Need proof? Check out these stats…

• 96% of people use a search engine to seek legal advice.
• 38% of people use the internet to find an attorney.
• 62% of legal searches are non-branded (for example, Miami car accident attorney).

Additionally, your law firm website is a great spot to generate new leads for your firm. 74% of consumers who visit a law firm’s website end up taking action, such as contacting the firm by phone.

Also, the lawyer SEO competition doesn’t necessarily reflect the legal market you’re in. Only 35% of law firm websites have been updated in the last 3 years, and 40% of law firms don’t even have a law firm website.

In short, by applying an effective law firm SEO strategy, you’ll leap ahead of most of your competitors.

To help you put together your own SEO campaign, I’ll show you how to rank your law firm #1 in Google – step-by-step.

ARTICLE CONTENTS

TECHNICAL SEO
Step 1. Determine Website Structure
Step 2. Setup Your GMB Listing
Step 3. Improve Your Site Speed
Step 4. Mobile Optimization
Step 5. Implement SSL
KEYWORD RESEARCH
Step 6. Understand Search Intent
Step 7. Find the right keywords
PAGES & CONTENT
Step 8. Identify User Content Goals
Step 9. Format Your Pages Properly
Step 10. Optimize Your Home Page
Step 11. Create Practice Pages
Step 12. Rank Better with Blog Posts
Step 13. Fix Zombie Pages
DOMINATE LOCAL SEARCH
Step 14. Tailor Pages to Markets
Step 15. Legal Directory Citations
Step 16. Claim & Manage Reviews
LINKS
Step 17. Outbound Links
Step 18. Inbound Links
MEASURE RESULTS
Step 19. Tools to Use
Step 20. KPIs

TECHNICAL SEO FOR ATTORNEYS

Step 1. Determine Your Website Structure

Structure your own website so your users (and Google) can find everything. Your website needs to have a defined structure. Without one, it’s difficult for users to navigate and difficult for search engines to crawl and discover your web pages.

Structuring your site for your users

Users need to be able to easily find what they’re looking for. This means that you need to understand what information people seek out when visiting your law firm’s website and put that important information  on the homepage or make it easy to access from the navigation bar.

For example, if a prospective client is looking for a personal injury attorney in Miami, they may search your firm’s website for practice areas, office location, reviews, and the about section.

Look at how this law firm’s website quickly addresses those needs with their navigation bar.

EXAMPLE 1

• Practice areas, either directly on your navigation menu or as a dropdown if you have multiple services. This gets your law firm’s services based keywords on every page of your site, sending strong relevancy signals to Google crawlers.
• Location information, either directly on your navigation menu or as a dropdown if you have multiple locations. This gets your location-based keywords on every page of your site, sending strong relevancy signals to search engine algorithms about the geographic area you serve.
• A link to your attorneys or about page, which should give an overview of the years of experience of your whole legal team.
• A link to your reviews or testimonials page – to build trust.
• A link to your “Contact Us” clearly labeled with a unique color where visitors can contact you via phone number, email, or an embedded contact form. This is a call to action.
• Your phone number. This is another call to action. Even if you already have a “contact us” button that links to a contact page, 74% of people who land on a law firm’s website are likely to contact you via phone, so making this form of contact as simple as 1 click is to your advantage.

If you’re unsure about what users are likely to look for on your website, search Google for your practice areas and look at the top ranking competitors sites to get ideas for your navigation and site layout.

Finally, it’s important to make sure your navigation menu is usable both on desktop and mobile.

In fact, 31% of all law firm related website traffic comes from mobile, so a large amount of your leads are likely to come from a mobile device.
Take a look at how this law firm’s website made their navigation menu easy to access and use on mobile phones.

This is referred to as the “tap area” of a button and is a key component of converting on mobile devices. Make sure this is sized appropriately for phones and fingers of all sizes. Users can become easily frustrated if they have a difficult time tapping the correct button on a mobile device and may leave your site.

Structuring your site for Successful SEO

Google also uses your law firm’s website structure to determine what website content is important and relevant information. Here are a few ways to help Google crawl your law firm website in a more effective way.

Use proper page and URL Structure

Ideally, your website as a whole should be structured like a pyramid, with your home page at the top, your category pages (the ones in your navigation menu) beneath that, and your individual pages beneath your category pages.

Not only does this make it very easy for users to find relevant content on your site, but also makes it easier for search engines to index each page of your website.

This means that they should only have one slash after the .com, .net, etc (aka. the “top-level-domain”).

So, your about page should look like https://yourdomain.com/about

Any individual pages that are a subset of your category pages, like blog articles, should only have two slashes after the top-level-domain.

For example, blog articles would look like this: https://yourdomain.com/blog/how-to-hire-a-personal-injury-lawyer

Clear URL structure makes it easy for search engine crawlers to find pages on your law firm website.

Clear linking and navigation titles

The placement of navigation items is an important factor for users and search engines alike. While users are more likely to pay attention to navigation titles, search engines use the anchor text of these navigation items to determine the topical relevance of a page.

What is anchor text?
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink.
Here’s what it looks like in your site’s code

If we inspect the code on Harell & Harell’s site, we can see this in action. Here’s the navigation menu item’s anchor text for the user.

These same link signals can be leveraged in the footer of your law firm website as well. Adding links to pages such as to your blog, privacy policy, or sitemap in the footer can help boost the link signals to these pages without taking up space in the main navigation menu.

Proper use of H tags – How to use H tags for SEO

Header tags (commonly called H tags) outline the structure of your page. Often times, an H tag is used as the title displayed on the page, while the page title is what’s displayed in the organic search results.

Common H tag page formatting looks like this:

Notice the difference between these 2 articles. One is using H tags properly, while the other is writing their headlines in plain text.

Header Tags Used Properly

When writing your H tags, keep a few things in mind:

• Only use 1 H1 tag on your page.
• Use H2, H3, and other H tags to segment out the content of your page.
• Use related keywords in your HTML tags.

Step 2. Create and optimize your law firm’s Google My Business listing

85% of people use online maps, such as Google Maps, to find legal services.

Google Maps is a huge part of local SEO. If your firm largely targets local clients, then getting listed on Google Maps is a must.

How to add your law firm to Google Maps

So, how do you get listed on Google Maps?
By creating a Google My Business listing.

Here’s how.

Google My Business best practices

Google uses information from Google My Business to display information for searches that have local area intent.

Clearly, it’s important that this information is up-to-date, accurate, and fully optimized.

How to optimize your law firm’s Google My Business listing

Here’s how to optimize your firm’s Google My Business account:

• Enter your business information correctly on the map so users can easily find you.
• List the official website of your law firm.
• Include your opening hours.
• Make sure your business name, address, and phone number is EXACTLY the same as listed on your website. Google aggregates this information from across the web.
• Choose the most appropriate and specific category for your firm so that you show up in the right search terms.
• Add photos of your office, staff or anything else you’d like that’s relevant and professional.
• Describe your law firm. Include links and relevant keywords in the introduction.

If you’re interested in seeing how users behave with your listing, check out Google My Business insights.

Step 3. Make your law firm website as fast as possible

Google is now mobile-first, which means they assume users are accessing your site with a 5G connection.

They want to provide users with a great page experience. Presenting users with slow websites doesn’t accomplish this, so if you want higher rankings, your website needs to be fast.

Due to its impact on user experience, website speed is one of the most important SEO ranking factors.

If a website takes a long time to load, the user will click back to Google to find a better choice. Google will simply think the user didn’t find what they were looking for and your website rank will drop.

Amazon found clear correlations between page speed and bounce rate. Just a few seconds too long, and your users are 32% more likely to leave.

To make your site as fast as possible, use Google’s PageSpeed Tool to see how your site loads on desktop and on a 5G connection. This tool is a simple way to discover any issues that you can address to make your site faster.

Step 4. Make sure your site is mobile friendly

Consider this – you’re a personal injury attorney, and a potential client just got into a car accident.

They try to access your site to call you, but they have a poor mobile connection.

Or worse, they’re nervous – their adrenaline is pumping – and they’re having trouble tapping their screen with accuracy.

Your website takes too long to load, and when it finally does, the user pushes the wrong button on accident, so they move on to the next listing in Google.

This is why mobile optimization is important for attorney websites.

At a minimum, you should make sure that:

• Your website loads quickly on mobile.
• Your buttons are sized well enough that people with small screens or big fingers can tap them without accidentally tapping a different button.
• Keep important information above the fold – i.e. keep your call to action visible without requiring users to scroll down.
• Have a click to call button for mobile.

Check out Lawrence Law Group’s site as an example of doing this correctly.

This, and Google prioritizes mobile experiences when ranking websites.

Step 5. Secure your law firm’s website with SSL (Secure Socket Layer)

Ever come across a website and see something like this?

As an attorney, you know that trust between you and your target audience is important, so why would this be any different online?

This is what happens when a website isn’t secured with an SSL certificate.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, and is essentially a form of validation for your website that confirm there aren’t any intermediaries between a page and the web host that could potentially steal a users information.

Basically, an SSL certificate proves that a website is who they say they are. This is shown by a site having https instead of http at the beginning of their domain.

Google has also confirmed that it is, in fact, taken into consideration for rankings.

Often times, you can get an SSL certificate through your web hosting provider. They’re usually available for an annual fee, and will fix all of the issues associated with “website not secure” popups or messages.

If you prefer to go the route of free, or would rather have your SSL certificate not tied to your web hosting provider, you can use a service like Let’s Encrypt instead.

Once you get your certificate set up, plug your homepage https URL into Why No Padlock? to have their tool crawl your site and make sure it’s implemented correctly.

A few things to note about getting your site SSL certified:

• Google will treat this as if you’re moving your site to a new domain name, which means you may temporarily lose search rankings and organic traffic until Google crawls your site again and reindexes your new https pages.
• You could end up with a lot of broken links, so it’s important to make sure you properly 301 redirect your http links to your new https links when migrating to https.

KEYWORD RESEARCH

Step 6. Understand searcher intent and keyword types

Before you start optimizing your law firm’s website, you need to know what kind of keywords you’re going to go after.

In attorney SEO, as in all SEO, a keyword is really just a search term that Google’s users type to find what they’re looking for.

What they’re looking for is described as searcher intent – and can be broken down into three categories:

• Awareness
• Evaluation
• Purchase

Searcher intent addresses the question “what are the searchers really looking for?”
Let’s assume a musician is trying to copyright their music. Here are some search terms they might use in each stage.

• Awareness – This is where the musician is looking for answers, resources, educational material, and insights. Example search terms (or keywords) may include:

• • • How can I protect my music?
    • Do I copyright or trademark a song?
    • How to copyright a song

• Evaluation – This is the middle stage where the musician knows what needs to be done and is researching options. Example search terms (or, again, keywords) in this stage may include:

• • • Music lawyers near me
    • Who are the best copyright lawyers in Nashville
    • Copyright lawyer reviews

• Purchase – This is the final stage where the musician is figuring out what it would take to become a customer. Keywords used in this stage are likely to be very specific:
  • Law firm name contact info
  • Lawyer name contact info

In this example, the musician wanted to protect their music, learned more about what’s involved, then narrowed down the options until they found the best one for them, then took steps to contact the appropriate firm.

The closer a user gets to a purchase, the longer the keywords usually are. This is where the phrase long-tail keywords comes from.

