What Is an SEO Strategy?
Personal injury firms looking to grow and expand need quality lead generation that attracts the right clients.
A critical part of this lead generation strategy is SEO optimization. Many personal injury lawyers have likely already heard of SEO optimization for lead generation and some may already be utilizing some form of SEO to land clients.
However, there are common mistakes many lawyers and even SEO strategists make when dealing specifically with law firm SEO.
Below, we’ll touch on key areas that personal injury lawyers and firms can use to avoid these mistakes and maximize their SEO efforts.
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Tip #1: Be Specific
This might be one of the biggest errors we see when law firms run an SEO campaign or hire an agency to do so. The campaign is too broad and lacks the proper specificity.
As a personal injury lawyer, you likely specialize in certain areas of personal injury. You most likely also have a specific type of client you’re looking for. Unfortunately, many firms will simply target phrases like “personal injury” or “personal injury in Denver”.
Instead, break up your overall SEO efforts into smaller and smaller sub-campaigns. Your website needs to be optimized for general SEO, but your sub-pages and content need to be hyper-focused on the specific areas of personal injury you specialize in. Those pages also need to answer the questions those seeking counsel are likely to have.
For example, if you specialize in workplace-related accidents, then this will become a sub-campaign of the larger overall SEO strategy. You will then create various content that addresses the specific questions potential clients have within the area of workplace accidents and personal injury law.
Tip #2: Create Content That Clients Need
When potential clients are searching for legal information about a possible case they may have, they don’t want to be lectured on the nuances of the law before getting an answer.
Instead, these types of clients want basic information answered as quickly as possible and in a way they can understand. This means creating content specifically for how a potential client is thinking, not how a lawyer would think.
Content should prioritize the most pressing questions a potential client may have. The first and most common example of this type of question is – “do I have a case?”
This question should be answered as soon as possible in the content and it’s also tied to the hyper-focused strategy we outlined earlier.
By targeting specific case types, you can provide more precise information that is helpful to readers. For example, if you specialize in auto accidents, you would create content for specific yet common accident scenarios.
Let’s use the example of this question that clients may search for.
“I was cited with a ticket after an accident but the other driver was at fault. Do I still have an injury case?”
Your content would try to explain as early as possible that even if the client was partially at fault or was cited, they may still have a personal injury case that can be pursued.
Then, go into detail explaining why and give simple examples that are easily understood.
By answering a specific question early in the content and using simple terms, the chance of that content being shared online by others is much higher. This helps to provide further SEO benefits for your content and website.
A long-winded piece of content that doesn’t answer the question until the very end will be shared much less often and many readers may click away before finishing. This rarely generates a lead and also has no additional SEO benefits as stronger content does.
Remember, the key is to think like a client when formulating your content, not like a lawyer.
Tip #3: Build Backlinks
Once you’ve created useful content that potential clients need, it’s time to create backlinks to your site. Backlinks are essentially links on other sites that point to your website. Search engines use the number and quality of these backlinks to help determine how to rank your site and its pages for various keywords.
One unique strategy for building backlinks is making yourself available to local news outlets when certain legal topics are covered.
When a reporter is writing a local story about a legal topic, they generally want a blurb from a local attorney to include in their story.
Lawyers should try to reach out to local reporters, both local television and print and let them know they are available to speak on certain legal topics related to what the firm specializes in.
For example, if you specialize in auto accidents, you can offer brief insight when reporters cover a pending legal matter involving a high-profile traffic accident or the resulting civil or criminal case that follows.
If you have a Twitter account for your firm, make sure to engage with local reporters when they post stories relevant to your area of practice. By simply engaging with them they may reach out on their own when a comment is needed for an upcoming story.
Local news website links are very strong when it comes to backlinks. They also generate real traffic as people search for related legal information. So securing these links can provide a huge SEO boost.
Use creative backlink strategies such as this along with more traditional methods, like guest posting.
SEO Strategy Summary
When it comes to legal SEO, content is often king. Follow these tips to improve your content and attract more clients.
- Target specific clients and legal situations using focused sub-campaigns as part of your overall SEO strategy.
- Create content that addresses the client’s most pressing questions that they have when seeking counsel. Don’t bore them with complexity or legal nuances that may cause them to click away and look for another source of information.
- Use creative backlink strategies. Build relationships with local organizations or news outlets that can provide free and powerful backlinks to your carefully created content.
Incorporating these tips into your current strategy will help you create more useful content that attracts backlinks and improves SEO.
If you have any additional questions or need help creating legal SEO content that drives lead generation, contact Conceptual Creations. We specialize in high-quality SEO content that delivers for law firms looking to grow their client list.
