Law Firm SEO Guide.
By Lawyers. For Lawyers.
Get Results.

A "How-To SEO" Guide for Lawyers

A guide for those who want to rank high in search and grow their practice. 

What is Law Firm SEO?

The scientific process of improving your law firm’s website in search results of Google, Bing, and other search engines, by researching keywords, writing content, obtaining links from other websites, improving your website code, and iterating on that continually. 

Why SEO?

It works. We have hundreds of clients who get leads daily from SEO and paid ads. Google is the dominant search engine in the United States and most countries. This is a guide of all our 20-years of working with law firms. 

How Should I Use This SEO Guide?

Our SEO Guide has five parts:

1. How SEO Works
2. Why and Who of SEO
3. SEO Checklist for Lawyers
4. Law Firm SEO Questions and Answers
5. Law Firm SEO Resources

If you are new to the game, please read our How SEO Works guide.  It is short and will fill you in on what you need to know.  We also have valuable resources for further reading.  If you already know about SEO, then you should peruse the “do-it-yourself” or “hire an agency” sections.  Finally, if you are an SEO expert, then you may want to take a look at our handy SEO checklist to make sure you, or your agency, have everything covered. 

Let’s get started.

4 Key SEO Ranking Factors

There are hundreds of factors in the Google algorithm.  But the key four are the following:

• Content - Content is the key to ranking.  You must write about your practice.  You start with researching what your core practice areas are and how people search for them.  Sometimes attorneys know their practice, clients, and target terms really well. They write regularly because they are experts in their field. Their articles rank high because they are the seminal guide on a practice area.  Other times, you need help in creating a publication chart of what pages to publish, when to publish, and where to publish.  The key though is to write about your practice areas.  Write. Write.  Write. 
• Links - Links are similar to votes.  When you get a link from another site to your site, that is a vote.  The site with the most votes usually wins in the rankings.  For backlinks, often firms that have been around for a long time have natural backlinks. They get them from reputable sources for free, because they win a big case or have appeared in directories for years.  For other firms, you need to build backlinks through the best legal directories, citations from web directories, and the best other websites that you can get a link from. 
• Website Structure & Tags - Title tags, H1, H2, paragraphs, website speed, broken links, schema, rich snippets, and XML sitemaps all matter for ranking high in search results.  For the technical aspects of the site, some law firms created a solid website in WordPress years ago and keep it updated. Their site is fast, mobile-friendly, and easy to navigate. Their site passes all user metrics and has a low bounce rate and high time on site, then you are set.  For other firms, your website may need help.  Check out the Google page speed insights to see if your site is slow.  Browse your website to find information, to see if you can in a few clicks.  Run some informal, or formal, user testing. 
• UX & Rankbrain - Google tracks just about everything via Chrome and Google Analytics. Based on this data, Google revises its rankings based on actual user feedback.  Do clients go to your site and leave right away? This means your page is not helpful and will rank lower.  Do clients spend several minutes on the page and not conduct any other searches?  Then you could rank higher.  

Strategy: Keyword Research & Knowing Your Practice Areas

Start by determining what keyword phrases will be more effective by looking at past searches. You can use Google Keyword Planner as a great resource (you just need a free Google account). Narrow down your keywords by selecting those that are within reach AND will help your law practice grow in the practice areas you care most about.

Start with the basics - your practice areas.  Then multiply those practice areas by your geographical cities where you want to rank.  Then add in the base terms of lawyer, attorney and law firm.  So a quick matrix could look like this:

You can then use a merge word function to see all the possible combinations (45 in this instance).

You can then go to Google Keyword Planner and put in those 45 and see the results which show that most people search for probate and then estate planning.  With the largest search volume coming from Miami, then Fort Lauderdale, and then West Palm beach.

Now this is the most simplistic research you should do. It does not take long but gets you on the right path.  You can do more advanced searches for additional terms and long-tail terms too.

Content: What to Write and How to Structure

Search engines rank websites higher that offer relevant information. You need to make sure your main practice areas have between 2,000 and 5,000 words per topic. Become THE dominant resource online. Are you a probate lawyer? Then write about probate and all its intricacies. Are you a personal injury lawyer? Then don't just write about injuries, but very specific injury types - like truck accidents or specific medical conditions.