Step 7. Find the right keywords

Now that you understand searcher intent and know about how people use Google to make purchases, let’s dive into some keyword research.

To find new keyword phrase ideas, just head over to Google’s Keyword Planner, log in, and click “Discover new keywords.”

Next, enter your website or a keyword of your choice to get started. For this example, I’m going to enter a keyword.

You’ll notice that you have columns that show you the monthly search volume and the cost-per-click bid range if you were to run ads.

If a keyword has a high bid, that means advertisers are bidding high amounts for that search query in PPC advertising campaigns –likely because it drives sales.

That means these keywords are likely to have high purchase intent. These are the keywords that you’ll likely want to target with pages that have lots of call-to-actions.

If you want more keyword ideas, you can leverage Google. Just take one of your chosen keywords, plug it into Google’s search box, and look at the “People also ask” section.

If you click one of the questions, Google automatically generates more of them.

When you find your keywords, remember to use your primary keyword within the H1 and title tags of your page. This gives the search engines a clear indication as to what the page is about. For more information on keywords and keyword research check out Keywords 101: A Beginner’s Guide.

PAGES & CONTENT

Step 8. Understand Google’s content preferences

Google prioritizes pages based on how it views search intent for different terms. You won’t be able to effectively rank a product page for an informational search.

Google often prioritizes long-form content, but content that meets a user’s need always wins out.

It’s the difference between “how to find a good accident lawyer” and “accident lawyer near me” searches. One will land on a blog post/long form content, the other on a directory or services page.

Think about it like this – someone with a broken faucet is looking for contact info for an available plumber, not a long-form article on plumbing.

Step 9. Format your pages properly

When formatting your page, there are a few things that need consideration.

• Formatting your titles
• Using H tags
• Writing meta descriptions
• Formatting your content

Let’s go over each of these.

How to write your page titles for SEO

The page title is the clickable headline of your page that appears on search engine results pages (commonly referred to as SERPs).

When writing your title tags, keep a few things in mind.

• Keep your titles about 55-60 characters long. Too short and they aren’t detailed enough, but too long and they’ll be cut off at the end in search engines, meaning people won’t be able to read them.
• Use your target keyword in the title as close to the beginning as possible.
• Describe your page content in the best way possible.
• Keep your titles unique to the specific page. Otherwise, multiple pages may compete for the same keyword.
• Use your brand name wisely. In most cases, your brand name should be left to the end of the title.

Here are some examples of well formatted page titles, and one that’s not as well formatted:

• Their title is too long, which made it cut off at the end.
• They didn’t use a searchable keyword in the beginning of the title. Instead, they used their brand name.

How to write your page descriptions for SEO

Page descriptions are the short paragraph of text placed in the HTML that describe the contents of a page. These are known as “meta descriptions” and will show under your page in the organic search results.

Google has specifically stated that they do not use the meta description as a ranking signal. However, the number of people who click on your website vs. others is a ranking signal, and the meta description influences a user’s decision to click on your website.

Because of this, the meta description indirectly influences your rankings.

So, when writing your meta descriptions, do so with the goal of convincing users to click on your listing rather than stuffing keywords in there.

Here are a few things that can accomplish this:

• Keep your description between 135-160 characters so that it doesn’t cut off at the end.
• Don’t duplicate your meta descriptions. Write unique ones for every webpage.
• Use your keyword in the description. This is important not because search engines use this as a ranking signal, but because the keyword is often highlighted in bold, which can draw attention to your organic listing.
• Treat the meta as an advertisement for your page. Make it compelling and relevant. It should match the contents of your page while being as appealing as possible.

Step 10. Create a winning home page

Your homepage is the most valuable page on your site. Here are some ways to make it have a better chance of securing top rankings.

Optimize for the most competitive terms

As far as search engines are concerned, your home page carries the most weight in terms of value. Because of this, it’s best to optimize the page for your most competitive keyword.

Boyd Law does this very well.

Your page may not rank right away, but as you build your domain authority and visibility, it will climb closer to the top of the search results.

Feature reviews to build trust

You need to establish credibility and trust as quickly as possible. The best way to do this is featuring reviews or testimonials on your homepage.

Take a look at how Morgan & Morgan features powerful video testimonials on their homepage.

Use images or videos to boost engagement

Google uses dwell time as a ranking factor, so it’s in your best interest to keep users engaged on your homepage as long as possible. Using videos or other visual graphics accomplish this.

Look at how The Law Offices of Peter C. Bronstein does this.

Craft a compelling call-to-action (CTA)

A clear, consistent call-to-action is what generates leads.

When writing your CTA, you want to keep 3 things in mind.

1. Use action words and be specific – Phrases that encourage users to do something are much more powerful than generic phrases. A CTA like “Call Now for a Free Consultation” is much more compelling than “Click Here to Call.”
2. Create a sense of urgency – By simply telling users to do something now or that time is running out, suddenly your CTA seems more urgent. You can accomplish this without hard-selling by using the word “Now” or pointing out that users can “reap the benefits today.”
3. Use contrast in your design – If your CTA is the same color as the rest of your website, it isn’t going to stand out. Use a contrasting color so users are quickly drawn to it.

Let’s look at an example of a good CTA vs. one that could use some work.

Step 11. Create practice area pages

After your homepage, your practice area pages are going to be the next most valuable in your SEO efforts.

It’s important to make individual pages for each practice area because it gives you more opportunity to go after keywords related to those practice areas by addressing the specific needs of that audience.

If we look at Morgan & Morgan’s website, we’ll see that they have a dropdown listing all of their practice areas.

• The purchase intent keyword related to this practice area as identified in your keyword research (discussed above in steps 6 and 7).
• Page titles and meta descriptions with the keyword’s searcher intent in mind (discussed above in step 9).
• Answers to common questions about this practice area. You can identify common questions by typing your target keyword into Google and looking at the “People also ask” suggestions. Each question you address on this page should use an H tag so that search engines understand the structure of your page.
• Testimonials from clients that you’ve helped in this specific area of practice.
• A call-to-action that’s specific to this area of practice.

Step 12. Become an authority with epic blog content

You already have lots of legal info in your head from your experience. Creating high-quality content on your site that communicates this effectively to potential clients positions you as an authority in your legal space.

Consider your practice areas and think about how you can create great content and super-detailed blog articles that help potential clients.

Things like step-by-step guides, simplifying otherwise complex topics, or even simple blog posts on key pain points your audience may face are great examples of this.

Look at how Peterson Watts Law Group does this with their music copyright article.

You can come up with content marketing ideas by:

• Looking into your clients most commonly asked questions.
• Reviewing Google’s “People also ask” questions for related search terms.
• Reviewing questions on Quora in your space.
• Using tools like Google Trends to find topics that are trending online.

When you create your content, keep in mind that you’re writing for the internet – which means you should make your content easy to skim. Here’s how:

• Write short, concise sentences using simple language. Try and keep your writing at a 10th grade reading level or less. Tools like Hemmingway can help you determine the readability of your content.
• Use lots of white space by keeping your paragraphs 1-3 sentences long.
• Use the right font size. A 22 point font provides the best reading experience online.
• Use bullet points whenever possible.

When writing your content, while it is important to intersperse your keywords throughout, Google algorithms are getting better at understanding language and will understand synonyms related to the topi. It’s more important that the topic is covered in full, and keyword stuffing won’t work. The primary objective should be that your content fully addresses the needs of its audience.

Step 13. Fix zombie pages

What are zombie pages, and why are they bad for SEO?

Zombie pages are those that exist on your website but provide no value whatsoever – meaning they don’t bring you any traffic.

They usually take on one of the following forms:

• Duplicate content (ex. News stories copy and pasted from other sites – don’t do this. It can actually make your site appear more spammy and can cause your rankings to drop.)
• Outdated blog posts
• Aging press releases
• Pages that shouldn’t be indexed
• Archive pages
• Category and tag pages (often found on WordPress blogs)
• Search result pages
• Old press releases
• Thin content (<50 words)
• Boilerplate content

These pages are often indexed by Google, but rank poorly because they provide no value to users.

Because search engines use metrics like pages viewed per session and dwell time on a page, thin pages and zombie pages can give Google the impression your site is low-quality.

Should you delete zombie pages?

If you can’t bring a zombie page to life by improving the content and making these pages useful to users, then redirecting the page to more useful content may be the best alternative.

Redirects are especially important if a page your are deleting has any links pointing towards it from other websites.

Links pointing to your site from others are referred to as backlinks. We’ll touch more on these later, but in short, Google counts links as votes of confidence to your site and uses them to help determine rankings for a page or pages of a domain. Any high ranking web page likely has lots of links pointing to it.

You can check backlinks to a page with tools like Ahrefs, SemRush, or Majestic.

In most cases, since zombie pages provide little to no value to your users, it’s unlikely you’ll find any backlinks pointing to them.

However, if you do, you should redirect these pages to another relevant page on your site to retain whatever search equity the page had acquired.

How to redirect pages

The best way to redirect pages on your site is using 301 redirects.

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect from one URL to another. They essentially send visitors and search engines to a different URL than what they clicked on from a search engine page or typed into their browser.

Let’s put this into practice.

If you click on either of these URLs, you’ll be directed to www.google.com:

• https://www.google.com
• https://google.com

That’s because google.com 301 redirects to www.google.com, since Google wanted that to be their primary domain.

Here’s a step-by-step video showing you how to set up 301 redirects in WordPress.

How to properly delete pages

If you don’t have any pages on your site that you can redirect your pages towards, and the page in question has no backlinks, then deleting those pages may be your best option.

When you delete a page, make sure you set the HTTP header to “410 content deleted.”

This tells users – and search engines – that you intentionally deleted the content, and will result in Google removing it from their index sooner.

You can use this plugin to do this on WordPress.

Use Lawyer SEO to dominate local search

Step 14. Create pages for specific markets

71% of people looking for an attorney believe it’s important to have a local one.

This means that they’re likely looking for lawyers within their specific geographic area using the name of a town or county that may otherwise be underserved.

If other law firms aren’t targeting these smaller towns or counties, this could be a great opportunity for you.

Just look at how Morgan & Morgan creates specific pages for the small town of Tavares just outside of Orlando, Florida.

You won’t receive as much traffic for these pages as you will on your homepage, but if you target enough areas, it adds up.

Just look for nearby cities, counties, or towns and create pages tailored specifically to each of them with a customized page title, meta description, and page copy.

Do this with 5 surrounding areas for 10 practice areas and that’s 50 new pages that can attract a very targeted audience!

Finally, make sure other pages on your site link to these pages to help improve their link signals. For example, if you write a blog post about car accidents in Los Angeles, California, link to your “Los Angeles Car Accident Attorney” page.

Step 15. Get citations in popular legal directories

If you serve local clients, quality citations – mentions of your business name, address, and/or phone number – are important.

Google considers citations from relevant, reliable websites when as an important ranking factor in local search results.

Not only that, but lots of people still find lawyers through online directories.

In fact, legal directories often rank for competitive search terms in the legal industry.

Getting citations from targeted directories add credibility, context, and authenticity to your law firm, and allow you to be found by search engine users who click the directory listings in the search results.

How to find citation sources

The best places to get cited in are prominent legal directories and data aggregators.

