Keywords. If you run a law firm, you’ve probably heard of them. You know they matter for SEO. And you know they are important for your law firm’s traffic.
But how do you identify the right keywords? How do you discern between “low competition” and “high competition”? And which keywords are best for your website?
Want to improve your law firm SEO? Then it’s time to learn the ins and outs of keyword research!
What are Keywords?
“Keywords” as they pertain to SEO refer to the terms that people use to search for content, businesses, and information in search engines. The goal of search engines is to find and match the web’s content to the keyword a user is searching for.
What is Keyword Research for Law Firms?
Keyword research for law firms identifies search terms potential clients use to find the legal services a firm offers, helping improve visibility and attract more clients.
For example, when someone searches for the keyword “DUI lawyer,” Google’s algorithm considers a variety of factors to determine the right match for their search. Some of these factors might include proximity to search, keyword density of the content, the site’s domain authority, or the relevance of a site’s content to the keyword.
Keyword examples
Sometimes the best way to explain SEO keywords is to highlight some examples. The following list includes keywords a person might use to find an attorney or legal services:
- family lawyer
- personal injury law firm
- attorneys near me
- immigration lawyer
- real estate law services
- los angeles probate lawyer
- corporate defense attorney
- business law
- car accident lawyer
Why do Keywords Matter for Law Firms?
Keywords help lawyers and attorneys understand the language and questions potential clients use when seeking specific legal services. When you identify the right target keywords for your site, you can then optimize for these keywords and increase your rankings in the organic search results.
There are many benefits to conducting keyword research for your law firm:
- Learn what your potential clients are searching for, relevant to your practice area(s)
- Determine how many people search for these keywords on a monthly basis
- Identify geo-specific keywords to attract clients in your local area
- Assess the competition on keywords and your likelihood of ranking for them
- Better understand user/search intent and how to craft content to match
What Makes a “Good” Keyword?
There are a few parameters to consider when assessing the value of keywords for your legal practice’s SEO strategy. These parameters are: Search volume, Competition level, Relevance, and Search intent.
Search volume
Search volume refers to the average number of times a keyword is searched for in Google in a month. This metric was developed by SEO tools to help marketers and business owners to understand the organic potential of particular keywords.
Now, targeting high volume keywords doesn’t necessarily mean you will drive more traffic. You will also need to consider the competition level of said keywords, which will often be higher for higher-volume terms.
Competition level
Competition level is another third-party metric that essentially determines how hard a keyword is to rank for. The higher the competition, the harder that keyword will be to rank for. Low competition keywords, however, are more within your reach.
The sweet spot is to find keywords that have some organic volume and are mid-to-low competition. That way, you know you are going after keywords people are actively searching for, but aren’t up against the biggest search competitors.
Relevance
It’s also important to select keywords based on their relevance to your business, your service offerings, and your audience. After all, a high-volume keyword like “womens shoes” would provide no value to a law firm website.
When developing your keyword strategy, be sure to pare down your keyword list based on those terms that are relevant to your business and the people you are trying to reach.
Search intent
Finally, pay attention to search intent. This means understanding what a user intended to find when they searched for a particular keyword.
For example, someone who searches for “how to file for divorce” is likely looking for a step-by-step guide for filing for divorce, not a service page. But someone who searches “family law firm near me”, is more likely to be looking for legal services. Having some understanding of search intent will help you write the best content to match a given keyword.
Keyword Research for Law Firms Process
At Hennessey Digital, we help law firms implement effective SEO strategies to generate more organic traffic and leads. This process often starts with targeted keyword research.
Here’s what the keyword research process looks like for a legal website SEO strategy.
- Brainstorm topics Great keyword research starts long before breaking out the SEO tools. Start by thinking about the services you offer, questions your potential clients have, pain points your clients experience, and other topics related to your niche.Once you have a running list of topics, map them to keyword ideas. You will then validate your topic ideas using SEO tools, which will confirm the organic search volume and competition level of these keywords.
- Validate with SEO toolsSEO tools like SEMrush, Google Keyword Planner, or Ahrefs can be used to determine whether people are searching for a given topic. In other words, these tools show you the organic monthly search volume and competition level for each keyword.Using SEO tools is important because some of your topic ideas might not have any searches. In which case, these probably aren’t beneficial to your SEO strategy.For example, the keyword “denver probate attorney” has 70 organic searches per month, but “probate help in denver” has 0 searches.
