How to Put Your Lawyer Website Onto Page 1 of Google

© 2009, Brandon Cornett.

It's time for another lesson in lawyer marketing, courtesy of the Web Smart Lawyer. Here is today's lesson:

Having top search engine rankings can take your web marketing program from bust to boom. This is especially true if you can get your lawyer website onto the first page of Google, which is the most widely used search engine in the United States.

In this article, I’m going to give you a list of steps you can take to increase the Google ranking of your lawyer website, slowly but surely over time. Notice I said “slowly” and “surely.” These are key words to remember. There is no shortcut to good search engine rankings — it takes a steady effort over time. But the end result is worth it. And speaking of results, let’s talk about what you stand to gain from such an accomplishment.

The Benefits of Good Website Ranking

Let’s say I’m a lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina. Let’s further assume that I have a business website that explains the services I provide, my contact information, etc. If I increase the number of visitors to this website, I will in turn receive more phone calls and emails from prospective clients. Better still, if I can increase the number of qualified visitors (i.e., people who are actively seeking a lawyer in the Charlotte area), I’ll grow my business even more. In fact, I’ll have a steady stream of prospective clients contacting me on a regular basis.

This is the benefit of having good search engine ranking for certain key phrases. In my hypothetical scenario, let’s assume that my lawyer website eventually climbs onto the first page of Google and other major search engines. Using a keyword-research tool such as WordTracker or Keyword Discovery, I find out that there are dozens of people searching for the phrase “Charlotte lawyer” … each and every day! Add in all of the variations / extensions of this phrase, and we are looking at hundreds of searches per day.

Now, Imagine that my lawyer website appears on page 1 of Google for this key phrase. More specifically, it appears at the top of the page, within the first five results given. What does this mean? It means that I’ll have a steady stream of qualified visitors to my website every day — people who are actively searching for a Charlotte lawyer. And if my website is professional and helpful, and gives people several ways to contact me, a certain percentage of those visitors will call or email me. In other words, my website marketing program is running itself. All I have to do is maintain my Google rankings with some occasional website work, and I’ve got all the clients I need.

Getting Your Lawyer Website to the Top of Google

Ranking #1 in Google for a certain phrase can be pretty challenging, especially if it’s a highly competitive search phrase. But reaching the first page of results is not all that difficult. With a steady effort over time, you can probably put your lawyer website within the first five results on page one, and that can bring all of the benefits we discussed above.

The question is, how do you accomplish these things. I’ve included several chapters about search engine optimization in my lawyer marketing book. So if you’re serious about this topic I recommend downloading a copy of the e-book. For this article, I’ll give you a basic overview of what SEO involves, and I’ll get you pointed in the right direction with an SEO program for your lawyer website.

Search engine optimization / SEO is the act of improving your website for better rankings in Google, Yahoo, MSN and other search engines. Some of this process takes place on your lawyer website, and some of it takes place off the site. These two components are referred to as onsite and off-site optimization. Let’s talk about each one in turn:

• Onsite — The first part of SEO involves changes made to your actual website. For starters, you need to have a well-designed site that is organized and interlinked in a logical way. This helps search engines crawl through the site. Next, you need to have plenty of keyword-rich content related to your legal services and your geographical area. Lastly, you need to have certain components such as HTML titles on each of your web pages, to help search engines learn what your site is all about.
• Off-site — Once you have a well-optimized lawyer website with plenty of keyword-rich content, you need to venture off site to further advance your SEO campaign. In short, this means you must acquire links from other websites to yours. This will help you improve your Google ranking steadily over time. Search engines look at links as votes — more or less. If a lot of quality sites link to your lawyer website, it will improve your “link popularity” and, ultimately, your search engine rankings.

This onsite optimization stage is pretty straightforward. It takes some effort to write content for your site, but there’s no mystery about it. (Check out this list of online writing tips for more on this subject.) It’s the second stage of the process, off-site optimization, where many lawyers struggle. How does you increase the quantity and quality of inbound links to your lawyer website? Here are some ideas to get you started.

1. List your site with some of the big web directories, such as the Yahoo directory and DMOZ. There are hundreds more directories online — just know that some are better than others, in terms of legitimacy.
2. Write an educational article on some aspect of your legal field, and publish it through article submission sites like EzineArticles.com, GoArticles.com, ArticleDashboard.com and more. You can find dozens of these article websites online, and nearly all of them allow you include a link to your lawyer website from the author’s bio.
3. Okay, here’s the money tip. Write this one down for future reference! It’s a great way to acquire plenty of links to your lawyer website from legal-related sites. Take the article-publishing strategy mentioned above, and use it across the Internet as a whole. Do a Google search for law +submit an article and you’ll find thousands of places to submit a legal article — and pick up a citation link in the process. This is a strategy SEO firms don’t want you to know about, because it renders them obsolete!
4. Write a press release about some aspect of your legal services and submit it through online PR sites like PRWeb.com. Once again, you can pick up a link through this process, which will help you improve your Google rankings over time. If you’re press release is truly newsworthy, you’ll get some direct traffic out of this technique as well.

Now just rinse and repeat. Seriously. Search engine optimization is a long-term strategy. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And I’ve just shared some of the best tips for taking your lawyer website to the top of Google and other search engines. All you have to do now is repeat the process over time.

My advice is to create a schedule of tasks you want to accomplish each month. For example, on a weekly basis you might complete the items listed below.

Sample SEO schedule of weekly tasks:

• Submit my website to two additional web directories. (See tip #1)
• Publish a new article onto other legal-related websites. (See tip #3)
• Create one extra page of web content, focusing on a certain key phrase.

Want better results, more site traffic, and more inquiries? Just increase the frequency of the tasks listed above. There is no mystery to search engine optimization. It just comes down to a consistent effort maintained over time — and 90% of it revolves around content and links. Add plenty of keyword-rich content to your lawyer website over time, and acquire links from other sites. This is how to improve your rankings in Google and other search engines.