Search engine optimisation, or SEO, can be split into two broad groups – on page SEO and off page SEO. Off page SEO refers to things like link building and business directory listing, while on page SEO refers to everything that takes place within the confines of your website.
Although both on and off page SEO are extremely important for law firms looking to increase their organic search engine ranking, this article will focus solely on on page techniques, tips and tricks. Some of these include:
Understand that Google understands synonyms
Search engines are becoming smarter and smarter every single year. In the past, you had to fill your website with exact match keywords if you wanted to appear in the search engine results pages. Fortunately, this is changing.
Search engines now have the ability to understand synonyms and similar words. For example, a search for computers will turn up pages about PCs, laptops and a wide range of other computer related websites. Although these are all about computers, they won’t necessarily contain the word ‘computer’ in their title or meta description. The most important thing is that your information reads accurately and naturally.
Make sure you write content with searcher intent in mind
Now, it’s extremely important to realise that search engines now have the ability to take into account things like bounce rates and the amount of time people spend on certain web pages. The lower your bounce rate and the longer people spend on your website, the better your search engine ranking will be.
The best way to optimise these factors is to make sure that you’re creating the kind of content that people want to see. For example, someone searching for something like ‘commercial law services’ is probably looking for a firm which specialises in commercial law. If your website doesn’t reflect this, then you won’t rank highly for keywords like this.
Make sure you use keywords in your title, meta description and headings
Although exact match keywords aren’t essential in the modern world of clever search engines, it’s important to realise that you still need to give some indication of what your content is about in your titles, headings and meta descriptions. If you don’t, then the search engines won’t have any idea what you’re writing about. Use long tail keywords where possible, and make sure that your meta descriptions are just that – accurate descriptions of your content.
Final Word
On page SEO optimisation is essential if you want to build a high ranking law firm website. Make sure that you write high quality content that is going to encourage people to stay on your page, that you use relevant keywords and keyword variations and that you create content that people actually want to see. Above all, make sure that everything is relevant to either general law or to the things that you specialise in.
