Local SEO and web design in themselves can be challenging, but not as challenging as web design and seo for law firms. In most large cities such as Chicago, New York, Houston, Raleigh, or San Francisco, web design and seo for lawyers can be a very competitive area. Each law firm that we have done seo and web design for, has had a practice focus; such as personal injury, business law, civil law.
Challenges for SEO For Law Firms
- Competitive Landscape
- Lack of Local Content
- Targeting the Local Market
- Building a site Structure that is SEO friendly
- Meeting prospects need when it comes to ease of use of the law firms website
- Black Hat SEO tactics that Hurt a Law Firms Rankings
Law Firm Web Design
We personally have worked with law firm web designers and most are very good at what they do, but fall short when it comes to building a website that is SEO friendly and ranks well for keywords other than the law firms name.
Our web designs balance the SEO aspect of the local variables that drive rankings with the usability that focuses on the law firms primary audience. Even some of the best law firm websites fall short in 1 of these areas, and this is where we can bring our years of design and SEO experience to help organize, structure, and build a website that not only looks good and matches your users thought process, but ranks well in the search engines.
For most of our local websites we like to use a CMS (content management system) such as WordPress. This gives you as the law firm, control over your content and the ability o build out content sets around your primary service offerings.
Local SEO For Law Firms
In most cases law firms want to focus their SEO efforts on the city or state in which they practice law. Local SEO takes into account some of the metrics that enterprise SEO campaigns are known for, but focuses those variables on a local level to drive rankings. For example national brands and websites want to get links from all over the US, but locally based law firms should be focused with their link building efforts, since one of the variables that the search engines use for local rankings are the location of the sites in which link into your law firm’s website. This helps Google determine what city or region is most relevant for a local website to show up in. Another local metric that websites use is your local law firms address, and the closer to the center of town the better.
Content Strategies For Law Firms
Local websites are usually plagued with thin content or no content at all. The search engines want to see that you are a resource when it comes to your local services or products. One of the ways in which they do this is by determining the value of the content that is supporting your primary products or services. If the content is thin or minimal then there is less of a chance that Google and the other search engines will see you as a resource and thus less likely to rank your law firm’s website for the keywords you are trying to capture.
We take pride in our SEO tactics and campaigns and follow strict white hat ethical guidelines (we don’t spam, buy links, scrape content) when building and executing your law firms campaign so you don’t have to worry about your site being devalued or banned by the search engines.
Key Areas We Focus on For SEO and Web Design For Law Firms
- Custom WordPress Design For Your Law Firm
- Local Keyword Research
- Content Audit and Creation
- Your Law Firms Audience Profile to Guide our Design and Content Choices
- Local SEO campaign including Google Places Optimization For Your Law Firm
- Local Link Building Campaign
- Social Media Profile Creation for Law Firms
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