If you’re a lawyer, then you know that blogging is essential to bringing in new clients and building your firm’s reputation. But what you might not know is that there are certain strategies you can use to make sure your blog posts are optimized for search engines. Implementing an SEO strategy for your law firm’s blog can be the difference between being found by potential clients and being lost in the sea of other lawyers vying for attention online.
Here are four tips for creating an SEO law firm blogging strategy that will help your online presence:
1. Do Your Research
Keyword research is essential for any SEO strategy, and that includes blogging for law firms. Once you’ve identified a few target keywords, make sure to sprinkle them throughout your blog post in a natural way.
Don’t stuff your keywords in there just for the sake of it—that will only hurt your chances of ranking in Google.
Finding Relevant Keywords
The first step in keyword research is finding relevant keywords. To do this, you can use a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, or Wordtracker. These tools will allow you to enter seed keywords and it will then generate a list of related keywords. Once you have a list of relevant keywords, you can start narrowing down your choices by looking at the search volume and competition level for each keyword.
a.) Start with Broad Terms
When you first start your keyword research, you’ll want to focus on broad terms that are relevant to your practice area. For example, if you’re a personal injury lawyer, some broad terms you might want to target could be “injury lawyer,” “personal injury,” or “accident lawyer.” These are the kinds of terms that potential clients are likely to use when they don’t yet know what kind of lawyer they need.
b.) Narrow Down Your Keywords
Once you have a list of relevant broad terms, it’s time to start narrowing down your keywords. To do this, you’ll want to use your favorite keyword tool. The tool will show you how many people are searching for each keyword as well as how much competition there is for each keyword. You’ll want to focus on keywords that have a high number of monthly searches and low competition if possible.
c.) Use Long-Tail Keywords
In addition to targeting general keywords, you should also focus on long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific phrases that potential clients might use when they know exactly what kind of lawyer they need. For example, if someone is looking for a personal injury lawyer in Los Angeles, they might search for “Los Angeles personal injury lawyer.” These kinds of keywords may have fewer monthly searches than general keywords, but they’re highly targeted keywords allowing you to have a higher conversion rate.
d.) Use Local Keywords
If your law firm serves a specific geographic area, then you’ll want to make sure you’re including local keywords in your marketing campaigns. For example, if you’re a criminal defense lawyer in Cleveland, some local keywords you might want to target could be “Cleveland criminal defense lawyer” or “criminal defense lawyer Cleveland.” Including these kinds of keywords will help ensure that potential clients in your area can find your law firm when they search for relevant terms online.
Take a look at the video below. It was created by Google for Google Ads and is also useful when doing keyword research for SEO purposes.
Checking Search Volume
The next step is to check the search volume for each keyword. This will give you an idea of how many people are actually searching for these terms online. You can check search volume using a keyword research tool like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Ahrefs. It will give you an estimate of the monthly search volume.
Checking Competition Level
The last step is to check the competition level for each keyword. This will give you an idea of how many other law firms compete for these same keywords. 
Just enter each keyword into your keyword tool and it will give you an estimate of the competition level.
2. Optimize Your Title and Meta Tags
The title of your blog post and the meta tags associated with it are what shows up in search engine results pages (SERPs), so it’s important to make sure they’re optimized for both humans and search engine crawlers.
A good rule of thumb is to keep your titles under 60 characters long and make sure your meta descriptions are compelling and give a brief overview of what the blog post is about.
3. Structure Your Posts With Headings and Subheadings
Breaking up your text with headings and subheadings makes it easier for people to scan and read, which is essential given the short attention spans of most internet users these days.
For search engine crawlers, headings and subheadings help them understand the structure of your post and index it accordingly. Just be sure to use proper tag hierarchy when tagging your headings (e.g., H1 for titles, H2 for subtitles).
4. Incorporate Images and Videos
People are more likely to engage with content that includes images or videos, so be sure to include them whenever possible. And don’t forget to optimize them! Whenever you upload a photo or video, make sure to include relevant keywords in the file name and fill out the alternate text field with a brief description of what’s in the image or video.
If you want to make sure your law firm’s blog posts are getting seen by potential clients, then you need to implement an SEO strategy. By doing your keyword research, optimizing your title and meta tags, structuring your posts with headings and subheadings, and incorporating images and videos, you can help improve your blog’s visibility in search engine results pages—and ultimately bring in more clients for your law firm.
Creating and optimizing blog posts are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to SEO for law firms. If you are looking for a way to generate more targeted leads for your law firm while still getting a good return on your investment, contact us today or click here to view our packages.