- Review competitor keywordsAnother great way to come up with keyword ideas is to analyze your competitors. You can do this by using SEO tools to search for a competitor’s domain and evaluate the keyword they are ranking for in Google.Again, you want to make sure that the keywords you pick are relevant to your brand. Some of the keywords your competitors are ranking for will not be relevant to your site. You should also consider the competition level of the keywords before determining whether they are good targets for your strategy.
- Map keywords to contentOnce you have a solid list of keywords – with organic search volume and competition level to match – it’s time to map these keywords to content topics.You will not want to use ALL of your keywords on ALL of your pages. Instead, you should identify the primary topic for a given page and then optimize the page for several closely-related keywords.For example, say you offer the following services: divorce law, child support law, and adoption law.On the ‘Divorce Law” services page, you will likely optimize for terms like “divorce lawyer”, “divorce law services”, and any geo-specific keywords that apply.
On the “Child Support” and “Adoption Law” service pages, you will want to target keywords like “child support attorney” and “child support law firm” or “adoption lawyer” and “adoption law [ city ]”, respectively.
It is helpful to use a spreadsheet to map all of your keywords to potential content topics, and then build out your SEO content strategy.
- Optimize content for keywordsA trusted SEO strategist will be able to help you develop and refine your SEO strategy to you are targeting the right keywords with the right pieces of content. Then, it’s time to optimize (or write) your content according to SEO best practices.This may include (but is not limited to):
- Using the target keyword in the title tag
- Using the target keyword or related keyword(s) in the meta description
- Optimizing your H1, H2, and H3 headings with keywords
- Including keywords throughout the body copy of the page
- Adding internal links to related content
- Optimizing the URL of the page
At Hennessey Digital, we’ve got law firm keyword research down to an art. Work with us to build your results-driven SEO plan!
Keyword Research Tools for Attorneys
SEO keyword research requires access to helpful, reliable data. As SEO strategists, we use the best industry-standard tools that provide accurate performance insights, backlink analysis, keyword search volume, and more.
A trusted tool for SEO pros everywhere, SEMrush offers a range of capabilities, from keyword research and competitive analysis to backlink audits and beyond. SEMrush provides a wealth of information when it comes to keyword strategy and SEO growth.
Ahrefs is another leading SEO tool that’s particularly strong in backlink analysis. However, it is a strong contender with SEMrush for its keyword research and competitor analysis capabilities.
While Google Keyword Planner’s primary purpose is to provide keyword recommendations for Google Ads, this data can be used to inform your SEO strategy as well. Since it is based on Google’s own data, you can rest assured that the search volume and keyword difficulty is accurate. And you can find related keywords as well.
Google Search Console is not specifically a keyword research tool, but it does report on the existing keyword performance, rankings, organic clicks, and click through rates on your existing website. This data can help you identify existing web pages to optimize.
If you’re completely stumped on where to start with keyword research, AnswerthePublic is a good place to start. Simply a primary topic and AnswerthePublic will generate a wide web of related questions and queries. You can then validate these terms in your chosen SEO tool for search volume and competition level.
Discover the Best Keywords for Your Strategy
Need a hand at SEO keyword research? At Hennessey Digital, we provide keyword research services for lawyers and attorneys in order to identify the right keywords your legal practice should target to gain a competitive edge and generate more leads. This is how we drive predictable ROI for our clients. Contact us to learn more about SEO services!
Jason Hennessey wrote the book on law firm SEO (literally!). With 20+ years of SEO experience, we help law firms achieve massive growth goals by getting more quality leads and signed cases.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is keyword research still important for SEO?
Yes! Keyword research is still an essential part of SEO. While the outdated method of keyword-stuffing your content has long been retired, Google still relies on keyword signals to understand your content and surface it for the right queries.
For law firms, it’s important to have a smart, data-forward keyword strategy in order to optimize your website for the keywords that are likely to attract your ideal clients. We’ll work with you to ensure you have the best targeting strategy and drive tangible results for your business.
How long does it take to do keyword research?
Keyword research is usually a recurring activity that requires analyzing your website’s organic performance and surfacing new keyword opportunities over time. While some keyword research activities can help you lay out a longer term strategy (3-6 months), it’s best that this strategy is revisited as your business grows and evolves. This will help you drive even more organic traffic and leads.
Do I need a SEO keywords list for my law firm?
An SEO keywords list can be helpful because it outlines the keyword targets and content strategy for your website. An accounting of these keywords keeps you attentive to what keywords you want to target next, how you are performing against those keywords, and what content improvements need to be made. This list will be ever-evolving, expanding across new topics to drive more visibility for your website.