SEO for Lawyers: The Ultimate Guide to Grow Your Law Firm

Lawyer SEO 101: The Secret to Growing Your Firm

When someone needs a lawyer, where do you think they’d go first? If you guessed search engines like Google, you’d be correct! But here’s the catch—if your firm isn’t on page one of results, those potential clients aren’t going to see you. They’re seeing your competitors instead.

That’s why lawyer SEO is a game-changer. By optimizing your website, you can rank higher, get more traffic, and land more cases.

And this is proven to work—79% of law firms say SEO is their most important marketing channel. Why? Because it delivers high-quality clients without the constant cost of ads.

If you’re not investing in SEO for lawyers, you’re losing cases to competitors who are.

— Why Is Attorney SEO Important?

SEO is important for law firms because it helps your web pages display at or near the top of Google's organic search results, leading to an increase in traffic and leads. This is crucial because sites that don't earn those high rankings in search receive significantly fewer clicks.

The first organic search result in Google, for example, has an average click-through rate of 28.5%. This drops to 15% and 11% for the second and third results and falls off exponentially thereafter.

As you can see, the importance of your site ranking in the top three results cannot be understated. After all, outside of referrals, search engine results and law firm website visits are the two most popular methods for finding an attorney.

The Fundamentals of SEO for Lawyers

The main goal of SEO is to get your website to the top of search engine results pages. Yes—pages. To succeed online, your firm must be on top in multiple categories and rank well for numerous keywords. Here's how:

• Building a strategy: Knowing where you stand and your competitors' approach is the key to creating a successful lawyer SEO campaign.
• Make sure your website is optimized: While there are a lot of preparations going on in the background you will need a great website for search engines to take note of you. Without it, all efforts will be in vain.
• Do keyword research. Figuring out what people are looking for is key to writing the content they need.

• Implement on-page SEO. Follow search engine guidelines and recommendations if you want to be on top.
• Build links. Outreach via links is a great way to build trust for your site and authority for your firm by connecting with other experts in the field.
• Implementing local SEO. Most people look for lawyers close to them, so local search results are a great source of new cases.
• Writing high-quality content. Write for people, not for search engines. You will need a good strategy and a thoughtful approach to content writing to succeed online.
• Tracking results for future improvement. This will allow you to see where your site is and where it is heading, and change your tactics accordingly.

SEO success doesn’t happen overnight—it takes time, effort, and consistency. But as a lawyer, your priority is your clients, not optimizing web pages and tracking rankings. That’s where Grow Law Firm comes in. Let us handle the SEO for attorneys, so you can focus on what you do best—winning cases.

We are an experienced agency with a proven track record, which is crucial in an industry like legal marketing. Contact us today for a consultation and to learn more about how we can your practice grow online.

The Smart Approach to SEO for Law Firms

There are three main approaches to doing attorney SEO. It is possible to have a successful website with any one of these approaches, but the difficulty will vary drastically:‍

• Implement Attorney SEO Yourself: There’s no prerequisite to start SEO. As a lawyer, you can take control of optimizing your website, but with the amount of work required, your practice is likely to suffer.‍
• Hire an In-House Law Firm SEO Specialist: This is a good step forward. It somewhat frees you to focus on your clients, while trusting your law firm's website to professionals. However, you will need to have some SEO knowledge to be on top of things and it can be really hard to change the team of experts.‍
• Hire a Law Firm SEO Agency: The best approach to law firm SEO. This gives you full freedom to focus on your practice and you can be sure that your expert SEO team will keep you informed.

At Grow Law Firm, we’ve spent over a decade helping attorneys rank higher, attract more clients, and grow their revenue.

As a top law firm SEO partner, we know what works!

And we’ve already helped countless law firms achieve real results. Now, it’s your turn.

Contact us to get a FREE law firm growth plan

What Drives Lawyer SEO Rankings?

To succeed in SEO marketing for law firms, you need to understand Google’s ranking factors. Knowing your own strategy is important, but knowing how to work with Google’s algorithm is what truly sets you apart.

