Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, has been one of the biggest digital marketing focuses for attorneys for nearly a decade. SEO is unfortunately challenging for many firms to do well, as it takes a long time for your site to rank well on Google or other search engines. This is especially true for small or mid-sized firms who don’t have the resources or budget to have a full-time marketing staff. If SEO is still a part of next year’s marketing strategy, here are some tips you can try to increase your website’s revenue in 2019 and beyond.
Focus on User Intent
More and more Google works on determining what users actually want online. If you’re not providing consumers high-quality content that answers their questions, you won’t perform well on search results. For example, if a high percentage of people find your website and immediately leave, Google may penalize you accordingly and put other firms’ websites ahead of yours on search results.
Quality Over Quantity
Much like focusing on user intent, Google and other search engines want you to provide high-quality content for your users. Long gone are the days where adding dozens of pages of content on the same subject or keyword stuffing will bring you a lot of traffic. If you’re pressed for time, it’s usually favorable to add one lengthy blog post (think 1,500 words) than three shorter ones if the content quality isn’t as good with short articles. Just keep in mind your SEO best practices—make content easy to read, break up your article with images and lists, and always have a call to action!
Optimize for Voice Search
Voice search will make up half of all searches by 2020. If your firm isn’t considering voice search as an important component for your SEO campaign, you’ll miss out on an incredible amount of traffic. One of the biggest challenges for legal marketers is knowing how voice search differs from normal search.
A fundamental difference is when most people use Siri or any other voice search tool, they speak to the search engine as if they’re talking to a close friend. This means working your content to specifically answer questions in lieu of optimizing for keywords will help. You can use tools like Answer the Public to see what types of voice search questions claimants are actually asking.
The Biggest Challenge With SEO
One of the biggest hurdles to overcome with any SEO campaign is waiting. It will take at least six months for new content to start gaining a significant amount of traffic on Google, and even then attorneys in saturated areas of law may never be able to outrank nationwide firms. Personal injury attorneys in particular will have their work cut out for them when trying to rank for high-volume keywords and queries.
If you need cases now, consider working with a lead provider and supplementing your SEO efforts. To learn more about eGeneration’s Social Security disability, personal injury, workers’ comp, and employment law leads, just give us a call today at 617.800.0089.