Want to generate more organic traffic to your law firm’s website? If so, you’ll need to understand Google’s ranking factors for law firm SEO.
These are the factors Google uses to determine whether your website is a good match for what a user (i.e. a potential client) is searching for. Understanding these factors (and how to optimize for them) will help your website rank higher, generate more traffic, and attract more clients to your business.
Google’s SEO Ranking Factors
Google’s algorithm considers a variety of factors and signals in order to determine what search results to surface when a user searches for something.
For law firms, knowing Google’s ranking factors is important because it will help you optimize for the right search queries and the right users with the right content.
In their own words, Google looks at these factors when determining which search results are returned for a given query:
- Meaning
- Relevance
- Quality
- Usability
- Context
Meaning
For Google to return the best results for a user, the algorithm first needs to establish the intent behind the user’s search. In other words, what did the user intend to find when they Googled that particular keyword?
As a business owner, your job is to essentially do the same thing: understand what users are searching for and provide relevant content to match.
This involves conducting keyword research to discover keywords related to your niche and then creating content that appeals to your target audience.
Optimize for: Search Intent
Optimizing for this ranking factor requires understanding search intent. If you understand what a user intended to find when they searched for a particular keyword, then you will be in a better position to write and optimize your content to provide the best value to the user.
For example, if someone searches for “divorce lawyer Los Angeles”, we can assume that they intend to find information about divorce lawyers in their area. The best type of content for this would likely be a landing page, service page, or Family Law website – rather than a blog post, listicle, or how-to guide.
When planning the content for your law firm website, always consider search intent. Make sure your content type and substance match the user’s intent for your chosen keyword(s). This will aid Google in understanding, indexing, and ranking your content.
Relevance
Next, Google’s algorithm analyzes the web’s content in order to find articles, websites, blog posts, etc. that are relevant to what the user is searching for.
The simplest indication as to whether a piece of content is “relevant” is if it contains the same keyword(s) as the user’s query.
Optimize for: Keywords
Optimizing for relevance quite simply involves ensuring that your website content contains the keywords your target audience is searching for. Ideally, each web page and article on your website should be aligned to a target keyword.
For example, if you own an estate and probate law firm in New York, your Estate Planning Services page might target “estate planning New York”, your Probate Law Services page might target “probate law New York”, and your “6 Steps to Draft a Will” article might target “how to draft a will”.
Once you’ve identified the target keyword and related keywords for a given piece on content, you will want to use this keyword naturally throughout the body copy, title, and headings so Google picks up these “signals” and ranks your content higher in the search results.
Quality
Once Google has identified sources of relevant content, it prioritizes these results based on it deems most helpful to the user.
To do this, the algorithm analyzes the content to determine whether it demonstrates experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT).
Optimize for: Backlinks
Backlinks are one of several factors Google looks at to determine the authority of a website.
A high number of high-quality backlinks from other sites is a good indication that your website is trustworthy and valuable. Thus, a strong SEO strategy should aim to generate new, high-authority backlinks.
For law firms, this might involve publishing link-worthy content, guest posting on other websites, running PR campaigns, or submitting your business information to directories.
Optimize for: High-Quality Content
Your content shouldn’t just be keyword-optimized. It should be valuable, well-written, and helpful as well. That’s because you aren’t just writing for search engines – you are writing for real humans who will read your content in order to decide whether they should hire you.
So, whether it’s your web pages or blog articles, be sure to write helpful, informative content for your target audience. Include accurate information and highlight your expertise. Share stories, tips, and insights that will keep users engaged with your content.
Usability
Google’s algorithm also considers the usability of your website. A fast, user-friendly, and accessible website will perform better than a site’s that’s slow and hard to navigate.
Specifically, Google looks at Mobile Friendliness, Website Loading Speed, and Core Web Vitals to determine whether users can easily access, view, and navigate your content.
Optimize for: Website Loading Speed
Website Loading Speed measures how long it takes for your website to load on mobile and desktop devices. Google’s PageSpeed Insights test will tell you how your website performs across this criteria, and provide suggestions for how to improve.
To optimize for fast website loading speed, you will need to adhere to several best practices. These include (but are not limited to):
- Avoiding landing page redirects
- Enabling image compression
- Optimizing server response time
- Leveraging browser caching
- Minifying unused/large resources
- Optimizing images
- Optimizing CSS Delivery
These activities are quite advanced but are important for SEO. So, it is recommended that you partner with a trusted website developer to manage your website’s performance and page speed.
