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365 Marketing Tips for Law Firms: Everything You Need to Know to Win Online

When you’re busy running your practice, you don’t have time to scour the web learning about search engine optimization. Even if you do have time, it’s tough to sort through page after page of advice to get one valuable nugget of information – and many times, the advice you’ll find online is dated and no longer works.

Are you aware that Google makes continual upgrades to its algorithms, and that practices that used to put sites on top in the search engine results pages will now get your site sent to the bottom of the pile?

That means you have to take a proactive stance on Internet marketing if you expect to outshine your competitors (and let’s face it; there’s a lot of competition for law firms on the search engines).

The Hottest SEO / Marketing Tips for Law Firms

365 actionable ideas that are up-to-date and reflect Google’s latest algorithm changes, SEO Tips for Law Firms is broken into six sections so you can zero in on what your firm needs most:

  • Content Creation. The more information visitors can find on your website, the better off you’ll be. This list tells you what readers want and how you can attract the right visitors with keywords.
  • Link Building. Like a wall of protection from frequent Google algorithm updates, link building can help shield your site from being penalized. This list will teach you how to build quality backlinks and help you build up your authority in all the major search engines.
  • On-Site SEO. Law Firm SEO is a three-step process: keyword research, landing page creation and SILOing. You’ll discover secrets from the pros that can help improve your rank on the search engine results pages.
  • Social Media Marketing. From Facebook to Twitter and everything in-between, there are social media sites where your firm needs to be active; this list shares the latest best practices and tells you how to put them into action.
  • Grow Your Practice. Using strategies and tips from industry leaders, this list shares secrets that have given other law firms a competitive advantage and that can help yours, as well.

No matter what you’re doing online, it’s always a race to the top; your competitors might be doing the same thing, so you can’t afford not to participate. You need to stay proactive about your search engine marketing, or risk missing out on the most valuable leads, the best clients, and the invaluable branding that comes naturally with showing up first on the search engine results pages. – This Marketing and SEO Tips for Law Firms list is a great resource, and one that we use internally, to help you overtake and outrank your competition.

Call for consultation: 877-203-0751

  1. Internal Links Also Count: Links pointing in from other pages of your website (internal links) are also counted by Google, not just those coming in from other websites. Link relevant pages and posts to one another for better link juice transferrable.
  2. Google made a change to its search algorithm to penalize “over-optimization” and now favor websites with high-quality content and less refined search-engine optimization.
  3. What Does Relevancy Mean in SEO? In SEO, relevancy means more than just the words on your web pages. It also means that the pages linking to you are on topic and the pages linking to them are on topic. Number of backlinks only tells a fraction of the story.
  4. Keyword Tip: “dangerous drug litigation” combined with your city, for example: “dangerous drug litigation Boston MA”
  5. Diversify your anchor text. This means your inbound links should not all look like this: North Carolina Personal Injury Attorney. It’s not natural, so mix it up. Use more brand and call to action anchors.
  6. Directory Listing Tip: build a profile on dmoz.org – it’s a PR7
  7. Diversify Your Links: look at your backlink profile and notice where you’re links are coming from. Are you using the same tactics every month? It’s time to diversify!
  8. Create a profile on www.wordpress.com and start blogging on a regular basis. Point your links to your main website homepage and internal pages.
  9. Diversify your traffic sources: It’s wise to think beyond Google… there are plenty of other ways to get traffic: PRs, video, retargeting, facebook ads…
  10. Law firm marketing is not a trick, it’s being visible, so those in need can find you. The first step is deciding what you do best. Put this into a 35 word blurb, and this will become the message you share with the internet.
  11. Keyword Tip: add Drug Manufacturer Lawsuit keywords to your campaign, because victims will search the name of the drug that adversely affected them. Get a list of dangerous drugs at www.ApricotLaw.com
  12. Give your content a fresh perspective. Personal injury law can be very interesting – keep in mind, your prospects have been injured, so it’s definitely interesting to them.
  13. Don’t buy links from blog networks, especially if they’re advertised. Some companies have come up with a slick way to hide the fact that they’re selling links, but Google picks them off all the time.
  14. Always publish high quality content on and off your site, and make sure you share the links with your social media platforms.
  15. Create an account with www.livejournal.com, work on your profile, generate original content, and link to your main website.
  16. Directory Listing Tip: build a profile on justia.com – it’s a PR7
  17. By studying the right metrics you can learn a lot about your audience and what they need. Set up Google Analytics today – it’s free.
  18. EMDs (exact match domains) have been pushed down and out of visibility. Don’t spend money on this tactic, it’s never going to work like it did in 2012. You MUST build your law firm “brand”.
  19. SEO is not about “gaming the system”. It’s about creating and sharing great content by using all of the best web platforms we have available to us – in the most responsible ways.
  20. Keyword Tip: “drunk driving injuries lawyer” – also include DUI accident, DWI accident, DWI injury attorney, DUI victim attorney
  21. Sign up with www.weebly.com and create a blog for free. Keep your content original and link back to your main website.
  22. Google Analytics Tip: “Unique visitors” is a good stat for analyzing how your website is growing. It tells us the number of new visitors you’ve had on your website.
  23. Look at your link profile and make sure you have not been “link bombed” by a competitor. If so, use Google’s “link disavow”.
  24. Good SEO plans for 1 and 2 years down the road. Don’t try to get results in 3 months – Good SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Be smart…don’t take short cuts that will hurt you in the future. Always think, how will Google like this 2 years from now?
  25. (At least) 50% of Law firm SEO is about making your site valuable to your visitors while keeping SEO best practices in mind. Ask yourself: what questions did my prospects and clients ask me this week? – then, create a blog post that answers each one.
