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Website Optimization Tips Every Lawyer Needs

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Website Optimization Tips Every Lawyer Needs

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Lawyers today are faced with an interesting dilemma.  They need to market their practice, but few have the time and energy to expend on the technical aspects.  However, there are a few crucial SEO techniques that every lawyer needs to familiarize themselves with.

Law Firm Target Market

We have touched on this concept before, but knowing your target is the most important place to start when marketing your practice.  You need to figure out who you want to reach, and develop a language on your site that specifically caters to them.  Do some research on what kind of interests your target market cares about.  Your clients will research you, it should not be a one-way street.  If you are unsure who your ideal client is, try the following exercise:

Who/What/How/Why?: Who are some notable clients you have worked with? What was their conflict? How did you resolve the issue? Why did they stand out?  This is a great way to filter out who you enjoyed working with and what kind of clients you want to avoid in the future.  Start with a list of three clients you enjoyed working with and three you did not. From there analyze trends and then develop an ideal customer.

Optimizing Page Titles

Page titles are a very basic concept in SEO and website optimization.  They alert search engines to what the content on a specific page relates to – and they are the first thing a person sees about your site in search results.  Google Webmaster Tools recommends page titles be “accurate and descriptive” –  so if you are trying to rank for Slip and Fall Personal Injury, your page title should reflect this.  You should also insert your primary area of practice into the tag to further specify what exactly your page is about.  A good example title for this would be “Slip and Fall Attorney – City, State | Law Firm.”

Having a descriptive page title means people will select your website above other in search engines, driving more traffic to your site.  You should never have multiple pages with the same titles, or try and stuff keywords into your title.  Keyword stuffing makes your site appear spammy and will discourage users from visiting.

Adding Website Meta tags

If your titles get users interested in visiting your site, your meta description is your elevator pitch.  Why should someone click on your site and not another result?  Having a meta description will give a short preview of the page on search results.  A good meta description will be unique and engaging.  Meta tags should not be longer than 1-2 sentences.

If you would like some examples of meta tags, do a quick search on Google for something that interests you. Take a look at the first 5 results and read the page descriptions.  What descriptions stood out, and why?

The Right Use of Keywords

A long outdated belief in SEO is “the more keywords, the better.”  This is not only untrue, it can also negatively affect your rankings.  Your content is the most important aspect of your site, and you should tactfully insert information relating to your keywords into it.  You should not stuff as many keywords as possible, but think of the different ways you can reach your keyword audience.

There are several keyword tools you can utilize to get a better idea of what the competition is like.  We recommend the Google Keyword Planner Tool.

Any experienced marketing firm can go into detail about each of these as well.  You can schedule a consultation for your law firm marketing with ONE400 for more information.

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About the author

Allen Rodriguez Allen Rodriguez is a legal product development strategist who has been serving the legal industry for over 21 years. Over the course of his career, Allen has built a reputation for creating innovative legal services products as well as developing highly effective law firm business and marketing strategies. Allen is a valued speaker on the topics of law marketing, legal services product development, and future of law issues.

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