How best to optimize for a law firm that specializes in 3 different areas
-
I realize the importance of keyword research and finding keywords where there IS demand and not TONS of competition and optimizing your title and descriptions etc AND content on the different pages for those same specific keywords..........
But....
What do you suggest I do to BEST optimize a site for a law firm that handles family law (divorce), bankruptcy AND criminal. It's one firm with 3 attorneys who specialize in different areas.
I know SEO is challenging and ever changing and I read and study and have made significant, noticeable, improvements for some sites but I have to admit this is over my head.
Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you in advance and have a GREAT weekend!
Matthew
-
Sorry Matthew, Just got this.
Make sure each attorney has his/her own listing in Places, Bing Business Portal, Yahoo Local. You can also set them up individually in major/local directories or review sites. -
Im sorry, this might sounds stupid - what do you mean when you say "set them each up in local?" - you mean local seo or in seomoz when setting up the campaign?
Thanks!
-
Good move Matthew on the campaign...you will hug yourself one day soon. PS: Make sure you set them each up in Local.
Let us know if we can help.
-
Kevin, Brandon, Josh, Robert - thank you VERY much for the excellent information. Truly superb points, thank you for being generous with your time. I made a list of everything and yes, Robert, I created a campaign for them the minute I got back to the office with a check for them and I haven't even started building their site yet. Thanks again guys!
-
Matthew,
Josh, Brandon, and Kevin all make great points and, I would write down each of their suggestions as a list.
Handling attorneys (notice I did not say Law Sites) is a horse of an odd color. First, you need to set up your GA and GWMT for the firm so that you have impeccable tracking. Now you are a pro member and you need to immediately go into Campaigns and set up a campaign for this firm. Matthew - Don't read anymore, go set up the campaign and come back and finish reading when that is done
Then you are going to want to consider two things: First, a click to call system that allows a searcher coming to the site to put a number in and be speaking with a lawyer/etc. immediately or very quickly and a system where in you have chat available that pops up on the screen. Both of these will help and most track everything as the companies want to keep the business.
Next, for where you are you need to go into the keyword tool while logged into an account (not external tool) and do keyword research on the three different areas. If you are unsure, just put keyword research in the search bar on SEOmoz and you will have a hundred resources. Personally, I do not believe you need anything other than the Keyword Tool in AdWords for this project. Get a good list of keywords and see where your competition is missing the boat. Brandon mentioned using a city locator and he is spot on. Be sure you look at how keywords are ordered: city-bk-atty vs bk-atty-city. Trust me, most of your competitors are not looking at this.
Now, use what the others have given you with your best 5 to 8 pages per atty. BK - Chap7,11,13, how to (do this), etc, Criminal (here I am not listing anything I have ever done....) DWI, theft, robbery, etc., Divorce - child custody, how to, etc.
Do not spend a lot of time on ego pages... about attorney smith who walks on water in between being an astronaut and playing first base on the local slow pitch team....
Control them now. Tell them what YOU need from THEM. Tell them what reports they will get and when. Show them the first report out of the campaign wherein they rank for nothing. Give them a report monthly on keyword rankings, etc.
Lastly, as to blogs, they will all tell you how they are great writers, etc. Say, "that is super, we need about a dozen blogs to start with. Nothing tomorrow, but one a day for the next few weeks." Then give them a list of potential titles. If one of the three follows through you have an asset. If not, don't push it as you have just put the blog page to bed unless they want to pay you to write (hire a copywriter) a blog a week for each, etc.
Hope this helps, control them, best.
-
I agree with Kevin and Josh in that you need a separate page for each type of legal service. The only thing I can add to this conversation is that I know from first hand experience that doing a legal advice forum is probably going to be a non-starter. I've had a handful of legal clients and the last thing they want to do is to provide legal advice on their website. In fact, all your web copy will usually have to be reviewed by them to make sure their site is not providing legal advice, so don't go changing their copy willy-nilly - always suggest changes and get them to review it first.
Most legal keywords are going to be fairly competitive, but if you add your client's location to those keywords, e.g. Cityname Bankruptcy Lawyer, then you will reduce your competition considerably. In my hometown the person that ranks #3 for one of these types of keywords scores a D on their on-page optimization and only has one keyword-rich link from an external website. Of course the larger your metropolitan area the more competition you will have.