  26. Keyword Tip: add “Pfizer recall lawyers” matched with your city to get leads from dangerous drug recall victims.
  27. Blogging Tip: Promote your blog in your email signature, on your business cards, letterhead, and anywhere else your prospects may be looking.
  28. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on onecle.com
  29. What is your USP? (Unique Selling Proposition) What can you do better than your competitors? What sets you apart from the other personal injury attorneys in your territory? Do some brainstorming with pen and paper.
  30. Join www.squidoo.com and create a few “lenses”. Make sure you’re using the correct anchor text ratios.
  31. Build a creative strategy as a roadmap for achieving goals: keyword research, content writing, landing page creation, link building, rank checking, testing, Google Analytics, ROI…rinse and repeat.
  32. Know your customers. Understand them well. Research and analyze their needs and problems. The better you can read your buyer’s mind, the greater your chance of success. Listen to their questions. This will tell you what most prospects are searching online.
  33. Google Analytics Tip: By default Google Analytics will display results from the past 30 days, but you should play with the graph to span out 3-6 months to pick up on larger trends.
  34. We can’t state this enough: Google wants to be a place where people come for answers. You, the lawyer with the answers, are in a great position to provide what Google wants. Do it with great content. Write and publish at least 15 quality posts per month.
  35. Keyword Tip: “neck pain car accident attorney” – also include: whiplash, stiff neck, neck and shoulder pain, “…after car accident”
  36. Don’t forget about Social Media: facebook, twitter and Google+ are extremely powerful when used correctly. Write, publish, share, and engage at least every other day.
  37. Conversions do not take care of themselves. You must work at this. Test, test, and test to find out what works best. Keep improving website conversions and your law firm will flourish.
  38. Write content that benefits your prospects. We know what they need, and we know what questions they have, so let’s help them out with good answers – THIS is good SEO that will keep you in the game forever.
  39. Over-Optimization: be careful, it’s easy to overdo it – most websites we see suffer from it. Keep it simple. Keep the reader in mind, not just the search engine spiders.
  40. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on superlawyers.com
  41. Join www.tumblr.com, it takes only 30 seconds to create an account and start building your blogosphere.
  42. For link building, quality is more important than quantity. 10 relevant and authoritative backlinks are better than 500 average backlinks. We see proof of this everyday!
  43. URL structure – make sure your URL structure contains the keywords the page is created for – not just a bunch of numbers.
  44. Keyword Tip: “Propecia side effects attorney” – The most frequently reported adverse reactions to Propecia affect men’s sexual health.: Decreased libido, Erectile dysfunction
  45. The search engines are looking at “social signals” as a way to choose the most trusted law firm sites, so social shares are correlated to rankings. Make sure your social share buttons are easy to see on every page.
  46. Sidebar links: avoid long blog rolls of links. Too many links on the page dilutes the inbound juice and can reduce ranking.
  47. Create custom sidebars, so every link in the sidebar is relevant to the page the visitor is on. This keeps all link juice “in the family” and will increase ranking.
  48. Keyword Tip: “scaffold injury attorney” – you might want to add some info about “unions”, because scaffold injuries are usually from union jobs.
  49. Having a stable and reliable website with sharp SEO components is something which will reward your efforts in the short and long term.
  50. Join www.insanejournal.com, build your profile, and upload your blog posts on a weekly basis.
  51. In trying to give their users quick answers, Google evaluates websites on the load time. Improve page loading speed by upgrading hosting, clearing your cache, compressing images and removing old widgets.
  52. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on lawchek.net
  53. Don’t worry about keyword density or proximity – Google is smart enough to know what your content is about. Just keep the reader in mind and share valuable information.
  54. When creating a landing page, bold your main phrase once to give it a little more power.
  55. Longer posts tend to rank better than shorter posts, but do not worry too much about word count. Instead, focus on writing useful, relevant and authoritative content for those looking for an attorney.
  56. Keyword Tip: “Prozac side effects attorney” – One of the biggest concerns is that the drug is over-prescribed, unnecessarily subjecting patients to adverse side effects and possible withdrawal symptoms.
  57. Use relevant keywords in your image’s file name, not the default random set of numbers.
  58. Write descriptive alt text for images. Include the keyword, but write a short sentence, do not stuff a string of keywords into the tag.
  59. Blogging Tip: don’t worry about word count, just say what you have to say in the best way possible.
  60. Keyword Tip: “drowning lawsuit attorney” – “child drowning death attorney”
  61. De-index pages that do not need link juice. This sends power where it’s needed most – your landing pages.
  62. Ever hear of a “link exchange program”?….yeah? Don’t get involved. They’re bad news.
  63. The two most important factors that measure the power of any backlink are relevance and Page Rank.
  64. The majority of any website’s search traffic will come from long-tail keywords. Do the research and create 15-20 optimized landing pages per month – you’ll get the phone to ring!
  65. Keyword Tip: “Zoloft lawsuit attorney” – Clinical studies have shown that a small number of younger users of antidepressants, including sertraline, become suicidal.
  66. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on poststar.com
  67. The homepage is the most powerful page on any site. Therefore, if you want a particular inner page to rank, it’s a good idea to link to that page from the homepage to let Google know it’s important.
  68. There are only three factors that Google considers when ranking any web page; content, activity and links. This has been true since Google’s inception. The only thing that changes is the weight given to each at any given time.
  69. Blogging Tip: invite other high-quality bloggers to post on your blog, and you’ll jumpstart your community building.
  70. Analyze performance with these tools: Google Analytics, MOZ, Market Samurai, Majestic SEO
  71. Find out where the top players in your market are getting links from and copy them. There are no secrets online.
  72. Create an author profile on www.ezinearticles.com and upload your original content with links back to your main website.