Legal directories

A good way to think about directory placements is to go after ones that you think you can actually get clients from.

The best way to find these directories is to type all of your target keywords into Google and simply look at the directory listings on the first page. Anything here is worth getting listed in because you can potentially grab second-hand search traffic – i.e. people will click the directory listing in Google, then find your firm

Some of the most popular legal directories worth getting listed in are:

• Avvo
• FindLaw
• Lawyers.com (paid)
• Justia
• Hg.org
• Nolo

For a full list of directories, check out this page from Moz that organizes citation sources by city. Remember to look at nearby cities as well

Data aggregators

You also want to make sure your information is correct with all key data aggregators because search engines pull data from these sources.

Most search engines get their data from:

• Acxiom
• Factual
• Infogroup
• Localeze

…who pull their data from:

• Twitter
• Foursquare
• Yellowpages
• Facebook
• Bing Places for Busines

So it’s important to make sure your information is always up-to-date in these sources. Otherwise, your rankings can drop if any out-of-date information is passed along.

Step 16. Get reviews on Google, Yelp, and law directories

Reviews are important for Google rankings, click through rates, and creating a perception of trust.

This is true for your Google listings and your law directory listings.

According to Bright Local’s Customer Review Survey:

• 85% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
• 73% of people trust a business more because of a review.
• Yelp and Google are some of the review sources people trust most

Needless to say, reviews are an essential part of your law firm’s SEO strategy

Here are some ways you can get reviews on Google, Yelp, and law directories of your choice.

Ask your clients

If you’ve given excellent service to a client, a great way to earn reviews is to simply ask!

Amazon does this through email, so why not do this with your clients as well?

Just send them an email explaining how you want to hear more about their experience with a link to your preferred review source. If you’ve given them great service and have developed a strong relationship with the client, they’ll see your request as a good thing and be more than happy to do this.

Keep in mind that you want to make sure you ask happy clients for reviews since they’re more likely to leave good ones.

Add review links to your site

In some areas of legal practice, clients are likely to revisit your website frequently

In these cases, leaving links to your preferred review sources can encourage repeat clients to share their experiences.

Take a look at how Johanson Law Group does this.

Just link the “write a review” button on your site to Google, Yelp, Avvo, or whatever your preferred directory is.

Use review generation tools

There are tools that can help automate the customer feedback process to make it easier.

• GatherUp
• BirdEye
• Podium

These tools handle client follow-ups on your behalf via text or email which frees you up to handle more important things.

While these are great, if your firm is relatively new, I’d recommend calling or emailing each client individually until you have a consistent inflow of clients to ask for reviews.

LINKS

Step 17. Link to authority sources from your site

Linking out is a great way to show Google that you’re interested in providing value to your users.

When Google analyzes links, they look at them like neighborhoods. If you’re linking out to lots of high quality, high domain authority sites in your industry, and lots of high quality sites are linking to you, Google considers your site as part of a good “link neighborhood.”

The opposite can also be true. If you link out to low quality sites and lots of low quality sites are linking to you, this is a bad “link neighborhood.”

Linking to non-competing legal sites can help enhance a reader’s understanding of a topic you may be writing about on your own site.

This will improve user experience on your site – which will lead to better SERP rankings.

For example, Yavitch & Palmer’s site links out to a number of legal resources related to their areas of practice.

The rel=“nofollow” tag

The rel=”nofollow” tag is a value that can be added to a URL that tells search engines not to follow the URL.

In the code for a URL, it looks like this:

This was introduced in 2005 by Google to stop people from blog comment spamming in an effort to get links to their site that would influence their rankings.

This tag should only be used if a link is paid for or can be easily added by the public (such as in comments or reviews).

Otherwise, you don’t really need to worry about it.

Increase dwell time with outbound and internal links

If people can find what they’re looking for on your site, they’re more likely to stick around.

This includes when you give them what they’re looking for by linking to it.

So if you’re writing a blog article and mention a resource that readers may want to learn more about, link to it!

Peterson Watts Law Group does this regularly in their blog articles.

When you do link out, make sure the pages you link to open in a new browser tab when clicked so users can easily come back to your site. Here’s how to do this in WordPress

Follow these same guidelines with internal links – links from one page on your site to another – to help search engines better understand the structure of your site and rank it on an ongoing basis.

Step 18. Increase your rankings with backlinks

One of the best ways to increase your Google search results is to get other sites to link to yours.

Google counts links as votes of confidence. If other reputable sites are linking to you, Google trusts your site more and pushes you up in the search results pages.

These are known as backlinks (i.e. another site is “linking back” to you), and the process of trying to get these backlinks is known as “link building.”

A lot of sites pay for backlinks, but this is against Google webmaster guidelines and is known as “black hat” SEO.

“White hat” link building is done leveraging methods that follow google’s guidelines. Often, these methods require a lot of time and hard work, like creating new content like guest blogs or long-form articles that includes links back to your website, and then pitching that content to other webmasters to publish on their site. This is the safest way to build links, and even more so when working with a reputable SEO agency.

Two of the best ways to get high-quality backlinks for your site are guest posting and HARO.

Guest Posting

Guest posting is the easiest way to get other sites to link to you. It basically works like this.

1. You find other sites that accept guest articles.
2. You pitch them an idea.
3. You write it and send it to them with a link to your site in the body of the content.

Simple, right?

Let’s break down the steps.

Find other sites that accept guest posts

To find sites that accept guest posts, we’ll use Google.

Simply enter search terms like these:

• Your keyword + “write for us”
• Your keyword + “guest post by”
• Your Keyword + “contribution by”

Make sure you maintain the “”. This tells Google to only find pages that contain this exact phrase.

When you find a site that looks like a good fit, you’re ready to craft your pitch.

Pitch 3 article ideas

For each of the sites you find, look around at the types of articles they write and come up with 3 similar ones that they haven’t covered yet.

Once you have your article ideas, send them an email that looks something like this:

My name is [Your Name] and I’m [Your Company and Role]

I’m contacting you because I’d love to contribute a guest post on [Website].

Here are some ideas I’ve come up with that I think your readers would get a ton of value from:

[Idea #1]

[Idea #2]

[Idea #3]

I’ll make sure the piece overflows with information that can’t be found anywhere else.

To give you an idea of the quality I’ll bring to your site, here’s a link to a guest post that I recently published on [Other Website].

Cheers,

[Your First Name]

Once you hear back from a site, the next step is to write and send your article to them!

When you write your article, make sure it provides real value to their readers and isn’t just an article written in an attempt to get a link. Any good site will see right through this and will reject your article once they get it.

Make sure you link to your site within the body of the content – ideally to a blog post you have. Most sites will link to your site in your bio, but Google usually doesn’t count these.

If you do a good job, they may ask you to contribute content about your main practice area or a specific topic on a monthly basis. This means lots of long term SEO success for your law firm website and elevating you and your team of lawyers as industry experts.

HARO

HARO (or Help A Reporter Out) is a great source of links and press mentions.

Basically, they send you 3 emails each day with a list of topics reporters are writing about for news sites and need some help with – like this:

All you need to do is scroll through the list of topics, pick one out where you can offer value, and write your reply.

Here’s an example of one that’s fit for attorneys.

Just click on the query to be taken down to the section of the email where you can read it in full.

Finally, just click the email address listed with the query and draft your response!

Remember, with HARO, the more helpful information you can provide, the better. Often times, reporters will take only part of what you say, so giving them more to work with gives you more of a chance at landing a placement. In some cases, they may include a website link with your comments.

MEASURING RESULTS

Step 19. Make sure you have the right tools.

In order to measure your SEO results, you need to install the correct analytics tools.

Google Analytics is important because that lets you see how much organic traffic you’re getting and gives you insight into how your users are using your website. You can leverage this data to make improvements to your user experience.

Here’s a video that walks you through how to set up Google Analytics for your website.

These tools let you analyze ranking data and give you a look at your position for different keywords as well as how many impressions and clicks you’re getting from search.

Here’s a video that walks you through how to set it up for your website.

Step 20. Understand how to measure SEO performance

Once you have your tools installed, it’s important to start measuring your SEO performance over time.

Specifically, you want to look at the following key performance indicators (KPIs):

• Rankings – How many keywords and keyword phrases are you ranking for? How have your rankings changed for those keywords over the last few months?
• Traffic – How many visitors are you getting from organic search?
• Conversions – How many new leads are you getting from organic search traffic?

Here’s how to look at each of these.

Use Google Search Console to monitor keyword rankings

The best way to look at your keyword rankings is with Google Search Console.

If you log in to Google Search Console, click “Search Results” on the left. This will show you a report of all the keywords you rank for and your position over time for those keywords.

Don’t look at rankings over weeks – look over a period of months. Legal SEO work takes a while to kick in.

Use Google Analytics to monitor traffic and conversions

Traffic can be measured in Google Analytics.

If you open your Google Analytics account and go to Audience -> Overview, then scroll down and select the “Organic Search” option, you’ll be able to see all of the traffic that comes from search engines.

Again, make sure you measure this over a period of months – not days. The nature of good SEO is that it takes time for search engines to react to your efforts, especially in a competitive landscape or given keyword phrase like car accident lawyer, divorce lawyer, or dui lawyer.

As well as simply looking at the traffic, you’ll also want to look into a variety of factors:

• What website pages visitors are landing on.
• Visitor demographics.
• What they’re doing on your site.
• How frequently they’re revisiting.
• Monitor site speed.
• Check for any differences in behavior between mobile and desktop users.

CONCLUSION

There you have it – a 20 step action plan to dominate the search results! Whether you’re a car accident lawyer, divorce attorney, criminal defense lawyer, family law, or other type of attorney, lawyer SEO is the fastest way to break into competitive markets by securing top rankings for your law practice website.

Hopefully this gave you lots of valuable insight into the inner workings of search engine optimization and how they prioritize organic results for sites that give users what they’re looking for.

A solid SEO strategy is something that every digital marketing campaign should include. These strategies have worked for hundreds of other websites, so they’ll work for yours too! If you need help, working with an SEO company and SEO experts can help you build domain authority and site visibility faster through comprehensive digital marketing strategy. reach out to one of our law firm SEO experts to learn more.

The post Law Firm SEO – A 20 Step Action Plan for Attorneys appeared first on LinkGraph.

As of 2020 over 58% of site visits now come from mobile search traffic. If you aren’t taking mobile into account heavily enough, it’s likely hurting your business.

The use of mobile devices is rapidly changing the way customers are searching, engaging, and buying. Consumers have access to faster Internet while they’re on-the-go. That means Internet traffic is increasing through mobile devices. Beyond social engagement and consuming content, they’re also making buying decisions.

Mobile Search is Often the First Step for Purchases

According to Morgan Stanley, 91% of adults keep their smartphones within arm’s reach. That’s ninety-one percent of ALL adults, and it’s shifting both business culture and research practices. Rather than dedicating time to research a topic, users now perform micro-searches on the go, and then follow-up on those initially discovered options or solutions later on.

How big is this trend? An IDG Global Solutions survey found 92% of senior execs own a smartphone used for business, 77% of those research business purchases from their mobile device with 95% then finalizing related purchases via laptop/desktop. That’s a huge portion of the B2B purchase pool starting their journey from mobile. Missing a user during their initial mobile-based exploration may mean your business is losing out on a huge portion of the market.