Overall, there are 5 main ranking factors for websites on Google:

• Content Quality, Relevance, Originality, and Formatting: You must provide relevant, trustworthy content if you hope to rank highly in search. Make sure your content is readable and engaging.
• Use of Internal and External Links: Internal links give users a path to navigate your law firm site, and help search engines index your web pages. External links communicate information about the quality and usefulness of your content.
• Technical SEO for Attorneys: Page performance is one of the most important aspects of technical SEO; slow-loading pages create a poor user experience and can lead to a lower ranking.
• UX and UI as Measured by RankBrain: RankBrain is an AI technology that Google implemented to help determine which pages should rank for which searches. This tool prioritizes search results based on its understanding of the context and relevance of web pages.

• Domain Factors: You should verify that your domain hasn't been used in any linking schemes that may have harmed its credibility.

SEO Strategy for Attorneys: Maximize Visibility & ROI

Before you can improve search engine rankings, you need to analyze where your website stands today.

Ask yourself questions like:

• How well are you ranking for the most important keywords?
• Where is your SEO budget going, and is it generating results?
• What would it take to dominate search in your niche?

Answering these questions is the first step to building a strategy that works. Once you have a clear picture of your website’s performance, you can focus on making smarter, data-driven decisions that bring in more clients.

— Analyze the Current State of Your Law Firm Marketing

You must first evaluate your position. For one, you should examine your current law firm marketing budget, as well as what you can spend on search engine optimization in the future. This also includes potential spending on SEO tools and hiring new personnel.

Second, you must also evaluate the current state of your law firm's search engine performance. You will then be able to define realistic search engine rankings, ROI and conversion goals that are achievable within a reasonable amount of time.

This is also where you must consider the value of your time. Do-it-yourself SEO efforts take a significant amount of time. You would be losing billing time and reducing your return on investment from clients. If you have aggressive growth goals for your law practice, an agency could do the work more efficiently and potentially for less money than your average billing rate.

— Create SMART Goals and KPIs for Your Lawyer SEO Strategy

After establishing some broader law firm SEO goals, it's time to move on to a new stage. This is where you will begin to form a more actionable law firm SEO strategy. The best way to start is by setting SMART goals. These are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Essentially, these are specific goals for which you set clear metrics for success that will lead to a meaningful accomplishment within a reasonable amount of time.

On the subject of SEO for lawyers, a SMART goal might be, “We will increase our traffic for keywords in the category of alimony and child support by 20% within 180 days”. This meets all of the criteria for SMART.

Additional SMART Goal Examples:

• Optimize 10 pages currently displaying on page 2 of SERP to page 1 by Q3.
• Increase overall organic traffic to practice area pages by 10% in 30 days.
• Boost revenue from organic traffic sources by 15% in 2023.
• Decrease bounce rate by 5% by EOY.

Remember: Setting SEO goals is just the start—you need measurable KPIs to track progress. Key performance indicators (KPIs) help determine whether your SEO strategy is actually working or needs adjustment.

For example, average engagement time is a crucial KPI. If visitors are clicking on your site and spending time with your content, it’s a sign that your SEO efforts are attracting the right audience with high-quality, engaging content.

It’s important to monitor the right KPIs—this helps you fine-tune your strategy and ensure your firm stays ahead in search rankings.

— Broaden Your Competitive Research for Better Marketing

For most legal professionals, identifying their competitors is pretty straightforward. Since legal services are primarily local, your main competitors are other law firms in your area offering the same services.

As a result, many attorneys stop here when it comes to researching their competition, assuming that they already know who their competitors are.

This is correct but too limited. While these local firms are key competitors, keyword research and legal SEO can reveal other competing firms and entities that must be considered when it comes to marketing efforts. Attorneys must widen their view by examining the search engine results page carefully. When it comes to earning website traffic and leads, that's where they'll find their competitors.

Your keyword research will pay off significantly here. In addition to recognizing where your web pages are ranking and identifying missteps early on, pay attention to your law firm competitors' SEO strategies as well. Specifically, investigate those earning higher search engine rankings for your target keywords (and presumably more traffic).

For example, an attorney who practices estate law may assume that their competition is limited to other lawyers in that niche. However, when they look at search engine results pages, they may realize that they are also in competition with companies that offer products such as do-it-yourself wills.‍

Bonus Tip: Don't neglect examining firms in other cities. Pay close attention to their online presence, particularly high-quality backlinks and practice area pages. You could be the first law firm in your city and niche to adopt some of those practices, and that's a great way to create growth.