  73. Keyword Tip: “boat accidents lawyer” – if you’re in a city on or near the water.
  74. The most valuable real estate on any web page is above the fold. Above the fold means what a visitor sees when he first lands on the page, before scrolling down. The reason for this is most visitors don’t scroll down.
  75. Website visitors make up their minds about you in under 8 seconds. Picture someone standing over the trash can opening mail. What’s going to get them to open your envelope and not throw it away?
  76. Long term growth patterns are what you need to bring in new visitors over years of marketing.
  77. Website “call to action” tip: communicate the benefit to contacting you. What will your client get from you? – a call back in 30 minutes, a compassionate listener, the straight facts about their case?
  78. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on corpcounsel-digital.com
  79. Check your website sidebar for non-relevant links. Find any? They should be moved to a custom sidebar that only has links to tight sub-niche pages.
  80. Look at each landing page of your website. Do you have a properly tagged photo and a relevant video? This is important. It shows Google that you’re doing your best to provide quality information to your readers, so of course, this helps in ranking.
  81. Keyword Tip: “hurt from falling objects lawyer” – don’t forget to add your city and a few synonyms to your SEO components.
  82. Not many people know this: The uppercut SILO – link each page in your SILO from bottom to top (least competitive phrase to most competitive), then link the most competitive phrase to the homepage. See what happens to your ranking!
  83. Link your Google+ profile to all blogs and sites you contribute to.
  84. Whenever possible, link your guest authors’ Google+ profiles to your blog and any other websites you contribute to.
  85. Blogging Tip: Respond to comments to let your readers know you’re a real person and you care about their input. This builds loyalty.
  86. Use an appealing Google+ headshot, as it will be displayed in Google search results.
  87. Keyword Tip: “electrocution accident lawyer” – add “construction electric shock” phrases to this page too, b/c many of these accidents happen on job sites.
  88. Build links to your blog posts. When other sites link to you, it shows Google that you’re authoritative. Google likes authoritative law firms!
  89. Establishing and maintaining a solid link profile is probably one of the top 3 SEO activities you can engage in.
  90. Optimize your YouTube channel and videos by adding a link to your landing page and writing an original 200 word description for each video.
  91. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on lawreferralconnect.com
  92. Review your link profile monthly, remove bad links, and fix broken links. Keep your links nice and healthy.
  93. Do not try to build links by publishing crappy, non-newsworthy content. That might have worked in 2002….but not today.
  94. Write a unique meta tag description for each landing page. Think of these 160 characters as your elevator pitch. You need to sell the prospect on choosing your site over the others on the page.
  95. Keyword Tip: “burn victim lawyer” – include: heat, fire, radiation, chemical accident, and electricity burns
  96. Do not pay for backlinks to your website. Buying backlinks can work in the short term, but it’s tricky. Google will find those paid links and you’ll be penalized.
  97. Blogging Tip: Leave a thoughtful comment on another attorney blog, and it will bring attention to you and your firm.
  98. Use Ahrefs, Majestic SEO or Open Site Explorer to get some pretty deep information about your competitors. Watch our videos to learn how to use these great SEO tools.
  99. Website “call to action” tip: use urgent active language like, “call me now”.
  100. Use the phone: call other lawyers and business associates that have websites. Ask if they need some quality content or a fresh look at a current event for their blog. Of course, you get a link to your website if they publish your post.
  101. Keyword Tip: “dog bite injury attorney”, “attacked by dog off leash attorney”, “animal attack attorney”.
  102. There are tons of SEO companies out there trying to sell you their article publishing service. Stay away from article banks! This tactic does not work – in fact, it will get you penalized.
  103. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on local-attorneys.com
  104. Ask clients to leave reviews on Google+ and local directories. Positive reviews improve your rankings in Google’s local listings, and everyone reads testimonials.
  105. Google Analytics Tip: Use “bounce rate” to learn how many of your visitors are finding your content useful and sticking around vs leaving.
  106. Do not copy text from other websites. Google will catch you, easily, and you’ll lose your rank, quickly! Content must be original.
  107. Make sure you can access every page on your site in 3 clicks or less.
  108. Guest blog on relevant and authoritative blogs to build inbound links. Stick with law related websites and/or location related news channels. A post on a Yoga website is not going to help you with the search engines.
  109. Get different types of links from a wide range of domains and IP addresses.
  110. Keyword Tip: swimming pool accident lawyers, failure to cover the pool or hot tub, inadequate fencing or warnings
  111. Blogging Tip: client FAQs and Top 10s are great blog topics.
  112. Page Rank is important, but relevance is more powerful. A site that is more relevant to the search will outrank a site with higher page rank. Relevance comes from good onsite SEO.
  113. Not all directories are healthy. Be ultra-selective in pursuing directory listings, as they are generally not an effective way to build inbound links. (we list the best ones in this app)
  114. Use 301 redirects when changing the url of a page on your site. If you don’t redirect the old url to the new one, any links pointing to the old URL will be lost. – link juice, gone for good.
  115. It takes a while to rank a brand new site. It’s all about authority and trust, and until you’ve developed both, you shouldn’t expect to outrank older, more established sites.
  116. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on milliondollaradvocates.com
  117. Keyword Tip: “wrongful death attorney” (obviously) – you should also add a page optimized for “elements of a wrongful death suit”.
  118. Analyze your competition. Know what landing pages are ranking on page one. Know what backlinks they have. Know what it takes to outrank them.
