The reason your law firm is barely covering its expenses has nothing to do with how hard you work and everything to do with your potential clients not knowing you even exist.
Every time they go to Google and type in “how to get custody of a child” or “divorce law firm near me” they simply don’t see your Google Business Profile, a blog with child custody tips, or even your profile on Justia. They don’t know they can apply for your legal services, so they go to your competitors. That’s why it’s time to think about family law SEO.
Why Family Law SEO Matters
SEO (aka Search Engine Optimization) is the art of making your website easier to find online. SEO for family law involves combining different optimization techniques, including keyword research, to increase your chances of ranking highly on search engines for specific terms and inquiries so more prospects will see your website, visit it, and hire you.
In this guide, we’ll delve into family law strategy fundamentals that can bring new clients to your law firm.
1. Boost Your Law Firm's Local Visibility with Local SEO
Begin your efforts by focusing on local SEO for law firms. Local SEO for divorce lawyers involves optimizing your family law firm to rank highly when users search for legal services in your area.
Why is local SEO for family law so important for obtaining qualified leads? Let's look at the stats:
- Nearly 50% of all Google searches are seeking local information
- Approximately 72% of consumers who perform a local search visit a business within five miles
- Almost 100% of users discover a local company online
Search engines like Google incorporate the user's location into results for specific searches, such as "family law practice", "family lawyers" or "divorce attorneys." If the user performs the search in Las Vegas, Google will provide a list of family lawyers in and around Las Vegas.
To help your family law firm rank in local search results, utilize local SEO services to highlight your location to Google. Even in a competitive market like Las Vegas, family law attorneys can expand their reach by creating content targeting nearby cities such as Henderson, Summerlin, and Pahrump. While search volume may be lower in these areas, targeting them can attract more qualified leads for family law services, potentially doubling or tripling client inquiries.
Google uses three factors to rank family law firms in local searches:
- Relevance (location-specific content like "Child Custody Laws in Ohio")
- Distance (your target city and nearby towns with dedicated pages)
- Prominence (those who have built authority with reviews, citations, links, etc.)
Pro Tip: Craft landing pages covering family law topics for your city and region. The more localized your content, the higher you'll rank for searches in your service area. Optimize for searches people use when looking for local divorce or custody lawyers.
2. Optimize Your Google My Business Profile
If you don't yet have a Google Business Profile, you'll want to create one immediately. Your Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google My Business or GMB) informs users of your law firm's existence, including its name, the types of legal services you provide, and your contact details. It will also indicate your opening hours and your physical address.
Someone close by who needs legal services will likely see your firm listed high in their search results.
People searching nearby for family law services are more likely to find your firm at the top of their results if you optimize your Google Business Profile. Setting up an account allows family law firms to manage their profile and boost their visibility in search results and Google Maps using relevant keywords. It’s a free and essential tool for family law practices. With your profile, past and future clients can leave reviews, enhancing your credibility and online presence as a family law attorney.
Google incorporates customer reviews when ranking your business on Google Maps. The more positive Google lawyer reviews your clients leave, the better your chances are for ranking highly on local searches.
— What Is Google Map Pack for Family Lawyers?
The Google Map Pack is another essential tool that firms should deploy in their family law SEO strategies. To use it, you'll need a Google Business Profile optimized for your location and legal services.
Make sure your family law website profile accurately represents your services and includes relevant keywords. Adding photos of your attorneys and office can help prospective clients connect with your family law practice. To appear in the Google local 3-pack—a top listing of divorce law firms in search engine results—encourage satisfied clients to leave reviews. If you're a new firm, building up reviews may take time, but it’s crucial for boosting your visibility in local searches.
Once you break into the local 3-pack, you'll receive more potential clients and qualified leads who locate you through Google Maps and organic searches.
— Regularly Perform Family Law Attorney Competitor Research
To optimize SEO for family law, research the top-ranking family law firms for target keywords like “family law attorney” or “divorce attorney Houston.” Analyze their family law websites to understand which keywords they’re targeting. Identify features that attract potential clients, such as client testimonials or detailed guides on family law services.