-
Keywords related to these areas of law are very competitive, and technical SEO advice will only get you so far. Josh has got the right idea of publishing at least three separate pages that specify and detail each area of expertise. I wouldn't go too crazy with internal linking, but a similar format to squarespace dot com for each page will allow you to get quite a bit of important information to your potential clients. You can link each section title to more pages, but remember not to canalize link juice by trying to rank two or more pages for the same key words.
I'm going to go out on a limb here only because I've seen it work really well for another client. You're no doubt going to need to embark on major link building campaigns and advertising to direct as much traffic to your site as possible. Now, a legal advice forum might help you out in this department. Having users generate content and lawyers answer these questions will drive more legitimate traffic to your site. And this content will be rich with key words related to your firm, even some you haven't thought of yourself. Of course, you'll need to consult with someone on the best solution for your company, but the forum should be on your own domain and not hosted somewhere else unless that association will benefit your ranking. Start a blog as well with great content for potential clients.
Also get on HARO as there are always reporters looking for professional legal sources. Linkmosses is a great link building newsletter. Get on directories, social media, all that. I imagine you're busy, so you'd be best to find someone or some company to do this for you.
P.S. Remember that your goal is conversions, turning leads into paying clients. Make sure you web site has some sort of web-to-lead form and call to action.
Hope I helped a little.
-
Hi Matthew,
The key to good SEO is good and organised content.
If you've got three different fields, then ensure that you have on page for each of these sections. Under these pages should be more pages of information that link, relate and add more information on the topic.
On the home page you should have lots of links to all this content, and you should cover all three of the fields in a more general sense.
Keeping the site linked (internally, as well as externally) is crucially important.
If you pick one (or two if you're game) terms for each of these pages, you will be able to focus your SEO and target particular terms for each aspect of your site.
Start there and you should start to get some numbers
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
SEO Best eCommerce Practice - Same Product Different Keywords
I want to target different keywords for the same e-commerce product. What's the best SEO practice? I'm aware of the pitfalls to keyword stuffing. The product example is the GoPro Hero 5 Action Camera. The same action camera can be used in many different activities, e.g. surfing, auto racing, mountain biking, sky diving, search & rescue, law enforcement etc. These activities target completely different markets, so naturally the keywords are different. I have three strategies to tackle the issue. Please let me know which one you think is best. 1) Create different keyword landing pages with a call-to-action to the same conversion page Each landing page will be optimized for the targeted keywords e.g. surfing, auto racing, mountain biking, sky diving, search & rescue etc. Obviously this will be a big task because there will be numerous landing pages. Each page will show how the product can be used in these activities. For Surfing, the content would include surfing images with the GoPro Hero 5, instructions on how to mount the camera to a surfboard, waterproof tests, surfing testimonials and surfing owner reviews, etc. The call-to-action leads to a generic product conversion page displaying product information such as specs, weight, video formats, price, shipping, warranty etc. The same product page will be the call-to-action for all keyword landing pages. Positives Vast number of targeting long-tail keywords, numerous landing pages Good specific user experience who may be looking for "underwater action camera" (specific mounting instructions related to surfboards etc.) Less duplicate content as there is only one product page showing the same information Negatives Challenging to come up with each page for the vast amount of activities. Inbound Link Considerations
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ChrisCK
Inbound links from publications can link directly to the product page or the keyword landing page Surf Magazine may link to:
"Surfing Action Camera | GoPro Hero 5 | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5/underwater-surf-camera
"GoPro Hero 5 Action Camera | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5 2) Create different keyword landing pages with call-to-action to directly add product to cart Similar to the first option, but the call-to-action on the landing page is to Add Hero 5 to Cart. The user experience will be similar, the content creation challenges will be similar, but the techy product info e.g. specs, price, video format, etc. will be displayed on the same landing page. Positives Same benefit to long-tail keywords targeting Same benefit to a good, specific user experience Negatives Same challenges to create each long-tail keyword landing page Since there is no aggregate "product page", inbound links will be split between the landing pages Splitting of Page Authority to each landing conversion page Surf Magazine will link to:
"Surfing Action Camera | GoPro Hero 5 | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5/underwater-surf-camera
Cycling Magazine will link to:
"Cycling Action Camera | GoPro Hero 5 | GoPro.com" - gopro.com/hero5/cycling-camera 3) Create conversion-focused product page with casual blog about keywords This is currently what GoPro has chosen - GoPro Hero 5. The product page displays the many different types of activities on the same page. The page is focused on the user experience with images of the action camera being used in different cool activities, showing its versatility. Note, very little long-tail keyword targeting on this page, instead they could use a broad keyword "action camera". To target long-tails, maybe a blog can be used brand ambassadors displaying the product being used in the various activities. Positives User experience focused Higher conversion rate Less content creation work Inbound links go to the same product page, building Page Authority Negatives Poor ranking with short-tail keyword (GoPro is not even in Top 10 SERP for "action camera") Poor ranking with long-tail keywords, (GoPro doesn't rank for "diving camera, cycling camera, surf camera") For blogging the long-tail keywords, who really converts from landing on a blog of the actual seller?! I hope those three strategies were explained clear enough and have enough of a differentiator. Please let me know what you think!0 -
How best to handle partial domain move?