Mobile Search is Often Location-Oriented

This trend is even more compounded for local businesses, as 58% of mobile users search for local businesses daily. What’s more? 89% of those users search for a local business at least once per month. We also learn from HubSpot that, when consumers do a local search, 72% of them visit a store within five miles. What does this mean for business with an Internet presence? It’s time to make it mobile-friendly.

What Does the Rise of Mobile Search Mean for Businesses?

Websites now need to be responsively designed so they can serve mobile users just as well as desktop users. Responsive design is a design that adapts to the size of the users viewport (i.e. screen), by changing font sizes, adjusting images, and even collapsing page elements to make navigation simpler. Responsive websites that follow modern design standards help users access and understand the information they need more quickly.

Because mobile users comprise an increasing number of searches and site visits, they now represent the largest source of traffic in a slew of markets (new industry segments falling into this bucket each month). Our clients regularly pick up market share with simple mobile-friendly design updates, especially within industries that are traditionally late-adopters.

Your Website is Now Your Storefront

Your site is now your storefront. If your site looks terrible or functions poorly, users will leave instead of working to get at your information – it costs a user nothing to click the next result in search.

Google Prioritizes Mobile-Optimized Sites

Google has switched over to mobile first indexing. Mobile-first indexing prioritizes mobile friendly sites over other sites in the organic search results. Even if your target consumers aren’t heavy mobile-users yet, your site still needs to be mobile-optimized if you want to show up higher in the search results (even for desktop-based searches).

Users Are Making Purchase Decisions from Search Alone

With mobile devices rapidly changing the way consumers access information your offsite optimizations are also becoming critical. For example most users performing local searches never go past the search results themselves (aka they don’t actually click into websites anymore). Local search users are typically able to surface the information they want directly within the search results through features like the local Map Pack.

How Can I Improve My Mobile SEO?

The first step toward reaching mobile users is having a mobile-friendly website. Currently, in 2021, responsive web design is the best design approach for mobile-friendliness. Responsive design is the best approach for mobile design because:

• You will serve the same content to both mobile and desktop users
• The content will adapt responsively to all screen sizes and mobile device types
• Search equity is centralized to a single URL for all pages
• It’s a better user experience
• Google prefers responsive design

What exactly is responsive design?

Responsive design in an approach for creating web pages where layouts and content dynamically adapt to the size and orientation of the screen or viewport being used.

In the example below you can see that the desktop version of this responsive site the text and video are displayed side-by side, and in the mobile version of the site those elements have been stacked.

Desktop	Mobile

This responsive theme adjusts to the width of different devices from smartphones to tablets, even large wide-screen viewports, by rearranging and resizing the design elements.

There have been a few ways to handle mobile sites since the invention of smartphones, the first two mobile design waves were plagued with usability issues, and hard to maintain. Let’s take a look at what didn’t work, and why you should consider migrating to a responsive design if you’re still employing one of these outdated mobile design tactics.

Outdated Approach #1: Mobile Subdomain, Separate Mobile Website

This approach required setting up canonical tags for every page, as each mobile web page contained content duplicative to the desktop page. This approach also split the search equity for each page as desktop users interacted with the desktop site, and mobile users interacted with the mobile website.

When users shared pages from the site, creating backlinks they were split between the mobile subdomain and the regular site domain as separate URLs were being served to each user group. It also meant that every time an edit was made to content on the desktop site, a second round of edits had to be made on the separate mobile site. Mobile pages under this paradigm often provided a worse user experience as they typically served less content than the full desktop site did for desktop users.

Outdated Approach #2: Dynamic Serving of Mobile Sites

The next wave of design consolidated pages under a single URL, but dynamically served cached pages based on the user’s device type using a vary http response header.

This iteration of mobile design allowed sites to consolidate search equity between their desktop site and mobile site. It also did away with the need for canonical tags on virtually every site page.

However, it meant that every time a device came out with new dimensions, a new instance of the site had to be spun up, formatted, and tested to be served to users. This system became increasingly impossible to maintain as the market diversified and the dimensions for mobile screens became rapidly non-standard. Dynamically serving a mobile version of your site was plagued with issues including a repeated issues with serving the desktop version to mobile users.

Current Best Practice: Responsive Design

Responsive design consolidates the mobile version of a webpage and the desktop version of a webpage under a single URL. It also serves the same instance of code, regardless of the size of the mobile screen or desktop viewport.

Instead all elements fluidly rearrange to suite mobile visitors and desktop visitors as needed. If a user switches from full screen to half-screen with their browser, the design elements will shift accordingly so the user experience is largely unchanged.

How to Check If Your Mobile Site is Google-Friendly

In July 2019, there were over 1.69 billion more mobile searches than desktop searches performed in the US alone (source, source). Search itself has become mobile-first. The first place you’ll start when checking your site for mobile optimization is checking out how Google views your site.

Mobile SEO Strategy is All About Google

Google holds over 90% of the market share for mobile search traffic in the U.S., because Google has spent years optimizing search specifically for mobile users. Many of Google’s search results are so well optimized, that mobile users don’t even need to click into an actual result to find the information they need.

Rich snippets and rich results now display enough information for users to take action based off of the search results alone, from finding movie times to the addresses of local businesses, to how to troubleshoot tech problems.

How did Google get so far ahead of the competition with mobile search? They started testing and prioritizing mobile features years ago, and as mobile search volume overcame desktop search volume, Google shifted to prioritizing mobile users over desktop users.

A Brief History of Google’s Mobile Search Results

In 2015 Google rolled out mobile-friendly search results, serving a separate set of search results to mobile devices. This update, often called Mobilegeddon, prioritized mobile-friendly websites in the search results.

Source: Google/SOASTA Research, 2017.

In 2016 Google began to experiment with mobile-first indexing, cataloguing the mobile version of page content, rather than the desktop version.

In March of 2018 Google formally began rolling out mobile-first indexing, and migrating over to the mobile-version of pages for sites that it had already indexed as desktop versions. To quote Google themselves, “Mobile-first indexing means that we’ll use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, to better help our – primarily mobile – users find what they’re looking for.” Essentially the entire index is going mobile-first. This process of migrating over to indexing the mobile version of websites is still underway. Website’s are being notified in Search Console when they’ve been migrated under Google’s mobile-first index.

In July of 2018 Google rolled out page speed as a mobile ranking factor, ranking sites with slow load times lower in the search results.

Figuring Out Which Trends Will Last

Over the past decade Google has also continually rolled out additional data-rich mobile-first search features from movie times, to reviews, to product images. Google often pivots when rolling out new features, as it continually tests and then prioritizes what works best for serving users the most valuable information.

For example, Google originally published a guide helping webmasters create separate mobile sites under the m.domain.com URL – a tacit approval of the process, only to pivot within a year to formally recommending responsive design under a single unified URL.

Sites using AMP pages are often managing two sets of page content, with one set slimmed down to meet the AMP standard. There are also challenges with AMP pages being served from a Google URL rather than the site’s own domain. While Google recently addressed some of these concerns with signed exchanges, but it’s still causing questions around whether link equity is being split between the AMP viewer URL, the original AMP source, and the AMP cache URL.

Trends that are here to stay? Responsive design, quality content that gets right to the point, making sites as fast as humanly possible.

Check if Google is Flagging Mobile Issues

So what should you pay the most attention to in terms of Mobile optimization? If you already have a website, start with Google’s Mobile Friendly Test. This tool will give you an aggregate rating for whether or not Google thinks your site is mobile-friendly. The tool will also prompt you to view a full usability report in Google Search Console.

If you want to access this report on your own directly from Search Console, login to your account for the domain, and use the left-hand navigation to click into “mobile usability” under Enhancements.

Check if Google Is Indexing Your Webpages

Google can’t serve pages in the search results that it can’t see. Make sure that Google is indexing your pages for search.

Enable Crawl by Googlebot

To check if your robots.txt file is blocking Googlebot, you can either use a free robots.txt tester, or use the link inspection feature in search console.

NoIndex

A few years ago you could check blocked resources straight from google console in a consolidated view, but as these issues became less prevalent google has dropped the aggregate view. Secondary tools like screaming frog can still give you a full list of NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW pages from your site. Alternatively you can check the status of individual links straight from Search console using the URL inspection tool.

Checking if Your Mobile Site is User-Friendly

Now that you’ve resolved a majority of the technical usability issues, it’s a good idea to check for issues mobile users face that may not have caught by Google.

How Does Your Site Appear on Mobile?

Start by taking a look at how your site appears on different devices, this free tool will let you select from a variety of mobile devices and desktops to give you a full sense of how your site looks on different devices.

You should quickly be able to see any major issues with formatting that could be hindering the mobile user experience, or making your site look unprofessional. Examples include poorly formatted text, grainy or stretched images, or overlapping page elements.

Work with your webmaster or web development team to clean up any design elements that aren’t displaying well on mobile. Once your site layout is mobile optimized, you’ll want to check that your site is compelling to mobile searchers on the Google search results page.

Are the Visible Portions of Page Titles and Metas Compelling?

Users only click into a site from search if the rich snippet, page title, and/or meta description are compelling. Your title tag for your page needs to front-load your target keyword(s), and your meta description should include the most pertinent information about your page first.

Page titles can be very similar between pages, so meta descriptions can often make the difference for which result or results site visitors click.

If you’re seeing a good amount of organic traffic from your target keywords, the next step is to make sure that traffic is actually seeing your mobile optimized content.

Are You Losing Visitors to Page Speed?

Over half of mobile searchers will abandon a page that takes longer than three seconds to load. Separately, for every additional second it takes a page to load, conversions fall by 12% (Google, 2018).

To check your mobile page speed use Google’s PageSpeed Insights Tool, and see how quickly your site loads on a 4G connection. This tool will give you a granular breakdown of all speed issues you can address to improve your site speed.

Do Any Pages Have Super High Mobile Bounce Rates?

Bounce rates are a great indicator that a page is not providing value to users. If you see bounce rates are much higher on specific pages for mobile users than for desktop users this is a sign that the page may have some issues with either mobile formatting, mobile load times, or that the relevant content may take too long to scroll to on mobile.

To check bounce rates, simply login to your Google Analytics dashboard. You’ll be able to view aggregate bounce rates for your site, bounce rates by page, and track how bounce rates change as you make adjustments to webpage content.

Avoid Intrusive Popups

Intrusive pop ups, and poorly designed pop ups can increase your bounce rates on mobile and tablet devices. Intrusive popups can also hurt your organic search rankings, especially with Google. An update Google rolled out in 2016 devalues mobile pages that have intrusive pop ups, lowering the page’s rankings in the search results.

There are two major popup issues that can cause bounce rates and devaluing of a page in SERP. Pop ups that have not been optimized for mobile traffic can be impossible to close on small screens, and may cause mobile searchers to bounce from your site. Pop ups that prevent a user from accessing content on-load will hurt your mobile SEO especially with Google. Google considers pop ups that block site visitors from content to be “intrusive.”

Examples of intrusive pop-ups and interstitials:

• A pop up that displays immediately, or while the user is trying to read through content
• An interstitial that has to be exited before the user can access the main content
• A full-screen interstitial that has to be scrolled past to access the main content

That doesn’t mean you should abandon popups entirely. Used correctly, and designed with mobile UX in mind, pop ups can help improve your conversion rate. These pop ups are ones that help the mobile user along their journey, are contextually relevant to the content, or are a legal requirement. Pop ups that appear as a user is looking to complete the next step in their journey are generally fine as well.

