Search Engine Optimization for Personal Injury Lawyers and Firms
If you’re an independent personal injury lawyer or law firm that deals with personal injury clients, you need to invest in digital marketing SEO.
Not only will it increase your client base, but it will also guarantee money spent on your marketing generates a high ROI.
Read on to learn more about why search engine optimization (SEO) is critical to long-term client retention and how to use it effectively in your digital marketing campaigns.
What Is Personal Injury Lawyer SEO?
Personal Injury Lawyer SEO is a process by which lawyers can improve their ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), making it easier for potential clients to find them. By optimizing their website and online content for relevant keywords, personal injury lawyers can improve their visibility and generate leads. In addition to helping potential clients find them, attorney SEO can also help personal injury lawyers build their brand and reputation online.
Why Does SEO for Personal Injury Lawyers Matter?
There are 1.3 million lawyers in the United States. 87% of law firms have a website. By default, Google only displays 10 search results (websites) per page. How do you plan to stick out online?
And no, your slick website is not enough. In short, search engine optimization for personal injury lawyer is the most powerful way to connect your personal injury law firm to potential clients actively searching for your services.
It’s a foolproof strategy that makes your law firm visible on search engines and across social media platforms. With the right tactics, you can overtake the competition and fine-tune your SEO efforts to reach clients from specific industries or geographic regions.
Let’s take a look at the case of Levinson Law Group where our marketing agency created a comprehensive digital marketing and off and on page SEO campaign, resulting in unprecedented growth.
SEO Personal Injury Law Firm Case Study: Levinson Law Group
Levinson Law Group is a Southern California-based personal injury firm specializing in cases with a particular scope of work focused on vehicular accidents.
This personal injury law firm’s main issue was they had an old functional site that failed to position them as industry leaders and important information about them was not adequately communicated to their target audience.
They also lacked a compelling brand narrative that connects clients with who they are and highlights what differentiates them from other firms in the same space.
Lastly, their heavy reliance on paid ads, instead of SEO, stunted their growth and ate away at their marketing budget.
How Personal Injury Lawyer SEO Was Done
Our team spent time getting to know Levinson Law Group’s business goals and marketing needs before devising a performance-driven strategy to increase their leads.
Comrade’s team is renowned for its innovative and engaging content. To give this personal injury law firm’s website any chance of attracting qualified leads, we decided to rebuild it from scratch.
The new version clearly communicates the firm’s impressive track record and history in an easy-to-follow format, with a video component that reinforces its stellar reputation.
We also streamlined their web page navigation, as well as developed and implemented an effective content sales funnel that delivers results.
Then it was time for personal injury law firm search engine optimization. As a Southern Californian personal injury law agency, Levinson Law Group was not targeting or reaching the right client base.
Results After Working With a Personal Injury Law Firm Marketing Company
After auditing and analyzing their SEO efforts, it was clear they needed an acute change of tactics. Their off-page SEO was severely underutilized, which we improved. This resulted in increased visibility at local levels and strengthened their reputation throughout Southland county overall, leading to more than 200% growth in leads.
All this was achieved with less money spent on paid Google Ads, too!
PPC vs. SEO for Personal Injury Lawyers
SEO for personal injury attorneys is just one of many forms of online marketing. PPC, or pay-per-click marketing, is another. Both methods make your law firm’s website visible online, but PPC’s success is highly dependent on constant ad spend, whereas SEO is a cost-effective way of organically reaching people already searching for your services on search engine result pages.
We recommend using a combination of both SEO And PPC strategies for maximum results.
If your website isn’t optimized, and you don’t have any content marketing assets, we’d suggest tackling SEO first before spending money on PPC. You’ll need to have a legitimate SEO strategy in place before you invest in paid advertising.
Develop Right Personal Injury Search Engine Optimization Strategy
Having the right SEO strategy for PI law firm is essential to attracting new clients. SEO marketing has many facets, from publishing conversion-orientated content to strategically placing calls-to-action on your web pages.
High-quality content matches your clients’ user intent. Meaning it is optimized with the correct keywords and calls to action to attract qualified traffic and drive users deeper down the sales funnel.
More than anything, it is relevant and speaks to your client’s actual wants and needs, rather than something you feel like communicating unless it’s an update to law that affects specific types of cases.
Creating quality content places your website higher on search rankings and builds brand credibility. For this reason, content marketing is, in fact, a big part of a marketer’s SEO efforts.
Scrubbing your website of content that no longer aligns with your marketing strategy goals creates a more focused experience for users. Keep in mind: If you clean house, you might experience an increase in rankings too.
Invest in a Local SEO Strategy for Personal Injury Firms
When it comes to search engine optimization for personal injury lawyers, local SEO is critical because so many potential clients start their search for a nearby PI lawyer on Google.
Local SEO allows you to hone in on specific neighborhoods, towns, and regions to strictly target clients in those areas. After all, most clients are searching for attorneys close to where they live or work. They conduct what we call local searches.
Using local keywords also helps smaller, less established firms beat national competition on Google. It’s no doubt challenging to compete with larger firms that have bigger budgets, but usually, SEO has lower competition, especially if you’re targeting specific suburbs.
How to Set Up Local SEO for Personal Injury Law Firms
To implement local SEO, you must sign up with Google My Business. It’s free and provides your law firm with Google Map visibility. Be sure to fill in all the details as accurately as possible, so customers can find you when it comes time for a consultation or legal services.
Local SEO for personal injury attorneys has plenty of nuances, particularly when it comes to local ad optimization, so be sure to read our blog about Google Local Service Ads optimization to improve your search rankings.