Lawyer Backlinks and References Research

Competitive link research gives you some insights into what you need to do to achieve the same organic ranking that your better-performing competitors are enjoying. Here are the steps you can take to do this research yourself:

• Identify the right competitors. You want to focus on law firms that have an SEO presence that is at least as strong as yours, if not more.
• Choose a backlink and reference research tool. This will help you automate the competitive research you do. Semrush has a reputable tool, as does Moz.
• Be wary of outdated or questionable link-building tactics. If the law firm is still ranking well despite bad practices, it could be that they disavowed the links.
• Check for active outreach: Is your competitor earning links from bloggers or media outlets? That's a good sign that they are actively reaching out to these sources and building relationships.

— Google EEAT for Lawyers

EEAT stands for Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust. This is not surprising, because the user experience is Google's top priority. They want to provide users with the most accurate, up-to-date information possible. One way they do this is by prioritizing content that is created by subject manager experts. The EEAT acronym is an indicator of this focus.

You can create the credibility that Google is looking for by taking these steps:‍

• Link to independent, high-authority websites to back up any claims you make.
• Have other attorneys create well-researched content on law-related topics.
• Create lawyer bios on your site to build trust and credibility.

This will help your content get filtered to the top of search engine results.

— Keyword Research for Lawyers

Keyword research is the work you do to identify the words and phrases that potential clients use to search for the legal services you offer. Keywords are the foundation of a legal SEO campaign; they impact content, metadata, tags, and even URLs. As such, keyword research should under no circumstance be treated as an afterthought.

— Use Your Legal Expertise for Effective Keyword Research

Keyword research can be made easier with tools, but as an attorney, you have a special insight into the needs of your potential clients due to an expert understanding of your area of law and your relationships with your existing clients. By applying your knowledge, you can derive a list of keywords to optimize for in your law firm SEO campaign that other firms may not be taking advantage of.

Here are some things to take into consideration:

• Questions you receive from prospective clients.‍
• Keywords that are commonly associated with your practice area.‍
• Location-specific keywords that target where you practice law.‍
• Google search auto-complete for long-tail keyword building.‍
• Trending topics in your practice area.

For example, if you work in contract law, you know the business inside and out, and you're in a great position to deduce what specific questions your potential customers have regarding contract law. This will help you come up with dozens of relevant keywords that a tool could easily miss.

When you've exhausted your efforts in self-directed research, taking advantage of powerful tools like Ahrefs can help you finalize a list of keywords. Let's take a look at how it's done.

Boost Your Law Firm’s Website with On-Site SEO

Onsite optimization is a multi-faceted effort to improve your website's content, structure, and coding to make it easier for search engines to index your site.

This optimization influences some of the top ranking factors that Google considers, so it's one of the most important parts of SEO success.

Keep in mind that many of the changes involved in onsite optimization will require the help of a professional website developer. They have the skills needed to make changes to your site architecture, CMS, and hierarchy.

— On-Page SEO for Lawyers

On-page SEO refers to the optimization of individual web pages to rank higher in search engines and earn more relevant traffic. This includes optimizing title tags, meta descriptions, headings, URL structures, and content quality for law firms to target specific legal keywords and phrases. The key is for you to balance between optimization for search engines and creating valuable content for potential clients.

There are so many things that go into on-page implementation. It begins with thorough keyword research to identify terms potential clients use when searching for legal services in your practice area. It moves on to creating high-quality, authoritative content that addresses client questions and legal concerns. Search engines reward content that demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E.E.A.T).

You also have the technical aspect of law firm on-page SEO like proper header tag hierarchy (H1, H2, H3), image optimization with alt tags, and mobile responsiveness, all to improve search engine rankings. Schema markup specifically for attorneys and law firms can help search engines better understand your content and display rich snippets in search results. Regular content audits and updates are necessary to maintain relevance as search algorithms evolve.

— The Power of Internal Linking for Attorneys

Internal linking refers to the practice of connecting one page on your website to another page on the same domain.

Strategic internal linking creates pathways for search engines to discover and index content while establishing a hierarchy of information. Properly structured internal links distribute page authority throughout your site, potentially boosting rankings for important practice area pages.