Examples of pop-ups and interstitials that are okay:

• Pop ups that notify mobile searchers that a site uses cookies.
• Pop ups that confirm a user’s age for restricted content or services.
• Pop ups that take up a reasonable amount of room and are easy to dismiss.

Optimize Your Site for Voice Search

A report issued by PwC states that, compared to conducting a traditional search, 71 percent of respondents prefer voice searching. Now that we know users prefer voice search, let’s look at how we can optimize our websites to reach them.

1. BE CONCISE. The average voice response ANSWER is less than 30 words long. Avoid filler or unnecessary terms like “however” or “thus” and be as direct and straight to the point as possible while completely answering a question. Google actually has an entire guide outlining the type of responses selected for voice searches, and the biggest takeaway is that answers should be brief and direct.

2. Voice searches pull in part from “featured snippets.” That means, when someone asks a question using a voice search, Google pulls answers from approximately 30 percent of these snippets.

3. Consider the user’s intent. When crafting your content, ask yourself what users are searching for before landing on your site. Doing this will help enhance the content’s relevance. Therefore, if you’re optimizing your page for a specific featured snippet, your goal should be understanding your visitor’s intent and providing them with an answer immediately.

4. Use long tail keywords and questions in headers. Often, voice searches occur as though the user is speaking to a human. Short, choppy keywords are rarely in use. Long-tail keywords and phrases are how people talk. So, when optimizing your site, consider using these phrases in conjunction with questions. That way, your website will pop up more often when users are trying to solve a problem, find a product, or use a service.

5. Optimize for local searches. Users are going to search using local SEO. According to Small Business Trends, 58 percent of mobile users find local businesses using voice searches. Adding phrases to your content like, “near me” or your geographic area will help boost your rankings.

Are You Addressing the Customer’s Journey?

Mobile-friendly websites must think through the customer’s journey. Ask yourself these three questions:

• What types of users hit my site?(Who are they, how old are they, what are their roles)
• What would those users be want from my site?(ex: to establish pricing, to find my business location, to complete an online purchase, to share a story)
• Can each user easily complete their journey using only the main nav?

Your main navigation should help users quickly and easily get what they want from your site, without a user needing to use site search or “click around.” Once you have a handle on your audience segmentation and goals, you should confirm that your users are not facing any major barriers along each journey.

There are a few ways to do that, here are two:

• If you have a program like Hotjar or Lucky Orange installed that allows you to view your own users’ onsite journeys – you can watch user recordings to see if users are struggling to complete tasks.
  • Ex: Users abandon scrolling because information is too far down a page
  • Ex: Users have a lot of “U-Turns” – pressing back almost immediately because what they wanted wasn’t on the page they clicked into.
  • Ex: Users rage-click an element that’s not opening or functioning correctly.
  • Ex: You see error messages displayed to the user from your site.
  • Ex: You see users begin conversion, but abandon forms or carts.
• You can conduct direct user research:
  • Recruit users that you’re able to interact with directly
  • Request they complete specific tasks on the site
  • Have them explain their thinking and reactions as they interact with your site

Your marketing shouldn’t be only about what devices your potential customer is using, it should be about the journey they’re taking. What are their lifestyles, habits, and device preferences? Conduct research, surveys, and interviews with your current audience. This marketing tactic is an excellent opportunity to develop a relationship with your existing customer base. Offer incentives and prizes to those who choose to participate.

Create Journey-Driven Designs

Designing websites focusing on mobile users means we have drastically less real estate, so minimalism is critical. The last a user wants to do is scroll through or resize your pages. According to a scrolling and attention study the

Nielsen Norman Group conducted, 74 percent of users indicated their viewing time is spent on the first two screens of content. Therefore, responsive design is the solution. You can accomplish this in a variety of ways, including:

• Hiding content under sliders
• Using sticky live chat or feedback widgets
• Implementing mobile pop-ups
• Redirecting to social media
• Creating a bare-bones presentation
• Eliminating sidebars
• Taking advantage of banner space
• Replacing graphics with a search bar

Pro-Tip: For mobile-users, one often overlooked difference is that tap-areas need to be large enough for users to click on interactive elements (links, buttons, drop-downs) with precision.

Mobile User Experience Optimization Recap

For local business:

• Make sure to include NAP (name, address or service area, phone number) on your website.
• Claim and complete your Google My Business (GMB) listing and your Bing Places account.
• Optimize pages to include names of local cities and landmarks
• Focus on location-based rich snippets like the Map Pack

For all businesses:

• Make use of structured data to leverage google search’s rich snippet features.
• Confirm your responsive design is acting as-expected.
  • You can use a tool like this Responsive Design Checker to confirm how your site looks at the most common breakpoints
  • You can check out alerts and mobile feedback directly from Google through your site’s Google Search Console
  • Install a user-session recording software
  • Hotjar, for example, will let you see if your users are struggling in any areas (ex: pages are too long and users abandon before hitting content critical to conversion).
• Focus on SPEED:
  • • Optimize images for mobile (reduce file size)

  Pro-tip start out with a responsive design or theme and it should handle this for you.

• Minify CSS
• Leverage caching
• Enable Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)
• Switch anything you have on flash over to HTML5 instead

Final Thoughts

Mobile searching remains the leader because everyone loves the convenience of using their devices. Your audience is busy, on-the-go, and living in a digitally-driven world. As a result, their mobile queries will continue to be on an upward rise. Even though mobile searches are similar to those on a desktop, your site must be optimized for your audience’s visits. Your brand should be easy to use and support your customer’s journey. A mobile-friendly design that responds to the level of mobile searches you receive should be your goals.

The post Mobile SEO – The Complete Guide 2022 appeared first on LinkGraph.

Not all search engine optimization strategies are the same. Each company is different and has distinct needs according to its organizational goals, company size, budget, and target niche. Local business SEO strategy differs greatly from a strategy one may create for a large corporation. When it comes to a nationwide business or a global business, you do not have to worry about Google elements such as the local pack or a Google My Business listing that will attract foot traffic or entice locals to use your services.

This article will help your small business appear in more local searches through the process of small business SEO designed for local search results.

What You Need to Know About Local SEO

Local search engine optimization looks to maximize the presence of your business in local search results, thus targeting an audience in the same geographical area. In essence, local SEO is the practice of adjusting content and information on your website so that such information is visible, accessible, and relevant to users looking for businesses in their region. These adjustments and optimizations include on-page and off-page SEO. With this strategy, the meta tags involving page title, keywords, and description are still important and need to be modified to account for the location and relevance of a search result.

For example, if someone is looking for a widget in a specific city, and a search engine encounters a page with the widget and the city in the title, and if the same terms are listed in the different meta tags and match the content of the page, the relevance is obviously higher, thus positively affecting the ranking.

How Does Local SEO Differ from Typical SEO?

There are a few primary ways that local SEO differs from typical SEO:

1. The focus is on local businesses and local search terms.
2. The emphasis is on ranking in local search engines, such as Google Maps and Yelp.
3. The strategies used are generally different, as local SEO requires knowledge of the local area and its demographics.

Local SEO is important for businesses that want to be found by potential customers in their local area. Ranking well in local search engines is key to success, as most people turn to these engines when looking for a local business.

Local SEO requires a different set of strategies than typical SEO. Knowledge of the local area and its demographics is essential, as is a strong focus on local search terms.

Looks look at an example to help demonstrate this:

For example, a large multinational organization with a wide client base across different markets will do well with an SEO strategy that encompasses entire countries, multiple demographics, and varying interests. However, a small business with a limited budget that operates mostly selling products in one neighborhood has a completely different set of circumstances. In this case, a nationwide campaign would not only be more expensive but will produce mixed results. Instead, a local SEO strategy will increase the effectiveness of the campaign while maintaining lower costs.

The Primary Elements of Small Business Website SEO

In order to best optimize in your area, you will need to take a different approach than a multi-national business or national business. In order to most efficiently do this, you will want to focus on SEO tactics that are specific to Google Search for local businesses. This section will cover these elements in-depth.

Citations for Local SEO

Citations include any reference available online about your business, such as the company name, address, and phone number (NAP) and help enhance your page in respect to a specific geographical location. Local citations can include business listings in business directories such as Citysearch, Yelp reviews, or information displayed in the local chamber of commerce. While these listings will use backlinks to connect searchers to your site, they also serve another purpose.

Google will use results from multiple directories and your website to match the accuracy of the information. Therefore, it is important to list your business in Google My Business. Bing also has a similar directory. All companies need to take advantage of these types of free business profiles for local ranking.

Local Link Building

It takes more than just local landing pages and the right keywords to make it to the top of Google in local search rankings. Your business needs local inbound links for the most impactful local SEO campaign. Backlinks help you build your business website’s domain authority and tell Google that your website is recognized by other local businesses.

Social Media Profile

While social profile’s weight as a ranking factor for Google does not carry a heavy weight–social media does factor into ranking for Bing places. Additionally, your social media profile is vital to content marketing and directing prospective customers to your business website and local blogs. Furthermore, social media is an excellent way to showcase your best customer reviews.

Google My Business Listing

Your Google My Business page or GMB is one of the most valuable tools when it comes to an SEO strategy for small businesses. Often the responsibility for creating a company’s GMB listing. However, there are many SEO agencies that can help business owners by creating their GMB listings for them. Either way, your GMB profile is a powerful tool when it comes to your online presence, appearing in organic results in local SERPs, and being discovered by searches on mobile devices (AKA mobile searches).

To learn how to use your Google Business Profile to the greatest SEO advantage, just scroll down.

Map Pack Results

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Most people use search engines to find businesses in their immediate area. This provides companies with an opportunity to specifically promote products and services to a local niche. Apart from citations, another important concept in the realm of local SEO is Map Pack results.

The”Map Pack” results are also commonly referred to as Snack Packs or “Local Pack”. Initially, Google presented seven companies in this section. In the latest iteration, the algorithm reduces the companies listed to three. A search engine user that conducts a local search receives results displaying three businesses mapped out and detailed toward the top of the page. 

The details include the business name and physical location, including a street, and a star rating. This feature is a direct consequence of Google’s local search algorithm, which seeks to improve the user experience of those looking for local companies. Furthermore, Google has modified and enhanced the feature to become more mobile-friendly.

Google Posts

Google posts are a feature on your Google My Business page that allows you to create and share specific announcements such as offers, new products, and events. The posts are exclusive to users who follow your GMB–which is an ideal way to appeal to your local audience! In fact, Google posts are one way you can gain a competitive edge on your competition since most business owners tend to create a GMB profile then abandon it.

Not only does this tool help you reinvigorate the sector of the local audience that already knows about your business, but it creates share-worthy posts for social profiles.

Local Keyword Research

Quality content is a must when it comes to gaining search visibility and ranking in local Google search results. Local keywords differ from typical keywords in that they’re locale rich. So, as you’re performing your keyword research, try to put yourself in the shoes of a searcher–ask yourself, “What would someone interested in a business like ours likely Google?”

Your local keywords can include topics such as “Best X in [CITY]” or provide depth to your business offering.

