Guide to SEO for Family Lawyers
Search engine optimization (SEO) remains a highly effective online advertising technique that benefits businesses in different industries. Many companies still prefer to incorporate SEO because it continues to blend in with the aggressive nature of today’s digital landscape. This is why it has continued to be a top choice for decades.
Among the many fields that can benefit from SEO is family law. SEO can connect quality family law firms with people in immediate need of legal assistance, from divorce to child support. Most of the time, their needs are crucial, so reaching them through SEO is good for business and justice too.
Keep reading below to learn more about SEO for family lawyers. Plus, discover the perfect SEO marketing company for your business.
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Understanding SEO for Family Lawyers
Generally, search engine optimization (SEO) is an online advertising model that helps improve a website’s visibility or ranking in search engine results pages (SERP), most commonly Google and Bing. The higher the search engine ranking, the better the chances of reaching the target audience.
For instance, if an online user enters “divorce lawyer” in their Google search, your family law website could appear as one of the top choices in the SERP. That is if you optimize your site well. When you do, you increase your SERP visibility and drive more traffic to your site.
Of course, many elements contribute to a successful SEO campaign. Generally, search engines use bots to crawl websites to assess these particular elements. Plus, they go to other websites to collect more information on the specific site they’re crawling. After that, they will organize all information in an index. An index is like an organized directory of information that search engines access to provide users with the answers to their online queries.
Search engine algorithms will then analyze all the information in the index. They will look for various ranking factors to determine the order of the pages in the search results for a particular query.
Optimizing your site for SEO has a high chance of getting indexed well and read by algorithms properly, boosting them in the SERPs. Moreover, doing SEO combines various factors inside and outside a website.
The following are the common types of SEO that can help family law marketing boost their organic search and reach new clients. Generally, SEO involves balancing the following to achieve a successful campaign performance:
On-page SEO
Generally, on-page or on-site SEO refers to optimization activities of various elements within a website. That means optimizing content, HTML, and site architecture. This is where blog posts, images, title tags, and internal links come into play. It’s also where search engines pay close attention when ranking a particular site.
Off-page SEO
Off-page or off-site SEO are efforts or ranking factors conducted outside the website. Generally, these practices help earn links and visitors through platforms and techniques like social media marketing, guest posting, podcasting, and video marketing.
These strategies aim to build and promote a site’s authority, popularity, and credibility. One of the best examples is gaining backlinks. This is when authoritative websites promote another site or use them as a credible source for their content.
Technical SEO
Websites need technical optimization to provide a better user experience for visitors. Technical SEO refers to the site improvements that help search engine bots successfully crawl, understand, and index a website for future search queries. These improvements include creating an organized sitemap, mobile optimization, and adding structured data to a site.
Ignoring technical SEO can harm a site, considering search engines prefer sites with better technical optimization to those with poor optimization.
Learn more about SEO for your legal marketing by reaching out to our professionals at Grey Smoke Media. Our team of talented and resourceful professionals can offer you SEO marketing campaigns that perform well.
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SEO Tips for Family Lawyers
When done right, SEO can boost a site’s SERP ranking regardless of its industry. One of the challenging things about SEO is that new trends continue to emerge. Missing out on these trends could put your law firm’s website behind.
The following are some of the newest SEO tips to help family lawyers boost their online presence:
Conduct thorough keyword research
Keywords are among the most vital elements of an SEO campaign. These are words or phrases online users type in search engines to find relevant information for their search queries. By matching relevant keywords used by the target audience, you have a better chance of reaching them when they search online. To do that, you must conduct keyword research for your site.
Generally, keyword research is finding the correct search terms relevant to the topic and the target audience. It helps marketers narrow down target keywords to have a high chance of reaching potential clients. Plus, keyword research also widens the target search terms that businesses can use. For instance, instead of focusing only on the keywords “child support,” you can use other high-ranking search terms like “family law firm” or “divorce law.”
SEO professionals would start by stepping into an online searcher’s shoes and identifying keywords they might use. However, if you don’t know how to start your keyword research, various online tools can help you. These include programs from known SEO companies like Google, Ahrefs, and Moz. These tools can help you gauge the search volume of a particular keyword in your industry. Plus, they can help determine your competitors’ target words or phrases. Most of them also offer such features for free.
Optimize your site and off-site pages
Once you find the right keywords, utilize them inside and outside your website. That means apart from inserting them in web content, like blog posts, you must also use them on platforms like your law firm’s Google Business profile or social media pages. For example, besides optimizing your meta description, you should also optimize your company information in various off-site networks.
Optimizing these pages can help search bots crawl and index them better for the SERP. That means apart from your website, your Google My Business and Facebook profile can also appear in an online user’s search query.
