Key Phrase Research - The First Step to Law Firm SEO
You are here: Marketing articles >> Key Phrase Research
by Brandon Cornett
Search engine optimization (SEO) should always begin with the proper research. You first need to research the types of phrases people are entering into search engines to find the kinds of legal services you provide. These are known as "key phrases," so the process of discovering and compiling is known as key phrase research.
People search for things online by entering words and phrases into their favorite search engine. So in order to help them find your law firm website, you have to incorporate the right kinds of phrases in all the right places. This process begins with a thorough round of key phrase research.
In order to get the most benefit from your law firm SEO program, you need to invest some time in building a list of key phrases. And again, just so we are clear up front, key phrases are those phrases your target audience would enter into a search engine when researching services like yours.
It's also important to note that longer, more specific phrases often convert better than shorter, generic phrases. Longer phrases are usually less competitive too, and therefore easier to rank for. So be sure to include a good mix of highly competitive (short / generic) phrases and highly targeted (long / specific) phrases on your site.
Example: "Dallas lawyer" is generic. "Dallas personal injury lawyer" is specific.
High-Value Search Phrases
Regardless of key phrase length, you want to create a list of what I call "high-value phrases." Such phrases have three things in common. These will be your minimum criteria when selecting phrases to put on your list:
(1) People are searching for the phrase.
(2) The phrase is related to your business / services in some way.
(3) You are capable of writing about the topic, or you know somebody who can.
How to Build a List of Key Phrases
There are a variety of keyword / key phrase research tools online. Two of the most popular tools can be found at WordTracker.com and KeywordDiscovery.com. If your law firm website is limited in scope (for example, if you practice a particular legal specialty in a particular town), then you can probably get by using the free version of WordTracker. You can find the free version of their tool at http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/.
Once you have access to a keyword tool, set up an Excel spreadsheet or a Word document for your list of phrases. For now, you only need two columns. Eventually you can add columns for additional purposes, such as keeping track of web pages you've written, your search engine ranking for each phrase, etc. But for now, your spreadsheet or table only needs two columns — "phrase" and "count."
In the phrase column, you will obviously put the phrases that meet the three criteria listed above. In the count column, you will put the number of times the phrase is searched. This number will vary based on which keyword tool you use, but the exact number is not important. What is important is the relative difference between the phrases. For example, you'll get more traffic from a phrase that is searched 500 times a day than a phrase that gets searched five times a day.
With that said, go for a mix of high-traffic short phrases and lower-traffic long phrases. The high-traffic phrases will be more competitive, but also more valuable. The lower-traffic phrases are easier to rank for, but will bring less traffic. Longer phrases are also more specific and thus signify a highly qualified website visitor looking for something specific, which can be a good thing. So again, aim for a good mix of long and short.
Keep Your List Manageable
For most individual lawyers, it's better to focus on a manageable list of phrases (say, 5 to 10 phrases) instead of trying to cover all possible variations. Remember, when you rank well for a particular phrase, you will also rank well for similar variations of that phrase. So you don't need to be completely exhaustive with your list.
A larger and more diverse law firm, on the other hand, may have a list of 30 phrases or more.
Try to create a good mix of general phrases (which are more competitive) and specific / niche phrases (which are less competitive). And make sure every phrase you put on your list is relative to your services and your locale.
So now you have a list of phrases. What do you do with it? You build website content around it!