Most companies overlook search engine optimization, to their detriment. Humans are always searching for solutions to their problems or just answers to questions. Before the Internet, you had to look for someone who had some knowledge or expertise in the area you needed help with. Often, such people were not in your immediate circles and were difficult to find.
For many people, this meant they could not find solutions to their problems. This was until the Internet changed the game. These days, the default position for most people is to search for solutions or answers on the Internet.
As of May 2022, over 3 billion people search for information on Google daily. Most of these people go on to decide whether to buy a product or pay for a service based on the information they get. That’s a large number of people that could potentially become your clients.
However, these searches will mean nothing if you do not have a strategy for getting these users to discover your legal firm and potentially become paying clients. On the other hand, you’re not the only legal firm that understands this. Others do and are constantly working to put themselves before potential clients.
Therefore you must pay attention to search engine optimization and develop a strategy to survive and outrank other legal firms. This article provides some strategies you can use to outrank your competitors.
Tips for Outranking Your Competitors
If you’ve decided to devote resources to getting clients online, you need to get the best results. However, many law firms are not strategic about this and consequently get no result. Below are a few tips that can help you outrank your competitors.
-
Create Great Content
Ideally, creating great content should be an obvious strategy to outrank your competitors and get clients. However, too many legal firms either do not produce excellent content or try to game the system. So the first step is to create copies that solve a prospective client’s need.
For example, if you are a personal injury lawyer, you can create content explaining the Statute of Limitations for personal injuries. This is an essential piece of information that your prospective client may need, and giving them value upfront is a sure way to get their trust. As anyone who has purchased a product online knows, this could make it easier to decide.
-
Target the Right Keywords
When anyone wants to search for something online, they input certain words or phrases called keywords. With over 3 billion searches daily, it would be impossible to employ humans to recommend the right content for users.
Therefore, algorithms are used to identify posts that could be valuable to a user and recommend them. Keywords help the algorithm understand what your content is all about before recommending it.
There are several keywords that your law firm could target, and this is often dependent on your target audience. So the first thing to do is think like a potential client. What kind of phrase or words will they type into the search bar?
Building on our previous example, they could type “personal injury lawyers in South Carolina” or “what is the Statute of Limitations for a dog bite in South Carolina?” If your content contains information that has any of these keywords, your content will likely be recommended to the user.
If you don’t have enough ideas for keywords that potential clients will use while searching for your services, keyword research can help with that. There re several tools that help with keyword research and search engine optimization. You can also look for the keywords that your competitors rank for.
However, avoid keyword stuffing. The term refers to including a specific keyword repeatedly in your content. It affects the quality of your content, and it is also counterproductive as Google’s search engine, for example, can detect this.
Furthermore, ensure your keyword makes up between one and two percent of your total word count. For example, if you have an article with 1,000 words, you should mention your keyword at least 10 and 20 times.
Anything above this and your content may struggle to rank. To help the algorithm detect your keyword easily, include it in your headline, page URL, sub-headings, meta description, and image alt text.
-
Site Speed
Have you ever tried loading a site but found out that it loads slowly? Like most people, this must have been a frustrating experience that may have caused you to close the website. A 2019 Unbounce report revealed that page speed influenced the willingness of 70% of online buyers.
While this research was conducted on online buyers, the results can be extended to visitors to your law firm’s website. Even with great content and the right keywords, your site speed could deter them and impact your search engine optimization in the process. As a result, you could lose potential clients to competitors.
According to a report, about 47% of users expect a website to load in less than two seconds, with 40% disclosing that they will leave a website that takes longer than three seconds to load. One way you can increase site speed is by reducing image sizes. You can also host your website on a server that provides a fast load time.
-
Have Quality Backlinks
One of the significant factors that influence the ability of your website content to rank with search engine optimization is your backlinks. Backlinks are links from one website to another. When other sites link to your pages, they are signaling to the search engine that your content is valuable.
However, not all backlinks are equal. For example, quality backlinks are gotten from trusted websites with content related to your topic. Additionally, if you get most of your backlinks from one website, even when it is a trusted website, its authority will lose its value as time goes on.
Getting quality backlinks is primarily about the quality of your content. When you produce great content, people will naturally share the link to your content. You can be proactive about getting backlinks by reaching out to trusted sites to link to your website.
For example, you could create listings on legal directories. You could also write guest posts on other websites. Then, while providing them with quality content, you also receive backlinks to your website.
Let EverCovert Help You With Search Engine Optimization and Outranking Your Competitors
With all that we have said about outranking other legal firms, you may think this is a quick fix that will provide you with instant solutions. But this couldn’t be further from the truth.
While these strategies work, like anything worthwhile, they need time to work. Of course, you may occasionally get quick results, but that is not always the case. Consequently, you need experts who understand how to create highly-rated content.
At EverConvert, we understand this perfectly, and as the testimonials from previous clients show, we are the best option to get your content outranking your competitors. Contact us today to learn more about our digital marketing services.