  119. Avoid SEO agencies that don’t have a documented, transparent description of their methodology.
  120. SEO results aren’t instant, unless you have a healthy number of long tail phrases. The results of great SEO work done today might not become apparent right away, but if it’s done right, it will last a long long time.
  121. Create an account with http://goarticles.com and post your articles to the appropriate category with links pointing to internal pages of your main website.
  122. Interact with other attorneys online, especially with firms in different service categories. After you’ve developed a relationship, ask if you can be a guest blogger on their website. You can give a fresh perspective and receive a valuable backlink.
  123. Write press releases to share news and opinions. PR submission is a great way to get quality backlinks and keep your firm’s name in the headlines. A hot topic could get picked up by a news site and give you some great publicity.
  124. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on targetlaw.com
  125. Google Analytics Tip: learn what keywords have lead your visitors to your website? Go to Traffic Sources > Sources > Search > Organic.
  126. Law firm Internet marketing is never done. If you want your site to continue to rank higher, attract more visitors and generate more leads, you must continue to add content and acquire relevant inbound links.
  127. Keyword Tip: “slip and fall lawyer” (obviously) – You should also create pages for these phrases: slip on ice and snow, fall down stairs lawyer, defective or broken stairs, premises liability lawsuits, trip and fall on public sidewalk
  128. Search engines evolve. Google is always trying to give their user’s the best experience by showing the best sites with the best info with all the answers and the fastest load times. If you work on these things, you won’t fear their algorithm updates.
  129. Website “call to action” tip: put the call to action in the top right hand corner, all by itself, and give it a nice bright color. Some people just want your phone number, so make it easy for them to find it.
  130. Google Analytics is your friend. Learn how many visitors you’re getting, where they’re coming from, and what they’re doing when they get to your site. Extremely valuable info, and it’s FREE.
  131. Don’t use PPC! Law related terms are ridiculously expensive, and you’ll get a much better ROI with organic SEO. Write great content and get great backlinks and you’ll win online.
  132. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on thenationaltriallawyers.org
  133. Remove duplicate content. You can be penalized for having the same, or very similar, content on multiple pages of your site. Go to www.copyscape.com to check your site for duplicate content.
  134. Keyword Tip: “lost wages due to auto accident”
  135. Build links to the internal pages of your site – the landing pages you want to show up on Google’s top 10, not just the homepage.
  136. Use your social media accounts to praise another lawyer in your community. They will find out that you tried to help them out and will most likely do the same in return.
  137. Keyword research is HUGE – get this right and your firm will grow, get it wrong and you’ll sink. Look closely at your strengths, then match them with the needs of your clients. Clients search their needs in 2-4 words phrases.
  138. Create a nice 404 error page and put some links to some of your best blog posts and videos, so a dead link does mean a lost visitor.
  139. Google Analytics Tip: learn what your visitors are doing on your site. You can study which pages they visit, how many pages they visit, and how long they stayed on each page.
  140. Skip law firm SEO and you can skip getting leads from search engines. Without SEO, search engines can’t index and rank your site for keywords relevant to your firm.
  141. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on usdirectory.com
  142. Long-tail keywords are a great source of traffic. It’s quicker and cheaper to rank for longer, specific keyword phrases, and more than 40% of searches are comprised of four or more words.
  143. Keyword Tip: “motorcycle accidents lawyer” and “motorcycle hit from behind accident lawyer”
  144. Join hubpages.com – this is a great website to have a profile on and links from.
  145. Start SEO now. The longer you wait the further ahead your competitors will be.
  146. Each key phrase gets its own landing page. Dedicate 1 page of your website to each phrase that you’re targeting. Doing so makes it easier for Google to see you as the most relevant for the phrase you’re going after.
  147. Include your keywords in urls, page titles, meta descriptions, (H1 and H2) header tags, image alt tags, and content.
  148. Don’t “stuff” your content with keywords. Stay under 2% keyword density to avoid getting penalized.
  149. Outbound links are important, link to pages on other sites that you think visitors to your site would find helpful and/or interesting, and Google will reward you for it.
  150. Make a list of your most important landing pages and make sure there’s a direct link going to them from your homepage. This will send the juice where it’s needed most.
  151. Link building is an ongoing, steady process that doesn’t have a finish line. Plan to build links to your website as long as your law firm is active and taking cases.
  152. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on alllawsites.com
  153. Google Analytics Tip: see your website visitor flow chart here: Audience > Visitors Flow.
  154. Write press releases every month and submit them here: www.prweb.com
  155. Keyword Tip: “food poisoning lawsuit”, “salmonella lawsuit”, “cryptosporidium lawsuits”, “botulism lawsuits”, and “E. coli lawsuits”
  156. Google Matt Cutts, the head of Google Web spam team, and watch some of his videos on SEO. (we’ve watched them ALL)
  157. Page titles are extremely important – maybe second to URLs – so make them descriptive and make sure your keywords are clearly visible.
  158. Analyze your competitor’s backlinks with ahrefs.com and go after some of the best links you see in their firm’s profile – if they have them, maybe you can get them too.
  159. Create informational videos and embed them in your landing pages. They increase the amount of time that people spend on your site and this shows Google that you are worth promoting to page 1.
  160. Make sure your backlinks are only 2% exact match anchors – try to use more call to action anchor text links like “click here”, etc.
  161. Most of your backlink anchors should be your law firm name or URL.
  162. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on americanlawyer-digital.com
  163. Keyword Tip: (very competitive) malignant mesothelioma, mesothelioma lawyers, asbestos litigation, mesothelioma lawsuits
  164. Good law firm SEO is about ranking “pages” and getting leads that turn into clients – it’s not about ranking the website homepage. Shoot for 100 good landing pages in the top 10.