Cater to search intent
Long-tail keywords are search terms used by online users near a point of sale or using voice search. These keywords are more specific than shorter ones and are often in the form of a question. For instance, instead of typing “child custody,” a long-term keyword user would try “where to find a child custody lawyer near me?”
There is a sense of urgency in long-tail keywords. This means optimizing your content for them is vital for reaching potential customers on the verge of making a decision. When you do, your website appears at the right time if someone needs a family law professional.
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in the Press
Jordan Whelan, a spokesperson for Diamond Lawyers and president of public relations agency Grey Smoke Media, told the Star Thursday night that “after consulting with counsel, we will be appealing the decision.”
Having worked with many brands in Canada, however, Jordan Whelan, president of Toronto-based Grey Smoke Media, doubts that his clients would embrace a programmatic exchange for podcast ads.
“Media buyers and marketing companies don’t want to stray from what’s working,” he said. As a media buyer for major Canadian brands, Whelan said that many are skeptical compared to similar media, such as radio.
I spoke to Jordan Whelan, Toronto Media Buyer at Grey Smoke Media and client of mine, who builds customized media campaigns. According to him, “ I’ve tested campaigns on Twitter that received more clicks but resulted in low conversions. Facebook capitalized on user psychology in a way that reached your target customer, despite the higher CPC.”
Featured in The Toronto Star
“‘We’ll get a client a media hit in a major news outlet and then also parlay that into getting them on page one of Google,’ he says, collaborating with search-engine-optimization experts in tandem.”
Read the full feature here >
Political clients (say John Tory for Mayor campaign) and leading law firms, including Personal Injury
Powerhouse and Diamond & Diamond Lawyers, trust Grey Smoke Media.
Give focus to backlinks
Backlinks or inbound links occur when one website links to a page from another website. For instance, people outside your law firm use your content as a source link to theirs. Using your link to boost their content’s credibility heightens your site further.
Through backlinks, search engines and online users will find that you’re an authority in your niche. Google considers backlinks a significant ranking factor in SEO, which means earning them helps boost your site in the SERP.
There are many ways to earn backlinks. Some take the easy route and ask for them or buy them. However, doing so is ineffective without publishing quality content. If you want other sites to consider you a trusted source, you must provide the content that helps establish your credibility in your field.
Ensure site speed
Quality content and excellent website design will be useless if the visitors leave before they even digest the first page of your site. Slow sites drive online users away. If they find that loading takes a few seconds to finish, they will look for relevant information elsewhere.
Many technical factors contribute to site speed. For example, the ideal image size for websites is 20 megabytes. Going over such a number will have an impact on your website speed. Remember that the average loading time for web pages should not be more than three seconds on desktop computers and eight seconds on mobile devices.
Other technical factors you must look into include web hosting, HTTP requests, lack of content distribution network (CDN), and outdated coding. For these elements, it’s best to connect with your web developer.
Repurpose old content
Constantly producing new content could exhaust your resources early. If you try to write unique articles weekly, you might eventually run out of topics or start to talk about the same things. Through content recycling, you expand your library and ensure that you publish regular content.
Content recycling means reusing elements from previously published materials and repurposing them into something new. For instance, you take a blog post and create a series of social media infographics or a video version that discusses the same topic.
Meanwhile, repurposing also means updating your previous content to optimize it for various digital marketing and content marketing techniques today. For example, you take a blog post and apply the latest SEO trends to it, so it stays relevant for today’s online searches. Furthermore, when repurposing old content like blog posts, you should also update their source links to make them relevant to new search intents. This way, you ensure that even your old content is reliable today.
Boost social media presence
Aiming for an excellent social media presence is one of the best off-page SEO strategies you should try. While social media isn’t a ranking factor in SEO, it does help boost a site’s online image and reach. For instance, sharing a recently published article on your social media pages helps engage existing customers and invite potential ones.
Besides reach, using social media also boosts your opportunity to gain backlinks. Users who find your content trustworthy might share it on their social media pages. Because of this, you increase your online presence while expanding your reach.
Moreover, having a social media presence is vital to build trust with your target audience. To online users, having an active social media page contributes to a brand’s credibility, especially if they post quality content. If you want to connect and engage with your target audience, having an active social media page can help. When you do and promote your website in the process, you can increase your traffic.
Contact Grey Smoke Media for more expert SEO advice. Besides providing professional tips like the ones mentioned above, we also offer high-performing SEO for family law and other industries.
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Common SEO Mistakes To Avoid
SEO continues to evolve over time. It’s become so intricate that making a minor mistake could negatively impact your site’s SEO performance.
With that in mind, here are some of the common SEO mistakes you should avoid:
Disregarding competitor performance
Competitor analysis can help ensure your SEO success. Since digital marketing data has become more accessible, expert marketers can conduct thorough competitor SEO analysis to gauge which keywords work best in their industry. Ignoring such numbers can cost you various opportunities to reach your target audience.