Here are some tips that can help you get the most out of internal links for law firm SEO:

• Add several links to a page with a related posts section
• Use taxonomies to add links
• Include navigation links
• Add a recent post section to your law firm website
• Avoid adding internal links just to have them
• Optimize anchor text with relevant exact matches keywords

There's another reason that internal links help SEO for law firms. They keep visitors on your website, reducing bounce rates and improving other ranking metrics.

— Important Technical SEO Factors for a Law Firm's Website

Technical SEO is a key component in a law firm's SEO success. It not only makes a website more attractive to search engines but ensures that your visitors will have a smooth experience because 88% of online consumers are less likely to return if something goes wrong or doesn't load. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to incorporate technical SEO into your strategy because most law firms don't have staff on hand who are familiar with it.

The most important technical SEO factors can be seen below:

Fortunately, good website design and administration can help law firms with technical SEO. Using performance tools in addition to Google Analytics can also be helpful.

— How Do You Check and Fix On-Page SEO Factors?

You can verify these factors on your law firm's website with an audit. Start with your target keyword list and search for them using a non-associated Google account to check your rankings.

Then, check Google Search Console for penalty messages and use PageSpeed Insights to verify load times. Conduct image optimization audits to improve rendering and page load performance.

Use Google Analytics to identify underperforming pages and conduct manual audits to address on-page ranking factors that need improvement.

Helpful SEO tools for lawyers include:

• SurferSEO: Verifies keywords, LSI terms, and header usage.‍
• Screaming Frog: Crawls websites for SEO analytics.‍
• Google Search Console: Reports search traffic performance.

Your content management software probably has built-in tools to track performance and run an SEO audit—have you checked them out? They can give you key insights into your law firm's website strengths and weaknesses. Are your URLs clean? Are your tags and meta descriptions optimized? Use this data to fine-tune your site and boost your rankings!

Law Firm Content Marketing and Creation

Content marketing for lawyers is the strategic use of blog posts, videos, and other content to increase interest in your services; 81% of law firms consider content marketing their top marketing investment.

It's a key part of any law firm's marketing strategy and one of the biggest influencing factors in SEO for lawyers. If you provide people with the content that they need when they need it, you will increase traffic, engagement, and search rankings. Also, content marketing is poised for growth, with 50% of marketers set to increase spending in 2024.

Additionally, content boosts brand awareness and helps to establish your law firm as a thought leader. It is also the ideal tool for reaching potential clients at any point in the sales funnel.

— Explore the Types of Website Content for Attorneys

Create a strong mix of legal content and leverage each type to maximize your law firm’s content marketing and SEO. When you understand how each format adds value, you can attract and engage more potential clients.

• Practice area pages: Sales-focused pages targeting specific legal niches with optimized keywords in titles and headings (e.g., “traffic ticket defense attorney in phoenix”). Include multiple calls-to-action for easy client contact. These cornerstone pages establish your expertise in specific legal services.‍
• Legal blog posts: Build authority and earn quality backlinks while engaging research-phase prospects. Effective blogs use both trending topics (Current court decisions, local cases) And evergreen content (Timeless legal questions). Implement pillar-cluster structures to help search engines understand content relationships and improve user navigation.‍
• Location pages: Target specific geographic areas with location-focused content. Particularly valuable for multi-location firms but also useful for single-location practices to optimize for hyper-local search terms with area-specific landmarks and references.‍
• Case studies: Showcase successful cases by describing situations, approaches, and outcomes to demonstrate practical expertise to undecided prospects. These build credibility by showing real-world problem-solving capabilities.‍
• Infographics: Visually communicate complex legal processes in accessible formats. These shareable assets earn backlinks and establish authority while appearing in image search results.‍
• Podcasts: Establish thought leadership through audio content. This can be hosted directly on your site or published on podcast platforms with backlinks. Appeals to audiences who prefer audio content over reading.‍
• Educational videos: Create engaging visual content for various stages of the client journey, from awareness to consideration. Formats include attorney profiles, client testimonials, thought leadership explanations, roundtable discussions, practice area explainers, and short-format FAQs.‍
• Social media content: Distribute and promote your content across appropriate platforms (LinkedIn for professional content, YouTube for videos, Twitter/TikTok for short-format content). Tailor content style to match each platform’s audience expectations and format requirements.