We recommend setting up a chart of all the pages on your website.  Then match them to specific keyword phrases that you want to rank high.  Each page should have a primary keyword phrase and secondary keyword phrases (or related terms).  Make sure that every page has a focus though.

For length, you will want to write enough to be the dominant resource.  If there is no one in your industry, then you can get away with 500-word shorter pages.  If you have lots of competition, then you may need to produce an ultimate guide of 2,500 to 5,000+ words. Here is one we wrote for a firm in Arizona that rank high for “Arizona Car Accident Guide”

The key is to answer the questions users are searching for.  So always check out related searches or the featured snippets, and featured questions of Google search and write for those specific terms.  For example:

Technical SEO:  Let’s Get Nerdy about Code

You need to organize your law firm's website to be search-friendly and easy to navigate. Keep your site as close as possible to flat, with a pyramid of pages. You also need to create friendly URLs, tags, and code. Your website should be automatically uploaded to Google's index via an XML file. You also need to make sure your site is mobile-friendly and fast to load. Review your site using PageSpeed Speed Insights.

Yes, code matters. Just because your website is built in WordPress on a new template, does not mean that it's optimized code.  In fact, it is probably NOT optimized code if you are using a theme or template.  WordPress is known for bloating code and being slower.  But there are workarounds, by pruning plugins, optimizing the code to make it faster.  

Google Page Speed

Run your site through Google’s PageSpeed Speed Insights to see if its fast. If it is not, follow the advice. 

XML Sitemap

Upload a Sitemap to Google Search Console.

WordPress Flat URLs

When creating your site, you can update the site settings to allow WP to have a flat architecture, versus nested URLs.  It is often better to have pages closer to the root URL, vs. buried deep in subdirectories.

Featured Snippets

You can write your code to feature your question and answers in Google snippets.  You can take advantage of their rich snippets too.

Links & Authority:  Get More Mentions Online

Google ranks sites based on the content but also based on the authority of each. Authority is determined by backlinks - someone linking to your site. You also need to obtain links, thus ensuring that you are well-positioned to rank high. 

Law firms can do this in several ways: 1) legal directories, 2) regular directories, 3) local listings, 4) writing content and publishing offsite, 5) getting PR / media mentions, 6) getting social media mentions, 7) sponsoring local events, 8) sponsoring national events, 9) outreach to bloggers, and 10) building such a great website that people want to link to it as a resource.

We have put together a good starting point that every law firm should have:  Best Legal Directory Listings.  We suggest you run down that list and get them all. Then start a content marketing plan and outreach plan to write informative content about your practice areas.  Get links through outreach and networking. 

User Experience (UX):  User Visits Matter

The final metric that Google now uses is its "RankBrain" algorithm. Google uses user activity on your website to see if your site is a mess or a valuable resource. Does a potential client stay on your site long? Do they go back to search results and visit your competitors' site and stay longer? Did the searcher contact you? Did they visit multiple pages? All of this information matters. Your law firm needs to have a website that is easy to navigate and answers the users' questions.

Sign up for Google Analytics or use your own server logs.  The key metrics that we always look for are:

1. Pageviews - As a metric to see total traffic
2. Unique Pageviews - To make sure that traffic is not all coming from a few people.
3. Avg. Time on Page - To make sure that pages are not 30s or under, or some low metric for long-form pages.
4. Bounce Rate - This ideally will be less than 50% and ideally less than 30%.  If it has a high bounce, you may have issues with the page.
5. Exit Rate - Showcasing where people exit.

Take a look at your logs and identify pages that have high traffic, but high bounce and improve them.  Also, improve pages that have a low Avg. Time on Page and pages with a high exit. 

Local SEO for Attorneys:  Ranking on the Maps

Getting ranked on the map can easily bring in more traffic.  Right now you have three potential slots for the “map pack.”  The rankings are dependent on the your citations of your name, address, and phone (NAP).  They are also based on your distance to the city center, reviews on Google, website content, and of course overall backlinks.  You need to claim your listing in on Google. You need to optimize the content of the listing.  You need to get reviews and you need to get your site listed in the top web directories for law firms.

Your firm should be on the map pack if you are doing everything right.  If you have a good number of reviews, located in the city you are targeting, and are writing content about your practice areas, you have a chance to rank high.  The final item is that you need to get citations and links to your site featuring the name, address, and phone (NAP). Pay attention to duplicate listings and also your specific address, as misspellings or oddities in the address matter. 

