Why Is SEO Important for Lawyers

Why is SEO important for lawyers? These days, a growing number of solicitors have become less dependent on traditional media and forms of advertising to find new clients, and for a good reason! As we live in an increasingly connected world, law firms must adjust their strategies to ensure growth and success. Search engine optimisation (SEO) offers lawyers a sustainable way to attract attention and generate potential leads to their business. 

But what is SEO exactly, and why is it vital to your law firm? 

SEO in a Nutshell

You’ve probably heard of SEO a few times and are somewhat familiar with the subject. But to help you understand it better, here’s a quick explanation. As the name implies, search engine optimisation is a set of practices and strategies aimed at improving the positioning of websites on search result pages. 

The more visible you are on major search engines, the more likely your target audience will find you and visit your site. And the more people who visit your website, the bigger your chance of attracting new clients. 

SEO can be broken down into two major areas: on-site and off-site SEO. On-site SEO involves optimising your website’s content and other onsite elements to improve its search rankings, speed, and usability. On the other hand, off-site SEO comprises actions taken outside your site to enhance your visibility on search result pages. It includes encouraging other websites to link to yours and building trust with Google. 

Why Law Firms Should Invest in SEO

Traditionally, law firms use television and radio ads, billboards, mail, and Yellow Pages listings to find potential clients. While these strategies have been around even before the internet and the subsequent prevalence of digital marketing, it’s no secret that solicitors have to invest a significant amount of money to achieve reasonable results. 

SEO offers law firms an excellent alternative when advertising their legal services.  Here are some of the answers to the question, “Why is SEO important for lawyers?” 

1. It gives you the hottest prospects

People who use search engines to look for legal services online are almost always ready to hire you. Because they already have a problem that requires an immediate solution, they don’t need further convincing to enlist your services. All you have to do is show up in front of them. SEO helps you attract the hottest prospects by allowing you to position yourself where potential clients are looking. 

2. The stats don’t lie

Processing more than 5.6 billion searches every day, Google certainly takes the biggest slice of the search engine pie. With billions of people using the search engine daily, optimising your site for Google can help increase the likelihood of potential clients discovering your practice. 

What’s more, SEO gives you a better shot at transforming these web visitors into clients. Additional stats showed that SEO has a conversion rate of 14.6%. In comparison, traditional advertising strategies only have a 1.7% conversion rate. 

3. It levels the playing field

SEO helps level the playing field by allowing smaller law firms to compete against more prominent and established legal practices. Through local SEO, you can target searchers within a specific location. Using localised keywords would enable you to generate interest amongst local prospects looking for the services you offer. 

Compared to targeting audiences at a national level, optimising your website for local search can significantly reduce the amount of competition you need to go through. Also, it provides you with a better chance of ranking for search terms such as “top criminal lawyer in London” than “top criminal lawyer”. 

4. Other law firms are doing it

While you may not be interested in using SEO, there’s a significant chance that a handful of your competitors already are. If they have an earlier head-start and they already have an effective SEO campaign in place, their search rankings are likely considerably better than yours. 

Studies showed that law offices on the topmost position on search result pages receive twice the number of clicks than those in the second position. Also, the number of clicks law firms get diminishes as they go further down the search result page. 

If you think being on the bottom of the first page of Google is terrible, try landing on the second page. Stats showed that 75% of searchers are less likely to go beyond the first page of Google. This means that if you’re not on the first page, the chances of potential clients seeing and visiting your website are slim to none. 

5. It helps ensure sustainable growth

SEO enables law firms to attract more calls and email enquiries, and even foot traffic into their offices without increasing their marketing spending. For this reason, optimising your website is perhaps the most economical and sustainable way to ensure your practice’s growth and success. 

Another way SEO promotes sustainable growth is through content marketing. Since SEO and content go hand in hand, any piece of web content that you publish can help drive traffic to your site, provided that it’s written well and offers value to your target audience. This means prospects are likely to continue sending you enquiries long after the content in question was created and posted online. You could generate traffic and leads without having to do anything. 

6. It strengthens your reputation

SEO also involves inspiring clients to leave positive reviews about your business, which can do wonders for your reputation and credibility. And since SEO encourages site owners to publish quality content online, it can help you establish your authority and showcase your legal expertise. Not only does this improve your image, but it also enables you to attract more potential clients. 

Start Developing an SEO Strategy for Your Law Firm Today!

As more people rely on the internet to find the services they need, being highly visible on major search engines, such as Google, is an effective way to attract potential clients. Therefore, if you’re still using traditional forms of advertising to promote your legal services, now is an excellent time to consider switching to SEO. 

At Kinetic Traffic, we specialise in providing SEO services for law firms. If you want to make your website more search engine-friendly, we are only happy to help. Don’t hesitate to contact our team and let us create an SEO strategy tailored for your practice.