  165. Google Analytics Tip: Visitor engagement is measuring how many visitors are staying on your site for extended periods of time. Go to Audience > Behavior > Engagement.
  166. Check for canonicalization issues: www and non-www domains. Decide which you want to use and 301 redirect the other to it. So, if http://www.domain.com is your preference, then http://domain.com should redirect to it.
  167. Each page should be dedicated to one phrase. The law industry is very competitive online, so it’s better to focus and be highly relevant for one phrase than of try to rank for 2+ phrases on one page.
  168. Google loves sites that change on a regular basis, so make sure you’re blogging and creating new landing pages every week – or every other day. The top sites are always growing and so are the law firms attached to them.
  169. One single, good, authoritative link can do a lot more for you than 100 low quality links, which can actually hurt you. Don’t go for the 1000 backlinks for $500 scam.
  170. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on innercircle.org
  171. If you have pages on your site that are very similar, and you’re concerned about duplicate content, use an SEO plug-in like Yoast to no-index and no-follow the pages in question.
  172. Check the links to your homepage. Is index.html at the end of your domain name? If so, you’re losing link power.
  173. Keyword Tip: “defective products attorney”, “product liability lawsuit”
  174. Check your website. Do you see a clear call to action? Is it easy to see your phone number? SEO is useless without a clear call to action. Make sure you tell your visitors what to do. “Call me now”.
  175. Check your website host. If you’re on a shared server, do a blacklist check to be sure you’re not on a proxy with a spammer or banned site. Their bad rap could drag you down.
  176. What actions have you taken to improve your online authority? Take a look in your favorites from this app, and pick one online marketing task to accomplish today. It will pay off!
  177. Join MOZ.com and get their SEO tool bar, so at a glance you can see DA and PA (domain authority and page authority) of your competition.
  178. The quickest way to get your site crawled by spiders is by getting a link to it from another quality site.
  179. Hire a qualified programmer to handle site updates, install all necessary plugins, and keep everything running smoothly.
  180. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on judged.com
  181. Google Analytics Tip: Your referral stats show you which websites are sending you the most visitors. Find referral stats here: Traffic Sources > Sources > Referrals.
  182. The dynamic duo of SEO is: relevance and authority. Good onsite SEO makes you relevant and quality backlinks makes you authoritative. Have both, and your firm becomes a powerhouse.
  183. Keyword Tip: child restraints injuries, crib recall, car seat injury attorney
  184. Make sure your site is easy to navigate. Keep your sub categories pretty tight and give your visitors easy access to the answers they’re trying to find. The longer they stay on your site, the more likely they will call you.
  185. Paid links do not pass link juice, only clicks. (well, they’re not supposed to pass rank. If they do, you’re going against Google’s TOS and you’re at risk.)
  186. Links from .edu domains are given nice weight by the search engines. Do you have any pointing to your site?
  187. Make a six month list of SEO goals: keywords, landing pages, backlinks, social media shares, videos, blog posts, podcasts, leads, and clients.
  188. Correlation does not guarantee causation, but Google will never give away their secrets, so it’s for now it’s all we have, and it’s actually quite accurate.
  189. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on lawsuitfinanceblog.com
  190. SEO is never finished. You must research, test, write new content, build new pages, build links, check metrics and improve every day. It’s hard work, but the ROI is fantastic when you get it right.
  191. Google Analytics Tip: Go here: Traffic Sources > Social > Landing Pages to see what website pages are attracting social shares.
  192. Search Engines give priority to websites with pages like contact us, privacy policy, and disclaimer, so make sure you have these, and make sure they’re indexed properly.
  193. Add keyword rich captions to your photos. Make sure the keywords in the caption match the keywords of the page it’s going on.
  194. Keyword Tip: “defective machinery accident attorney”
  195. Add your law firm to Google Places. It’s pretty easy. Just remember to look out for the postcard in the mail sent to verify your address. You’ll need to call in with the verification code.
  196. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on legalx.net
  197. Create videos, load them to YouTube, write a catchy keyword rich title and a 200 word description. (Put a hyperlink to your site at the top of the description) People click on YouTube videos even if they’re lower in rank than web pages.
  198. Make sure your YouTube videos have a nice thumbnail image of your face – smiling or not depending on practice specialty.
  199. Create a Yelp account and take it to the fullest: add images, videos, full law firm description, etc. Ask your clients to visit your Yelp profile and leave a testimonial and rating.
  200. Google personalizes your search results. If you’re logged in, it will show you sites you’ve been to before. Don’t let an SEO company trick you into thinking they’re doing a great job! Log out of Google before checking your placement in the SERPS.
  201. Participate on smaller legal networks and niche sites. The backlinks will be highly relevant and the extra juice can push you ahead of your competition.
  202. Keyword Tip: defective airbags lawyer, defective brakes lawyer, defective seatbelt injuries, Toyota accelerator pedal lawsuit, car manufacturing defect attorney
  203. Google Analytics Tip: find out what pages are causing you to lose visitors and either edit them or delete them. Go here to gather this info: Content > Site Content > Exit Pages.
  204. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on aplawyers.com
  205. Page rank from a link comes from the actual page the link is on, not the website. If the website is a PR7 and the page the link is on is a PR0 (zero), the backlink has the value of a PR0. Not very impressive.
  206. Build links to your YouTube videos – especially the ones you want to rank. Use the “valuable platforms to create profiles on” and “best PR distribution websites” ApricotLaw lists as your guide.
  207. Make sure your content uses phrases that match how people think, because this will match how people search, and Google will reward you for helping their users.
  208. Practice versatility: landing pages and blog posts are important, but don’t forget videos, podcasts, status updates, infographics, eBooks, white papers, reports, and newsletters. Keep your digital army flowing!
