Google receives as many as 5.5 billion internet searches each day. That equates to 63,000 searches each second! And for every query, Google crawls through in excess of 130 trillion individual web pages in less than one second. Obviously, it’s hard to stand out in the crowd. Fortunately, search engine optimization, or SEO, provides the tool to do just that.
Shout, Don’t Whisper
Being visible to your target audience is of utmost importance online. Consider the last time you were looking for goods and services. You just Googled it, right? Googling has become so entrenched in the modern-day vernacular that it has become its own verb.
Most web surfers don’t even think about how internet content is organized or indexed, but as a business owner, it is imperative that you do. Does your company appear at the top of the search engine results page (SERP). Improving your ranking will encourage more visits to your website. More visitors means more conversions into paying clients.
Organic search engine rankings are vastly improved through SEO, which will help you to do the following:
- Stand out from the competition
- Analyze your firm’s online footprint
- Create greater visibility for your brand
- Increase traffic to your website
Lawyers may employ professional SEO firms or attempt to create an SEO campaign in-house. Either way, the benefits of SEO are indisputable because of the simple fact that most people use Google searches to find you.
More Than Just Keywords
The belief that incorporating keywords into your text as the best and only way to optimize your visibility online is in urban myth. Of course, keywords are important and help define your brand, but effective SEO is a bit more complicated. Here are a few SEO tips for lawyers.
Optimize Your Website
Website optimization includes marking up your page with the right headers, meta data, content, URLs, title tags and images that cause Google to index your content to maximize its prominence. Think of Google as an electronic library, and how high you appear in the rankings depends on how well your site is optimized.
The Use of Backlinks
Search engines crawl through websites and move around through links. When a website publishes a link to your page, it sends the search directly to you and improves your ranking on SERPs. That’s why it’s important to include links to more of your own pages in your content. These are called backlinks.
The Use of Keywords and Phrases
Even novices understand that the use of keywords increases your likelihood of showing up in the top results. An SEO expert will help you come up with keywords that are relevant to your industry and commonly used by competitors. This drives traffic away from similar businesses and toward your site.
Make Navigating Your Site Easy
Too often, potential customers visit a website, but cannot find their way around. The worst thing that can happen is a user is led to your site, but cannot find needed information. First impressions are everything, and once a potential customer is on your page, you want to keep them there. Good content and easy navigation will accomplish this.
Keep in mind that every time a user visits your site and then clicks the go-back button right away, it is called a bounce, and every bounce negatively affects your ranking.
Greater Online Visibility Through SEO
It is highly recommended to do an analysis of your company’s internet marketing. Making your site more visible, intuitive, and engaging with SEO is a proven way to encourage traffic, increase conversions, and grow your business.