A strong content marketing plan is a key part of your lawyer SEO campaign. When you use content to improve your law firm's SEO efforts, start with your own website. Relevant, well-written content that is organized into topic clusters is easier for audiences to consume and for search engines to index.‍

Make your website more engaging with videos and visuals, and use social media and guest posts to boost your reach. More visibility means more clients, so the sooner you begin, the better.

Off-Site SEO: Build Your Law Firm’s Authority with Quality Links

Links are a very strong force behind SEO for lawyers. With a focused link-building campaign, you can get the boost necessary to push your already-optimized website ahead of the competition. Keep in mind that the rules of lawyer link-building are always changing and you need to pay close attention to keep up.

There are also countless ways to do link-building: guest posting, sponsorships, collaborations, getting .gov and .edu links, crossposting, and much, much more. This makes link-building one of the most complicated parts of law firm SEO, but one that achieves incredibly rewarding results.

— The Most Important Link Factors for Google

After content, Google prioritizes high-quality backlinks most when it comes to search engine rankings. However, not every backlink is treated equally. Here is what Google has established as its most important link factors.‍

• Age of the domain linking your site
• The reputation of the domain
• Number of referring pages and domains
• Links from GOV and EDU domains
• The reputation of the page
• Number of sites from pages connected to your industry
• Excessive reciprocal links

In total, there are well over 40 link factors. However, your law firm's SEO success is going to be positively impacted by backlinks that are from reputable websites, are relevant to your content and theirs, and are not part of any sort of reciprocal link scheme.

— How Lawyers Can Use Guest Posting Effectively 

Guest posting is a great way to get quality links. If you post relevant content in your area of expertise you can connect with a larger audience and gain the trust of search engines.

The difference is that you do this on trusted platforms outside of your website. This helps to boost awareness of your law practice and connect with potential clients.

Many platforms welcome written contributions from attorneys. For example, reach out to:‍

• Legal and academic journals
• Business publications
• Relevant websites (like a realtor website for a real estate law attorney)
• Help a Reporter Out and #JournoRequest on Twitter to find media requests for attorneys

You may have to engage in some networking to find guest posting opportunities, but if you can establish yourself as a valuable content creator, other bloggers and publications will seek you out. Guest posting on relevant legal blogs and publications leads to a 63% increase in referral traffic and brand visibility!

Keep in mind that you only benefit from reaching a wider audience if those readers are interested in what you have to say and have the potential to be interested in your services. For this reason, you should avoid open contribution sites that allow anyone to upload content and publish it.

— Local SEO for Lawyers

Local SEO strategies help attorneys place at the top of search engines in specific areas they work. Most people hire attorneys who work locally. If your firm is located in Glendale, you want to be the first one, when someone googles "Glendale lawyer". You also want to be in the Google map pack, which is often seen when looking for local services online, as they have an average CTR of 33% and will help you drive more clients for your practice.

Relevance. Distance. Prominence

Relevance is how closely your law firm's web page content aligns with the user's search query and user intent, and 46% of all Google searches have local intent. Distance is simply the proximity of your location to the user, based on data pulled from their browser. Finally, prominence relates to popularity offline. For example, if your law firm is very well known in your city, it will be assigned greater prominence than other local firms.

— Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile is a tool offered by Google to connect people with local businesses. It includes information about your law firm, location, hours, contact information, and details about your practice.

You must have a Google Business Profile account for your law firm to appear in search engine local three-pack or map pack results or in Google Maps search. If you have a business with multiple locations, it's recommended that you create a GBP profile for each one.

In addition to providing you with the opportunity to appear in a prominent position in search results, Google can pull in relevant information from your profile to display to users.

Ready to make the most of Google My Business? Learn how to do GBP for Lawyers the right way!

— NAP Citations for Law Firms

NAP stands for name, address, and phone number. It is a hyperlink that is included in guest posts and directory entries, and any place with your NAP link counts as an NAP citation.

