Running an estate planning law firm can be challenging yet rewarding. As you grow your firm, your search engine optimization (SEO) will become crucial. At Civille, we understand the importance of SEO for estate planning law firms in 2023. We can help with our comprehensive SEO guide tailored specifically for your practice area.
Why is SEO Important for an Estate Planning Law Firm?
SEO may just be an acronym for three simple words—search engine optimization—but in 2023 it’s so much more than that. It’s the art of ensuring your online presence is discoverable on the vast internet. In today’s digital age, the internet serves as the primary avenue for people to find businesses, and search engines play a crucial role in that.
To achieve a prominent position as an estate planning firm, optimization is key. But what does that optimization entail? In this guide, we’ll look at what you can do on your site and what you should be doing elsewhere as well.
Website SEO for Estate Planning Law Firms in 2023
Your website will always be the most important place to optimize. There is a lot that goes into it including updating meta tags, giving each page a relevant H1, structuring the pages with headings, and even schema. All of that will mean nothing if you don’t have great content with a fast website.
Create Great Content, Traffic Will Follow
To conquer the search game, you need the perfect blend of captivating content and optimization. Picture a homepage that not only showcases your practice areas and the regions you serve but also leaves visitors spellbound with its engaging and one-of-a-kind content. But hey, the fun doesn’t stop there!
If you’re truly determined to climb to the top of the rankings, you’ll need content marketing. With a well-crafted content plan, you can soar to new heights and rank for the terms that truly matter to you. Sure, it’s great to show up when people search for your firm name or practice areas in your city. But you know what’s even more thrilling? Appearing in search results for terms that people are searching for even before they start looking for a lawyer.
If you are a Louisiana estate planning firm, for example, what are some things that your potential clients might search for? Could “types of trusts in Louisiana” be one of their searches? Now imagine they type that in and the top result not only links to a blog on your firm’s website, but it’s a featured snippet. These featured snippets provide a richer search result for the searcher. That’s a powerful piece of marketing right there.
Producing meaningful content is a must, but you have to think about what people are searching for. You want to uncover those magical keywords that have the potential to drive relevant traffic to your website.
Now, let’s talk about the frequency of content publication. Ideally, you want to sprinkle your website with fresh content a few times a month, or even more if you can manage. But here’s the fun part: you can also spice things up by creating content that specifically targets your local audience, without the heavy legal focus. We like to call this “local content.” This content can make your firm’s website not just a source of legal information but also local information.
As an estate planning firm, you are mostly looking for local clients anyway, and this is just another way you can stay relevant and top of mind for your potential clients. These blogs can include holiday posts, local guides, and more. This is your chance to get creative and step outside the law for a change.
Read More: 7 Unique Marketing Ideas for Estate Planning Attorneys
Mobile Site Speed Matters
Your users value speed, but it’s not just them, Google values it too! Even if your site has all the right information, slow site speed can hinder your rankings. In the past, desktop page speed was the benchmark, but now it’s all about mobile page speed. Google wants users to have a consistent experience, whether they’re coming from a phone or a computer. This means your site needs a responsive design that delivers the same lightning-fast content across all platforms.
You may say that most of your traffic comes from desktop and that you don’t want to optimize for mobile. First, make sure you are backing that statement up and check that metric in your own analytics. Even older audiences are beginning to shy away from the desktop. Second, even if true, it doesn’t matter. Google prioritizes fast-loading sites on mobile regardless of where people are coming from.
Unfortunately, your site speed may be beyond your control as much of it depends on the platform you choose. Many popular platforms, including those in the legal space, tend to be slow, especially on mobile.
When we built the Civille platform, we chose WordPress as our platform, but despite powering a majority of the Internet, it wasn’t fast enough for our tastes. Using proprietary tech, we created our own platform which uses WordPress, but works and loads a whole lot faster, making it perfect for your estate planning firm.
You can check your site speed using Google’s own page speed tester.
