Yoast states, "A keyword, or a focus keyword as some call it, is a word that describes the content on your page or post best. It's the search term that you want to rank for with a certain page. So when people search for that keyword or phrase in Google or other search engines, they should find that page on your website."
A keyword is a term to describe the word(s) you use when trying to find information online. For example, when you search for legal assistance, type "lawyer" into your search engine as your keyword.
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. SEO is the process of increasing website activity without the need to buy search standing. Search engines use SEO to rank websites naturally.
One way to increase your practice's SEO is to incorporate keywords into your company website, blog, and legal listings. Nevertheless, you must choose the most pertinent keywords for your law practice because not all keywords will achieve the same SEO success.
There are three major keyword layouts:
Because it is specific to your company's location, a search term that includes location based keywords is easy to use. Is your firm located in New Orleans, Louisiana? Then, include New Orleans, Louisiana in the site content of your practice.
A specific location is more likely to be included when searching for legal assistance. Primarily because legal aid is generally based on the location of the incident or the client's location. Therefore, if you have "New Orleans" in your website content, you will be ahead of any non-New Orleans lawyers.
A search term using short tail keywords contains only one to two words. These keywords (such as lawyer or legal aid) won't be enough to boost ranking for your law practice within search results.
Why not?
Large companies dominate the market on short tail keywords. This makes it hard for small businesses, such as your law practice, to stand out solely based on short tail keywords.
A search term using long tail keywords contains three or more words. While they can be more complicated, they can help your law practice stand apart from your competition. Long tail keywords like "family law attorney for divorce" or "personal accident attorney," are good examples should your short tail keywords not yield the desired results.
Moreover, search engines will rank your practice higher when using long tail keywords specific to your legal area. This is because other practices not in your field of expertise are removed from search results.
Sometimes. Understanding what a keyword is isn't enough. You must also understand that improper use of keywords can tarnish your SEO rank.
Keyword stuffing is when a law practice inserts every possible keyword combination into its website content. This keyword quantity technique is not an SEO strategy that will benefit your law practice in the long run.
The goal of keyword use is finding the correct keyword combinations resulting in high-quality content because search engines look for quality vs. quantity when calculating rank. Additionally, search engines may detect repetitive or unneeded keyword combinations, thus lowering your SEO rank.
Intricate algorithms are used by search engines to find websites and business listings that may be deceiving the system. Once discovered, search engines will penalize these websites with a lower rank. Your website can stay on the top by avoiding black-hat techniques.
Let's look at an example of this deceit. Although your website portrays a large, respected law firm with multiple lawyers, they find a small, one-person office when visiting. Despite the possibility of outsourcing lawyers when necessary, this misperception leads to distrust. Not only have you possibly missed the opportunity to secure a new client, but you have probably secured yourself a negative review to go along with losing the business?
Excellence corresponds to quality. Your law practice should focus on creating engaging and factual content. Furthermore, SEO can't be built overnight. It takes time, just like your physical client list took time to build.
If you are looking for more, LOCALSYNC has compiled a guide that outlines 10 Steps to Boosting Your Site Rank.
LOCALSYNC can be a valuable tool in your law practice. Start with SEO and move to online marketing. But don't stop there. Check out social media marketing as well as WordPress. It is possible to gain all this knowledge from one place!