That legal service is a very competitive profession is a well-known fact; it is one of the most competitive niches. It is also true that local businesses have to strive hard to compete with big, established brands, and the nature of the legal profession is such that the majority of clients come from the same locality where your office is situated.So how does a lesser known law firm or a lawyer compete with other well-established names? In this digitally empowered world, where everyone is employing different SEO strategies to outsmart others to rank higher in search engine results, there are SEO challenges faced by lawyers to stay ahead of others. This article highlights the biggest SEO challenges faced by lawyers to outrank others and stay on top of the search results, and why local SEO is crucial for lawyers to be visible to the local populace.
1. Online Legal Services
Online legal services are steadily gaining in popularity. Number of people availing online legal services has consistently increased over the years. According to 2015 data, this particular niche generated more than $4 billion, and the figure has only increased in the subsequent years. People find it more convenient and cost-effective than personally consulting a lawyer. Online legal services companies generate thousands of monthly searches.
This trend is adversely affecting local search results, which means lawyers’ businesses are being negatively impacted. Now, they not only have to compete with local and national lawyers, but also with online legal services which get better rankings in SERPs as their main objective is to enhance their online presence. They implement best SEO strategies to garner more traffic from Google.
2. Organic Search Results
Google doesn’t give too much importance to local legal firms in organic search results. As discussed earlier, online legal services have a strong presence in local organic search result pages. They occupy around 80 per cent search results in local searches across cities. They implement good SEO for lawyers with a number of backlinks. The dominance of online legal services in local search results gives the impression that local law firms have little chance of competing with them.
Of the 20 per cent lawyers websites that are unique to local searches, their high ranking and visibility is because of the sites’ overall performance and the firm’s physical presence in that area. The visibility in local SERP is because of the domain’s general performance in Google organic search results. All these point to the fact that Google doesn’t give much importance to the local factors, but considers general ranking factors while deciding the rankings. We can, therefore, infer that online legal companies can outperform local firms by increasing the number of backlinks, brand promotion and the number of visitors.
3. Local Pack
Some time back Google made certain changes that substantially reduced the chances of local businesses to be visible in local packs; 7-pack in SERPs was replaced by 3-pack. Though it is quite evident that online businesses hold the sway in local organic SERPs, the local pack is the best bet to remain present in Google for local legal companies. A survey revealed that about two-third of sites that appear in local packs for legal services are hyper-local and local. The amount of resources required to be present in the local pack varies from region to region.
All law firm SEO experts should be aware of this fact and plan their online marketing strategy accordingly.
4. A Website is a Must in Local Pack to Stand Out
Though Google’s local pack allows businesses to appear at the top of SERPs even without a website, it is not viable for legal business. It works well for non-competitive business, but for legal business, which is highly competitive, it could be suicidal not to have a website.
Research shows that around 90 per cent of legal businesses that show up in local packs have a website. Those appearing in a local pack without a website are not regarded as trustworthy by the potential clients as the users expect to find a link to a particular domain. Without a link to a professional website would lessen your law firm’s credibility.
5. Legal Website’s ranking in Local Pack and Number of Reviews
As in any other business, the number of reviews is of great importance in the legal profession. Your credibility and trustworthiness increases with the number of positive reviews you get; it directly impacts the conversion rate. Native review is among the top local search ranking factors. However, there is no direct correlation between the ranking and the number of reviews. Also, most legal sites do not show more than two reviews to the visitors.
To conclude, there are several SEO challenges for lawyers face in promoting their business online.
The points discussed above should always be taken into account in law firm SEO marketing to get the best ranking possible.
Author Bio
Sophia Dicosta, a Google certified online marketer, and blogger at Conroy Creative Counsel, best agency in the USA, provides marketing for attorneys and law firms.
