SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s used to increase the search rankings on websites so they appear in search better than other sites. This is done by using a certain set of keywords that the website or business owner wants to rank for. This is done mostly by having a blog on the site with various articles with those keywords, by building high-quality links that lead to the website, and other things. A lawyer with their website would benefit from SEO because it gets more eyes on their services. There are several things that a lawyer can do to increase the SEO for their website. Let’s go over 3 of them.
1. Use keyword phrases that people actually use
Researching which keywords to rank for is the longest and most complicated process in SEO. This is because ranking for the wrong keyword and sinking months or even years of SEO work into it would get a website nowhere. A lawyer should choose keywords and keyword phrases that normal people use.
Lawyers are used to speaking in a more educated manner and this isn’t how they should write for their website or keywords. The average person on the internet reads at a 7th-grade level. While they may way more be educated than this, they don’t want to stress their brains out reading college-level material.
A good example of this is practice is the medium page for Douglas Healy. Douglas is a lawyer and arranges his medium page to be easily read.
2. Be “mobile-first”
It’s no secret that more and more people are going on their mobile devices to read and watch online content. This is true for looking up information as well. A very forward-thinking strategy for a lawyer is to make their website mobile friendly and make it to where search engines recognize it.
A lot of this is involved in how user-friendly your website is for mobile users. If a lawyer isn’t very tech-savvy, then they can outsource this out to a web designer. A good web designer will know exactly what to do to make a website more mobile dominate instead of desktop dominate.
It’s important to remember that mobile doesn’t mean smartphone. This can be a tablet, laptop or any other device that doesn’t require to be in one location, like a desktop. Some search engines do list “m dot” websites differently. This is used as a designation for mobile versions of sites. It’s better to have a website that is not designated like this as the way they are handled is very different. A good website designer will know the difference.
3. Link building
Link building means that other websites are linking certain keywords to your site. One of the things that search engines look at it how spammy and trustworthy a site is. This is measured in a number of ways and links is one of them.
If a prominent source links back to your site, then this would increase your site’s trustworthiness and have it rank better on search engines. An example could be a prestigious school using the keyword “well-known contract lawyer” and using your site URL link as an anchor link to link to your site. As these types of prominent links are built a website’s ranking will increase over time. It may take a long time but it is worth it.
Some other link building tips for a lawyer is to have internal links on their own site. For example, a lawyer could have a link to their services or contact page in a blog post on their site. This way as someone reads a little tidbit about the lawyer or something else then they could click on that link. This would also increase user experience and retention. Both of these things are very important in search engine optimization and increasing traffic.
4. Putting it all together
SEO is very important for any business person. A lawyer should look at heir website as their first line of marketing and treat SEO as serious as anything else. A good practice is to do proper keyword research. Mobile dominant and friendly websites are much better than desktop only. A good example of these rules in action is the medium site with Douglas Healy. When all of these SEO tips are applied a lawyer can increase their web traffic and business