“The best place to hide a corpse is the second page of Google.” This saying, by an anonymous author, could not be more accurate: according to 2015 data from Google Search Console, the first result that appears in an internet search takes around 60% of the clicks. The second barely gathers 16%, while the third position brings together almost 8% of the visits. These figures, together with the increasingly upward trend of turning to the internet to find and hire legal services, highlight the Law firms need to design strategies that help them stand out in search engines and position themselves among the top positions.
“Any lawyer or firm has options to be successful using SEO positioning (search engine optimization) as a strategy ”, explains Hugo Arribas, founder of Abbo and specialist in digital legal marketing. However, firms must know “which battles they can win and in which market niche they have real options to compete,” the expert clarifies. Thus, for example, small offices located in large cities such as Madrid or Barcelona will have less chance of success, while those located in small urban centers will have it easier because the competition, logically, is less.
Specialize
The location is, in short, one of the key factors to achieve a better positioning in search engines, but not the only one. “As a general rule, the search for lawyers on the Internet tends to be done more by individuals than by companies,” says Arribas. Furthermore, these users do not intend to hire a law firm to handle all their affairs, but rather they are looking for someone to help them with a specific problem (custody or unfair dismissal, for example).
Therefore, the firm that is defined as a specialist in a specific field (such as work or family) or even in a more specific area (sick leave or regulatory agreements in divorces), you will have a better chance of appearing in the top positions.
Define your search
Meeting these characteristics is not enough. The searches on-line They tend to be very specific, which forces the firm to present itself on its website in accordance with the terms under which it wants to position itself. “Google rewards the results that best suit the concepts used by the user”, summarizes Arribas.
Other decisive factors are the analysis of keywords, the quantity and quality of links within the web page or the existence of positive reviews on Google, among others.
Contents
A law firm can also position itself through content. That is, generating information on blogs or pages that address current legal issues or resolve doubts about a matter in which the firm is specialized. In this technique, the difficulty to stand out is greater, since the location factor takes a back seat and competition rises significantly. In addition, it not only covers the legal field, but other relevant websites such as the media, highly valued by Google, become direct competitors.
Given this scenario, when should you invest in content positioning? This technique benefits to a greater extent large firms that cover more areas of law, since they have more resources and, in general, with more powerful web pages.
On the other hand, and as the expert points out, “writing quality content often is not enough.” Before publishing anything, the firm must design a prior strategy on what information is to be disseminated, assessing factors such as the potential search volume of the chosen topic (that is, if it is a matter that usually generates doubts) or if the competition for that subject matter is affordable (that there are no newspaper articles that address it, since they will almost certainly appear in better positions).
Finally, the existence of links also affects the positioning. In fact, the Google search algorithm rewards those websites whose content appears linked to other pages, “as long as they are of sufficient quality,” Arribas concludes.
The favorite on Google Maps
Closeness. If the proximity with the user is one of the factors that Google values the most to position a page in its search engine, in Maps that importance goes from being relevant to crucial. This is because the platform understands that those who resort to this route are looking for a lawyer near their location.
Positive reviews. To position yourself on Google Maps, the first step is to have a tab in Google My Business in which the main information of the firm appears. Once the profile has been created, one of the determining elements to place it among the first results is the existence of positive customer evaluations. After all, “Google’s goal is to show its users the best results for each search,” explains Hugo Arribas, and one of the main criteria for doing so is the average score and number of evaluations.
Traps. Today, many companies (including law firms) resort to buying and generating fake reviews to achieve a better position in the results. This technique, although effective, is not the most recommended since Google, aware of this reality, is fine-tuning its algorithms to be able to identify possible fraudulent practices and manipulations. If they are discovered, it punishes the offending user by removing their file or hiding their business in search engines.
