It might sound like a stupid question, but what are potential clients looking for when they find your law firm’s website?
To put it another way, what keywords or phrases would a potential client have to type into Google Search to find your law firm?
If you don’t have a clue, that’s not unusual and in fact is the most common response to the question. But firms which are oblivious to the words used to find them are usually the ones which rank poorly, or not at all, in Google listings.
Of course there are exceptions, particularly when through sheer luck the firm has registered a domain name containing some pretty potent keywords, or when the internet was a pup, jumped on quickly, got a site up and have been adding content to it ever since. For example, there is a firm that has exceptional positioning in Google through no real concerted effort on its part other than being around online for a very, very long time.
When it comes to online searches, Google is the ringmaster. Sure, there are other search engines and platforms, but by and large Google is what your law firm has to perform for.
Google’s organising methodology has two main functions:
1. Indexing (identifying the type of information it finds and analysing it)
2. Authenticating (assessing the usefulness of the information and its quality).
In the identification of the information, Google spiders or bots crawl through all the pages and posts of your website, grabbing at key messages embedded into the code of each entry. More specifically, the spiders primarily pull keywords denoted in the titles and descriptions that you have purposely placed there. These titles and descriptions are referred to in geek speak as ‘meta-descriptions’ and ‘meta-titles’ which appear in the Google Search listings.
For example, in a search for “Professional Indemnity Insurance Law Qld”, the Queensland Law Society ranks 1 in Google for this search. Notice the well-crafted meta-title at the top, and the meta-description below.
In this case, the search terms are placed first in the meta-title and the meta-description. It’s this description that has the job of primarily persuading the searcher to open up the site.
In conjunction with these key elements, the spiders and bots examine the content on the page or post and, in the absence of a title and description, will grab at anything they think defines what the information is about, and then of course broadcast their interpretation of it to the world.
The meta-title and meta-description can be added easily via the content management system (CMS) on your website. If you haven’t got one, you most definitely need a CMS or a developer close by who can add them. Remember, this isn’t just the home page, but every page, post and image on your site that requires these key characteristics. Don’t wrongly assume that all traffic will enter via your homepage. Every page on your site has a job to do.
It follows that those firms which are attentive to the keywords they wish to be found for and that place these words in the meta-titles, meta-descriptions and in the web page content itself will get found for those keywords or phrases. Better still, if the firm has conducted some keyword research and as a result considers it can rank well for those words, then this provides excellent ranking opportunities.
Let me explain a little more. If you’re a criminal law firm and intend to write content about drink driving, then instead of just writing it up and posting it on your website, head across to Google Adwords here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
Google Adwords Keyword Tool provides a useful gauge as to how popular particular search terms are. If your law firm is already involved in a pay-per-click campaign, then the keywords in your advertisement should derive from this tool or equivalents.
Enter the keyword or keywords and ensure the search location is Australia. In this case it is drink driving.
Following the first return of results, go to the left hand side of this page, uncheck ‘broad’ and check ‘exact’. You will now be provided with an exact local monthly search of people entering ‘drink driving’.
According to the keyword tool, 3,600 people every month are entering this exact phrase into Google each month. But it may be that the term is still too broad to really acquire good conversion given that you’re a Brisbane law firm.
Accordingly, you may now wish to be more specific and search ‘drink driving Brisbane’. This is what commonly is referred to as a ‘long tail’ search. It returns about 58 monthly searches. That is the return for people typing that exact phrase but there will be, of course, significant variations on this that people will search on. So by labeling your titles, descriptions and content correctly, you will not only catch people searching for this exact term but also those searching on its variations.
The Google Keyword Tool also provides an information bar relating to competitiveness, however this is not entirely accurate and can dissuade firms from generating content because they wrongly perceive they would not be capable of penetrating the market for content relating to the precise keywords. We have worked with some firms which, because of the weight they hold in Google, can literally dominate search results for whatever keyword term they choose, sometimes overnight.
Be that as it may, returning to the case of the law firm wanting to dominate the market for the term ‘drink driving’. the proposed page or post meta-title should be ‘Drink Driving Brisbane | John Smith Lawyer.’ The meta-description should also pick up the keywords as well and may be something like, “Have you been charged with drink driving in Brisbane? Are you concerned about losing your licence? John Smith…”
The meta-title should be no longer than 12 words and the meta-description, 25 words.
In the first paragraph of the content, you would again use those keywords, but be careful not to go overboard. Google can spank sites fairly severely for keyword stuffing. The best rule of thumb is to ensure that it reads well and isn’t too repetitive.
In our experience, most law firms do not consider keyword research when marking up any content for their website. So the firms that have an online marketing strategy with a focus on content, in particular well-crafted content that derives from good keyword research, are dominating the market and, from all reports, will do so in the future.
In an upcoming Proctor article we’ll examine how Google authenticates your law firm’s website content and reveal some simple ways of enhancing your firm’s collective online weight.
Dan Toombs is the Business Development Manager at Grow your Firm: The Law Firm Marketing Company.
See www.growyourfirm.com.au.
Contact Information:
Dan Toombs
233 Ann Street
Brisbane, QLD 4000
Australia
+61 1300 886 322
www.growyourfirm.com.au
