Local SEO for Lawyers

Iā€™ve worked in the Local SEO space since 2005 and have worked on SEO for lawyers for nearly a decade. I was previously at an agency where I personally worked on over 60 law firm websites. Iā€™ve worked on personal injury, criminal defense, family law, probate, immigration, financial, and licensing defense, among other law firm websites. Iā€™ve worked with clients with budgets in the low 4 figures to healthy 5 figure per month budgets. I may be a solo Local SEO guy, but Iā€™m qualified to take your law firm SEO to the next level.

Local SEO for Lawyers 1

Why Does My Law Firm Need Local SEO?

Local SEO is what your law firm needs in order to be found online by potential clients who are searching for your services. Go to Google and perform a search for ā€œLawyer near meā€. What do you see? The market around your law firm is flooded with other lawyers (your competition) trying to steal as many potential clients from your business as they can. Competition is good for your clients as it provides them many options, though it is not ideal for your law firm. There is more pressure on your law firm to continue growing and keep new clients coming through the door. 

As a lawyer, you probably understand Law Firm SEO is cut-throat. The competition is fierce and spam is rampant. Attorney marketing is a highly competitive field where each client matters in order for your business to succeed. Marketing for law firms is difficult, and online marketing is even harder and more time-consuming. Take the guesswork out of law firm SEO, and hire a Local SEO professional.Ā 

SEO for lawyers is one of the most competitive verticals in Local SEO. There are dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of law firms competing for first page and Local Pack rankings. Only a select few are able to consistently generate solid leads from SEO. If you want great results from your law firm SEO, you need a great Local SEO strategy. I understand what it takes to attain leads in the highly competitive lawyer industry. 

How I can Help With Lawyer SEO Near You

Local SEO for Lawyers 2

Choosing an agency or person near you to handle your law firm SEO is difficult. There are dozens of companies promising Page 1 Google rankings and hundreds of monthly leads. How do you know who to trust for law firm SEO? How do you pick the right lawyer SEO? Here are a couple of questions to ask your potential attorney SEO partner:

How long have you worked on Lawyer websites?

This is not an end-all, be-all question though the agency/person in question should have some idea of how to rank a law firm website. Attorney SEO is a tough industry and is more difficult to rank websites than in other industries.Ā 

I have nearly 10 years experience in lawyer SEO near you, have ranked clients for hundreds of local keywords, put together large campaigns, and have ranked clients in highly competitive cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Diego, Memphis, Oklahoma City, and Miami among others.Ā 

Am I locked into a long-term contract?

I do not like contracts. I understand a basic need for them, though I try to avoid them when possible. Each client I work with pays a flat monthly fee which we agree upon when we begin working together. 

Do you guarantee rankings?

No. Guaranteed rankings are bullshit. Stay away from any agency which guarantees rankings. Itā€™s a scam.

How long will it take me to get higher rankings?

The most SEO answer ever – it depends. This answer depends on a variety of factors including the state of your website, do you want a new website, how much content you already have, how much you are willing to invest monthly, your competition, the market you are in, and the history of your website domain. 

There are times when an attorney can see incremental gains in 3 months. Other times, it may take 6 months to a year. Again, it depends on a variety of factors. Iā€™ll lay out a customized strategy for your law firm, be in contact monthly, and walk you through step by step of what Iā€™m doing and why. We both want this partnership to workā€¦.itā€™s in our best interest

What are the services you provide to lawyers?

  • Website design
  • Website development
  • Quarterly strategies
  • Local SEO
  • Technical SEO
  • Audits
    • Technical
    • Local 
    • Competition
    • Backlink
  • Link Building
  • Content Ideation
  • Content Creation
  • PR
  • Reporting

How much will this cost me?

Full transparency – SEO is not cheap. As more law firms enter the Local SEO game each month, the competition grows. Generally speaking, it will be very difficult for me to show your law firm much progress for under $2,000/month. Physical therapy and HVAC clients I have pay more than that as well, and those markets are not as saturated. For a single location law firm with 1 practice area, $2,500 per month is about average for law firm SEO. The more practice areas and locations, the higher the cost. It is not unheard of for larger firms to pay over $10,000 monthly for SEO services.Ā 

Why is law firm SEO so expensive?

Law Firm SEO is expensive for a few reasons. One, the competition amongst lawyers is fierce. There are only 8-10 spots on the first page of Google organically and 3 in the Local Pack to compete with. That is a minimal amount of real estate for potentially dozens of lawyers in 1 city. Two, in order to beat competing attorneys, it takes time, money, content, and technical know how. Third, creating white hat SEO strategies (playing by Googleā€™s rules and not attempting to game the system) is a long term play and is more difficult. 

Local SEO is expensive, similar to the cost of hiring a full time attorney at the firm. Know and understand this cost going into an SEO meeting. If you do not have a proper budget, donā€™t waste your time with SEO. It wonā€™t be worth it and you will simply say ā€œSEO doesnā€™t workā€.Ā 

Why should I trust that you are different than other SEO companies Iā€™ve already worked with?

  • Iā€™m not an agency. I know what works and what doesnā€™t with agencies. I’ve been there and done that. You will get the best of both worlds – a former agency guy who has the time and know how to get work done.
  • I have the experience from working in an agency. I’ve walked the walk and talked the talk with high profile lawyers. I’ve showed them the results. Ask for specifics and I would be happy to provide.
  • I provide a customized strategy catered to your law firm. This is not a cookie cutter approach which each law firm will get. We will work together to build your law firm SEO strategy.
  • I won’t work with your competitors. Have a select few clients and treat them as such.

