As lawyers, we don’t often think about digital marketing. Search engine optimization (SEO) probably crosses our minds even less. Lack of attention to this critical business practice, however, reduces our chances of increasing clients. In terms every lawyer can appreciate, here are the top 5 reasons to hire an SEO Company for your law practice:

1. More publicity, more clients.

Whether you are a small firm, a sole practitioner or a big practice, you need clients to represent. Unfortunately, if you specialize in common legal issues such as divorce, wills, or car accidents, it’s tough to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack. Word of mouth and a solid reputation are important, but substantial growth is more likely to come from targeting the millions of internet and mobile searches conducted each day. Expand the audience of your law firm marketing campaign by ranking higher on Google or Bing’s search result pages and convert searchers into clients.

2. You need to speak the language of your clients.

Legal jargon is pervasive in how we speak. We write using “legalese,” as well. Unfortunately, our “language” does not make us approachable to our potential clients. It also does not allow our sites to rank highly on search engine pages. Writing at an 8th grade reading level and keeping the content concise are key practices that are likely to come more easily to a specialist with experience in SEO for lawyers.

3. You’re too busy to manage your site.

Search engine optimization for attorneys isn’t a one-time occurrence. Web consultants can (and should!) help you create your firm’s website, but you need to keep updating the site to stay relevant. Social media marketing and blog posts need to be updated frequently to maintain your followers and to keep up with your competitors. Legal blog posts increase your search engine rankings, too, so time and energy needs to be devoted to digital marketing.

4. You don’t have the time to learn the mechanics of SEO for attorneys.

Search engine optimization is significantly more complex than just using keywords. There’s on and off-site optimization, link building and other analytics to consider. Routine SEO audits and maintenance of the speed of the site are also important keys to success. Rather than try to train yourself in what these technical terms mean and require, hire a web consulting firm who can monitor your site while you devote yourself to your caseload.

5. You can attract clients who didn’t realize they needed a lawyer.

Attorneys fail to appreciate how infrequently our potential clients recognize when they have a legitimate claim. Though we take our legal knowledge for granted, topics like negligence claims, products liability, employee rights and child support are not well understood by the general population. Legal overviews of the cases you represent help potential clients learn whether or not they have a valid claim. If your website helped instruct them, they are more likely to hire you to represent them. Though you could write this material, it is best for law firms to let an SEO expert use this opportunity to fill the content with relevant legal keywords.

Will your law firm thrive without the assistance of web consultants and search engine optimization? Maybe. In an industry driven by competition, however, SEO management is an important aspect of law firm marketing that will cost you more to ignore than to obtain.

6. Future clients are not just searching for a “criminal defense law firm or lawyer”.

They are searching for much more in a criminal defense attorney, including whether or not the attorney has experience with white collar crime, sex offenses, DUI, drug charges, burglary charges, arrest issues, sentencing, appeals, and criminal charges in general. To that end we make sure you have strategic content that helps to widen your criminal defense law firm’s reach.

This strategic and relevant content acts to create leads from targeted searches, some of which would be geographically specific (state, city), such as DUI (state), criminal lawyers (state, city), criminal attorney, DUI attorney, DUI attorney (city, state), DUI lawyer, expungement, defense lawyer, criminal defense lawyer, (state, city) defense lawyer, criminal defense attorney, simple assault, assault charges and more.

7. Relevant and Authentic Links are Important

We connect your criminal defense law firm website to only the best Internet properties/websites. Your criminal defense law firm website is not linked to low quality, questionable sites to promote your practice. By using targeted and relevant content, combined with multimedia and other unique, different offers, our clients have gleaned quality links from trusted websites on the Internet.

8. Any time you step in front of a jury, you know how important it is to deliver the right image and the right message.

The same is true for your website—every time your website steps in front of a potential client it needs to deliver the right image and the right message.

By taking the time to create an aesthetically pleasing website that delivers messaging that will resonate with potential clients, you can elevate your reputation (and the reputation of your practice) in the community.

Remember—the better your website, the better your first impression with potential clients.