  209. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on suing101.com
  210. Make every landing page stand on its own, but also try to keep them grouped by concept, and link them all to the page with the most competitive phrase. This is SILOing in a nutshell.
  211. The phrase “Medical Malpractice Attorney” is too competitive. Adding your city will help you get better exposure. For example, if you want cases in Los Angeles, you should optimize a website page for “Medical Malpractice Attorney Los Angeles”.
  212. Much of what we know about improving search engine rankings comes from experience, observation, and testing. What we’re seeing is that SEO is less about trickery and more about best practices.
  213. Web Hosting: get set up on a dedicated server and IP address. Call your hosting company. They can handle this for you.
  214. Google Analytics Tip: check out Content > In-Page Analytics to see a cool graphic on the percentage of clicks from users.
  215. Use Majestic SEO tool to analyze a site’s backlinks before sharing a guest post with them. Look to make sure they have a good number of relevant sites pointing to them.
  216. Links continue to reign supreme as the ultimate SEO authority signal. You must acquire relevant high power backlinks on a weekly basis. Quality, not quantity.
  217. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on lawyersbase.com
  218. Keyword Tip: “Anesthesia Mistake Lawsuit Attorney”
  219. Create a LinkedIn account, have your bio professionally written, post your articles here too.
  220. Build law firm profiles on the top directories (go to www.ApricotLaw.com for list) and make sure your information is consistent on every directory.
  221. Life online moves quickly. Something hot in the legal news – you better get a landing page, infographic and video up fast if you want to capitalize on it. Be the first and you’ll reap the rewards.
  222. If you hire an SEO company, make sure you speak with them every week and get a full review of content, landing pages, backlinks, goals, and keyword ranking.
  223. Tool tip: search Google for a good “anchor text over optimization tool”, and use it to check your anchor text ratio.
  224. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on uslawyerspages.com
  225. Blogging Tip: use your subtitles (H2 tags) to push your core ideas further, and make sure to use keyword synonyms.
  226. Write press releases every month and submit them here: www.prnewswire.com
  227. Keyword Tip: “Infant Brain Injury attorney” and “Cerebral Palsy Lawyer”
  228. Google Analytics Tip: Find out who is viewing your website on their Smartphone or tablet. Go here Audience > Mobile > Devices.
  229. Build a profile on Facebook and use a plug-in to automatically post to it with each new website blog post.
  230. SEO Tool TIP: use Market Samurai to see the backlinks of your competitors. This will give you a good idea of what you will need to outrank them.
  231. Blogging Tip: take an informal / conversational approach. Show some warmth, and you’ll get returning visitors and referrals.
  232. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on lawfirmlawyer.com
  233. Keyword Tip: “nursing home neglect lawyer” and “nursing home abuse lawsuit”
  234. Long-tail keywords are phrases with 3 or more words that are uncommon or infrequently searched. It’s a little easier to rank for a long tail phrase, so it’s a very important part of your online strategy.
  235. Bit by bit, if you’re putting these tips in practice every day, you’ll build your online authority. It will pay off in cases and referrals.
  236. Here’s a great selection of fonts to use in your website and or blog: https://www.google.com/fonts/
  237. Build a profile on this social media platform and link to your website: Diigo
  238. Keyword Tip: “Lexapro lawsuit attorney” – In 2010, Forest was ordered to pay more than $300 million for illegally marketing Lexapro and two other drugs.
  239. Pretty cool Google Analytics feature: you can track your website visitors in real-time by going to: Real-Time > Overview
  240. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on lawyers-malpractice.com
  241. Aim to be in the top 3, not just the top 10. If your site isn’t ranked in the top 3 positions for a keyword then you’ll only get a small percentage (less than 10%) of the traffic from searches for that keyword.
  242. Build a profile on Twitter, then set your plug-in to automatically post to it with each new blog post.
  243. Keyword Tip: Pulmonary Embolism Attorney
  244. Blogging Tip: clearly state your main point in the header. (H1 tag)
  245. Flip through these tips again and see which actions you took and which ones you skipped. Then take a few actions today – it will pay off in cases and referrals.
  246. Build a profile on this social media platform and link to your website: friendfeed.com
  247. Search your name and the name of your firm to see what people are saying about you. Thank those who speak highly of you. Ask ApricotLaw about outranking negative comments.
  248. YouTube is a great place to load your videos, but you should also share it on your website. Be sure to place the correct rich snippet HTML code in there, to get it to the top of the SERPs.
  249. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on aboutattorney.com
  250. Keyword Tip: Failure to Diagnose Breast Cancer, Failure to Diagnose Colon Cancer, Failure to Diagnose Ovarian Cancer, Failure to Diagnose Hydrocephalus, Failure to Diagnose Lung Cancer
  251. Make sure everything you do is above board and free from of shady practices. Google is getting better and better at detecting poor intentions, and penalizing those who feed on the bottom of the legal link pool.
  252. “Stickiness” is a term SEOs use when referring to your website content’s ability to keep people on your site. Are you answering the right questions and providing value?
  253. Mobile search is also a key change in the Hummingbird algorithm and is one to keep your eyes on. Make sure your website looks great on all mobile devices.
  254. Target Geo-specific Keyword Phrases. This means to use locations (counties, cities, & towns) in your title tags, meta description, H-tags, and content of your landing pages.
  255. Build a profile on this social media platform and link to your website: Instapaper.com
  256. Google+ is powerful. Having a picture of yourself next to your listings adds authority and makes you more attractive in the results page.
