A law firm’s beginner’s guide to keywords
Having the right keywords on your law firm’s website is one of the best ways to increase the exposure of your firm online. You may worry that you cannot compete with larger firms in the arena of online traffic, but you will be surprised by just how well smaller law firms can do if they implement a simple keyword strategy on their site.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a natural method that is used by website owners to improve the ranking of their website in search engines. This relates to when particular words, phrases or terms are typed into the search box by a potential client.
This ranking is decided using a complex system that is always moving, however, the way that keywords should be used in website content is always going to be important and there are certain steps that every law firm website owner should take.
If you are not sure about SEO and keywords, I have put together my beginner’s guide to keywords and the key things you need to know.
How should I choose my keywords?
It is no secret that you will want to make sure that your website comes as high up in the rankings as possible. This means that you need to carefully think about what keywords would work well for your law firm.
The more niche your keywords the more likely you will be able to hit your target audience. Don’t be tempted to go to broad with your keywords. Take a moment and pretend to be in your potential client’s shoes – what would they be searching for?
Also, think about long-tail keywords. This really means more than one keyword so for instance ‘Family and Divorce Lawyer’ again this gives you an opportunity to be more precise with targeting your pages.
If you’re not sure about what keywords to use – try googling them and seeing what comes up. Or use Google keywords, you will need to sign up for an account but the benefit is that you can enter your keywords and it will give you searches per month for that particular keyword and also alternatives too. I also like keywords everywhere – it’s a really useful plugin on Google chrome that when you type your words into a Google Search it will also let you know other alternatives to what potential clients might be searching for.
Where should I put my keywords?
On the page
Once you know the keywords that are going to work best for your business, then the time has come to create the content for your pages. You need to make sure that these keywords appear in your text, but you don’t want to force it and overstuff your pages with as many words as you can, try and make it as natural as possible.
A good rule of thumb is to try and include them at the top, the middle and the bottom and never overdo it. If you do, then the search engines will see it as keyword stuffing and they don’t look too kindly on this and may blacklist your site.
Page Titles and Page Descriptions
It isn’t just the content on the page that is important. The page title and page descriptions are too. These are coding that appears in the background of each page, and search engines see these as just as important as the keyword rich content. By placing keywords in these, you can make sure that the search engine really rates what you have created.
To find the page titles and descriptions you need to take a look at the Content Management System for your website – these sections should be included in the back-end. Don’t forget about them! If you have a WordPress site install Yoast – it’s a life saver!
Keywords are something that you will need to look at throughout the life of your website. Times will change and the keywords that relate to your site and service will change too. So make sure that you pay attention to your keywords and you will be repaid with a successful well-ranked website.
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If you would like help with your marketing then bringing on a marketing consultant with a fresh pair of eyes can make all the difference. I work with B2B businesses and professional service firms in London, Kent, UK and Europe as well as specialising as a Legal Marketing Consultant. Please get in touch or book a free 30-minute consultation.
