5 Seo Tips for Beginners

Key takeaways:

• SEO continues to be one of the most important types of marketing for law firms.
• You must conduct research for a comprehensive strategy.
• Always focus on Google’s E-E-A-T methodology.
• Array Digital can help your website perform well. Check out our SEO tips for beginners to get started.

Despite what you may have heard, search engine optimization (SEO) is more than just adding keywords to your web content. SEO delivers the most relevant information to a user’s search query online and works to enhance your law firm’s digital marketing efforts.

While word-of-mouth is an excellent way to gain new business, it is also important not to forget about those consumers who are using Google (and Bing or other search engines) to find services you may provide. Since there are over 200+ factors that go into how a site will rank, it is best to hire a legal SEO agency to optimize your site accordingly.

In the meantime, we have devised quick SEO techniques your law firm can implement independently to yield better organic search results.

A Brief Explanation of Google’s Content Quality Standards

Google’s most recent helpful content update is focused heavily on a journalist-style blog. The focus continues to be to provide searchers with the most accurate and straightforward information possible. Yet, credibility is everything. Google’s heavy focus on E-E-A-T standards is critical for attorneys to consider.

Google is using experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E, E, A, T) to determine the quality of the content on law firm websites. Everything you create must demonstrate, beyond a doubt, that you are providing highly credible information based on your experience and expertise in an authoritative and trustworthy manner.

Seo Tip #1: Optimize for Local Search

Create a Google Business Profile (formerly called Google My Business) for free with your address, phone number, hours of operation, and company information listed on it.

This allows your law firm to control what Google shows users in search results and makes it easier to find your firm’s location in Google Maps.

Do the following steps to your Google Business Profile:

• Add photos of your location and attorneys.
• Allow for customer reviews or testimonials (you can repurpose these on your website, too!)
• Incorporate some target keywords that outline what your law firm practices.
• Answer questions.

While you should be incorporating SEO best practices into your content, it’s critical to write content that resonates with users. For example, break down an important topic related to divorce. Be sure to include local references in your content if possible.

Seo Tip #2: Create Keyword-rich Blog Posts Using Research

Search algorithms are designed to mimic human search patterns when looking for online content. Google bots crawl and index websites frequently when new content is regularly posted. Since fresh content ranks higher in search engines and higher-ranking pages get more views, it is a smart idea to start utilizing your website’s blog by publishing relevant industry information your consumers expect to find.

Incorporate these strategies into your blog posts:

• Long-tail keywords are often best. These are longer but also are designed to provide very helpful content to a person looking for the information you offer.
• Incorporate keywords in the title tags, meta description, page title, and headings on each of your blogs.
• Incorporate local SEO into your pages, including step-by-step information about local courts or local laws. Make it as local as possible.
• Know your search volume for various keywords. Do your research and know your metrics based on what your clients are looking for when they are using search terms. Relevant keywords for search rankings are critical – but you may not know them all.
• Skip the bad SEO tactics. There’s no quick way to make this work!

Seo Tip #3: Create Internal Links and Encourage Backlinks

Link building is a core component to both improving user experience and ranking in search engines. It should be a part of your SEO strategy for several reasons.

• When you link web pages to each other, you encourage Google’s crawlers to organically move through the site and better understand the intent of each page.
• Linking also benefits your website users, as related links help to educate them deeply on an issue you can help them with.

A large component of internal linking includes topic clusters. You may hear them called content hubs or pillar pages. They are topical pages grouped together to cover a specific area of content to help with rank.

For example, you may have:

• Personal injury law pillar page
• Car accident personal injuries as a cluster page
• Bike accident personal injuries as a cluster page
• Filing a car accident claim as a cluster page
• Wrongful death after a car accident as a cluster page

Each of these pages is then linked to each other, supporting each other in Google’s algorithm.

Not only do these pages help with on-page SEO and Google rankings, but they also are often packed with great content. High-quality content on these pages accomplishes two goals:

• It helps Google to see that you’re an authority on these target keywords.
• It helps visitors to your site to move to more in-depth content that ultimately leads them to contact you, securing you a lead.

Seo Tip #4: Optimize Your Content to Gain Featured Snippets

Have you heard of “position zero?” It’s the featured snippet that shows up at the very top of the search engine results page (SERP). This snippet is above everything else on the page and offers huge benefits:

• You’re above everything else on the page.
• Snippets are super quick, clear, and concise bits of information to answer the questions of searchers.
• They can drive highly valuable searchers to your website as organic traffic – you’re not paying for this spot.

The best way to land that position zero is to use the journalistic structure:

• Ask a question that people are searching for – knowing search intent here is critical.
• Answer that question in the first paragraph of the page.
• Use the rest of the page to support that question with added information.
• Use FAQs to help support this as well.

Optimizing your content to reach the first page is always the priority. But when you can get to the top of Google search results with featured snippets, the benefits often include a greater percentage of leads that convert.

Seo Tip #5: Image Optimization

Alt tags exist so those who are visually impaired can still interact with multimedia elements on your website. Including alt tags on images is another easy way for you to potentially boost your site’s ranking position. Photos with alt tags are more likely to appear in image-based search engines, like Google Images, and are a good source for receiving more organic traffic to your website. Keep the following in mind:

• Be sure to optimize your photos, including using alt text that includes keywords.
• Don’t slow down page speed. If the loading speed is too long, people will click away from your site.
• Use keywords in your image optimization.

Ai Image Use

Images help sell your services to your clients. It’s tempting to find ways to quickly produce images, but you should be careful with AI image generation.

Pros:

• It’s definitely fast to set up.
• It’s cheap, too.
• The images are likely to be unique.

Cons:

• Uncanniness — There’s a point where AI looks close to human but not quite there, and this is what gives it that “creepy” feeling, which you definitely don’t want to portray on your law firm website.
• Makes your content feel less like it was created by people
• AI can be difficult to manage to get just what you want.
• There are ethical concerns about the AI datasets used to create these images (if the dataset is using artists’ work without their consent, that could impact you).

We don’t have any data yet on the way people engage with AI images. AI can be useful, but be cautious when using it as it does pose risks.

What Law Firms Gain From Our Expertise

Array Digital strives to provide our clients with the support they need for lasting SEO growth. To do that, we create strong digital marketing strategies using the best SEO tools to drive results.

Testimonials

“The entire team at Array Digital is amazing! They are incredibly knowledgeable and very quick to respond to their clients’ needs or concerns. If you are looking for a professional team to handle your website, I definitely recommend them!!!” — Donna T.

“Array Digital has built an awesome website for our law firm and has used SEO to move us to the top of the page on Google. Two of our best recent settlements were for clients who found us on Google which is a direct result of the great work Array Digital has done for us. They are true professionals who know their stuff!” — James K.

Start Your Seo Journey With Array Digital

There is so much more to consider about SEO. It’s certainly a journey that often requires help from professionals.

Contact Array Digital now to learn more about our services made specifically for attorneys.