  257. Keyword Tip: pacemaker recalls attorney, Medtronic recalls, defibrillator recalls lawyer
  258. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on americanlawsociety.com
  259. When creating content, don’t focus on a keyword, focus on a question or conversational phrase and create your content around it – with the keyword included of course.
  260. Google Places for Business: Google may already have information on your law firm, but you should add new, updated, and additional information to your profile, b/c a more complete profile is better for SEO.
  261. Tool Tip: go to copyscape.com and plug in your landing page URLs to see if you have a duplicate content issue.
  262. Don’t make your visitors think too much. Make it easy for them to find the information they need: create custom sidebars with relevant pages only, place a visible call to action on every page.
  263. Try to use an image and a video on every post. Tag the image in the alt field and put a link to your website in the video description.
  264. There’s lots of easy ways to get backlinks, unfortunately, they don’t work. You need links from relevant and trustworthy sites, and these are not easy to get.
  265. Know your workflow. Know how and when content gets created. Remember, it’s not a strategy if you can’t maintain it and test for ROI.
  266. Keyword Tip: medical devices recall attorneys – include these phrases too: Zimmer (Hip), DePuy (Hip), Transvaginal Mesh, Zimmer (Knee), DePuy (Knee)
  267. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on injurylawyerdir.com
  268. Don’t assume Twitter tweets and Facebook likes will result in links. Most social media participants are not content publishers.
  269. Embed a map in your contact us page. Go to Google Maps, and get the HTML code to embed to your website.
  270. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on www.hg.org
  271. Keyword Tip: “birth defect lawyer” – there are too many important phrases to list here, so please see the ApricotLaw birth defect keyword list.
  272. Search engines want to display relevant results for each keyword, and links from relevant pages/sites are a strong signal to them that your site is relevant. Backlinks should come from law related websites.
  273. Build a profile on this social media platform and link to your website: StumbleUpon
  274. Readability: keep your text at 15 or 16 px and dark grey. Keep your background white. Making it easy on the eyes helps keeps your visitors on your site.
  275. Make your content more usable! Don’t use long walls of text. Break it up with short paragraphs, key points and images.
  276. Wish Tom Desmond, co-founder of ApricotLaw, a happy birthday. Email him at tom@https://www.apricotlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Lawyer-SEO-1.jpg.com
  277. Get reviews on Google+ and Places: Peer reviews can be good for law specialties that do not need public results for cases.
  278. Use Majestic SEO to get accurate trust flow, backlink reports, and explore a domain/url in great detail.
  279. Learn how to create blog post excerpts with “read more…”, so readers don’t have to scroll through 10 full length articles to see everything you have to offer.
  280. Build a profile on this social media platform and link to your website: Plurk
  281. Blogging Tip: write a blog post like you’re writing an email to a friend: You’ve just come across some great information, and you want to share it!
  282. Create a custom Smartphone app for your firm. Call ApricotLaw for details on what it should do.
  283. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on lawheadlinesandnews.com
  284. Clean up your website clutter. Keep in mind, your prospect wants your help – not a bunch of pretty skyline photos and fancy graphics. Tests show simple websites convert better.
  285. Keyword Tip: Johnson & Johnson drug recall lawyer
  286. Create an About or Bio page for each attorney. This helps build trust and telling people who you are increases conversion rates.
  287. Resize your images to 72dpi and a manageable pixel width/height before you upload them. Everything will load and run much quicker!
  288. Request an analysis from ApricotLaw. We’ll look at your website and the websites of your competition and show you exactly what you need to do to get more cases online.
  289. Keyword Tip: “Paxil side effects lawyer” – Antidepressant Drug with Dangerous Side Effects
  290. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on medicalmalpracticelawyerdir.com
  291. Think of your website as a highway billboard. The top half of the fold needs to be readable in under 3 seconds – just like your prospect is driving by in a car. Keep your message simple and you’ll get more calls.
  292. Blogging Tip: Leave a thoughtful comment on another attorney blog, and it will bring attention to you and your firm.
  293. Build a profile on Google+ and use a plug-in to automatically post to it with each new website blog post.
  294. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on www.elocallawyers.com
  295. Blogging Tip: Google likes it when readers comment, because it shows you have shared something interesting, so always end your post with a question to spark a conversation.
  296. Tag your logo with your city and law specialty, so it shows up in an iumage search for that phrase.
  297. Ditch the Captcha If you want comments on your blog posts. If you’re worried about spam then moderate comments before they’re posted. If you’re using WordPress, install Akismet to catch your spam.
  298. Build a responsive opt-in email list and learn to use email marketing effectively. Search “email marketing tips” and read a few articles today.
  299. Write press releases every month and submit them here: www.businesswire.com
  300. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on www.yellowpages.com
  301. Download the MOZ toolbar (for free) and use it to see the PA and DA rank of you competition.
  302. Guest Posting: Writing guest posts on relevant and authoritative blogs produces high-quality links to your blog, raising your site’s authority with Google.
  303. If you like to talk, make a few mini recordings throughout the day with a handheld device and upload to soundcloud.com, then share these on your website as short sound bites.
  304. Blogging Tip: Use everyday language as much as possible.
  305. Save time searching and remembering your social media, blog, and wordpress account passwords with 1password.com
  306. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on myattorneysdirectory.com
  307. Create embeddable slideshows (www.slideshare.net) of top 10s, advice sliders, and do’s and don’ts.
  308. Get a hyper-focused target audience using Followerwonk.com
  309. Blogging Tip: don’t forget the meta tags. These are important in blog posts as well as landing pages. Get your keyword in there!