Your Brand, Awareness, and Reviews

Some of the modifications to the local search concept include viewing and filtering a search by rating. This helps users find higher quality businesses more easily–and avoid local businesses they may want to avoid. Major companies besides Google, including Facebook, have incorporated reviews and star ratings.

These reviews and ratings are critical not only to brand awareness and reputation but also to search engine optimization and organic search results. People will trust online reviews, and negative evaluations can be detrimental to the success of an organization. Therefore, make sure to respond to reviews positively and ask customers to leave a note about their positive experience when possible.

The Evolution of Local Search Algorithms

You may be wondering how Local Search optimization came about. Well, Google has been in pursuit of perfect local search science for over 15 years. And as you will learn, they’ve come a long way.

The Beginning: Local Business Center

Google was not always local-business friendly; however, in 2005, the company began shifting toward helping those interested in businesses near users. During that year, the company released Local Business Center. This was a free tool that allowed companies to list their business locally. The search engine then expanded the tool by merging it with Maps and including other relevant information like driving directions, contact information, and hours of operation. This forced companies to begin ensuring that their information was up-to-date for local SEO.

Universal Search & Blended Results

A couple of years later, in 2007, Google further enhanced local searches by creating Universal Search and Blended Results. This combined results page provided users with videos, images, news, local results, and other pertinent elements. This was a great push for local businesses because it provided an opportunity for users to see said businesses within a search result. In 2010, the company once again focused on local searches with the rebranding of Google Places. The modification included a lot more changes than just a name. The search engine added local advertising options, new image features, and geo-specific tagging. Favorite Places was also upgraded. Furthermore, Google allowed businesses to specify a service area that the company would cover.

The Venice Update

Although these changes cemented Google’s commitment to accurate local results, the Venice update in 2012 amplified the accuracy with a geographical focus. Instead of just showing nearby results on Google Maps, the algorithm upgrade took into account a user’s location and presented organic results based on that location without the need to use a local term such as city or state.

Hummingbird & Penguin Updates

The long-tail search improvement with Hummingbird in 2013 further advanced this feature, and the 2014 Pigeon update improved localized SERPs even more. Local search was aligned with the traditional ranking signals used in search engine optimization, which increased the accuracy of the results.

RankBrain

In 2015, a major change to the entire algorithm, including local searches, took place. Google began using artificial intelligence and machine learning and improved its semantics capabilities. The update was called RankBrain, and Google was able to learn from queries on how to improve results and accuracy. The update was a major change in the way that the company improved, using AI to increase user experience with a highly accurate SERP continually. The artificial intelligence system, which continues to be in place, uses mathematics and language semantics to gain insight into how people perform web searches and applies its findings to future results.

Possum

Many businesses kept complaining that they were unable to reach a relevant audience based on a search that included a city. For example, a business operating in the outskirts of a major city was outside of the specific geographical area of that city, even though it may be the most relevant option in its industry. As a response to the problem, Google launched Possum. The update obtained the user’s location to provide businesses that were close and relevant.

2021: Rebalancing Ranking Factors in Local Search

Google’s efforts carry on. And that’s great for you! And your small business. Recently, Google even rolled out what they simply described as “rebalancing of various ranking factors we consider in generating local search results.” What factors? Google plays its cards close to its chest. But we can bet that if you continue to use SEO best practices and have a dynamic, accurate, and up-to-date Google My Business Profile, these changes will only help you rank.

How to Implement a Local SEO Strategy

Understanding the elements of local SEO and implementing them are two totally different things. So, after you feel like you have a clear understanding of the elements listed above, you can dive into turning them into actionable practices.

1. Creating a Google My Business Profile

Creating your Google My Business Profile should be a top priority for every small business. Why? They hold the most weight in how customers will view your business and how to find you. Let’s take a look at an example to better understand this principle.

Assume that someone interested in creating a local search engine optimization strategy is running a computer repair services business in West Palm Beach, Florida. The company is called ABC Computer Repair Services. The idea behind the strategy is to appear on the search engine results page (SERP) when customers search for phrases like computer repair shops near me, computer repair in West Palm Beach, ABC Computer Repair Services phone number, and other similar phrases.

These phrases, however, are optimized for better placements because Google will display results from Google My Business as a card-like result toward the top. This is known by experts as Service in Locations, or SiLs The idea here is to create phrases in this type of format by combining the products or services a company offers with important keywords. A great way to search for ideas is to visit Google directly and enter some of the aforementioned phrases (but tailored to your business). Google will generate an autocomplete for suggested searches.

2. Begin Your Keyword Research

An additional tool that can provide insight as to what others are using and how they rank is to research phrases and words using Google’s Keyword Planner Tool. The tool is highly effective not only in looking at search volume but also in generating possible alternatives. The tool is free to use and should be in the arsenal of items that every person looking to perform local SEO has at their disposal. You can also search online for countless tools that analyze how competitors rank using specific keywords. Try this with similar businesses in other geographical areas. This will give an idea of which words are important.

3. Optimize for Other Search Engines

Local SEO— and pretty much any SEO—is centered around Google. Therefore, interested parties need to use all resources that Google provides, including Google My Business. Make use of the similar tools provided by Bing Local and Apple Maps. Complete NAP and citations as indicated at the beginning of the article. Keep in mind that these are critical to ranking high in local searches, so take your time and ensure that the information is complete and updated. You can use Link Graph’s directory listing scan to perform an audit.

4. On-Page Optimization for Small Business Owners

Once citations and NAP have been set up, the business should continue the progress of optimizing for local results by creating landing pages for each location the business may have. For example, our West Palm Beach computer store could create pages like yourdomain.com/westpalmbeach and yourdomain.com/jupiter. These should be location-specific landing pages. Do not create the same landing page using different keywords or terms, as Google will catch on and penalize the company.

Google’s latest update uses geo-tracking to infer the location of the company. Therefore, a businesses’ primary location should be optimized on the home page. This means that name, address, and phone number should be displayed on the main page along with an embedded Google Map. Other relevant information that can increase the visibility locally includes reviews and testimonials and relevant markup.

6. Updating existing content

As you update content throughout your site, keep in mind that you should also update your title tags and meta descriptions to reflect your local keyword research. Depending on the number of pages this can take a great deal of time, but there are tools that can make the process easier.

5. Building Backlinks

After the site has been optimized for location, the organization should focus on link signals and developing a link-building strategy. Most small businesses opt for SEO companies to perform their backlink efforts, but you don’t have to.

Continuing with the example of a computer services business, the company can create useful local resources that are valuable to those needing services. For example, the business can create a quick guide to fix the most common computer viruses. Make sure that the location is mentioned naturally in the text of the guide. Along with this quality content, engage in link building by creating guest blog posts. These are among the best ways to obtain a high-quality link.

Local SEO & Small Business SEO FAQs

Still have questions regarding local search rankings? We have answers.

What is local SEO vs SEO?

When it comes to optimizing your website for Google, there are two main schools of thought: local SEO and global SEO. Both have their own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s important to understand the key differences before you start any optimization campaigns.

Local SEO is all about optimizing your website for specific geographic locations. This might include optimizing your website for specific keywords that are relevant to your location, or adding local business listings to your website. The goal of local SEO is to make your website more visible to local searchers.

SEO, on the other hand, is about optimizing your website for global search. This might include optimizing your website for keywords that are relevant to your business, but not necessarily location-specific. The goal of SEO is to make your website more visible to global searchers.

There are pros and cons to both local SEO and global SEO. With local SEO, you can target specific geographic locations and potentially get more traffic from local searchers. However, global SEO can reach a larger audience and potentially generate more leads and sales.

Ultimately, the best approach for your business depends on your specific goals and target market. If you’re not sure which approach is best for you, contact a local SEO expert for help.

How much should a small business pay for SEO?

Small businesses should budget around $1,000 – $3,000 per month for SEO services, depending on the competitiveness of their industry and the size of their website. Larger businesses may need to budget more for SEO services, while smaller businesses may be able to get away with spending less. Ultimately, the goal is to have your website show up as one of the top results in a search engine for relevant keywords and phrases.

How do I choose SEO for my small business?

There are a few things you need to take into account when choosing an SEO for your small business.

1. Do your research

It’s important to do your research and find an SEO that has a good reputation and is knowledgeable in the field. Ask around for recommendations, read client reviews, and take a look at the SEO’s website to get a feel for their work.

2. Ask questions

Before you hire an SEO, be sure to ask them questions about their services and how they plan to improve your website’s search engine ranking. They should be able to give you a detailed proposal outlining their services and what they plan to do for your business.

3. Get a guarantee

It’s important to ask the SEO for a guarantee that they will be able to improve your website’s search engine ranking. If they don’t offer a guarantee, move on to another SEO.

4. Ask for references

Ask the SEO for a list of references so you can speak to some of their previous clients about their experience working with the SEO.

5. Get a quote

Ask the SEO for a quote so you can see how much it will cost to hire them. Be sure to ask about any additional costs that may apply, such as monthly fees or set-up fees.

How long does local SEO take to work?

It can take a while for local SEO to take effect, depending on the competitiveness of your industry and the strength of your competition. Generally, though, you should start to see results in the form of increased website traffic and leads within six to twelve months.

How do I set up a Google My Business Lists?

Setting up a Google My Business Lists is a great way to keep track of your business locations and hours. To create a listing, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Google My Business account.
2. Click the Locate Business button.
3. Click the blue Add link in the Lists section.
4. Enter a name for your list and click Create.
5. To add a business location to your list, click the Add link next to the business name.
6. Remove a business location from your list by clicking the Remove link next to the business name.
7. To change the order of your list, drag and drop the business locations.
8. Edit the information for a business location by clicking the Edit link.
9. To delete a business location from your list, click the Delete link.
10. When you’re finished, click the Save button.

How do I increase my odds of appearing in a Local Pack on Google?

There is no one definitive answer to this question, as the Local Pack is determined by a variety of factors, including the search engine’s own algorithm and the user’s search intent. However, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of appearing in a Local Pack:

Make sure your business is listed in Google My Business (your GMB listing).

Make sure your business’s information is accurate and up-to-date.

Include high-quality photos of your business and its products or services.

Create a strong local SEO strategy, including keyword research and link building.

Encourage your customers to leave positive reviews on Google and other online platforms.

If you follow these tips and continue to put the needs of your customers first, you should see an increase in your chances of appearing in a Local Pack.

Should my small business hire an SEO agency?

Yes, a small business should hire an SEO agency. A good SEO agency can help a small business increase its website traffic, which can lead to more customers and increased sales. An SEO agency can also help a small business improve its search engine rankings, which can result in more website visitors who are interested in what the small business has to offer.

How does social media affect local SEO?

Social media can have a significant impact on local SEO. For example, if you have a local business and you’re actively engaged on social media, you may be more likely to show up in local search results.

Additionally, social media can help you build relationships with local customers and potential customers. This can not only help you attract new customers, but it can also help you better understand your target market.

What is schema markup for local businesses?

Schema markup is a type of code that you can add to your website in order to provide search engines with more information about your business. This information can include things like your business name, address, and phone number. Adding schema markup to your website can help improve your website’s search engine ranking, and make it easier for customers to find your business online.

Access schema to boost your local search presence. 

How do I find target keywords for my local business?

When it comes to finding target keywords for your local business, there are a few different methods you can use.

