Local SEO For Law Firms: 5 Tips To Help Put Your Firm On The (Virtual) Map In 2022

Over 45% of all online searches involve users looking for local information. This is a figure that only increases for the legal industry, with many law firms keen to serve clients in and around their local area. On top of this, the legal industry has been ranked the most competitive when it comes to SEO, so if you’re targeting at a national level, you will need to make some serious investments to get noticed. And whilst we always encourage our clients to think big, you need to be realistic, too. Targeting a couple of local terms will help you to attract more targeted traffic, improve the likelihood of your site reaching the top of the search engine results page (SERP) and in a lot of cases, boost your conversion rate.

So in summary, local SEO for law firms is pretty important. 

What is local SEO for law firms?

Now, you may be wondering what exactly local SEO is. In short, it involves optimising your online presence to improve your ranking in the search engines for location-based terms, thus helping you to attract an increased number of local clients. An example of the SERP for a local search is shown below for the term ‘Law firm London‘. 

Local SEO for law firms example search result

Local SEO for law firms – 5 top tips

Now we know what local SEO for law firms is, let’s explore the steps you can take to improve your strategy. 

#1 Optimise your Google My Business profile

“Near me” searches have increased by over 200% in recent years, so if you don’t yet have a Google My Business profile, now is the time to get one. The first step to getting your law firm on the (virtual) map is to create your Google My Business profile here. The trick is to add as much information as possible, so that when the time comes for a prospective client to contact you, they can do it with ease. 

Some Google My Business tips to help your law firm reach the top of the local rankings include:

  • Keep all relevant information up to date – Google favours firms with complete and accurate information. 
  • Verify your location(s).
  • Request client reviews (and respond to them!)
  • Respond to questions. 
  • Add photos of your premises and team (& anything else you feel relevant).
  • Ensure you have a strong online presence. 

An example of a London law firm with a fully optimised Google My Business profile can be seen below. 

local SEO for law firms GMB example

#2 Go wider on the web

If you’re serious about local SEO for your law firm, a surefire way to start climbing the local ranks is to get as many NAP (name, address, phone number) citations around the web as possible. But this isn’t to say you should spam random forums and online communities – your citations need to come from reputable websites. For example, whilst Yellow Pages catalogues may be a thing of the past, online directories are with us for the long run, so be sure to get your law firm added to sites like Yell.com and ​​FourSquare.

local seo for law firms - online directories

Top tip: NAP citation consistency is important as it’s what Google uses to confirm whether your business information is correct – so keep it happy by resolving any discrepancies across the web. 

#3 Keep it local

If you are looking to target a specific location, naturally, it makes sense to focus your content around this area. And it’s no good creating a ‘personal injury solicitors London’ landing page if the content has been copied word for word from your main ‘personal injury solicitors’ page. Firstly, Google (really) dislikes duplicate content. And secondly, your prospective clients will be expecting to find some London-specific content, so be sure to include at least a few location-specific sentences to keep them happy. 

It’s all worth creating a couple of location-specific blog posts that make use of location-focused keywords in both the headline and copy – and not forgetting the meta description! 

#4 Make it mobile

Over 80% of ‘near me’ searches come from mobile devices, so if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you can expect to receive some rather unfriendly responses. It’s always worth checking out your website on a couple of different devices and browsers so you can get a feel for whether your current UX is effective and make note of any problems and required changes.

If you’re looking to improve your law firm’s mobile site, be sure to check out our top tips in this blog post

#5 Learn to link

Lastly, but by no means least, we have inbound links. You could even say we’ve saved the best until last – at least according to Moz. Their recent survey found link signals to be the most influential ranking factor when it comes to local SEO. And just so we’re all on the same page, the term ‘link signals’ refers to things like inbound anchor text, linking domain quantity and linking domain Authority. In other words, black hat SEO tactics won’t get you anywhere in this situation. 

But fear not, we’ve put together a guide (which you can find here) to help your law firm obtain more quality inbound links the right way in 2022. 

So there we have a whistle-stop tour of local SEO. Keen to get your law firm on the (virtual) map? Get in touch to organise your free consultation with one of our marketing experts

 

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