Until the 20th century, word-of-mouth communication and traditional marketing strategies worked successfully for law firms to drive new customers. Standing in 2023, most lawyers are facing tough challenges in client acquisition. Today, the success of any law firm depends majorly on how easily prospective clients can find them. And 96% of people use a search engine to seek legal advice.
As more prospective clients begin their search online, building a strong digital presence has become more important than ever. Unless you have a website it ranks high on search engine result pages (SERPs), it can be tough to acquire new clients in today’s highly competitive legal market today.
However, thousands of law firms and attorneys are competing for that top spot on SERPs. How do you stand out from the crowd and bring your expertise to the forefront? This is where SEO for lawyers comes into the picture. In this blog, we will discuss why is Search Engine Optimisation important and what should be SEO services cost for lawyers.
What is SEO for Lawyers?
Search Engine Optimisation for lawyers is the process of improving your practice’s visibility in search engine result pages. It encompasses a broad range of proven practices and techniques to help improve your website’s ranking in organic search results. The higher your website rankings, the more visible your law firm is to prospective clients who search for lawyers online.
It is the process of optimizing your law firm’s website in a way that helps boost ranking, generate website traffic, and drive new clients. Here’s how your website would appear when it is ranked on the first page of Google search results:
Why SEO is Important For Lawyers?
Let’s put it simply – Search engine optimization is integral for law firms and attorneys to garner new business (and to drive existing customers too).
Why?
This is because your prospective clients cannot hire you if they cannot find you or even know that you exist. Traditional marketing approaches just like advertisements aren’t just expensive but also fail to reach a broad audience base in a cost-effective manner. Additionally, people now spend more time on the Internet. Hence, newspaper ads, TV commercials, or referrals have become pretty outdated today.
For people seeking legal advice, first, turn up to search engines to find a lawyer near them. The reason – this is more convenient and they also get more options to compare. According to a recent study, 64% of people acknowledged they would conduct research online if they had a legal problem. Additionally, 48% confirmed that they would search online if they need to hire a lawyer.
And when people look for attorneys online and your legal practice appears at the top in SERPs, they are more likely to click. Once your prospective clients land on your website and find what they are looking for, they will potentially contact you. According to a study, 74% of prospective clients who begin their search online end up contacting the lawyer or law firm via phone.
All these boil down to one thing – SEO for lawyers.
Here’s the importance of SEO:
- Reach a wide audience base, including both new and existing clients
- Maximise visibility and awareness of your legal practice online
- Boost search engine rankings and generate more clicks
- More clicks mean increased website traffic
- Build authority and trust among potential clients by driving quality links
- Expect more conversions through effective lead nurturing
- SEO is more cost-effective than any other digital marketing or traditional advertising platforms
The following image gives you a quick glimpse of SEO benefits for any law firm or attorney:
However, SEO is a complex process and takes time to deliver results. It requires in-depth knowledge and mastery of the tactics to ensure proven deliverables. Hiring professional attorney SEO services can give you complete peace of mind. Let’s discuss it more.
Why Should You Hire Professional SEO Services?
There are numerous benefits of hiring professional SEO services for attorneys:
- An SEO agency such as Softtrix has years of knowledge and expertise in building and maintaining your law firm’s website with SEO in mind. They can leverage the right techniques to help the site rank on the first page of search engine results.
- An SEO expert continuously stays updated about the latest search engine algorithm changes and best practices. So, they know which strategies can help boost your rankings and which can get your site penalized.
- Local SEO for lawyers can help maximize your visibility for local searches. In most cases, legal services are localized, i.e., lawyers tend to practice in a specific location. Hence, they would want to drive potential clients from that region. An SEO professional can optimize your website for local searches and Google Maps, including setting up a Google My Business profile.
Suppose someone searches “lawyers in Perth.” If you serve this location, your website will appear at the top of organic search results if it is optimised for local searches. Hence, the user is more likely to click because you are reaching them at the right time.
- Hiring an SEO consultant for attorneys can help save your time and you can focus on your core practice. You can be assured that your website and digital marketing efforts are in safe hands
Now that we have understood the importance of SEO for law firms, let’s know how much should search engine optimization costs.
What is the Cost of SEO for Lawyers?
Typically, search engine optimization is free – unlike paid ads. This only means that search engines do not charge you any money to rank your website in organic search results. So, you do need to pay a dime for law firm SEO.
However, this isn’t completely true.
While search engine optimization is free, you would need to invest in certain tools that are essential for your SEO success. These may include tools for keyword research, analytics, automation, etc. On the other hand, SEO is a complex process and has many moving parts. It is nearly impossible for just any layman to practice DIY search engine optimization and drive quality results.
Therefore, it is essential to hire an experienced SEO company for lawyers. And this involves some cost too. So, before you jump into the deep waters of SEO, make sure you know how much it should cost you.
SEO Services Cost for Lawyers: Factors to Consider
There are several factors that may affect the SEO services cost for lawyers. Knowing these will help you make an informed decision and ensure you pay for what you get.
