How Local Search Works for Law Firms

Local search is the best way for search engines to help their users at this point – and if you’re a lawyer, that’s great news. Few people in NYC want to search for an attorney in Los Angeles, and if they do, they’ll include it in their search queries.

Google, Bing and Yahoo all have local search capabilities built into their algorithms, so the right clients will naturally find you… as long as you’re delivering the right kinds of results.

What is Local Search?

Local search responds to users based on where they’re located. An explicit local search, such as “personal injury lawyer Newark” or “criminal defense lawyer San Diego” would deliver results that matched the user’s query.

An implicit local search is a bit more complex. Your IP address and, if you’re logged into the site you use for search (including their mail service, such as Gmail or Ymail), tell the search engine where you are. If you’re looking for a service that’s typically provided locally, the search engine will deliver local results.

Here’s what happens on Google when you’re logged in and you do a simple search for the term “restaurant.”

How Does Local Search Benefit Law Firms?

When someone searches for an attorney who performs your services and they’re logged in, it’s possible that you can come out on top. However, there’s a catch: your site has to be indexed and put together properly so that the search engines recognize its usefulness.

Your site has to have:

• Great content that gives readers real value
• A responsive, easy to navigate design
• Powerful incoming links that propel your site to a position of authority in the SERPs
• Lightning-fast load times

Local search can be incredibly beneficial to law firms – as long as you’re doing the things you need to do to please Google. Ultimately, what pleases Google are the same things that please their users. Making sure that you’re on top of the latest algorithm updates and that your site is taken care of by the leading law firm SEO experts in the country can make a huge difference for your firm when it comes to local search.