One approach is to use Google’s Keyword Planner. This tool allows you to see how often particular keywords are being searched for online. You can also use it to get ideas for other related keywords that you may not have thought of.

Another way to find keywords is to simply think about what your customers might be searching for online. What are the things they might be looking for when they’re looking for a business like yours? Try to think of keywords that are specific to your industry or niche.

Finally, you can also use Google’s Autocomplete feature to get ideas for target keywords. This feature will show you the most popular keywords that people are searching for online. It can be a great way to get ideas for new keywords to target.

How Should I handle a negative review on my GMB page?

If you receive a negative review on your GMB page, the best way to handle it is to respond to the reviewer in a polite and professional manner. Thank them for their feedback and assure them that you are taking their comments seriously. You may also want to consider reaching out to them privately to resolve the issue.

How do I optimize new content for local SEO?

There are a few things you can do to optimize your content for local SEO purposes. First, make sure you include your city and state name in your title and throughout your article. You can also include a map of your location, as well as contact information and a link to your website. Additionally, make sure your website is properly optimized for local SEO. Use relevant keywords and phrases, and include your city and state in your website’s title and description.

How do I optimize local search for multiple local listings?

There are a few things you can do to optimize local search for multiple local listings:

1. Make sure your NAP (name, address, and phone number) is consistent across all of your listings.
2. Use the same keywords and phrases in your titles, descriptions, and tags.
3. Claim and optimize your Google My Business listing, and… your
4. Bing Places for Business listing.
5. Yahoo! Local listing.
6. Yelp listing.
7. FourSquare listing.
8. YellowPages listing.
9. MerchantCircle listing.
10. WhitePages listing.

Small Business SEO Can Have a Major Impact on Your Local Organic Traffic

As you optimize for local SEO using local intent, technical SEO ranking factors, your GMB, and your social profile, keep in mind that the process doesn’t happen overnight.

It’s important to note that quality is more important than quantity when it comes to your on-page content. Google has invested countless resources in detecting highly valuable information and ranking such information accordingly. Therefore, focus on creating link-worthy content that others would be eager to read and share.

Also, make sure to update the content regularly, as this indicates to Google that the website is still active and possibly has more valuable information. Finally, remember to measure and track. Do not be afraid to use free tools like Google Analytics to monitor the local search engine results continuously. You can also gain even more insight with paid tools such as SearchAtlas.

Looking for the best SEO company for your small business? LinkGraph specializes in getting SEO results for local small businesses.

The post The Importance of Local SEO appeared first on LinkGraph.

Search engine optimization is the implementation and execution of multiple digital marketing techniques in order to increase your website’s rank within the search engine results pages for specific keywords. When homeowners near you conduct research about contracting services using a search engine, you want your company’s website to show up on page one.

While SEO is a wonderful digital marketing tool for any business owner to invest in, there is a need to tailor your contractor SEO process to your industry niche, as every business is different! This is true for general contractors, whether they are single proprietors or a larger company, as their livelihood depends on being discovered by new customers.

If you are a contractor looking to amp up your online visibility, go no further. Here’s a comprehensive guide to SEO for contractors.

What is the Importance of SEO?

Before launching into what exactly contractor SEO is, it’s important to understand why exactly so many small business owners are investing in this marketing strategy. With a life that takes place behind screens for everything from doctor’s appointments to online shopping, a contractor needs to have a custom contractor SEO strategy if they are going to stand out and earn new clients through Google.

Gone are the days of word of mouth, the yellow pages, and cold calling marketing being your bread and butter. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has found that half of all customers shop for products and services online. In addition, HubSpot found that 60% of all mobile phone users go ahead and contact a business that they found during a Google search. 

Most consumers rely on the Internet because it is convenient, fast, and reputable. As shown in a study by HubSpot Academy, 59% of shoppers say that the Internet makes their user journey and decision-making process much faster.

What about from a business owner’s standpoint? The same HubSpot survey reports that 86% of marketers rely on organic traffic (which is the result of their SEO efforts) as a primary lead generation tool. Plus, with SEO leads having about a 15% conversion rate, why wouldn’t a contracting business invest in multiple different engine optimization efforts?

What is Contractor SEO?

Contractor SEO is a marketing strategy that utilizes both on-page (the elements that live on your actual website) and off-page (links to your site on other websites) to your advantage when promoting your general contracting services. 

It is crucial to use a variety of different SEO techniques because search engines are run by algorithms. These algorithms dictate how the search engine finds your website, crawls the website copy and metadata, and indexes all of that content.

Generally speaking, there are four tenants of site SEO that any general contractor needs to focus on. They are:

Content

Creating content should be the first step in your contractor SEO strategy. Content is everything that has to do with how you promote your brand online. Content includes your home page, blog posts, landing page copy, social media posts, and more.

A business’s content strategy will be propelled by keyword research, which we will get to in just a little bit.

Local SEO

Search engine optimization as a whole works to ensure your brand is visible online, for any search term. Local SEO is the focus on promoting your brand within your local geographic area, which is especially beneficial for small business owners looking to outrank their competitors in the search results for their local marketplace.

For keyword searches that mention specific markets, Google will show a map with a list of local companies that provide those services. For example, see the Google Map pack for a keyword search “home builders bend or.”

If you’re a home builder working in this geographic area, you want your business to show up in this list. Local SEO strategies can help you get there.

Technical SEO

This is when you focus your efforts on making your website design and every web page technically sound. Technical SEO includes metrics like the speed of your website, Core Web Vitals, and usability on mobile devices.

Because many construction companies and contractors feature high resolution images on their website, it’s important that those images don’t slow down your website and deter users from exploring the different landing pages on your site or submitting a submission form.

Link Building

Having backlinks from other websites point to your site shows Google that your website has relevance and authority in your industry, and can be trusted. The goal of link building is to build a robust backlink profile of multiple different websites.

What kind of businesses can use SEO for contractors? Anyone that provides general contractor services! This includes plumbers, electricians, landscapers, remodelers, home builders, roofers, and more! 

Above anything else, SEO that is specific for contractors can suit any type of construction company, big or small. It is a fantastic way to not only stay relevant in a digital world but to reach your targeted audience right where they like to consume their information while staying on a budget.

Benefits of SEO for Contractors and Builders

Here’s why any general contractor and builder can benefit from investing in a robust SEO strategy.

Creates Industry Authority and Brand Awareness

Google’s goal is to crawl millions of websites and to provide helpful information to every searcher out there. Because of this, consumers tend to only look at the search results presented on the first page of Google. They rarely ever click to page 2. 

So if your website is not optimized properly and is not ranking well for relevant keywords that your audience is searching for, you will not show up. But on the other hand, if you have a huge presence on the first page for multiple industry-specific keywords, you will slowly but surely create brand awareness with new customers.

Drives Quality Organic Search Traffic

It is a proven fact that contractor SEO services will drive organic search traffic in droves to your website. But search engine optimization doesn’t drive leads overnight. It is a long game that requires patience. 

Generally speaking, you can expect about three months for the search engines to start crawling and indexing your content. If your content ranks for relevant searches and on the first page, you’ll see quality traffic start to convert. So if you do SEO the right way, it is worth the wait!

Saves Time and Money

Earning new leads from organic search actually has a lower cost-per-acquisition than paying for clicks in Google Ads campaigns. Also, targeting search intent is a better way to reach your target audience than contextual advertising. By investing in SEO, you can make sure you get your brand in front of the right audience.

Increases Your Competitive Advantage

Larger construction and contractor firms may have a larger marketing budget, making it easier for them to stand out amongst your local search audience. 

But a larger marketing budget doesn’t always mean they’re guaranteed to get the best results. Instead, a well-optimized, robust website, with an influx of consistent backlinks and fresh content can mean all the difference in increasing your competitive advantage.

Provides Solutions to Your Target Audience

One of your content marketing goals should be to answer your consumer’s questions before they have a chance to ask them. While the goal of your website is to increase conversions, you should also provide informational material to your audience. 

At the end of the day, consumers are looking for solutions to their problems. No matter what stage of the marketing funnel they are in, they are drawn to authoritative websites. When you can give consumers the contracting solutions and answers they are looking for, they are more likely to convert.

How to Do Contractor SEO Keyword Research

Keywords are the words and phrases a user types into Google’s search bar. They can be anything from short head terms, such as “builders” or longer phrases such as “general contractor in Charlotte, North Carolina.”

Discovering the right keywords to use in your content marketing strategy is one of the most important factors in increasing your organic search results.

Here are a few tips and tricks that will help you complete your contractor SEO keyword research properly.

Tips for Contractor SEO Keyword Research

• Create a list of keywords that reflect your products and services on offer. You’ll want to think like prospective customers, and brainstorm different words and phrases that your ideal customer will search. Create new landing pages for each of these keywords that you want to target.

• Add location-specific tags to each of your keywords. Examples include “general contractor in Rochester, NY” or “home renovations in Mephis Tennessee.”
• Use the Keyword Researcher tool in your SearchAtlas dashboard to understand the competitive nature of your keywords and other essential metrics. If you haven’t created your account, sign up here.
• Take the keywords that were given to you by the Keyword Researcher. Split them up into two groups, those that represent buying intent, and those that show research intent. Buying intent indicates that the consumer is ready to make a purchase and intends to do so within the next couple of days. Research intent basically shows curiosity in your company, but is still shopping around. It is important for you to incorporate both categories of keyword. This helps you reach your entire target audience, no matter what stage they are in of the marketing funnel. Buying intent keywords should be featured on the homepage, and service pages of your website. In contrast, research intent phrases are useful for blog posts, social media posts, and even FAQ pages.

• Use our SEO Content Assistant. This is our free tool that does all the keyword research for you, with the goal of helping you to better optimize both new and existing content. Our platform allows you to focus your keyword research on five primary keywords, and it will provide additional related keywords to use when crafting your content. As a result of implementing all of these relevant phrases, you will notice your organic search traffic and keyword rankings grow exponentially.

Local SEO for Contractors

All contractors know how important it is to dominate their local market. This is not only because qualified customers tend to only be in your geographic area, it can be hard for contractors to rely on repeat customers. So to stand out amongst your competitors, here are some techniques to implement in your local SEO strategy.

4 Local SEO Tips for Contractors

• Regularly update your Google My Business profile. Your GMB profile is a free tool that pops up to the right side of a Google search. It lists out all of your company’s information, known as the “NAP.” NAP stands for Business Name, Address, and Phone number, and needs to stay updated at all times. Using up to date information is crucial in ensuring that you stay visible to both prospective and returning customers.

• Become Google verified. When your website is verified by Google, it gives your website a vote of confidence in the eyes of the consumer. It also makes it much easier for the Google web crawlers to find and index your web pages.
• Respond to reviews. Reviews are exceptionally important to the livelihood of any business. That’s because potential customers are more likely to go to a business with a high star rating. Also, reviews are essential to ranking in Google. They give you an opportunity to respond back to your local customers, whether or not their review is positive. Putting a face to your brand’s name via responding to reviews can bring you to the next level with your competitve advantage.

• Develop citations. Citations are listings in an online directory, like Yelp. Not only are citations helpful business tools for local SEO purposes, they are helpful to your consumer. They also boost your brand’s credibility.

Top 4 SEO Strategies for Builders and Contractors

Utilizing the following SEO strategies will work to improve your website’s ranking while boosting your online presence.