Most of the time, marketers copy off their competitors’ strategies to ensure better rankings. This means using the exact keywords, content forms, and multiple targets, which you can only determine through competitor analysis.
Not doing a site audit
A site audit helps you look for issues that may disrupt your visitor’s user experience and drive them away. These issues include slow site speed, duplicate content, and broken links. By skipping site audits, you allow these problems to hinder your target audience from engaging with your site and help it to rank higher in the SERPs.
Buying backlinks
Earning backlinks from thorough link building and other practices means your site’s becoming authoritative in your niche. This means other sites and online users find your content a reliable source of information. When you become a trustworthy source online, search engines can increase your ranking in the SERPs. Meanwhile, buying backlinks to increase your ranking is not the way to go.
Google doesn’t explicitly prohibit sites from buying or selling links. They acknowledge that if sites do so for advertising purposes, it’s not a violation of their guidelines. However, they can detect and penalize sites that purchase links to manipulate rankings. If you try to buy links to increase your SERP ranking, Google will consider your actions spammy and prevent your site from gaining higher ranks. Instead, it will prioritize other sites over yours.
“Marketing tactics of the
elite class”
Ignoring analytics
SEO is more than publishing content regularly and targeting specific keywords. You must learn how to interpret your SEO data to determine what works and doesn’t in your campaign. Not knowing how your site performs wastes time, effort, and money, especially if your campaign performs poorly.
Keyword stuffing
Keyword stuffing is an outdated SEO technique where marketers insert as many of the same search terms as possible in their content. Today, Google considers keyword stuffing a negative ranking factor because they see it as an attempt to manipulate rankings. If you conduct keyword stuffing on your site, Google will rank it lower in the SERPs.
Moreover, most keyword stuffing could produce awkward placements that sound grammatically incoherent. When this happens, your authority could be significantly affected.
SEO can be challenging for beginners. Contact our SEO experts at Grey Smoke Media if you want conversions with fewer risks.
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Why Hire an SEO Professional
There are various practice areas that SEO beginners need to master to achieve excellent results. While there’s nothing wrong with businesses exploring or conducting SEO themselves, it’s still ideal to trust professionals for quality campaigns.
SEO companies know the ins and outs of the industry. They’re well aware of emerging trends that help businesses in all industries increase their rankings in the SERPs. This means they can ensure that your strategies and content are relevant to modern SEO.
Moreover, SEO agencies know how to interpret data from multiple metrics on previous or existing campaigns. Because of this, they can create a strategy that fits their clients. For example, they can analyze your competitors and find the right target keywords for your family law SEO campaigns. Plus, they can ensure that your site promotes quality user experience.
Furthermore, they can help make your site authoritative in your niche. They can help produce high-quality content that will make your site a reliable source of information.
Professionals like those from Grey Smoke Media provide various SEO services to help your law firm reach potential clients. Contact us for quality law firm SEO campaigns so you can focus more on your family law practice.
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“Grey Smoke Media is exceptional and in a league of its own. Jordan has played a pivotal role in our explosive growth over the past decade. His raw creativity is inspiring.”
Jeremy Diamond
Senior Partner,Diamond and Diamond Lawyers
“Grey Smoke Media took me from 50 keywords on page one to over 250, more than doubling my traffic, in just 8 months. They are more than an agency. They are a business partner that I can depend on at 10pm on a Sunday. Their work is beyond reproach.
Barry Nussbaum
Owner of Nussbaum Family Law
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Thomas Grajek
Criminal Defense Attorney
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Boost Your Family Law Site’s SEO Performance
Despite many emerging digital marketing tools and techniques, SEO continues to be one of the best practices that benefit businesses from all industries. It’s an intricate process that, when done right, can establish a site as a credible business with an authoritative online presence.
Put your family law firm ahead of the competition and connect to more people in need with SEO. Trust the professionals and contact Grey Smoke Media for quality SEO services and other marketing strategies that skyrocket businesses in a fast-paced digital environment.
FAQs on SEO for Family Lawyers
There’s no definite timeline for when a site ranks higher in SEO. It takes time and effort before a site builds and earns all the necessary factors that search engines consider. Generally, it could take six months to a whole year.
Apart from target keywords, you should also look into your competitor’s on-page SEO, traffic, engagement, and backlinks. When gauging your competitor’s performance, metrics like domain score could also come into play. If you want thorough competitor analysis, it might be better to partner with an SEO marketing agency.
An SEO company is complete with a team of professionals, from writers to data analysts, that can help you produce quality campaigns. On the other hand, hiring employees to build your own could cost a significant portion of your business. You have to worry about individual wages, benefits, and training, among other things. Investing in SEO services from agencies can be short-term or long-term, depending on your needs. This means you won’t have to pay people monthly.
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