Experience and Expertise of the SEO Agency
The SEO market has become highly competitive today, with numerous SEO agencies mushrooming each day. Do not let just anyone loot you without delivering quality results. Therefore, it is important to hire an SEO company that has in-depth knowledge and expertise in:
– Website structure and its technical elements
– On-page and off-page optimization techniques
– Search engine algorithms
And if you are planning to hire an SEO agency for its knowledge, expertise and time, then expect your costs to be reasonably higher. After all, you are also paying them for quality results.
Type of Law You Practice
When it comes to ranking, not all law practices witness the same challenges. And this can affect the cost of SEO for lawyers.
For instance, commonly used search terms such as criminal defence lawyers or personal injury lawyers are highly competitive. Therefore, ranking high for these keywords can be difficult. ‘Keyword Difficulty’ is a term used to measure how competitive or how difficult it is to rank on Page 1 of search results for a particular keyword.
The higher the KD score, the more difficult it is to rank for. The below image will help you understand the keyword difficulty score for different legal search terms:
The image shows the high-competition keywords as well as those that are less competitive.
SEO companies consider keyword difficulty scores when pricing their services. The more difficult it is to rank for a particular keyword, the more the SEO agency has to invest in terms of resources, time and effort. This means potentially higher costs to get your legal practice to the top.
Hence, your field of practice also plays an integral role in determining SEO services cost for lawyers.
Your Target Market
The cost of SEO for your law firm isn’t just determined by your field of practice but also where you practice. This means, your target market plays an integral role in influencing the SEO cost.
Bigger markets such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami or New York City have more populations and typically, more law firms. This means more people are searching for legal services and also, and there are more attorneys competing for their business. Hence, the competition is likely to be cut-throat. This makes it more challenging to rank your law firm website organically and for local searches.
As such, the SEO expert is likely to put in more effort, resources, and time to make your website rank. If you target bigger, high-potential markets, you can see the cost of search engine optimization rise. If you target more than one location or planning to expand to other lucrative markets, you can expect the cost to rise.
On the other hand, the competition is less in smaller markets such as rural areas or suburbs. So, it will be relatively easier to rank your website. Hence, the SEO cost for a lawyer will be relatively lower as compared to bigger markets.
Your Content Strategy
When it comes to search engine optimization for lawyers, you cannot ignore the importance of CONTENT. A dedicated content development funnel should be the heart of your SEO strategy. This is because “content” is one of the key ranking factors for search engines.
And not just any content! Search engines prioritize and rank content that is high-quality, informational, and relevant to what the searcher is looking for. Good content is one of the best ways to establish your E.A.T – Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness. The higher your E.A.T. score, the higher will be your search engine rankings.
Typically, your content should be designed around your key practice area with a focus on the following elements –
If your SEO agency focuses on powerful content development, the SEO cost is likely to be higher. Make sure the content is designed to address the pain points of your potential clients and deliver value. At the same time, it should establish your authority in the field of legal practice and get your prospects to contact you.
Links
Link building is one of the most effective SEO tactics for any business, including your law firm. It is the process of driving high-quality links from authoritative and relevant websites back to your site. When you have more high-authority websites linking to your law firm site, Google sees this as proof of your expertise and trustworthiness in your field. Hence, your website rank is likely to improve.
However, acquiring quality links is not simple. There goes a significant amount of time and effort to establish your authority in the field of law. Only then other good websites will want to link to you. Some of the proven strategies that an SEO consultant for attorneys will typically perform are:
– Creating highly engaging, relevant, and informational content
– Guest blogging on high-quality websites
– Leveraging influencers to talk about your legal services or expertise
– Using social media
– Sharing high-quality content on forums
– Making the website more visible
The more effort an SEO consultant gives to link building, the higher will be the cost.
What Should Your Law Firm SEO Cost Include?
When looking for a solid SEO pricing package, here are some key components you should watch out for:
- Comprehensive website audit and competitor analysis
- Keyword research, including keyword rank tracking & reporting
- On-page search engine optimisation such as content development, schema markup, site architecture, HTML markup optimisation & best practices, website performance & speed optimisation, etc.
- Link building
- Off-page optimisation tactics such as guest posting, social media marketing, etc.
- Local SEO for lawyers, including Google My Business listing, NAP optimisation, local citations, directory listings, creating location pages, etc.
What’s included in your SEO pricing package will vary from one SEO agency to another. However, good SEO consultants cover all these fundamental aspects of search engine optimization.
Frequently Asked Questions
The cost of SEO for lawyers typically starts from $400 monthly. However, it will vary depending on various factors as discussed previously in this blog – target market, types & numbers of keywords you want to rank for, content strategy, link building, number of website pages to optimise, etc.
SEO is a complex, in-depth and time-consuming process. Getting successful SEO results for your law firm website requires mastery in proven practices – and also the knowledge of when what and how to use these tactics. Only an experienced SEO company can help you with this.
Additionally, they constantly keep updated with the latest algorithm changes. This helps them to optimise your website as per search engine guidelines and prevent it from getting penalised. Most importantly, an SEO company for lawyers can help you save more time and focus on your legal practice.
SEO takes time. It has numerous moving parts. Therefore, implementing all these strategies and optimizing your website for top rankings takes time. However, the results are more sustainable and long-term than PPC advertising. With a good SEO company like Softtrix, you can expect to see results within 6 months.