  310. Play around with keyword tools like www.keywordspy.com, www.spyfu.com, www.ispionage.com and www.compete.com.
  311. Keyword Tip: “Crestor side effects lawyer”
  312. Write great articles, add links from influential attorneys, then reach out to them to let them know you mentioned them and gave them a link
  313. Get reviews on Google+ and Places: Include a link to your local pages in every e-mail follow-up correspondence.
  314. Mobile accessibility: is your site accessible for mobile devices? Google recommends a responsive design. Check it out today: iPhone, Android, iPad, Tablet. How do your pages load?
  315. Keyword Tip: “C.R. Bard Avaulta Mesh – Transvaginal Mesh Lawsuits”
  316. Use infographics and quote graphics – they may get a lot of bad press, but they work really well for keeping visitos on your site, giving them something to share, and getting backlinks.
  317. Don’t try to add extratags for more keywords. Similar to keyword stuffing, title stacking is over-optimization, and it will push you off the first page of the SERPs.
  318. Nofollow: inbound links that use the rel=”nofollow” tag do not pass page rank (link juice) to your site, so these links do not make you stronger.
  319. Always use dashes instead of underscores to separate words in URL’s.
  320. Don’t be afraid to link to other websites, in fact, Google loves this, because it shows that you’re trying to help your visitors instead of just trying to get them as a clients. You’ll be rewarded for this with better rank.
  321. Great content attracts links naturally, but this is not enough to compete in the legal industry. You MUST build links manually. Flip though these tips again today and take action to get some quality inbound links.
  322. Find the authors that have the most influence over your target audience and ask for a guest post.
  323. The rel=author tag allows your Google+ profile image to show in search results. Bigger, brighter images get a higher click through rate, so use a nice bright headshot.
  324. Keyword Tip: “effexor lawsuit attorney”
  325. Breadcrumbs are a type of website navigation to help visitors and web crawlers. They help show themes and hierarchy between your content.
  326. Guest posting is time consuming and expensive, so only share your content on high PR sites.
  327. Check your copyright notice at the bottom of your website – update to match the current year!
  328. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on foursquare.com
  329. Relevance is the new Page Rank when searching for linking opportunities. Hi Authority sites will always pass powerful juice, BUT the site has to be relevant to law.
  330. Ethical link building for SEO is alive and well. Inbound links to a website are still the most important indicator for Google to determine relevancy and authority.
  331. Landing page title size: keep the character count under 70 and preferably under 66.
  332. Keyword Tip: DePuy Hip Replacement Recall lawyer
  333. While sorting through keywords from Google keywords tool, don’t forget to check the “keyword competition” score. This will give you an idea of how many other law firms are shooting for this keyword.
  334. Get those .gov links! Just like university domains (.edu), government pages are often extremely authoritative and highly relevant.
  335. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on www.bingplaces.com
  336. NEVER use automated programs or services to create links to your site, Google will devalue those links, or worse, manually review your website.
  337. Site loading speed is a Google ranking factor. Speed up your page load times by loading your JavaScript and CSS code.
  338. Keyword Tip: “botox side effects lawyer”
  339. Use Xenu to find any broken links you might have. This is a free, easy way to check for broken website links.
  340. Contact college and universities and find a reason for them to link to your site by running a special internship opportunity (for example), because .edu backlinks are extremely valuable.
  341. Search engines are smart enough to discern between websites that provide value from sites that create the illusion of value, so great SEO will dominate search rankings by consistently creating engaging and detailed content.
  342. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on local.yahoo.com
  343. Bad links: links from spammy, suspicious websites can hurt your rankings. Contact the webmaster to remove them or use the Disavow Tool.
  344. Keyword Tip: “Stryker hip replacement lawsuit”
  345. Your meta description must be in the vicinity of 157 characters, and make sure you get the keywords in there – make them exciting and clickable.
  346. Remember, the key is to get your content published and linking back to your website so you are visible when someone searches for a good lawyer. Keep putting these tips in practice, and you’ll accomplish this.
  347. SEO and Internet marketing is an art, so don’t overdo it. The legal industry is very competitive online, so you really have to walk the tightrope if you want success.
  348. Regularly check your server to look for 404, 500, and other errors.
  349. Consider link building as another form of business networking. Each new link counts as an asset in your corner.
  350. Keyword Tip: “Vioxx lawsuit attorney”, after several years on the market, the drug was recalled because it increased the risk of heart attack and stroke.
  351. Build links on relevant pages where the readers would have a genuine interest in your website, and don’t use exact match anchor text. Instead, use the name of your firm, “click here”, “read more”, etc.
  352. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on www.yelp.com
  353. Register your website with Alexa.com for added metrics.
  354. Use Pinterest when using quote graphics
  355. Write press releases every month and submit them here: i-newswire.com
  356. Use synonyms in your website landing page text rather than just pure keywords, because it’s natural sounding and the search engines respond best to natural text.
  357. Post your infographics on infogr.am, visua.ly, piktochart, and easel.ly
  358. Keyword Tip: “accutane lawsuit attorney”, this popular acne medication was recalled after it was linked to a number of side effects, including birth defects, Crohn’s disease and suicidal thoughts.
  359. Use structured data – Google is looking for you to have structured data that removes topic ambiguity: www.google.com/webmasters/tools/richsnippets
  360. The more often you update your site, the more important Google thinks it is. If you can publish content to your blog every day, Google will recognize you as a great source of information in the legal industry.
  361. Directory Listing Tip: build a law firm profile on www.supermedia.com
  362. Add schema and open graph code on your law firm website.
  363. Directory Listing Tip: build a profile on avvo.com
  364. Keyword Tip: “actos lawsuit attorney”, Studies link this best-selling type 2 diabetes medication to bladder cancer.
  365. Write press releases every month and submit them here: www.prbuzz.com
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