep you in minds of your clients and can generate case referrals easily. If you don’t have a way of growing your email list make sure to sign up for SUMOME and use their email collection box. If you’re getting website visitors you’re going to grow your list month over month, just by using this plugin.
Email Markeitng is also great because you control your audience. Even if your website was ever demoted by Google you would still have your email list.
Video Marketing is generally underutilized by most attorneys. While video used to be cost prohibitive, any attorney with a cell phone and a quick microphone setup can create a high-quality video.
I do want to stress that quality videos are going to perform better than cheaper ones so spending a couple of hundred bucks to get the right setup with sound can go a long distance.
The strategy here is to create videos for your firm based on frequently asked questions. Ask your legal assistants and intake staff what questions they get the most and then turn those into FAQ videos. These videos can be shared on YouTube.com or Vimeo.com as well as posted on your own website and social media channels.
Webinars are not for every area of law, but Business Law is one area that would be a good one. By holding a free online webinar you can showcase your expertise on a topic relevant to your audience. One example would be a webinar geared towards “How to cut your corporate tax in 2023″.
The goal of the webinar is to share useful nuggets of information so that you can generate new clients by looking like the expert.
Consider partnering with your local bar association to help promote the event to their members in exchange for a membership plug.
Just like you can offer an online webinar you can do this offline and still get an online benefit. Host a meetup at your office on a relevant topic and submit the event to the city website, chamber of commerce, and other interested groups.
You can get free promotion by providing a community service and you’ll come across as the authority on the subject with proper preparation.
One strategy we use for our clients commonly is to make them look like the authority in their field by having them write an eBook. Sharing knowledge can help people trust you and want to hire you. Once you write it you can sell it on Amazon and other platforms as well as generate customer reviews of your book.
I plan on keeping this list growing and adding more ideas over time. One major takeaway I would like you to have though is to remember that anything worth doing, is worth doing right. While it’s probably not feasible to participate execute all of these online marketing strategies by yourself, you can and should focus on a few and make them consistent and high quality. Doing this will result in more business for your firm and help establish your place in the community.
In an ever-evolving digital landscape, online marketing has become a necessity for businesses across industries, and the legal field is no exception. For lawyers, internet marketing isn’t just about creating an online presence; it’s about effectively reaching and communicating with potential clients. It’s about understanding and leveraging the power of legal marketing, social media marketing, and web marketing to elevate your law firm’s brand.
Web marketing, also known as internet marketing, plays a significant role in a law firm’s success. This strategy involves everything from enhancing your law firm’s website to employing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to increase your website’s visibility in search results.
A robust web marketing plan helps prospective clients find your law firm online, comprehend your services, and gain the confidence to reach out for assistance. In this competitive market, digital marketing for lawyers is a tool to stand out, draw in clients, and ultimately, grow your business.
Alongside web marketing, social media marketing is a game-changer for legal marketing. The utilization of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram for lawyer marketing can significantly enhance your firm’s online presence.
Social media marketing allows you to interact directly with potential clients, showcase your expertise, and build your brand identity. It provides a platform to share relevant content, engage with users, and position your law firm as a thought leader in the industry. This direct engagement through social media advertising fosters trust and creates a sense of personal connection between your law firm and potential clients.
Engaging a digital marketing firm specializing in legal marketing can ensure your internet marketing efforts are strategic, cohesive, and effective. These experts understand the ins and outs of lawyer web marketing, from SEO to pay-per-click advertising, content marketing, and beyond.
Such firms can create a comprehensive online legal marketing strategy tailored to your law firm’s unique needs and goals. This not only involves optimizing your website and managing your social media platforms but also includes digital advertising, tracking analytics, and tweaking strategies based on performance.
In essence, online marketing is an essential aspect of a law firm’s operations in the digital age. With the right strategies and a specialized digital marketing firm, you can enhance your law firm’s online presence, connect with prospective clients, and pave the way for your firm’s growth and success.
Last updated on 6/1/2023 by Casey Meraz