There are four major sources of NAP links for lawyers:

• Major Aggregators. Aggregator websites and local directories collect information about all types of different companies. Common aggregator websites include Foursquare, Localize, Express Update, and Info USA.‍
• Legal directory listings. Legal directories provide information about law firms and different legal practitioners in a selected area. Some may also rank firms based on different criteria. These attorney listings include Avvo, FindLaw, Martindale-Hubbell, Justia, and many others.‍
• Local government and other directories. This helps attorneys get citations based on their practice areas. This includes directories like your local chamber of commerce, your local BAR, and other similar sites.‍
• Yellow-page style directories. These are just general business directories. They may have no specific application, but they're an easy way to get NAP citations without running the risk of registering for the wrong niche, which is always a plus.

Know where your business NAP information is cited, and make sure it is accurate. This is a local SEO ranking factor, and in many cases, these citations also include a link to your law firm's website.

— Reputation Management for Law Firms

Legal directories like Avvo, Justia, FindLaw, and Martindale-Hubbell are essential for law firm visibility and reputation management. Claim and optimize these listings with consistent NAP (name, address, phone) information and comprehensive profiles that highlight your expertise and credentials. Actively manage your reputation by regularly monitoring these platforms for client reviews and responding thoughtfully to feedback.

Furthermore, set up Google Alerts for your firm's name to track mentions across the web, and consider using reputation management software to streamline monitoring multiple platforms. Remember, 95% of clients read online reviews before hiring an attorney, making professional directory management a critical component of your digital marketing strategy.

Tracking Law Firm SEO Results

Creating the website is half the battle. Attorney search engine optimization efforts are an ongoing process that takes time. You may see your first results in 3 months, but to be sure that everything goes according to plan waiting for up to 6 months is recommended. But what should you keep track of? How do you know if your SEO bears fruit? Let's take a look at some of the most important lawyer SEO metrics:

• Track the Keywords You Actually Care About: You've done extensive legal keyword research. Now, you want to see how well you are performing in searches for your most targeted keywords. Fortunately, tools like Google Search Console, Semrush, AHREFs, AWR Cloud, and Moz can help with this task.‍
• Monitor Organic Web Traffic: This is the traffic that enters your page from organic online search results. You have a few tools you can use to measure this. Google Analytics is the most well-known and easy to navigate. Google Search Console is another option, and so is AHREFs.‍
• Goal Conversion and Tracking: When you establish your lawyer SEO strategy, you may be able to set specific conversion goals. Your law firm should track: Lead capture form submissions, Whitepaper downloads, Email newsletter subscriptions, Calls and texts, Consultation appointments made online. Google Analytics has a specific area for tracking these goals. HubSpot and BuzzSumo also track them.‍
• Site Health and Lawyer SEO Parameters Monitoring: Issues that impact your SEO for solicitors performance can go undetected for quite a while. There are also internal problems that can occur, such as page speed and indexing issues. That's why it's important to provide constant monitoring. Try Google Analytics again, along with GSC, Semrush, Screaming Frog, and Majestic.‍
• Local SEO Presence Tracking: How is your law firm doing in local search results? In addition to Google My Business, SEMRush is also an option, along with Moz for local SEO tools. You can try Brightlocal and Whitespark as well.‍
• Link-Building Activity and Profile Monitoring: It's important to stay on top of your efforts to earn links and track your company profile in various directories. For backlink monitoring, try Backlinko and AHREFs.‍
• Measure Your Attorney SEO ROI: You invest money and resources into creating a lawyer SEO strategy and expect certain monetary returns. Fortunately, many website analytics allow you to check attorney SEO ROI. Try Google Analytics or the analytics software connected with your website builder or CRM.

The Best Approach to Search Engine Optimization for Lawyers

There are two ways to approach SEO for law firms. You can design and implement your own strategy or contract the work out to a professional.

— Implement Attorney SEO Yourself

Taking on SEO for your law firm is a significant undertaking that requires time, effort, and ongoing attention. We will discuss them below: ‍

• Education & research: There are so many things to learn like Google's Webmaster Guidelines and SEO fundamentals from resources like Moz while staying current with frequent algorithm updates.‍
• Keyword strategy: You have to practice area and location-based keywords, research competition levels, and implement them naturally throughout your site.‍
• Content creation: Since the world revolves around information, you need to regularly produce high-quality articles addressing client questions while maintaining proper keyword density and formatting.‍
• Technical infrastructure: Ensure your law firm's website meets Google's technical requirements for speed, mobile-friendliness, and security. ‍
• Online presence management: You have to claim and update directory listings, maintain consistent NAP information, and implement link-building campaigns.‍
• Performance monitoring: Track rankings, traffic, and conversions while making ongoing adjustments to improve results.