Want to know more about local listings?  Check out our blog post about local listings and its checklist for law firms. 

Analytics:  Success Through Improving

Are there other factors? Of course. Factors such as social media, guest posts, and videos all decide how well your law firm's website performs. We have even written a 10,000 word complete SEO Book for Law Firms. Nevertheless, the process above is the basis for any high-performing SEO campaign.  The key to ranking high long term is using analytics to improve.  Track your rankings.  Track your visits.  See what pages are important and which are failing.  Improve weekly with data. 

Why Should I Care about Law Firm SEO?

You may not need SEO. What? Huh? An SEO company telling you that you may not need an SEO campaign for your law firm? Yes, it's true. There is no one secret to SEO for lawyers. You can learn how to create a high-performing SEO campaign by reading this article.

If your law firm's website is properly built in the last few years, you publish regularly, have existing backlinks, and your content is not a mess, then you may not need much, if any, SEO. Perhaps only a few tweaks to optimize your results.

If you are in the other camp though, where your business is new, you don't know what you are doing, you have no content, no one links to your domain, and your site's organization is a mess, then you may need to either train yourself in law firm SEO practices.

DIY SEO Option

If your law firm's website is properly built in the last few years, you publish regularly, have existing backlinks, and your content is not a mess, then you may not need much, if any, SEO. Perhaps only a few tweaks to optimize your results.

You can absolutely conduct aN SEO campaign yourself. It takes time though. You will need to write.  You will need to get the top directory backlinks.  You will need to post regularly and set up an outreach program to gain more backlinks over time.  

SEO Agency Option

For many lawyers, your law firm's website is the key factor to your financial success. Sure, your legal expertise is how you win your cases, but a website is how you gain clients and grow. How can you market your firm?

Creating an appealing web design is only half the battle. If your site isn't on the first page of Google, you are potentially missing out on hundreds of leads per month because potential clients aren't considering you.

Reasons for an SEO agency include:

• Poor Rankings - Your search results show on page two or below. In short, you are not getting any traffic and you need to rank higher for more organic search visibility.
• New to the Game - You’re just learning about best practices and want to start off with good content and good links.
• Trying to grow beyond word-of-mouth references - Happy clients help grow your practice but they won’t reach the audience that SEO can.
• Penalized - You had great results, but suddenly fell out of favor with Google. You probably need help with a disavow file, backlink cleanup, or a copy edit to stop over-optimization.
• Going Broke - You are wasting money monthly on a team and want to know how you can improve.
• Too Busy - You want to be practicing law, not worrying about writing about the latest news in Corporate Law or reaching out to journalists to pick up backlinks.

Maybe you need to get a few more backlinks. Perhaps you need to sign-up for a few more directories or confirm your information. Maybe you need to publish a long piece of content like an Arizona car accident guide to rank #1 for a new practice. Or maybe you need help in organizing your site or simply making sure it runs fast or is mobile friendly?

Why PaperStreet

For PaperStreet, the idea of an SEO program was born in 2002 when one of our web design clients asked how one of their competitors ranked high in searches for “Maryland employment lawyer.” At that time, we did not know anything about SEO.

But we have always been a bold and innovative company. Our founder is a self-taught computer geek, in addition to being an attorney. We love challenges. We told the client we would figure it out . . . and we did. Two weeks later, we had our client ranked #1 for the same phrase. Our SEO program for law firms was born.

Fast forward 20 years and much has changed about SEO and getting law firms ranked high. However, our results have not changed. We are a Premier Google partner now and here to help. Some of the reasons to choose us for your law firm's SEO campaign include:

• Work Only With You, Not Your Competitors - Many SEO agencies will gladly take on your business and your competitors. You can't both be #1. Get an agency that is exclusive to you.
• 20 Years of Experience - We started our SEO program in 2001 with one of our first web design clients. We became industry experts soon after, consistently ranking sites after launch.
• 100+ Current Campaigns Under Management - We currently help solo practitioners, to firms with 100+ attorneys. Our practice areas range from personal injury to the more niche vaccine law.
• Expert Advice - You can check out our 10,000 word Guide on Law Firm Marketing and our blog covering SEO, web design and more. We've also been published in dozens of publications such as Forbes, DotCom Magazine, Attorney at Law Magazine and more.
• Happy Clients Long-Term - We have long-term clients. We have 10 clients who have been with us for more than 15 years. We have over 125 firms that have been with us for over 10 years.
• 90% Retention Rate on a Monthly Basis - After our initial term, our contracts are on a month-to-month basis. This means we need to earn our clients' business monthly and keep clients happy.

