Many lawyers experience some confusion (& understandably so) about the best ways to stand out in today’s world. To be noticed online seems time consuming and thankless, especially when you are already a working professional. Using the best lawyer SEO practices relevant for today will help to ensure that your time is well spent and your practice is visible.
LinkedIn for Lawyers
LinkedIn is designed for professionals to network online. It has its own rules that keep members responsible and can make your business visible if used correctly. Law firms should seriously consider creating a LinkedIn page and then having every member of the firm update or make their own LinkedIn profile.
Your law firm’s page should contain important company information, list your legal staff, and mention any groups it is a member of. Listing groups lets prospective and current clients know that your firm is actively participating in a community and that you are reachable.
Individual lawyers should take the time to make an interesting profile. As with firms, show any groups that you are a part of. If you are not part of any local social groups or activities, then look for some and join them.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a law firm or an individual lawyer, post and like other people’s comments and interact through the network. This can offer some of the best lawyer SEO boosting possible.
Twitter for Lawyers
Twitter is obviously a huge network, so create another professional, yet personally-appealing, profile and get tweeting. Start following similar accounts and share new information publicly. If you are part of a firm, or you network with other attorneys, then share with them and re-tweet each other’s content. This type of activity helps to set you apart from the rest and can make you the go-to person for that subject: a subject matter expert on social media.
Websites for Attorneys
One of the best lawyer SEO practices is to create a responsive website. Everyone, including Google, is surfing mobile, and you need to as well. There are many excellent-looking, responsive templates available that will ensure your site looks good on a desktop or a mobile phone.
A great-looking site to link to your social profiles is a must. It serves as an anchor point and the link juice will make your site rise in the search engine results. Find out more about why organic efforts are important in this post.
Legal Blogs
Once you have a nice website setup and connected, it is time to build your blog. Keep your blog as part of the website and do not build it anywhere else.
SEO Tip: It is always the best policy to make sure all your online activity drives clients to your site, rather than a microsite or other online home.
This is a major best lawyer SEO practice because this is where you get the most link juice to rise in the search engines. All articles you write should have a version of them made into blog posts using keywords and good titles. Once the articles are posted, share the post by commenting on the social networks about the subject and link to the post. This drives awareness to you from the social networks and the search engines, again ensuring you get the best SEO possible.
If people cannot understand you, they will not stick around to read you. When you’re writing and networking, do not use technical/legal jargon or shorthand. Write in the vernacular, but do so intelligently.
There are many ways to use the aforementioned best lawyer SEO practices, but starting with these major ones will put you ahead faster.