Use the Right SEO Keywords
Keywords are the first consideration in personal injury lawyer SEO. And it’s not just which ones you use but also keyword placement that matters. You must use law firm keywords naturally in your content, and avoid keyword stuffing and other black hat tactics frowned upon by search engines.
Using keywords strategically in metadata and content headings is also vital, so search engines can better crawl and index your site. While there’s no hard and fast rule for keyword density,
We’d recommend 1-2 keywords for every 100 words of copy, which equates to 1-2% keyword density.
A helpful tip: Poor keywords that are too vague or have an extremely high search volume can cost potential clients because Google and other search engines won’t be able to rank your website higher than your competitors.
Personal Injury SEO Keywords You Need to Target
When doing keyword analysis, you’ll come across a range of potential keywords, yet not all will be lucrative. A keyword may be high volume (many people search with it) but due to its competitiveness, it’s challenging to beat other firms already using it.
A good SEO strategy will employ a range of different types of keywords to increase the chances of ranking in SERPs for various keywords instead of just focusing on one or two.
For instance, if “car accident lawyer” is your primary keyword, you might also use other keywords like “car accident attorney Chicago,” “how to choose a car accident lawyer,” etc.
Personal Injury Keywords Examples
The keywords you select should have a good traffic potential and align with user intent. Some great keywords for general and local SEO include:
- personal injury lawyer
- personal injury attorney
- personal injury lawyer (city)
- personal injury attorney (city)
- personal injury attorney near me
- car crash lawyer near me
- car crash lawyer (city)
- accident lawyer (city)
- car accident lawyer
Even though it’s tempting to use a keyword like “best lawyers”, don’t! Most of the time when potential clients type this into Google, they’ll be directed to lawyer directories and best law firm lists, which defeats the point of using the keyword as they won’t come across your website.
Form Relationships to Boost Off-Page SEO
To reiterate SEO software company MOZ: “Backlinks are especially valuable for SEO because they represent a vote of confidence from one site to another.”
A backlink is basically when another site links back to yours. This personal injury lawyer SEO tactic engenders brand loyalty but requires some PR outreach and relationship building with industry players.
Link building enhances your website’s credibility and shows search engines you’re professional and trusted.
Developing relationships with authoritative and respected publications and thought leaders who can write about your firm, or for whom you can create syndicated content for, will accelerate your off-page SEO strategy.
Optimized Photos and Videos for PI Lawyer SEO
All evidence suggests visual communication is key to a more powerful digital marketing plan. For most clients, hiring a personal injury lawyer is intimidating, mostly because they have a limited understanding of the law.
Choosing the right media for your website, not only makes your firm appear less intimidating, but can also convey credibility and expertise. Strong visuals and video content make your law firm look polished and professional.
As part of injury law firm SEO, you’ll want to make sure your images are the right size and are labeled with the correct keywords to boost your website’s search engine rankings.
Break Your Personal Injury Content Into Niches
Personal injury law firms work on a variety of cases, ranging from car accidents to dog bites. Potential clients constantly search for help with specific injury cases. So, if you only market yourself as a personal injury law firm, you’re creating fewer chances for people to find you.
It’s also more challenging to differentiate your firm or break into top rankings on search engines. Thus, niches really do help SEO for personal injury law firms because, in theory, your website will feature every time a potential client types in keywords associated with those niches.
Think Like Your Personal Injury Clients
You have to think about the way your clients search for things. For instance, they’re not going to type in “personal injury law firm,” they’re more likely to look up “dog bite injury lawyer,” “medical malpractice,” or “car accident lawyers,” instead!
Consider serving these specific, underserved niches within your specialty areas of practice to make your company stand out from other law firms targeting similar markets.
Can Personal Injury Lawyers Do SEO on Their Own?
Can you fix your plumbing or repair your car without professional help? Probably. Will it take you longer and with possible errors and delays? It’s likely. So, yes, there’s nothing stopping you from learning how to do SEO—there are hundreds of blog and YouTube tutorials on the topic.
The real question is whether you want to and if you actually have the time and resources to execute a personal injury lawyer SEO campaign that’s a success. Most law firms are overburdened with cases and can’t afford to spend time on something they’re not experts in. That’s why they hire a personal injury SEO agency.
Creating content, promoting it, and tracking how well it connects with your client base can eventually take its toll, especially since digital marketing is not your professional focus. A personal injury lawyer SEO company with a solid track record has experience in all facets of SEO and internet marketing, and most importantly, is dedicated to your law firm’s success.
What Do Personal Injury SEO Services Include?
SEO services offered by a personal injury lawyer SEO firm optimize your site to convert website clicks into clients. At Comrade, our comprehensive personal injury SEO services include:
- Technical SEO audit: A technical check that ensures your website is crawlable by search engines.
- Target keyword research: Discovering which keywords are the most lucrative for your personal injury law firm.
- Website structure optimization: Ensuring your website’s link structure and UX design are optimized for the best user experience.
- Content plan creation: Creating a content plan shaped by keyword research that drives leads down the sales funnel.
- Link building strategy: Developing a PR and outreach strategy to increase your website’s authority.
- Local SEO strategy: Optimizing your Google My Business account as well as creating content that matches local search intent.
Grow Your Client Base With a Personal Injury Lawyer SEO Agency
At Comrade, we have a team of highly skilled digital marketing experts who can help with your firm’s SEO practices. Our team delivers a great marketing ROI for attorneys, that includes increased visibility, recognition, and, of course, more clients.
For a free consultation and to find out more about how our comprehensive approach can boost your SEO rankings, reach out to us online or on the phone at (312) 265-0580.
- Website UI/UX, content and conversion review
- SEO: 20-point performance check
- Digital marketing strategy
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