We pride ourselves on our results, our exclusivity, and our transparency. We like to showcase our proven results; we offer exclusive agreements by working for only one law firm for each particular practice area per region for most of our advanced packages, and we uphold full transparency in the work within your attorney SEO campaign - we involve our clients in all aspects of our process and provide full disclosure in all work completed within the campaign.

Whether you want to read our brief guide below, read our complete SEO Book, or just talk to us, we are here to help.

The following are a minimum number of things that need to happen for an SEO plan:

Research & Strategy

Start by determining which keyword phrases will be more effective by looking at past searches. You can use Google Keyword Planner as a great resource (you just need a free Google account). Narrow down your keywords by selecting those that are within reach AND will help your law practice grow in the practice areas you care most about.

Site Architecture & On-Page Changes

You need to organize your website to be search-friendly and easy to navigate. Keep your site as close as possible to flat, with a small pyramid of pages. You also need to create friendly URLs, tags, and code.

Authority

You also need to obtain links, thus ensuring that you are well positioned to rank high. Law firms do this in several ways: 1) legal directories, 2) regular directories, 3) local listings, 4) writing content and publishing offsite, 5) getting PR / media mentions, 6) getting social, 7) sponsoring local events, 8) sponsoring national events, 9) outreach to bloggers and 10) building such a great website that people want to link to it as a resource

Content

Search engines award points to websites that offer relevant information. You need to make sure your main practice areas have between 2,000 and 5,000 words per topic. Become THE dominant resource online.

Social Media

Not only should you publish content, but you also need to make sure that others notice it. Digital marketing for social media evolves every day and more and more platforms need to be utilized.

Analysis of Campaign & Consulting

Search rankings change constantly. Each month you should review your bounce rate, impressions, time on page, exit pages, and of course sessions.

Master SEO Checklist

We have our comprehensive list of SEO items that we do as part of an SEO campaign.  Take a look to make sure you are doing all of these.

Strategy & Onboarding

• SEO Project Kickoff call 
• Research and select effective keyword phrases 

Website & Rankings Review

• Check Mobile-friendly version of the website exists
• Check homepage for mobile SEO issues
• Make sure Google Analytics is set up and on every page
• Make sure Google Search Console (GSC) is set up
• Submit XML sitemap to Google GSC
• Fetch as Google and submit all linked pages to the index
• Check for any messages or notifications from Google (manual actions or security issues)
• Set up shared user and notification
• Set geographic target area within GSC appropriately
• Merge/sync Google Analytics and GSC
• Make sure schema markup (Local Business) has been applied to the NAP information
• Add Knowledge Graph schema markup
• Add client information and keywords in Advanced Web Ranking (AWR) Reporting
• Setup monthly report in AWR to send to the client
• Google SERP for the country targeting in rankings report

Content Analysis & Optimization

• Outline and finalize site architecture and keywords
• Content audit on the website based on selected keywords 
• Check if a law hub exists
• Apply on-page optimization
• Recommendation of long-form content
• Check for an In-depth “About Us” page with a mission statement, company directory and other signs of legitimate business
• Robust Contact and/or Customer Service Information
• Fetch as Google and submit all linked pages to the index
• Authoritative outbound links are included in the content
• Internal linking has been included within the content
• Main content (purpose of the page) is not below the fold