The learning curve for DIY implementation is steep, and mistakes can potentially harm your online visibility rather than improve it. And when you look at your law firm SEO cost, the best option would be to outsource to SEO specialists to deliver better results with significantly less time investment and frustration.

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— Hire an In-House Law Firm SEO Specialist

If the task of overhauling and managing your firm's SEO is too much, you could also hire someone to work for your law firm and manage its SEO. This would involve determining the necessary qualifications, writing a job description, and hiring a candidate. You'll also have to consider the salary and benefits, as well as the administrative overhead of hiring a new employee.

At this point, you would have to train them, work with them to create a strategy, and set goals. You would also have to monitor and evaluate their success in their role.

Also, keep in mind that law firm SEO may be too much for a single SEO specialist to hire. Often, it takes a team's worth of experience and capabilities to manage search engine optimization, content creation, on-page optimization, and marketing strategies. Yes, you could hire a generalist, but that often means working with somebody who lacks the required in-depth knowledge.

— Hire a Law Firm SEO Agency

Legal SEO is a worthwhile pursuit, but it is also labor intensive and requires a set of skills that is outside of the average attorney's capabilities. If you're not inclined to add to your skillset, then you may be better off hiring an agency. This is doubly true if you believe hiring an in-house SEO team would be more trouble than it is worth.

If you hire an agency, you will take on less work yourself. Still, you have to set a budget for this. Your team will also have to form a cooperative relationship with the digital agency. This includes setting goals and tracking the outcomes.

Before Hiring a Law Firm SEO Agency

Before you begin the process of seeking out the right agency, take these things into consideration:

Your Budget

Law firm SEO services are not usually cheap, and you will likely pay a minimum of $1,000 per month for them. Some legal SEO experts have hourly billing rates, and they aren't too far removed from what you charge your own clients. Make room for this in your budget.

What to Look for When Hiring an SEO Agency for Your Law Firm

When you hire an agency, you'll want to find one that is reputable. It will ideally have a team that is specifically experienced in working in the legal niche. They should also be able to provide a clear roadmap to SEO success.

Think about this guide and use it as a litmus test. Is the agency you are considering bringing up some of the points and strategies addressed here? If so, that is a good sign. Inquire about content marketing, link-building, and technical SEO. Ask how they will incorporate these things.

Ask for case studies and work samples. Since law firm marketing is uniquely complex (and expensive), consider focusing on firms that only specialize in performance marketing for law firms. You want to be sure they understand your unique concerns and pain points.

Red Flags that Signal a Poor Law Firm SEO Company

Here are a few red flags you'll want to avoid when considering a lawyer SEO agency:

• Poor reviews and testimonials
• Inexperience with the legal niche
• Overpromising with too much focus on earning rankings and traffic quickly
• Vague goals
• Unwilling to explain their methods
• Use of paid search methods instead of SEO
• You have your choice of digital agencies, so don't hesitate to be choosy

— In-House vs SEO Agency

When deciding on handling your own attorney SEO in-house, hiring an employee, or contracting an agency, these key points summarize some of the most important differences:

• Taking care of your own SEO is incredibly time-intensive and risky.
• Hiring an employee creates overhead and could require you to bring on an entire team of experts.
• An agency can offer a turnkey solution, but you must put in a significant amount of effort to source and vet potential agencies.

Get Seen. Get Clients. Grow Faster with Law Firm SEO!

SEO isn’t a one-time effort—it’s an ongoing process. To stay ahead, you need to create fresh content, build quality links, track your website’s performance, and engage with potential clients consistently.

But with a busy law firm to run, managing your SEO isn’t just overwhelming—it’s a full-time job.

Grow Law Firm is at your service! We are an attorney digital marketing agency that specializes in law firm SEO services. Our team of 50+ specialists is exclusively committed to providing marketing services for lawyers just like you, aiming to deliver up to a 4X increase in your ROI.

Ready to attract more high-value clients? Contact us for a free consultation.

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