Will Law Firm SEO work for me?

Local SEO for Lawyers 3

I understand what lawyer SEO takes and to rank attorney websites. Iā€™ve been on the agency side to see what works and what needs work. Iā€™ve worked with attorneyā€™s for the past 8 years. My results speak for themselves. That being said, Iā€™m not a fit for every lawyer and vice versa. Here is how we determine if we are a fit for each other.Ā 

Determine Law Firm SEO objectives

We need to have a discussion to determine what your SEO goals are. Do you have a budget in mind? Is the budget in line with expectations and potential results for the campaign? If I believe I have a solution which will help you meet your goals, we can move on. If not, no worries. We donā€™t need to waste each other’s time.

Evaluate Your website

Iā€™ll analyze your law firmā€™s website to determine what has been done and any improvements to be made. Having page 1 rankings on Google is a crucial first step to generating leads online, though if your website fails to convert visitors then you are wasting money and losing out on new cases to competitors. In addition, your website may be contributing to poor rankings and prevent you from ranking on Google depending upon which CMS you are currently using. 

Analyze Your Competition

Iā€™ll look at your competitors on the first page of Google to determine what we are up against. How much content do your competitors have compared to you? What about links? How is their SEO? Do they have any other strategic advantage?

Plan Your Strategy

Iā€™ll design a customized quarterly strategy tailored to your law firm in order to generate traffic, leads, and new clients. The plan will be designed to meet your law firm SEO goals within your desired budget.

My SEO Process

My Lawyer SEO approach is a bit different than others you may have previously seen. Hereā€™s a few ways Iā€™m different:

  • Iā€™m laid back, value time and results, and expect the same from you. 
  • I wonā€™t work with your competitors – mostly because that would be shitty for everyone involved.
    • I donā€™t want to compete with myself for ranking a similar business. 
  • I donā€™t like contracts (maybe to my detriment).
    • We work together month to month on a flat fee.
  • I work on your site every month.
    • Shocking? Maybe. The key to continued rankings and leads is to continue optimizing your website, creating content, and building links. 
  • I have a strategy you can see and adjust
    • You will be able to see everything I do and can have a say in your strategy

Here is a rough outline of what you can expect in the first 3 months we work together:

Month 1

The first month of work is making sure everything on your law firm website is foundationally and fundamentally correct. Think of digital marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as a house. You need a strong foundation to build the house on. If the foundation is not stable, the entire house will collapse. Digital marketing is very similar. If the proper processes and fundamentals are not implemented early on, your chances of success will be greatly diminished, or you will waste time going back to fix broken items in the future. I will perform a technical website audit as well as a Local SEO audit to determine where we stand in the first month.

Implementing tracking systems via Google Tag Manager and potentially other call tracking systems is key. Lastly, ensuring Google can access your website properly, find all of your pages, and come back to find new pages. This is all detailed in a list of more technical terms below: 

  • Technical website audit
  • Local SEO audit
  • Build Local Citations         
  • Pitch New Content Ideas      
  • NAP Consistency Audit        
  • Set Up Schema   
  • Linked GSC and GA       
  • Set up or Confirm Access to Google Analytics    
  • Plan for Reviews     
  • Set up GTM/test for click to call        
  • Get Access to and Optimize GMB Profile      
  • Ensure Bing Places is live and Accurate          
  • Set up a Google Alert to notify you every time the brand or attorney get mentioned 

Month 2

The second month activities is more about testing and verifying items on the website are working properly and all the tasks from Month 1 were implemented correctly. Testing forms, optimizing your mobile site for clicks and goals, optimizing your website for site speed. 

I will also be researching your competitors content, backlinks, and reviews. These will be the top 3 components in being able to consistently show up in the Google searches when people are searching for your services. 

  • Add Goal Tracking to Analytics 
  • Get Feedback on Blog Post/Practice Page Topics From Client         
  • Competitive Link Research               
  • Practice Area Page and Blog Post Content Research        
  • Site speed Optimization
  • Reviews
  • Running screaming from crawl to check for broken internal links 
  • Testing forms 
  • Optimize mobile for CTA            
  • Reviewing/testing forms for spam/captcha

Month 3

The 3rd month is about setting you up for success moving forward. Items like creating a reliable content plan for each month, determining any linkable assets, and continuing to study your competitors. Content which your (potential) clients are searching for needs to be created on a consistent basis. Keyword analysis, competitor research, and trends will all be reviewed and taken into account. 

I will also add internal links to your website. These are important and will allow Google to easily crawl your website from page to page, and come back more often. The more the Google spider is on your page (finding new pages, crawling old pages which are updated, finding new links) the better off your website will be. 

  • Linkable assets
  • Content calendar
  • Internal linking
  • Competitor Research (cont.)

Contact an Experienced Law Firm SEO Consultant Near You

Send me an email or connect via Twitter and so we can get the introā€™s out of the way. From there, we can jump on a call, or Skype. I look forward to meeting you! Maybe the stars will align and we can work on your attorney SEO!


    Law Firm SEO Reviews

    Check out what Mark had to say on Google:

    Brian is a great guy to work with. He is knowledgeable and up-to-date on the ever changing SEO market. From the beginning, he took time to understand my needs while researching my competition. He spend hours studying my industry and industry trends. After helping me with small website design changes, we drafted a strategy to organically increase the visibility of my website. With this “organic” strategy, there are no short cuts. Brian explained the process and stuck with me through each phase. With all his help, it felt more like a partnership than a business/client relationship. I highly recommend Brian and his services.

    Mark G.
    5/5 – ā­ ā­ ā­ ā­ ā­