Technical SEO

• Exclude traffic from us & firm IP address in Analytics
• Apply custom channel grouping 
• Google Analytics: Exclude all hits from known bots/spiders
• Navigation and page copy is visible/functions without JS
• Error pages return error status codes
• All URLs work with HTTP or HTTPS, but not both
• Google Analytics Contact Form Goal Setup
• Google Analytics/Tag Manager Phone Number Click Goal 
• Google Analytics is capturing internal search (if applicable) 
• Run Xenu report and check that all links are functioning
• Google Analytics - Add domain to referral exclusion list
• Google Analytics - Add segment to filter out referral spam 
• Apply update to capture Google Translate usage data
• Run Screaming Frog report 
• Check for redirect chains using Screaming Frog
• Check for duplicate titles and metas using Screaming Frog
• Check for canonical errors using Screaming Frog
• All relevant images have optimized alt tags applied
• No “splash” entry pages/doorway pages
• Internal technical duplicate content check 
• Duplicate content is not returned by other websites 
• Check for multiple URLs parameters with the same content
• Hidden text does not exist
• Keyword stuffing does not exist
• iFrames, flash or JS links are not being used on the website
• Confirm no more than 300 links per page exist
• Confirm no more than 25 footer links
• Address clearly listed on each page in header or footer
• Copyright and Blog date stamps are applied
• Use rel=”canonical” for duplicate pages or check that it should be “noindex; nofollow”
• 301 redirects for alternative domain names and old pages
• WWW used only (and the non-www redirects)
• SEO friendly URLs - short, extension-less, close to the URL, less than 74 characters
• htaccess file is established (if on Apache server) 
• Check/setup browser caching for .htaccess 
• Custom 404 error page exists
• Broken URLs redirects to 404 page
• Robots.txt file configured and XML sitemaps are listed
• Make sure an extensive sitemap page is created
• Generate a Sitebeam report
• Site Speed has been checked
• Safe Browsing Site Status Check

Content Writing (Initial and Ongoing)

• Initial content writing for the project
• Editing of existing pages on the website
• Ongoing content writing for the project  

Link Building & Reporting

• Initial Backlink Analysis
• Run an AWR update after the launch of all new websites
• AWR Baseline Ranking Report
• OpenSiteExplorer.com Baseline Report
• Check for Broken & Lost Links
• Check if the business has enough Google reviews to set up review snippet for SERP
• Submit Specified Links
• Submit Local Listings
• Initial Competitor analysis
• Submit General Business Links
• Recommend Paid Listings
• Article Submissions
• Recommend Local Community and relevant sponsorship opportunities
• Check for Brand Mentions
• Assist with HARO setup

Analysis and Consulting

• SEO Content Manager Starts Blogging 
• Quarterly check on campaign keywords
• Periodically check bad backlink profile and disavow
• Quarterly check on the mobile speed of the website
• Periodically check Online Business Reviews and Ratings 

Social Media

• Google Local/Business Page listing Setup & Claiming
• Google Maps Link is listed on contact/city pages
• Facebook set up and optimized
• Twitter setup
• LinkedIn setup
• Google Publisher setup
• Hootsuite setup (optional)
• Social media pages include Design branding
• All social media icons are present on the website
• Provide social media logins & strategies
• Open Graph metadata has been added
• Check if engaging (not just posting) on social media

Other Checklists

We also have several checklists for you to take a look at:

1. Conversion Checklist - 67 Things to Checkout  
2. Website Launch Checklist - Must do when launching a new site
3. Local SEO Checklist - Questions and Best Practices

We have been doing law firm SEO for over 20 years now.  We have been asked and answered a lot of questions.  Here are some of the highlights:

• ahrefs - Website analysis for links
• Moz - Tools to help monitor your SEO
• Google - Google’s own SEO starter guide
• SEJ - Search engine journal
• Search Engine Land - Latest news on search engines
• SEO Book - Law firm SEO book
• Directory Listings - Listings of the top sites to get links
• Reviews - Listing of why and how to get reviews
• Glossary - Glossary of terms for SEO
• Google Trends - Explore what the world is searching 
• Google Analytics - For tracking everything
• Google Search Console - Measure search traffic and performance
• Google Page Speed Insights - Site speed evaluation tool
• Pingdom - Site speed evaluation tool
• GTMetrix - Site speed evaluation tool
• Webpagetest.org - Site speed evaluation tool
• MergeWords - Useful for merging words for keyword research
• WordCounter - Count words
• BuzzStream Meta Tag - Extract page title, description and keywords from URLs
• Keywordtool.io - Generate keyword phrases based on related terms
• AnswerthePublic - Generate keywords related to what people are asking
• Plagium - Plagiarism tracker
• Copyscape - Plagiarism tracker