Using Google Search Console to Increase Your Firm's Profitability

Submitted by lgd on Fri, 10/12/2018 - 11:00

When someone searches for “attorneys in Florida,” do you ever wonder why some firms show up on the first page of Google, but you don’t? What do you need to do so that your law firm appears on there too?

Potential claimants are looking for information about legal services in their area, but how are they going to find your site if you aren’t using all the tools Google provides you to help you rank in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)?

This is where Google Search Console (GSC) comes in. GSC offers powerful SEO tools that will help your website rise in the ranks on its search engine (and it’s 100% free to use!)

GSC will provide you with information that will help you understand whether your current marketing tactics are working for your site.

Consider questions such as: Does Google perceive your content as originally intended? Do you have broken links on your website you weren’t aware of? How about 404 errors or 301 redirects? Are your keywords ranking well, or do you need to make adjustments?

Using this fundamental SEO tool means that you will have better control over efforts to optimize your site. Here are just a few ways you can increase your organic search presence with GSC:

Improving Your Click Through Rate

Under the performance report in GSC, you’ll have access to how many times your firm’s website is displayed for a specific query, and how often people are clicking through to your site. As long as you provide users with high-quality content, you will notice a higher click through rate (CTR) and visibility on the search engine.

If you’re looking to generate more leads from potential clients, this is a great way to do so. You can also pinpoint inefficient pages on your website by using the performance report.

For example, let’s say you have 100,000 impressions (potential views) per month for the keyword “personal injury attorney Georgia,” but your CTR is just 0.1%. This means just 1 out of every 1,000 users are clicking on your website when they’re seeking Georgia PI attorneys! Once you’ve used GSC to identify ineffective pages or queries, you can work on optimizing your pages, whether it be changing the meta description or title tags.

Identifying Problems On Your Site

Your website appearance will also strongly depend on a number of code snippets, such as rich cards, HTML corrections, and frameworks. GSC will immediately notify you if there is a serious issue on your site.

It provides you with the tools to make these corrections without having to go to the backend of your website! Unless you’re an SEO wizard, this is one of the easiest ways to optimize your site to help increase your organic traffic.

GSC will also tell you when your website has been hit by a manual Google algorithm update penalty. If you invest any time in SEO, you’ll be aware of all the potential for seach penalities and the potential of your site being removed from Google’s search results entirely. The sooner you know something’s wrong, the faster you can get your firm’s site up and running.

Ranking for Rich Snippets With the Data Highlighter

This is one of the best tools GSC has to offer. It makes it incredibly easy to implement structured data. It’s also really simple to use.

All you have to do is enter the URL of any page or post on your website and then select the category of your page (ie. “article,” “service,” “event,” “product,” and others). Google then analyzes that specific page and allows you to “highlight” various elements, such as title tags, images, authors, dates, and categories.

If you aren’t familiar with adding structured markup or schemas on the backend of your site, this is a great alternative. It gets the job done quickly and easily. Below is an example of what the data highlighter would look like once the URL is submitted.

Why is highlighting your data important? Once Google can better understand your content, you’ll have a higher chance of showing up in different types of search results, like rich snippets.

The Value of Rich Snippets

Similar to data highlighting, Google has created a new way to present previews of your website on the search results page. Now, you have the opportunity to attract more users to your page. As an example, we searched for attorneys in Florida. Google showed results list with normal snippets and rich snippets.

A normal snippet on Google is a common search engine result, featuring only a title and a meta description. But, a rich snippet adds extra information, such as star ratings and reviews, which can be useful and draw attention to users.

Sometimes rich snippets also include images and prices, depending on your services or what your content is about. Because of the extra information rich snippets provide users, it’s known to produce higher CTRs.

HTML Improvement

There’s always room to improve your site’s performance. From identifying duplicate meta descriptions to missing title tags, GSC is a great tool to use to fix errors on your site. GSC will send you notifications about issues such as 404 errors and 301 redirects. Take advantage of this section on GSC to make sure your pages are fully optimized to enhance user experience.

If you care about showing up on Google’s search engine, you should take advantage of this impressive free SEO tool. The data provided on GSC will make it easy for you to create an action plan to improve your organic traffic moving forward.