How to make sure your law firm ranks “top three” on Google

It’s something even more important than Google Ads… local service ads… or organic searches:

Your Google Business Profile (GBP).

Because when you create your GBP, it generates a listing for your business on Google Maps.

And for an average Google search, the top three listings pulled from Google Maps (the “3-Pack”) at the top of the page account for over 50% of all clicks!

(No, that’s not a typo!)

This is why it’s crucial to set up your law firm’s GBP correctly.

Today, we’ll talk about the three major sections that make up your profile, plus best practices to follow for each.

1. Your primary category

To determine your primary category, search Google for law firms similar to yours.

For instance, if you search “Houston personal injury lawyer” and look at the top three Maps listings, you’ll see that their primary category is “Personal Injury Attorney.”

Make sure that your primary category matches the high-ranking profiles for your practice area.

Fill out two to three “additional categories” as well.

But, beware!

The primary category is far more important than the additional categories.

If you have two completely different major practice areas (e.g., your firm offers both Personal Injury and Criminal Defense), and want maximum visibility for both, then you’ll want to consider opening a separate office location or a separate Google Business Profile listing for each.

If this is impractical or impossible, then simply choose which practice area is more important to you for now and make that one the primary.

2. Your business name

Keywords in your business name are a massive ranking factor.

(You’ve probably seen high-ranking competitors add keywords to their name such as “law firm,“ “personal injury attorneys,” “criminal defense attorneys,” etc.)

However, many businesses abuse this by stuffing their name full of keywords. So it’s not uncommon for Google to suspend listings and ask for documents to verify your name.

To get around this, simply ensure those keywords are officially part of your business’s name, or as part of an alternate name under a DBA.

3. Your reviews

The two critical elements here are:

1. Quality of reviews
2. Recency of reviews

The total number of reviews matters as well, but slightly less so.

This offers a huge advantage for smaller law firms:

By prioritizing quality and recency of reviews, smaller law firms can often compete in rankings with bigger firms that have far more total reviews!

A bonus tip…

Make sure to fill out every section of your Google Business Profile listing.

This includes:

• Your website URL
• Your office address
• Your services and service area
• A link to schedule appointments
• Photos
• Social profiles
• Phone number(s)
• Opening date
• Description
• Hours of operation (24/7 is ideal)
• Whether you have an answering service
• Accessibility info (wheelchair-accessible, etc.)
• Amenities
• Questions and answers (it’s best if you can get people to ask questions you want to publicly answer, rather than waiting for random questions to come in)

Don’t leave anything blank!

And make sure to post updates to your profile at least once a week. This improves your SEO, boosts visibility, and ensures all information is up-to-date.

This is just a taste of the Google Business Profile strategies we share with our partners here at ApricotLaw.

We’re a full-service digital marketing partner for law firms looking to scale (and provide new business for their attorneys).

We scale your brand through:

• Implementing comprehensive organic SEO strategies to boost your rankings for targeted keywords.
• Supercharging your Google Business Profile with our “SEO Map Pack Strategy” to dominate local search results and get your firm’s listing in front of your ideal clients
• Hand-designed websites optimized for organic SEO traffic, to convert more leads from Google searches
• Layered content marketing for your website and social media, to position your firm as an authority in your area

If you’d like us to take a look at your law firm’s Google Business Profile to see how we can improve your Google search rankings…

Book a 15-minute discovery call with us.

We’ll be back with more from The Trusted Law Firm in your inbox every Tuesday and Thursday.