The scenario is this, we have a website eg: ABC.com where the content is in two language folders (en-us and en-gb). We have created a new brand with website XYZ.com for the USA market. Of course, this domain will take a while to rank because it is completely fresh. My question is how best to deactivate the en-us content on the old site to: a) prevent it showing up on Google US
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | esseljay
and
b) pass the US traffic to the new website to boost its rankings I was thinking of removing the en-us pages from ABC.com and using a 410 error page containing a link to XYZ.com
Would it be better to replace the content on en-us instead (with a link)? I'm not keen to use a straight 301 redirect as sometimes we get traffic from other countries to the en-us content. Thanks in advance Mozzers 🙂0 -
How to optimize this iphone app
Hello, We want to increase the downloads of and spread the word about this iPhone app: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dynamic-spin-release/id434567327?mt=8 What are your suggestions? Here's our two main websites in this case: nlpca.com dynamicSpinRelease.com There's also a promotion in the op right of this page: http://www.nlpca.com/DCweb/dynamicspinrelease6.html Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Duplicate content on sites from different countries
Hi, we have a client who currently has a lot of duplicate content with their UK and US website. Both websites are geographically targeted (via google webmaster tools) to their specific location and have the appropriate local domain extension. Is having duplicate content a major issue, since they are in two different countries and geographic regions of the world? Any statement from Google about this? Regards, Bill
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MBASydney0 -
Can we really learn from the best?
Hi All, When I started my site (an eCommerce site) I copied (or tried) a lot of things from the best eCommerce sites I thought were out there. Sites like Zappos, ZALES, Overstock, BlueNile etc. I got hit pretty hard with latest algo changes and I posted my question at Google Webmaster Help forum I received answers from Gurus that we are keyword stuffing etc. (mainly with internal links to product pages but other issues as well). My answer was a link to Zappos and other sites showing that what we do is nothing compared to them. I also showed dozens of SEO "errors" like using H1 tag 10 times per page, not using canonicals and many other issues. The Guru's answer was "LOL" - who am I to compare myself to Zappos. So the question is... Can we take them for example or are they first simply because they are the biggest?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BeytzNet0 -
Website up for 3 months still not crawl
Hi, I had this website www.reliabledegree.com up for three months, but it is still not crawl by Google. All my on page optimization is grade A but I cannot see any single page crawl by Google. What can I do ? Please advise. Thanks. David
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Stevejobs20110 -
Optimize a Classifieds Site
Hi, I have a classifieds website and would like to optimize it. The issues/questions I have: A Classifieds site has, say, 500 cities. Is it better to create separate subdomains for each city (http://city_name.site.com) or subdirectory (http://site.com/city_name)? Now in each city, there will be say 50 categories. Now these 50 categories are common across all the cities. Hence, the layout and content will be the same with difference of latest ads from each city and name of the city and the urls pointing to each category in the relevant city. The site architecture of a classifieds site is highly prone to have major content which is not really a duplicate content. What is the best way to deal with this situation? I have been hit by Panda in April 2011 with traffic going down 50%. However, the traffic since then has been around same level. How to best handle the duplicate content penalty in case with site like a classifieds site. Cheers!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ketan90 -
Best ways to build up Page Rank (PR)
What are your sure fire ways to build up page rank, quickly and effectively for long term gains. Do you have a check list?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | therealmarkhall0