Search engine optimization (SEO) isn't a common industry term in law. It is, however, a common term in attorney marketing. In order for a firm to save time and money by setting up their own marketing automation, they have to be recognizable, professional, and visible. The best way for them to do that is through SEO, which determines what keywords they need to include, as well as governing where in a search engine their site is ranked. If people aren't seeing your site, they don't know who you are. In an age where 80% of clients on average will look you up online, you want to be sure that everyone in your area and beyond knows who you are. The best way to accomplish that is by ensuring that your SEO is up to par. There are a number of reasons for that, and a number of ways to accomplish it. We'll cover three of both in this article, so that you know why it's important and how to accomplish it.
Why Should You Worry About SEO?
1. Visibility
As I mentioned above, over 80% of prospects using the internet will look up goods and services before they pay for them. This means you have to be visible and look professional and well-maintained. Because of the importance laid on that it merits more explanation. If your clients are looking for an attorney and seeing competitors, they will likely go with the best looking website on the first page of a given search engine. This assumes of course, that the lawyer or firm specializes where they need to, but it is no less true. You have to be visible to compete. Search engines are the primary method of looking for anything online, and therefore SEO is your best bet to be seen. SEO will also help you to change how you're visible. By optimizing your site with various keywords, you'll be able to show your prospects that you know exactly what they're looking for, and that you have the answers they need. This is doubly true if you have a company or practice blog.
2. Customer Impression
If your site is well put together with an appealing design and appropriate keywords you will appear professional and knowledgeable. This is important because if you were at the top of the search results with a website that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the initial search, customers may leave. On top of that if your site isn't well designed and professional, customers may believe that it isn't a legitimate site and leave. SEO plays a large role in choosing what keywords to use on your homepage to show your customers your specialty.
3. Structure
If you post on your own blog, or have never operated one before, in some ways you may struggle at times to decide what your firm should put out there for prospects to read. Ideas might cease, or you may be too busy with other things to do up a plan for your marketers. This is where SEO can provide a bit of structure to your operation. SEO is constantly changing, based on what people are searching, and also based on which terms are most relevant at the time. By checking on that, the unlikely event of lacking content ideas is solved. You have a wide array of subjects, and the terms are restrictive enough to provide a general direction without demanding your writers bang out a terribly specific piece they may not have anything to work with on.
As for how you can accomplish SEO efficiency, you need three things to succeed. You need a good SEO tracking software that can tell you what the most popular search terms are, and determine average length and word count for your blog posts. This software will help you to track your rankings on specific terms, which terms are most relevant, and more. You also need an employee trained in SEO itself to help you direct your marketing and writing in the correct ways, as well as to understand the analysis presented by the software. Finally, you need a blog, or some other multi-paged digital content base. That content base will be the receptacle for all of your content going forward, and display the best efforts of your combined SEO and content writing into something that will connect with prospects, and make them feel safe and valued. These might seem small, and in truth they are just a small part of your marketing plan. They are however, very important. They will determine the success of a substantial amount of your customer interactions, since without SEO a significant portion of prospects wouldn't see your site.
For more information on legal marketing, have a look at the page we've custom built for legal marketing, and if you want to look into marketing automation you can have a look a the other content we have posted to that industry page, or at our marketing automation page.
