With a strong criminal defense lawyer SEO strategy, your firm can be found by the endless number of people searching for criminal defense lawyers in your market. The reasons that prompt these searches are typically urgent and these individuals are seeking a fast solution to their problem.
Being found on the top of Google for criminal defense law firm keywords and search queries is essential if you want to attract the majority of clients available. You either position your law firm’s website at the top of Google for the relevant terms or you miss out on these potential clients and allow your competition to scoop them up instead.
While it sounds simple – be found at the top of Google – the competition for all criminal defense keywords is extremely difficult. Legal keywords in general are some of the most competitive to rank for out of all industries and niches.
A thorough criminal defense search engine optimization strategy is required if you want your firm and its name to appear at the top of Google’s results anytime someone is urgently seeking the consultation and representation of a criminal defense attorney.
So, how can you position your firm at the top of Google to attract more quality criminal defense leads and clients? Let’s dive into some criminal defense attorney SEO tips to help you accomplish this.
Create an Optimized Website Focused on UX and First-Visit Conversions
When a situation arises that calls for legal representation and it’s linked to alleged criminal behavior or activity, where is the very first resource that someone turns to? It’s Google, and whenever a search is seeking help related to criminal defense it’s a high likelihood that they require representation on the spot – and not days down the line.
When a potential client first hits your website they need to feel confident that your firm can handle their needs. The image must be professional, the design must be first-class, and the content found throughout your website and blog must portray your professionalism and ability to take on, and win, even the most challenging cases.
Beyond that, your website must offer a seamless user experience, allowing a potential client to easily contact you via a wide range of contact methods. The easier you make it to reach out, the higher your conversion rates will be.
It requires a healthy budget for off-page activities like link building, as well as on-page content to rank for the most competitive criminal defense SEO keywords. Then, you have to factor in the time it takes to do it correctly and propel your website to the top of the search results. This all comes at a cost – and the higher you can convert your organic traffic into leads and clients, the lower your average acquisition cost becomes.
Publish High-Quality Resources and Articles
The content found on your website can help to position your firm as the top criminal defense option by publishing articles that highlight your expertise and past accomplishments. In addition to long-form blog posts, you can create video content, both of which answer some of the most commonly asked questions related to criminal defense.
This is something that should constantly be added to, and when you realize how your content contributes to attracting organic traffic, you will view it as one of your most valuable marketing assets.
Your website content needs to accomplish two things:
Attract Search Engine Traffic: Your blog provides an opportunity to create content optimized to rank for specific criminal defense keywords. Focusing on one keyword per article allows you to publish content that works well for Google while also providing value to those engaging with it.
Instill Immediate Trust and Confidence: From past cases’ success to explaining popular criminal defense topics, a potential client needs to feel confident quickly, as they tend to have limited time to retain legal representation.
When you focus on these two things you attract a higher number of organic visitors monthly and convert at a rate high enough that your lead and client generation scales parallel to that traffic growth curve.
Optimize Your Content for Search Engine Visibility
Every time you create a new piece of content, whether it’s an informational resource page on your website or an article for your blog, it needs to be optimized specifically for the target keyword.
Paying attention to these on-page optimization factors can help your pages rank higher in the search results, especially when it comes to lower competition keywords. While a keyword like “criminal defense lawyer in [your location]” is going to have incredible competition and require extensive SEO to rank for, there are some terms that you can rank for and attract traffic to with no more than simple on-page optimization.
A term like “what to do if arrested in [your location] for public intoxication” will have a very low search volume, but it’s much easier to rank for when the blog article is correctly optimized. Don’t discredit low search volume terms, either.
If a keyword only receives 50 searches per month, but you can rank on top for it and it drives 20 visitors a month and you can convert at 5 percent, that’s one client per month just from that one price of content.
Then, as you continue to build your blog’s content your organic traffic grows exponentially over time, even by targeting the lower competition terms. Focus on the following on-page optimization elements:
- Keyword Used at the Beginning of the Post’s Title
- Keywords Used in the Post’s URL
- Keyword Used Throughout the Content
- Keyword Used in H2 and H3 Tag
- Keyword Used as Alt-Img Tag
- Keyword Ultiized in Meta Description for Higher CTR
Claim Your Google My Business Listing & Collect Client Reviews
While your law firm’s blog is the best way to rank for keywords in Google’s traditional search results, if you want to show up at the top of the Google Maps results – and you most definitely do – you need to claim and optimize your Google My Business listing.
It’s free to claim and you will need to fill out all of your contact details thoroughly, including your firm’s office hours and images of your office. The more information you can provide, the better. This is where Google pulls information for its Maps results, so be as detailed as possible.
The description of your business – all 750 available characters – should be optimized for “criminal defense lawyer in [location]” and “criminal defense law firm in [location]” as this type of general focus helps Google understand your main area of practice.
One of the most important parts of optimizing your GMB listing is reviews. Reviews from past clients help position your firm as the best option, and even if you are not the top listing in the Maps, if you have more reviews than the other first you can pull attention – and clicks – away from them.
Make an effort to get all of your past clients that your firm successfully defended and ask them to provide a detailed review. They don’t have to give specifics, but a little more than “great law firm” will help to convert more prospects.
Consumers trust reviews left by strangers the same way they trust reviews from close friends and family members. After a win, go for the ask – most clients will be more than happy to honor the request.
Final Thoughts
Being found at the top of Google for the most competitive criminal defense keywords is great, but as you can see it requires more than just ranking to turn that opportunity into more clients. Due to these terms being urgent, someone doesn’t have the time to speak with several firms and take weeks to decide. They typically need representation immediately.
Whereas someone looking for a divorce attorney may spend a few weeks interviewing potential firms, something that is criminal-related will typically require legal representation in a matter of day; sometimes within hours. In these situations, your law firm’s website and its ability to convert comes into play.
Our team of expert online marketers specializes in criminal defense law firm SEO. It’s what our entire focus is on, and we can help you not only rank for the best keywords and drive high-quality prospects to your site but also optimize your website to convert the highest percentage of that traffic into immediate consultations and signed client retainers. Contact us today to learn more about our criminal defense law firm search engine optimization services.
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