How to Rank Your Law Firm Higher in Google My Business
By Caleb on November 1, 2023 in Internet Marketing SEO for Law Firms
Google My Business is an excellent way to bring more inbound leads into your law firm’s pipeline. However, if you’re not being featured near the top of the map pack section, you won’t be getting too many calls from potential clients. Nobody scrolls to the 5th page of Google to read content, nor do they do this with Google Business. We wrote this post to help ensure that you rank near the top.
How Google Determines Local Ranking
When a law firm keyword is searched locally, Google looks at three factors: relevance, distance, and prominence. Using these three categories Google will give results in what they think is what you’re looking for. Therefore, the #1 ranking on Google My Business will often differ. However, it can be manipulated to have the best potential for your law firm.
- Relevance refers to how well a business matches up with your search inquiry. Providing Google with accurate and relevant information on your business will target a specific user with a search term similar to the ones you have listed in your categories.
- Distance: Google looks at how close a business is to your current location. Therefore, it will rank law firms that are closer higher to the searcher than those that are farther. If Google doesn’t track you, they still have a good idea of where you are and will do their best to provide location-based information.
- Prominence is a combination of additional internet-base factors including backlinks, reviews, location prominence, website history and overall SEO.
How to Rank Higher as a Law Firm
Now that we know what Google considers to rank businesses within Google My Business, how does one improve their ranking score? There are endless ways and many hours that go into a high-level SEO campaign; however, here are the best ways to jump-start their google my business ranking.
Enter Complete Data
Completed data means that you have all of the prompts asked by Google filled out. When you sign up for google my business, you are asked several questions; filling out each is a must to rank. Provide as much information as possible regarding physical address, phone number, attributes, categories, etc.
Manage and Respond to Reviews
As we all know, when you look for somewhere to eat, the first thing you look at is reviews, but it’s the same for any business. Reviews are a crucial part of google my business not only to rank, but to convert traffic into calls, and one must collect and respond to them. Once you acquire reviews, make sure you are responding to each and every one. A great way to do this is using Chat-GPT and having it make a customer response to each review. Here are two great ways to collect reviews;
- QR Codes: Many software allows you to collect reviews using QR codes. Make sure you have one on the way in and out of your firm or even on your website. Make it seamless for the client to leave a review without the search for your google my business profile.
- Email: Surely you have the emails for your past clients; ensure you’re sending emails to collect reviews. Let them know how crucial these are to your business and how much you appreciate them.
There is much software used to collect Google reviews which has a thing I like to call “Gatekeeping.” Gatekeeping is a prompt before they are directed to Google, which asks about their experience using a 5-star rating. The 4 stars and below are sent to you in an email, and when a client does a 4.1 star or higher, they get sent to Google to write a great review.
However, make sure you don’t offer something in return, as this is a direct breach of googles terms of service and can result in getting your listing removed.
Add Photos
Adding photos is another way Google ranks a business. The more high-quality images that are added, the better. Furthermore, having customers leave reviews with pictures is outstanding for ranking.
SEO
Last but certainly not least, a complete SEO campaign is a great option. As mentioned above, SEO includes links, web content, keyword research, and so much more. A strong SEO campaign for your website with quality links and content will boost your business on the map pack and the first page of Google. SEO should be a crucial part of your marketing strategy and is a great way to enhance the number of inbound leads.
