A law firm website that is invisible to the search engines will never perform as well as one that avoids law firm SEO mistakes. We see law firm websites every day that could perform much better in the search engines with just a few, small changes. Below are the top 5 law firm SEO mistakes to avoid:
1. No Incoming Links - A law firm website that doesn't have other sites linking to it is going to get lost in the abyss of the internet. Links are the currency of the web as far as search engines like Google are concerned. It's important that you are getting other, legally related websites to link to yours. Ignoring your incoming links is a classic law firm SEO mistake.
2. Don't Add Content - Not adding fresh, relevant content to your website is a classic mistake. The days of building a static law firm website and hoping to attract a large amount of traffic are over. You need to add new content to your site on a consistent and frequent basis. We typically recommend 2-3 new articles a week at a minimum. Adding content will help grow the footprint your site has on the web and create additional outlets for consumers to find you.
3. Make It Difficult To Update Your Website - Most websites these days are built on a CMS (Content Management System) platform. There are many different kinds, but the most important thing they all do is make updating your website easy to accomplish. Instead of having to know HTML code, you can simply update your site through an easy to use interface and publish the information. If your site is difficult to update, you simply will not do it. This will hurt your visibility in the search engines.
4. Don't Do Proper Keyword Research - Another classic mistake lawyers make is not performing keyword research. Understanding the terms that people have historically searched for to find your services as well as knowing the relative competitiveness of those keywords is critical to the success of your site. Often lawyers will just go with their guts or select words they "feel" people would search for. This is not the way to do keyword research. Using Google's Keyword Tool is a good place to start.
5. Don't Use The Keywords You Found On Your Website - Utilizing keywords throughout your site will help the search engines better understand what your site is about. Including keywords in your title tags, headers, and the body of your site is a best practice. You don't want to do this in an obnixous way where it becomes obvious to someone reading your site, but it's important to do so in an artful way.
Avoiding the above mistakes will help give your site more visibility when people are looking for your legal services in the search engines. For a more in depth discussion of your law firm's website and search engine optimization contact us toll free at (877) 619-5775.
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