Button Up Everything Else
There are other things, some of which we already mentioned, that you want to make sure are in the proper order:
- Meta Description/Title—Every page on your site from your home page to your blog posts needs to have an enticing meta description and title. This is often what search engines will show on their results page, and showing up will mean nothing if people are not compelled to click. Both titles and descriptions should be short, but you don’t want to waste space either. Striking that balance will be important.
- URL Structure—As you are building your site or adding new pages, making sure that each page has a descriptive URL is a good idea. If you decide to change URLs to achieve that, remember to set up the proper redirects too.
- Page Structure—Every page should have an H1 that speaks to the core of what the page is about. Throughout the page, you will want to use H2s and H3s as needed. You can think of them like a bulleted list with everything nesting under the H1. Each item is under the H1 and every H3 is also under the H2 that precedes it.
- Audit, Audit, Audit—There is enough SEO knowledge to fill a book or two, but having the knowledge means nothing if you aren’t auditing your site. Use Google Analytics, Google Search Console, page speed checks, and other available tools like SEMrush to ensure that nothing is missing and there are no improvements to be made.
SEO Isn’t Just About What’s On Your Site 2023
You’ve been focusing so much on your own site by now, but have you thought about the SEO that lies beyond your site? We’re talking about something called off-site SEO. Just as the name implies, off-site SEO takes you beyond the boundaries of your website.
Your online presence extends far beyond your website’s borders. It encompasses listing sites like Yelp, your Google Business Profile, and goes into the realm of backlinks, where other websites connect to your firm.
Google Business Profile
Many firms neglect their Google Business Profile (GBP), but it’s a missed opportunity. If your firm is established, chances are you already have a GBP, waiting to be optimized. Google creates these profiles to help searchers find businesses on maps, access business hours, read reviews, and more.
Claiming or creating your GBP is essential. By optimizing it with relevant services, smart posts, and showcasing products related to your estate planning firm, you increase your chances of appearing in map searches and earning clicks or calls with regular searches.
Don’t forget, this is also where a lot of your reviews will live. You can curate, cultivate, respond to, and sometimes remove these reviews to present the best possible image of your estate planning firm to potential clients.
Google Business Profile Guide for Lawyers
What Backlinks are and Why They Matter
Having accurate listings across various platforms, such as Yelp, FindLaw, Avvo, and more, is crucial for your law firm’s online presence. These listings add credibility and improve your rankings in search results. These are a type of backlink.
A backlink is essentially any link that appears on another site linking to yours. The ones we mentioned above are expected—but often forgotten—for every law firm. Backlinks that have even more value form from other sources including news articles, press releases, local events, and collaborating businesses. Backlinks play a significant role in search rankings, but not all backlinks are equal. The authority and relevance of the linking site determine their impact. All of these links feed back into your site. They are not just for traffic, but they are a ranking signal to search engines like Google that will help you climb the results page.
If you think you can pay to boost your backlinks, think again. Paid backlinks can have adverse effects, potentially causing a drop in rankings. This is because Google tracks these listing sites and using them to buy links is against Google’s terms of service. Ensure your listings and backlinks are reputable to maintain credibility and search visibility.
Closing Argument: SEO and Websites By Civille
In this case, we present to you the Civille platform, a game-changer for your website needs. With Civille, you can obtain a website that not only captivates with its stunning appearance but also leaves Google in awe with its impeccable SEO and lightning-fast speed. We offer you a comprehensive package that includes local content, a full custom website design, and optimization of your Google Business Profile, and so much more. We take care of it all so you can focus on what truly matters.
Imagine a website for your estate planning firm that will make even the biggest firms green with envy. With Civille by your side, this dream can become a reality. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us today for a free website review. Let us prove to you the power of Civille in transforming your online presence and propelling your firm to new heights.
The choice is clear, the opportunity is now. Trust in Civille and unlock the potential that awaits you.