Use this competitive analysis to enhance your own Google search strategy, developing better content and local SEO tactics to outperform them in search results. Don’t just replicate—improve and differentiate to stand out and attract more clients.
3. Get Listed on Relevant Family Law Directories
Online directories are another essential factor for family and divorce lawyers SEO. Legal directories list your law firm's name, including your contact information and the legal services you provide.
These listings are a great way to enhance your authority and credibility with Google since they are a second source confirming your law firm's existence, services, and location. They are also vital for building links that increase your website's credibility.
Google considers your family law firm’s presence in online directories when ranking your site in search results. To boost SEO for family law services, list your firm in reputable directories only. Avoid spam sites, as they can harm your website’s domain authority. Conduct keyword research and choose legitimate directories to enhance your firm’s visibility in organic search engine results.
Pro Tip: To build credibility, create profiles for your law firm on review sites and request feedback from satisfied clients to garner positive reviews over time. The additional social proof provided by reviews can improve your search ranking and encourage prospective clients to hire your firm.
— Important Family and Divorce Lawyers Online Directories
Here are a few credible online directories that can help you in your link-building strategy.
- Avvo: Avvo is an online directory of law firms. Users can search through Avvo to find qualified attorneys in specific practice areas nearby.
- Justia: Justia is an online directory for law firms that provides helpful, informational articles on legal topics. Listing your law firm on Justia will allow potential clients to locate you quickly.
- HG.org: HG.org is a legal resource and online directory for individuals seeking legal assistance. Users can search by practice type and location to find experienced family law attorneys.
4. Share Valuable Family Law Content
Legal blogging involves writing articles about topics relevant to your audience's needs. Effective keyword research can guide your content creation efforts, ensuring that your articles address the search queries of your target audience. As a family lawyer, you probably encounter many questions from your clients that you can address through blogging.
This is one of the most crucial tools in your search engine optimization efforts. In fact, a family law practice that publishes 11 or more articles monthly attracts almost three times more traffic than its non-blogging peers.
If blogging sounds intimidating, or you don’t have the time to spare for content creation, consider outsourcing your efforts to a qualified SEO company like Grow Law Firm.
— Types of Content for Family Lawyers
You should regularly engage in content marketing for law firms that demonstrates your knowledge and addresses questions potential clients are likely to ask.
For example, you might consider writing a blog about the divorce process in your area and covering specifics about child support or alimony. Other potential issues you might cover include prenuptial agreements, child custody, and high-net-worth divorces.
Since family law and divorce are touchy subjects that can get very emotional, it's essential to consider the reader's feelings when you compose your articles. You don't want to be too objective or drift into legalese, which can be off-putting to someone going through a tough time.
5. Optimize Website Content for Search Engines
On-page SEO involves a combination of factors that can positively impact your law firm's website appearance in the search results. Keyword research plays a vital role in on-page SEO by helping you identify the terms and phrases that your target audience is searching for. Keywords, content, and page-loading speed all impact your on-page SEO.
For effective on-page SEO, use keywords related to family law practices and long-tail terms that target specific client needs. Focus your content on family law services to avoid penalties in search engine ranking; irrelevant topics can hurt your credibility. For instance, writing about training puppies on a law firm website can negatively impact your authority.
Also, monitor page speed using tools like Google Search Console. Slow-loading pages can lead to higher bounce rates, and search engines like Google will lower your rankings if your site is consistently slow. Ensure your website loads quickly to keep users engaged and maintain a strong position in Google search results.
6. Make Your Family Law Website User-Friendly
To make your law firm website more user-friendly, start by keeping things simple and easy to navigate. Make sure potential family law clients can quickly find information about your services, attorney bios, and contact details.
The best family law firm websites will include a list of your practice areas like this:
Use relevant keywords throughout the site to help improve your SEO for family law and boost your search engine visibility. It’s also important to have clear call-to-action buttons and an easy-to-use contact form, so visitors know exactly how to get in touch with you.
