Here at Law Promo, we often get question marks when we ask our attorney website design clients about their preferred keywords and phrases for search engine optimization.
It’s not of not knowing what they want to be searched for; it’s more a matter of choosing or finding the right keywords. In today’s post, we’ll be focusing on keyword research.
Finding the right keywords to search optimize your law firm web design content is tough. There are too many keywords, too many variations, and too many variables to take into account. It can get pretty confusing. So, what should you do when it comes to keywords? Below you’ll find a list of steps illustrating how you can choose the right keywords for your attorney website.
Brainstorm for keywords
Put yourself into the shoes of your visitor. If you were looking for your services, what would you search for? How would you phrase each search? There will always be different variations for each search result. It’s all about getting into that consumer/visitor mindset. Once you can get into that mindset, write down the keywords you think people will use to search for your services. Make a list of those keywords and include synonyms and different phrases.
Perform Keyword Research through a free or paid research tool
Once you have your list of keywords, perform research for those keywords by using a free or paid research tool. We usually recommend not to pay for a keyword research tool since there is an abundance of free resource tools out there to use. Google provides a nifty tool called “Google Keyword Planner” that allows you to input your keywords and receive a detailed analysis of the search history involving your keywords and their popularity.
Refine your keywords and phrases
After performing keyword research, you should look back at your list and figure out which keywords are relevant and which aren’t. Edit and curate your list to include the keywords you feel will be most beneficial for your lawyer website design. The keyword research tool will usually provide alternative suggestions for your keywords along with the competition rates and search ratio. Choose the keywords that define your practice or your page.
Competition analysis
Once you’re done with research, it’s all about analyzing your competition. Find out which keywords they’re using, how they’re ranking, and whether you can overtake them. Sometimes your competition will rank fairly high on a certain keyword or phrase, and in those cases, it’s best to search optimize your website with an alternative keyword or phrase. For example, if your competition is ranked highly for “lawyer web design”, but is ranked weakly for “website design for lawyers” search optimize your content for their weakly ranked keyword in order to take that spot.
We understand how tricky keyword research can be. Sometimes it seems easier to just optimize your website for everything, but doing so will only cause confusion with the search bots and search engine results. Some of our law firm website design clients make the mistake of trying to optimize their website by stuffing their keywords throughout their content. While this practice has worked in the past, Google is cracking down on keyword stuffing since it’s similar to spam, and most of the time the content quality is low. When you’re performing keyword research, just remember the steps above and remember to write quality content for each page.