Optimize for: Mobile Friendliness
Similarly, Google emphasizes the importance of mobile friendliness for all websites. With so many people searching for information via their smartphones or tablets, you can’t afford to miss out on this potential traffic.
Google’s Mobile Friendly Test will provide a score for your site’s mobile experience and provide recommendations for how to fix any issues. You can also view Mobile Experience insights within Google Search Console and receive alerts about critical site errors.
Optimize for: Website Structure
The technical infrastructure of your website is also important when it comes to Usability. After all, when potential clients land on your law firm website, you don’t want them to be deterred by broken links, 404 pages, missing images, and the like.
Technical SEO best practices for website structure include:
- Enabling HTTPS / SSL security on your website
- Making sure only one version of your website is accessible to crawlers
- Implementing Structured Data markup
- Fixing duplicate content issues
- Fixing broken pages
- Reducing page depth
- Optimizing for Core Web Vitals
Context
There are a variety of factors outside your control that Google takes into account when surfacing search results for users. For example, a user’s location, past search history, and search settings may play a role in what Google determines useful and relevant content for their search.
Google uses a searcher’s country and location to deliver content relevant for their area. For example, if user is in Chicago and searches for “lawyer”, Google will show them results for lawyers in that geographic area. Whereas if a user is in New York and conducts the same search, they will see very different results.
Law firms can optimize for geo-specific keywords in order to aid the discoverability of their site, but they can’t control for things like user location, search behavior, and search settings.
Local SEO Ranking Factors
Google’s guidelines also provide helpful information for how to improve local rankings. Local search results are based on Relevance, Distance, and Prominence. And while you can’t control for all of these factors (e.g. user proximity), there are several factors you can optimize for.
Google uses a searcher’s country and location to deliver content relevant for their area. For example, if user is in Chicago and searches for “lawyer”, Google will show them results for lawyers in that geographic area. Whereas if a user is in New York and conducts the same search, they will see very different results.
Law firms can optimize for geo-specific keywords in order to aid the discoverability of their site, but they can’t control for things like user location, search behavior, and search settings.
Prominence
“Prominence refers to how well known a business is. Some places are more prominent in the offline world, and search results try to reflect this in local ranking.” (Source)
The better known (and positively reviewed) your law firm is, the better it will rank in local search. However, there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
Citations
Businesses with complete and accurate information are easier to match with the right searches.
Make sure you’ve entered complete business information in your online citations and directories so users know what you do, where you are, and when they can visit. This includes (but is not limited to) your business name, address, phone number, website link, and business hours.
Keyword Usage
Optimize your website and online listings for the geo-specific keywords your target audience is searching for. For example, if you are a Foreclosure Defense law firm in Denver, you might want to optimize for keywords like “Denver foreclosure defense”, “foreclosure lawyer Denver”, and the like. This will help your website appear for the most relevant keywords.
Google My Business
Google’s Business Profile is a free online listing businesses can fill out to showcase their business information, photos, and reviews. It is one of the most important pieces of search “real estate” to fill out if you want to rank high in local search.
Reviews
Reviews from happy clients show that your law firm comes highly recommended and is a trustworthy business in your market. Google’s algorithm considers both the quantity and quality of reviews when determining how to rank your business. So, an effective SEO strategy should include earning positive reviews from past clients.
Optimize for Google’s SEO Ranking Factors
One of the best ways to ensure your business is capitalizing on all of Google’s organic ranking factors is to work with a trusted SEO agency. At Hennessey Digital, we have over two decades of experience helping legal professionals optimize for Google, drive more traffic, and generat high-quality leads with SEO.
Optimizing for Google’s ranking factors shouldn’t be a losing game. Partner with Hennessey Digital to develop your winning SEO strategy.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 4 SEO rank factors?
There are four categories of rank factors that impact rankings in Google. These are: On-page, Off-page, Technical, and Local SEO. However, there are many more individual factors that play a role in organic performance. Overall, Google considers Meaning, Relevance, Quality, Usability, and Context when determining how to rank your website.
How many SEO ranking factors are there?
There are over 200 ranking factors Google uses to understand, index, and rank web content. Some of these factors are disclosed by Google and some are not. While Google does explain how the algorithm works to some extent, it does not entirely reveal the technology behind it’s ranking system.
What are the most important Google ranking factors?
Google does not disclose its ranking factors in order of importance. However, it does highlight a few key areas to pay attention to: Meaning, Relevance, Quality, Usability, and Context. Overall, the expertise, authority, and trustworthiness demonstrated by your website plays a huge role in your organic ranking. Beyond that, usability, mobile friendliness, and site speed are also very important.