Using SEO focused content to connect with potential clients online is more necessary than ever for law firms today. Google will allow your potential customers to find you quickly, and convey information about your services in a way that is direct and nearly instant.
People use Google to find everything they need, solicitor’s services included. But there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to online promotion. Google is partly to blame for this, as they change what is favoured by their algorithms from time to time.
Loading SEO keywords into your pages used to be a lot more important than it is now. Presently an approach that favours content over “gaming” Google will get you a lot further, and create an effective means of promoting your legal practice.
Think Content
Organic lead generation is something of a holy grail in online marketing. When people find your business on their own, they are a lot more likely to convert to your services, than if they were lured in by an advert. For a solicitor this means creating content that is relevant to your practice; that potential clients are going to look for on Google.
Hosting a blog on your website is a good way to do this, and it allows you to easily draw potential clients to your site without paying for advertising on a per click basis. For example if you deal in family law, penning blog posts that deal with your most common case types (and most frequently asked questions) will help people to find your business when they are looking for relevant services.
In addition to your site being viewed by a potential client, informational blog posts reinforce your position as a competent authority. You will want to integrate keywords that a potential client would use in a search, but your content needs to be far broader in scope than a simple vehicle to carry keywords.
Know Your Market
Most legal firms in the UK deal in a limited geographical area, so you need to use this to your advantage. When you design your marketing strategy, use headlines to draw results for your service area. By using targeted keywords, you will improve your chances of being seen on the first search page.
For example, if you are a solicitor based in Leeds and deal in wills and trusts, you would want to create headlines like this:
“Leeds Trust Law; Some Important Things To Consider”
And not something like this:
“Trust Law; Some Things To Consider”
While the content of the piece would probably be very similar, by employing geographical keywords, you are far more likely to be seen by people in your area – i.e. by potential prospects. A person reading your article in Aberdeen is more likely to choose the services of a local solicitor.
Google has an enormous reach, but in most cases your clients will be in your community. Making sure that you isolate the region that is most likely to convert to your services will give you a higher ROI. This can’t be artificial. When writing local content, be sure to address the needs of the local people and businesses you serve. Keep an awareness of local legal requirements and answer these questions in your blogs.
More Than Keywords
In most cases a legal firm will be staffed by people who are not experts in online marketing. This means that while you and your staff will be invaluable in creating relevant content, you may need some help using it online.
The infrastructure for hosting a website and blog for a solicitor doesn’t need to be complex. However, getting the most out of your content based marketing can be more difficult without professional help. An advertising marketing agency like JDR can help you to craft content that will draw potential customers to your business, and do their best to have it featured prominently in organic search results.
You can also use the keywords that get you results to market your practice with AdWords, and here too we can help you to create synergies that generate more value for your practice. There are a number of analytics that internet marketers use to optimise spending. Practices like tracking leads that convert, and heat-mapping areas of interest, can go a long way to improve your content creation and keyword selection.
Google can be a tremendous asset for your legal practice, and a well-executed SEO based content marketing campaign is one of the best way to create organic leads. People turn to their smartphones before anything else, so make sure your practice is featured prominently on their results page.
