I have worked with a few law firms for SEO, and let me tell you, it can be one difficult niche. I typically set up and post to a blog for my clients and syndicate press releases on their behalf, but in all cases with the law firms, these strategies were prohibited by the client. Same goes for social media – the clients had to be very careful about the information released, and unfortunately, we could not employ all the techniques I would have liked. Here’s some ways to get around the usual “red tape” law firms experience:

• Keep The Keywords Local – Chances are the law firm serves a local area. Rather than targeting “Pennsylvania Malpractice Lawyers” as a keyword, keep it to a specific location, such as “Philadelphia Malpractice Lawyers”. Choose keywords that expressly relate to the areas the law firm serves. If you’re using keyword research tools and finding local keyword variations are not widely searched, research the more general term, such as “Malpractice Lawyers”, and simply add all the name of the town/city to the front of it.

• Local Link Building - I actually found link building to be fairly simply (well, “simple” relative to link building is a bit of an understatement) for law firms. Look for local sites in their area, including:
  • Chamber of Commerce (May require a fee to be listed, but adds credibility to the law firm’s page, and worth it)
  • Community directories
  • Local libraries, non-profit organizations
  • Restaurants, shops, etc

• Be Interactive - You’ll need to approach the “social” element a bit differently. Many law firms do pro-bono work, are involved in community events, have speaking engagements, and volunteer their time to local schools and organizations. Ask the law firm to keep a running list of these events and photos of each. After each event, contact their local newspapers about the event and include the photo and a link to the law firm’s site. Most newspapers now have online counterparts, so you’re nearly guaranteed a link and traffic from the newspaper’s website. Sure, there’s more of a human element, but it’ll take just as much time as updating a Twitter and Facebook page would.

• Meta Tags – Meta tags are of course not as important as they used to be. However, with a law firm, be sure every page of the site has as unique a meta title, or page title, as possible, in a format such as Philadelphia Medical Malpractive Lawyers: Philadelphia Law Firm . A searcher may be looking for a similar phrase and find the law firm’s listing on a page with 9 other search engine results, so make sure your’s targets exactly what they’re looking for, and has the law firm’s name in case the searcher recognizes the name. Same goes for meta descriptions – include 2-3 sentences about the specific service on that page of the site.

• Stay Professional - I typically stress that it’s important to have as creative and engaging SEO copy on your site as possible. With SEO for law firms, simply keep it professional. State the facts of important cases they won, the services they offer, and how those services can benefit the reader. Of course, make sure the copy is SEO friendly with local keywords, but don’t try to “wow” the reader with intersting content. Convey the message of the law firm, and get to the point.

If you’re not in the same location as the law firm and don’t have a firm grasp on the local area, ask the client to provide you with a list of businesses they work with, restaurants they frequent, and social activities they’re a part of. These pre-existing relationships can dramatically help with link building and overall get the word out about the law firm.

I like input. Anyone have tips on SEO for lawyers?