Getting Local SEO right is key for solicitors and law firms that want to attract more business from potential clients nearby. This is true for small independent legal firms with one office, to large national firms with offices in cities across the country – ranking well in the local search results when people search for the legal services you provide can increase your organic traffic by up to 40-50%.

Improve local SEO for law firms for better perormance in Google search

What is Local SEO & Why is It Important for Solicitors?

Most businesses looking to attract new customers and clients from the search results understand the importance of Search Engine Optimisation. But with search engines like Google placing increased importance on the proximity of relevant businesses to the searcher, both with the ‘map pack’ rankings and organic search results, Local SEO is the more focused strategy for gaining the best rankings for these local searches.

For solicitors and legal firms, where potential clients are more than likely wanting to work with a specialist ‘near me’ or in a particular town or city, employing the right local SEO strategies to ensure the best possible rankings for these local searches is critical to maximise organic traffic

Whether for location-specific searches, e.g. ‘conveyancing solicitor in york’, or for general searches performed in particular locations, Google is now more likely than ever to display map and organic rankings of solicitors that are in that particular area. To determine which listings to show, Google relies on Relevance, Geographical Distance, and Prominence – so lawyers need to make sure they have the right approach to Local SEO to capitalise on this potential for new client enquiries.

Local SEO Checklist for Lawyers & Solicitors

  1. Determine your most relevant search terms
  2. Optimise your Google Business Profile
  3. Optimise your website/webpages
  4. Create locally-focused citations & directory listings
  5. Create locally-focused content

Keyword Research

As with a typical law firm’s SEO, the first place to start is with some keyword research to determine the best search terms to target. If you’re a larger firm offering a range of services, you may want to focus on more general local keywords like ‘solicitors manchester’. But if you are a smaller or more specialist firm, understanding that searches for ‘property solicitors leeds’ are likely to drive the most traffic will be key to your local optimisation.

GBP Optimisation

One of the key aspects of successful Local SEO for law firms is having a correctly optimised Google Business Profile. Google map results show up at the top of the results page for practically all local searches, and local businesses we’ve ranked in this map pack for the right searches have seen it drive up to 50% of their organic traffic.

Optimise local SEO ranking factors for better local pack rankings & more prospective clients

On top of this, ranking in these map results is relatively quicker and easier than obtaining top rankings in the organic search results underneath. We’ve created a step-by-step guide on how to optimise your Google Business Profile, which you can find here

Website Optimisation

With your GBP optimised, you now need to focus on optimising your law firm’s website for local searches. This is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, the corresponding local optimisation on your website will help with the organic results. 

It also helps to complement and improve your GBP rankings. If you are a law firm with just one location, optimising the homepage for that location, e.g. ‘Jones Solicitors Birmingham’, as well as adding your address/location to the footer of each page will be beneficial.

If you are a larger firm with multiple locations, creating individual web pages for each location will help, so having a specific web page optimised for your Leeds office, which you link your Leeds office’s Google Business Profile to, will be key to ensuring the possible rankings for local searches.

Finally, you want to ensure your website has the best possible technical optimisation so that it works well on mobile devices. Mobile search performance not only drives Google’s search result rankings, it’s also important as more and more searches are carried out on mobile devices, and the majority of these searches for services will display local search results.

Local Citations & Listings

Links from relevant local websites are important for any SEO project, but for local SEO your solicitor firms’ listings on relevant industry and local directories and organisation websites is key for better local rankings. These citations, where your address listings on law directories, legal association sites, and location-specific websites (e.g. https://directory.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/) all provide Google with the service and geographical relevance it needs to help determine where your law firm should rank for local searches.

Locally-Focused Content

To enhance the local relevance of your website, consider creating locally-focused content that could cover local legal issues or news, or highlight case studies and successful projects for local clients. Where your site has multiple location pages, linking all the relevant coverage back to the specific office location page will help to enhance the location relevance of that page and improve its performance in local search results.

Solicitor Firms & Local Search Engine Optimization

Local SEO is vital for solicitors and law firms that want to increase the flow of potential clients and enquires they get from the search results. Just try searching for any of your target search terms and it’s unlikely you’ll see results without the map pack, or a list of solicitors close by in the organic rankings. 

If your law firm isn’t appearing in either of these results, your law firm’s local SEO could need some work, and following the simple steps above could go a long way to improving your local search performance and gaining more potential clients in your area.

If your law firm is convinced of the potential of having a fully-optimised business profile and want some assistance to make the most of this opportunity, just complete the callback request form below and we’ll get in touch to discuss how we can help.

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