Making your family law practice’s website more straightforward and welcoming, you’ll create a better experience for prospective clients and improve your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.
7. Gain Quality Backlinks for Your Website
Building backlinks is vital for improving your family and divorce law firm's website rankings. Backlinks are links to your website or its content from websites unrelated to your law firm. You'll create your first backlinks by business listing your family law firm in online directories and on your Google Business Profile.
However, there are other opportunities for link-building. You can perform a search on Google for mentions of your legal practice. If you find results from other websites, send a note to the site's administrator and ask them to include a link from the mention of your practice to your firm's website.
Pro Tip: Guest posting is a great way to build backlinks naturally and organically. Essentially, you'll provide content for another website as a guest poster. In turn, the website administrator will publish your valuable content, including a backlink to your website as the post's author.
8. Build a Trustworthy Reputation Online
Google E-E-A-T is an acronym that stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. It's one of the many factors that Google uses to decide where your page ranks among your competitors.
To improve your law firm's chances of ranking highly on Google, you'll want to develop relevant content that establishes your expertise in family law. It should address the user's search intent clearly and accurately.
As a family lawyer, you already have the expertise necessary to create authoritative content. You just need to harness it into your SEO efforts.
— Engage in Family Law Attorneys Review Management
Reviews are a valuable form of social proof that can help you build trust with potential clients. When you encourage your clients to leave reviews, be sure to ask them to include specific details about their experience with you. This will help potential clients better understand what to expect if they hire you.
Statistics show that 68% of consumers will leave a review for you if you simply ask. Given the importance of social proof and search engine optimization, there's no reason not to incorporate reviews into your marketing strategy.
Optimizing your law firm's search engine rankings takes time and expertise. In this video, Sasha Berson shares crucial SEO tips family and divorce lawyers need to know.
Even details like your name can impact search rankings, so SEO is not a DIY project. Sasha provides a short summary of key factors like on-page optimization, backlinks, site speed, and online reputation management.
Make sure to check out our related blog post "Why Do You Need a Law Firm Digital Marketing Agency?" for insights on asking vendors the right questions to get results.
9. Check Technical SEO Components
Think of technical SEO as your website's car engine: It's not visible to the casual visitor, but it keeps your website in tip-top condition for search engine optimization.
While numerous technical SEO tactics exist, three straightforward yet critical ones can improve rankings:
- Optimize website speed by compressing images and streamlining code. Slow sites lead to lost traffic.
- Ensure your site displays properly on mobile, where over 60% of searches occur.
- Use schema markup like FAQs to describe expertise. Search engines showcase schema in results.
These high-impact technical improvements don't require deep expertise. With minimal instruction, even SEO beginners can implement them to boost performance.
10. Track Divorce Lawyer SEO Results
With all your efforts in building your website and implementing a solid SEO strategy for your law firm's online presence, it's crucial to track your success. Utilizing analytics tools like Google Analytics allows you to monitor keyword rankings and understand how your family law pages perform on search engines.
You’ll gain insights into how many visitors click on your site, their behavior, and the time they spend on each page. More importantly, you can measure actual leads and conversions. Effective SEO for family law should ultimately drive more qualified traffic to your site, resulting in more consultations and clients in your office.
Partner with Family Law SEO Experts for Faster Growth
Implementing a solid SEO strategy isn't for the faint at heart. Building a website, creating content, and deploying technical and SEO tactics that increase your search rankings will require lots of footwork.
It's possible to handle everything independently, but you risk adversely impacting the service you provide to your clients. A strong family law SEO strategy takes months to implement, which can detract from more important tasks.
Instead of taking on an additional project you may not be able to keep up with, consider handing the task to an expert in family law marketing services: Grow Law Firm. As a law firm SEO agency, we'll get your website up and running and implement the best practices for family law SEO, ensuring you see the results you want.
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