1. Ensure the Website is User Friendly

While most website visitors will click on the first website they find in a Google search, they will not stick along for too long if the website has a poor user experience. You’ll want to ensure your website has a fast site speed. The web design needs to be easy to follow and understand. Also, every single page should be responsive on mobile.

2. Produce Consistent Content

A content marketing strategy can only go so far if you don’t have a lot of content. From new clients to returning customers, you’ll need to produce consistent and quality content on a regular basis. This means setting up an editorial calendar for your blog, your social media posts, and any other content elements like podcasts, infographics, and videos. You will want to show your customers that you can be trusted to provide content for all of their needs. Being consistent is a great way to do so.

3. Use Off Page SEO

Google’s algorithm doesn’t look just at your website, it looks at your entire online reputation. This makes it much more important to focus your effort on creating consistency off page. Whether this is via creating a robust social media presence, or by creating citations in local listings, this will play a huge role in your website’s authority, and search rank. Plus, what’s best is that this can be very easy to do, and won’t take a lot of time to do so!

4. Track and Measure Your Performance

You won’t be able to have a great SEO strategy if you don’t track and measure your performance to see if what you are doing is working! There are plenty of free tools, like Google Analytics, that show you the ins and outs of your website. They give you insights to how your customers are interacting with your brand.

You’ll want to take a regular look at your analytics, about once every week to start, to monitor your SEO strategies and get a feel for what your normal website performance looks like. This includes your SEO performance in your GSC Insights dashboard. Then, make an effort to analyze your monthly performance and test new digital marketing techniques and see what happens!

Final Thoughts on SEO for Contractors

SEO is something that isn’t going away any time soon. So, make sure to hop on this digital marketing bandwagon and get your online presence flourishing! It is more important than ever for contractors to capitalize on what SEO can do for them. Whether you are looking for keyword research, increasing your number of backlinks, boosting your local SEO, or even improving your website’s technical prowess, our marketing team at LinkGraph is here for you.

Interested in learning how we can help you? Contact our team today to set up a consultation.

The post Essential Guide to SEO for Contractors appeared first on LinkGraph.

When you become more visible on Google Map searches, you are automatically going to bring more people through the doors of your business. Ranking in the Google Map Pack is a process that takes strategy and specificity, but it can bring loads of success for your company.

What is the Google Map Pack?

Picture this: You’re going to look for a fun, local restaurant. What is the first thing you do? Google “local food near me.” The search engine will load multiple options, but three businesses will be highlighted at the top by the image of Google Maps.

Each of these listings appears with details about the restaurant like its address, a summary of the location, ratings, business hours, and a photo. This is prime real estate on the Google search engine results page (SERP). You may also hear the Google Map Pack referred to as the Google Local Pack or the Google 3 Pack Ranking.

Having your local business appear on this list of results is a make or break for your organization. Almost 50% of clicks on the SERP go to businesses on the Google Map Pack. Underneath these images will be traditional text-only links which can seem less enticing to potential customers. For this reason, the Google Map Pack is the coveted spot that you should aspire to get to with your business.

How Does the Google Map Pack Work?

Years ago, your search engine results would show seven companies within the Google Map Pack. As more and more people perform searches on their phones, Google lowered the results to only three businesses to make viewing simpler for mobile users.

When you search, the SERP will automatically show you three organic results. Others may be sponsored or paid ads that appear over these suggestions, but those can be less effective for harnessing new business.

Google bases which three get the coveted spots based on location, relevance, quality, and the reputation of the websites. Remember, SEO is a constantly evolving field that adapts to new developments that search engines implement. While there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution, you can improve these three primary areas that do affect the Google Map Pack.

1. Connect to Google My Business
2. Harness the power of online reviews
3. Maintain your web listings with relevant information

These are the different elements that contribute to your overall local SEO and Google Map Pack ranking in particular.

Benefits of Ranking in the Map Pack

There are tremendous benefits of ranking in the Google Map Pack. The world is full of individuals and customers who prioritize ease and convenience over everything. Draw them into your business by leading them to it in the simplest way possible.

When you appear in the big three at the top of the Map Pack, you are right there. Customers can see your address, hours, reviews, and even pictures without even having to scroll on their phones. It has been proven that they are more likely to click on one of those three options without continuing to search.

SEO is all about creating organic success for your website on SERPs. Even if you work hard to get your site high on the text-based results, you’re still going to fall behind other businesses in that coveted Map Pack spot. At the end of the day, Google Map Pack ranked sites get 40%-60% of the initial clicks on any given search. Those are huge numbers to ignore.

Beyond just clicks on your site, you can expect more phone calls and inquiries when you are ranked on the 3-pack. These results actually do impact potential customers buying decisions. Your phone information and address will be right next to your business name, so once again, this makes things exceedingly easy for customers. They’ll be able to click on the map to see how far away you are from their location or call in with the click of a button.

You can also link to social media and direct target customers to further reviews and information on those platforms. It truly is incredible how interconnected everything is on your smartphone. Take advantage of that and benefit from the ease and convenience you can bring to your customers.

Being on the Google Map Pack promotes your business in ways a traditional link won’t be able to do. Customers don’t have to click on your website to get information. The highlights will be listed right there on the search result page. One of the biggest benefits to this is the visibility of Google Reviews. Your stars are listed right there under your company name, and people will be able to directly read other customers’ positive responses.

Do note that this typically means you need to watch your reviews and strive for as many positive ones as possible. This element will actually help you rank higher and become more likely to make it on the Google Map Pack.

3 Tips for Getting in the Google Map Pack

Google has specific patterns and algorithms that help determine what businesses and websites rank higher on its SERPs. These can be difficult to navigate because there no surefire guarantee that one technique will work vs. another effort.

However, SEO experts continue to work diligently to master Google as a platform and help your business thrive. If learning how to rank in Google Map Pack is important to you (which it should be), you can rely on some of these specific techniques to improve your chances of landing a top spot.

1. Improve your Google My Business account

It’s almost impossible to run a business when no one knows where you are located or how to get in contact with you. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be to search a business and not be able to find their address, phone number, or even the official business name?

To combat these problems, you’ll need to be sure to follow up with Google My Business. This is the mechanism that allows you to update and input business information for your company on Google. The process is relatively simple, but incredibly vital. Go into the current listings, verify your information, and claim your business.

From there, you’ll be able to update the company name, add an address, pick a specific business category, and much more. Overall, this is an essential step to help guarantee the right, most updated information is on the internet about your specific business so it can move into the Google 3-Pack.

While Google My Business is important for any company, it is essential for brick-and-mortar stores. Web transactions can take place from anywhere and be shipped to customers. However, if you’re a local business, you need to be sure people can find your address and information. Updating these details will help prove you’re available and ready for the Google Map Pack.

While these two entities are quite different, they are mutually beneficial for you to get your business elevated on search engines. Read below for more information about the difference between Google My Business and the Google Map Pack.

2. Work to grow your online reviews

You’ve already read a bit about the importance of reviews, so you won’t be surprised that this is the next essential step to improve your Google Map Pack rankings.

Customers tend to rely on reviews to get a good feel for certain businesses. Research has shown that people are less likely to trust businesses with average reviews under four or five stars. They’re also less likely to trust a business with very few reviews. Therefore, having more reviews and higher ratings will absolutely help you look like a more credible website and move up the rankings with Google.

So how do you actually generate more online reviews? Look for more organic ways to encourage this kind of positive customer feedback. Start by creating easy mechanisms for leaving reviews. Add a button on your website, post a promotion on social media that encourages feedback, or send a well-timed email after someone purchases an item from your store. You can even direct customers straight to the Google review link so that feedback automatically appears on your Google Listing.

Perhaps the best way to encourage positive reviews is by providing exceptional service. The more you can impress your guests, the higher the chance you’ll get positive reviews. Also, remember how important it is to avoid negative reviews. They can drag down your Google rating which will ultimately hurt your chances to end up on the Google Map Pack.

3. Focus on location information and local citations

Local SEO goes beyond the basics techniques you may have already implemented. While creating backlinks and optimizing your content is essential, you will need to go a step further to get on the Google Map Pack. It’s time to start focusing on location information and local citations.

This step is mainly for companies with one location or a few in a specific area. It may seem redundant, but the more you can include your address and location information, the better. Restructure your website so you have that intel on every page. Include operating hours, special promotions, local news, and other ways to connect to your community.

You can even add your own Google Maps app to your “About Us” page so people know exactly where to find you. Digital search engines like Google acknowledge this information and see your site as more credible compared to other local businesses. This will also help direct your SEO efforts to that specific city or town.

The more you can connect your brand with a certain city, the more likely you are to climb up the ranks. Connect with sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and even the online Yellow Pages. Many people rely on these sites as credible sources.

Staying consistent within these sites, local blogs, and even your community’s social media pages will help increase your visibility. The more your website or brand is mentioned, the more likely it is to be on Google’s radar. Work to target these SEO strategies to a local area to improve your Google Map Pack ranking.

Google My Business vs. Google Map Pack

Think of Google My Business (GMB) as a tool and the Google Map Pack as a goal. The GMB gives you opportunities to set the record straight about your business and promote it the way you see fit. There can be so many inconsistencies online, which can harm your company.

Logging on to create a GMB account gives you the opportunity to rewrite the narrative. Adjust your business name so it is clear and succinct without keyword stuffing. Correct issues with your important company data like names, hours, and contact information. Add photos that make your company look compelling and enticing. GMB puts you back in the driver’s seat when it comes to how you want your business to be perceived.

Google Map Pack on the other hand still leaves control in the hands of the search engine. The goal is to make it onto the Map Pack and stay there, but it isn’t a consistent thing. You also have to continuously update your GMB to improve your overall SEO practices to reach this end goal.

General SEO Practices & How They Help with Google Map Pack

Getting onto the Google Map Pack is an important goal, and SEO is a powerful tool that can help you reach that milestone. Beyond specific strategies to get on the 3-Pack, you also want to prioritize your general SEO practices. Start by creating a better web design and investing in backlinks. By optimizing and creating great content directly on your site, you’re setting yourself up for success. When you can’t completely control how Google operates, you start by simply controlling what you can control: your own content.

One of the first steps to take is improving and optimizing your web content. This includes creating high-quality content full of keywords and technical SEO elements. Streamline your title tags, rework any meta-descriptions, and create cultivated blog posts and product descriptions. Include pictures and local elements that help your site score higher in those areas. This will help eliminate any clutter while allowing Google to browse and understand your content instantly. Start by simply reviewing your site to find opportunities for growth and improvement.

The simple truth is this: if you aren’t committing to SEO practices, you’re falling behind other companies who are improving their websites in this way. The expansion of digital marketing has created intense competition for any business to garner hits and increase visibility. If you want to have a chance to make it onto the Google Map Pack, you need to be taking advantage of every strategy you can. Start connecting with GMB, engage your local community through reviews, and work to optimize your site in the best way. Local SEO practices can make a huge difference to your business totals and overall sales numbers.

Climbing onto the Google Map Pack may seem like an intimidating task, but it is extremely doable. With the right team, tools, and determination, you can help your local business achieve this milestone. Sign up today to receive a consultation and start taking steps to grow your customer base.

The post How to Rank in the Google Map Pack with LinkGraph’s Local SEO Guide appeared first on LinkGraph.